station72 | [hatch log / mission: hyrypia] the winds that will be howling at all hours

Entry tags:

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

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 )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

❰ when sam's mind reaches for his, damon tries to close himself off at first. he doesn't care about the new arrivals, even if they should bring someone he knows. the two people who would matter most are already up on the station, asleep, and so he doesn't care who shows up now. but sam's mind is insistent, and damon opens the connection between them just wide enough to be able to snap at him to go away —

but sam speaks first, and what he says has damon on his feet before he can stop himself. elena is here, she's a vampire, we're coming — damon's in the private apartments, in normal clothes that he compelled on the waypoint, he can't come meet them without spending more time on getting into that ridiculous costume than he cares to. he sends london ahead of him instead, hissing at sam to just get her here, now, bring her to me — but it's taking too long, sam is too distracted, she's too hurt.

london lands on sam's shoulder and screeches in his ear, a noise not entirely suited to his crow-like features. his talons dig into the meat of sam's shoulder and he starts flapping his wings, trying to drag sam back — the message is clear.

come here, come back, don't be where damon can't be with you. ❱

[ Her gloved hands reach up to clutch at the costume he too wears, holding on to the fabric instead of him because she doesn't want to hurt him. She needs this so much, this embrace from another person who's telling her with certainty that she doesn't have to be okay, that she doesn't have to be the one who's always fine. Her friends aren't here, the ones who always expect her to be strong and solid and fine. It's Damon who's here, and with Damon... He's seen her at her worst, seen her wallow in her grief and slowly, eventually climb back up from it. He's never expected her to be anything she's not, and that's--

The sudden arrival and screeching of a bird makes Elena jump, because she hadn't been paying attention and even her vampire senses had been overwhelmed by her inner turmoil. She pulls back from Sam to really look at the bird, because it's not a normal one like she's used to, and it's entirely clear that it's trying to convey a message.

Damon. A smile that Sam won't be able to see but can certainly feel blooms into existence as things click into place. ] Hi, bird.

[ If it was up to Sam, he'd give her a little bit longer, standing there with both his arms and mind wrapped around hers. She could use the break, it feels like, just a little bit of time to just be, to get used to all of this - and maybe it'll be hard to give her that when she's been thrown right into the mission, but between Sam and Damon, he's pretty sure they'll do their best to give it to her.

But it's not up to Sam at the moment, because there's a six-eyed alien bird screeching in his ear.

Something settles back into place when Damon stops trying to keep their connection closed, like the faintest hint of tension you hadn't realized you'd been carrying in your neck until it was gone. They might have fought, and they may still have shit to deal with, but there's still a piece of him that's missing without Damon. There's a nudge - light, teasing, buoyed in part by Damon and London and in part by feeling Elena's smile - and the impression of you could already be here, although it's followed up by an easy acknowledgement that they're on their way. ]

We're being summoned. [ He starts walking again, automatically adjusting to compensate for the bird on his shoulder. This time he stays closer to her, enough that his arm brushes hers as they move. ] I'm guessing he did this back home?

Edited 2017-07-29 01:37 (UTC)

[ There's a trickle of peace that settles into Elena as they continue moving toward where Damon is, the promise of his presence and his help and understanding enough to keep her going. And underneath it all, buried under layers of sediment and shipwreckage, there's a flicker of happiness -- because Damon is here, and he knows she is too. ]

There was one time, yeah. [ There's a drop of that happiness in her voice, and the memories surfaces of a day spent writing in her journal in the cemetery, of a bird speaking to her and the strangest fog rolling in. Damon, she realizes now, though she hadn't then. ]

[ Honestly, Sam doesn't need a mind link to be able to tell just how happy Damon makes Elena - though it sure as hell doesn't hurt. Damon'd been so damn sure that Elena could never feel the same way about him that he did about her, that she'd always choose Stefen, but now Sam wonders.

He likes to think he isn't biased, but, well. It's obvious where his own preference lies. He's curious to know more about Damon from Elena's point of view, though. ]

Tell me about him? What's he like, back home?

[ For a moment, Elena forgets how hungry she is. The smell of Sam's blood drifts under the surface of the water, masked by the warmth of Damon's flame, the vibrance he'd brought to her life over the last few years. ]

He's... awful. [ But she laughs as she says it, quiet and throaty, just barely there but still there. ] And wonderful. He gets under my skin every chance he gets, and he pretends not to care but-- He does.

