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

[sassy_assassin]

Actually, sure. That sounds like a nice change of pace.

So, you have any idea what we're doing here again?

[unbearablynaive]

[He smiles, pleased, and shifts his clothing to appear more like a tux. Fancy bartender time. He shuffles around for a bit and manages to get ice, an orage-colored alcoholic beverage, and a fancy flamingo tumbler.]

I would imagine it's time for Calibrations. Did you experience these previously?

[sassy_assassin]

[ very fance, friend ]

I haven't... Ship repairs?

[unbearablynaive]

[He pours himself something - it's just plain wate,r but he gives it a fancy martini glass because he can.]

I'm afraid not. They're meant to calibrate us, the passengers.

From what I remember last, we'll experience 'dreams' at night that have us each invading one another's perceptions of our own minds. We may experience memories that beling to other people, or see their hidden dreams and desires - or see only what they want us to, on the surface. We may have control over what others see and experience or we may not. It's subjective, an can be highly uncomfortable. [Doesn't that sound awesome?] But, on the flip side, should you find yourself somewhere unfamiliar at night, there's nothing saying you must pry; you may sit there and refuse to act until your time runs out.

[sassy_assassin]

[ ugh. that doesn't sound great at all. She looks a little miserable ]

Sounds like the sort of thing Gideon pulls on us when she wants to teach us a lesson or two.

[unbearablynaive]

You're probably not wrong, despite that I don't know this Gideon.

[But he smiles wryly and taps the yellow gem on his forehead.]

Regardless, if you find yourself in an overly large representation of this, be assured it's my own Calibrations room and I'll steer clear of anything overly traumatic for you.

[sassy_assassin]

[ That does make her smile ]

I might be pretty, but I'm not delicate.

Anyway, you'd like Gideon. She's got a smart mouth, metaphorically.

[unbearablynaive]

Perhaps, but does that mean I'd rather let you have, ah, intimate knowledge of what I do with my girlfriend behind closed doors?

[Look, traumatic means different things for different people.]

Oh? As in, she has no literal mouth?

[sassy_assassin]

That does seem like the kind of thing I'd only want to know if I were invited.

Gideon is my ship's, the Waverider's, AI. She is a spitfire, and usually knows better than the rest of us what's going to work or not.

[ she does talk about gideon like she's talking about one of her crewmates ]

[unbearablynaive]

[Now that gets a genuinely bright smile, and he takes a sip of his mocktail.]

Oh, how marvelous! Would you say she passes the Turing test?

[sassy_assassin]

I'm going to say yes, even though I really don't know what that is.

[ she's the captain, not the nerd ]

[unbearablynaive]

One of the basic measures of AI, actually. If someone could talk to her, not knowing she was a computer, and believe they were talking to a person, then she would pass the test.

[sassy_assassin]

Then yes, absolutely she passes the Turing test.

Plus, she's hot.

[unbearablynaive]

[All right, that gets a laugh, albeit a quiet one.]

As her ship design, you mean? Or does she have an avatar?

[sassy_assassin]

She has an avatar, I guess. I don't know enough about ships to judge, but humanlike bodies? Yeah, she's hot.

[unbearablynaive]

[That gets a smirk.]

It would be a pleasure to meet her some day, I think. Though perhaps our ship might have something to say about it - what do you suppose its avatar would look like, if it had one?

[sassy_assassin]

I honestly can't say. A dwarven barmaid?

[unbearablynaive]

[He laughs at that and refills Sara's drink.]

I'll take that as a hint.