[Amy’s rubbing her forehead, and most of her blue nail polish looks chewed off. When she takes her hand away, there’s shadows under her eyes.

Her lipstick is still pretty perfect though.]

I don't mind not sleeping when it's something worth staying up for. Parties or watching the sun rise on some far off beach or even looking for someone.

[She says that part a little louder, like she thinks the Doctor can actually hear her. Wherever he is.]

But it’s been days without a proper rest, and I’m starting to see new imaginary friends and I don’t want them.

Come on. I know someone's got a boring story around here. Hasn’t someone ever watched paint dry or…caught a big fish only to have it get away?

[Q looks completely wrecked. The lack of sleep that the Tranquility has so kindly blessed him with has left him looking almost on death's door, bags under his eyes and his clothes and hair dishevelled. Apparently, however, insomnia prompts either genius or madness and around him are a plethora of papers and diagrams, repeatedly scribbled out and redrawn with blue and red pen. Q rubs his bloodshot eyes and smiles slightly up at his audience.]

Hello, there. So these past few months have been rather hectic and it got me thinking. [That and more cups of tea than he would care to count.]

So the universe is endless, yes? A giant mass of endless stars. As our telescopes get stronger and stronger and we look out into the void of space, we keep finding more to look at. We cannot find its horizon.

[He rocks on the balls of his feet and begins to rifle through his papers.]

Yet a recent theory suggested that while it's endless, it isn't some vast, infinite mass. Instead, it loops back on itself. Time and space is...a doughnut.

[He holds up a complex diagram filled with numbers and various intersecting circles up to the camera.]

If we look far enough into the distance, we can see ourselves and it is my belief that the people, the things which we are witnessing on The Tranquility are either ourselves or the ship's past or future catching up on us. The jumps, in my opinion, are literal, as we dot from place to place, picking up fragments of time.

[He lets out a sigh and scratches his head.]

Fuck me if I know who Smiley is though.

[ for optimal viewing pleasure, please see the following and allow to run in the background as you enjoy this recording. though the only thing currently in the feed is an angled shot of the treetops in the gardens, this is not an accidental video. there's rustling in the background, like something's moving fast through the leaves coming closer, and it is moving.

a couple seconds later, myfanwy comes flying overhead, a small black shape on her back. it might not be terribly difficult to discern what it is, but don't worry if you miss it, because the pteranodon makes a screech and a sharp turn, sending the shape tumbling off her back towards the device.

river rolls over the feed when she hits the ground, dressed in her tq crew uniform with the legs cut into shorts, hair tied up in a messy bun and hands covered with fingerless black gloves that hardly fit her at all. sky-diving experts or anyone with military training might notice her roll is perfectly controlled to minimise damage, and when she comes back into view, her eyes are wide with adrenaline but she doesn't seem particularly bothered by her fall. ]

Test five. Flight successful. Notes: need to meet higher altitude, consider construction of a harness; ask permission first. No hard turns.

[ she looks away for a second and blinks. ]

I skinned my knees.

[ oops? that's all she says before cutting off the feed. a second later, she attaches a text message. ]

needed:

• driving goggles ( 1 )
• cowboy hat ( 2 )
• chocolate ( dark pref. )
• colors ( blue unnecessary )
• tour guide

accepting applications for the last. list name, ident, and qualifications below. willing to trade goods and services.

[ namely: simon's services and stolen goods. double oops? river's permission post is, as always, right yonder with all the necessary warnings and what have you! ]

[it's a question that had come from a time long before this jump. one born from his very arrival; exacerbated by those weeks spent alone in the ship. he needs answers, and he knows that he should be looking to the other jedi for them. but obi-wan isn't an option now. not while he's still dealing with the truths he's learned most recently. quinlan, a master, and still too unapproachable for him. the same again for lucien, a complete stranger. and then there's luke.

no, this is the way it has to go because there is no other option. it's one time where he needs to look beyond the will of the force. he needs to find advice.]

This ship is capable of bringing together those from different dimensions, as we are all aware. But so too is it capable of gathering those from different moments in time.

What do you do, then, if you hear tales of your own future? What if you learn that you will one day go against all that you believe?

[don't worry sw nerds, he isn't talking vader-level issues. more fathering a child-level rule breaking. a child that he isn't around to raise himself.]

Do you take what you have learned as a single, unchangeable future, or do you set all you have learned aside?

Is it even possible to ignore an accomplishment that you know shouldn't have taken place?


[and then, a second post. one unlinked to the first and filtered directly to a single person.]


[locked to luke skywalker]

[despite starting the message, there's a long pause at first. a moment to try and build himself up to it. the force had told him, han had confirmed it. but he still needed to hear it from the one person- the only person -who he knows he can trust completely about this. about their connection.]

