( hella open, hatch log )

[frakkincylons]

Who: Sam Anders and yooooou
Where: Nesting deck, Flight deck, Circle Gardens, Life Support/Telepathy
When: Day 165
Summary: Hatch log, delivery for Castor brood + wandering the station
Warnings: Sam's fuzzy little coma head, n/a



[A] wakey wakey eggs and bacey;

--on the other side. [ there's distant, monotone muttering just before sam gasps in a deep breath, eyes snapping open wide - too wide, like he can see to the end of the universe, through the walls of the pod and the station and all the endless void of space through to the moment of the big bang. for a moment that seems like an eternity, there's silence in his mind, a deafening kind of silence after hearing so, so much, and he just breathes. it's been months since he's moved his limbs, but the fingers of his right hand curl, holding a necklace on a chain, pressing the edges of it into the soft flesh of his palm, eyes blank and wide, but mind scrambling, chest heaving, like he's mid-panic attack. it's hard to go from what he was, back to this, but something's reaching out to him, soothing and spreading warmth through his mind, and soon, he knows he's safe here. healthy and well, repaired, pieced back together, and safe. eventually, his limbs twitch, muscles in his shoulders flex and contract, and he raises a hand up slowly to the base of his skill, and the thick cable plugged into it. a deep breath, and sam yanks it free. ]

Frak! [ ow, headache. not an incredibly fierce one, but sudden, along with a wave of sensation, both familiar and entirely foreigner, causing him to squeeze eyes shut, blinking them rapidly open, and yet, he knows this. memories flash, the cold of a viscous he's lowered into, sparks of electricity felt somewhere far away, and then, everything. he's had more in his head than this, before, and while Sam can't quite place his finger on the details of it, like a word you've forgotten. but he'd been there. he knows that much. ] When...

[ there was a rescue. the light of New Earth's sun had filled up the CIC, blinding him, and for a moment, Sam knew perfection. but something had come, and this he has such a clear picture of - someone had reached out for him. live. and then, here. he must have been in this pod for some time, the datastream liquid no longer clinging to him, his hair having grown slightly back, though there's still an ache at the base of his skull, where the bullet had been removed, a couple fingertips touching tenderly to a healed scar there now. carefully, cautiously, Sam starts to move, shimmying down the length of the pod, until his bare feet touch the bars of a ladder below, some weird medical space pajama being all that's keeping him decent for the moment. pulling himself free, Sam looks out, over the nesting pods lining the vast open deck, and feels like he's forgotten how to breathe. ]

The hell... [ how many times can his world be completely turned on its head? how many times can Sam Anders feel lost beyond any kind of retrieval? clinging at the edge of the ladder, breathing coming heavy and staggered, there's a singular longing for stability, for assurance, and a single name that comes from his lips in vain hope, right hand squeezing tight around the necklace there. ] ...Kara?

[B] flight deck, that's not a viper;

[ kara's necklace lays heavy on his chest, heavier than it should be. a chain, with a dogtag, a simple silver ring, and a bullet. ] Bullet that killed me. [ sam murmurs, as he paces through the flight deck, letting out a humorless snort. it's both very touching and very sad to know she attached it with the rest. and very telling, where she laid blame. always, where she laid blame. these clothes feel odd on his frame, the silence of the ship disquieting, and he's practically bald, which he hates. there's some fuzz there, like a very buzzed buzzcut, but it still feels like being a hospital patient. note - find a hat later.

simple shoes tapping against the smooth, flawless floors of the station, he's still not really sure if it's a building or a craft or something much stranger, but through the whispers and blurred passing emotions streaming through his mind, he gets the feeling of something immense. but he'll take that one room at a time. right now - flight deck. pacing in, he doesn't immediately see anyone else, which feels so bizarre to him. an empty deck. no engineers scrambling, no pilots shouting as they drop into their planes. just quiet. too much quiet, and, of course, the hum of so many consciousnesses in his head. foreign, and still the same. ] And still frakking confusing.

