[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

[skaikru]

( even through the layers they're wearing, clarke can feel asuka's shoulders tense, every muscle coiled up to bodily reject this tenuous offer of physical comfort. still, the other girl hasn't thrown her off completely yet, nor stood up and stormed off into the crowd. that's all the leeway clarke needs to push her forced positive agenda. )

( This isn't pity. )

( it wasn't even sympathy. ...okay, it's kind of sympathy, but pushes deeper than that. there's the instinctual drive to alleviate the pain, to dress the wound, to treat asuka's symptoms. but clarke knows from experience that there's a difference between tending to physical wounds and dealing with those that ran right to someone's core. she knows that pity, sympathy, and empathy only go so far when you're wrapped in your own world of hurt and can't scream loud enough to find some catharsis.

envoys from different factions are sparing them odd glances, but it doesn't matter. )

( No one needs that. It doesn't do any good. But I think everyone deserves to be understood. )

( and hope. there's the press of that, of light at the end of the tunnel no matter how dark the current reality felt. that's what she's offering here, because clarke griffin is a gigantic hypocrite who struggles with that concept herself, but feels just fine impressing it upon others. )

[redheadcarrier]

[ She can't make a scene here. The mission won't allow it and Asuka, for all of her many faults, will follow orders for the sake of the mission. Or maybe there's something more to it. She both detests and secretly welcomes the link she has with others here. It isn't the all-encompassing, smothering feeling of having her sense of self subsumed into the sea of humanity like Third Impact. She's still her, but she no longer has any defenses (or perhaps now she can simply see clearly) and her emotions are on display for everyone in the Nest to see. And by the same token, she can feel the intent and the emotion that comes from everyone else.

A blessing and a curse.

Besides, Clarke is saying something that she's wanted to hear. She's wanted to be understood, but she's always feared letting people get close enough to do that. She's feared rejection, being discarded, being thought of as weak or not good enough. She hates people for being necessary and at the same time she craves their approval. She is full of contradictions and tangled emotions; a thicket of thorns that threaten to tear at Clarke if she gets closer. ]

( What makes you think you could ever understand me? )

[ Underneath that question is an a plea: look at me, don't leave me, don't abandon me, don't hate me.

She's coiled and tense, ready to stand and push away at a moment's notice. Waiting for Clarke's words. She's already cried herself to exhaustion once tonight. It wasn't as cathartic as she'd hoped but it also didn't leave her as weak as she'd feared. ]

[skaikru]

( well, perhaps luckily for the both of them, a little tense, dangerous foliage and sharp emotions have never managed to deter clarke once she set her mind to something. it's a gut pull, to care for asuka; an immediate sort of investment that isn't out of sorts for her, but maybe not entirely her own. maybe this was the force of the symbiote, edging them towards caring each other when the pathway for any sort of friendship has only just started laying bricks. it's hard to parse, so she doesn't try to. that can wait for a time when she wasn't faced with weighted questions.

the answer comes surprisingly easily. )

( I'll try to. If you let me. )

[redheadcarrier]

[ Clarke makes it sound so easy. Like she can flick a switch and understanding will come. Asuka's never been good at understanding people (even worse at trying) and she's never really found anyone willing to try. Not for her, anyway. Ikari failed to make any sort of headway and Misato and Kaji didn't want to try, either. She's terrified of the offer, though. Terrified that it will work and terrified that it won't.

She doesn't need people (but she wants them). She doesn't want to be a child (but she is one). She wants to stand on her own (but she wants love and adoration). How is she supposed to handle this?

