driftfleet | the white noise is deafening silence

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the white noise is deafening silence

[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. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, can we wait on that?

[Taako is cool with blowing it up, but not when he's on it. Or when he isn't sure there isn't going to be immediate retribution from their invisible overlords.]

Taako's not so cool with blowing up the place he's currently living.

[Which? Considering what he did on the Iskaulit is...probably pretty fucking rich coming from him, so he very quickly adds:]

Again.

I'm not going to blow it up while we're all on it.

[Thor would probably survive it, but almost no one else would. And however reckless Thor may get in his quests for vengeance, it's never at the expense of innocent lives. Those come first.]

After, though, no one's going to tell me otherwise.

Oh well after? Yeah, you go hog wild, my dude. Zap it with electricity, punch it into submission, uh, do whatever it is that gods do to smite the shit outta things.

[He's good out here though. No matter how much he hates what's happening? He's had his brush with the Atroma's power and until he finds a way around their blocks, he's not trying again.]

Tell me how it goes. I'd love to see the show.

You won't be able to miss it, I promise.

[There's a beat of silence then as Thor puts that frustration aside for later. There's still something else they should discuss, instead of just barely glancing off it.]

I was in yours, you know. Your dream thing.

[Taako had mentioned not knowing who saw what. Given what Thor already knows, he's not about to hide that fact from his friend.]

[He's about to laugh about the promise, make some snippy comment about how duh he can't miss it, the Marsiva is huge. But Thor's admission kills the mirth in his throat. He knows that people must have visited. The Atroma were too big of a dickbag organization to let him go scot-free, but a deep heavy dread collects in his stomach at meeting one of them.

He's already shared some stuff with Thor before in order to get his Pocket Spa, but the idea of not knowing what was exchanged bothers him. Taako barely catches himself before he frowns, flicking his fingers through the water of the jacuzzi idly. Time to play this smart - make it seem like not a big deal.]

Yeah? [That sounds casual, right? He hopes it sounds casual and not at all panic-stricken like he's trying not to be.] Well, full disclosure, I partied it up in yours, too.

Mm, I know. I remember bits of it.

[He shakes his head, frowning up at the dark ceiling. Still no lights. What a terrible operation these Atroma run. Shifting a little in the tub he returns his gaze to Taako.]

Nothing about what mine looked like, just conversations I had.

[Lucky him. Taako has the vaguest recollections of what was happening, but can't recall what or if people saw anything. He has a feeling it was with the traveling wagon though and that makes him uneasy. Nothing good could come out of that, not when the Atroma are involved.

Taako's very quick to look away when Thor turns to him, flicking the water idly like it's the most interesting thing in the universe. He's more than happy to talk about Thor's room because his? Yeah, he knows his was probably a big clusterfuck.]

Uh, yours was a big ol' throne room looking thing. Some kinda throne? Um... [He pops his lips a few times, thinking.] Some stairs. A, uh, big pool of black. Nothing too weird.

[There are aspects of what he can't remember that itch at Thor, moreso than what anyone saw. As far as he can remember, most didn't see anything too terrible. He hadn't thought much about what the place looked like - until this very moment, when Taako starts describing it.

He twists around fully again, bewilderment creasing his features.]

A what? A big pool of black isn't weird?

[What the hell is something like that doing in his mind? Even as he thinks that, though, some unconscious part of him flinches in recognition. It's unsettling in a way he can't fully understand.]

[Taako leans back when Thor whips around to face him, hands held up in mock surrender.]

Hey, my dude, it wasn't me who said it wasn't weird.

[Thor hadn't been pleased with it being there, but he also hadn't been all that bothered with its appearance either. Whatever it was, whatever darkness lay in his memories, he'd been rather fine with it, all things considered.]

Obviously you weren't happy with it being there, but you didn't seem all that concerned either.

[It's true, Thor doesn't remember being all that perturbed by anything. If that counts, within a dream state. He sighs, pushing it to the back of his mind.

Where it technically already exists, he supposes.]

Doesn't sound like something to be pleased with, no. But a throne room makes some kind of sense.

