[hatch log] the stealth ship's running out of fuel

[onemind]

CHARACTERS: All
WHERE: The Station + Concordia
WHEN: DAY :29 - :30
SUMMARY: A new brood hatches; two new hosts arrive in Concordia.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary.

YOU WAKE UP. Something is different - something unnamable, but palpable. You aren't the same person you were the last time you were aware of yourself.

You might not know it right away, though. What you do know: you're in a just slightly claustrophobic compartment. A gentle white light diffuses from the top panel. You're wearing the clothes you remember from wherever you came from. You feel... good - regardless of what condition you might have been in before you came to this place. 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. Lastly, there’s a faint pinch at the base of your skull. Reach back to it and there's a small cable connected to the base of your neck and running back into the rear wall of the compartment. Disconnect it. Then it’s not so quiet anymore. Wherever here is, you aren't alone. You can feel that in your head: something big taking up space.

Welcome to Station 72, Mara and Murphy. All new hosts will have one day aboard the Station before being whisked off to Concordia to join the others. Get to know one another, ask the guardians of the Station - Prince and Cathaway - any burning questions you might have, explore Station 72. At the end of the day, a slick stealth shuttle will arrive in the hangar to take you to Concordia.

The pilot of the craft of a young man who buzzes across the fresh mental connection. It's loud enough to be irritating; he apologizes for it a few times during the trip through the pieces of the multiverse, as the ship pops into existence over the planet, and descends into the bustling inner city of Concordia in the dark hours of the morning on DAY 30. Nirad lands the stealth craft in a garden district; once you've disembarked, the ship reverts to an autopilot sequence and lifts off of it's own accord.

From there, it's just a short tram ride to the Bearings Apartment block building. The hosts, Nirad explains, have rented out Level 13. There are still some empty rooms there if you want one (you probably want one). That said-- if you don't want to go to Bearings and meet your new family comrades in arms ...friends...?

No one's stopping you. But some of them might come looking.

---

((OOC Notes: This is a mini-hatch log for Mara Jade and John Murphy; on-Station prompts should be closed to either one another or Station NPCs, but Concordia prompts may be open to everyone.

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

[snaphiss]

[Now that she's noticed the disturbance, this cloying pressure in her mind, she can't stop noticing it. How did she live with this for years? Where is it coming from? Frustration and worry clouds her mind, gnawing uncontrolled through the link she shares with every member of the Nest. The only outward sign is the way her hands have balled slightly into fists.]

It's a clever move. You sound safe enough- what have you been able to gather? Information or contacts?

[erbier]

[ A small nod. Ilde is not such a conscious observer as Mara is, she reacts to things in a more subconscious and instinctual way, and the other woman's mounting discomfort is almost a vibration in the air, certainly a sensation within the psychic landscape they all share. She answers carefully first, ]

I have a group of admirers, mainly young people from the Subspace. They enjoy my attention and introduce me to those they find important within the Underground. There is a female hacker, particularly, that I think may speak to me if I am able to win her over.

[ But then Ilde inquires, ]

Have you spent much time at the Bearings, and met the others? Your brood?

[ The thought occurs to her that Mara might be the only member of her brood right now. ]

[snaphiss]

You should focus on that. [The female hacker.]

[At the mention of her brood, Mara shakes her head, sneering. Finally, a place to focus all of this pent up anger and anxiety.] That's hardly relevant. More importantly...

[She focuses again, and the sense of familiarity floods over her once more. It must be the Force. She's confused because of this other, ridiculous connection in her mind.] Something is here. Stay calm. [She takes a breath, and begins focusing once more. Where is it coming from?]

[erbier]

[ She does as she's told, but... A little pinch appears between her brows. She watches Mara with concern, and after just enough silence that she feels nothing is going to happen she interrupts, ]

You should. You should be amongst the others.

[snaphiss]

No. [She says, simply and firmly, as though that solves the matter definitively.]

[So Mara clears her mind, and focuses on the sense of darkness emanating from... somewhere nearby. She knows it's nearby. What is it?] Do you feel it? Wait- [She focuses on the feeling of darkness in the Force, in her mind, and tries to send it to Ilde.]

