[hatch log] the sea seemingly a constant to the naked eye is one long goodbye

[onemind]

CHARACTERS: New Hosts & EVERYONE
WHERE: Station 72; Hyrypia - The Far Shore
WHEN: DAY :041 - DAY :042
SUMMARY: A hatch; an arrival; a homecoming. The Hosts part ways.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. Need a warning added? PM this account please!

STATION 72
DAY :041

NEW HATCHES
YOU WAKE UP and the universe and you in it are suddenly different. --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 up from a very deep, extended sleep or coming up from the darkness of some wine dark sea. Nothing is different and yet everything is.

Here you are, a small miracle of the multiverse: lying in a small, faintly hexagonal chamber with a gentle white light emanating from the surrounding walls. If you were injured during your escape, those injuries have been 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 even as you find the tube running from the base of your neck to the compartment's rear wall.

But once the tube's disconnected? 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. After the initial sensory overload, the mental buzz elongates: stretches out into a murmur like the sound of a party happening behind a nearby closed door.

You can sit up - barely -, and shift out of the pod. There’s a ladder at your feet and a little cubby just before it with anything you brought with you as well as a set of crisp, loose-fitting white clothes; while your injuries are healed, whatever you’re wearing is in the exact state it was before. Maybe it's time for a change? Drop down the ladder to the floor of the Nesting Deck and 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.


DECISIONS, DECISIONS
BARELY AFTER YOU STEP OUT OF YOUR POD someone pokes their head around the corner and says, “Oh good, you’re awake. D’you have any idea how boring it is to watch people sleeping in tubes? Mind-numbing.”

This...person looks more or less like a normal human, as far as you can tell, and they’re gesturing for you to follow. “I’m Ty, nice to meet you, I’ll be your conductor this--” they pause, squint, count on their fingers, then give up trying to figure out what time it actually is. “--Mevening? Aftermorn? Whatever. I wasn’t supposed to be on orientation duty more than once but here I am, fresh with instructions to answer questions better.”

Ty’s dark eyes appraise you as if judging your outfit, then xe raises xyr eyebrow. “First up, the bathroom’s over there. Second, don’t mind the noise in your head. You get used to it. Third, are you going on the field trip or not?”


THE STATION
WITH A LITTLE UNDER 24 HOURS before the ship makes its way to Hyrypia, now might be a good opportunity to familiarize yourself with Station 72-- either before you leave it or in preparation of finding yourself sharing it with a gaggle of strangers. Better claim your bed early.

The savviest eyes will note that a number of rooms in the Living Quarters show clear signs of having been inhabited at some point; however, there's a fine patina of stillness or stasis in those places. If this place was one where dust might gather, there might be a layer of it here. Exactly how long has it been since this last group of Hosts left for their Mission again?

Come the simulated morning, a strange slate colored craft resembling folded origami more than a ship waits in the Hangar. A small, bird-like woman attends to it and when the time is right she climbs into the cockpit, cheerfully inviting anyone who wants to go to the planet to ride along with her. Then it too leaves the Station and for a time the quiet left in its wake is very dense indeed.

HYRYPIA - THE FAR SHORE
DAY :042

A SHIP TO SHORE
THE SUN IS HIGH IN THE SKY before the first calls of the sailors can be heard heralding the shore in the distance. It isn’t long after that they get close enough that the passengers - the remaining members of the Envoy and their Hyrypian hosts (a thinning herd, it seems) - are encouraged to begin preparing themselves to disembark. It’s a messy process. Unlike the docks they boarded on, this place has no permanent mooring. Instead temporary docks are brought out from the ship itself, anchored in place by small vessels that swarm around it in the water as small fish around a shark. By the time the maneuver is complete and the passengers are packed, the afternoon is threatening to turn into evening. Still, there's enough light to see by as they are led down the ramps and the docks and out onto the loose, grey stones that make up the shore.

Where the Red Coast had been tall cliffs and sand, the Far Shore is formed of pebbles and small stones dotted with driftwood. It’s grey and bleak, a single path heading up the nearby low hills, covered in short greyish yellow scrub and lichen. This place is draped with an overcast sky, the clouds churning and wind gusting, the air cool and dry. In the distance a chain of mountains scrapes the sky, but there’s a quite a bit of distance between here and there. For now, the immediate task at hand is getting the caravan rolling along the rocky, pitted path through the lonely, hushed landscape. Wind hums through the hills, a mournful crying sound.

SHIFTING ODDS
WHEN CAMP IS FINALLY MADE each Envoy is encouraged to quickly pitch their tents and then summarily herded into them. The Morran apparently want to avoid any more murders in the dark. In what is almost certainly a rarity, this means the Hosts all find themselves sharing each other's company around a single brazier in their largest tents - raw meats, vegetables, a hearty broth and a large copper bowl have been provided by the Morran, but it's up to each envoy to prepare and cook their own meals tonight.

Maybe it's a dour evening - after all bonds will be broken once the ship arrives and some of your number make their way back to the Station; however, it certainly takes a turn for the positively grim when a large number of Hosts suddenly fall comatose at the exact moment Cathaway's ship pierces into the universe.

TWO ROADS DIVERGED
RENDEZVOUSING IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT has suddenly became more complicated. What was once an easy hike out of camp to meet with Cathaway's stealth ship now suddenly requires the movement of quite a few comatose Hosts (Rhan, for one, seems exceptionally distressed over the complication).

The comatose Hosts will have to be secreted away from camp to connect with the ship from the Station hidden in hills. Once there, it's time to make introductions, to say your goodbyes, and to wish others all the best. It may be some time before you see one another again.

