[mission: hyrypia] big, but not coarse - merely on another scale

[onemind]

CHARACTERS: Everyone
WHERE: The Red Coast
WHEN: DAY :036 - DAY :037
SUMMARY: A multiverse away, new hatches wake on the Station. On Hyrypia, the Garstall hunt begins in earnest - and wraps up with terrible consequences.
WARNINGS: Animal hunting and slaughter, death, Bad Times at Ridgemont High. Need something added? PM the mod account!

STATION 72
DAY :036

THE HATCH - NEW HOSTS
YOU WAKE UP and the universe and you in it are altered. --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 from a very deep sleep or coming up from the darkness of some wine colored sea. Nothing is different and yet everything is.

You find yourself lying in a small, hexagonal chamber with a gentle light emanating from its walls. If you were injured during your escape, you're now 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 until you disconnect the IV running from the base of your neck to the chamber wall.

Then 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.

Eventually you find your way out of the pod, having found whatever belongings you brought with you and a change of crisp white clothes in a cubby near your feet. Once you descend to the Nesting Deck, 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.

EXPLORE the strange environment you've found yourself in. The Station seems to be both infinitely vast and strangely small. It's possible to wander along halls and through chambers for hours, only to turn a corner and find yourself in a place you've already been because your mind happened to think of it.

PREPARE for what's to come. Not long after your arrival, a pair of aliens arrive in a dark ship bearings mission kits for everyone. Get changed into your disguises, brush up on your mission briefing, and ask what questions you have while you can. It isn't long before you're loaded onto the ship and leave the Station behind.

HYRYPIA - THE RED COAST
DAY :036

A CALLING
A FAMILIAR FEELING to those that know it is sign enough that the elder hosts must depart to fetch whoever it is remains on the station. But this time, it's not just two of them that strike out under the cover of night. Instead, all four of them make their way from Whalsome House.

( We will not be gone long. ) Collector’s voice is a cheerful lilt in their minds as she gathers a book in hand. ( Try to have only pleasant stories for me, when we return. )

And with that Rhan, The Collector, Siva'co and Lyr are gone. They take with them the comatose Hosts and leave the rest to their own devices.



HYRYPIA - THE RED COAST
DAY :037

THE HUNT
DAWN BREAKS over a coastline already bustling with activity. The day has finally come to take those long boats out beyond the shallows and hunt the massive serpent-like Garstall in earnest. A familiar horn is blown and anyone who wishes to participate files down onto the beach and is divided into groups, a dozen or two people for each boat. There's a celebratory air to the whole affair, a true pleasure in taking the boats out into the sea. For all that the Barithian Hunt was anxious and quiet and tense, this is is a day of laughter and shouting and singing rowing songs as the boats slash their way through the open water toward the massive creatures roiling through the deeper water off the coast.

SHORT HANDED might not be the first thought that comes to mind on the bustling ships, but at some point during the hunt it becomes clear that Keya isn't present despite the fact that she's been attending every training session. Should anyone ask, one of the Descendants confesses that Keya skipped the hunt because Shee Naraxa secured a meeting between her and the heads of House Tyrisson concerning "her peace talk idea." The news seems to surprise one of the other Descendants; while it’s difficult to read her expression, it’s clear this is not what she expected to hear. She remains tense for the remainder of the voyage.

FINDING THE GARSTALL is simple enough for the experienced sailors of the Red Coast. They look for signs where the water’s color is more pronounced and where the waves seem to stir in unusual directions. They direct those who have less to do with controlling the fickle vessels to keeping a weather eye out for these signs, and to let out a cry when they spot them. Once a Garstall is spotted, all the nearby boats must rally together to take it.

ONCE SPOTTED what had been a pleasant but almost routine sail becomes something far different. Orders and directions are shouted down the lengths of the vessels. Hunters are armed and those in charge of ballast set to their stations.

The boats maneuver incredibly well for their size, their narrowness slashing through the sea to close on the Garstall that has risen near the surface. The beast is huge - larger than any single boat. It's like a great tree come to life, a twisting trunk of a body in the waves. The ships cut in separate directions, and when the signal horn sounds then the hunt truly begins. Hunters begin to hurl harpoons into the waves, aiming for the Garstall's sinuous body.

