[hatch log] pull plug, enter multiverse

[onemind]

CHARACTERS: All
WHERE: The Station + Concordia
WHEN: DAY :025 - :026
SUMMARY: Somewhere deep in Station 72, a hatch happens; new hosts arrive on Concordia.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary.

YOU WAKE UP and in a very real sense you are born again. You’re not the same person you were the last time your eyes were open. You’ll never be that person again - well, except for you, Jessica Jones. You know how this part goes, don’t you?

You might not know it right away, though. What you do know is that you’re laying down in a place very different than you were before. The walls angle around you, claustrophobic, and they emit a gentle white light that’s faint enough not to hurt your freshly opened eyes. For a moment you feel fine even if you didn’t before you went under. Whatever injuries you might have had, whatever agony you may have been experiencing, whatever fear dogged your heels, they’re all gone. It’s quiet. When you’re conscious enough to take stock of anything beyond that, you realize that you’re wearing your own clothes and that there’s a faint pinch at the base of your skull - notable as the only discomfort you feel. Reach up, feel along the tube running from the base of your neck to the compartment’s back wall. It pulls free without much fuss.

Then it’s not so quiet anymore. There’s the sensation of something more, something louder, something both big and broad and something intimately near to you. There’s the realization that you aren’t alone, that you won’t ever be alone again. You belong here. This is as correct as the murmur of something like muffled voices in the back of your head is somehow familiar, or how the press of emotion that sweeps over you now doesn’t necessarily belong to you but doesn’t feel out of place either.

You can sit up - barely -, and shift out of the pod. There’s a ladder at your feet, and a little cubby just before it with anything you brought with you, as well as a set of crisp, loose-fitting white clothes; while your injuries are healed, whatever you’re wearing is in the exact state it was before. You can hear a sound in the back of your head, a faint buzzing, something like distant waves or the murmur of a party behind a door. Drop down the ladder to the floor of the Nesting Deck and you’ll find you’re not alone - and the those sounds in your head are louder. Other people’s thoughts swim up: some of them seem clear, most of them are a jumbled mess. Some of these people call to you - their voices are louder, their feelings more clear, they feel right. Further, there’s an awareness that there are others like you - not here, not close, but somewhere: an indelible tug at the back of your mind.

Welcome to Station 72. All new hosts will have one day aboard the Station before being whisked off to Concordia to join the others. Get to know the other new hosts, and ask the guardians of the Station - Prince and Cathaway -, any burning questions you might have. By the time the day has passed, Carata will arrive on the hangar to collect you.



MEANWHILE IN CONCORDIA Angel slips into a coma on :025 at almost at the exact same time that some Hosts become aware of missing pieces fitting into place. Those hosts with new brood members waking up on the station will feel somewhere more complete; you might want to let everyone know you’ll be getting new roommates soon.

Everyone might be putting themselves and their broods back together in the wake of the explosion that left the nest down one host and injected everyone with renewed motivation to either find the people responsible or make sure nothing like what happened at Royal Street ever happens again. Things are progressing on multiple fronts, but on DAY 26 there’s an option to put some of those efforts on the back burner...

     ON THE STATION, the new hosts are herded onto a sleek, black brick-shaped transport. Carata, a woman young enough to almost be called a girl, carefully makes sure everyone is seated and strapped in. She’s all gentle, easy smiles and cheerful responses to any questions posed to her. When everyone’s safely aboard, the ship’s landing platform descends through the floor of the hangar. It snaps into place in the airlock and for a moment there’s a beat of perfect stillness, a shiver of anticipation. Then the transport is flung through the shaft, ejected into the wild black of space. There’s a nauseating lurch in your belly as it bursts through the delicate shell of the multiverse and snaps into real space above the blue and yellow marble of the planet Opia. Somewhere, thousands of miles below in the city of Concordia, your brood is waiting for you.

