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! :) ))




regalled: (The Prince)

[personal profile] regalled 2016-03-15 06:01 am (UTC)(link)
[Another still moment, careful study before Prince nods.]

Very well. You are here because the alternative was death. Your mind, your consciousness, is the perfect match for the symbiote that now resides in you. It is what is allowing you to hear the others, and it is bound to you. You cannot undo it.


[He does not apologize for that. He stopped long ago. It was counter-productive.]

Your symbiote is a part of the Nest, through which all symbiotes are connected, and every Host shares that connection. It will allow you to unlock your full potential, with time and with effort. It will make you very dangerous. Which is fortunate, since the thing that attacked you is not the worst of what hunts us.

[There is a pause, there, in a speech given a hundred times over. More. He waits, studies his response, buffers himself against the feedback of this host and others, their emotions and thoughts that would threaten to taint his own if he were not careful, the urge to reach out along the lines between them and bring understanding where words would not suffice rising and, as always, resisted. The easy road was not the right road.]
decommission: (pic#9902140)

[personal profile] decommission 2016-03-15 07:13 am (UTC)(link)
[ His gaze slips to some empty space above Prince's shoulder, lips parting for a moment before closing, his mouth forming a thin line. From where he's standing - literally standing, on an alien base called the Station, the explanation isn't so crazy. And even unlock your full potential could've been in line with what he'd signed up for with Dr. Erskine and the SSR. So it's not quite disbelief that's radiating from Steve, but uncertainty as to where this path he's suddenly found himself on is going to start leading.

(and guilt)

Half a minute passes before he opens his mouth again, gaze flickering to search the face in front of him. ]


Why's it hunting us? [ You. He almost uses one word instead of the other, catches himself at the last second. ] What was it?

[ That... thing was straight out of a nightmare. He can't imagine anything worse.

He's processing, prioritizing. The symbiote, the thing inside him - the why me, he sets that question aside for now. It's presence feels, strangely (horrifyingly) enough, like the only certainty in this conversation so far. ]
Edited 2016-03-15 07:14 (UTC)
regalled: (Default)

[personal profile] regalled 2016-03-15 02:50 pm (UTC)(link)
What attacked you in particular I do not know. Cathaway likely could tell you.

[She would look, see, and understand. He could, with effort, do the same, but it was not something he enjoyed or employed outside of necessity.]

It was merely one of countless agents of an enemy we still don't know the origin of.

[That is the truth most struggled with, the point of contention most listed. To know there was no clear answer, that fear had no name- it wasn't a pleasant truth, and he can only pad it with what he has come to believe. It wasn't concensus, it was opinion, but it was for him better than nothing.]

I believe it wants us dead because we fight it. There are dark things in many universes. Things that do not belong, actions lead by an outside hand that spreads destruction and roots out hope. We do what we can to prevent it's plans from finding success.

[He shifts his shoulders, some apoximation of a shrug. There were others who would council to leave it at that, for now, but it wasn't his way.] In honesty, it is not much. Our numbers are thin and we are sometimes forced to flee, but we do what we can with the strength that we have. It us more than most can manage, and so it is our responsibility to act.

[They had attempted inaction before. It had not saved them.]
decommission: (pic#10099158)

[personal profile] decommission 2016-03-15 10:46 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Another long pause. Less of an answer than he'd hoped for, but - he'd been ready to go to war just before this place plucked him from the brink of death by an unknown force. The parallels are there, the scope infinitely larger if Prince's words are the truth.

His gaze sharpens as he returns to the present, frowning. Whatever natural mistrust still lingers is lacking any flame to fire it at the moment, and he's got more questions he needs answered. ]


If I can help fight then I will - but I need to know that the people I left behind are safe.

[ His expression hardens but his words border on a plea, and he braces himself again, he expecting to be told he needs to find this Cathaway person for the answer. ]
regalled: (Default)

[personal profile] regalled 2016-03-16 04:07 am (UTC)(link)
[He could say yes. An empty platitude, but he was not one to coddle or speak false even before he had joined the Nest. And the concensus did not lie, however loose his connection was.]

Whether I can say that depends on what you mean by safe. If you mean are they still being attacked by what hunted you, then I can say they are likely well. The enemy prefers to stay in the shadows. Beyond that I can no more guarantee their safety than you could before you were saved. Their lives are their own, your world remains as it was.

[As far as he knew, his people were still making their own decisions, their own mistakes, without the subtle machinations of a greater malicious force. Their evil was yet their own, although that was a cold kind of comfort.]
decommission: (pic#9902125)

[personal profile] decommission 2016-03-16 08:05 pm (UTC)(link)
[ The recent attack is what he wanted to know about, he hadn't thought further ahead of that immediate threat.

His frown deepens, understanding washing over him. ]


We're in this for the long haul.

[ Permanent change, no going back home. Not unless he wants to be a danger for everyone around him. Ilde's fears echo through him again - he forces back the memory of them. They aren't his own -

He shakes his head, expression hardening as his gaze fixes on the ground for a second before raising again. ]


When do we get started learning how to control it? [ The symbiote. Learning how to fight.

He doesn't want to think about what he's leaving behind (not in front of a stranger). He needs to throw himself into this. ]
Edited 2016-03-16 20:06 (UTC)
regalled: (Default)

[personal profile] regalled 2016-03-16 11:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Such has been my experience.

[Longer even than the new Host likely knew. Longer still for Prince, if some harm did not befall him before then. It was a reality he had long come to accept, in his way.

And it is that question that is the first to truly surprise him this day, there was a level determination to it that Prince found admirable, worthy. So few were truely prepared to give themselves to something greater than their own wants and needs.]


As soon as you like. The ship is open to you, it's facilities yours to use. Your new abilities will take some time to acclimate to, but I am here to teach you how to best utilize the physical advantages of the symbiote. The rest is Cathaway's realm, and she will show you as much as you are willing to learn.

[As deep as he was willing to go.]

I would suggest that you take the day, however. The first hours after hatching are difficult for many reasons.
decommission: (pic#10099175)

[personal profile] decommission 2016-03-17 12:41 am (UTC)(link)
[ No kidding. He's got no argument for that piece of advice - there's a reason he followed this quieter path instead of the one that pulled to welcome him. The encounter with Ilde left him raw and undone. Even he's not willing to jump headfirst into more of that just yet. ]

Tomorrow. [ He leaves it there, and with a half nod he kind of just dismisses himself.

It's been a weird day. ]
regalled: (Default)

[personal profile] regalled 2016-03-17 12:48 am (UTC)(link)
[He receives a bow in return, a short, shallow motion that is practiced and formal. It was something like a relief to know that at least one of the new Broods was willing to receive instruction. It was difficult to teach when they would not learn.

And then he returns to his previous position and his previous occupation, his duties seemingly without end.]