When the harpoons find their target, the whole boat shudders and tips. There's shouting and some laughter, the eager deck hands compensating for the drag of the beast by sliding weight across the deck to the opposite side of the boat. On one of the boats, a line snaps and sends the ship springing back the opposite direction - several of the sailors thrown into the water even as the hunters lose their footing. On another boat they fail to slide the ballast quickly enough and the Garstall wrenches them forward as it attempts to dive, leaving the other two boats attached to the beast attempting to compensate. On still another boat, they subdue a smaller beast much more easily. Sailors line the boat's side as one of the crewmen slides down the harpoon line, knife in hand to finish the job.

It’s a chaotic experience - but a successful one.

RAISE A BLADE, RAISE A GLASS
IN THE AFTERMATH of the successful hunt, the Garstall's massive carcasses are dredged up into the shallows. It's hot work to beach the massive animal. Once it's in the foaming purple surf, the most delicate parts of it must be stripped from the carcass before they can rot. The harvesting of the fat under the Garstall's heavy plates can wait, but the exposed flesh must be stripped promptly to avoid rot. Luckily, this work is done under the guise of celebration and the result is half slaughter and half bonfire beach party as night falls over the Red Coast.

BUTCHERY might not be the right work for everyone, but the locals leading the task are good natured and encouraging.

FEASTING on the sweet meat of the Garstall is a given. Huge slabs of meat are roasted over equally massive fires as the work is completed. Drinks are passed around. Music is played. Fashionably late, the heads of Tyrisson House come down for their manor (for a split second in the company of Shee Naraxa before she peels away to join the rest of the Descendants) to give another cheerful speech. The work is hard but rewarding, and for a moment the tenor of this place is so very good.

A DREADFUL DISCOVERY
BUT A MONSTER IS HUNTING and just after the speech, a horrifying sense of dread grips the Hosts. It's sickening - a vomiting, visceral wrongness that reaches out of the universe and finds the symbiote and the Host mind and sinks its hooks there exactly as it did that night on the road from Naerstone. Should anyone follow that dreadful sensation, they'll find themselves in the twisted orchard near Tyrisson House, mist clinging low to the ground in the chilling evening, lit only by a pale moon. What waits for them there is a pitch black circle scorched into the loamy earth - so exact and so precisely like the one discovered so many days earlier. And near this perfect circle: the broken body of Keya, her throat split open and blood still wet on the ground.


NEW FRIENDS (OF ALL SHAPES AND SIZES)
NEWS OF THE MURDER SPREADS and all the envoys are encouraged to return to their quarters for their safety while those in the employ of Tyrisson house secure the area-- encouragement which turns to insistence until all the members of the Envoys have returned their respective housing. Lights are lit in every courtyard and at every corner. Tension runs high. During this time, as the Hosts wait in their own row of Whalsome House's low stone buildings, company arrives:

A VISITOR arrives with a special request. An older Descendant wrapped in a heavy cloak with a deep hood comes knocking. When she reveals her face, Lakshmi might recognize her as Keya's aunt. "My name is Casiria," she says. "I believe you knew my niece."

It’s clear from her demeanor that she has far more to say before she goes.

FAMILIAR FRIENDS in the shape of newly hatched hosts and your senior chaperones arrive not long after Casiria's departure. They find their way to Whalsome House in a hush, having apparently faced some difficulty in dodging the added security. Better catch everyone up quickly.

---

((OOC Notes: This log serves as a general catch-all for events from DAY :036 through DAY :037. Please feel free to create your logs outside of this one, though we strongly recommend not forward-dating to the following morning. Please be aware that in the context of this log, new Hosts won't be present on Hyrypia until after Casiria has left. 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

casiria | day :037

[onemind]

((ooc: this thread will be a free-for-all with no set tagging order. please try to keep conversations with Casiria to one thread, but feel free to split off into side conversations with other hosts!))

[She stands for only a short moment in the doorway before casting a glance over her shoulder and moving fully into the room, out of the sight of anyone who may be looking this way from the other stone buildings. Perhaps it's done by accident, but she'd positioned herself so no one could possibly catch sight of her from any window, even were they were not covered.]

You will have to forgive my intrusion, but I believe I can trust you to help me.

[Her voice is low and brittle, but unwavering despite the fading signs of recent grief on her impassive face.]

backflips in

[deployed]

What do you need?

[ Action is a relief. It's easier for Bellamy to make an immediate offer than to try to express sympathy. What good did we're sorry for your loss do this woman? Whatever he felt for Keya, he had to tamp it down and set it aside before it became something ugly and destructive. Helping this woman would be a welcome distraction, even with the riot of emotion from the Nest rattling in his head. ]

[erbier]

[ If Casiria wishes to speak, it can only behoove them for her to do so. Ilde doesn't hesitate at all to move from 'what do you need' to: ]

Of course you can.