     IN CONCORDIA
IN CONCORDIA, as dark falls, Nirad announces he’s going to fetch Carata and the new hosts from their landing. Anyone’s welcome to accompany him on the hour long drive to the stealth transport’s landing zone. The rented bus - manned by that same (now very stoic) android - takes everyone to the outskirts of the industrial block. They arrive at a different parking garage just as the stealth transport drops out of the sky, shivering into sight as it touches down. The hosts on the ship step down and then the stealth transport lifts back off the rooftop and wrinkles out of sight. It’s unclear how many more time they’ll be able to get away with this.

Get your meet and greets in and stretch your legs; you have a few minutes before everyone piles into the van and takes the long drive back to the Bearings Apartment block where the hosts have rented out the entirely of Level 13. New hosts will find there are rooms there that as of yet unclaimed, and they’re free to begin making this their home in whatever ways they please. Get familiar with your new comrades, explore the city, or maybe just take a well deserved breather. Officially speaking, nothing much happens until--

     EARLY ON DAY 27

A NEW WINDOW POPS UP IN YOUR EXTRANET PANEL...

---

((OOC Notes: This is the hatch log for all new and recently returning hosts; any threads on the Station should be closed to newly awakened hosts or Station-based NPCs; a top level for Cathaway and Prince will be going live shortly. Any threads on Concordia can be open to both new and old hosts! For anything happening beyond these calendar dates, feel free to create your own logs and posts.

If you have questions about the mission specifically, direct them to the most recent calendar post HERE. You can find a more detailed overview of the hatching process HERE; you might also want to take a glance at the MISSION CONCORDIA BRIEFING. For all other questions, please hit up either the FAQ or MOD CONTACT pages.))

NAVIGATION • SETTING • FAQ • MOD CONTACT • GLOSSARY

( CODE BY WHAMBAM )

Comments

[headinjuries]

[ - oh. Oh, okay. He totally misjudged that one, didn't he? (It could be worse, he tries to keep in mind. Like, his first introduction to Kamala worse.)

Handshake. Yeah, that's easy. Piece of cake. ]

A...couple weeks? [ Now that he's done the math in his head, he blinks. Has it really been that long already? ] Before you got here, I was the newb.

[greentech]

[ Well, she can understand that. She is new and she really doesn't know what to expect yet. She adjusts the strap on her bag, trying to find something to do with her hands. She still feels awkward, even with the bond tugging at her.

Actually, that just makes her feel more awkward. ]

What, to the whole group? Or just our "brood"?

[ She makes air-quotes and everything. Why do they have to make it sound like they're some sort of weird alien bug spawn? ]

[headinjuries]

Both.

[ Because hey, why have one awkward adjustment to make when you can have two, right.

He finally opens the fridge back up and gets the eggs back out - more carefully, this time, setting them down before he goes back to rummaging through everything else. ]

It's weird to get used to. And I still wouldn't say I'm used to it.

[ Not used to it enough to feel comfortable, at least. He's functional on a day to day basis, he's getting the hang of not getting surprised or caught too off-guard by those weird moments of emotional spillover, but every time he thinks he's kind of got it, something else happens and proves that he really hasn't scratched the surface.

Stuff like Anakin dying. ]

Hey, you hungry?

[greentech]

[ Her stomach growls insistently and she flushes, a bit embarrassed. Hey, she's a growing teenager. She needs food. She clears her throat and joins him next to the fridge with a slightly sheepish smile. At least this feels a bit more normal. More like the crew she'd just been starting to bond with. ]

Are you kidding? I've been living on space too for a couple weeks. Real food sounds amazing!

[ She rummages, trying to distract herself from the murmur at the back of her mind and the louder, insistent voice and emotion that rolls off of Sam. She settles for pulling a carton of milk out and goes hunting for a glass. ]

...is it always this noisy? In our heads. Because I'm not sure I'm going to be able to sleep like this - and what happens if I start thinking too loud? I've never had to worry about that before-

[headinjuries]

It's...usually not quite this bad. It's been a pretty crappy week.

