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]

This is not the first time she's been in a situation like this before. It's not even the fourth time, to be honest. She's dressed in her office wear, her supersuit beneath her clothes, and her first inclination is to get out there and Do Something about this threat. But there's so much she doesn't know, for all the familiarity, and the fact that none of her team is here... that she doesn't know how she got here... that she's so far away from home and hearing names and words she's never heard before even from the Kryptonian archives-

It has her feeling frustrated but still, at least for the moment, deciding to stay here and do as the voice tells her to do.

Her hands go out on either side.

[albatrossomen]

This is definitely the first time Murmur's been in a situation like this. Blaring alarms, flashing lights, heck he didn't even know space ships were possible! How terribly exciting! Although the probable, imminent death did take a little edge off the excitement. Just a little. Between the alarms and requests there really wasn't any time to investigate or ask questions. He resolved that should they survive this he will absolutely become the most annoying about asking questions.

Later, now was apparently hand holding time. "So much for introductions." He murmured as he took one of the offered hands in his gloved one, offering for another. For all the excitement he appeared completely calm.

[shahrrehth]

"I've met some of my favorite people this way," she notes, not quite cheerful but at least somewhat positive. Trying to keep her chin up, anyway. Her hands are firm, firmer than they really ought to be quite frankly, but the skin is soft.

[unnecessaryflourishes]

"Should we be congratulating you, for that?"

If he sounds a little tetchy, it's probably because he is. Not only has he been dragged off to somewhere unexpected without so much as a word of warning, but he's had to suffer alarms on top of that. Which would have been quite enough without having been asked to literally join hands with the rest of people who seem to also have been dragged into whatever this happens to be. People who are - at least for the time being - as good as strangers.

(He does not immediately offer a hand either. But he hasn't left outright, for all his apparent distaste of the idea.)

[shahrrehth]

She just smiles back at him, because while you might catch more flies with honey than vinegar, sometimes it's more fun to stick with the honey for other reasons, regardless of what you might catch for it.

"You can if it'll make you feel better," she says easily enough. "So did you miss the instructions or just don't feel like being a part of saving our lives?"

[fuckregularpeople]

Jane crosses her arms over her chest, hands tucked into her armpits.

"Miss me with this Star Wars kumbaya bullshit. Are you going to sing a campfire song too?"

[shahrrehth]

"If the ship tells me to, sure," she says right back and she doesn't hold back a roll of her eyes. "Or someone who knows what's going on or how any of this works has a better idea. So far, I'm not hearing any."

[fuckregularpeople]

Ah, a cute little optimist. People like her are so tiring.

"The way it works is that thing fucks us if we do what it wants. It doesn't care about us. If you're fine with that, cool, your choice. I don't consent."

[shahrrehth]

"Cool, your choice," she repeats after Jane, and uses her free hand to offer a thumbs up. It's definitely... less than genuinely cheerful. "Got any evidence to back that up? Or... other suggestions?"

[fuckregularpeople]

"We ask those guys to pick us up." She gestures to the screen on which the attacking ship is pictured. "They're attacking the asshole who kidnapped us. Makes them the good guys, doesn't it?"

[unnecessaryflourishes]

"Not necessarily."

His feelings about the kidnapping aside, there's no way to tell for certain that their attackers are even so much as aware of their presence. Or much inclined to bother to return them to where they've all come from besides.

[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."

[unnecessaryflourishes]

Her tactic is one he's used himself, from time to time. Not that he's in much of a mood to care for it, much less actually admit to it, but he recognizes the sense of it, on some level.

"I never said I wouldn't do it."

He just doesn't like it, and isn't going to shy from making his displeasure known. He does, however, grudgingly offer his hands afterwards - other than the gloves he's wearing (white, with gold embroidery down the backs), they're nothing particularly notable.

[shahrrehth]

For all that she was trying to act with haste, she can appreciate having issues with this situation; she has issues with this situation. They're just issues she figures can be dealt with when they aren't in a life or death situation where they have very little information or, seemingly, the ability to help much otherwise.

She'll take his hand.

"Duly noted," she says with a quick nod. And it's very very genuine. She appreciates him cooperating even if he's not happy.

[albatrossomen]

In the interest of providing whatever aid this being requires quickly Murmur reached out to take their hand, at least forming a partial chain. "Exciting as an impromptu space-walk would undoubtedly be, I am grateful we've largely decided upon survival for the time being." Even if he's also very uncertain and distrustful of their strange seemingly artificial captor/savior.