[ letting out a begrudging exhale, hand on the tag of Kara's necklace with his thumb passing over the engraved letters, sam lets his feet carry him to one of the ships, the other hand reaching up to smooth over the hull, before he stops, blinking at that hand. he's petting it like it's an animal - a dog or a horse. like it's a damn Cylon Raider. gods, this never stops being weird. ]

[C] wandering/circle gardens;

[ hours, it seems like, sam's been wandering the station. he'd met with some people, had some questions answered, but this place still mystifies him. not to mention, in the life support room, and the rec wing, there'd been things left around. belonging to who, the other hosts? where was the crew for this thing? why have such a massive thing with nobody in it? and the most striking thing he's noticing, as he paces through, is that it seems so, so much like a Cylon basestar. chrome and white walls, bare, and the organic spliced in here and there. and yet, it isn't.

turning a corner to wander aimlessly down another hall, sam finds himself facing the circle gardens. for the first time since waking up, something that isn't completely weird. grass. halleloo.

his shuffled walking towards to power walking, and then to jogging, and then to running, before sam's flopping himself bodily against the lawn of the gardens. not only had it been an eternity since he'd touched grass this green and alive, since Caprica's fall (the New Caprican grass was just never the same), but this station has seemed so empty and lifeless, aside from the other hosts. chest against the grass (close probably stained), and cheek turned against it as he lays there, sprawled, he spots another person some distance away, feels the vague pull of their connection again, and calls out. ]

Hey! This place is empty. Why's it empty?

[D] telepathy, sam would like some pants pls;

[ eventually, he settles in the room he'd found for himself in life support, staring down at the grass stains on his white space pajamas. which feel entirely too loose and too thin on him. like pajamas, imagine that. he's heard a few other snippets of thoughts and conversation here and there, in the mush of his mind, and he decides to give it a shot himself. he'd operated the entire frakking Galactica with just his brain, how hard is chatting? ]

( Anyone have any normal pants to spare around here? Or a hat? Feels like I'm shuffling around an old peoples' home. )

[ a really high tech old peoples' home. but that's it, that's all he has for now. did it work? sam's sitting still on the edge of his mattress, head tilted, like it'll make him hear the voices any better, waiting for something to come back. ]

[E] wildcard;

[ idk man choose your own adventure, slap sam anywhere you need him /o/ ]

Comments

C;

[narcissithstic]

[Between spaces, he knows the draw of his own kind. The shape of their memories, their thoughts— even the newest addition carries with her a distinct gravity— and yet this one is different. Familiar in that he sensed its stirring and unfamiliar in how it is so raw. Vastly different from the rest of his brood.

Kylo Ren stops. The stark white of his nest-given ensemble a contrast to dark hair where he stands some distance off, shadowed by verdant green. Part of him, dull and distant, is hesitant to accept yet another bond that might eventually weigh him down.]

It's just us now.

[For all the vastness Cathaway's mind forced on him in those brief moments when they'd first met (when he so foolishly lashed out to wound her) he saw nothing of those that had come before. And yet they must have existed. Like the bond Cathaway shares with Prince, or the clustered pods within the nesting chamber, all of it is evidence there should be more than what remains.] Too few hosts exist to keep this station's decks populated.

C; After

[erbier]

[ She politely does not eavesdrop when Ren goes to introduce himself. It would please her if the broodmates could interact peaceably, please her if Ren remembered what she asked him for: Show patience. But... in the end, it will be what it will be, and so while they talk she busies herself. Coming to the gardens is almost inevitably a meeting with her, she is always there, sleeps and eats amongst plants that she has already decided are hers now.

Ilde is the pretty twenty year old, her long blonde hair braided back, her white clothes stained with dirt and grass, up the sleeves, across the knees. She looks up when Sam actually comes into range of her sight, she was clearly waiting for him. ]

Hello. How are you feeling.

B;

[decommission]

[ The new connection coils through the Station, registering on Steve's periphary no matter how occupied his attention is. Exploring, probably. He leaves it alone at first, finishing his last lap in the Training Wing. However curious he is about a sudden arrival, he doesn't attempt to probe their link from a distance.