I need to hear it from you. I need you to tell me who I am.

[he needs the truth]

[The video comes on, and without further ado...]

Many of you know me, many of you probably don't. My name is Ianto Jones, and I've been here since the first jump. That's about one and half years now, not counting the time spent in stasis. Back home, I worked for an organization called Torchwood in Cardiff, Wales, on Earth. We were tasked with monitoring a rift in time and space that ran through the city and deposited everything from space debris to living aliens directly on our doorstep. It's safe to say that I have some small experience with the extraterrestrial, many of whom look monstrous but are no better or worse than you or I. In fact, if I've learned anything, it's that the worst monsters aren't the ones who look frightening, they're the ones you least expect. They're the ones who look human, whether or not they really are.

In light of recent events, I thought it prudent to mention that. Many of you haven't been here long enough to remember, but our dear Captain has been implicated in a murder before. A man – a good man – nicknamed Hotspur, discovered a vital piece of information and sought out Ward and Resnik to ask them about it. He was mysteriously locked in a room during the subsequent jump, unable to get out and make it to the gravity couches where he would have been safe. He was able to send us a final message and share what he'd learned before he died horribly.

After Hotspur's death, a small group of us agreed that information needed to be found and shared, but kept from Ward and Resnik's prying eyes. We founded a loose-knit organization called Cambitas in order to share and distribute information anonymously. We started and maintained the information posts, but kept quiet about our identities for our own protection, something that some people took exception to. As it turns out, it was all a bloody useless waste of time anyway. Thanks to the pirates, we've now established that our encryptions are a joke. We can lock things away from each other, but Ward and Resnik have been able to see through us the whole time.

So consider this a coming out party. If we haven't been killed yet, we may as well open the lines of communication completely. The other members of Cambitas will introduce themselves or stay mum as they see fit. They know I'm doing this, but I'm not naming names unless they tell me to.

I've also attached the usual information post, but you'll find it's hopefully somewhat improved. We've been working on it, and plan to keep working on it. This is just step one. Please read it, and no we don't have a Cliffs Notes version. We've tried to make it as easy to navigate as possible. If you have questions, ask. If you have anything to add, tell us. And I'm sorry we got rid of the flowers, but as attention-grabbing as they were, people predictably took the whole thing less seriously.

HELLO You're probably confused. Take some time to read this over. We do our best to keep it up to date, and it should answer most of your questions. THE RUNDOWN » What happened, where you are, what to do REFERENCE » Basic facts about the ship and solar system A TIMELINE OF EVENTS » This will take time to read thoroughly, but we strongly recommend it. FAQ » Please read this before asking a question on the network HEADCOUNT » Our current numbers SPACE TRAINING » If this is your first time aboard a space ship, please watch these helpful videos COMMUNITY NOTICEBOARD » For all your wants and needs

[Locked from the Master for obvious reasons, visible to everyone else]
On a less official note, I'm calling a meeting of anyone who knows the Doctor or is familiar with Torchwood. In other words, those of you from the same world I'm from… or a similar one, at least. I keep running into you lot unexpectedly, and I think it's a good idea if we all introduce ourselves.

[ the feed opens up on, well, nothing actually, the unfortunate consequence of being on audio. you don't get to see tony's face, but what you do get to hear is something akin to a robot moving around and the sound of machinery being fiddled with. there's a moment where there's also an exhale like tony's getting ready to say something before there's a clang. and a few muttered curses, before tony actually says something. it regrettably not the original thing he planned on starting this with. ]

I wanted you to come along and be helpful, Dum-E, not drop things on my foot. I will take you apart don't think I won't. [ ah, and yes, the feed was on, forgot about that. ]

Not actually how I wanted to start this. Disregard any of that, by the way, I'm fighting with something from home. Anyway. You know for all we have a bunch of hero types, leaders, take charge alpha males and females, you think we could have prevented that. I know, we're all displaced people and what, the pirates thought we were insane because we all shouted and threatened to kill them or hurt them and I don't like people taking my shit as much as the next guy, but did you notice that we're forty years behind, according to them. I don't think any of them were forty, I haven't looked at all the dead bodies of course, I'm not that morbid, but this is something they knew about. We're a ghost story to them. We're a ghost story that shouldn't exist. [ a pause and more noises on his end are heard. ] I don't know about you, but I feel pretty solid. No one was supposed to get down to the brig, and yet, how in the fuck do you think we got to hear dead bodies falling down. I'm not advocating law, because guess what, martial law, also known as what you heard but shouldn't have heard, is the only thing you could pull off. And can you guess who's in charge of what your punishment is, who would be your military tribunal. I'll give you a hint, it's not Kirk, it's not me, not Nathan, not Tyke, it's not any of the captains who came or insert military rank here, etc.

