[mental link: day 41] darling you got to let me know

[isorropia]

[Somewhere out there in the universe, something shifts for the members of brood SARGAS and ALKAID. It's like a puzzle piece clicking into place; a key sliding perfectly into a lock; the satisfying arrangement of colors in some perfected gradient. Out there in the space between spaces, a hatch is happening.

--But here, now, on the Morran ship:]

( It seems we'll be meeting more Hosts once we reach… wherever it is we're being taken. ) [Lyr's mind is the ripples of a still pool after a pebble's been dropped into it.] ( Seeing as we now know the identity of the envoy harboring the Enemy presence, this seems like a perfect opportunity to broach the possibility that some of you might prefer to return to the Station rather than stay here. --Or rather, that it may be necessary. The work ahead is likely to be delicate and dangerous. To very poorly quote one of our own, it might be considered unethical for everyone involved to ask anyone who isn't committed to our purpose here to remain. )

[You're welcome, Bakugo.]

( Make your decisions. After we disembark, Cathaway will meet us with whichever new hatches choose to make their landfall and take whoever wishes to return back to the Station. )




((ooc: Splitting the party! We'll be handling a few drops by sending characters back to the Station (we'll let you know which characters will be returning to the Station via autopilot and which will go comatose when the Hatch Log goes live on the 24th). This is also an opportunity for active players to return their characters to the Station and continue play there. Please be aware that characters who return to the Station will be there for the remaining duration of Mission: Hyrypia and will not be able to participate in mission based events; conversely, please be aware that characters who remain on Hyrypia will not be able to participate in Station based events. Brood connections will remain open, but seem radically more tenuous.))

Comments

[greentech]

( What sort of "unethical" are you talking about? I know we've already gotten involved in some, uh, shady stuff, but... how bad do you think this is going to get? )

[isorropia]

( Acting in direct opposition to our Enemy, however subtly, is radically more dangerous than simply co-existing with them. The possibility of making a mistake and exposing ourselves to extermination is-- ) [A small, humming noise. A browning autumnal leaf shivering on its branch.] ( --Well, the odds are higher than they were a few days ago. )

[That doesn't have much to do with the conversation he and Bakugo had, but whatever. Technicalities. Given Shiro's reaction, he can't imagine child soldiers like to be told they're children.]

[greentech]

( Well, that's kind of standard isn't it? Especially when you're sneaking around... )

[ Pidge doesn't always like it, but she understands it. Hell, she snuck into the Garrison to find her brother. Even if the situation was very, very different. ]

( If I can improve our odds by staying, I'm going to stick it out. I'm not going to leave everyone else in the lurch. )

uses the wrong account every day of my life

[isorropia]

( How noble. )

[Sounds blandly unimpressed; feels like a quiet kind of approval.]

[greentech]

( I'm a Paladin of Voltron. It's kinda what we do. )

[isorropia]

( So I've heard. I can't pretend you haven't made yourself useful. )

[earthborn]

( We haven't exactly gotten through this clean, thus far. So what's your definition of 'dangerous' in this context? )

[isorropia]

( Working to promote one of the other envoys will put us in direction conflict with our Enemy. The closer we are to them, the more likely a mistake will be noticed. ) [Implying, naturally, that mistakes have been made and they've just been lucky enough to keep flying under the radar.] ( So I suppose in this context, my definition is 'every Host left on Hyrypia getting killed.' )

[earthborn]

[There is a pause, a sense of a breath taken-- hidden anticipation, excitement, but somewhat withheld, as if she were unwilling to find pleasure in an uncertain reward.]

( I'm going to be frank with you, my usual work tends to involve entering conflict with large forces of heavily armed and forewarned combatants, and then being one of up to three people left alive at the end of those encounters. I'm fairly comfortable with danger. Now, I am a poor spy. )

[Shepard gives this statement the room it needs to expand. Shepard is not merely a poor spy, she is not a spy in any capacity. She is a terrible choice for covert work. She will inevitably set fire and detonate explosions wherever she goes.]