[ It's loud at the best of times, sure, but in better times most of them have better control, and less mental turmoil going on. Losing one of their own stirred up a lot of things that aren't going to settle very quickly.

If at all.

He fishes a few more things out of the fridge - cheese, something tortilla-like enough to pass, and a bottle of...some kind of sauce. God only knows what's in that one. ]

Someone showed me a trick for kind of...turning it down. I'm still not that great at it, but I can show you later. Maybe you'll get the hang of it easier.

[greentech]

[ Hey, it looks edible and like it might actually have some kind of falvor and texture difference so Pidge is all for it. She sidles around him to slip the carton back into the fridge. This conversation feels so stupidly casual. ]

That'd be great! I have enough trouble keeping my own thoughts straight - I really don't need everyone else's rattling around and getting mixed up with mine.

[ Bit late for that, though. ]

[headinjuries]

The good news is, some people are pretty good at blocking themselves out so they're not so noisy, too.

[ Sam is absolutely not one of them. ]

And I think most of us are kind of trying not to...listen too hard? It really screws with privacy but we're all in the same boat, so people try and be respectful about it.

[ Pan on the stove, eggs in the bowl...he opens up the bottle and takes a suspicious sniff. ]

[greentech]

Good. I'm not really sure how I feel about people dropping in to listen to my thoughts....

[ She could do with less noise (although apparently Sam will not bless her with said quiet). Of course, she's not that great at keeping a lid on her own thoughts. She helpfully finds a utensil and starts beating the eggs. Scramble! Right?

She leans over and joins him in giving it a sniff. ]

What do you think that stuff is?

[ Small-talk about food seems safe enough. ]

[headinjuries]

[ Small talk about food is about the most normal anything's been in the last few days. He'll gladly take it. ]

Every condiment I've run into here so far is pretty bad. This one probably smells the least bad of anything I've seen, though.

[ Worth risking it?

Whatever, he's a teenage boy, of course he'll try putting anything in his mouth at least once. He swipes a finger along the rim of the bottle to pick up a few drops, gives it a skeptical look, and then licks his finger. ]

[greentech]

[ Pidge pauses in beating the eggs to give him a long look as he goes for it. That was kinda gross, but whatever. She sets the bowl down and checks the pan. Hurry up and heat already. She glances back at him, nose wrinkled. ]

...what's the verdict?

[ Should she even bother? ]

I probably shouldn't be that picky. It's got tobe better than space goo.

[headinjuries]

[ He's a fifteen-year-old boy, gross is just part of the package. ]

It's...surprisingly okay.

[ He gives the bottle an almost disbelieving look. Everything else has been all wrong, but this is only...kind of wrong? ]

Tastes kind of like sriracha, but there's this weird note of...something, I don't know what. It's kinda out of place. Funky aftertaste. But it could pass for sriracha if you squint really hard.

[greentech]

I don't think I've ever had siracha.

[ Pidge admits this reluctantly, but at least the eggs are scrambled now. She carefully pours them into the heated pan. She's trying to reign herself in a little, but she hasn't had anything resembling Earth food for a little bit. ]

So I probably won't be able to tell the difference. Let's go for it!

[ She shoots him a broad, slightly dorky grin. ]

No guarantees about my cooking, but how hard can scrambled eggs be...?

[headinjuries]

Hey, I'm no Bobby Flay. We're even.

[ He leans over far enough to dump some of the bottle's contents into the eggs. A liberal amount, but he likes it hot. ]

It hasn't been space goo your whole life, though, right?

[ Because good God would that be a lifetime of horrors. ]

[greentech]

[ Oh, well. She'll deal with the spice if it means having real food. She sets them cooking and then turns to find plates. They have eating utensils here, right? They're not total barbarians? ]

Oh, no! I don't think I would've survived! It's just been the last couple weeks, really.

[ Although the food fight had been pretty entertaining.</small. ] It's a long story.

[headinjuries]

I think this place is made of long stories.

[ He's got one. The other Sams have them. Bucky's clearly got one even if he's not sharing it. Steve seems like he's a chapter or ten behind where Sam thought he was, but he's got one coming. Lexa, Ilde, Ren...

