#aethramsolus

receiver finds sender covered in blood

If there's one thing Simon knows about Joanna, it's that she's not a killer. A survivor, yes -- but not a killer. Not in the way he is. So when he stumbles onto her in one of the more hidden parts of the space station, seeing her dripping with blood, his immediate assumption is that she's hurt.

(no clue if a blood ocean would have storms, is it blood rain ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯, also mostly leaving this for fish Simon too for Convict!Joanna.)

@aethramsolus

The ocean is more choppy than usual, the atmosphere whipped into something not unlike a Martian windstorm that sends waves higher and higher until it almost seems to be boiling.

He's deep enough to weather it, curled once again around his grave, but a sudden ping of awareness makes him stir, anger flashing white-hot for a brief moment.

What fucking idiot would send someone down in this?

Untangling himself from the Tree's branches, he quickly slips off into the dark in search of the little shell of steel and air that he can feel brushing the fringes of his perception. It's not too hard to find, puttering in the crimson dark and buffeted by currents from the raging storm far above.

He doesn't even try to reach out at first, just coils himself loosely around it with his fins flared to block the worst of the turbulence, close enough to set the proximity alarm wailing on all sides.

But it was getting to a point that even Joanna was struggling to shrug it off and keep going. The responsibilities of her job, her role as captain. She found herself sitting at her desk just staring at the work in front of her but hadn't touched it since she had sat down. The longer she stared at it the more it grew daunting, the heavier her shoulders felt and the weight of everything collapsed in on itself.

She heard the patter of tears against the holopad screens and brought her hands up to cup her face. Her shoulders shook as she silently cried into them, muffling the noises with her hands as the pure feeling of being overwhelmed hit her like a tidal wave with no end in sight.

@aethramsolus

Ellyze was wandering through the halls after checking on all of the prisoners but paused when she heard the sounds of crying. Shes grown all too familiar with muffled cries, heard it a million times from the convicts, but that doesn't mean she isn't any less bewildered when she hears it.

Instinctively she followed the sound, which led her right to her captains office. Where she awkwardly stood in front of for a solid five minutes before just taking a deep breath and opening the door. Not bothering to knock since she knew people who muffled their cries tended to try to push people away in their time of need...speaking from experience.

Joanna is gifted the rare sight of a bright smile from Morel, as they see her approach. Eden is full of the devout; there is no shortage of those willing to discuss scripture with the gardener, but there are few who truly understand. After learning of what little she remembers of Lothurn, Morel has been eager to pick her brains about the nature of life and death.

"I should cut it." She muttered a bit to loudly to herself.

@aethramsolus

Another soul has been sent down in an Iron Lung. Fashioned from what little had been salvaged from the SM-13 comes a brand new death-trap: and with it, a brand new victim. Simon doesn't know whether or not he should be offended --- is his body even cold yet? How quickly did they forget before carrying out another execution?

They're from Eden. He can feel it, in the way the ocean speaks to him. This one's like you, it says. And as Simon shifts his presence through the flow of red, leaking in through the roof of the submarine with tiny drops of blood, he sees her. Joanna. The entire ocean suddenly stills, like it's holding in a breath.

Then, the speaker --- light blinking on, crackling to life as a familiar voice rings through.

@aethramsolus

OOC: oh this is BEAUTIFUL I love this I love all of this

10/10

Peak

Absolute cinema

5 stars