#csh stuff

[ko2vo]

Jude can hold his own in a fight but he's not gonna be winning any strength competitions.

[ko2vo]

[CLOSED] Creature Feature Update #1

Where: Utility Closet When: Day 128 Who: Jude, Dakota How: Semi-lit [flexible]

@modernbiped

They offer him their room card with a puzzled smile, which Jude takes and squints at as she speaks. Dakota Burnett.

“Last week?” Jude asks, flipping the card around in his hand. It looked like any other guest card but… Just woke up here? That can’t be right. “We didn’t dock anywhere last week.”

“Does this just… happen? The teleporting?” Jude didn’t get the sense that she was lying about anything, even though what they were saying was unusual. Overall, Dakota just seemed… normal. And confused. But calm. They seemed to just accept whatever happened and adjust as needed. It was an attitude Jude could respect, especially while locked in a confined space with them for an indeterminate amount of time. He pondered her statement, glancing down at the small one-inch gap at the bottom of the door.

“I mean, teleporting isn’t really a thing as far as I know,” Jude responds, leaning down towards the gap. He’d have to maneuver himself around to be able to see out of it, and at Dakota’s request, he wiggles his long limbs around to do so. “There’s been a lot of really weird things happening on this ship though that I can’t explain. You’ve only been here a week, but it’s been four months of bullshit for me, to be honest.” Jude pauses with a huff, body twisted uncomfortably.

“And I can deal with bullshit, that’s just what you sign up for working night security. The bullshit on this ship is just a whole breed of its own. Oh, the name’s Jude by the way.” It wasn’t the most flattering of introductions, twisted in a heap trying to peer out of the gap stuck in a locked closet, but maybe he’d come out of this situation with a new confidante on this ship.

Cheek pressed to the cool floor, Jude couldn’t see much. A long, empty hallway. He tried to conjure the ship layout in his mind to figure out where they could possibly be.

“I can’t really see much, honestly,” Jude says, neck aching as he glanced through the gap. There was a long hallway. Other doors. No people in sight. “I can’t even tell what part of the ship this is-“

The heavy THUD of a footstep makes Jude cut himself off. He feels the vibrations where his cheek connects with the floor. More follow, slow and dragging. THUD. THUD. THUD.

Jude’s muscles were protesting his current position but he strained to see, trying to identify where the approaching sound was coming from. Something was wrong. The floor was shaking with each step. Even Artem’s footfalls are ballerina-like compared to this. There was something inhuman about it.

The slow, heavy steps continue as Jude’s neck can’t take the position anymore and he sits back up. He looks to Dakota, concern knitting his brows together.

“I couldn’t see anything but…” The light overhead shook with another THUD. “I think something’s out there.”

[ko2vo]

[ CLOSED] Creature Feature [CSH]

Where: Utility Closet When: Day 128 Who: Jude, Dakota How: Semi-lit [flexible]

@modernbiped

Jude sighed deeply, head in his hands at the edge of his bed in his cabin. He did not want to go to work today.

Which was hard when he lived there.

Accepting the security gig on the cruise ship was supposed to be a fresh start. A reset. Something he’s no stranger to. He’d left behind a life that wasn’t working for him. Abandoned people he cared about and let go of what he had just started to rebuild. Once things had started going poorly, disappearing just seemed like the best option again.

Well, maybe not best. But it was easier than dealing with the mess he was in.

Now, he’s put himself into a different situation with no easy way out. It started out fresh and exciting, but something was very wrong. His agency didn’t give him a lot of details on the investigation, and he had his guard up all the time.

Things just didn’t make sense here.

People appeared and disappeared. He could swear he’s seen grotesque monstrosities in the dark corners of the CCTV footage that vanish when he blinks. He’s dreamt of blood-streaked corridors that smell of rot. Feels hostility emanating from certain guests and crew alike. He’s never been a paranoid person. He likes to think he follows instinct and evidence, but he can’t justify the deep unease in his chest being here when he hasn't seen much.

“Am I finally losing it?” Jude wonders with a humourless laugh.

Then, with a blink, the bed disappears from beneath him. Plunged into darkness.

He lets out a short yell as he starts to fall backwards and his back hits a wall behind him. Heart-racing, he scrambles, catching his arm against the hard surface and reaching out in front of him, only to find another wall. The sound of things clattering – plastic, things filled with liquid falling over with a watery thud, chemical clean scents.

As he tries to regain his balance, he becomes aware that there is someone else in this small room with him and they are very close. The space feels cramped, and he feels his legs and arms make contact with this presence in the dark. He tries to shift to give space but finds that there really isn’t much room to work with. At all.

“Hey, are you… What just happened?” Jude’s at a loss for words. He tries to straighten himself up and –

“Ow.” His head makes contact with a hard surface just above him. He didn’t hit it hard, but enough to make him huff. What was this? It was pitch dark in here.

“Oh, wait a sec –“ It was times like these that he was glad he started smoking again. He pat his pockets until he found his lighter. Pulling it out, he turned it around in his hand, trying to feel for the igniter before it slipped from his fingers, falling unseen in the darkness to the floor with a couple sad clatters.

Jude let out an exhausted groan. He had felt so smart for a second too.

“Can you help me find my lighter so we can see? I just dropped it like a dumbass.”

[ko2vo]

(CSH) Excuse me! Um… You’re security, right? If we find something that we think is suspicious, where should we report it? Sometimes when I’m on my balcony in the morning, I feel like I hear strange noises from the cabin downstairs, like yelling or… It sounds like someone is getting hurt. A young man, I think. None of my neighbours have heard it. You don’t suppose you could make sure everything’s okay, could you?

