[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

[vocalis]

[ Mental shields can only block out so much when a mind is already fractured. The onslaught of Sam's singularity with Bellamy's added intrusion is enough to chip away at the walls surrounding Aoba's consciousness, even after Lexa comes to break it up. Like Bellamy he wants to help, wants to reach out to both of them the way he did when his heart lurched for injured android in their doorway, but Nathan and Murphy are voices of reason in a panicked atmosphere. What more can anyone do for either of them while Sam is like this? Besides, there's something else-]

S-sam... how much longer?

[ He might not be heard or even understood right now, but there's a migraine coming on as a result of all the commotion. One he can't hold back on sharing with the class for very long. ]

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ Sam's focus is pretty much entirely on keeping his walls up, on projecting out calm to anyone who wants it. But that doesn't mean he doesn't take the time to check in with his brood, and with Clint and Shiro and -

All right, no, not Bellamy, because Bellamy's off doing who the hell knows what, touching Anders like that, and Steve's cut off don't only reinforces Sam's opinion that it's probably a terrible idea. And it goes about as well as Sam'd expected, although he stays the hell out of it until Bellamy's friends are pulling him away and talking about getting his wrist fixed.

He'd been staying a reasonable distance away from Anders, but now he heads in closer to try to get the attention of Bellamy and those around him. ]

Bellamy. Come here, man, I can heal it.

[onemind]

[Something routes through then: a thousand small pieces clicking into place as some pressure is released. A trigger pulls or a vent releases. The electrical crackle flickers through the synthetic guts of the android, hums through the plating and sizzles under fingers before the flash consolidates.

Regulates.

Flash. Hold. Flash. Hold. Flash--

The skeletal mass of the android twitches - jerks. The light behind its occular inputs comes online. It's painfully bright without the synthetic gel eyeball over it, the eyelids. A grinding noise whirs up from behind the ribs then that too winds down and evens out.

A long moment of just metallic noise, then it melds into:]

Where...am... [click click click] I?

[frakkincylons]

[ after bellamy's hand jerks free, sam's slowly drops his back down to the android's skull, body bending forward, as if he's some kind of deflating, or zeroing in. there's no focus on anything present in the room in his eyes, so he isn't looking at anything. the murmured litany goes on, voice a bit more hushed. ]

Hold, the remedy is worse than the disease. [ Possibly a note to Aoba and his migraine, possibly just Sam being weird. But he's almost done, it hurts but it's for the better. ] Upper senses, repair ordered relay to zero zero zero zero and purge corruption, come in on the low tide - all the forgotten children and all the forgotten faces, a language to seek through the eons, through maker and maker again, old eyes watch the cycle, the cycle, the cycle. Structural integrity of cranial nodes restored, skeletal fractures sealing in seven, six, five pillars with gospel carved are dried bones of faith, whispers of souls passed. New paragraph. Formatting, the mind is it's own place, conceptualized complex ideas in limiting words, the human brain is an electrical grid, binds the thoughts in tight sheaves in the field. All these things at once and many more, end of line.

[ The android starts to jerk to life again, in slow, staggered steps - flash, hold, flash, hold. Sam goes on, and seems to relax a bit, if you can really call any of what's going on right now relaxing, but some things he rambles out now, you may have heard from him before if you've seen him do this here, repeated. some only sam would really know the root of, whispers of his own world and a life he's left behind. ] Flickering flame and astral dust scattered through the heavens in death's wake the tools of creation, all that is was not, all that is not will be. Sensory input at base levels, optimized, spark shot into gasoline. The recipe for life everlasting requires the slaying of time, of significance, secrets of Lazarus scattered to the cosmic winds. Eternity engraved in code to worship at the temple's new pillars in networked security. Only the end makes them whole. A star eyed son, a prophet in the counting house, a hand made of scars. The shepherd wears a crown of diamonds.

[ Another set of things repeated from before, just as the droid comes back online, all metallic clicking and ungraceful waking, asking where it is. Unfortunately, Sam isn't really together enough to give a clear, verbal answer, but the android will be feeling a touch of something nurturing and warm with reassurance from his presence within it's mind, fond in the way parents and caretakers are, hands almost gentle on the metal. ]

To have her please, just one day wake, be spared the pain that comes from a dark and laughing reign. [ Something else from home, if you're paying very close attention, it's almost a tiny tiny bit sing-song. ] Calm. Cease countdown, cease countdown. Each man is questioned by life, he can only answer to life by answering for his own life. Core update complete. Thank you, thank you. Functions offline in three, two, one--

[ and then Sam does what he always does at the end of these little trances: he goes limp and passes right the fuck out. if one of his broodmates or someone experienced with this could reassure the rest of the room that he isn't dead or a vegetable, that'd be great. ]

[decommission]

[ Each mind adds velocity to the storm. Bellamy's broke free, Lexa with him, drops in a bucket when removed from Sam's onslaught. The string of words and phrases don't make much sense to Steve in the moment (five years old and sitting next to his mother on a wooden bench, trying to pick out words printed on thin, fingerprint marked pages). The hair at his temples is damp with sweat, his concentration elsewhere. He doesn't register the countdown.

