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[hatch log] a lonely, distant place
CHARACTERS: Closed to Misato, Beth, Seviilia, Shepard & NPCs
WHERE: The Station
WHEN: DAY :045
SUMMARY: Somewhere far away from Concordia, new minds gain awareness.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary.
YOU WAKE UP and the person you were a moment ago is gone. --No. Not a moment. It's been a while, hasn't it? Something feels off - a combination of the strange and familiar right there in your own head. You know intuitively that you've been unconscious for more than just a blink of the eye, but it’s impossible to tell exactly how long or how exactly you escaped the danger that had been breathing down your neck.
But here you are, a small miracle of the multiverse: lying in a small faintly hexagonal chamber, a gentle white light emanating from the surrounding walls. If you were injured during your escape, those injuries have been healed. If you were anxious or frightened or distraught, those feelings have been briefly calmed. There's something strangely peaceful about waking up here and that feeling persists even 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 and a wave of emotion fills that peaceful 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. For two of you, the sense of familiarity runs so deep between you it might as well be cellular; one of you doesn’t share their connection, but you still feel like you know them somehow.
Welcome to Station 72. It’s quiet, still. Beyond the Nesting Deck in Life Support, there are a series of small personal rooms, all of them without doors. Some of them have personal belongings and a sense of life, but all of them are empty and it’s unclear how long they’ve sat that way. The only thing that’s obvious is that people are missing. For the time being, you’re alone with whatever (or whoever) has been left behind.
((OOC Notes: This is the hatch log for the new hosts. You’re welcome to make your own logs separate to this for your time on the Station, but please be aware that until the current mission ends that you’ll be unable to play with older hosts currently away on Concordia.
Additionally, you can find a more detailed overview of the hatching process HERE. If you have any questions, please hit up either the FAQ or MOD CONTACT pages!))
WHERE: The Station
WHEN: DAY :045
SUMMARY: Somewhere far away from Concordia, new minds gain awareness.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary.
YOU WAKE UP and the person you were a moment ago is gone. --No. Not a moment. It's been a while, hasn't it? Something feels off - a combination of the strange and familiar right there in your own head. You know intuitively that you've been unconscious for more than just a blink of the eye, but it’s impossible to tell exactly how long or how exactly you escaped the danger that had been breathing down your neck.
But here you are, a small miracle of the multiverse: lying in a small faintly hexagonal chamber, a gentle white light emanating from the surrounding walls. If you were injured during your escape, those injuries have been healed. If you were anxious or frightened or distraught, those feelings have been briefly calmed. There's something strangely peaceful about waking up here and that feeling persists even 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 and a wave of emotion fills that peaceful 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. For two of you, the sense of familiarity runs so deep between you it might as well be cellular; one of you doesn’t share their connection, but you still feel like you know them somehow.
Welcome to Station 72. It’s quiet, still. Beyond the Nesting Deck in Life Support, there are a series of small personal rooms, all of them without doors. Some of them have personal belongings and a sense of life, but all of them are empty and it’s unclear how long they’ve sat that way. The only thing that’s obvious is that people are missing. For the time being, you’re alone with whatever (or whoever) has been left behind.
((OOC Notes: This is the hatch log for the new hosts. You’re welcome to make your own logs separate to this for your time on the Station, but please be aware that until the current mission ends that you’ll be unable to play with older hosts currently away on Concordia.
Additionally, you can find a more detailed overview of the hatching process HERE. If you have any questions, please hit up either the FAQ or MOD CONTACT pages!))
no subject
It could be true here too. She stands taller, breathes in and holds it in. She can, she will, she must. She heals, protects and saves herself. ]
All the more reason to fight harder and smarter.
[ What's the point of going into battle without setting your heart on victory? ]
no subject
As long as you understand.
[He was not here to discourage her from the fight. It was all they had, anymore. Time would tell if the time she spent at it would temper into frustration.
And he is still displeased with Cathaway.]
Being as that is the case, I believe the promise would be kept.
[It did not sound dissimilar from what the Nest had once done, before it had lived for survival.]
no subject
An honest salesman, are we?
[ A jest to further remove the conversation from the most fragile parts of herself. She plants her hands on her hips and lets out an exaggerated sigh, relieved tinged with exhaustion. ]
Don't worry about me. I know how to take care of myself.
no subject
I am not a salesman.
[Nor did he wish to be. There was nothing to sell in this life, if they had had to sell it, he doubts very much he would be where he was now.
Her next words are met with less distaste, even as he turns away from her, straightening on of the swords that had gone slightly askew. It's not quite casual, but neither is he.]
That is good, but I think you will find more value in taking care of others, here. You will need them to be as strong as you are.
