[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

[greentech]

[ Pidge starts when he suddenly hugs her, but she relaxes after only a moment and leans into him, wrapping her arms around him and holding him close. Her face ends up buried against the crook of his neck and she just... hugs him. Holds him close. He's family, probably the only "real" family she has left on this side of the universe. ]

If we could harness your stress, we could power the whole universe.

[ It's a weak joke, but she makes it anyway. She leans back slightly, brow furrowed in a frown. ]

Now what's wrong?

[shiro2hero]

[It's a watery-sounding laugh, but it's there. All the same.]

Wouldn't that be something.

[But the amusement is short-lived. He doesn't doubt she knows at least something of what's happened. It would be almost impossible not to. So he doesn't touch on that. Not for the moment.]

[Instead, he twitches a shoulder, looking at the metal attached to it.]

I think my brain's taking this whole missing head-mate thing way... way too literally. [And then, to clarify:] Everyone always said it was like losing an arm.

[greentech]

Oh. I - yeah.

[ Pidge frowns and stares at the floor between her feet for a moment, a pair of fingers pressing against her forehead. ]

It's always been... weird whenever someone in the brood goes quiet like that. There's a void that never quite goes away, right? You get used to it again, but it's still there and you're still thinking about it. Kinda like a scab that never heals - ugh, that's gross.

[shiro2hero]

It's accurate. I think.

[He's also pulled back enough to look at her. To talk to her. But keeps his hand on her shoulder.]

Are you okay? You've lost... people too like that.

[greentech]

I - yeah. I'm... OK. I'm sorta used to it now. We didn't - it's been a while, yeah? And the mission took my mind off of it.

[ She shrugs. ]

I guess I'm as used to it as I'll ever be. I mean... I'm gonna have to get used to it no matter what. Right?

[shiro2hero]

It has been, yeah.

[As good as it is to hear their efforts took her mind off the issue, the rest of it twists something else in his chest. This is Pidge. This is indomitable Katie Holt. She shouldn't have to sound resigned.]

[He squeezes her shoulder again, tilting his head to better look her in the eye.]

I'm here for you. You know that, right? If you're not used to it, and... you want to scream or rage, or anything.

I'm here, Pidge.

[I'm still here - I'm not leaving you.]

[greentech]

[ Breathe out. Breathe in. Pidge settles herself a little more. She doesn't mind that Shiro worries about her, but she worries more about him. Sometimes hse thinks he takes too much weight on himself. On the other hand, she tends to work herself to the bone trying to figure out the Station, their missions, what they have to do.

And she's still stuck here. Getting further and further away from her family. She grits her teeth and rattles her fingers against the counter top. ]

I don't feel like screaming. Yet. But I'll definitely come to you when I do.

[shiro2hero]

[They're a lot alike, in that respect. Working themselves to almost nothing -- her for her family. Him for the team. He grimaces, idly massaging the part of his arm where metal meets skin.]

You know what I mean, though. I'm not as good with the symbiote things as other people...

... but I'm not going anywhere.

[Maybe he's repeating himself, here. And part of him doesn't care. After this? That part of him feels like it can't assure her enough that he won't leave her.]

[She doesn't deserve more people vanishing.]

[greentech]

Yeah, I know. And I'm not going anywhere either.

[ She elbows him in the side. Gently. She can pick up traces of his emotions and they're not always positive ones, but she tries to reassure him as best she can. Just like he does for her. ]

I'm not worried about you going anywhere. I'm more... worried about what's going to happen to us if we stay here too long.

[ There's a pause. ]

Also the fact that I know how good you are at kissing is kinda weird.

[shiro2hero]

Ow.

[But there's no real heat or feeling to the little protest. It's akin to someone knocking their shoulder into a doorway and reacting. Just to let her know it happened -- he felt it. And he appreciates it.]

You mean whether or not we end up like Cathaway?

[Because he will fight anything he has to in order to keep her from that. He's about to elaborate, but --]

[shiro2hero]

[... I know how good you are at kissing...]

[Everything in his head and the world around him sort of grinds to a shrieking halt.]

[Good humor gone.]

You... oh.

[Well now we've passed beyond grieving and unbalanced and launched straight into mortification.]

I'm. Beyond sorry. For that.

[greentech]

[ OK. That was... sort of funny? It wasn't what she was thinking was going to happen, but feeling the mental ten-car pileup that goes through Shiro's head is something else entirely. ]

It's not your fault.

[ Pidge is trying to suppress a burst of laughter. ]

It's just... I mean, we can't really avoid it, can we?

[ Be glad you weren't here for when she was sort of flirting with Angel, Shiro. ]

I'm not gonna tell you to stop.

[shiro2hero]

[Mental ten-car pileup is a good word for what just happened. As his brain tries not to scream. Pidge, he loves her, she's family. But dear space lion Jesus she is the last person who needs to know "how good you are at kissing".]

[At least she's amused. He'll take that.]

I... would really... really like to try and avoid it. Somehow.

[Maybe if they flew outside the station.]

[greentech]

I mean, he'll still have the memory of it.

[ Sorry, Shiro. She's not trying to be a buzzkill. ]

So it might leak through anyway.

[ She looks like she's genuinely considering the problem now. Huh. ]

So I don't think increased range is the answer to your problem.

[shiro2hero]

[Please let a black hole open up under him. That would be better.]

If... we go out of range...

[It sort of dawns on him, what this conversation is.]

... I can't believe I'm having this conversation right now.

[greentech]

We're all telepaths now. It's kind of a continuing issue.

[ Pidge shrugs. Woops. ]

We can talk about something else, if you want.

[shiro2hero]

Nah, it's... actually a better topic than what's... going through my head.

[Because she was amused. Because she'd thought it was funny.]

[And she's worth it.]

I guess I just thought he was better at shielding his brain.

[greentech]

I'm not sure shielding helps that much when we're in a brood together. Stuff just... leaks. It wants to find its way through.

[ Pidge shrugs. ]

I, uh, didn't mean to embarrass you.

[shiro2hero]

Good to... know. For the future.

[Oh good lord. All the more reason to be more careful...]

[When he blows out a breath, it just makes the white puff on his head flutter.]

It's okay. Really.

I did tell you to let me know if this gets... weird for you.

[greentech]

It's... kind of weird? But so is everything else. So on a scale of weird things, it's not the weirdest, I guess.

[shiro2hero]

Well... still.

[Still embarrassing. Still difficult to swallow. But, this has the benefit of cutting off the nearly constant feeling of loss.]

[So when he pushes his hands absently through his hair, it's both of them. Not just the real one.]

I guess we're lucky it's not the weirdest.

[greentech]

What is the weirdest thing you've run into here?

[ Call her curious. She gives him an inquisitive look. ]

Just for the record.

[shiro2hero]

... I really can't say any aliens, because I swear we ran into weirder back home.

So... probably Seviilia. Just. In general. Nothing against her, but when you've seen way too many zombie movies?

"Hi I'm the living dead" is pretty weird.

[He says it all so matter-of-fact. But underneath it, where she can probably sense it, is a current of amusement. Of humor.]

[greentech]

OK, that's fair...

[ Pidge muses. ]

I mean, aliens are one thing, undead are totally different. And supposedly impossible, but I don't really study biology that much. But being dead seems like it would make doing anything heard. So what keeps a dead woman moving?

[shiro2hero]

Well... Allura and Coran are always talking about planetary life force. Maybe her world has something like that?

Or, it could be all the...

[He lifts both hands, then, making little swirling motions all over himself. Attempting to indicate Seviilia's glowing runes. Or tattoos. Or whatever they are.]

... you know.