[incinerates]

I'm with them: anything you want.

[ Fuck, he should have kept a better eye on that bright-eyed alien. ]

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ Sam's kind of got the feeling that at least half of the Nest is going to be orienting on Casiria's arrival - especially those who were paying attention when Annie and himself shared what they'd found out using her goo, or those who knew Keya.

So of course Sam moves over, immediately attentive, though he doesn't add to the chorus of responses. ]

[adamance]

[Lexa approaches but doesn't speak. She slips into the place alongside Bellamy. Enough of them have offered assistance that giving her hand over verbally is unnecessary: if she is standing here, she is open to offering what she can.

Of course, she has her doubts that they can help Keya's aunt. After all, who killed her may be difficult to discern.]

[onemind]

[For all of her carefully schooled expression and the tightly controlled stillness of her body, for a second she seems overwhelmed by their support as she takes a sharp breath, swallowing as she glances away. It's only a moment, however, before she has collected herself again.]

You have my thanks. I am aware that this is not something which you have any obligation to help me with. In fact it is I, and my family, who remain still in your debt.

[The reminder- of Keya's previous near death experience gives her pause before she is able to continue.]

But be that as it may, I know that my niece has- had formed a relationship with some of your contingent. If there is likely to be any others on this blighted rock who understand my loss, it would be you.

[deployed]

[ In the moment, Bellamy's grateful for the veils. He doesn't know what his expression would look like, hearing that from her. ]

She was kind to us. She had a good heart.

[ It's as stilted as his eulogy for Gina had been. The words don't measure up. ]

We'd like to do what we can for you, in her memory.

[ To atone, really. Bellamy doesn't doubt those relationships they'd formed had made Keya a target. ]

[wrackful]

[At Bellamy's shoulder from the start, Murphy watches the Descendant with sharp eyes. Caution exudes off him, especially for how open some of them are being.]

( We need to find out what she wants before we make any promises. )

[It's stating the obvious, but recent events have gone to show that some people seem to skip straight past the obvious to barrel right on into stupid. Casiria isn't Keya. And they still don't know what she was trying to do with the dead Carpathans.]

[ryohji]

( We need to find out what she knows before we make any promises. )

[ an addendum, not a correction, to the comment murphy dispenses with. maybe it's idle, wishful thinking, to find connection, and therefore meaning, where there is none. but a suspect is a suspect is a suspect, and the murders of the two carpathans are anything but resolved. under his robes and maintaining a respectful distance away, kaji regards her as thought the letters G, U, I, L, T will etch themselves into her clothes. ]

[erbier]

( You think she has any authority to hold us to these promises, as she comes creeping to us in secret? )

[ Promises. Fuck those. ]

[deployed]

( Just hear her out. )

[ The amount of weight Descendants allocated to the debts they felt they owed would be a protection here, Bellamy felt. But then, Bellamy believed in other people's good intentions more than he should. ]

[wrackful]

( Everything here's in secret. It's politics. )

[They've had three assassinations now, even if the third likely wasn't an in-faction issue. Things didn't need to be open to have strength.

And then there's the other things that make people hold promises. Themselves, mostly, and he glances at Bellamy with the thought.]

[erbier]

( Then you know politics is all about the breaking and warping of promises. )

[ Airy, an aside. Don't patronize me. ]

[onemind]

[That too is strangely moving - words so stripped of their formality despite meeting with heavy Carbauschian robes rather than face to face. She touches her hand absently to the wooden token around her neck, then lifts her chin by some inestimable degree. That small shift seems to solidify her. She takes a short breath - there isn't time to hesitate; the longer she lingers, the more likely someone will realize she's gone -
then Casiria speaks:]

Given my niece's candor, if you knew her then you will know her attentions had turned to turning this pilgrimage into a place where peace talks might resume. What you will not know is that I was told by the mistress of intelligence to see to it that Keya be quieted. I believe when news of junior member Shee Naraxa's involvement and the meeting she had arranged for my neice reached her, as all things must, she will have passed word to whoever had demanded my niece's silence.

[Here, the barest flicker of hesitation. Or uneasiness. She sets her hand flat against her middle as if to quell it.]

There was a time when we would have encouraged her idea, but it seems for some that moment has passed. It can be no coincidence that she was killed immediately after her meeting. The orchard is just there beside the manor and Shee Naraxa had only just joined the festivities on the beach. Someone was waiting for her to leave that place and I believe it was the Admiral himself who ordered it.

