[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

[adamance]

[Rey: meet immovable object. Once Lexa has set her mind to something, she tends not to be easily swayed. When Rey insists on moving around her as if she is no one (a great insult that she sees as an insult, even if she's far from a position of command as a Host), she only raises her hand, clamping down on her shoulder to hold her in place. Moving with purpose like that isn't a problem. It's that it seems as if she knows where she's headed.

And if that's the case, Lexa wants to know. Part of it is just because she feels as if she's entitled to know (an issue with Lexa), and part of it is because if she is headed somewhere, there are other Hosts she may be seeking. One of those Hosts is in her brood (Ahsoka), and the other is ... like a feral individual, one whose violence she's aware of even if she's never seen it or felt it personally. And now, she has a grasp of exactly what he's capable of.]

Do you even know where you're going? [She could ask further questions, but she won't. Her hand stilling her should be enough of a statement on its own.]

[sensitively]

[ There's no insult intended, simply Rey's own brand of obstinacy — one so deeply-rooted that it had enabled her to survive and in fact thrive in the wasteland she'd grown up in.

But that hand clamping down on her shoulder, restraining her, sits even less well than with Lexa blocking her path, and roughly Rey attempts to shrug away from the touch. ]

I don't see why it's your concern, [ she seethes, head down and brow furrowed. ] I'll take care of it.

[adamance]

[While Lexa's grip isn't strengthened by some supernatural skill, her type of symbiote allows her some extra physical ability, which she utilizes now to be difficult. It comes easily to her, which is especially apparent given the lack of expression she continues to have.]

What are you taking care of? You've only just arrived. [Lexa isn't going to preach about how they are all her concern because she doesn't want them to mess up. That little lecture can wait, unless it proves necessary.]

[sensitively]

— I don't know! [ The response comes out far too riled and agitated, given the short amount of time she's been here and how little Lexa is actually pushing her, but the gnawing feeling in her head — a sensation of a buzzing in her blood — won't abate. If anything it grows stronger, the more time she spends in Concordia.

Add to that the frustration that she can't simply shrug the other woman off, despite being no helpless waif herself, and Rey's simmering irritation flashes to a quick boiling point. ] All I know is, since the moment I've stepped off of the transport to this place, something's been in my head, and I'm determined to find out who or what it is.

[adamance]

It's likely that someone has recognized you, and instead of seeking out help, you're angry at strangers offering you assistance. [Not that Lexa is doing it politely, but "politeness" is a noun that is often outside of her reach. She feels no need to hide things under niceties when it means she can sugarcoat her words at other moments and seem as if she's finally being decent. It's how she approaches diplomacy, especially coming from a world where strength is measured by how visibly straightforward an individual can seem to be at times.]

Have you ever experienced it before?

[sensitively]

[ Fortunately — or perhaps unfortunately — for Lexa, Rey has about zero experience with politeness and niceties herself, arbitrarily choosing where and when to express them, so she doesn't as much take offense to Lexa's blunt straightforwardness as she does the frustration in herself that it elicits. ]

If I needed assistance, I'd ask for it. [ Lexa probably already knows the true answer, underneath the false one — no, she wouldn't.

But at the question, Rey is sufficiently distracted from her bristling anger and instead looks momentarily inward. ] ...I have, I think. It feels... [ she trails off uncertainly, her posture relaxing as she does under the other woman's grip. ]

It feels as though if I don't confront whatever it is, I won't be able to forgive myself.

[adamance]

I don't know that I trust your judgment in that matter. [Blunt and to the point, but Lexa has little need for more trouble appearing in the Nest. Ren and Ilde are bad enough, and there are others who seem to be willing to show themselves as problems. (It's odd to think that Bellamy is less of a problem than others, that she can at least rely on him to be himself.)]

Don't cause problems for the rest of us. Busting in here and doing just that won't do. It will bring consequences to everyone else, and none of us want that.

[That is and has been Lexa's biggest concern about everyone. Shaming them into being less difficult is ... easier than trying to resist the pull of the Nest to kill off the problems.]

[sensitively]

[ Blunt is one thing, but this woman seems determined to believe that Rey is going to cause problems somehow. Not just that, but asking her to ignore this pulse, this blinding, maddening beacon in her head, is downright impossible.

She scoffs, impatiently. ]

You can judge me all you like, but this doesn't concern you, and I won't bring 'consequences' to everyone else. Whatever this is, I'll keep it to myself.