[They always needed capable hosts. But what they really needed was ones who could temper and guide those who were less suited to it.]
no subject
It doesn't stop her from stepping closer to stand beside him, taking cues from him to help with straightening the swords. Only these alien weapons have hilts that are near indistinguishable from the blades and her attempt results in a bloodied thumb. Just a scratch. She brings her hand to her lips to suck on the wound until it heals. ]
I'm not very good at that.
[ A simple, honest-to-god admission from a mind muddled with doubt. ]
But I'll try again if you think that's what we need.
no subject
He glances sideways at her small injury before subsequently paying it no mind. She would find it healed quickly enough- more quickly than she was accustomed to. Perhaps it would help her to realize exactly how much was going to change.]
It is. You are tied to them, now. It will be difficult for you to know without many other Hosts here, but surely you have recognized that not all those here have minds that call to you as strongly. Those that do are your brood, and they are a part of you now. Their strength will lend, and their weakness will hinder.
no subject
Somehow, his mention of her brood leads her directly to two names: Beth and Shepard, so distinct from Seviilia and Cathaway and Prince. It bothers her that she should know this without being told. Shepard seems physically strong, mentally unyielding but sometime bending only means one doesn't break. Beth appears weak and fragile, brittle around the edges and pliant, but that only means she may adapt to survive. She doesn't think either of them are weaker than the other, but she believes neither can match her will to live. ]
What happens to me if one of them dies?
no subject
It will be the greatest loss you ever experience.
[He does not know her life, he does not know her experiences- although he easily could, if he had the slightest inclination- but it does not matter. There was no comparison except-]
You will lose a part of yourself so embedded that you cannot comprehend the magnitude of it. Without them you will never be as strong as you could be. And the pain of it will never fade and never lessen.
no subject
Like family, huh?
[ But that's not really true. Her mother's passing didn't hurt her as much as her father's, the scars don't run as deep, last as long. It is by design, conscious or otherwise, that Misato keeps few company close enough to hurt her when they leave and even then she keeps them at an arm's length, not close enough to kill her when they die. She doesn't want to lose limbs over people dying, because that's what they do. People die all the time. ]
That's pretty cold. We didn't even get to pick the ones we like.
no subject
[The answer is flat and as immediate as Prince ever was, with only a very short hesitation. Sometimes it was a helpful thing, to think of the symbiotes born to the same brood as siblings, as something similar to what so many Hosts were accustomed to, but it wasn't that. It was only a useful analogy to a certain point.]
Like limbs. Like your own right arm. [He reaches his arm out, a simple illustration, curls his fingers, around something long since gone.]
Regardless of how you feel about any of them, they will be closer to you than any family.
[Reluctant as any host might be, it didn't matter. In the end, the connection was not a choice.]
no subject
Misato folds her fingers into fists then stretches them to remind herself of how it feels to have hands. ]
Why won't I be as strong as I could be without them?
no subject
[He doesn't sigh, but he does pause, a long moment before he continues.]
If they are gone, the strength they would have to offer you will be as well. You cannot use what is not there. [It could almost be clinical, the way he says it. Like it is simply a case of losing a weapon in an arsenal. Not accurate.] And your mind will be accustomed to having them.
[More than that would require explaining exactly what the symbiote had to offer, but that was a lecture perhaps for another time.]
How you chose to live within the Nest is your own choice, but if there is one thing I would stress to you above all others it is that you must not put other Hosts at risk with your behaviors. If you remember that, you will do well.
no subject
I've been called reckless, but it's only because they don't understand.
[ She means Ritsuko. Ritsuko doesn't understand that a 0.00001% chance doesn't mean it's impossible. Misato turns to face him, arms decisively crossed in front of her chest, eyes determined and searching. ]
I'll do good by you, you can trust me. [ Big words. She's always making promises, pledges, goal posts to keep herself going. ] It might seem like I take crazy chances sometimes, but I know what I'm doing.
no subject
I will trust your actions. [Spoken like an assurance, although it was not] I believe you understand the stakes you have entered in to.
[As well as she could. There was an air of desperation about her that he didn't need the radiating pulse of her symbiote to see. Her people must have faced a terrible threat.]
We will teach you how to face them, if you are willing to learn. [He turns his face to the weapons, an obvious clue]
But it will wait until you have had time to rest. You will find it helps.
no subject
Sir, yes, sir.
[ She relaxes, stance turning civilian once again. ]
I'll stock up on sleep points now. There won't be much chance for that once the ball gets rolling.
no subject
It you have not already found a room, you should find it easy to tell which ones are not occupied. [Or at least which ones were not being fully used by their previous occupants.]
And if you become lost, you may call for Cathaway. One of us will find you.
no subject
I'll manage. When you're this far out from home, getting a little lost just doesn't feel like a big deal anymore, you know? But-- [ She raises a hand to excuse herself. ] That's kind of you.
no subject
Rest well, Katsuragi Misato.