station72 | [HATCH LOG] STRAP IN

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[HATCH LOG] STRAP IN

CHARACTERS: All
WHERE: Station 72 | Avera 9
WHEN: Day :161
SUMMARY: New hosts wake up on the Station. Mom and Dad go to pick them up for the school field trip.
WARNINGS: None; will edit if necessary.

ON AVERA 9: A moment ago, the hosts on Avera 9 might have been aware of a hollow feeling in the back of their minds - a lack of something significant. On day :160, that changes for Adara and Castor broods. An empty, waiting slot is filled. With little warning, Prince and Cathaway announce they are returning to the Station. Even Prince - normally focused and attentive - seems distracted. There are reasons they don't usually leave the Station. This is one of them.

ON STATION 72: On day :161, two hosts wake up in the vaguely claustrophobic chambers of the Nesting Deck. There's a weight on their chests, a sharp tug like some piece of them is being pulled elsewhere - but maybe that's just the tube running from the rear wall of the chamber connected to the base of their skulls. Once disconnected, Jessica and Petre may collect their personal belongings - carefully organized in the cubby at the mouth of the compartment - and then slide feet first out into the Nesting Deck.

They aren't alone. First, there is a sound - a sensation - of something whispering too low to hear. More obviously though, there are two figures - a man and a woman - waiting for them at the center of the polished deck. The woman is easy, gentle through every one of her angles except person her pin straight hair and the piercing too-reflective quality of her gaze; the man is sharp, staunch, and his jaw is set.

Prince and Cathaway will offer answers, but it's clear there's an urgency here. The Prince, at least, seems anxious to hustle Petre and Jessica along to the hangar. The other hosts have been left to their own devices and the Prince has little trust for them. It isn't long before the two new hosts are ushered to the ship and urged to join Prince in returning to Avera 9. Today they'll be left to the tender mercies of Prince's capable but inelegant flying, as it appears Cathaway is opting not to make the trip with them.

"Be well," she tells the new hosts. Far away on Avera 9, the old hosts find her warm milk, honey sweet voice in their heads. It is intimately near, as if she weren't somewhere entirely different:

( Please return to the landing zone at-- [a sensation of time, an implication of navigation and the tilt of the planet and stars rotating overhead that is abstract but nonetheless clear as day]. The Prince brings you new hosts. Please support them. )

When the shuttle drops down again, it is with the expectation that the other Hosts be there to meet them and to take in the new members. --And maybe to get another lecture from The Prince, if the situation calls for it.

((OOC: This log will cover both the short time aboard Station 72 for the new Hosts should they chose to use it, as well as their landing on Avera 9, open to all of the Hosts new and old. Consider it a check in before they’re again allowed to go back to their scrounging ~~and stabbing~~.

For additional hatch information, see the previous hatch log. For general information on Avera 9, see this ooc post.))

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Today - unlike the last time new hosts hatched here - there is no elaborate hunt to find her. Today, she and the Prince are waiting on the Nesting Deck for the new hosts to wake up.

She feels it when they do - how the air changes, the tenor of the deck shifts. A moment later, the sound of them, of their mind, comes awake. It is loud. Perhaps for someone more intimately tied to the Station, it would be obnoxiously so. But she is as far away from this place as she is present; the noise of young uncoordinated minds is little more than a murmur. A breath against the skin.

"Come along. We have things to do," she calls, like a mother would to a child slow to drag themselves from bed. There is a gentleness to her voice, though it rings clear like a bell - not so different from the faint jingle of the chain and charms at her wrists and middle. There will be questions. She knows this. But they will be inconsequential. Things must move more quickly than usual if they are to keep to the time table demanded of them on Avera 9.

It won't do to linger long.

Edited 2016-04-16 04:25 (UTC)

Petre does play the part of a child well, light blue eyes everywhere, wide and almost animal-like with their curious perceptiveness. He was quick to get ready and he is quick to follow now, and the sluggishness of muscles still waking up is met with the impatience of a racing mind. He feels it, the warm little sensation of something inside his head, something that makes him comfortable with the invasion, not entirely unlike how it felt when he first rose as a demon.

There was someone with him back then, too. A woman who immediately became his guide and protector, who taught him about the hunger and strength he'd inherited. Seeing Cathaway now, though, he misses the parallelism entirely.

"Is she here? Diana? You know who she is, don't you?"

If they saved him, surely they saved her as well. That's how it works in his mind.

The tang of the line drawn between them rings with something festering - a low, dark flickering urge. He feels like ink, like the rot under a turned rock. She ignores it easily enough, or at least bypasses the immediate flicker of revulsion with care. He is not the first young host to feel similar. She doubts he will be the last.

