a bumpy start! {glyphcomm + action}

[seeingyou]

You wake up to the sound of alarms and a distinct sensation of quaking, and you're quite obviously not where you're supposed to be. This room is strangely shaped, nothing you recognize, and you definitely don't remember how you got here. The room is bathed in soft red light, which might look pretty, except it's blinking in a way that you can probably guess signals danger.

There's a symbol on the back of your hand that you don't remember acquiring, either, but that's probably less important at the moment than the sound of the alarms shrieking and the prerecorded voice speaking over the intercom. It's one of those bland, agender voices, entirely too calm in tone for the message it's relaying:

WARNING
WARNING
IMPACT THREAT DETECTED
EVASIVE ACTION REQUIRED

There’s a loud crash and another violent shaking, as that impact threat collides with the ship’s hull. The warning message continues to repeat on a loop amidst the blaring of the alarm. All passengers should be conscious now, with the noise at such a high volume. Opening your cabin door reveals a nondescript hallway, with five cabin doors on each side for a total of ten on each floor; the doors to the empty cabins are unlocked and inside the cabins hold the same plain, basic furnishings as your own. Halfway into the hallway, there is a lift on one side and a set of stairs on the other.

Comments

OPEN /

[bravers]

[Blangdark... barnacles.
Zentenian...?
What?

Of all of the weird things going on, those're probably not the weirdest things out of the lot of it, but it's what sticks in his mind the most. He can't help but question the words, furrow his eyebrows at them, and that's even after the impact of the second missile. After he's been thrown a couple of meters away from where he'd previously stood, of course. And as he adjusts himself, something even weirder is requested.

...Linking...
hands.

... The hell was this.

To the nearest person to him:]

I don't buy into this holding hands crap.

[With an indelicate shove of an extension of his arm-]

But m'not up for dyin'. Not like we can do anything else.

[Cold, synthetic blue eyes look up from the floor to said person.]

So let's do this.

[sisterswitch]

Look, I get it - this is a little too Disney “clap your hands if you believe” for my taste too.

[jack sighs and reaches out to take his hand. let’s do this indeed.]

But I’ve seen stranger things, and I’m choosing to believe that this ship knows best about what’s needed to stay airborne.

[bravers]

We're dead either way.

[Morbid. Highly so. But it's also the truth. If the happy clappy link-your-hands-together Thing didn't work? They're dead. Hurtling through space with something unloading all the ammunition it's got into you equals death. Whether you're holding hands or not.

So, with a deep sigh of resignation, his fingers curl around the smaller hand in his, and he waits for further instructions. But they don't come.

...Whatever's running the show from that console's probably doing what it needs to do. Right? Otherwise...

There's a few seconds.
A few more.

And just as he's about to speak up, to question what the hell's going on, there's a shudder. Another one, and-

a lurch that shoves them a couple of paces backwards. A glance to the console shows... a lot of stuff he doesn't understand. Glyphs. Some language he can't seem to make any sense of. But there's a meter. And it's moving from yellow to green.

Some time later, a silent time later, and he snaps his hand away. And he moves to the nearest console, eyeing it a little more closely.

And. ]

...The hell's a Disney, anyway?

[We're not in Kansas Midgar anymore, Cloud.]

[sisterswitch]

“On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero,” [she replies, a bit more cheerily than you might think is appropriate for someone facing almost-certain death. jack shrugs and until they land, closes her eyes in concentration. if cloud is paying attention, he’ll see her mouth move as she begins a chant under her breath.

when they’ve landed, she gives an elated whoop and follows cloud to the console, hand held up for a celebratory slap.]

Come on, Grouchy! High five - we survived. [she grins, undeterred by cloud’s general demeanor.] And that means I get to tell you all about the evil media conglomerate called Disney.

[bravers]

No kidding.

[Spoken flatly, and with a half-turn away. Mid-boost, he does turn his eyes toward Jack again- but a cursory glance of her moving her lips as if she's murmuring something to herself causes him to look elsewhere. Quickly.

She's a complete stranger. Could be some kind of prayer. Or a self-help mantra. Either way, none of his business.

And at the hand...

What she does is reminiscent of Aerith. How she'd expected him to take that exact hint in the Sector 5 underpass, and he hadn't.
He'd actually felt bad then.

But this woman, whoever she is, she's not her. So. He lifts his eyes from the screen to her, letting them linger on her face. ]

Good one. Shinra's the only conglomerate there is.

[His eyes move back to the screen. Should he press any of the buttons? ...Probably not.]

[sisterswitch]

Shinra? Never heard of it.

[wow, she’s really gonna be left hanging like that on the high five? rude, but jack will live. she drops her arm back to her side and shrugs.]

I don’t really need to explain the whole thing where we’re suddenly not where we’re from anymore, do I? ‘Cause that would be pretty disappointing.

[unnecessaryflourishes]

[Emet's hands are, perhaps regrettably, both already spoken for. But he is nearby. Near enough to hear Cloud's comments at the least, and he's never been one to not pass comment, when the opportunity should strike itself.]

Not unless you happen to have a burning desire to find out what lies beyond death.

[It's offered surprisingly matter-of-factly, despite the somewhat morbid topic.]

But I agree that it's hardly anything I'd have found enjoyable. Much less something I would have believed to be necessary.

[bravers]

Might just see anyway.

[A quiet agreement, spoken through the clamping of teeth on his inner cheek. But what else can they do? A cursory glance around doesn't indicate anything to hold onto to brace- nothing to strap themselves into.]

But if it does, does that mean this [Ship? Lifeform?] thing's using us as batteries?

[When? How? If they weren't very possibly about to die, he'd be taking far more pains to sound out these questions. But for now, this elderly gentleman in strange clothes only gets that.]

[unnecessaryflourishes]

We might.

[It's offered surprisingly nonchalantly, given the topic. But he's willing enough to leave it at that. No sense dwelling on the topic any longer than is strictly necessary, when they both seem to be in agreement on that point.

Batteries, on the other hand, aren't really something he's familiar with, though he gets the general gist of Cloud's comment. Enough to understand what he's getting at, at the very least.]

Mmmm, no. More likely this is simply a temporary power infusion. A way to make up for a core that might otherwise lack the necessary power for... whatever sort of maneuver it intends to take.