Yeah, for those of you listening at home, that leaves Ward. And Resnik. What I'm saying, if I'm saying anything, and I am and I am hoping you are actually listening, is that we're stuck fending for ourselves here. And unless we get our fucking shit together, we're gonna be like sitting ducks. And I'm not a big fan of being a duck. So, you know, maybe you might want to pull your heads out of your asses and stop acting like this is a vacation and, oh I don't know, maybe make sure the next time someone decides to board us or we stop at a hell port, we're not looking like insane idiots and maybe we might learn something. But, hey, what I know, maybe I'm just making this situation worse. Yeah, something tells me I'm okay.

[ there's a beat and another muffled curse before he continues. ]

Oh yeah, in case any of you are not nursing wounds, funny thing about pirates ripping things off the ship, you kind of need to fix them and/or find the parts they took. Those of you who have any sort of actual ability when it comes repairing mechanical things, could use your assistance or maybe the ship will break during a jump and that means we're dead. So, yeah, get in touch now, I don't care about your grieving at the moment, you can grieve later, trust me.

And no, I'm not bothering with a lock, our pirates, our now dead pirates, got into every lock including mine and every other tech person's. And may have pointed out that Ward and Resnik could see it all. So, I'm not bothering with a lock against those two that won't work, because there's always a backdoor they can see through. 

[ stark encryption 100% to pepper potts ]
You're not gonna kill me in my sleep if I spend way too much time trying to fix all of this right? And not exactly sorry about the PR mess this is going to be right now.

[ axvengers encryption 100% ]
I would go on an adventure to their ship, but I'm stuck doing this. Do a bit of recon and steal some loot. Not that you really need the order, but I might as well say it anyway. Stash it 100, and we'll talk when I get a chance. In person. About all of this.

(welcome to the shuttle bay with han and obi-wan. excuse the fact that there's a shuttle that han's stripped and that obi-wan generally looks like he has a bad feeling about all of this.)

I think if you follow the guidelines set by the Security Team, you should be safe. Stay in groups. Don't engage.

(there's a beep and a long protest as Arfour says something, but she's not in view. that's when han just takes off his goggles off to actually prove obi-wan wrong.)

No, this is what you do. If you see a pirate? Shoot them. (wait, this is a jedi he's talking to.) Or use the Force, you know what you do.

(obi-wan looks irritated for a moment, but he'll take this moment to roll his eyes and cross his arms)

If you don't have training, don't engage.

If you don't have training, get someone else to shoot them. If they talk to you, shoot them. If they even look at you, shoot them. If they ask you how you're doing, shoot them. If they're dying outside your room, watch them die and then shoot them to make sure they don't get up.

(han's getting a little serious about this.)

I'm going back to work.

(aaaaaand Obi-Wan walks a little away, Arfour beeping after him, but she's still not visible on screen)

Don't touch anything, I'm redoing the - (han was running after him before running back to turn off the communicator.)

I've noticed a lot of people talking about what they can teach or what they want to learn and that got me thinking. I was pretty distracted in school and I don't really feel like I know what I should know, but at the same time, I don't really know what I don't know.

[Perhaps its telling that he still thinks of what he ought to learn in prescriptive measures that have to do with school-based learning.]

If that made any sense to you, I'd really appreciate it if you could tell me what you think the average person should know. Maybe skills I ought to have or books I should've read?

[ There's a boy on your video feed. Or more accurately: an intense close-up of his face, like he's inspecting it without realising it's turned on. But then before you know it, he leans back with an excited victory whoop. ]

Whoa! I got it working!

[ Now you can see more of him: he doesn't look to be any older than sixteen, but he's dressed in what are unmistakably fine clothes-- a collared shirt, a cravat, a jacket, etc. Even the patterned material is obviously opulent. ]

Man, these things are really ancient... --oh. Sorry. Talking to myself. Where are my manners? I'm Albert...

[ He trails off quite suddenly, as if he were about to say something else after his first name, but then thought the better of it. It's also noticeable that he pronounces it in the French way, "Al-bear", without the t. ]

Anyway! I'm making this video because I was hoping one of the kind citizens of this place could direct me in the way of food! French cuisine is preferred, but I'm not particularly picky. Hunger is the greatest sauce, or something like that.

Although-- now that I think about it, I don't... actually have any money? Oh, goodness. That was silly of me. I'm sorry, maybe just forget the whole thing.

[ He has the decency to look slightly sheepish. ]

In any case, since I'm under the impression that we're all sort of in this place together until we can manufacture an escape plan, I'm looking forward to the opportunity to meet everyone soon. I hope we'll be good friends!