He follows it with his own two feet. The sweat's dried from his brow by the time he reaches the flight deck. He doesn't often visit this part of the Station, but he carefully plots a course through the rows of ships to where the new link ends. Proximity doesn't make much of a difference as far as what's projected. Even knowing that, Steve strengthens his walls as he approaches, attempting to let as little as possible pass between them. ]

Familiar with these? [ He inclines his chin at the ship Sam's petting. ]

[frakkincylons]

I know you.

[ and yet, he doesn't. he's never seen this man before, and there's both a coldness and a chaos to him that's foreign to Sam. a wave of too loud feedback, overloaded sensory input, harsh emotion flooding, a kind of loud, angry static to him. if Sam hadn't been used to this, on the grand scale of an entire battlestar, he might have physically flinched, but instead tilts his head some, watching him with a curious squint. out of the mental soup that is the nest, he sticks out, the same pull Sam's felt to a few others. brood is the word that comes to mind. after a moment, though, Sam realizes he's been staring blankly at him for a few seconds, and blinks rapidly a few times, before staring to push himself up from the grass, sitting with legs bent in front of him instead, forearms rested on knees. he's not quite ready to completely get up from the grass. ]

This place had to be built to house hundreds, thousands maybe.

[ so, at some point, there had to be that many here. otherwise, that's a complete waste of resources. why build something so huge for just a few people? it's strange, out of place. like walking down the streets of Caprica after the attack. people should have been there, sounds and movement and lights. nothing. like a phantom pain from a missing limb. ]

Where'd they go?

[frakkincylons]

[ so. kylo ren is fun. dude needs to take a vacation, or like seven vacations. but okay, man, whatever floats your boat. or sinks your boat, as that seems something he'd be more a fan of. he leaves the conversation feeling a bit walled, but dealing. there's another of the same pull nearby, and sam's following it now, knowing what he can identify that as, now. brood, the others directly connected to him. he might say your personal unit within a larger military, but it's more than that, isn't it? deeper. like family. weird.

either way, he find Ilde after some roaming in the gardens, sitting like she was waiting, in the grass and plants, with stains from dirt all over the white pajama things they'd been given in a way that has same smiling. it's refreshing, and he comes to plop himself down in front of her, letting out a tired exhale. ]

Like I slept a few centuries too long. [ said as he rubs a hand over his head, and the annoyingly short, post-coma hair, before reaching out the other to offer a shake. ] I'm Sam.

[frakkincylons]

[ sam hasn't quite learned how to keep himself quiet, yet, and by nature of both what he is, and what he'd most recently been, he's unfortunately very adept at this being connected to a bunch of other things deal. so there's a vague hum of feedback that comes from him - the Galactica, being in the cockpit of a viper, watching the Raider scan him through the front of his ship. things flooding his mind while he's looking over the ships, and, especially, when his gaze turns towards one of the Nest grown ships, parked not far away, a mix of organic and inorganic.

it's the pull of another broodmate that has Sam turning his head back, just before Steve speaks up to him, Sam's hand still resting on the hull of the ship in front of him, like he'd spaced out a moment, slowly retracting it as he looks back with Steve's question. ]

Not these ones exactly, but starfighters, yeah. [ glancing back to Steve. ] You're one of ours, right? The, uh, cluster? Brood?

[erbier]

[ She finds his mannerisms curious, a personality type she has never encountered before, and he is remarkably composed for the situation. She hesitates for a moment, not really used to the gesture of shaking hands, but it's obvious enough what the expectation is. She offers out her own dirt-streaked palm, shakes his loosely and quickly returns her hands to her lap. ]

Hello, Sam. My name is Ilde. I'm pleased you've joined us. Our brood is finally complete.

[ A good feeling. Like the subsiding of a persistent ache. ]

[frakkincylons]

[ There's a calm and stillness to her, and the hesitation tells him this isn't something she's used to. He'll try to be more careful with her, but he doesn't mind the dirt streaking her palm at all. Honestly, it's nice. He's missed things like dirt - how sad is that? It's a small, friendly smile he offers her, but keeps to himself otherwise, folding his hands in his lap as his shoulders slouch some, relaxing. ]

Good to meet you. Were you missing someone before? [ Sam's head tilts, curious. Maybe a bit concerned. ]

Did you lose someone?