[ She remembers his smile, the concerned looks he'd always given her, the teasing glint in his eyes. The mornings he'd greeted her with coffee and absolutely no expectation in his gaze, just acceptance and... love. ]

[ Sam laughs, too, soft and amused - his connection with her isn't open enough for him to get the full memories, but he gets the impression and the feelings behind them, and that's enough. ]

He is pretty terrible, huh. But yeah, he cares so much more than he's willing to admit. [ There's a pause, then the impression of a sly smile, warmth behind his words. ] When he's not freaking out about us taking too long, we should talk more. Just don't tell him I think he's a good guy, he'll probably punch me again.

That sounds like Damon. [ Her level of happiness rises a little at that warmth she feels behind Sam's words. It's so good to know that someone else cares about Damon, that he has someone in his corner who understands him. He deserves that and so much more, even if he doesn't see that himself.

Something shifts in her, a need to be there already, and she pulls in a quick breath. ] Can we go a little faster? I-- I need to see him.

[ There's another chuckle, a swirl of fondness and exasperation that he doesn't bother to try to hide - well, he does a little, but only because honestly, the way he feels about Damon is something a lot stronger than fond.

Damon is... well. Sam'd say he's family, if he didn't know about Damon's complicated issues with his family. But some things run deeper than blood.

But he nods at Elena's request, picking up the pace - faster than a human could walk, though he knows not as fast as a vampire. ]

It's just right up ahead, we should be there in just a minute or so.

❰ it's agonizing minutes before they show up in the apartments, time damon spends pacing through sam's room like a caged tiger. if he'd just gotten into that stupid costume he could be with them by now, but he didn't want to waste time on it and now if he tried to put it on they'd show up while he was in the middle of it and that would just look stupid.

not that he cares about looking stupid. it's just... he can wait. probably.

he can feel the two of them getting closer, sam's link drawing ever closer to his, and the nearer they get the more damon paces, until they're just in the common room and he's stopped at the foot of one of the beds. they open the door, and damon blurs up to the two of them to pull them in, slamming the door behind them. he knows sam's mind, saw him leave the apartments earlier, and knows which one of the overdressed people in front of him is sam. which means...

damon pushes the hood off elena's head, impatient, and pulls down the scarf covering her face. for a long moment he just stares at her, wrestling with his own emotions, until he pulls her into a tight hug. london gives an indignant squawk and flies to sam's shoulder, but damon doesn't even react. ❱

Took you long enough, ❰ he murmurs, running his fingers through her hair. ❱

[ That fondness and exasperation of Sam's is something she's intimately familiar with when it comes to Damon. One second he makes her laugh and the next she's rolling her eyes at him -- or uttering a frustrated Damon with her signature look. It's their thing, a cycle that is neither vicious nor harmful. It's just how they are, and she wouldn't change it.

She keeps up with Sam without any trouble at all, and it takes all her willpower not to zip ahead with her vampire speed, to keep up appearances for anyone who might be watching. Just a minute was a minute too long.

And then they're there, Sam opens the door and she's pulled inside, only seconds passing like heartbeats as Damon unveils her and-- The moment he puts his arms around her, she breaks in the best way. All the stress, the panic and fear, it crumbles under the pressure of those arms, and her gloved hands clutch at him with unchecked strength. ]

Damon.

[ She breathes his name like a prayer and in that moment she believes that everything might be okay now. She's not alone, he's here and he'll help her, she can get through this. It's a moment that won't last long before it's chased away by the force of her broodmate's hatred and disgust, but she savors every second of it, just as she savors the feeling of being safe in his arms. ]

❰ she breaks, and he breaks with her, all of the anxiety and desperate, gnawing unhappiness he's felt since she fell into her coma washing away in the tidal wave of rightness that is having her in his arms. he settles with elena around, in a way he never does otherwise, the roiling, howling mess that is his head going quiet as soon as he has her within arm's reach. damon has never known peace, really, not in his entire 171 year long existence, but being around elena is the closest he's ever gotten to it. it was easy to forget, over the few days she's been gone, that he was even capable of such a thing as peace.