[ Lucrezia is in one of the lounges! Sprawled on one of the sofas, fingers busy turning a pendent of gold in the shape of a sea-horse. There are no poems today, no joyful greetings, something is different. She looks more pensive than anything else but there is a shade of concern there as well as quiet annoyance.

When she speaks, her voice is devoid of any of it. Her eyes still focused on the sea-horse. ]

A riddle, Tranquility.

How to mourn for someone who does not deserve it?

If your duty demands it and you have no desire to - do all men need to be mourned for? Is it a a more grievous sin not to mourn than it is to speak false words of grievance?

[ a beat. ]

Perhaps I must fast again.

[ a moment later she puts down her necklace, smiles. ]

I would have a cup of wine with your answer, if any of you have some to spare. You will join me in the lounge.

[ and it is not a question. ]

[ Lucrezia is at the Space Bar, a glass of wine in hand. Pensive, she sips from it once and then again, quiet for a moment. She has been planning this for a time and yet.

And yet. ]

The Borgia family came from Spain to Rome. The father of the family, known as Rodrigo Borgia, has become Pope Alexander Sextus, elected to carry God's will and rule over Rome and the Papal States. He has a wife, beautiful and clever, Vanozza, whom the ladies of Rome, in their foolishness, dislike. Four children he has and all he brought to Rome, Juan Borgia who commands the armies of Rome, Cesare Borgia who took the red robes of the cardinal, Lucrezia Borgia who became Lucrezia Sforza of Pesaro and Gioffre Borgia, the youngest, who married Sancia of Naples. Their crest is the Borgia Bull.

[ and why is she telling all of this, well. ]

Yet there are some on this ship who knows more of me and mine than I do. The history remembers the Borgias, parents and children alike.

I would hear from those who know of my family. I would hear what their books tell.

[ a heavy burden, she asks to carry and yet. ]

I know that those tales might not be accurate to my own Rome and my own family and yet I wish to hear them still, if you would humor me.

[ Behold, Lucrezia in pale pink dress and an elaborated braid in the first video broadcast since her arrival. By the looks of it, she is in one of the lounges, a few books in her lap. They look used, little notes scribbled at the edges of each page. She will read one. ]

I am, I confess, a sinner, but one who, far from weeping for her sins, weeps only for her lover; far from abhorring her crimes, longs only to add to them; and who, with a weakness unbecoming my state, please myself continually with the remembrance of past delights when it is impossible to renew them.

[ a pause. ]

Heloise and Abelard were truly doomed. But better doomed and loved than safe and lonely.

(  Private to close CR and friends  )

-Oh no.

[The video is washed out, too bright underneath the generic lighting of the even more generic passenger's quarters. Merlin's face slowly eclipses it, eyes wide and a little concerned. With a little trial and error, he's managed to master the device's functions faster than a medieval boy probably has a right to. But technology hasn't come up with an answer for clumsiness. Yet.]

All right?

[Merlin picks the communicator up, sighing in relief before he starts to grin.]

Are we really up there? Up in the stars, I mean. I know everyone keeps saying it, it's just hard to imagine. To think that a servant could be among the stars. I really used to look up to them.

[Merlin presses his lips together, quite possibly the only person amused by that. Arthur's always told him that he shouldn't try to be funny. This would be why.]

Has anyone ever been up here before? Do you think if we stepped outside the ship, it would be like falling out of a tree? Except that there are no trees in space, because there isn't any dirt.

Which makes me wonder...where do we get the apples?

[Merlin finally has the decency to look sheepish about his ramblings and odd questions.]

Sorry. And I've already heard about there being no air and space radiation, so I won't actually be trying to get out there. My guardian just always wanted me to take more of an interest in science. I guess this was one way of doing it.

[Merlin glances off-screen, and there's a hesitance with his last question that the others was lacking.]

Uhm, it is science, isn't it? And not magic?

[ despite the warnings to not wear the masks, ariadne couldn't resist temptation and now here she was, sitting alone in a random hallway of the ship - wearing her mask (she’s been doing it for some time now - wearing it here and there - always in private) and poking the network via anonymous text.

this should be fun. ]

How do some of you manage to go on day to day, pretending as if nothing is wrong - that you aren't lying to others or that you didn't do horrible things back home?

How do you live with your guilt?

[ yep, a vague text from a girl that is obviously going through a bit of an identity crisis at the moment and just wants to understand what she is doing wrong. someone help her. ]


[ ooc: so yeah, obviously ariadne is wearing her mask in some random hallway (lets say not far from the oxygen gardens) so feel free to action this post up and spot her wearing her nifty mask or just keep poking her via text. she also sort of fails at anon (though she doesn't think so) so folks that have talked to her long enough should be able to pick up that it is her talking here. ]