Yeah, you seemed pretty at ease with all the gold and glitter.

[And weirdly okay with all the death and violence in his memories. Thor had shrugged off Hela and those memories, not necessarily at peace with them, but just... nonplussed? He'd been pretty chill the entire time, despite what was being shown.]

You got one of those back home then? The throne thing, I mean.

[All he can do is shrug. Ostentatious showings of wealth never strikes Thor as strange, given his heritage.]

I grew up in Asgard's palace. Perhaps it was mimicking that.

[The throne, though... that conjures memories of a different sort. Shutting his eyes for a moment, Thor takes a breath and releases it, willing the images of fire and death away for the time being.]

I... no. I do not. Not anymore.

[That doesn't bother him so much as how it happened. The throne was just a stupid symbol, one that was darker and more twisted than he had thought as a child. What Thor had wanted was to start over, build that sort of thing up again without the history of war and conquest woven into the frame.

It had been a short-lived hope.]

[....That's...weird. Thor closes his eyes and takes a breath, like he's trying to center himself and Taako watches for a moment, coming back to the edge of the hot tub to lean his arms on it. There was a lot of bad shit going on in Asgard as he remembers. The details are hazy, but he recalls Hela, the eye thing, the fight - all of it pretty unpleasant - but he'd assumed Thor had won.

When he admits that he doesn't have it anymore, it's concerning. Thor wasn't supposed to lose.]

Uh, yeah, no doubt, must've been that.

[He arches one eyebrow slightly, but manages to bite back the frown itching to crawl up on his face.]

You uh...okay there, my dude? You look a little, mmmm dare I say? Muffled. No, that's not it. Miffed? Unsettled. That's it. You look unsettled.

[It strikes Thor that this isn't the most ideal place to have a conversation like this... but at the same time, he really couldn't give less of a damn. There's never a good place for this conversation. As if to rub in the irony, the ship chooses this moment to turn the lights back on.

Thor blinks a couple of times, then scowls up at the brightly shining lights.]

Took them long enough.

[Shaking his head, he settles back against the tub again, turning to look at Taako.]

If I am, I have been for a while. You saw Hela, right? [Thor has a clear enough idea of what memories people saw, at least.] That throne room, if that's what you mean - it's gone now. Asgard itself is gone.

[The lights flicker back on and Taako glances up at them instinctively, blinking owlishly in the sudden light. Adjusting his vision from the dim gloom to this stark fluorescent glare is hard, but at least when he's left blinking, he has an excuse for his weird expression when Thor goes and says that his home is gone.

How does an entire planet - because he's assuming it's a planet - just disappear?

And that's when something Lucas said - or rather that the creepy Red Robe had said comes back to him. A hunger that devours all life, a thick black tendril-like disk that slowly devours all of the planes, a cacophony of screams echoing in his ears from that horrific vision. Thanks for that, Red Robe.

He shakes his head slightly, and then rubs the back of his neck, averting his gaze from Thor.]

I'm gonna guess that when you say "gone," you don't mean "temporarily unavailable 404 error" type of gone...?

[It spares Taako from having to see the strain enter Thor's expression again. Something he wears a lot of these days. His brows pinch together briefly at whatever phrase Taako just used - four-oh-four? - but the rest of it is simple enough to parse out. 'Temporarily' isn't hard to understand.]

I mean destroyed.

[The sounds sound flat and tired, even to himself. Shaking his head abruptly, Thor stands with a splash, grabbing the towel from the edge of the tub. He's been in here long enough, and he can't abide having this kind of conversation while lounging about in relative comfort. He hops out of the tub and starts drying off, scrubbing at his face first. He casts a look back at Taako, continuing with the tale.]

Hela drew her power from Asgard, you see. From the land itself. The longer she stayed there the more powerful she became. She was impossible to beat in a fight; believe me, I tried.

[Draping the towel over his shoulders, Thor's gaze drifts to the left, to nothing in particular.]

The only way to truly stop her was to destroy Asgard itself.

