driftfleet | 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

...Uuuuuuuuuugh. [She abruptly bends forward as Haggar finishes her response, burying her hood against her knees, tugging at the material so it's pinned more tightly around her skull, as if that'll somehow block it all out.] I hate that you're making so much sense. Quit that, aren't I supposed to be the one who lectures you on how to be people?

[And of course she brings up bond, of all things. Of all the words to use. It resonates uncomfortably, burrowing deep even though she tries to shake it off. Bonds and ties and tethers and memories- all of them winding together, woven like a tapestry of threads that connects her and Taako together. From womb to the bond engine on the Starblaster, they've always been intertwined, separated by distance but never the soul.

Here is just... a setback. The thread if frayed, but it's not severed.

"He wants to remember you."

With an exasperated exhale, she rolls over, kicking the lower half of her robe up onto the bed. Even though her lower body sort of fades out in her spectral form, no real legs to be seen, it gives off much the same effect of her on her back, legs propped up against the bed, her arms stretched out at her sides as far as the chains will allow.]

Okay. Okay, I get it, I'll... talk to him. When we're out of here, when I can be me again. So stop being such a mom already.

[Haggar watches her react, at first in her usual quiet way, with little more than a blink. But after a moment passes, she finds her shoulders quivering, as she gives way to a soft laugh that bubbles up unexpectedly. At... all of it, and that strange but dramatic reaction, but not unkindly. The situation was still terrible, but in spite of all the terrible draining feelings and the wretched state they both were still in from the ritual, it... hadn't all gone poorly.]

... If I have truly achieved something like that, I do not feel that I fully wish to stop.

[Her own little... joke. She knows that Lup had been under so much strain with nowhere for it to go, so it was understandable, that she still needed that little push, that--advice, from another source. Fears could be so encasing.

It was an odd sort of role reversal for them, with the way Haggar often found herself looking to the elf for guidance and still would need to.]

Mm... well, never say I didn't warn you. I'm a big ol' handful of a child. Most of the fam said I wasn't worth the trouble.

[Eh, maybe it's good for her. To practice, or... whatever. Since she wants to be a mom again. Not like it really matters or means anything, just one more word to throw around in the right moment. Or wrong one. Who even knows.

.....

Gods, she really must be getting sentimental. Fuck this place, seriously.]

[Emotions were so tricky, and sentiment... well, once something like that got through cracks, it liked to run deep. Unusual, but not... unwelcome.]

Do not worry. Your warning has been... noted.

[Was it practice? She didn't know if she ever would have a chance to really speak to Lotor in this way. If he would allow it, from her, no matter how hard she worked for that opportunity, that chance of acceptance. But it was nice, to... have the opportunity, even so.

It ... felt good, to be able to give to someone else, even after all that take of energy. An unexpected consequence.]

But you are worth the time to me, and I do not believe that will change.

[They both understood the weight of rejection, but there was a comfort in this... openness.]

....D'aww. Quit trying to make me cry, there's no tear ducts in these bones.

[Her tone is thick with bravado, but there's an underlying softness, if Haggar listens close. Almost a vulnerability, one stubbornly fought. Walls long built are difficult to tear down.

And then, as if all of this is edging too close to something she isn't prepared to deal with right now-]

Not to kick you out or anything, but... I think I'm gonna pass out for a while. Maybe trance off whatever the fuck just happened. And you kinda look like you could do the same thing.

Yes... it is time.

[She picked up on that note in Lup's tone, hard not to, considering how things were.

Still, it was fair, there was a lot left for them both to still process, even if they had managed to talk some of this out. The advice seemed to be taken to heart, anyway. Perhaps a few other things as well.

With a soft exhale, she carefully rises to her feet with a wince, feeling the shift of coiled energy that contrasted with the strain of headache with her change of position. This ship did not contain enough blankets for the nest she wanted.]

Rest, and contact me if you have a need.

[Even if that was--just to talk. With that said however, she'll nod and then... well, simply warp her way out to her own room.]

the white noise is deafening silence

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