He asks a delicate question. Cathaway gives him a consoling smile. She is warmth and dappled sunlight, a cool turn of air through an open window. "Today it's just the two of you. We're afraid we know of no Diana on the Station or on the planet below. You will have to manage without her whoever she is."

She doubts it's the answer he expects or wants, but it's the true one.

Her presence is such a natural, pure comfort, that for a moment, Petre looks genuinely confused. Let him watch his world fall apart, bring him to the middle of nowhere in space and then witness the first instance of perplexity at a pleasant buzz in his limbs, like now is when he finally woke up for the first time. That's what makes him frown and look at his hands, then around. Not unlike someone experiencing an entirely new kind of high, however subdued it is.

When his attention returns to her, the link of their conversation reestablished, he is just as out of tune with the reality of what he's been told as one would expect. He is but a child and Diana is his world. Not just what he knows, but what matters.

"... But. Then. Where is she?"

Denial, of course. She can't be dead. Just misplaced, is all.

"Someone else got to her?"

"She is wherever you came from." It is an unsatisfying kind of thing to tell a young host. Cathaway understands this. The question is - to elaborate and potentially plant some seems of uneasiness in him, or to simply let it lay? After a flickering moment of study, she opts for the former. Better to be forthright. Consensus demands answers; almost no one would let such a feeble explanation sit.

"There was a force - a creature or a person, perhaps - which chased you here. Unless you saw your Diana come between you and it, we suspect is is likely she is perfectly fine. Once you've left the system, the enemy pursuing you has no reason to be there."

Cathaway fixes her attention on him. It feels pointed - something narrow set against tender skin, without the weight to cut. "Is she a friend to you?"

The realization that sets in him is unpleasant, though he seems more lost than angered with what he's told. Even knowing that Diana is most likely all right and unharmed, the selfishness of feeling her absence rings louder in his mind, despite the distraction of that weightless pressure calling his attention back to Cathaway.

"She's my sister." The only word that comes close to what he feels. There's a very twisted idea of family here, but. She's his creator, his mentor, his protector. Of course he's attached to her completely.

Was, anyway.

"I need her here. Can't you go get her?"

Cathaway's response is immediate. She shakes her head, no. "We cannot go to your system without endangering it and our position here. You must be content with the thought that she may be safe and sound without you."

Were there more time, she might be gentler about this. But they have a time table weighing on them. Turning on her heel, she motions for him to follow her as she makes her way from the mottle light of the Nesting Deck and up the gentle ramp leading to the Life Support corridor. "We're sorry for it, but trust that in a few hours you will be with others like you. In time that may begin to make up for the loss of her."

But he is not content. He can't be, he refuses, and that transpires immediately through his features and his thoughts, emotions curling tight like his hands into fists. His brows pinch together, his lips press and his breath picks up, a huff of frustration and helplessness. He's almost ready to call Cathaway indignantly, demand she give him more answers, but her urgency silences him and urges him to follow.

"No. That's not going to happen."

He says so after Cathaway claims that anything will make up for the loss of Diana. This one is now determined to be difficult, even if he is cooperating so far. Sorta.

"I'm alone."

She breathes out, a gentle sound somewhere between a laugh and a sigh. "You may feel that way now, but we guarantee you are incorrect. By coming to this place, you are intimately connected by the symbiote in your mind to the others here. Patience. You will see once you reach the planet. Right now your brood is too far away for you to feel or hear, but once you're with them you'll know we are right."

Cathaway's pace is steady as she winds up the ramp and through the Life Support corridor. On either side of them are doorways leading to small rooms furnished a bed, a lamp, a mirror; there are no doors. She bypasses all of them and makes her way toward the doorway at the end of the corridor.

"Do you have any other questions? We have but a short time with you."

[The trip down to the planet is not as smooth as the previous, although the new hosts would have nothing to compare it to, and honestly it isn't rough so much as it is without the elegance with which Cathaway pilots.

When it drops down into the same valley, Prince, who is more taciturn than usual -tight-jawed and stormy-browed- unclips himself from his harness and moves down the back of the ship and down the ramp out into the sodden earth of Avera 9.

If you're new, and want to know more about the equipment he'd given you before you boarded, you can find him poking around the shuttle's exterior, checking for damage, going through the check-list with a stubborn dedication to proper maintenance.

If you are not new, you can still find him, although depending on who you are he may have a less than warm welcome for you. He's still the only person on the planet who might be able to answer your questions without trying to stab you.]

There's still a silent anger in his eyes, like this is all her fault. He thinks so only because she's his only target at the moment, but there's really nothing he can or will do about it other than just follow at his own irritated pace.

"So you're just bringing me here and then abandoning me?"

Won't even stay with him long enough to let him get accustomed to her presence. Terrible...

"Hardly." She scoffs it out, shaking her head as they pass through the doorway at the end of the hall. From here their path twists, leading through many seemingly empty corridors and chambers with vaulted ceilings - mottled light - a gentle, pervasive quiet.

