[hatch log / mission: hyrypia] the winds that will be howling at all hours

[onemind]

CHARACTERS: New Hosts & EVERYONE
WHERE: Station 72; Hyrypia - Naerstone House
WHEN: DAY :002 - :003
SUMMARY: New hosts hatch on the Station, are briefed, then make their way to Hyrypia to join the rest of the hosts… while they attend a very important history lesson.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. Need a warning added? PM this account please!

STATION 72
DAY :002

NEW HATCHES
YOU WAKE UP are are suddenly changed. --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 surfacing up from the darkness of some wine dark sea. Nothing is different and everything is because 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.

But here you are, a small miracle of the multiverse: lying in a small, faintly hexagonal chamber with 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 calmed. There's something peaceful about waking up here - like you belong. 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. A matching dread. An easy comfort. 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 nearby 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.In fact there are lots of you and none of them are the strangers they should be. Some even seems like people you've known for a very long time.They are as familiar as this place you've never been is.

Welcome to Station 72. Beyond this room it's quiet and still, feeling for all the world like a hollow shell.

--Or it does until a voice separates itself from the white noise in your head:


BRIEFING
THE VOICE IN YOUR HEAD isn't really a voice at all. It's the warm tang of camaraderie, tinged with a flash of impatience like ticking hands on a clock face and a flicker of wonder: a falling star. It says:

( My, you're all very fresh aren't you? Unfortunately, the multiverse waits for no spring chicken. Once you've figured out which way's up, won't you all join us? )
Join 'us' where is the question. And yet, once you're ready to meet the owner of the voice in your mind, your footsteps simply lead you there naturally. Two strangers sit in a small circular briefing room - a tall being covered in short brown fur with a rigid demeanor, and a pale alien with yellow washed frills at her jaw and throat who is smiling cheerfully.

"Hey there, sunshine," says Rhan, her frills humming as she speaks. "Why don't you take a seat so we can get started?"

[ooc note: please see here for the catch-all briefing thread]


THE STATION
WITH A LITTLE UNDER 24 HOURS before it's time to make the trip to Hyrypia, this is as good an opportunity as you're going to get to familiarize yourself with Station 72 before you leave it. There's plenty to see, but a distinct lack of people to make conversation with. It's lonely and quiet and there's a sensation of dust gathering even where there is none. Maybe studying the briefing files on your databank and going over your mission kit is the most proactive distraction, but if not? Well there's plenty of places to get lost...

HYRYPIA - NAERSTONE HOUSE
DAY :003

MEETING
A SINGLE SHIP LANDS in a field the color of burnished gold, returning to the place it had until late the night before occupied. It's carefully inserted beside dozens of other spacecraft bearing more than faint similarities, though each has its own unique aesthetic. When the gangplank drops, the loud engines powering down, it reveals--

New hosts. Seven fresh faces - obscured as they are in layers of intricate fabric - are led down the gangplank by Rhan There to greet them is a number of other hosts - any who answered to the sweet crystalline ring of Collector’s voice in their heads hardly a half hour earlier, speaking with certainty born of truth:

( Rhan and Siva’co are returning. Shall we see what stories they have to tell? )

Despite the solidarity that both combined groups provide, there's a feeling of eyes here. A number of guards along the edge of the shuttle field are watching the reunion like hawks. Better perhaps to return to the apartments where they'll be able to speak in private and teach the new hosts what it is that has been learned since their arrival. --Or explore, for those who prefer not to rest. Naerstone House's grounds are vast and they are almost entirely open to the parties of the pilgrims to explore.

THE PERFORMANCE
AS THE SINGLE RED SUN of Hyrypia dips low on the horizon there is a long, low, mournful sound. A deep bell-- or a horn? Or maybe it's something else entirely, but the call is heard and answered as any nearby servants inform the guests of the house:

“There will be a performance of the First Journey in a quarter turn. All guests are invited to attend.”

There's no mystery as to where the event is occurring. A steady trail of guests and servants lead out past the Veranda into the central garden where a number of pillars have been mounted and a large tiered platform festooned with with numerous draped curtains and abstract representations of trees and mountains - a great stage - now sits. The stage is surrounded by numerous low settees and tables, piles of thick cushions and richly colored rugs around which guests can be found clustered, lounging while sipping thick, syrupy drinks.

Each table is illuminated only by a single glowing orb at its center. Otherwise, as the sun sets it pitches the garden into darkness as even the castle itself has been left unlit. There are no lights in distant windows or on Naerstone House's high walls; these small orbs and the glitter of stars in the black sky might very well be the only points of light in the whole universe.

