the white noise is deafening silence

[thespaceopera]

[In the very early hours of January 20th, as the Marsiva and her captives drift nonchalantly through the depths of the universe, there is a call. Every single personal communicator and console springs to life, spitting out a stream of indecipherable static and showing only gray snow on screen. It continues like this for a few seconds longer, going black and then going staticky, and then the signal switches to the encrypted channel generally used for speaking to the Interceptors when something big goes down.

This is a little more successful. The voice may be familiar to some, at least through the static.]

Zhade here! I trust I ███ your attention? I'm having some ██▓▓ble ██tting through. Some of the ░▓██▓█ are missing. I can't ░▓▓▓ read on their loc█████ns. [A particularly long burst of static.] ███stening. I'll s█▓▓█ more inf██▓▓▓▓▓█ I get it.

Stay sharp! [There's the sound of someone actually doing the fingerguns wink noise, and then static.

Any messages sent back won't get through, and Zhade isn't there to answer.]

[ A blip of lost time passes right after those words, before every passenger mysteriously wakes alone in their own unfamiliar room. The style of decor resembles that of the Marsiva's Hospitality Deck, if any passengers should remember what that's like. It sounds and smells the same as the host ship as well, all clean and chrome.

Welcome back to the Marsiva, dear passengers. It's time for round three of calibrations. ]

[ This mingle will cover all non-calibration room interactions. Please continue to come back to it for the duration of the plot! You are, of course, free to post any other mingles/posts/etc. that you'd like. ]

Comments

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki rolls his eyes, though his lips quirk slightly. ]

You, biased towards the past? Perish the thought.

[brooklyn_boy]

[Okay, that startles a laugh out of him. Maybe even relaxes him a little.]

Hey. They were actually done by Walt Disney himself. That means something!

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki looks at him blankly. ]

Is that the king who lives in the castle?

[ the castle that shows up in the opening credits??? ]

[brooklyn_boy]

What?

[It takes him a minute and then he's just shaking his head, grinning.]

No. No, Walt Disney was the animator. You see his name at the start?

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki mouths the word animator briefly, trying to wrap his mind around it. ]

I did. I had assumed Disney was the creator of these filmed illusionary stories.

[brooklyn_boy]

You're not entirely wrong. The movies [He nods at the TV with his chin] are made up of a lot of drawings. A lot of drawings that they take pictures of to make it seem like they're moving. Walt Disney made the first ones himself.

[dothelokimotion]

[ his nose wrinkles. ]

So this is thousands of drawings put together? I'd call that an achievement, but it seems rather primitive.

[brooklyn_boy]

[Steve shrugs]

We can't all have magic.

[He looks toward the TV, eyes distant]

Besides, drawing is great, actually. I did it for years.

[dothelokimotion]

[ his eyebrows climb up. ]

You drew?

[brooklyn_boy]

[Steve scratches at the back of his neck]

Yeah. Yeah, I even managed to go to art school for a little bit. Don't have much time for it now...

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki waves a flippant hand. ]

Nonsense. If there's anything you have time for now, it is that. Show me.

[brooklyn_boy]

[Well then. He's not wrong.]

Uh. Out here? I don't have paper...

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki gives steve the flattest look before sighing, conjuring a paper and a pencil. ]

Here.

[brooklyn_boy]

[Steve sighs himself before taking them both and leaning against the wall. He's rusty but he'd been drawing for longer than he'd been Captain America so it's easy to sketch out a rough but good drawing of Stitch]

I'm rusty... But here you go.

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki's eyes light up. ]

Not bad at all.

[brooklyn_boy]

[Steve's nose scrunches up a little as he looks at it, already seeing flaws]

Yeah? I haven't seen the movie in awhile. I could probably do a better one with paints.

[dothelokimotion]

You just want me to supply with things, don't you?

[ with a flick of his fingers, there are paints now. ]

[brooklyn_boy]

[Steve's face lights up as he sees paints. Real paints he could use.]

Wow. You can just make anything?

[dothelokimotion]

[ his brow furrows. ]

To some degree. Basic conjuration is an easy skill, but not to be used too often.

[brooklyn_boy]

What happens if you do use it too often?

[Steve looks at the paint, cautious now]

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki shrugs. ]

It will lose some of its potency. And chances are, it will simply fade away.

[brooklyn_boy]

[Steve suddenly feels very conflicted about this paint set]

The item? Or your magic in general?

[dothelokimotion]

[ baffled, loki replies. ]

The item of course.

[brooklyn_boy]

[Steve is visibly relieved]

Oh, okay. Good. Remember, we're not all magic experts here.

[dothelokimotion]

[ fair enough. ]

Magic is akin to energy. I try not to use it too frivolously when I can because it is a gift, not simply a tool or a cheat.