onemind: (Default)
THE N E S T ([personal profile] onemind) wrote in [community profile] station722016-03-14 01:56 pm

[HATCH LOG] IS ANYONE THERE?

CHARACTERS: All
WHERE: Station 72
WHEN: Day :150
SUMMARY: Today is the day you wake up.
WARNINGS: None; will edit if necessary.






A MOMENT AGO it seemed like you willingly took the hand of someone beckoning to safety.


NOW YOU WAKE UP in one of many chambers of Station 72’s nesting deck. If you had wounds, they’re (mostly) gone; if you had doubts they are - for the split second between dreaming and waking - gently reassured. This is correct. This is right. You’re safe here. The only question is what here is exactly.

The compartment you find yourself in is small, though gently padded for comfort with enough elbow and head -room to not be wholly claustrophobic. Still, it’s difficult to re-orient yourself; the best way to get to the chamber’s built in ladder and down to the smooth, polished white floor of the nesting is to simply roll over onto your belly and go out feet first.

First thing’s first though: get rid of that tube running from the rear wall of the chamber to the base of your skull. The moment you’ve done that, there’s the sensation like a rubber band popping - a string in your hand being jerked. The headache that punches in falls like the heavy end of a hammer - not serious, but surprisingly abrupt - as a of combination confusion, resolve, anxiety, certainty, delight, and fear and expectation finds you. In fades after a moment, churning to a low dull pressure and a faint hum. It’s feels like standing outside the door of a small party, sounds muffled and incomprehensible. Some pieces rise and swell above the others then fall again. Strain your ears and realize you’re hearing nothing at all.

On the plus side, you’re not hooked into the compartment anymore. Slide out and onto the ladder, though not too fast or you’ll miss the small cubicle built into the wall near the mouth of the chamber. In the cubicle are all the things you brought with you, every small piece you own of the home you left behind. There’s a neatly folded pair of something like white pajamas there as well. They’re definitely in your size, though you have the option not to wear them since you’re still in the clothes you left home in. Granted, for some of you that might not exactly be a blessing. Your clothes haven’t exactly been laundered or repaired, so best hope you didn’t bleed or sweat on them too much during your escape.

Sliding free from the chamber pod and stepping out onto the ladder, you’ll find yourself in an open space. The room is broad and pale and clean, its sloping walls featuring dozens and dozens of holes like the one you just wiggled out of. There are more ladders and a few other people climbing down, or stareing, or already down on the nesting deck’s floor but the sixteen - seventeen, including yourself - people present would hardly fill even a sixth of the room’s available accommodations.

The noise is louder when you near any of the others. It’s as if you've entered the party yourself. Identifiable now is the low wash of feelings, a hum of emotions that only serves to make the slight headache worsen. They feel genuine. They feel like they could belong to you. Still, that pressure in your head doesn't worry you --Shouldn't it worry you? Does worrying - about the headache, about the world and people you left behind, or the strange place you’re in now, the odd collection of people you’re with and the fact that you feel strangely drawn to five or six of them - make the headache better? Or worse?

If you manage to push the sound aside and listen with your true ears, you'd notice you can't hear anything besides this small group of fellow hosts: their footsteps, their oddly sharp breathing. There’s no sound of traffic, no wind in the trees, no birds, no hum of a ship. Only circulating air and silence.

You may not know what a brood is, but finding yours is easy. There are minds among these strangers that call to yours, their voices louder than the rest, their feelings sharper. The nearer to you they are, the more comfortable you feel. Is that strange? You don't know them, but you do. There are few answers to be found on the nesting deck.

Eventually you will have no choice but to head out of the room. There’s only one way out that you can see: up through a spiraling hallway that arches overhead. When it opens again the space seems slightly less alien. There are doorways of a kind lining the walls and each one opens to a small, nearly normal room. There are no doors, so it's easy to see all the rooms are vacant. In seventeen of them there are items neatly stacked on the bed. Most are hygiene supplies. Some of them - a toothbrush, comb, razor - may be familiar to you. Others less so. There's a flat horizontal ledge beside the bed with a small light and a single drawer. Another table, apparently built into the wall, sits across the room with a chair. A mirror is on the desk; it’s slightly mundane and not quite to the Station’s style.

This room is yours for the moment. It doesn't mean someone won't want to trade - or take. Beyond this life support deck stretches the rest of Station 72. It is quiet and and twisting and perfectly inert.

At its most familiar, the Station is merely a still, empty ship with broad chambers and gently mottled light. At its worst, it’s an Escher painting of strange angles and bizarre platforms that seems grown as much as built. There are many ways to many places and while it seems all doors and passages open to you, there’s an unshakeable feeling that the space doesn’t quite match up - that there’s even more to the Station which you can’t yet see. Don’t get lost!