[When Thor abruptly gets up, Taako jumps back, scooting out of the way from the water droplets and managing to keep himself mostly dry. He'd have been better able to appreciate him doing a Daniel Craig moment if it weren't for their current conversation topic, but Taako being Taako still remembers to sneak a glance or five as the god towels off.

Taako flicks his fingers through the air and what little water that was staining his clothes evaporates as he casts Prestidigitation as a frown settles on Taako's face.]

So you- You just blew up your planet? You or someone else? I mean- I. I guess I get it? But talk about some overkill there. Couldn't you just goad her off world or something?

No. [That's definitive. He shakes his head belatedly, knowing there's a lot more to this story that Taako isn't aware of.] Hela wasn't going to be content with Asgard. She wanted to rule the galaxy. And as long as the realm of Asgard was still there should would still be powerful.

We evacuated the people who were still left onto a spaceship and escaped that way.

[Even if it tastes sour now.]

There was truly no other way, Taako. If there had been I would have gladly taken it.

[He still can't imagine a solution that includes the destruction of an entire world, refuge ship or no. There had to have been a third option, right? Not running because Hela seemed like one hell (haha) of a bitch and she'd probably hunt them down to the ends of the galaxy, not fighting because she was obviously OP as shit and getting worse, but something? Some kind of exile? Planar binding? Fuck, there had to be something that would cut her off from Asgard if she hadn't been a problem up until then, right?

But.

That wasn't his world. Despite the gears churning in Taako's head trying to find a better solution, this was a done deal. Asgard was gone, its people evacuated, and Thor was dealing with the consequences. It wasn't something he could bargain or change now, not without the Chalice and even then? That wouldn't really change anything, just...shift it. And he doesn't think Thor would take that moral grey zone very well.]

Oof...well? Then uh...that's rough, buddy. At least you got off world and smashed her into the ground.

[What else can he do but huff in tired amusement? It certainly is rough. If only it had been the last of it. Plucking his discarded shirt off the hook nearby Thor pulls it over his head.]

Yes, at least there was that. It wasn't how I wanted to start my rule, but... [He shrugs.] The alternative was worse.

Well yeah, the whole "gonna kill everything and be the queen of nothing" is kiiiind of a shitty way to do, uh, anything.

[Even if his glimpses of Hela had been brief, Taako got the distinct impression that she was a real B-word. And it was not a word Taako used lightly considering how many women he knew who would totally and completely wreck his shit if they heard him using it.

Taako sighs a short lament at seeing Thor put a shirt on, before he leans up against the hot tub, arms crossed over his chest.]

Wonder what her face was like when her power poofed though. Woulda paid to see that - minor petty detail, but I definitely would've documented it for eternity. Hung it in my little vengeance shrine or whatever under "Portraits of People Who Got Served."

[He doesn't relish the thought, really. Despite everything Hela had still been his sister. If there had been a way to reconcile at all, he would have sought it. There had been enough damage done to their family from all the lies and deceptions. But Hela wasn't like Loki - she wasn't wobbling on the edge of good and bad. She had made her choice.

Even so? He can see the funny side of it, enough to crack a grin.]

Alas, no one had the chance to see it. In the future maybe an artist will try to render it.

[There we go. The smile is what he'd been after, and when he sees it, Taako smirks back gesturing with one hand.]

If I had any artistic talent in that arena, I'd give it a go. Hell, I'm willing to put some cash toward that future fund. Gotta get that thing blown up big enough that she can see it even in the Astral Plane, right?

That would be quite a feat.

[He gets the gist of Astral Plane, even if it's not the same kind of afterlife his people know about. Thor tosses his towel on the floor and tips his head to the side, considering Taako for a moment.]

But... about the calibrations. Do you want to know what I saw in yours?

[He raises an eyebrow at the towel on the floor, leaning down to pick it up without even thinking. You don't just go throwing towels on the floor, Thor. Don't be a barbarian.

But as his fingers brush the fabric, he has to go and say that and Taako freezes. Just for a moment, but long enough probably for Thor to notice. He rabs the towel a little more aggressively than he'd meant to and throws it at Thor.]

Don't leave your shit lying around. Go put it in a hamper or something, we're not living in a barn.

[Pointedly ignoring the question.]

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