[erbier]

[ She is very reserved, purposefully so, keeping herself under tight control. It is an act she has put on for so long that she hardly notices herself doing it, there is no strain, no sense of fracture in her. Not until you hold a light up to her and suddenly the many hairline fractures of her short and brutal life glow like spider webs. ]

We have been missing several... Steven, Ren, Anakin, and I awoke together, but Anakin's symbiote took poorly. He has been in a healing sleep until recently. You and Jessica have also awoken. This is the first time all six of us have been in contact.

[ She considers for a moment, ]

That must not make much sense to you, having just joined us.

[ He hadn't felt what was missing. Not having gotten a chance to grow into their web yet, his new powers. ]

[frakkincylons]

[ Unlike the others he's met so far - Steve, Ren, Ilde - Sam practically seems to bleed into the link between them, with a kind of ease, like this is something that's natural to him. He doesn't mean to, and will likely learn how to rein it in better in the weeks to come, but so much else has been going on in his mind since waking. ]

Took poorly? Did it hurt him? [ healing sleep, he assumes that's what he'd been in for the last week or so. However long it took to piece the scatter portions of his mind back together, repair what both the bullet and the datastream had done to him. ] Jessica and Anakin, those are the two I'm missing. Met Steve on the Flight Deck.

[ while he was caught petting a ship like it was a horse. it's been a weird several hours. and the comment about it not making much sense to him is answered with a soft, short laugh, wry. ]

More that you'd think. The mental thing. [ pointing at his head, like that's any kind of indicator. Anyway, let's not talk about it. The things that he's more confused about than anything else - ] But, uh. The ship-- is it a ship? Station?

[erbier]

[ The newly awakened all feed in far too much to the connection, for now Ilde does not assume to think he is different and purposefully ignores the excess. She had done the same for Jessica when she had awoken, calm and quiet and not prying too deep even though she could feel everything that passed through the woman's mind. At least one new host is easy to manage, when it had been such a large group of them, it had been painful, overwhelming. Though that shared pain has helped stitch her quite deeply to both Steven and Ren. ]

He seems well now.

[ Her understanding of the situation came second-hand from other parts of the brood, so she is not certain. As for the other question... that is also something she is uncertain of and she gazes off at nothing for a moment. She does not fully grasp technology on a personal level, but there is also something not quite technology about the Station. It had a heartbeat. ]

The station, yes.

[frakkincylons]

[ Seems well now. Which isn't so direct an answer, but he accepts it for now. After all, if the symbiote is likely to damage them at all, it doesn't seem like there's a damn thing he could do about it otherwise. Least of all when it might be the only thing holding his mind together for now. ]

Glad to hear it.

[ Station. Space station? Maybe. But even a space station needs people to run it, to manage the engines, the power source, the communications, the orbit, the oxygen and gravity. Unless--

Unless it's as much like a Cylon basestar as he was expecting, and there's something like a Hybrid here, powering the entire thing. Being the entire thing. Huh. ]

Do you know anything else about it? Who runs it, or how? Where the hell it actually is?

[erbier]

[ Ilde shakes her head. ]

I do not, I apologize. I am learning... but the world from which I was rescued had none of this. The workings of the Station are beyond me.

[ This doesn't really seem to bother her, and there is a reason she is in the garden all the time. ]

Cathaway may be inclined to answer you. Angel is quite knowledgeable as well, but I would not trouble her.

[ Not right now. ]

[frakkincylons]

[ He nods, blinking a moment, and for a time, he's quiet, not sure if he wants to say this, but in the end, deciding it's worth it. He's careful, as he starts, lips moving to form words that don't come out, before he settles on what he means to say. ]

It seems a lot like something I know. [ Voice a bit distant, eyes in the middle distance, before snapping back to hers. ] The organic and inorganic, living technology. The hivemind.

[ Starting to understand why it was him they came for. But he makes a note to file it away - Cathaway, maybe Angel, later. If he can't get answers from Cathaway. ]

Got it. I'll check with Cathaway. [ giving a small, tight smile. ] How long ago did you wake up?

