[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

[headinjuries]

[ He's a fifteen-year-old boy, it's his job to be gross.

But now she's got his attention. ]

I guess that's one way to put it.

[ She makes it sound a little more technical, considering he basically is the demolitions. ]

[snaphiss]

[Mara just starts walking away, toward her room in the Bearings. She's checked it several times over for listening devices or recording equipment, and is as sure as she can be that its safe. As she walks off, she sends Sam a message,]

( Follow me, and be quiet about it. )

[headinjuries]

[ Why does everyone here like the super spy ninja crap so much, honestly.

But he gets up (and turns off the not-Jerry Springer; the next person into the common area has probably done nothing to deserve that fate) and follows. ]

[snaphiss]

[Mara's room is spartan and undercoated. The windows have been blacked out, and it's lacking any real furniture beyond the bed. Mara doesn't sit on it, though; she just leans against the door frame, and waits for Sam to join her. She closes the door behind him.]

( Some... friends and I are planning to get some information on Ngozi. It would help us if her people were distracted during our visit. )

[headinjuries]

[ Do you see that sudden light in his eyes, Mara?

That's the light of a kid who's been getting way too bored with his situation lately. ]

( So. High-speed UFO kind of distraction good enough, or do you want the high-speed UFO that also blows something up version? )

[snaphiss]

[Mara feels a strange sense of satisfaction in the boy's sudden and obvious excitement. It's rare she makes people happy. She's not sure what to do with that sudden knowledge, so she sets it aside.]

( Explosions. Something that will require cleanup. The sort of thing to completely capture their attention. Can you do that? )

[headinjuries]

( They won't know what hit 'em. )

[ Literally, he's pretty sure. The space tech doesn't seem to be great here, and they don't seem to have anything like superheroes or metahumans or any of the easy explanations for the usual crap that exists back home. ]

[snaphiss]

[Mara keeps her stern expression firmly in place, but she is somewhat glad to see the boy's so enthusiastic about his assignment. It bodes well for his role in the mission.]

( There are rules, though. I have to be confident you'll follow them. )

[headinjuries]

[ Oh, this is the "no hurting civilians" part, isn't it. He's a superhero, he knows all about that stuff. ]

( Property damage only, keep people out of the line of fire? )

[snaphiss]

[She hadn't expected such a ready-- and correct-- answer. Mara nods in approval.]

( I need to know you can put on a show without hurting anyone. If there are casualties or injuries, they'll put more effort into finding the culprit. )

[One advantage of the symbiote: she can check her references.]

( Show me what you can do. ) [She taps her temple.]

[headinjuries]

[ A few images and impressions flicker past as he considers what would get the point across best - hairpin turns at rocket speed, weaving through an asteroid field without running into anything. Charging himself up with bright blue energy, flying straight into the hull of a Chitauri warship and punching a hole through to the other side. Snatching Warbringer and dragging him away from the fleet, straight into the heart of the closest star -

- maybe that's the way to go? He focuses a little harder to keep the next one clear: a crowded shopping center, another man in the Nova uniform with a terrified woman in a headlock, taunting but it's so much more exciting with an audience.

Stop it. Do you want to fight me or just hurt people?

And trading blows with him, almost too fast to follow, but the trajectory was obvious - leading away from the center of the city.

(Okay, so the part where he got thrown headfirst into the middle of a parking lot wasn't one of his prouder moments, but he's pretty sure that any show he puts on in Concordia isn't going to require him to go up against someone else tossing around Nova-level powers.) ]

[snaphiss]

[Mara doesn't show any outward sign of surprise, but when their minds are linked, it's hard to hide it. She shakes her head, trying to clear it until her thoughts are again her own. Better not to hide in her own head, then.]

I thought you were human.

[headinjuries]

I am.

[ As far as he knows, but that's a story for another time that Marvel might never remember to come back to. ]

Uh, long story short, the Xandarians build some really cool stuff.

[snaphiss]

[She glares.]

You're aware that tells me absolutely nothing?

[headinjuries]

Yeah, well, that's about as much as anyone's ever told me about how it actually works.

[ It's accompanied by a flash of irritation, although that fades fast. It's not like she has any reason to know just how little guidance of any kind he's had to figuring out how to Nova properly. ]

There's this energy field, they call it the Nova Force. The helmets channel it, and no, I don't know anything more specific than that. There used to be a lot of Novas. Now there aren't. So I've kind of had to make it up as I go.

[snaphiss]

[And that's a... concerning idea. She tilts her head, unsure.]

You use something you don't completely understand?

[headinjuries]

It's use the Nova Force, or wait around politely for the Chitauri to leave my planet alone and let my dad go, so yeah, I'll use what I have to.

[ He's spent enough time with it that he feels pretty good about it not backfiring and killing him. ]

[snaphiss]

[And that's a better answer than Mara was expecting. In general, Sam has exceeded her expectations with a surprising consistency, especially for someone as young and clearly experienced as he is. Admittedly, her expectations were very low, but her own brood has failed to meet them repeatedly.]

[Maybe she should stop underestimating him.]

Have you had any training?

[headinjuries]

[ Completely deadpan: ]

Rocket spent a few hours shooting at me and told me not to die.

[snaphiss]

[Disgusted noise.]

I've been training others on the basics of combat. Contact me if you need something.

[Because the more people's lives Mara is involved in, the better, but leaving him untrained with such obvious power at her fingertips... that's worse than irresponsible, that's cruel. It's endangering him and everyone he comes into contact with.]

I don't have your particular skillset, but I know something about defending what's important.

[headinjuries]

[ It's a little awkward how many people keep offering him that; he knows it's reasonable but it makes him feel like nobody trusts him to get by okay.

(Which is perfectly sensible of them, bro you are fifteen.) ]

Thanks.

[snaphiss]

[She senses... something through the link, but she can't place it, and honestly, it's not her problem. She's already stretched her neck out farther than necessary for this kid.]

I'll contact you when it's time for the job I mentioned. You should scope out the terrain beforehand. [Hmm, how much does she trust the boy wonder?] We'll visit it tomorrow.

[headinjuries]

Okay.

[ That makes sense. That should be fine. Time to scope out the best way in, the best angle to not hurt any bystanders, the best direction to take off and do a few barrel rolls before he has to stop flying and come back down to harsh reality afterwards. ]

[snaphiss]

[Whatever problem he's having, it's not her problem. She remembers that, and moves toward the door.]

You'll be contacted.

[headinjuries]

[ ...well, sitting around in her room as she leaves would be weird. He gets up. ]

Got it.