[hatch log] i had a dream which was not all a dream

[onemind]

CHARACTERS: New Hosts & EVERYONE
WHERE: Station 72; Hyrypia - The Red Coast
WHEN: DAY :025 - DAY :026
SUMMARY: Somewhere deep in the void between multiverses, a fresh clutch of Hosts hatches; getting them down to Hyrypia proves to be more complicated than usual.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. Need a warning added? PM this account please!

STATION 72
DAY :025

NEW HATCHES
YOU WAKE UP and the universe and you in it are suddenly different. --No. That's not right. You're you, the universe is as it's always been, and there's no 'suddenly' about it. But it's been a while, hasn't it? It feels like waking up from a very deep, extended sleep or coming up from the darkness of some wine dark sea. Nothing is different and yet everything is.

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. Some of these emotions might be 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. There are a handful others very like you here, all of them somehow intimately familiar.

Welcome to Station 72. Beyond this room, the vast Station is quiet and still. It feels for all the world like a shell for some vast dark thing.

Eventually, a sensation manifests out of the hollowness:


PREPARE YOURSELF
THE VOICE IN YOUR HEAD is sound and sensation: a brilliantly warm shaft of sunlight through smoky glass - a gauzy curtain twitching in some summer breeze - the blooming pleasure of a familiar face after a very long time away. It says or feels like:

( Come meet with me, won't you? )
Where exactly this meeting is supposed to occur isn't immediately clear, but head in the direction that seems correct and eventually Station 72 gets you where you're meant to be: a small grassy lawn in the center of the lush, circular gardens where an aging woman waits on a stone bench. The pin straight sheet of her hair hangs like a graying curtain and the sensation from her is lovely and golden, real delight pouring through her like light through a pinhole camera. She smiles and sets aside the book in her lap.

"There you are. Unfortunately, you won't be here long but we'd like to answer as many of your questions as we're able before you leave this place."


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 other than the people you woke up with there's a distinct lack of company 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 is the most proactive distraction? Otherwise-- well there's plenty of places to get lost...

By the simulated morning, a strange archaic ship has arrived on the Hangar. Its very alien pilots are in the process of unloading-- bodies. No, scratch that, they're clearly still alive, though in some kind of comatose state. One of the pilots - a pale female alien who calls herself Rhan - says, "Well, this is awkward. We were supposed to be done with this already. Uh don't mind us, darling. We'll finish up here and get on our way. In the meantime, why don't you go through your packs and get changed?"

She nods toward two trunks on the hangar deck where assortment of pre-prepared packs are waiting for each new Host. In each pack is a series of items, including a set of beautiful and very all-encompassing robes. Better get comfortable. Not hot on the fabrics or patterns in your pack? Mixing and matching with your new best friends is totally acceptable.

Eventually, you leave the Station. If you're lucky, you might one day make it back.

HYRYPIA - THE RED COAST
LATE DAY :026

A PURPOSEFULLY SUBTLE WELCOME
UNDER THE COVER OF DARKNESS, Collector and Lyr make their way through the barracks where the Hosts on Hyrypia are meant to be sleeping. It's nearing whatever the Hyrypian equivalent of midnight is; if you're awake, all the better. If not? Expect to be roused (gently and silently by Collector, rudely and abruptly by Lyr).

"Get dressed. We're going for a walk."

There's nothing quite so suspicious as bringing a bunch of reinforcements to the planet in the aftermath of a rather public murder, which means a highly ritualized midnight procession of Carbasuchians into the highlands. It's easier to secret a handful of newbies in an anonymous group, right?

That meeting in the dead of night in the rocky wilderness above the Red Coast bears even a passing resemblance to the strange occurrence on DAY :010 is probably just a coincidence. Besides, there aren't any mystery circles burned into the stone and grass here: just a stealth ship materializing out of the black night and touching down in a stony outcropping where it disgorges the freshly hatched (or newly reawakened) Hosts.

---

((OOC Notes: This log covers the hatch on Day :025 as well as the arrival of new Hosts on Hyrypia late on Day :026. Feel free to make your own logs and posts additional to this if you care to. You can find additional information pertaining to the Red Coast on the previous mission log (located here); newbies are welcome to utilize that log as well as it occurs within the same time period as the hatch.

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're brand new to the game. If you have any questions, please hit up either the mission's question thread, the FAQ or MOD CONTACT pages!))

NAVIGATION • GAME CALENDAR • MISSION: HYRYPIA • FAQ • MOD CONTACT • GLOSSARY

( CODE BY WHAMBAM )

Comments

[greentech]

I'm still working on it, honestly.

[ Especially after her recent encounter with her brood-mate. It's weird to think about. ]

But I can shut out most of the noise, at least.

[whereabout]

Great.

[ This bodes so very well for his future here. ]

Any tips?

