[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

[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.]

[isorropia]

( Fair enough. Do whatever you feel is necessary - though I'd be shocked off your communicator can reach here from the Station. You're better off relying on a brood link if any of yours stay here with us as we attend to work. )

[There are things that could be said - how if things go so poorly as that, rescues will likely be non-essential - but maybe it doesn't need saying or the narrowest edge of his certainty simply is a feeling that leaks through. Regardless, he doesn't care to sharpen that thought further. No need to manifest the worst out of a delicate situation.

The universe becomes what people make it.]