The security office of the ship is easy to find and clearly marked by a bolded ‘SECURITY’ plaque, located just down an unassuming hallway near the most travelled amenities. At any time throughout the day, one or two team members will be located in the main office while others patrol different areas of the ship, ready to respond. Jude is in the office right now, and listens to your report with a focused gaze.

“Hm.” He makes notes in a binder in front of him. “That is strange. It’s not the first that I’ve heard about something like this, but…”

“Unfortunately, I can’t really go into random cabins. I mean, honestly I could if I really wanted to, but there’s hundreds of rooms here. I’ll take a walk through that area and see if I hear anything, but unless I know what room the noises are from, I don’t know that I’ll find anything.”

His brow furrows. Clearly, something about this situation bothers him.

“Still, thanks for reporting this. If you can provide any extra information, please don’t hesitate to follow up and I’ll add it to the report.”

[ko2vo]

[CSH] Who’s the most suspicious person Jude’s encountered on the job?

"Honestly… everyone’s sus. I feel like new people I’ve never seen keep randomly appearing out of nowhere. But it’s not really possible to stowaway? It’s also not in my job description to check passengers. I’m here to keep the peace.”

[ko2vo]

CSH anon ask dump for Jude!

It’s a sunny day on the deck of the ship. Jude blinks at you, sipping a juice box, then looks around.

“Me?” Jude asks, arching a brow. “Hmm.”

He looks thoughtful for a moment, then shrugs.

“I’ll hang out with anybody. I like learning about people. Though, I feel like I should get to know the crew a little bit better, being part of it and all. Team cheer and commiserating about work and whatnot. Though, it’s hard to find people off-duty sometimes since the ship is so huge.” As he speaks, a bulbous clownfish attached to a body wanders by. Jude doesn’t even know what the entertainer looks like outside of his wardrobe, even after so many months.

Workplace hazards. This is preferable to some other disturbances Jude could be dealing with, all things considered.

“Ah. I sort of left him under a rock. I love him, but I didn’t want him to get hurt. Still, I don’t think I handled things very well… Let’s talk about something else.”

He's avoiding your gaze. Seems like a sensitive topic.

"Cruise police? Hmm." Anti-cop punk rebellion flares up in Jude for a moment, but he shrugs it off. Technically, he does have more authority as a security officer in international waters than he normally does as one on land. He figures he shouldn't take it personally.

"In the security office, we have a cork board of shame. Repeat offenders. A widower that gets belligerently drunk, a couple that has been fighting since day one, stuff like that."

"Me, personally? It's always these people that seem to come out of nowhere that have a really weird air. Like, at some point, this tall guy with yellow glasses, I think his name is Zeta, started showing up. Seems nice enough at a distance, but I've seen him lurking around places he shouldn't be on the ship's security cameras at night.

"There's also this old guy and a kid. Complete opposite vibes, but they seem like too innocent? Weirdly angelic? They're probably fine, but again. Where did they come from?

"There are definitely others. People that I'm not worried about? I can't say. Anyone's capable of being a problem, with enough alcohol and stress."

Jude won't reveal much, but I will! Jude works on contracts for an independent organization with some government ties. He specializes in undercover work and intelligence gathering, not so much with confrontation. His organization is especially concerned with organized crime, like the mafia, as well as drug and human-trafficking rings. Throughout his jobs, he sends information to his organization and will submit an entire report at the end, which will lead to arrests depending on the gravity of the evidence.

He never really knows much going into a job, since it's his job to gather the majority of the intelligence in order to support his organization's next steps. It seems like there's more than meets the eye to the cruise.

Jude has his suspicions! PIs are generally pretty good at keeping things under wraps, hence the job. But PIs are supposed to notice people trying not to get too much attention, so Kaisoro will have piqued his interest. He'd love to have a friendly chat with him sometime.

Especially since he's also an isekai'd stowaway - Jude's pretty suspicious of all the passengers who've seemingly appeared from thin air.

[ko2vo]

[CSH | Lavender] Excuse me! So sorry to bother you, but I just keep wondering and need to ask for peace of mind - is the white hair natural or dyed?

A woman approaches Jude. He knows her name is Lavender, but not much else. Which is generally the sign of someone peaceful and isn’t causing much trouble on the ship. He feels like he should really seek out people like that more, especially with his line of work. He isn’t much of a smiler, so he throws up a peace sign as a friendly gesture and listens to her question.

“You’re not bothering me.” His eyes turn to the white tuft sticking out among his black locks, hand coming up to twirl it pensively. “Mmm, not dyed but not exactly natural? A couple years ago, I went through something sorta stressful. Kind of a near-death experience, betrayal, life reset, et cetera et cetera. I don’t need to go into the weeds about it, it’s in the past. But this clump of hair started coming in white around that time.”

He gives a small, amused noise, looking at her.

“I ignore it now, but I remember being a little worried about it when it happened. Like, what the fuck man, I just started my twenties and I’m already going grey? But hey, it doesn’t bother me enough that I’m trying to hide it.” He eyes her two-toned locks and gives a slight tilt of the head. “What about you? Natural? Anything you have to do to keep it symmetrical like that?”

[ko2vo]

(CSH) Does Jude have a hard time sleeping? He seems to be awake most of the time

He'd insist that he can sleep whenever he wants if he wanted to. Is it the truth? He believes it.

He has a perfectly healthy relationship with sleep.