010 ☀ video ☀ you'll learn things you never knew you never knew

[tumbleweeds]

[ There is white and red and black, bone and blood and rotting flesh, when the camera first blinks on. Some fiddling, dirty fingers tapping at the lens then pulling it back reveals that the rot is not a human passenger but bovine; the cow that has been on board since Strela, effectively smashed by the jump by all appearance, but rotted already -- rotted for months, by the look of it. (For a year, its owner will tell you, and forensic analysis will back up her story.)

More fiddling, those filthy fingers and long strands of dirty golden-blonde hair (falling, from the looks of things, coming out in chunks and joining the cow on the floor of the ship) covering the lens until Jaye can look into the screen properly. Once again, she looks like a mess. It's worse, this time. Worse physically and mentally, and it's easy to tell by how she interacts with the camera, slides her thumb up over the lens and bobs her head like a bird. It's almost like she can't quite remember what she's supposed to do. ]

I heard voices, [ she starts, voice a hoarse, scratchy mess. Unlike last time she doesn't try to save it, pushes on as if she's talking to herself and her dead cow and not anyone who's listening. ] Are you back? It's been so long. I didn't mean to leave -- I couldn't get there. I was so close and just like him, just couldn't get there. The halls just kept going and then the ship screamed and I had to change before I did, too.

[ She shifts onto her haunches, rocking back and forth, not looking at the camera -- looking around instead, taking in how things look with eyes that aren't the compound eyes of an insect. One hand moves up to move some hair behind an ear and the hair simply falls down in strands, leaving a patch of bare scalp behind on her head. ] It was red again. Red and angry, so angry, the whole time. I didn't mean to do it this time, I didn't -- but I figured it out. They're the same, aren't they? Exactly the same. Trickster and hero and villain all at once. "Fear not, I will help you."

[ There's a laugh, then a sob, then both at once. ]

Don't be mad. A year isn't forty. Just-Like-Creator took the flesh and threw it over the land, and there grew the tribes of men.

[ One hand reaches for the skull of the cow, for the rot covering it, and draws. :) ]

((ooc: Explanation over here!))

Comments

text;

[tigers]

Well, damn, that's a brilliant waste of beef. I don't suppose that mess can be salvaged at all, spices or no.

[ Ew. Moran. No. ]

You're looking just a bit off colour, chummy.

video;

[tumbleweeds]

[ ewwwwwwww ]

Not for you, no. The ship claimed her, added her blood to the floor. It likes blood.

[ But she smiles down at the communicator, looking almost serene. ]

Did you sleep well?

video;

[coffeeking]

Jaye? Jaye, did you stay out during the goddamn jump again?!

[It's the "red" that tips him off, in the jumble of incoherence.]

video;

[tumbleweeds]

[ She winces, lowers her head and practically flattens out on top of the rotting carcass, like a wounded animal. ]

Didn't mean to. Didn't want to. I couldn't get there, the halls kept going -- going and going and never to the right place. [ She whines suddenly, then coughs. ] I'm sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

[thatsaflaregun]

[Well.

He's at least saner than most people.]

And you're not meant to listen to them, sistah.

[...Kinda.]

[tumbleweeds]

Oracle sees. Prophet talks. Sacrifice bleeds. Priestess listens, and shares it -- but has to pick what's important out while the flock bleats in the morning.

[ She smiles, lifts a hand to wiggle a few fingers at Desmond. ]

Did he show you things, while you slept?

voice.

[shoyu]

[ good god. trying not to sound too panicked: ]

... Miss Jaye, I think you need to get to the medical bay immediately. May I ask where you are?

video.

[tumbleweeds]

More voices. Ones I know. This one I know -- hello, Soy.

[ But she frowns quite suddenly, looking around. ]

Not sure how I got here. But war happened inside. Blood for blood. Reveals to keep secrets. I don't like it here, don't like cages, but I'm not inside. [ Her eyes focus on the camera. ] Brig.

voice.

[lordof]

They woke with the rising of the Sun. [quietly.

then a bit more inquisitively:] What did you not mean to do, Jaye?

video;

[tumbleweeds]

Woken but not awake. Not yet. But I didn't get to sleep, not this time. I wanted to.

[ It's easy to curl in on herself and she does, peeks at him with blue eyes from over her knees. ]

I wanted to go with everyone else, but the halls made me stay out.

video;

[lacksgrace]

Uh, Jaye. [ So eloquent. ] What the fuck.

video;

[tumbleweeds]

I got stuck.

[video]

[yardbird]

Shit, are you-- [No, dumbass, don't ask her if she's okay.] I mean, d'you, uh. Need company? Anything?

[He's seen that Soysauce has already made the wise suggestion of getting her to the medbay, so he's not going to be breaking any records there. But if there is something that Murphy can undoubtedly sympathize with -- it's isolation. So, he focuses on that.]

[video]

[tumbleweeds]

Company. [ She smiles, bright and wide. ] Yes.

[ It's simple, almost child-like, but Jaye has craved someone other than herself and the bones rotting next to her and the anger in the air. ]

action tho.

[northerner]

[ it's grey wind who finds her first, while robb himself is waylaid, getting his feet beneath him after the effects of the chamber. it is grey wind who noses in close, growling low as he nudges at her arm.

and it's grey wind who calls to robb, whether or not robb realizes it. and so robb comes running, because he swore an oath, he holds jaye's banner, and she is his duty to protect as much as anything else. ]

Jaye, look at me.

[ this is something else. robb isn't sure how to navigate it. this wasn't battle shock, and he didn't know where to begin to remedy it. ]

[tumbleweeds]

[ Grey Wind is warm and soft and not rotting, and it's his presence that makes Jaye slowly realize that what she's holding is, perhaps, not the best companion. When Robb runs to them she has her hands in the scruff of the wolf's fur, breathing in the smell of life, of water and warmth. He could bite her to warn her off and it's possible she wouldn't notice, clinging so to something alive.