[Darkness and service, the pressure of judgement, the knowledge that failure is loss of safety, loss of prestige and power and worth, voice, words commanding and enigmatic-] No. [Her voice is cold.] Ignore that. Nevermind.

[erbier]

[ Ilde inhales sharply, her eyes widening. She knows that voice. It rips into the empty place where Anakin Skywalker no longer resides in her brood -- He is dead now, he is gone, and his death is like a puncture wound in her throat. The darkness, the Force. She knows those things as well, she is tied even more deeply to Kylo Ren.

And the reason for those ties? Dreus. Palpatine. Snoke. These mighty figures with their dark pressure, their mind control, warping the young with their whispers.

Ilde stares at Mara deeply with her big blue eyes, and rather than obey the command to ignore that, she instead opens up. She lets everything that is similar about what Mara is showing her resonate. ]

( Mara. )

[ Her presence in the mental link comes with a faint perfume, both pretty and floral as well as smokey, decaying. ]

( You are not the only one. )

[snaphiss]

[Mara recoils physically, leaning back in her chair, and she tries to put a stopper on the mental link as well, but she doesn't have the training. All her instincts are for the Force, but the Force isn't like the Nest, and the wires keep crossing and strangling her in the process.]

[So try as she might to avoid any sense of sameness with these people, any sense of comfort in captivity, the flood of memory washes over her. The suggestion of sameness rankles, and skepticism meets Ilde's suggestion in the middle.]

( What are you trying to pull? ) [Was this her angle all along? It was a trap after all, wasn't it?]

[erbier]

[ Ilde offers her hand rather than presuming to touch, she can see enough of Mara's personality to expect it will be rejected, but she will try all the same. However, she knows some find the physical touch grounding when the inner world is overwhelming. ]

( Mara. )

[ Her name echoes in the space between them, an entreaty filled with sincerity. ]

( Please. )

[ Please feel where all these edges overlap. The worth and purpose dictated by a terrifying man with a terrible charisma, something which wormed past rationality and incapacitated resistance. The pain and emptiness when that despot and his decrees are lost.

Who am I, without it...

The loss of control. The longing for the power to take it back. The paranoia and anxiety that prickles under the surface of that insecurity.

Ilde knows all of this, and from her there are ties to others within the Hive who are bonded together over these pains. This incompleteness. This shadow. ]

( Hear me. )

[ It is very clear in this moment that Ilde has so much more experience with the symbiote's telepathy, she wields it with such grace. ]

[snaphiss]

[The emotions come flooding back with a crippling weight. The agony of the Emperor's death, the weariness of escaping Imperial prison, the knowledge that she was nothing to anyone, all of it floods back, rising in her throat like bile. She's overcome this. She's not back there-]

[No. She isn't. When she was there, the girl wasn't. As Mara feels the telepathy swarming around her with more cogency, she begins to form an image beside the bitterness and the paranoia. Somehow, this girl has stitched herself into the center of those feelings, that past, the screaming of a dying star.]

[Mara doesn't understand it intellectually, she's still too new at this and too inherently stubborn to innately take to the vulnerability of this act. But on an emotional level, something changes. There's a possibility of... something. She isn't sure what, doesn't know what it's called, but she's sure if she doesn't open herself to it, she'll never figure out what it is.]

( I hear you. ) [In her mind, the Emperor's voice echoes, hear me, Mara Jade...] ( What do you want? )

[erbier]

[ Such an inflexible question. It almost makes Ilde smile, but she is focused inward, her expression does not change, there is merely a faint sense of warmth where their thoughts touch. An emotion from beneath her usual carefully curated chill. ]

( You do not have to be alone. )

[snaphiss]

( Stop telling me what to be! ) [It would be thunderous, full of rage, but the sense of warmth coming through the connection stops her. The anger is still there, but it's contained, controlled in her mind.]

[It reflects, echoing through her mind because of that similarity, that bridge between them. Mara can't tell if it's synthetic or true, but it's there. She frowns, reaching for her temple, and straightens in her chair. When had she become so hunched over.]

