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

[shahrrehth]

She presses her lips together and takes a deep breath in.

"And your plans for how we'd communicate with them in the middle of said attack."

She tilts her head to one side.

"The thing you're forgetting here is that they're also attacking us. And, for all we know, they could be attacking us and this being is trying to protect us. We don't know. But..." she tips her head down to the hands, "from my experience, things that work through holding hands usually play ball a lot nicer than things that work through shooting at you."

[fuckregularpeople]

Memories of group therapy, of "healing hands" and holding the Talking Pillow and being dragged back to her room, restrained, and beaten, flash through Jane's mind and she shakes her head. "Then clearly you have no experience." She'd take violence over "loving" manipulation any day.

Her outline flickers for a second, like a reflection in disturbed water, and when it re-solidifies she looks exactly the same. She's just smiling now, breezy in the face of danger. "Okay, that was a good idea so I'm gonna s--"

Flit disappears. A few seconds later she reappears, that flicker runs over her again, and Jane's instantly tense, her hands forming into fists. She takes a deep breath. "Yep, this ship is a piece of shit."

[shahrrehth]

"Or my experience is different from yours," because like hell is she going to stoop to this woman's level. She doesn't agree with her and she thinks her decisions are rash and illogical but she is trying.

She huffs out a breath, carefully, and pushes aside her frustrations with... well, this whole thing, and looks back at her.

"Look, I'm not foolish enough to take any of this at face value. I'm not saying anyone should. But right now, we are in the ship being fired on. So it is in all of our best interests to make sure it doesn't get destroyed. We can discuss the problems with it's decision making skills after."

[fuckregularpeople]

That's a lot more patience than most people display with Jane. Usually people would just have called her insane by now and they'd mutually curse each other out, which is the most comfortable option for everyone. Not a lot of people besides the Chief and Cliff actually tried to talk to her.

Because of that, Jane's not sure if this makes her sadder or angrier.

That flicker returns, and this time she does visibly change. Her hair's not unbound and loose anymore but tied up into pigtails with pink bow barrettes, her face isn't resting-bitch anymore but actively wide-eyed and upset.

"I wanna go home!" Baby Doll whimpers, and even her voice has changed. Instead of Jane's sarcastic tone it's the high-pitched voice of a little child. "It's scary here!"

[shahrrehth]

She isn't sure what just happened, but she can definitely pick up the change and she's going to respond to the voice of a child, no matter what the form it is. Her tone gets much more gentle, more careful, and softer.

If it turns out to be a trick or the woman laughs at her for choosing to be gentle with what she perceives to be a child, she'll survive it. But she won't chance hurting a child of any sort.

"It's okay, sweetheart. I know it's scary. I know this isn't what you're familiar with. But we're going to be okay." She breathes in deep and breathes out slow. Soothing breathing. Her voice is steady. "My name is Clara."

[fuckregularpeople]

Baby Doll sniffles, tears welling up in her eyes which remain locked on Clara. This lady's being nice, everything else is terrifying. It's loud, it's weird, there's a scary thing with too many arms and legs, no one she knows is here, and everyone seems angry, but Clara is comforting.

She keeps her arms wrapped around herself but now in a hug, rocking slightly from side to side. "Can we go home?" she mewls. "It's scary here! B-A-D bad!"

[shahrrehth]

"It is scary," she says, keeping her voice soft and comforting. She frowns at the self-hug and after a moment of consideration, puts the comfort of the child over a moment's hesitation as she shifts the hands she's holding to hold each other. Then she's going to hold an arm out to the child.

"It is scary," she repeats, slower, careful, "but we're going to get through it. And once we're through it, we can see about getting home. But I promise: I'm going to do everything I can to keep you safe, okay?"

[fuckregularpeople]

"I want Cliff," she cries, rocking herself and biting her lip. "I want Chief! Please please can we go?"

Baby Doll takes Clara's hand with some hesitation, but once she does the floodgates open and she bursts into tears, throwing her arms around Clara's waist and pulling against her tightly, pressing her face into Clara's shirt. She needs a hug.

[shahrrehth]

She will absolutely get a hug, a very gentle, careful hug and a soft rub along the back of her shoulders.

"I haven't met a Cliff or a Chief here yet," she admits as she tries to settle her down. "And one thing about it being dangerous right now is that we can't leave this ship without it being even more dangerous. So we need to make things less scary before we can look into getting you home, okay?"

[fuckregularpeople]

Clara is a nice lady. Baby Doll is sure of this as she accepts the comforting rub on her back and breathes a little deeper in response to her prompting, her tears slowing. "Uh-huh," she sniffles quietly. "Okay."

She lifts her head up and holds up her hand, frowning at Clara. "You'll make it okay?"