Robb says "look" and she looks, like a small child looking up at their parent and waiting to be reprimanded. ]

You're still here, [ she murmurs, sounding faintly pleased and very, very tired. ]

voice;

[handelaar]

[... he literally does not know what to say, here. It sounds bad. Looks bad, as he pores over previous conversations, and he's not really sure what to do and in the end he just. Reaches out, the only way he knows how over something as impartial as a network. Doesn't go to video, he doesn't want her to see just how worried he is, because she would even in the state she's in, bright as day.]

Jaye.

[Low and graveled; names might be important but the tone is, too.]

permavideo

[tumbleweeds]

Ned.

[ She smiles, tilts her head and waves at him. ]

A year. Not long for you, is it? Long for me.

video

[idkmybffbloodwing]

[Well, shit, that's not what he wanted to wake up to this jump. He takes a moment to scan through the other comments, though - freaking out and reacting immediately won't do anyone any good.]

You got people comin' to help you already, chica. Don't you worry. You need anything from me right now?

video

[tumbleweeds]

Mijo still here?

[ She's dazed, half-smiling because Mordecai is here and Mordecai is familiar and she hasn't seen him in a year. ]

video;

[doesntdohumble]

Jaye.

[Eric remembers the last time this happened. He knows that the last time was deliberate. This time it wasn't. And it makes him angry, that there's something out there doing this to them, playing with them like puppets. He hasn't fed from her yet. Hasn't had her blood or her body. If he had, then he would have been able to sense that she was in trouble. He would have been able to come to her aid and get her to safety, he tells himself. And that angers him further.]

This shouldn't have happened.

[ooc: i hope i'm right in remembering that he hasn't fed from her yet >> correct me if i'm wrong and i'll change this.]

video;

[tumbleweeds]

((ooc: I think you're right!))

Eric.

[ She reaches for the camera again, taps a finger against the camera lens. ]

I don't feel right, [ she says after a moment, frowning. ] Should've slept. You slept. But I couldn't. Couldn't get there, couldn't find anyone.

( video )

[faithlessly]

[ ever since their spat about the hellhound, dean hasn't much cared for jaye. but this is something he can't really ignore, not after they'd talked about staying out during a jump-- and here she is, has done it again, and by the looks of it someone didn't have a nice time. ]

Jaye, what the hell?

( video )

[tumbleweeds]

[ Dean gets a stare, fixed and steady, head tilted to the side. Her eyes flicker from blue to compound eyes, insect eyes. Then they flick back, her head shaking. ]

Not right, not right.

[ One hand goes to run through her hair, only for it to fall out. ]

Couldn't get to the couches. Ship wouldn't let me.

video

[lostkings]

[ There's something about insanity that he's grown used to, despite it reminding him of his father. It doesn't have anything to do with his father, though, and finding patience for this is almost automatic. It's different because he tells himself it is.

Because he's good at pretending. ]

What was angry?

video

[tumbleweeds]

[ They're all good at pretending, here. Jaye is doing it now, will do it up until her mind mends, if it ever does. There are some things you can't fix, and part of her will always be stuck out in the mist by the brig now. ]

Everything. [ More hair falls out and she picks up a few strands, frowns down at them. ] I could feel it.

video;

[billybadass]

Quit with the crazy talk, you'll make me homesick.

[ Which is expressing concern. Somehow?? Professionally. He's supposed to be on SEC or something. ]

Someone helping you get cleaned up?

video;

[tumbleweeds]

Not homesick already, stranger?

[ It works for her. ]

They're coming. They'll take me to medical. I don't like it.

video » private

[suit]

[ There's a moment where Peter just stares at the device like he's hallucinating. He has to be because this can't actually be real, but it is. It's real and Jaye looks like hell and death warmed over and is acting like she's out of her mind.

There's a number of things he could say, and the only thing that comes out is this: ]

Jaye. [ It sounds concerned and worried and a number of things, that maybe don't need to be put into words but Jesus Christ. ]

video » private

[tumbleweeds]

Peter. [ She sighs, almost dreamily. ] Didn't mean to. Wasn't like Neal, didn't wander off on purpose this time. Didn't see the smile, just felt it in the dark.

[ More hair falls out as she twists it in her fingers, eyes looking down at the ground for a moment before back up to him. ]

Will be thirty now, in a few months. Awake-months. Never was supposed to live that long.

video; private, cylon encrypted 100%

[toasterprophet]

You were walking a labyrinth, and were stolen away from us for revelation. [ Leoben's fascinated, deeply and unsettlingly so. He's always had a lot to discuss with Jaye, but she's speaking his own language right now.

But she is also his friend, and while he hasn't had a lot of those (for more than one reason) she's still important, and he's a bit...concerned, too. ] Are you all right?

video; private, cylon encrypted 100%

[tumbleweeds]

Stolen away, and the fatted calf was sacrificed. Or perhaps she was a golden calf. Does it matter?

[ No, because it's crazy talk. ]

Tired. Too few limbs but just the right amount. Lonely.

[thoughts]

[ forty years. river has read the Bible. she doesn't know what it means though. ]

Is it a punishment?

[tumbleweeds]

Might be. Could be. Could be what I was looking for every time before, finally given.

[ She laughs a little, twines blonde hair around her fingers as it falls out. ]

No promised land here.

voice » stark locked

[became]

Jaye.

video » stark locked

[tumbleweeds]

Neal.

[ She tilts her head to look at the camera, smiling sadly at his voice. ]

Missed you. Prophet has a priestess, now. But... [ she stares down at the strands of hair in her hand, lets them fall ] ...not quite as golden.