[She looks to Ilde with a hard expression. Her voice is strained and rough.] Tell me. No metaphors or pretty words. Tell me what you mean.

[erbier]

[ This reminds her so much of when she had attempted to greet Rey. So demanding. So determined for a tidy answer... ]

I do not intend to be cryptic. Part of our existence now defies words. It will all come with time, and being among those who understand what you are experiencing will help you as you learn.

[snaphiss]

[Mara narrows her eyes.] Very esoteric. You should give fortunes.

[Her anger simmers, though, rather than a full roaring boil. She brushes a stray strand of hair from her brow.] Whether or not I'm alone is not your concern.

[erbier]

It is.

[ She rejects that notion, immediately and without hesitation. ]

You are part of our whole.

[snaphiss]

[At that, Mara groans and puts her head in her hand. She looks up at Ilde from between her fingers.] Don't tell me you already bought what they're selling.

[She'd gotten a powerful sense from the girl, something like intelligence.]

[erbier]

It is the way of the symbiote. Denial will not change that.

[ And in fact, those who resisted the pull too defiantly had a nasty habit of dying. ]

[snaphiss]

I don't deny anything. But why believe it so easily? [She assumes anyone who has agreed hasn't struggled at all, a bias learned from a lifetime of restless fighting.]

[erbier]

[ So full of such strange questions. What was there to disbelieve? The Nest is a reality, the ties of the brood are binding. Then again, she is a superstitious girl, used to having reality dictated for her: she had never stopped to question it. Then again, she was grateful to be alive in a way that defied the fatalism of her life's devotions... ]

Hm. I awoke with almost my entire brood. It became clear very quickly that we belonged to one another. The one who resisted us, Anakin, is the one who is dead now. I wonder if it might have been different, had he opened up to us more.

[snaphiss]

[She frowns, curious. Do the higher members of the Nest kill dissenters?] How did he die?

[Tactless, probably. She's never known what to do in these situations, and prepares herself for unwelcome grief to flood their bond.]

[erbier]

We were present at the Regal Street Gaming Parlor when it was bombed. He and Ren both have some second sense for such things, but neither of them were prepared... I wonder, if Anakin had treated us as companions rather than distractions, if he might have felt it. I wonder, if he had taken the time to train his symbiote, that it might have saved him.

[ These are what ifs, of course, but... she wonders. ]

[snaphiss]

[Mara considers that.] You could also say 'if only he'd trained more in bomb detection'. It's not comparable.

[She sits back, wondering how to make herself clear. It doesn't occur to her that she could open herself up, rely on the link to force her feelings through.]

I don't intend to agree simply to appease them, or save my skin. If they want to win me over, they had better put in effort.

[erbier]

We have no leaders. There is no one who will force you to subscribe. I merely suggest it, it will ease your way.

[ But, hey, if you don't want it to be easy... There is a shrug implied. ]

In the end, it is your decision. The Hive is not so restrictive as to deny you that.

[snaphiss]

There's always someone running the show, Ilde. [It's as close as she gets to free advice. There's a strange sense of familiarity for the girl that makes Mara disappointed in the idea that she's just rolled over and agreed with these people.] Just because they tell you something doesn't mean it's true.

[erbier]

[ In a way, Ilde finds that a difficult concept to wrap her mind around. Her world's history and all of its learnings had been destroyed, there was nothing to go on except for what one was told. Dreus had kept a small library of books, but they were an eclectic and meaningless set of concepts that did not teach her anything that caused her to question him...

She looks at Mara sadly, aware of that disappointment, and perhaps somewhat disappointed in herself? ]

There is something, which sends our directives. My broodmate attempted to reach out past our Nest and touch it, but none of us are... strong enough to pierce that veil, not yet.

[snaphiss]

[For her part, Mara assumes Ilde is from a desert planet too backward to preach these concepts. That explained Skywalker, after all.]

And who does that benefit? [Mara's suspicions nature runs too deep for her to accept that as a given.] The only way to communicate with this great power is to assimilate, to play into its hand. It doesn't have to answer questions until it's already got what it wants.