[shahrrehth]

She can’t help the breath out, the relief, but she keeps her hand moving slow and soft. She doesn’t want to take that comfort away.

“I’ll do my very best. And I think if we all work together, we’ll be okay.”

[fuckregularpeople]

"Okay." Her tiny voice is nearly inaudible, but she hugs Clara tight again and nods against her chest. "No one's going to be mean to us?"

[shahrrehth]

“If anyone tries to be mean to you, I’ll make them stop. Or I’ll get you away from them. I promise.”

She’s worked with enough scared kids and seen some of the unfortunate results of threatening violence. Even if yeah, she might punch someone if she has to.

[fuckregularpeople]

Baby Doll nods, trusting Clara knows exactly how she feels. She doesn't let go for a little while, but when she draws back she's looking at her for guidance.

"What do we do?"

[shahrrehth]

She breathes in again, and she knows there’s a chance that when she says this, it might get a reaction. But it’s the solution that was offered. So-

“The person who’s driving this ship said the best thing we can do is hold hands. See the chain of people over there?”

She points to the spot where she was before.

“I know it might sound silly, but did you know there’s energy in every person?” She adds a smile, like she’s letting Babydoll in on a secret and in a way, she is. She’s only ever told her parents about this.

“Every person has an energy field around them. Sometimes, some people can see it and it looks like colors. For me, it looks kind of like rainbows all over them.” She gives her another smile. “It’s very pretty.”

She points over to where the hands connect at the end.

“So when we all hold hands, the ship can channel that energy and use it to go faster, get away from the scary people. So. Do you want to help?”

[fuckregularpeople]

This all sounds really strange, and Baby Doll doesn't completely understand it, but Clara sounds confident about it and thus it sounds okay. She nods.

"It's pretty?" she asks, a little flattered. Looking like a rainbow is a very appealing idea for her, she loves rainbows.

"Mm, okay." She slips her hand into Clara's, swinging their arms. "I'll help."

[shahrrehth]

She nods firmly at the question, and that isn't her exaggerating. The life force of people, of any kind of living creature, was something that had fascinated her since she'd started seeing it as a child.

"Very pretty. Like stained glass, almost."

Though even that's not entirely accurate. But there are other things to attend to. She refocuses.

"Thank you, sweetheart. Now. Is there anyone in that line there that you think you'd like to hold hands with? You can hold one of mine, but the other one needs to be someone else. You get to pick where we go in the line."

[fuckregularpeople]

"That sounds good." Baby Doll smiles a little and keeps swinging their arms, taking some comfort from the childish movement.

She looks at the line of people with linked hands and shakes her head. "Uh-uh." But she also shrinks back a little when she looks at Navi, shying behind Clara. "That thing's scary."

[shahrrehth]

She considers that for a moment before turning to Baby Doll and turning to get a protective arm around her.

"I think what you're talking about might be a person. And it's okay to think they're scary. A lot of people look scary before you get to know them. You don't have to hold their hand.

"Is there anyone else you see who looks friendly to you?"

[fuckregularpeople]

She nods emphatically because she knows Clara's right. Cliff looked really really scary before she learned he was nice and now he's her favorite, but she's still glad she doesn't have to touch the weird scary-looking person.

Baby Doll looks around, trying to find someone who doesn't look too angry or too strange to her childlike mind. The man with the bandaged free hand looks like people she's met before, and she's curious about the coverings on his hand. She reaches out to him.

"Hold hands with me?"

[eyediot]

He'd been still adjusting to holding hands with Emet with his good hand. This whole situation is ridiculous. Jon manages to be pulled out of his own thoughts when he hears the higher-pitched voice and looks.

"Um."

Oh god this sounds and talks like a child, but isn't a child, oh god. He looks at his injured hand and carefully offers it.

"Don't, um. Don't squeeze?"

[shahrrehth]

Clara nods to both Baby Doll and a thank you to Jon.

"Just be careful. Don't squeeze. Just hold his hand, like you'd hold something delicate, okay? And I'll hold your other hand."

She'll give Baby Doll's hand a light squeeze.

"If you get scared or upset and you need to squeeze, squeeze my hand, okay?"

[fuckregularpeople]

"Okay!" She grasps Jon's hand and takes Clara's in her other, not squeezing but holding nicely. For about five seconds. Then she begins to play with the pose, gently swinging their hands at her sides with a little smile on her face.

[eyediot]

Thank god for this stranger explaining how to hold someone's injured hand. But when the swinging starts, it puts some pressure on the worse parts (skin folds trying to heal still, stretched and pulled) and he makes some pained noise.

"Ah-- D-don't do that please."

[fuckregularpeople]

"Oh!" She stops mid-swing, gently lowering Jon's hand back down to a neutral hanging position. It's far less fun and she frowns a little. "Is that better?"

Her other hand squeezes Clara's.