( ...Which makes me a pretty bad bet if this all hinges on quiet and nothing but. But if you believe you'll have a use for someone with my skillset, I'm more than willing to stay and do what needs doing. If not, I'm not seeing my utility here, and you've definitely got enough on your hands to not add worry about the impulses of one unoccupied grunt. Since this is your arena of expertise, and you seem to know the plan for moving forward, do you have an opinion? )

[isorropia]

[Yes there's been plenty evidence of that - the fire part and explosions part.

There's some sensation of something turning - a coin being rotated between fingers, a stone being passed idly from one hand to the next, particles of dust hanging in the air - and then it gives like a sigh.]

( I can't tell the future, but I suspect that unless something goes terribly wrong - which I won't discard as a possibility - we'll be dealing largely in words from here on out. If we get to the point of needing... ) [--a murmuring hum--] ( ...skills closer to your area of expertise, then we'll be in very bad shape indeed. )

[earthborn]

( Story of my life. )

[Shepard's anticipation settles, fires banked rather than fanned-- in abeyance, like the warning rumble of a volcano which might explode, but not just yet.]

( I'll take myself back up top then, where I can be a little more use. But, given the nature of our opponents here, I'd like a to leave a comm unit I've brought with me down here, with one of ours. ) [the echoes of memory, a man's voice, deep and strident: Never bet when you can be sure, never trust what you can't see. Be certain the job is done, you hear me?] ( There's a whole docking bay full of small craft up there, I can pilot, and I'm very good at effective entrances. So if things do go down, it will be my pleasure to raise hell to meet it. )

[She's not afraid to die, after all: Shepard is only concerned that she not die for nothing.]

[shiro2hero]

(How much time are you giving us to decide?)

[isorropia]

( Cathaway implied she'd be bringing our new companions into this universe tomorrow. )

[shiro2hero]

(All right. Thanks for clarifying.)

(... and people are really going to just be taken back to the station, no questions or repercussions?)

[isorropia]

( I don't see why there would be any of either. I wasn't under the impression we were meant to be holding you captive; here I've had weeks in which I could have been torturing you. Truly, what a missed opportunity. )

[Ha ha funny joke.]

[shiro2hero]

(You're hilarious. I'm laughing on the inside.)

[Rude, only he's allowed to make FUNNY JOKES here.]

(Because when we started, everyone made it seem like there was no going back.)

[iuno]

( That's a pretty sudden change. You didn't care much about the ethics of it before now. )

[isorropia]

( Or I just didn't see the point in discussing it. Before, it was mostly an inconvenient question to entertain. Now, it demands consideration. People who might drag their feet were less of a danger yesterday than they are today. )

[whereabout]

( Are the ethics actually a consideration here, or is this purely because it's practical? )

[ The question itself is more idle curiosity than anything; the practicality of having only the committed stay behind is completely reasonable, as far as Joshua's concerned. Those who don't want to be there are a potential liability in the best of situations, and their situation now could hardly be described as that. ]

[isorropia]

( Why not both? )

[A mild shifting sensation, the equivalent of some mental shrug.]

( Part of this should be finding your place in this universe. If you decide that place is nowhere, then why should I be complicit in keeping you here for any longer than necessary? )

[whereabout]

( Okay. )

[ Evidently, it's a good enough answer for him, since he didn't have strong feelings about the question to begin with. So. Cool. ]

[isorropia]

[His attention lingers, the shape of Lyr's mind some small animal peering at Joshua through the trees of a distant wood. Waiting for-- something. Some further question, some note of dissent, some extraneous thought that warrants answering. When none comes, his attention flits away.

--then blinks back.]

( What did you do before you came to this place? )

[whereabout]

[ Ah. There's that question again.

Maybe he ought to have it printed on a shirt. "HELLO, I USED TO KILL PEOPLE." ]

( I was an assassin. )

[incinerates]

Thanks.

[ Sharp and erratic, like a firecracker in a garbage can. ]

Anyways. Where are you and the seniors weighing in on this?

[isorropia]

[salemfilingnails.gif

He could say or think or feel 'I never disagreed with you on principle', but what's the point in saying it? To prove himself to a boy? Eh. Inconsequential.]

( We stay. Our place is here. )