The allotted time passes and the performance begins. A sun rises over the stage. It's a much larger, more intricate glowing orb and reveals a number of players dressed far more simply than the Hyrypians the hosts have met. They wear complex machine masks upon their faces that shutter into different expressions as their hands flitter across their faces: dramatic caricatures to accompany the droning sound of their singing voices as they unfold the tale at the center of the performance - the one which drives this pilgrimage and for the Nest's very presence in the universe at all. It's the story of lost Rabadoceans coming to a planet near barren intent on brutalizing them - about loss and hardship until finally a single player separates from the rest. The orb of the sun over the stage turns, it's mechanical face shifting and resetting to indicate the passage of time as the very central platform of the stage begins to turn so that this lone player might walk. And walk. And walk through deserts and scrub land, through dark woods and dark caves, against the wind and with it. Through it all, the orb over the stage slowly lowers until at last this lone player can take it in their hands.

It cracks like an egg and brilliance streams from it. Braziers catch fire in the darkness. The garden illuminates itself. Every light in Naerstone House comes to life.

With that, the silence of the crowd breaks. There is applause -- each culture in its own unique fashion -- and then there is a rise of chattering conversation as the guests are served several small dishes and talk about the show they’ve just seen - and whatever possible clues it might give to the pilgrimage they themselves would soon be undertaking.

---

((OOC Notes: This is the hatch log for all new hosts as well as the evening's performance. Feel free to make your own logs and posts additional to this if you care to. You can find a more detailed overview of the host hatching process HERE and additional setting information about the Station HERE. Please be sure to review the MISSION: HYRYPIA ooc information. If you have any questions, please hit up either the mission's question thread, the FAQ or MOD CONTACT pages!))

NAVIGATION • SETTING • FAQ • MOD CONTACT • GLOSSARY

( CODE BY WHAMBAM )

Comments

[redheadcarrier]

[ Asuka could recognize that. Hers is a hatred as well, but it's of herself. Not a thing or a people or a place. She shifts her weight, trying to sift through the feelings and images and emotions that pick at the edges of her mind.

At least it isn't quite driving her crazy anymore. ]

Queen? Really? Queen of what?

[ She sounds curious rather than sarcastic. ]

[shri]

[ Turns out meeting Queens is odd no matter who you are, but she nods, slow but flatly sure. No mistake or lie in her mind or action. ]

Jhansi. It is a Kingdom in Bundelkhand - [ Oh blast, what did the English call it? ] - India.

[redheadcarrier]

India? Really?

[ Asuka seems to perk a little bit at that. ]

I've never been, but I always thought it might be kinda cool to visit... Never heard of Jhansi, though.

[ She's almost conversational. ]

That's never gonna happen now, though. So... [ She shrugs. ]

[shri]

[ Lakshmi is not, after all, despite how this girl carries on as normal. She is tied up on the ground and told that what she is, is unreasonable. ] I am not surprised. They did burn my home to the ground, and slaughtered every man, woman and child.

[ They have a foothold in every state, she thinks again, willing down those wars. That feeling. That she cannot separate her happiness and herself from a city drowned in screams. ]

Perhaps.

[redheadcarrier]

[ To be fair, Asuka is not the most sympathetic person. At least on the surface. She also knows what it means to be told that she's being unreasonable, though, even when she's sure she's in the right. There's a twinge of sympathy from her as Lakshmi continues and she frowns, shifting her weight to one foot and then the other. Suddenly this conversation seems much more serious. ]

...that's awful.

[ Was there even a reason? She knows all too well that sometimes things just
happen, no matter how little sense it really makes. When she was just a small child, there had been resource wars and famine; billions had died. Human cruelty is something she knows of quite well, thank you. ]

They deserve to die for that.

[ Her voice is low and a bit quiet. ]

[shri]

[ It guts out a heavy breath she was holding as she sinks back. Finally, she did not have to listen to someone protest innocence of something she knows to be so cruel. Her fingers loosen and her back rolls to lay heavily into the wall behind her. Her head lowers, slowly in agreement to her, though she does not say it.

She is trying, for what it is worth, to not be so provocative. ]

And so, I fight them.

[redheadcarrier]

Good enough reason. I fought monsters, too.

[ But the real monster was humanity all along. She's a little bitter about that still, but there's nothing she can do. She doesn't plan on trying to change things like Misato. The past is gone and she can't change it, even if she wanted to. Even if she hates what it's made her. ]

Who'd you actually fight to get them to tie you up?

[ She's running through the people she's met, trying to think which of them might be a vampire. After a moment, she settles into a crouch to stare at Lakshmi and put herself on a relatively even level. ]

[shri]

Damon. I called my broodmate for what she is, a monster. He disagreed with me for it. Physically so.