Everyone seems to be hauling around some kind of crazy circumstances that get weird to try and explain. ]

[greentech]

Seems like the place.

[ Pidge admits. She's still a bit wary of sharing too much with all of the new people she's meeting, even if they can get a glimpse into her head if they try hard enough. She has her reasons. So far most of them seem like decent people, though. ]

I mean, we are the kind of people who get dragged into saving the universe, right?

[headinjuries]

I was already hanging out with the Guardians of the Galaxy, I think this is the logical step up, right?

[ Well, okay, "hanging out" was more like "helped out that one time," for most of them, but he's probably about as friendly with Rocket as anyone could reasonably be expected to get with Rocket. That counts for something. ]

[greentech]

Guardians of the Galaxy? Who're they?

[ She pokes the eggs and gives them a quick stir. They're cooking up pretty fast, so they should be out of the pan any minute now. ]

Technically, I'm a Paladin of Voltron, but I'm not sure that really matters here...

[headinjuries]

They go after a lot of the cosmic-level threats in our corner of the universe. Like...there was something with Annihilus and a bug army that took out the entire Skrull empire and a bunch of Kree territory, but I didn't get a lot of the details on that one. Rocket's not really that into telling the war stories, just making new ones.

[ And...well, he was pretty sure that one was after his father's time in the Nova Corps, but it wasn't like he could just go ask, not anymore. ]

So what's Voltron?

[greentech]

That sounds... strangely familiar, actually. [ Pidge cracks a grin. Even if their only real big threat was the Galra, it's nice to know that somewhere out there there are groups of heroes dealing with similar things. Breeds a bit of good-will on her end.

She tugs the pan off of the heat and quickly gives the mostly solid eggs a quick stir. ]

Voltron? Uh... it's a big, powerful robot. Really advanced technology! It's made out of five smaller robots and I pilot one of them. I'm the Paladin for the Green Lion.

[ Because that makes sense. ]

[headinjuries]

That sounds...super anime.

[ They did that kind of thing a lot in those cartoons, right? Transforming robots, teams always had exactly five people? ]

...not that I really have room to talk or anything.

[ If her life sounds totally anime, his is some unholy combination of pulp sci-fi and telenovela. ]

[greentech]

Uh, I guess? It does feel like something out of a movie sometimes, but... it's real. And there are a lot of people out there that we were going to try and help.

[ Her voice trails off. OK, she can't get homesick for the castle or Voltron or her teammates who aren't here. She's got to pull it together. She heaves a breath and starts scraping the eggs onto a pair of plates. Tortilla-things can get heated up next. ]

I'm supposed to help a bunch of people here, but I feel like I'm letting a lot of other people down. And why do they have to hook our minds together? Can't they just let us work as a team? I mean, sure, we had some weird mental hook-ups when we were trying to work on Voltron, but it wasn't all the time-

[headinjuries]

[ He's not sure if it's just her frustration bleeding over, or the frustration he's been feeling since he got here, or maybe the one is just feeding the other, but whatever it is, it's flaring up on his end, too. Because speaking of letting people down - ]

I know I'm letting people down. I promised my little sister there was totally no way I was going to go into space and not come back, and...here I am.

[ Not after his father already had. His family didn't need to go through that again. ]

[greentech]

[ That sounds far too close to home to Katie. Although in her case, she is the sister who got left behind. She just decided that she was going to do something about her family vanishing into the depths of space. ]

You're not ketting her down. Trust me.

[ Most of her anger was aimed at the military, anyway. ]

She's probably worried, but... I don't think let down is probably the best way to describe it.

[headinjuries]

Yeah, but... [ He shrugs. ] You know how sometimes you get that something is objectively true, but you still can't make yourself feel like it is? Yeah.

[ Okay, the circumstances were far beyond his control, and he knows there's not really anything he could've done to change what happened, but...he promised. ]

Dad going AWOL was bad enough.