Sam's on the floor, Steve's got enough control of his legs again that he shifts over to where his broodmate drops to the floor, kneeling next to him.

The concern resonating from him isn't that of immediate fear for Sam's life. The guy's breathing, just unconscious. ]

The Bearings. [ Answer to the question. His gaze darts from Sam, to android he resuscitated, to the others still standing nearby. ]

[batmotif]

[The onrush of Sam's interfacing beats down on the walls of Bruce's mental fortitude, unlike anything he's yet experienced, and when the storm clears it's almost as if he's been released from a building pressure. It would be more of a relief if not for the utter mess before him.

Sam passed out (the reaction of those who know him is not severe enough for Bruce to believe it's worse than that), a broodmate injured (the nerves in his wrist scream about hairline fractures, a pain that's been borrowed via mental link), the android clicking back to life, a swirl of both confusion and anticipation hanging in the air.

Bruce steps forward, concern knitting his brows together, his mouth pressed into a thin frown. He looks at the android, now active, and hopes that it's functionally cognizant enough to answer a simple question:]

What's the meaning of all this?

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ Well, it didn't explode, so Sam guesses that's one point in their favor. And Anders had gotten it to wake back up - but Sam's not one hundred percent sure that's a good thing, especially since now Anders is the one out.

Honestly, Sam isn't exactly sure what the hell happened, but he knows his symbiote ability works to heal as well as to wake people the hell up. And right about now, he'd really rather Anders be up and dealing with their intruder. ]

Gimme a sec and you can ask Sam what the hell.

[ He crouches down on Anders' other side, glancing over at Steve. ] Gotta show off my party trick, huh?

[ There's a moment as he sends out a heads up to his brood and Clint what he's doing, just in case, and then he sets his hand down on Sam Anders' shoulder. There's a flash of warmth as his symbiote ability kicks in, and he tries to focus on that - before pain flares in his mind as he heals Anders.

And then Sam's down, mind going blank as he slumps into unconsciousness. ]

[headinjuries]

[ Sam knows what that means - the other Sam has done it to him, albeit not so...dramatically, and the mental heads up only confirms it. So he gets what the intention is, but still - ]

Oh, come on, dude!

[ He ducks under someone's arm to slip forward and grab Sam's arm. ]

You know I'm the worst person to drag you back to bed.

[ Being annoyed is easier than being worried, okay. ]

[decommission]

[ He glances back at Sam Wilson, letting out a tired huff at the joke. Look, he's not the guy to stop you, but -

welp

With the third Sam joining in, Steve shifts a bit to get on that side of things, pulling one of Wilson's arms around his own shoulders to help get him back on his feet. They can move him to the sofa. He shouldn't be down that long, at least. ] C'mon -

[frakkincylons]

[ welp, this has been a Team Sam clusterfuck, and while Sam the Eldest, aka First Sam aka RoboSam aka Anders, would normally have been out for about the time he spent in his trance, allowing the symbiote to basically put all the scattered pieces of his mind back together, he's popping back up in only a third or so of the time. were he back home, doing this would've meant sam's sanity irreversibly shattered, the ability given to him by the symbiote simply being an allowance to slip in and out of this state, only at the cost of his memory being botched.

with Sam Wilson's added boost to healing, it helps the symbiote repair his mind from the damage the hybrid state inflicts, and rather than blinking awake slowly, he's more jolting into consciousness, babbling a bit of nonsense as his eyes blink rapidly - like being dumped into an ice bath as a morning wake up call. ] Rabbits and falcons out of a hat-- What? I'm good, I'm here. ...What?

[ what.

oh.

right.

A quick glance to his side, he spots Wilson, blinking at him a bit owlishly, confused, but understanding that he'd woken him up in some way. he isn't hurt, they'd all know if he was hurt, so Anders looks back to the droid. right. right. ]

Frak. [ he whispers, and crawls upright to scamper over to his side again, leaning over to peer at the android too bright eyes, a hand on the skeletal structure of his shoulder, and after a breathless, tense moment, he ventures to guess, in a quiet whisper - ] ...Kellix?

[onemind]

[There's an undeniable sturdiness to the hard lines of the android's skeletal structure even like this, stripped of everything else and prone on the semi-gloss floor of the Bearings. His occular inputs adjust, swiveling on their ball bearing base with a soft mechanical whirr; it's the kind of blatantly inorganic noise the housing of the android's body usually muffles.

He doesn't blink because he's incapable of it. He doesn't raise his head from the floor for the moment either, but he believes he might be able to.]

Yes correct. [A pause. Processing.] I'm sorry I frightened you.