I've no right to ask this of you, but yours are the only people I know in this place who have taken up swords with so little provocation. [Not even Meradans are so quick to duel.] I thought, given your affection for my niece and your spirit, that I might call on you to help me seek out her killer and see the matter righted.

[A pause. Casiria allows her eye wander the room for a split second before she looks back to Bellamy.]

Forgive my ignorance, but I know you by your shapes and I don't see the largest of you here. Where is your warrior?

[Seviilia and Murphy have apparently made an impression.]

[deployed]

[ Bellamy's mind pings, digging at Lexa's, then outwards, scrabbling for impressions as he considers how to first field the question of Sevilia. ]

We have more than one warrior.

[ And the truth is so far out of the question that Bellamy doesn't want to entertain it, and he doesn't care to lie. ]

If we are able to find proof of their involvement, we'd have our pick of fighters.

[ The idea of proof is a stall. Bellamy's first instinct is to accept. He wants justice for what's done, and the action she proposes suits him fine. But he stops just short of outright acceptance, Murphy's caution holding him back. ]

[perroquet]

She eloped!

[ Gildor suddenly pipes up from where he'd been listening. His tone is uncharacteristically gruff, as if the word causes him physical pain. Outwardly, he's playing the part of a disgruntled holy man as well as he can. Inwardly, he's come up with a cover story that won't need much more detail than what he's just blurted our. The rest ought to be deferred from his angry voice- ]

Please do not mention her again. As was said, we have more than one warrior.

[sistershoggoth]

[ The imagery of the Deathlord's elopement filters through the group at large. A beautiful white veil, an unnecessarily skimpy gown, dead roses in her grip... ]

( The fuck did she elope with, Satan? )

[ryohji]

[ what a yarn. and here they're all gathered stands, unable to take note of all the ears that could be listening from outside the house, or which breezes to carry their conversation away. if only things were so simple as casiria makes it sound. but two names go unsaid.

the suspended question has kaji feeling practically indescribable. tight-chested, for sure. a hard aching knot in his chest. it stires the fine hairs on his arm. gildor's accusation whisks above their heads, better even, if there's disagreement among them as to what actually happened. ]

Perceived treason is as dangerous as the real thing. ( I think I can make her tell the truth. ) Your niece isn't their only victim, is she? How about those two Carpathans? Are they involved?

[wrackful]

[Mention of Seviilia isn't anything Murphy expected. For a moment it disrupts his focus entirely, the pain more like a jolt against a bruise than an open wound, but enough to slow him. Thankfully Bellamy handles it. The musical guy makes it firmer. He breathes past it and onto the real issue.]

( So do it. We need proof. We can't do this off only what she's told us. For all we know she killed her and now she's trying to use us to take charge. )

[Unfortunate that coup isn't in his vocabulary.]

[redheadcarrier]

I'll fight, if we have to.

[ That's the word from Asuka, perched on a cushioned chair. She's not that large, obviously, but there's something very determined about her. She didn't know the dead woman. But there's something about this that rankles. ]

[erbier]

( Please. And proceed tactfully. )

[ She's seen such a power at work before, it is terribly convenient: to remove prevarication. ]

[adamance]

( Her aunt didn't kill her. )

[These words come with the utmost certainty. After the conversation that she had with Keya, she has no doubt and can ride this belief for some time.]

( But I do believe it's fair to say that we have more knowledge about how this death may have come about. Do not forget how you felt before it occurred. )

[aluminumandash]

( There was another circle by the body. Scorched in the ground, identical. )

[ Rust's in some far corner of the too-crowded room, eyes on Casiria, awareness extending outward. The report's just that: brief, stripped of emotion save some lingering guilt and fear. An earthquake mellowed to a quiver.

Dryly: ] ( But let's not get ahead of ourselves. ) [ His attention narrows to Lexa. ] ( What makes you say that? About the aunt. )

[onemind]

[There's a split second where Casiria is clearly taken aback as much by the current whereabouts of the missing Carbauschian fighter as the questions that follow it. But it's just a moment, a narrow flicker as she's tugged in two proverbial directions at once, then she's turning her hand in a small, dismissive gesture. Them? Inconsequential.]

Not in the slightest. Saridian Black killed them. No, if you could say anything about them in relation to this, they're merely proof we Descendants have division in our ranks. Though I can see where the line might be drawn - and certainly others must be doing so. Somewhere in this complex, the Meradans must be sweating for the scrutiny they'll surely face.

[Two Carpathans and a Descendant dead? Certainly that won't look good for the major outlier .]