[erbier]

[ She listens to his uncomfortable explanation, wondering why it makes him so distant, but still keeping her distance, not prying into him though his thoughts are quite bare to her. ]

There are others within the Station who have taken well to these powers, from their experiences.

[ He would find others who would understand it all better than her. ]

I believe it has been somewhere near to fifteen days?

[decommission]

[ So much of what was once considered science fiction to Steve is old hat for a lot of the Nest. Works out for him. More people to learn from.

Sam's projections wash over him, close enough to touch and inspect if he were just to reach out a little more. He doesn't, making the assumption that Sam's experiencing the same awakening effect they all did at the start. If Sam's thoughts are a stream, Steve's a rock. ]

Brood's what they call it. [ The word still doesn't feel natural to him. He gives a half nod and extends his hand. ] The name's Steve.

[ They could pass all the necessary information between them in an instant if they wanted to (and probably by accident). Steve definitely has a new appreciation for regular chitchat since coming here. ]

[frakkincylons]

[ Absorbing that, he considers it. What's the story? Different worlds? Right. Hard to believe, but between everything else that's happened of late, it's hard to be skeptical. ]

Thanks. I'll see about finding them.

[ at least for the sake of 'how close is this to what you know'. ]

So not too long. What'd I miss?

[erbier]

[ Hm. What has he missed... Something irritable crawls up from the depth of her thoughts, the first change from her reserved chill thus far. ]

The hosts have been becoming acquainted, training. We went on a scavenging mission, which the Prince was quite displeased in.

[ And she was the cause of his displeasure. ]

There was a death among the hosts.

[frakkincylons]

[ There's just a careful silence coming from Steve, and that either means this guy has nothing in his head, or he's purposefully withholding it. He can't say he blames him. Sam, before and the other Four were all drawn together, before the beach on Earth, and before the memories, would've been all kinds of freaked by this thing. As it is now, not so much. ]

Sam Anders. Good to meet you, Steve. [ He takes the offered hand, giving a firm shake and a friendly smile. Steve's seems decent enough so far. Relatively normal, at least. ]

Hey, Steve, you got any idea what those ones over there are? [ Releasing Steve's hand, he turns out to point at the grown Nest ships. ]

These are all standard mechanical. [ a handwaves at the ships they'd been standing near, and Sam steps out, pacing towards the Nest ships. ] That one looks organic.

[frakkincylons]

[ That's interesting. Apparently time here hasn't been as peachy keen as one might think, at least, not for Ilde. He's wondering if it's the same for everyone else, or just her.

of course, that's revealed a moment later. a death. ]

What? How?

[erbier]

[ She's not thrilled to explain this, but she is also too stubborn to lie about it or skirt the issue. ]

Several of the hosts were attacked in retaliation. I had an unpleasant exchange with a trader, and reacted harshly to his antagonism. His gang was not pleased by his death.

[ Annoyed as she is, she still just... isn't that moved by any of this. Such is life. She is quite numb to death. ]

[frakkincylons]

[ For a long moment, Sam's staring, silent. Processing that. They'd gone for supplies, ran into a trader. The trader made Ilde mad, she killed him, his allies attack. As you do when someone kills one of yours. And because of it, one of the hosts didn't make it back. ]

Were your orders to engage if pressed? Or do whatever's necessary to get the supplies?

[ He's trying to gauge here if she was just trying to complete the mission, or if she just got a person killed because she couldn't hold her temper. ]

[erbier]

[ Her orders. Her brows pinch. That whole idea offends her, she was not here to be ordered around. She was not a dog, she was not a soldier. Her ire simmers. ]

We are not given orders.

[ Semantics, perhaps? But she is quite serious about her disapproval. ]

[frakkincylons]

[ Welp, that pissed her off. Good to know. Sam files that away somewhere in his mind - issue with command and authority, don't bring that up in the future. But if that's not what this is, then what the hell? ]

Then why bring us here? Why the training rooms and the flight deck and the powers? I thought you said it was a mission.

[ you don't just give those to people, and you don't just train up people for no reason. Mission is something you're sent on with an objective issued to you. Unless it's just a personal mission, but it'd apparently pissed Prince off. ]

[erbier]

[ Her response is simple and sour, ]

Indeed.