[hatch log] everything happens so much

[onemind]

CHARACTERS: New Hosts & EVERYONE
WHERE: The Station
WHEN: DAY :039
SUMMARY: New faces and old losses - a hatch occurs and a number of older hosts go comatose. Coma'd hosts include all auto-piloted dropped characters to date.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. Need a warning added? PM this account please!

NEW HATCHES
YOU WAKE UP and suddenly you're a different person. No. That's not right. You're you and there's no suddenly about it. It's been a while, hasn't it? It feels like waking up from a very deep, extended sleep or like surfacing up from the darkness of the ocean and right there in your own head there's something both familiar and strange. You know intuitively that you've been unconscious for more than just a blink of the eye. While it’s impossible to tell exactly how long ago or how exactly you escaped the danger that had been breathing down your neck, you're certain it was more than a moment ago.

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. That feeling persists even as you find the tube running from the base of your neck to the compartment's rear wall.

But once the tube's disconnected? Things get loud. 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 happening 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. Maybe it's time for a change? Drop down the ladder to the floor of the Nesting Deck and you’ll find you’re not alone. The closer you are to these stranger, the louder the sound in your head becomes. --Actually they're not quite strangers either, are they? Something is wound about and between you and these people, whoever they are, are as familiar as this place you've never been is.

Welcome to Station 72. The air buzzes with activity. Somewhere deep in the Station, other minds call to yours. They are bright, brilliantly celebratory spots in your subconscious. They are sun-warm gentle, or they are fire and the taste of ash, or they are a vibrant frenetic whirl, or they are a tangled garden, or they are the feeling of flight through dense cirrus clouds. No two links are exactly the same, but you know for certain that you are connected to all of them in at least some small way.

Which is why it's easy to tell when something goes terribly wrong:


OLD HOSTS
THE ENDORPHIN RUSH of making it back to Station 72 (relatively) unharmed, having successfully acquired exactly what you'd set out to get your hands on can't be denied. Even if you're not necessarily the type to celebrate, there's no ignoring the thrumming celebratory sensation from those Hosts who are.

After a few hours of being back in the void, something else stirs in the air: the clear, prickling sensation of new hosts hatching on the Nesting Deck. They're a rush of mental information - as if someone's turned the volume on the radio all the way up -, a cacophony of sensation and emotional feedback for anyone unprepared to shield against it.

The swell of feeling might make it easy to miss what follows immediately after: the dull, gut-deep quiet as The Darkling, Chuuya Nakahara, and Nasu Rei go suddenly comatose.

---

((OOC Notes: This is the hatch log for all new hosts. Feel free to make your own logs and posts additional to this if you care do. You can find a more detailed overview of the hatching process HERE. You can find additional setting information about the Station 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

[huntsmachines]

[ Aloy wants to comfort the younger girl. She can see something of herself in Asuka and it's hard not to reach out and touch her shoulder, but she holds herself back. The feeling of sympathy swells, mixed with concern and a tinge of annoyance. ]

I didn't say you needed me. I just want to help if I can.

[ Calm, Aloy. Stay calm. The mingled lonliness is hard to ignore and the bleed from Asuka's own anger and rage and despair is equally hard to shut out. ]

[redheadcarrier]

What if I don't want help?

[ Or she doesn't want to accept it, anyway. She shifts her weight and turns to stare at Aloy with a frown. She needs to find an excuse to keep her at arm's length. ]

I don't even know your name, anyway. Who are you? When did you get here?

[huntsmachines]

Then you don't want help. I'll leave you alone if that's really what you want, but I don't think it is. I can...

[ She frowns. This was so weird but here she was. Trying to figure out how to say what she needed to say. She gestures vaguely. ]

I can feel that might not be the case, that's all. And my name is Aloy, I just woke up here a little while ago and I'm as confused as you are.

[redheadcarrier]

Feel it?

[ Asuka's eye sparks with something between anger and revulsion. ]

I didn't ask for it. So don't try and offer it.

[ She's silent for one long, surly moment and adds in: ]

I'm Asuka.

[huntsmachines]

Good to meet you, Asuka.

[ She's trying her best to be positive in the face of that unrelenting anger. She knows it, even if she managed to move beyond it herself. It had changed into a driving need to prove herself in front of the other Nora and look where that got her. ]

This place. We can all...

[ She frowns and waves a hand vaguely. This is tricky. ]

We can all feel each other's thoughts and emotions, I think. We're in each other's heads.

[redheadcarrier]

I know that, idiot.

[ Asuka hisses the word. ]

I'm not deaf!

[ Well, deaf is the wrong word, but it gets the point across. ]

What difference does that make?

[huntsmachines]

[ Aloy is trying to be patient. It isn't easy--like Asuka she wants immediate results. Like Asuka, she has had distant figures giving her unclear directions. But Asuka's just a kid. What would Rost do? Patience, Aloy. ]

It means that what you're thinking at me and what you're saying to me are a bit split.

