[hatch log] +1, +2, +3, ...+4?

[onemind]

CHARACTERS: All
WHERE: The Station + Concordia
WHEN: DAY :35 - :36
SUMMARY: Another hatch occurs on the Station; new hosts arrive on Concordia and make their way to Bearings - along with a special guest.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary.

YOU WAKE UP and you will never be the person you were a moment ago. --No. Not a moment. It's been a while, hasn't it? Something feels different. You know intuitively that you've been unconscious for more than just a blink of the eye.

Which might explain how you ended up here: lying in a small faintly hexagonal chamber, a gentle white light emanating from the surrounding walls. It might also explain why any injuries you might have experienced immediately before your escape are also well on their way to being healed. There's something strangely peaceful about waking up here and that feeling persists as you find the tube running from the base of your neck to the compartment's rear wall. But when you disconnect the tube-- Things get loud. A wave of emotion fills the void. Fear, uncertainty, relief, a sense of purpose or loneliness or anxiety; maybe some of these emotions are yours, but they can't all be. After the initial sensory overload, the mental buzz elongates: stretches out into a murmur like the sound of a party behind a closed door.

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. Drop down the ladder to the floor of the Nesting Deck and you’ll find you’re not alone - and that those sounds in your head are louder. Other people’s thoughts swim up: some of them might seem clear, but most of them are a jumbled mess. Every single person here feels like someone you should be familiar with, someone you somehow know. They might look like strangers, but there's something about them that's absolutely vital on a cellular level.

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 your brood members, 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 plans are being put into motion. Stealth missions are being plotted, espionage-laden ploys are being quietly organized, and somewhere Sam Alexander is probably puking into a bucket. If you aren't following someone suspicious - well, maybe you should be? It definitely seems to be in vogue.

But it can't all be derring-do and covert operations; early on Day 35, Carata disappears. Nirad says she's gone to the Station. "I don't know how many more times we'll be able to do this. Someone's going to notice the ship and start asking questions." And maybe some of those questions might lead someone their way. After all, they haven't exactly been keeping a low profile have they?

     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, the rest of your brood is waiting for you.

     IN CONCORDIA
AS NIGHT FALLS IN CONCORDIA, the transport drops into atmosphere and lands in an gutted strip of an industrial waste facility. Once everyone's disembarked, the transport lifts off of its own volition and winks out of sight as its stealth routines come back online. A few minutes later, a transport van arrives being driven by a stoic android. Carata and the other new hosts pile in. It's a long drive to the Bearings Apartment Block, but it feels undeniably like home when they finally reach the Level 13 living space. New hosts are invited to make themselves comfortable. There are as of yet unclaimed rooms, each of which features a customizable digital display wall (pick your color or wallpaper!); there's a fully stocked kitchen (if someone took time to do the grocery shopping) and a great view overlooking Beta Block from the common room. Get familiar with the other hosts, take a well deserved nap or--

     JUST KIDDING.
In the excitement of new hosts arriving, it might be easy to miss it when the powerlift drops back to the lobby a few hours after the arrival of the new hosts. But it's impossible to overlook the android that arrives on Level 13 when it returns. It's stripped down to its most basic parts: a metallic skeleton with a featureless face plate and bright blue ocular inputs, sparks flashing through its internal synthetic viscera like firing synapses.

It looks like a nightmare.

Its jaw unhinges: "I'm looking for Sim Anderson," it says and then abruptly powers down.

---

((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. Any threads on Concordia can be open to both new and old hosts!

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

[quivers]

[ The worst thing about coming to this place is having to fill in a thousand blanks. Kate's instincts are always to know and back home, there were always plenty of ways to work around finding out what she needed to know. With a mix of high level sources, plenty of media access, and her ace detective skills, Kate knew a little bit of everything and everyone if she bothered to look.

Here, it didn't come as easy. Even if she has experience in space, it didn't extend to worlds like this, where everything ran by a completely different set of rules.