"The Prince will take you to the planet and there you'll be with other new hosts under his eye. We must stay here in case other hosts hatch in the interim - you and your partner here are an unexpected surprise; consensus suggests the likelihood of more following you is high and we cannot afford the fuel to take these trips back and forth so often. So you will go be with your brood so that you might learn along with them and then return when your task there is done. Honestly, you will learn more there than you would here."

Where is she.

[The demand is as unappealing as Kylo Ren's presence, but (like the latter) Prince is apparently forced to suffer both. Ren's kept the bike wrenched from his companion's grips; it's granted him the means to travel great distances with little time or effort, and at a time like this when he's unsure how long Prince will remain planetside, a gift.

And a curse for everyone else, really.]

[It's not as if Kylo Ren could sneak up on him. Few could, and it was even harder for Hosts. For a Host like him, so tumultuous, it was at the moment nearly impossible.

Still, Prince doesn't turn to aknowledge his presence- or the threat that he always carried with him- even when he speaks. It is uncommonly rude, but though he does not know every detail of what has occurred in the time since he and Cathaway had left Avera 9, he knows enough.]

She has remained on the station. It is not unusual. [It was far more uncommon for them to leave at all, nearly unheard of for them to leave together without having another to watch the station in their stead, but it had seemed worth it, at the time. The awakening of the new Hosts had proved it a foolish choice.]

What is it that you need? [And with that he actually does turn his face towards him, hands still inside a matinence panel on the side of the ship, expression admirably blank all that his motions were short and sharp.]

Nothing you can give me. [As linked as they are, Prince and Cathaway are as different as night and day: seeking either advice or favor from Prince would be beyond undesirable in Ren's eyes.]

When will she return?

[Soon, he hopes; he cannot tolerate current company for much longer.]

Then it is nothing you truly need.

[The response is without pause or hesitation. No real consideration given to Ren or his childish demands.

He frowns at the panel, flipping a switch once, twice, frowning slightly at a fault- real or perceived.]

And she won't be returning to Avera 9.

[They should have never left the station unattended, and if one of them was to stay she was the obvious choice, her bond to it was far stronger than his.]

Is that all?

[It's a sharp, needling agitation that grips him for the span of a few seconds once Prince's response is given. Sparked embers, too weak to catch flame, but there all the same.

He despises the Nest's twin guardian; a feeling he's certain remains mutual.]

Then tell me when you're returning to the station.

Edited 2016-04-23 05:09 (UTC)

[Ren's emotions wash across him, ebb and flow, and it is with even more distaste than usual that he ignores them. Ignores him. He is without a single redeeming feature in Prince's eyes.

He continues with his minor adjustments, not even giving Ren the respect of his full attention as he speaks.]

You will all know when it is time to leave. In the meanwhile I would suggest you at least attempt to make yourself useful. You have very little excuse for failure.

[Natch.]

[There's an audible inhale. A sharp, tightly-wound hiss that's easily registered over the sound of wind coursing across the landscape at their backs. His mouth is twisted into a bitter grimace from strain; that he doesn't act on it might as well border on the definition of miraculous. But not this time.

He will not rise to it.]

Understood. [Straight-backed, Ren shifts his weight, turning instead to face the bike he'd left parked just outside.] Take care with your departure. I've been told the weather can interfere with even fully functional guidance systems.

[He doesn't justify him with a quick response, rather he finished his last adjustment before he closes the panel with a snap.]

Since your departure and mine will be the same, let us both hope I have taken the proper care.

[The lift of his chin is impossible to confuse for anything but haughty as he finally turns away from the ship.]

I remain on the planet to assure your continued safety.

Waking up with all her injuries gone and a blank space in her memory isn't new to Jessica, but feeling safe, under any circumstances? Kind of is. Of course, part of that soothing feeling of everything being okay means she doesn't really have the capacity to panic about everything feeling okay, but she's still surprised.

The paranoia starts to trickle in about the time she's collecting her stuff. It doesn't horse-kick her in the chest, though, until she slides down a ladder so fast it makes her palms raw, and realizes the muffled sound of people talking in another room isn't actually getting any closer. That all this foreign acceptance-safety-curiosity-joy is in her head. She goes cold with the fear of it, blue-black ice dropping through the bottom of her stomach as her mind immediately rebels, scrabbled to NO and AWAY, desperate claws of a trapped animal on smooth-slick glass, trying to find a weakness or a way out. Panic like a siren, and underneath it all, dull resignation, that tar-black current encouraging her to stop struggling, give in.

She pulls herself under control with effort, aided by the swamping sensation of peace that doesn't belong to her but she can't fight. Her fingers tremble anyway. It takes long minutes for her to remember her body and the fact that she can move of her own volition.