for a long moment he just holds her, his grip tight even as the rest of his body is lax, all the tension melting off of him. it's impossible to be anything but calm with her in his arms. ❱

When did you wake up? ❰ he asks eventually, drawing back only far enough to look at her. his arms slip from her shoulders to her waist, keeping her close — he's not going to be able to let her go for hours. maybe ever. ❱

[ He is an anchor for her, a constant in her life that she'd never expected. She'd hated him once, been so angry at the choices he'd made, but the more she'd come to understand him, the more he meant to her, and... it's hard to hate someone who loves you the way Damon Salvatore does. Someone who puts you before anyone else in the world, as frustrating as that can be at times. ]

Yesterday. [ That much she's sure of, though something like a measure of hours would escape her. She hasn't slept since she woke and all the hours have begun to blur together, the journey to the planet the only thing helping her properly mark the passage of time. The memory of counting those minutes comes back to her, the struggle of breathing through the hunger, hiding away from another living soul for fear of hurting anyone, and that hunger rises in her again now and her expression turns uncomfortable.

The hunger is accompanied by that disgust -- for the craving for blood, for what she is now, for the destruction she'll cause. Continue to cause. ]

❰ damon is about to respond, when he can feel her hunger expanding in his own mind. hunger and disgust, discomfort with what she is, and it hits him all of a sudden — sam had said she was a vampire. how that can be, he doesn't know — she shouldn't have turned from drinking his blood unless she died, and there are plenty people who have gone into comas here and not died. sam's steve is one of them.

he can ask about that in a second. what matters most is getting her to calm down and focus. damon squeezes elena's waist gently, trying to draw her attention from her own thoughts back to him. ❱

Hey, 'Lena. Breathe. I know you're hungry and it sucks, but we have to focus.

❰ after a second, damon opens up his own mind to elena, just a fraction, like a corridor leading her to one thought in particular. there is a section of his head walled off at all times, though the wall is semi-permeable — his hunger is kept in check behind this wall, even as he is always aware of it. right now he's almost starving, but he can focus on other things because that wall is in place. he invites her to poke at the wall, see how it works, and try to erect one of her own. it won't be easy for a newbie vampire, and likely won't hold long, but if she can figure it out, she should be able to hold a conversation long enough for him to get answers out of her. ❱

[ It's only because it's Damon that she's able to listen, to focus on his voice and the feeling of his mind. She follows that subtle prompting, creeping down that corridor and taking in the wall he so obviously means to show her. A wall? It seems ridiculous in a way, and yet -- if this is what works for him, what keeps him from killing ever human in sight to sate the hunger, she has to try.

She prods at the wall, going over the size and construction as best she can, trying to understand the idea of it, and then seconds later she's thrown together her own. It's a walk of matchstick instead of bricks, ready to go up in smoke at any minute, but it muffles the craving enough and she slumps against him in physically palpable relief.]

❰ it is a little ridiculous, but you have to imagine something, and his usual go-to images wouldn't work for elena — rivers of blood, walls of feathers, impenetrable fog... that's not her style. she'll find something that works for her, but for now she's stuck with his little wall.

as she builds her own wall, damon just stands with her, breathing, slow and deliberate, hoping her breath will sync with his. he can feel her panic battering at the edges of his own shields, and he wants to know why this is happening, how she turned, what could have happened in the few days she was asleep to force her to make the choice — but she can't explain anything to him if she can't think for hunger or breathe for fear.

eventually, elena slumps, the predator in her quietened, at least for now, and his hands move from her waist to her face, drawing her chin up to look him in the eye. ❱

You with me now? Can you tell me how all this happened? Last I knew you were human and in a coma.

[ It's good that Damon keeps touching her. That contact helps her to focus on the moment, on where he is, and keeps her from diving too far into her own head and the one so strongly connected to it. There are others she can feel there as well, so many others, but Lakshmi is the strongest and it's better if she doesn't get trapped down that path.

She follows his prompting and looks into his eyes, brown meeting blue, and frowns in sincere confusion at his question. What is he talking about? ]

What do you mean? I've never been in a coma before.

❰ it's damon's turn to frown in confusion, though his is slightly more angry than sincere. ❱

You fell into a coma right before we left for Hyrypia, you and Stefan both. It sucked. You're telling me you don't remember?