For now, you reach the floor of the nesting deck. When you do, something blooms in your mind. A voice, disturbingly lacking any identifying traits but warm and comfortable like sweetened milk, says:

( ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬...There you are...▬▬▬..Welcome to Station 72 ▬▬. )


If you follow the thread of that voice, you’ll eventually find your way either to Cathaway on the bridge or The Prince in the training wing.








((OOC Notes: Welcome to Station 72! Feel free to check out the SETTINGS page for more information about the Station. If you have any questions about the setting itself, feel free to ask them there; otherwise, please direct all questions to either the FAQ or MOD CONTACT pages.

Prince’s top level should be live in the evening! Keep an eye out for it if you want him to give your character the introduction spiel instead of Cathaway.

Happy hatchday, everyone! :) ))




apoptotic: (094)

[personal profile] apoptotic 2016-04-29 04:39 am (UTC)(link)
[ understand? it's asking if he understands? anakin almost laughs, a sound that would have held a hysterical note. what they were up against… anakin closes his eyes, tries to center himself. a memory intrudes, and another. he lets go of the effort like it scalded him. ]

Those people, the ones before… [ he pauses in an attempt to gather his thoughts. anakin frowns at cathaway. ] Where are they now?

[ dead like cal? subsumed like she had been? ]
polyphonos: (beta)

[personal profile] polyphonos 2016-05-01 12:03 am (UTC)(link)
[The looks she gives him is strange - both remote and sharp, as if focused here from a long distance away. She places her hand at the base of her throat.]

They are here. [Indicating herself, the body beyond the shell.] Pieces of them are.
apoptotic: (020)

[personal profile] apoptotic 2016-05-01 03:51 am (UTC)(link)
[ pieces of them. he shudders again, a small uncomfortable prickle going down his spine. his hand goes to the back of his neck. he frowns. ]

The cord— [ he stares at her, hard. ] That was connecting us to you.

Is that how the pieces of them ended up in you?
polyphonos: (delta)

[personal profile] polyphonos 2016-05-01 07:49 pm (UTC)(link)
[There, finally a small assumption that is incorrect. She smiles, briefly delighted by it.]

We are not the Station in that sense. No, they are with us because they are close with the Nest as we are. Or they were. It's sometimes difficult to parse from this point because of the distance and the combination of what is thought and what is shared memory.

[An apologetic look, a gentle shrug.] We're sorry if that doesn't make much sense, but know that you are part of us as we are part of you. Young and remote as you are, the connection must sometimes be forced. [--she makes a gesture to his hand, clearly indicating their recent contact--] But in time you will know a stronger bond to the minds around you and come to know them as we do - to know yourself as we know ourselves, in a manner of speaking.
apoptotic: (022)

[personal profile] apoptotic 2016-05-06 05:19 am (UTC)(link)
And if someone was to choose distance?

[ will they be forced too? ]
polyphonos: (beta)

[personal profile] polyphonos 2016-05-06 08:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[She studies him for the measure of a moment, then shakes her head.]

The process of the symbiote taking root can be slowed considerably, but the only thing that severs its connection and yours to the Nest is the death of the host body. If you choose to do nothing to increase the strength of your bond, it's likely that even given the symbiote's increase on your natural life span that you could die naturally before being... pulled close, so to speak.

[An ambivalent shrug. It seems like a a waste of a perfectly good mind, but there's very little point in pressing the issue.]
Edited 2016-05-06 20:12 (UTC)
apoptotic: (002)

[personal profile] apoptotic 2016-05-06 09:40 pm (UTC)(link)
[ anakin mulls the explanation over. he is not trusting enough to take as gospel everything it says. but that the option at all is given…

he will see the truth of it eventually.
]

Is there anything else I should know?
polyphonos: (alpha)

[personal profile] polyphonos 2016-05-07 05:28 pm (UTC)(link)
[Inestimable things. There is so much to know, so much loose data and floating information that his mind might overflow like a too-full cup given everything. Patience, she thinks. It would do him no good otherwise and the understanding would come with time. It almost always did.]

For now, merely that your brood is your lifeline but that all hosts are connected. We advise gentleness and caution; any kindness done to your brood will be done to you in turn - but the same goes for pain, hurt, festering ideas. [She affords him an easy smile, a tip of the head that sends the grey sheet of her hair sliding forward across her shoulder.] Think of us as a piece of you and act accordingly.

If you have any questions, we're always happy to answer them to the best of our ability. The Prince, too, would be happy to assist you in most things.
apoptotic: (014)

[personal profile] apoptotic 2016-05-09 08:48 pm (UTC)(link)
[ patience. understanding. we're your family now.

anakin inclines his head respectfully, and leaves.

he knows how to pretend.
]