And now with the chaos — gathering it seemed like a reach. Which is why the girl's approach is a huge relief. ]

Oh, hey, uh. [ Yeah, where to begin. How about everything? ] What's the deal with the robot? Why's everyone flipping out on him asking for Sims?

[adamance]

It's less the request and more the fear that we might be tracked to our current home. [Lexa knows that this final word would upset most people, but she's hardly interested in having heart-to-hearts with the majority of the Hosts to tell them that they will never see their homes again. Doing that with Bellamy had been one thing. He's hers, and therefore he needed to know what he unwittingly left behind. (The same way she did.) But others? For others, she cares little about their connection to home, but assumes that most people will have a stronger bond than not.

The ones who don't are more likely to slip away further and further into the Nest, and that makes them even less of her concern.]

There were two bombings recently. We were caught in the latter one. If we continue to gain attention, we might not be able to complete our mission.

[quivers]

[ Home is definitely an interesting word in her book. If this girl wants to see it that way, she's hardly gonna judge her on it, but Kate's far from even thinking it on account of barely even getting used to the setting within just a few hours. She's far from even considering it as an option right now.

But the word doesn't draw her as much when there's only things spoken that bear a bit more intrigue. ] So you think we're being compromised? [ Well, that's one way to start her new life. ]

Anybody suspect a spy in our midst or does the whole mental link keep that from being a thing? Unless they're really good, which hey, totally possible. What about the Sims guy?

[adamance]

Sims is Sam Anders. [An odd choice of name, but it serves its purpose. She begins there because it's undoubtedly the easiest place to start. Some part of Lexa does truly pity all the newcomers. Just as Bruce could not reverse the mistakes he had arrived to, it is the same for these people.]

It would be hard to be a spy, and if anyone chose to compromise the mission, it'd be obvious. [A beat—her words hang in the air, emotion seemingly nonexistent within her expression. Her eyes are cool, half-lidded as she dictates this. At least this woman cares to ask questions rather than proceed to make half-baked suggestions like Mara Jade. It already earns her a few brownie points in Lexa's eyes.]

But we've compromised the mission just the same. We've gained the eye of the wrong people, weren't subtle, and now have to move forward assuming that they will learn that we aren't who we say we are. Fortunately, no one is likely to assume that we're outsiders. [Unless someone messes that up. There's a hint of agitation in the link, but nothing more. Lexa can't keep everyone on leashes even if she really would like to.

Well, or at least teach them discipline which would be a leash on its own.]

[quivers]

Okay so, Sam. Where does he fit into all of this? What makes him so special among the rest of us? This isn't some Chosen One via Matrix ordeal, is it? Because so far, that's totally the weird vibe I'm getting here.

[ Kate, does this look like a sort of person who'd even know what you're talking about?

Unfortunately, or fortunately, there's only about a hundred more questions that come from this girl's answer. Good thing for Kate, she's used to jumping head on in the middle of things without much of a forewarning. Mostly through the pestering of interrogation, but that's one way to get things done.

There's no excited vibe from this girl, looking more like all business and very little play, but maybe that's just what she was looking for right now. ]

Right. I thought so, with the spy thing. But, ah, are you sure about no one making assumptions about us being outsiders? [ She gives a wave of a hand, gesturing to the room. ] Have you seen the motley crew we've thrown together?

[adamance]

People are very capable of filling in the blanks when the obvious answer is impossible to grasp. [This is to the latter statement, and it feels important to address it first. Lexa had a difficult time grasping someone like Ahsoka, but she's seen some of the ways that people alter themselves in this world. Most are more subtle about it, but not all, especially in Subspace.

She knows that's part of why Ahsoka had hid there, or that's what she's gleamed. (The two are hardly close.)]

Sam isn't special to us. [Her phrasing is careful: she knows that he's a significant member of his people, especially if he had a choice of being "done" at some point. She doesn't know everything, but she knows enough.] He's able to access and communicate with technology. In a world like this, his talent is important. Quite a few of us aren't familiar with most of what's available here. [Spoken as if she's one of the "us."]