[hatch log] a lonely, distant place

[onemind]

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!))

NAVIGATION • SETTING • FAQ • MOD CONTACT • GLOSSARY

( CODE BY WHAMBAM )

Comments

[wille]

[ She folds her thumb against her palm and wraps the rest of her fingers around it like bandage, watching this with the fascination of someone who has never seen hands before. This is what you do when you can't meet someone's eyes but doesn't want to admit it. ]

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.

[regalled]

No.

[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.]

[wille]

[ Than any family. She knows only her own and nothing of the others, the healthy ones with loving, ever-kind, ever-present parents and obedient children. The makeshift household she assembled from broken children and her as both mother and father had long failed as a social experiment before she found herself here. But limbs, left and right arms, feet to walk with, that she can understand.

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?

[regalled]

Because The symbiote is not made to function alone. And so neither are Hosts.

[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.

[wille]

[ She has a mind to say, well then, sir, you seem to have picked the wrong bunch if that's the number one rule. She thinks of Shepard and Seviilia, hardly team players, then again the same could be said of her. Self-destructive to very strict, prescribed limits. ]

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.

[regalled]

[The symbiote doesn't translate for him. He doesn't need it to anymore, for her language. But he translates still, further. Brash, careless, bold. It would be a lie to say that he was as entirely displeased with them as he perhaps should be.]

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.

[wille]

[ He will trust her actions, a stance she can appreciate, because he won't trust her for her name (Katsuragi) or distrust her for her gender or doubt her for her age. She can deliver results, his reply met with a firm nod followed by a salute. Hand to her forehead, back straight, feet together, but countered with a smile, almost cheeky. ]

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.

[regalled]

It's true that many find it to be- [He pauses, searching quietly for the words-] feast or famine.

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.

[wille]

[ Maybe she should understand from the title guardian that it's part of his job here, but isn't it better to believe that some things are said out of genuine concern? Her smile is wry, humor as a coping mechanism. ]

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.

[regalled]

[He seems, for a short moment, as though he would like to argue with her, half way to opening his mouth before he settles, instead, for another short bow. He had told her what she would need to know if she did get lost. The severity of it she could discover on her own.]

Rest well, Katsuragi Misato.