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

[shroudedsecrets]

... No. I suppose it would not, if there were those that you would rather not be parted from.

[ It's an uncomfortable thought, for varied reasons. ]

[dothelokimotion]

[ he chuckles. ]

In the end, we part with everyone.

[shroudedsecrets]

[ One way or the other. ]

... Perhaps we should return our attention to your... distraction.

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki rolls his shoulders. ]

If you like. You might enjoy it too.

[shroudedsecrets]

I know better than to anticipate that.

[It's said with slight amusement in her tone, at least.]

But it does look different from what... Katie has shown me before.

[dothelokimotion]

[ katie? she sounded familiar. ]

What did she show you?

[shroudedsecrets]

Her favorite to watch was the Princess Bride. The others... I do not recall their titles. They were not entertaining.

[Even if Katie had been entertained by Haggar's displeasure and how much she would endure for a needed distraction.]

[dothelokimotion]

[ it sounds familiar. loki is pretty sure someone mentioned that one to him. ]

It does seem like the level of quality is mismatched.

[shroudedsecrets]

Humans seem to have varying tastes for such things.

[But that probably could be said for any species. These productions seemed specifically made by humans, though.]

[dothelokimotion]

[ he snorts. ]

They do run the gamut of taste.

[shroudedsecrets]

[She raises an eyebrow at how amused he seems.]

It seems as if you have some experience in that regard. Or is that from your observations here?

[dothelokimotion]

Hm? It is hard to escape that experience when you're here, I suppose. Though I do not think it is a difficult observation to reach.

[ humans are weird, true story. ]

[shroudedsecrets]

Perhaps not. Although I suppose it is not only humans who have such... varying tastes.

[Given the particular pair of elves they live around.]

[dothelokimotion]

Oh?

[ he's curious now. ]

I don't think the twins count.

[shroudedsecrets]

[They pretty much sum up her experiences at this point.]

Why would they not?

[dothelokimotion]

[ he smirks. ]

They're not the norm. At least not for elves.

[shroudedsecrets]

[She makes a soft sound of amusement.]

To be fair, I have not observed many others to gauge otherwise.

[dothelokimotion]

[ true. ]

I knew a few light elves. The Dark ones were obliterated a long time ago.

[shroudedsecrets]

And what makes them different, from either of those races?

[ Might as well ask, since he was throwing it out there. ]

[dothelokimotion]

For one, elves tend to be caught up in their own world. They don't socialize much with other races.

[shroudedsecrets]

They seem to be quite adept at... socializing with others. Or determined to be.

[Which still was such a strange concept to Haggar, herself.]

[dothelokimotion]

As I said. They're unique. Not typical of their species.

[ granted, this is a huge leap by loki but he stands by it. ]

[shroudedsecrets]

They have certainly... added a lot to being here. Unique as they are.

[ This was such a strange thing to admit out loud. ]

[dothelokimotion]

[ well now. ]

You're fond of them.

[shroudedsecrets]

[ She blinks, a little surprised to have that sentiment put into words. She falls quiet for a moment, as she considers, before accepting the term. It seemed right, for the difficulty of it. ]

... yes. I believe so.