That's when she finally sees she isn't alone. The sight of Cathaway is more relieving to her than Prince; that neither of them are Kilgrave (dead, he's dead, I killed him) is also reassuring, though not enough to totally allay her wariness. She'd agreed to come, she has to remind herself. Whatever fucked up shit happens next would be worth it to spare the people back home.

Jessica exhales so hard it catches and lifts her dark hair, glares arms-folded across at the two people, trying desperately for control through obstinacy. "'Come along'? Seriously? Just how old do you think I am, lady?" And she waits a moment, not caring if it's rude, exercising her choice of refusal just to remind herself it's there, before she finally starts to move again.

[ After the initial shock of realizing she's now a goddamn astronaut fades, Jessica finds she enjoys being flown over the planet, half her face leant up against a window, ignoring both Petre and Prince as she takes in the vast expanse below. Once they land, however, she realizes she's not ready to meet up with the people she's going to share a headspace with, and instead follows Prince around to the back of the ship. ]

Need a hand?

[ Not that she has any idea what she's doing, but she's a fast learner and wants an excuse to be here that doesn't involve talking. ]

— NEWLY ARRIVED.

Despite a rocky awakening, Jessica has managed to calm herself by the time she finally ventures out into Avera 9 to meet some other "hosts". After hiding at the back of the ship like a kid nervous about her first day at school, that is. Now that they're close, though, she can feel the pull, the sudden bursts of sound and sensation. She mostly expected the others to be like Cathaway, experienced and distant, so she's surprised to find how much emotion she's picking up.

For her part, Jessica is noisy with irritability and restlessness, especially when it's been who-knows-how-long since she last had a drink, the thirst in her wanting more than simple hydration. There's a finger or two still left in her hipflask, but she's saving it for when the shakes come on. Even if a kick of boozy warmth would be welcome right now, a miserable misty drizzle flattening her dark hair and trickling down the back of her scarf to run icy fingers down her spine. Gotta be a bar 'round here somewhere, right?

— SPACEPORT: MINTE'S PARLOR

And of course, there is. For those who don't or won't introduce themselves at arrival time, it's easy to run into Jessica knocking back some space-booze. She's bought a full bottle of the closest thing to whiskey she could find, and is drinking it neat, barely conceding to pour it into her glass between each hot, caramel mouthful.

Her constitution is such that this isn't really enough to get her drunk, which is probably good for everyone who has to share a brain with her. Her control is already awful: she's a violent cycle of bursts of feeling stomped down into diamond rage, paranoia and PTSD, recitations of lists of streets in a desperate attempt at self-mastery, and beyond anything else a kind of selfishness, that doesn't want to deal with anyone else's feelings even as her own are writ large.

Come say hi!

[ Ilde's encampment had not been far from the landsite. Perhaps an amount of intuition that she would need to be close by... She doesn't question such things. She came from a world of magic, not science, and though there is some element of the latter in all her Hive does, she doesn't think of it that way. And won't, no matter how many times it is explained to her.

She feels the webbing of her brood keenly, and something that once had been missing now drew closer. It is something far beyond a duty to go greet the new member awakened.

Ilde is a slight girl of twenty in a mud-spattered uniform of charcoal grey. Her blonde hair is a frizzy wild mess from the rain, but even beneath it it is clear that she is pretty, with a rarely offered crooked smile. She approaches Jessica was a quiet kind of patience, aware of the pain that rattles around inside her at this moment, but politely ignoring it. ]

Hello, there.

[The new Hosts had been an unexpected event- surprising both him and Cathaway, and their arrival had been a difficulty in itself for the very fact that they came when both of them were off the station entirely. The fact they had awoken to fewer hosts was not unusual though. The first batch was always the most unlucky in that way, to have so many around them just as confused. A sharp and abrupt shift in their reality that no underlying sense of rightness could entirely fix. So maybe these two were fortunate, even if they were given little time to adjust before they were asked to leave the station.

The truth is that these newest Hosts are garnering very little of his attention at the moment, the brusqueness of his motions and the stubborn silence he was radiating was not caused by their unexpected arrival but instead by the other Hosts, the trouble they had managed to find even in the short time that he and Cathaway had been away. It's enough to sour his mood but not enough to have him ignore her or her offer. His hands curl back from the panel he was inspecting even as he turns his head to face her, the serious set of his expression easing somewhat, with effort.]

You are familiar with this machine?

[It's a genuine question- without barb or challenge to the tone. Some were, at times.]

Edited 2016-04-24 18:37 (UTC)

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[HATCH LOG] STRAP IN

cathaway | rho-specialized npc (closed to station 72)

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Prince | Iota-Specialized NPC - Planetside

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jessica jones / castor brood / OTA.

DAY 161

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