[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

[adamance]

( What we do here will determine how we can approach things in the future. What we've managed to drag out will assist us in whose temper we may be incurring in the long term.

I don't mean to anger her, at any rate. But to ensure that we don't act as rashly as she's hoping we will. And for her to know that. )

[The statement itself is loaded, but Lexa is hoping to be on damage control for their reputation. But it seems impossible to actually ... do that. It may be too late, after all.]

[onemind]

[Luckily someone is present to ease their worries. Casiria herself narrows, the lines of her broad face going briefly crooked. It's clear there's been some offense taken, that Lexa has somehow wounded her. But the moment passes.]

My association with the Carpathans was toward an effort of seeing the Nectar delivered into safe hands. I believed a Carpathan defector might have information we could use to our advantage. I acted in service of our high council which has, to my knowledge, always sought to maintain balance in an imperfect galaxy. Do not mistake this for a lack of care for my niece and what she wanted.

[Her attention is so very fixed, jaw set.]

Believe when I say that I come to you personally. That I mean to discover the culprit on my own. And that when I have irrefutable proof that Hyarrian Vax had my niece killed to further a personal scheme, I will be the one to condemn him for both his unforgivable violence and for weakening the position of the Hyanian high council here. I merely ask that when I do so, that I may call upon you for support should someone try to silence me.

[wrackful]

[Bellamy lays it out like an absolute, and maybe it is. They'll lose this chance if they don't give an answer, but a yes just puts them in a corner, without real control. Lexa's asked what she had to gain from helping the Carpathans, and that pulls Murphy's thoughts back to what they really needed to be doing here. Taking it for what they could gain, whether that aligned with Casiria's agenda or not

He steps forward, hands spread, hoping to soothe those small signs of temper.]

As you can see, we believe in justice as well as honour.

[Honour being the backbone he'd laid down for the duel. Maybe she doesn't know all the details, but if she wants to trace it back for inconsistencies, he'll make sure there aren't any.]

We can work together to gather the information that satisfies both. We'll find who killed Keya. Any of the hands in it.

[Whether that was the Descendants she'd named or not.]

[deployed]

[ The nuance in Murphy's response gives them more room to maneuver. Bellamy recognizes it. It's likely safer than Bellamy's instincts, which would have given her a simple yes without safeguard or stipulation. ]

We won't let you be silenced.

[ But that was going to be tricky. Keep her alive while she searched, and keep themselves alive on top of that. ]

You'll be safe while we figure this out.

[ Hopefully, the sincerity and their acquiescence would appease her. Bellamy still has questions, and believes they're better asked in the coming days rather than right now. ]

[erbier]

[ She smiles to herself. ]

Aye, we will see it done.

[onemind]

[She makes a small noise, Mmm, and glances upwards to mitigate what is a moment of mingled grief and frustration and hesitation and a bizarre kind of gratitude. When she levels her attention on the gathered Carbauschians again, her voice is purposefully light to offset the tightness of her throat.]

I ask that anything you do in relation to this be practiced with the utmost caution, as you-- [A hesitation, a beat as she searches for a way to say what she means as tactfully as possible. She's asking for not simply their cooperation in a sensitive matter, but ultimately their assistance; what demands can she really make of them?] forgive me, but the political intricacies may be beyond you as you come from such an isolated world. It would be best to work in tandem in this matter. As I learn more, I'll keep you informed but you must under no circumstances do anything to alert the Admiral of our shared suspicions. As of this moment, he must believe himself immune to scrutiny. It would be best if we allow him to labor under that delusion until our moment to strike comes, and there's no telling who he's in connection with. Should news of this reach any ear but our own, there's a possibility it will eventually find his as well.

[She needs the promise of their arms, not their brains - an indelicate thing to say, but necessary. Lol seems unlikely]

[deployed]

[ It's a package deal, lady. ]

We understand the need for secrecy.

[ More than she could ever know. ]

You can trust us to handle this carefully. None of us are interested in raising the alarm here.

[erbier]

I am sure we can come to you to counsel you, in your grief?

[ Doesn't that sound delightfully in character. ]

[onemind]

[Casiria fixes her with a look that's both wry and wrung out, but sturdy. Understanding. Sure. She gives her a grim smile.] I've no time for that feeling, but that should allow us to speak freely on matters of revenge given the need.

[With that, she turns her attention to the broader whole of the assembly in the room. There are so very many of them, all but anonymous in their look if not demeanor. Could she say which is which tomorrow? Maybe not. Maybe some sign should be agreed upon. Maybe-- there's a whole list of such question, none of which she has the luxury of asking in the moment. So instead Casiria regards the room, the gather Carbauschians, and straightens the line of her shoulders.]

The hour grows late and my people will miss me if I stay much longer in your company. We'll meet again soon when I have know more to tell. [Her hands stray to raise her hood, then pause. She searches the air for the shape of some word, then settles on:] Thank you - for your willingness. I can see why she might have found pleasure in your company.