❰ he'd expected her to be disoriented, sure, a little confused about the couple days she's missing, but... to completely deny that it happened? that, he wasn't expecting. ❱

[ She can read that anger there and she doesn't understand it. She doesn't understand any of this and it's itching at her anxiety again. ]

Stefan? He's-- [ Stefan's here? But... in a coma? ] Damon, I just had all of this happen to me yesterday. We were arguing about my transition, and then there was... something...

[ Something had chased her. Hunted her. Tried to kill her. The Enemy, she knows now, not that that makes it any easier to swallow. ]

I woke up and everything was-- [ Terrifying. Overwhelming. Disorienting. Wrong. ]

We've never argued about your transition. We've never talked about it, because I didn't know it happened!

❰ this isn't making any sense. elena isn't making any sense. she went into a coma and came back a vampire, but insists he was there to argue with her about it. he's been in hyrypia too long for that to even be possible, but —

but.

if more timeline fuckery was happening... if damon was on the back end of it this time, instead of the front... ❱

Elena, what day was it, back in Mystic Falls? Last time I was there, it was June 21st.

[ He didn't know? How could he not know,he'd been right there with her, trying to find a way to stop it, to give her the life he thought she deserved. ]

June? [ How...? ] It was November 7. The day after I died.

❰ november. about four months after the last thing he remembers from mystic falls — not the ten months elena was missing before, but enough that he's probably missed some pretty important stuff. damon sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. ten seconds. he can take ten seconds to be pissed off at the world, and then he needs to catch elena up and fix this.

somehow.

one, two... ❱

This happened when I woke up a couple months ago. You woke up with me, but we weren't from the same point in time. You were from the night you realized what Stefan and I were. That happens, apparently — Sam's best friend Steve didn't even know who he was when Sam first showed up. The Nest pulls us from different points in our timelines, maybe even from different universes. I might not even be your Damon.

❰ if the words make elena nervous, all she has to do is pay attention to his mental landscape — whether they are each other's damon and elena or not, she still is elena, and that means that no matter what, he loves her and will protect her. it just makes their lives a little more... complicated, at least right now. ❱

[ Four months. Different points in time. Different universes. It's all completely crazy, but so is all of this, and everything else in their lives. Vampires, werewolves, doppelgangers, hybrids, witches. Mysterious enemies, space stations, alien symbiotes. If this is their lives now... she just has to go with it. Adapt and keep moving forward. Somehow.

The only thing that makes her nervous is not knowing if their pasts are the same. If they're from different universes, if there are particular things that are different, then everything might be different. But then she does take note of his mind, of the steadiness there, the strength of his feelings for her. He's still Damon, and that's so very comforting. ]

It doesn't matter. You're still Damon. You're still my friend, and... we can get through this.

[ It's said with more determination than she actually feels, but she's trying to fool herself as much as him. ]

❰ it's not hard to see that elena's determination is fake — even if damon wasn't in her head, he knows her well enough to know when she's faking. still, there's a truth to "fake it til you make it", and if she tells herself she can make it through this enough times, maybe she'll be able to believe it someday. until they get to that point, damon will be there to remind her. ❱

Yes, we can.

❰ where her confidence was fake, damon's is completely real. ❱

Right now, I need to know what I missed when you were up on the Station, and don't tell me nothing.

❰ given that she never wanted to be a vampire, some distress on elena's part would be understandable, but what he feels from her now, hidden behind her makeshift little wall... that isn't just about being a vampire, he knows it's not. ❱

What you--

[ Missed. On the Station. When she woke up. Elena has no training to keep her thoughts to herself, there's no wall or even a flimsy barrier to hide behind as she follows the train of thought to the hours after she'd woken up. The terror she'd felt at being alone, at knowing that she needed to feed because she was so hungry but also knowing she might kill someone if she tried. And--

Lakshmi. She tenses, both mentally and physically, at the memory of meeting her broodmate. The hatred and disgust are as potent in her mind now as they were then, digging in deep with claws as sharp as the knife she'd nearly been stabbed with. That Prince had come along to stand between them...

Elena looks up at Damon with fear in her eyes, her jaw trembling as she begins to believe again that she's the monster Lakshmi thinks she is. ]

Damon.

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

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