If anything, Asuka is even more tense after those words. ]

( I don't need you. )

[ She throws up her walls to defend herself. They're supposed to be there to keep out the insincere. In a way, it's an invitation for Clarke to keep going. To see if she'll keep trying, even with Asuka screaming her defiance. ]

[skaikru]

( the suddenly erected mental barriers throw her for a loop. clarke's blinking behind the obscuring fabric of her veil, visibly taken aback for a few moments. it's like having a door slammed in her face and barricaded from the other side, and the force of the hinges have her finally dropping her hand from asuka's shoulder, back down to her lap for gloved fingers to twist and pull at each other. but despite the physical retreat, clarke's there. pressed against that door with good intentions and that shameful type of determination that meant if she fell on her face, she'd fall hard. this isn't the first time she's been locked out of a fortress; she'd found her own way in last time, and brought down a mountain. )

( I know you don't. )

( assumptions spoken slowly, with a tired sort of conviction. but need and deserve were two very different things. there's a weary sort of half smile, the impression forced and faint. she's suddenly very sad, and the exhaustion of the action packed day and a half find ways to worm into her bones. the party of play goers around them has broken off to chatter excitedly about the pilgrimage, and clarke's mind drifts briefly towards a bed and lexa, but there's no move to stand and excuse herself. maybe they were both reeling from ghosts, and one of them just hid it better. )

( Either way. I'm offering. )

( is this a threat of caring? a promise? maybe a little bit of both. )

[redheadcarrier]

[ I know you don't. Is that the answer Asuka was hoping to get? She's not sure. Someone actually let her give vent to her emotions tonight and it's left her drained and tired and unsure. Clarke isn't giving up, though. She's not dismissing her. She's just waiting at the door and Asuka hesitates. She's been making small, tiny steps since she arrived her, finding herself getting intertwined with the people here. It's hard and it hurts and it frightens her, but here she is all the same. Her own hands settle in her lap, fingers clenched in the gathered cloth of her robes.

She's tired. And she can feel that Clarke is tired, too, but maybe for different reasons. ]

( Why? )

[ It's not a rejection, but a question of Clarke's motives. Asuka has to make this difficult. It's how she protects herself. ]

[skaikru]

( call it her brief but in depth experience in murky political waters, but clarke decidedly steers away from what she deems the obvious answer. pushes down land mine thoughts of you seem like you do need it, skirts the repetitive you deserve it. she sighs a little, leans a little further back into the comfortable cushions of their seat. )

( I'm new here. And I could use a few friends. )

( beneath the veil, the trademark clarke griffin tired grin makes another appearance. this is her deflection; this is her simultaneously attempting to break the tension, while also offering to shoulder the brunt of the vulnerability in their conversation. she's trying. )

[redheadcarrier]

[ There's silence for a few moments. Or as silent as the mind link can get. There's still a sense of looming discomfort and the idea of alienation. She feels horrifically alone and tired and scared and angry, but she doesn't want to be. At the same time, that fear is very real and very immediate and it's of allowing anyone to see the weakness she tries to hide. Her hands curl, clench, relax. ]

( ...OK. )

[ It's a small, single word. ]

[skaikru]

( sometimes a single word is all that's needed. sometimes it carries the weight of a million things unspoken, and clarke takes a moment to chart through every possible silent addendum in asuka's inflection. it'd be easier if they were face to face, if she could see the litany of emotions flitting across the other girls face, but feeling the ghostly impressions of fear, discomfort, and a tired sort of anger are enough. they're familiar. she'd run away from people before, and had been dragged back kicking and screaming.

there's the pull to reach out and place her hand over asuka's curled fist, but clarke resists, unwilling to disrupt this, their tentative even ground. still, the sensation of the touch is impressed via the neural link, one last press of comfort and solidarity. )

( Okay, ) ( she echoes softly. offers a smile, then a nod, like that bound them in this newly forged friendship.

the play is over. crowds are forming and chatting and eating, creating a merry ambiance around them. despite the choked waves of need and abandonment issues that may have inadvertently slipped through the cracks in asuka's mental armor during the bulk of their conversations, clarke still shifts like she's preparing to stand. everyone needs space, at least physically, to compose themselves from time to time. she's encroached on asuka's long enough. and perhaps a little selfishly, clarke is tired. )

( I'm not really one for parties, so I think I'm going to go back to the rooms. ) ( the impression of a weary smile persists apologetically, the press of her conscious a solid attempt at consolation: i'm not leaving you, just leaving. )

( But if you need me — ) ( ever. an important emphasis, unspoken. ) ( Just let me know. )

( so much for that whole "not trusting everyone just because our brains are connected thing". it took approximately 30 seconds for clarke griffin to get invested. )