Work Text:
It's a Friday, at around 16:34.
The stars twinkle outside the Bad Tuning as it orbits a moon, chosen by happenstance by its pilot.
It's been 3 weeks since Purge tried to take over the Milky Way.
The pilot's seat is occupied for the moment, taking a last few moments to check and make sure everything is in line for a safe autopilot, just to maintain their safe orbit.
Everything checks out.
Jaguar sits back in his seat, relaxing for a moment. Not much to do now, is there? Just to hang around here and search for a scoop over the waves. So he does.
Turning a dial on his ship's control panel just a bit every few seconds, he scans to see if any unusual broadcasts, or SOS signals, or anything shows up. There's usually something on the Space Police frequencies, if nothing else.
There's not much of note coming through, which is already unfortunate, but there is something new with Jaguar- something about this is unsettling him. Is it the quiet?
No.
His mind keeps focusing on it, for some reason. Not the quiet, but the noise between each station. It's harsh on his ears. Radio static.
His breath hitches, but he manages to keep somewhat calm. He isn't sure why this is going on, but he's close to the highest frequency his current setup can process. Then, he can get a drink of water, and maybe watch some TV instead. He swallows his anxiety and scans the last few.
He usually goes through the frequencies three or four times in a row, just to make sure he isn't missing anything, but it doesn't seem as good an idea right now. He'll try again later, surely. And his earpiece does a better job of filtering the garbage, anyway.
Jaguar places his earpiece in his ear and gets up from the pilot's seat. Still, that strange feeling sticks around. Still, he can't understand why his usual activities are bothering him all of the sudden.
Water and a snack is in order. Can't do a lot when he's on an empty stomach.
After he's done, he heads to his room for his much-needed break. Sometimes, he'd come in here and find something to dance along to on TV, but since the incident a couple weeks ago, he hasn't gotten around to it.
So, it's back to flipping channels, in a different medium this time.
Everything should be back up, right? The stations who were attacked by Purge got most of their equipment back during cleanup.
Not much is appealing to him so far, so he goes back to the beginning of the channel list to try again. Channel 1,
STATIC-
"AAAARGH-"
The TV remote hits the ground and his hands fly to his ears in an attempt to block the noise. He sits forward on the couch, curling up as best he can in his current position. The usual Jaguar would have just skipped it and moved on. The current Jaguar's senses have been hijacked by terror.
There's also something new - a memory he didn't know he had.
This was the last thing he heard before he woke up surrounded by Ulala and the others. When he was attacked by Purge after heading out to check a strange signal. Nothing but static. Flooding his ears and his head, making it hard to think-
Gloved hands touch his shoulder and snap him back to reality. He flinches away from them, but realizes - they belong to one of his crewmates. They must've heard him yell and came running, probably to make sure he wasn't getting kidnapped again or something. On his own ship.
Jaguar lets out a shaky breath, sitting back against the couch and uncovering his ears. The noise is gone. Someone turned the TV off while he wasn't paying attention.
"...think you need to take the rest of today? ...Boss?"
Jaguar glances at them, hesitating for a moment. He never does this, either.
But he nods.