[redheadcarrier]

[ Asuka doesn't much care for Aloy's patience. Once upon a time she might've been willing to play along, but right now she's just come off of the most traumatic experience in her life. She has very little patience. ]

Stay out of my head.

[ Her answer is flat. ]

[huntsmachines]

I'm not in your head. Your thoughts just coming at me. I can't help hearing them right now.

[ Aloy frowns. ]

I want to help.

[redheadcarrier]

I don't want your help.

[ Asuka glares at Aloy. What's with her? Why is she so insistent? ]

I don't need it, either. So mind your own business.

[huntsmachines]

[ Aloy shrugs. She's pushed as much as she wwants to bother with for today. Asuka's a stranger, but the emotions were too familiar for Aloy to ignore them. ]

Okay, I'll stay out of it.

[ She pauses, peers at the gardens with a smile. ]

These are nice gardens. Not like home, but it's good there's something growing here.

[redheadcarrier]

Good call.

[ Asuka narrows her eye in a little glare. Of course, then Aloy has to change to the subject and Asuka does likewise. They're not talking about her problems anymore. Right? ]

I'm surprised they have anything growing in here. But I guess they need something so we don't all go nuts...

[huntsmachines]

[ Aloy shrugs again. No use continuing to argue, right? ]

It's good to have living things. Green things. It makes this place feel less strange.

[redheadcarrier]

I guess.

[ Asuka is noncommittal. ]

We didn't have anything like this inside of NERV. [ That had been all steel and cables and technology. Unless you counted the geofront itself. ]

But I guess it's kind of nice.

[huntsmachines]

[ Aloy smiles. At least they're having a conversation now, right? She's getting a little antsy, though. The urge to explore is getting to her. ]

What's NERV?

[redheadcarrier]

[ The fidgeting is a bit contagious and Asuka frowns as she tries to stop herself from feeling so jumpy. It's weird, because it doesn't feel like her and it does feel like her at the same time. She focuses on the question instead. ]

Dead.

[ She allows that answer to hang in the air between them. ]

[huntsmachines]

[ Aloy blinks. There's such finality to the way that Asuka says that word. The emotions that come with it mingle with her own, bringing back sharp memories of the records she'd found. Records struggle to hold off the Faro swarm one more day, one more hour so that life could be saved. She swallows. ]

...I'm sorry.

[redheadcarrier]

Don't be.

[ They deserved it. It's what she'd like to say, but most of them were just doing a job to try and protect humanity. Maybe some of them had deserved it. Maybe not. ]

It's not like it changes anything. And it's not like I care.

[huntsmachines]

Sounds like you don't care a lot.

[ Aloy's sarcasm is out of her mouth before she can stop herself. She's trying to be polite to this girl, but nothing seems to help. Annoyance is getting the best of her. ]

[redheadcarrier]

What's it matter to you?

[ Asuka retorts with frustration tugging at the edges of her mind. She's hurting in a few different ways. Her exchange with Misato wasn't that long ago and her cheek still aches from the blow she received - in fact, it's starting to stand out more now, an ugly purple against her face. ]

You didn't know them and you don't know me.

[huntsmachines]

It doesn't, but you're broadcasting your emotions all over the place and the rest of us are picking them up.

[ Aloy peers at Asuka for a moment, then digs into the pouch on her belt. She removes a small stoppered container and opens it. A herb-laden, medicinal smell wafts free. ]

Do you want something for that bruise?

[redheadcarrier]

Well, that's not my fault-!

[ Asuka turns to start berating Aloy when she's suddenly surprised by the offer that the other girl is making. She can't be serious. Right? She eyes Aloy with suspicion. ]

What is that?

[ Admittedly, the pain is getting irritating. ]

[huntsmachines]

This? Mostly salvebrush with some ocherbloom. It'll help with the pain and bring the swelling down. I also have some dried salvebrush berries that you can chew on if you don't want to smear paste on your cheek.

[ Aloy smiles again. ]

Nothing bad, I promise.

[redheadcarrier]

I - ugh, no, I don't want to chew on anything.

[ Asuka's still suspicious, but Aloy's enthusiasm and the emotions she's putting out are... weirdly soothing. She frowns and glances away. The bruise is on her blind side, so she feels vulnerable turning it toward her. ]

Just hurry up.

[huntsmachines]

[ Aloy can feel the vulnerability. It's still so strange to feel others emotions. She wants Asuka to feel comfortable, though, and focuses her mind on reassuring Asuka that Aloy isn't going to do anything to hurt her. Gently, her fingers touch against the bruised cheek. She rubs gingerly and the paste is thin and a little oily so that after a few strokes it's been absorbed into the skin. The effect is almost immediate. There's a gentle tingling sensation that last for a few moments and then the pain in Asuka's cheek begins to fade. It doesn't disappear entirely, but it's a dull background sensation now instead of the stinging annoyance that's possibly at the forefront of Asuka's mind. Aloy sits back. ]

How does that feel?