[ She shudders, the second hand feeling of those teeth in her neck that makes her whole body wretch with disgust. ]

[redheadcarrier]

Damon-

[ Wait, she remembers him. Sorta. She hasn't had too many run-ins with him, really. But she hasn't exactly gone out of her way to get to know everyone, either. The memory of those teeth in someone's neck makes her wince. ]

Ugh - he bit you?

[ Of course he did, he's a vampire. ]

Why isn't he tied up?

[shri]

[ She goes to open her mouth to ask how it is that she could know such a thing? But then, the more exact question would be how could she not? It filled her mind, her heart, recoiled in her whole soul. She will never be fed upon. She will not be consumed by another. ]

Because he ran away.

[redheadcarrier]

Coward.

[ The word spits out of her mouth with a vehemence that surprises her. But there's a tangle of memories around that word and the concept - the memory - of someone who ran away from her and left her to a nebulous, uncertain fate. Someone did something to her and tried to avoid the consequences or ignored them.

It's a tragically familiar story to Asuka, even if they aren't really the same. There are parallels and her mind finds them. ]

Maybe I should yell at him.

[shri]

[ It's a young woman's response, and it makes her feel terribly old, weary, and she leans back against the wall where she is tied, heavily. ]

That I am afraid would not be much of a concern for him. Something so simple as another's ire is just how he lives his life.

[ More than that, her head drops after a moment. ] And nor should it be your concern. It would be dangerous, especially when you do not know what you're fighting.

[redheadcarrier]

What's he gonna do? Kill me?

[ Asuka says that as if she'd like to see him try. She wouldn't, really, but she's got bravado, if nothing else. Still, it's a bit deflating to have someone question her righteous fury. ]

Why shouldn't it be my concern? If he's gonna bite people who disagree with him, they should put a muzzle on him.

[shri]

[ She laughs, laughs and laughs and laughs. Whether it was the thought, that death was some how the worst thing that could happen to a person - or the thought of Damon being muzzled. ]

Perhaps they should - but with this connection, it would be no more than a momentary relief.

[redheadcarrier]

Then what do you think should happen to him?

[ She folds her arms with a frown, considering Lakshmi. ]

...hey, do you want me to get you out of that crap?

[ Asuka, no. ]

[shri]

[ her look is perfectly mild, and her tone as considerate as a light showering: simply falling down without excuse about what it is. ]

He should be killed.

[ She looks down at her bonds, scowling at them. ]

No. Not until the one that put me in them, undoes them. ]

[redheadcarrier]

What? That's stupid.

[ Asuka kind of gets being stubborn. That still sounds like a stupid plan. ]

What's the big deal about whoever put them on you?

[shri]

[ Oh to not having to play politics. ]

Because I did not get a good look at him. I want to know why he shelters them. So I will wait for him to face me and answer me then.

[ Since apparently had respect enough to let her be tied up and left here, after all. ]

[redheadcarrier]

[ Asuka's brow furrows into a frown of confusion. She can get that. Sort of. Pride is a hell of a drug and she has it (well, superficially, at least) in spades. It still sounds kind of silly to her. ]

What if he doesn't come back?

[ That is always a possibility, right? ]

[shri]

[ The image of Sam is in her mind. Brief as that encounter had been. She held tightly to it. ]

He will. Or I will tire of this and find him myself.

[ How - well that will be a debate for when that occurs. But she's never been very good at being held. All the same, if she's to prove she can be trusted after that kind of arrival, this is the way to prove it. ]

[redheadcarrier]

[ The image flashes through her own mind and she knows him - sort of. She's spoken to him once or twice. Her lips twitch into a frown and she eases her weight back. ]

I know who he is. Idiot.

[ Not that she knows anything else about him, really. ]

[shri]

[ She laughs, still mean, because what else can she do about it otherwise? ]

Perhaps so. He may just be misguided. Vampires are to a singular point, deceitful creatures.

[ She's just a font of anti-vampire propaganda, apparently. ]

[redheadcarrier]

First time I've ever actually met one.

[ Asuka shrugs and puts her back against the wall, watching Lakshmi carefully. ]

Apparently you've been around them. What's up with that? Aside from revenge, what happened?

[shri]

[ She keeps herself still, nothing in her changes, her back into the wall, her legs curl under her, her fingers curled in loosely, the ties at her wrists, kept tightly. They are raw, just slightly where she tests them constantly. But her eyes slide over Asuka, predator slow in that stillness. Because what's up with that. ]

How do you mean?

[redheadcarrier]

Is that the only reason you want to kill them?

[ Asuka eyeballs Lakshmi, daring her to yell or get offended. ]

Just to get revenge?

[ She's treading on thin ice. Then again, when isn't she? ]