Probably best not to take unnecessary risks until they have more time to question their circumstances.

[unnecessaryflourishes]

Truth be told, he'd like it better if the issues didn't involve actually physical contact, no matter the sort. But on the other hand, neither is he in much of a hurry to die. Even if it's not much more than an inconvenience, at this point.

Still, he makes no further protest to having his hand held, though the expression on his face remains one of distinct displeasure.

"Really, you would think there'd be some other way to increase the power output, or whatever it is this ship happens to run on."

[shahrrehth]

She breathes in deep and lets it out in a soft huff. Breathing exercises have always been something she's leaned on here and there and now's no different. She tries not to hold his hand any more than is necessary; she's not trying to invade someone's boundaries, for one. For another, the firmer the hold, the more obvious it is that her flesh isn't... quite... normal.

"I would, actually," she admits as she keeps her senses open, tries to take in more of what's going on both in this ship and outside. But her senses are definitely not nearly as helpful as they usually would be.

"I definitely want to find out more of what's going on... after. this."

She looks over at him.

"Clara, by the way."

[unnecessaryflourishes]

For the time being, at least, he's too busy being grumpy about being asked to hold hands to pay too much attention to how normal anyone's hands feel. There's also the fact that he hasn't generally held anyone's hands in recent - or not-so-recent - memory. It's not really the sort of thing anyone forgets, of course, but neither is it something that it occurs to him might be a useful source of information.

"Emet-Selch."

By luck or by chance, Clara happens have one of the few things he's almost always willing to be distracted by - conversation. And conversation that isn't thinly-veiled jabs at his moral character, besides.

"Once we escape this fate? Yes, I agree. Both in regards to the ship and its apparent pilot."

[albatrossomen]

Positivity is certainly preferable to cynicism and the arguing happening in the background. Murmur's resisting the urge to hiss at Jack that suggesting someone jump out an airlock isn't exactly helpful right now. Given that he doesn't willfully touch anyone unless absolutely necessary he really doesn't notice anything unusual about Clara.

It's all alien to him, quite frankly. "Do you have experience with space battles and hand-holding driven engines?" One might think he's being sarcastic, but his tone was so neutrally monotone it seemed more earnest. As though he genuinely thought that might be the case.

[shahrrehth]

And thankfully? That kind of matter-of-fact monotone is nothing she's unfamiliar with. Nor people asking things like that in utter seriousness.

"Some with space battles. Less with hand-holding driven engines."

She doesn't want to be too specific with what she says but she also doesn't want to start a situation like this one with mistruths. Not if she can help it.

[albatrossomen]

In his experience nothing was truly impossible. Highly improbable, yes, but for the sake of precision it was best to never assume impossible. Far be it for him to discredit a stranger outright.

"Fascinating. I was not aware this mode of travel had become so common. Or, well, was possible at all until a few minutes ago." He suspected it was. But to actually be on a ship in the middle of being shot down was a far cry from supposition.

He prefers her honesty. Especially since they were apparently going to have to get very comfortable with each other very quickly.

...didn't get this notif!

[shahrrehth]

"It depends on your world. And your planet. In some of them, space travel's very common," she explains, somewhat matter-of-factly, "others? Not so much."

Dreamwidth why!?

[albatrossomen]

"That does certainly make sense," Those that had the technology would be more inclined to be aware of others that did. And did not, for that matter. The Earth Murmur oversaw unfortunately did not yet possess the cooperation to achieve such feats.

Yet.

"Granted, this is certainly a shining example of precisely how possible and common it is. Even if we weren't necessarily granted the liberty of choosing to be here."

[shahrrehth]

"Sometimes, things happen and you just have to do your best with what you're handed," she says practically. She's still getting her head around what's going on here, let alone how she feels about it. She wishes she had enough information to feel comfortable going out there, doing something more active. But she's been burned by magic or alternate dimensions too many times to risk it.

[albatrossomen]

While sage advice indeed, Murmur couldn't help but be mildly taken aback hearing it applied to himself. Him, a being responsible for weaving the threads of fate, now finding himself at their mercy. He wasn't certain if he should be annoyed or pleased by this turn of events.

He pulled himself from his ponderings on the irony of it all to frown. "Let us hope we live long enough to discover what that hand is." He doesn't want to be grim, but this whole hand-holding business does seem an unlikely method of rescue. Trying, however, was much better than just complaining about it.