[hatch log] into the garbage chute, flyboy(s)

[onemind]

CHARACTERS: All
WHERE: The Station + Concordia
WHEN: DAY :43 - :44
SUMMARY: New hosts hatch on the Station; their arrival on Concordia is bumpier and smellier than usual.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary.

YOU WAKE UP and nothing will ever be the same again. A moment ago you were somewhere familiar - or familiar enough; now you're lying in a small faintly hexagonal chamber lit by a gentle white light emanating from the surrounding walls. You can't shake the sensation that you've been asleep for a long, long time.

The sluggishness of coming out of a deep, dreamless sleep persists all the way until you disconnect the tube running from the compartment's rear wall to the base of your neck. Then 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. Somewhere, someone else is feeding their thoughts and emotions into your mind. On the plus side, it's easy to follow that digging, familiar sensation to each other. After all, you're part of the same brood. You belong together.

Welcome to Station 72. Sirius and Kavinsky will have one day aboard the Station to acclimate to their new reality before they're whisked away to Concordia to join the rest of the young hosts. Get to know one another, ask some burning questions; in a day's time you'll be boarding a shuttle and going somewhere far, far away.

MEANWHILE IN CONCORDIA, the host's espionage efforts are coming to a head. Preparations for infiltrating Public Security HQ are in full swing, a handful of hosts are planning to get in close with Representative Goram Saffit himself and there's currently a semi-functional android taking up one of the beds of the Bearings apartment block. Honestly, there's more than enough on everyone's plate without piling new hosts on top of it all. But that doesn't stop Nirad from disappearing when he's called to return to the Station. Presumably, this means everyone better get ready to debrief some new arrivals soon...

     ON THE STATION, there's a hum in the air - or the mind, rather. Follow the buzz and it'll lead to the Hangar Deck where a slick brick-shaped black transport is waiting. The source of the mental hum seems to be a young man: Nirad has come to collect you. He'll answer any questions; in fact, he seems happy to talk and length about absolutely anything. The boy's apparently the rambling type with little to no filter between his brain and his mouth. The combination of talking and mental hum can be disorienting. Once safely aboard the transport, the ship’s landing platform descends through the floor of the hangar. It snaps into place in the airlock. For a moment there’s a beat of perfect stillness, a shiver of anticipation. Then the transport is flung through the shaft and 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.

     A BUMPY LANDING
The stealth ship slices down toward the planet until it fills the entire viewscreen. "All right, everyone out," Nirad announces, unbuckling his harness and jumping to his feet. Uh. What?

He leads to the port side of the transport ship where there's a small series of circular ports. They're roughly shoulder width. At a touch of a button, the ports open out to a series of escape pods. There's only enough room for one and it looks like you'll be lying on your back the whole trip. "Hop in. I'll launch you and then follow you down in my own. The pod's stealth tech should keep you invisible to the locals until someone comes to find it, but don't forget to scrap the pod when you're out of it. We can't risk someone finding it laying around." A pause. "Sorry, by the way. Usually we'd just land the ship but it's getting kind of obvious."

Hopefully you weren't expecting a nice, easy trip down to the planet because this is dark and joyless. The escape pod has no windows. It launches from the transport ship and rockets downward at the behest of the planet's gravity. Everything shakes. It's desperately cold, then violently hot and then-- something gives. The sound of something whistling. A jerk. The escape pod trembles as the anti-grav jets at the base deploy. It's a last attempt to soften the landing, then the pod drives down into a mountain of debris like a tent stake into muddy earth.

Congratulations, you've landed more or less safely in Concordia's only open air landfill.

     SEARCH & RESCUE
It's three in the morning and maybe you're asleep in Bearings or maybe you're burning the midnight oil; either way, Carata is in your mind telling you to get up and get ready. "The new hosts have landed. Let's go pick them up, shall we? If I were were, I'd wear some clothes you don't really care for."

Time to go digging through the city's biggest dumpster transfer facility!

The escape pods will have to be unearthed and opened from the outside to rescue their inhabitants. Once free, be sure to dismantle pods and scatter them through the piles of debris. Eventually all of this will be recycled, but we don't want anyone finding mysterious alien technology in one piece now do we?

