Reaching their destination, Ahava made sure to settle Muraki on one of the weirdly organic beds before stepping back and waving her hand loosely to indicate the rest of the room. "And this," she said calmly, "is the Medical Bay."

Considering the sheer size of the room and the technology within it, the name almost didn't seem to do it justice, but she continued regardless. "I haven't been here often since it's not really my area and I imagine you'll get more use out of it than I will, but I do know enough to at least make sure you're really feeling alright after that incident." It wouldn't be the first time someone tried to downplay how badly they were effected.

"Not to mention I'm sure someone will come along soon enough to see what's going on," she added. "Maybe you'll get to meet Jean Grey as well. She's head of Medical, though I don't know if you've spoken already."

[ooc: Both Ahava and Muraki are available for threading here! They'll probably be hanging around together, but Ava may leave and let Muraki talk to people a bit or can equally be dragged off to talk to someone by herself, so if you only want one of them, feel free to say so in the subject line.]

Anyone entering Contagion at pretty much any time of the day that Topher isn't eating or fitfully sleeping will see him hovering around an odd sort of chair, inputting settings on the touchpad at the head of the chair simply to run diagnostics. He'd been doing everything he could to make sure it wasn't completely ruined, except for running actual imprints.

Now, Topher's moving on to a bigger test. He's got Victor in the chair, and the two of them are more at ease there than they have been since waking up. This is normal, and Topher never thought he'd be saying this but Victor's stupid smile when he'd asked him if he wanted a treatment actually made him happy.

"Okay, here we go. It's like, fourth down and-- other sports metaphors that make sense. Let's hit a homer!" The chair hums with power as Topher queues up an imprint and the little corner he found his tech in glows a bit blue.


[ooc: light godmoding permissions on Victor from Kristi, but let us know if you'd like to interact with any imprints ^^]

Slowly but surely, the nightmares have been chipping away at the mental defenses of the crew.

Even those who attempt to stay awake to avoid the nightmares find themselves too on-edge to completely concentrate their defenses.

And the Nightmare King has not been idle during all this, no. He has been slowly feeding off the crew, gathering his strength so that he may yet break free from his prison.

And he now uses that new found power, reaching out to affect the minds of the crew even in the waking world. Even those avoiding sleep will find themselves drifting in and out of their nightmares, bringing everyone a taste of despair.

After all, no one can escape the grasp of the King of Nightmares.

No one.

[ooc: OH NOEZ. As you can guess, the Nightmare King is getting stronger. As such, the crew will start experiencing waking dreams. These are much more subtle than the normal nightmares, however, and are more so depressing and surreal than actually brain-breaking. Mostly they would be miserable versions of the character's normal life, or perhaps even their life on the ship.]

As many of the tech brigade had learned at some point or other, there was only so long that Stacy was willing to let them work before forcing a compulsory break, and Ahava was no exception. Even trying to reason that sleeping, considering the current circumstances, wasn't exactly restful any more didn't make a difference, so the senior scientist headed down to the Mess Hall, deciding she may as well grab something to eat while she was free. It was just too bad about what was the only food on offer there, but with the number of people on board already and their supply of real food having a finite limit, it was practical to keep the food that wasn't sludge for things other than someone's enforced lunch break.

So, tray in hand, Ahava pulled up a chair close to the entrance of the room and settled down with a sigh. Hmm, maybe a break wasn't such a bad idea judging from how her feet felt. Now if only she had some decent company to pass the time with as well...

[ooc: Newbie Helpers List | Instructions: Post your character with one post establishing them as being podpopped. Tag each other in groups of 2's, 3's, and 4's, to get some interaction to start with. If a thread doesn't already have 2 or 3 people tagged in, tag it with your character's podpop popping near the other people, rather than making a new subthread. If you would like to play out them talking to the AI, please send an email to the mods making the request--we do this only by request. Then move onto the big Newbie Meeting. Once your character has gotten the rundown from the old crew, you may start posting entrance posts and freely tagging.]


||Pod Release Protocols Initating|| Stacy's familiar voice sounds out to all the podmates through the ship.

In the Pod Caverns, there are the sounds of: Pop. Pop pop pop. Poppuhpoppoppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiiiissssss.

There is condensation and mist spraying out from cracks in the pods, as the people inside slide out onto the floors, covered in slime.

--

( There was nothing... )

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers. After the revelation that their worlds are gone, many of them are even more eager to see people they knew from home.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicoms and comm rings. New crew-mates might see a green-skinned alien and snake girl among their number. There are also several authoritative-looking figures ready to introduce themselves.

There's a lot to tell the new people. It's going to be a lot to take in.

[ooc: Only new characters and Command Staff can start new threads for introductions, to limit the number of threads. Everyone else, just tag in and have your guys greet the newbies.]