[greentech]

Uh, well-

[ Pidge frowns, eyes narrowing as she tries to think of a good way to approach the topic. ]

It's like... sort of filtering stuff out. Like when you're not really paying attention in class and you sort of just zone out and let the teacher blah-blah-blah, you know?

[whereabout]

[ ...zoning out in class, huh. Definitely more Estelle's thing than his. Joshua was an excellent student. ]

I...think I get the idea.

[ It is so not his wheelhouse, not after so much training drilling into him that every detail could be vital. ]

[greentech]

[ So was Pidge, honestly. She just got bored with stuff she already knew how to do. ]

You can also think of it like... a sieve, I guess. Where you're filtering out the stuff you don't want, but letting it flow anyway. It's... hard to really explain. It takes practice.

[whereabout]

Okay, that makes more sense.

[ Although still runs a bit counter to the way he's been taught to look at and hang onto everything he can get.

This...will take some getting used to. ]

[greentech]

[ Oh, yeah. None of this ever really feels normal.

Then again, that broodbond seems... reassuring now. More than it did a little while ago. Which isn't strange, but still. ]

Uh, do you have any questions I can help with...?

[whereabout]

Too many, probably.

[ Said a bit dryly. Because really, this entire situation is "question overload," but a lot of things, even if he's wondering about them, aren't really priority information per se. There are things he'll need to know and things he'd like to know, and when he sorts out the ones that have been addressed from the ones that haven't, one thing rises to the top of the priority list - and naturally, it's not one of the things that involves his feelings, worries, or general state of well-being. ]

Can you fill me in on what's happened on this mission so far?

[ The background reading was informative, but more about the general situation than what's been happening since they got boots on the ground. ]

[greentech]

Oh, boy...

[ Pidge clicks her tongue. There's a lot. Where does she even start? She wants to help, but there's a lot to run through. After a moment, she rubs her chin through her veil. ]

Uh - help me out. What do you already know?

[whereabout]

Most of what we were given is the background stuff. Objectives, culture, geographical information. There's not so much about what's actually been accomplished so far.

[ Or not accomplished, as the case may be. ]

[greentech]

Oh boy. Well... It's complicated. So far we've managed to maintain our cover and w'eve... sort of ingratiated ourselves with some people? We're pretty sure that the Enemy - whoever they are - are either here or influencing one of the groups. We found evidence of some kind of landing earlier.

[ Hmm. ]

Uh... We... lost someone. One of the hosts died during the last part of the pilgrimage, but... he was protecting someone important. So that might helps us out in the end after all. I'm... probably leaving stuff out, but I need to think about it some more.

[whereabout]

[ ...ah. There's a flash of something like muted sympathy for the loss, but he's been brushing shoulders with death for so long that it's hard to work up much more than that, for someone he never knew. ]

Do we have any theories about which group they're working through?

[greentech]

Not yet. I've heard some ideas, but we don't really know for sure. Could be the Descendants. Even the Seconds. But we don't have enough data...

[ Which is incredibly frustrating. ]

[whereabout]

[ Hm. That's...definitely frustrating.

So. Lack of data means the next logical action is to create a situation that will give them some. Which means jumping the hurdle of - ]

Do we even know what we're looking for?

[greentech]

Not really.

[ Pidge frowns. ]

I don't think we've ever actually seen the enemy, honestly.

[whereabout]

[ Some vague noise of frustration. Awesome. ]

[greentech]

Yeah, I don't like it either. But we can't really do anything about that yet.

[whereabout]

Technically speaking, we probably can, but it wouldn't end well.

[ If they haven't seen the enemy, then creating a situation that would be tempting enough for the enemy to reveal themselves is...probably not worth the information it would get them. ]

[greentech]

Well, yeah. There's gotta be another way, though. Or something we can do. I just... hate waiting, you know?

[ Waiting is the literal worst thing. Of all time. ]

[whereabout]

...yeah, I get what you mean.

[ He's never had a problem with being patient, at least in his life up until now. But now that he's finally having to grapple with the kinds of problems that only have emotional solutions, not logical ones, he's finally starting to understand that kind of childish desire to just do something that makes it all go away. ]

[greentech]

Every minute I'm here-

[ She shakes her head. No point thinking about it. ]

I just don't want to be stuck here forever. I have important things to do back home.

[whereabout]

You're not the only one.

[ Things to do, and more importantly, promises he's made. ]

[greentech]

Yeah, I know. That's why I'm going to figure a way out. I want to help, but - I can do that at home. Not here.

[ She's got conviction, at least. ]

[whereabout]

Has anyone ever left?

[ - aside from in a body bag. ]

[greentech]

Not that I know of.

[ Pidge admits that with a groan. ]

They either die or they... go into that weird coma thing. It's stupid.