---

((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

[snaphiss]

[Mara wonders how this man will react to a voice in her mind. It's as easy as breathing for her, but the reactions of others... she can never quite predict them.]

[She tries to layer her influence lightly, unobtrusively. It's a strain, but not too much of one.]

( Focus on my voice. )

[doggo]

[He admittedly should have expected this. Something like it, anyways. She doesn't seem the type for idle questions, a virtue he might otherwise appreciate.

The press is careful, restrained. Carried along under the surface. Sirius' defence kicks up anyways. Better at Occlumency than Legilimency, easier to grasp the nuances of guarding against intrusion than the hours of effort required to infiltrate a mind.

But it's only a voice. Sirius' expression has tightened and closed off. Eye narrowed, he stares at Mara.]

All right.

[As in, enough. He gets it. Deliberate in the way he answers aloud, rather than responding in kind.]

[snaphiss]

[Mara quirks a brow, with more curiosity than sympathy. A bad habit, left over from too much combat; she has a tendency to view weakness in an analytical light.]

Is that some kind of offense on your planet?

[doggo]

Is it offensive, d'you mean? Yeah.

[He knows what she actually means by that. He meets that look of hers as blankly as possible, mouth tight at the corners.]

As far as a punishable offense, that depends on how it's used. And who's using it, and to what end. But personally I've never really enjoyed having anyone muck about in my head.

[Especially not now, with everything is so scattered and difficult to keep mental hold of.]

[snaphiss]

[As dryly as humanly possible,] Don't worry, I'm not particularly interested in your deep dark secrets.

[They turn the corner, and there it is, the bearings. She holds the door open for him.] Here, it's a way of contacting others, no more, no less. Others will try to use it.

[Unspoken is the understanding that she won't. Not if he feels so strongly about it.]

[doggo]

[well they're great secrets so your loss

Sirius hangs back a few paces to first give the place a once-over, as if he'll be able to pick anything out about it at a glance. He's always been good at picking up on the wrinkle of a charm, subtle clues that pull at his attention.

But this is all very different, and so when he finds nothing much, he ducks in after that wary pause.]

Others like your Sith?

[snaphiss]

Others like everyone. The distinction is in what you send.

[She holds back a snarky quip about how glad she is that it meets his standards for accommodation. As it seems he's slept in a graveyard in a monsoon for the last year, it feels a little like beating a dead bantha.]

[In the end, he's still in the Nest with her. His weakness is her liability.]

Try to send something to me.

[doggo]

[Brilliant. One of his favourite things. Practicing. At least the energy required of mild irritation saps some conviction from larger emotion.

All this is to say that Sirius shoots an unimpressed look back at her.]

Didn't know this was a lesson.

[snaphiss]

[Mara presses a button on the wall, and the elevator dings, opening. She steps inside.]

Surprise, you figured out the secret mission.

[doggo]

Hilarious.

[So dry. No hesitation this time; he follows her in to the lift.]

Does everyone get private instruction, or are you feeling sorry for me? I'll manage.

[snaphiss]

[She gives him a flat look, unimpressed. The doors close behind them.]

We're on the same team, with the same goal. Your weakness is everyone's weakness.

[#motivational]

[doggo]

Thanks. [For nothing.

As deeply as he wants to curl up under a bed somewhere, Sirius is too tense to let himself sag back against the lift wall or anything. Lessons are better if he thinks of them as a challenge, and that word--weakness--certainly helps to cast it in that light.

So.

Pointedly, he looks over at Mara. Thinking in direct words isn't natural, but nothing about this is natural anyways, and besides: everything has always come easily to him. This will, too.]

( There. )

[--As in, are you happy now, or-- well, maybe. Sort of. Forceful, like a door slamming, but a door slamming a very long ways away, down a long corridor, muted.]

[snaphiss]

[Mara gives him a smug grin as her answer. Yes, she's happy now; she won. The elevator dings again, and the doors open to the bearings.]

Food is in the kitchen. Don't eat anything labeled and clean your dishes.

[doggo]

[Immediately there follows the feeling of having been outsmarted. It's that near smirk that really does it, the echo of smug success and the clear dismissal. Sirius' mouth twitches the way a dog's lip would curl into a growl; he lets it be a cool smile instead.]

Thanks.

[And goodbye.]