---

((OOC Notes: This log covers the hatch on Day :041 and the arrival and/or retreat of Hosts on Day :042. As a reminder, please chime in on the OOC HEADCOUNT going on to indicate whether your character is staying on Hyrypia or on the Station. Please see THIS POST for breakdown on how recent drops are being handled.

You can find a more detailed overview of the host hatching process HERE and additional setting information about the Station HERE. Please be sure to review the MISSION: HYRYPIA ooc information if you're brand new to the game. 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

[greentech]

( I'm not going anywhere. )

[ They both have that sense of anxiousness. The tinge of not-quite-panic that underlies everything that's happening - will happen. Not being sure of the future. ]

( We have to finish this, right? )

[shiro2hero]

[That's what the others said flicks through his head before he can shut it down. But shut it down he does. This is Pidge. She's different.]

[He'll stay for her, and she for him. Both for the mission.]

(Are you going to be all right?)

[He can ignore his own anxiousness in favor of seeing to hers.]

[greentech]

[ They stay for each other, really. They both have others that they're friends with, they both have people they care for - but here, it's the two of them that are always going to come back to one another. They'll fight for one another. They'll stay together. Because they're all that the other has left of home. ]

( I've been alright up until now. I think I'll be OK. )

[ Even if home feels further away than ever. ]

[shiro2hero]

[The sense of him nodding. Agreeing with her. She absolutely will be okay, but... but the concern just doesn't go away that easily. She's important. The only one from home.]

[Closest thing to family either of them have here. If she's here, though, that means things will turn out for the better -- they have to.]

(You up for some company at all?)

[greentech]

( With you? Always. )

[ Warm and open and inviting and willing to let him in. Happy to see him. If (when) he comes looking, she's settled in their tent in a corner, her small mess of equipment set up around her. She's fiddling with a small device, but it's nothing more than a gadget to keep herself busy with. ]

[shiro2hero]

(I'm going to remember you said that. Never know when you'll need privacy.)

[He isn't serious. They both know if she really wanted her space, she'd have it. He'd make sure of that.]

[Now isn't one of those times. He knows Sam is heading back up. Isn't sure where that leaves Bucky, and whether or not that means Pidge is going to be nearly as isolated from them as he is Bellamy now. So he does seek her out. Easing to sit beside her, to watch her keep her hands busy in quiet for a while.]

So what's this one do?

[greentech]

( Yeah, yeah...! )

[ She glances up as Shiro joins her and flashes a little smile. She's always happy to see him. It helps settle her a little. In reply, she shrugs and holds it out to him. ]

Nothing, really. I'm just trying to recreate some of the internal gears from the elin. It's mostly just proof-of-concept.

[ She didn't really make the components. She's nicked them from various places and from their hosts. ]

[shiro2hero]

[Her little smile gets one of his own. Tired, too worn at the edges, but real, all the same. She brings it out in him, easily.]

Thinking about taking it back up with you?

When we actually do get back up there.

[greentech]

I think so. It'd be nice to have... just as a reminder.

[ She shrugs. ]

Besides, maybe I can do something useful with it later. No point in just tossing it.

[ She reaches over and nudges him. ]

How're you feeling?

[shiro2hero]

Kind of surprised anyone wants to remember this place. Then again... the tech's another story.

[Then again, it maybe shouldn't be a surprise Pidge wants to hold onto something from this world. From their technology.]

[He nudges her back.]

It's weird. Spent so long trying to keep everything quiet... now it is... and I don't know what to do with it.

[greentech]

I mean... even if I don't really want to be here, there's still something beautiful about this place. And their technology is pretty amazing, honestly - it's not like anything else I've seen before.

[ She smiles. She's enjoyed some of her time here, after all. It's just... this is a mission. Not a pleasure cruise. ]

Enjoy it, I guess. Maybe it's the calm before another storm. Or maybe things will finally have calmed down and the rest of this mission will be a cakewalk.

[ Yeah, right. ]

[shiro2hero]

Then... maybe we can try and take some with us. More than just what you've got there. Even if we can't take the whole thing, see if we can get schematics home.

[Because that's the end goal. Isn't it? Finding a way back. Even after everything they've done here. They have to get home.]

[They have a job to keep doing.]

Mm. I think I'd like it more if it was voluntary.

[It's not going to be easy. They both know it. And both of them are going to be, in one way or another, separated from the people backing their brains up.]

[greentech]

Oh, no, no - I don't - I wasn't saying I wanted to take it with me. I just think it's cool. Taking some back would be neat, but-

[ It's not that important in the grand scheme of thing. She needs to focus more on the mission. Even if she'd rather not. But getting home? That's on her list. Always will be. ]

The quiet? Well, yeah. But we take what we can get, don't wet?

[shiro2hero]

But you don't want it to get in the way of anything. [It isn't totally a question. He can see where she's going. In a lot of ways.] It doesn't have to. We can leave it on the back burner, in case you're right.

In case the rest of this mission's a walk in the park.

[He tries for another smile. Brief and wavering.]

Are you going to be all right? If both Sam and Bucky go back up?

[greentech]

I - yeah. I'll be OK.

[ She flashes a smile. ]

I dunno. I've never been that close to Bucky, even with the brood-link. He's just... out there. [ Pidge frowns. ]

And I was OK before Sam was in my head; I'll be OK now. Even if I'm gonna miss him a little...

[shiro2hero]

I guess that's a bonus.

[It's weird -- he's felt like he just clicked with the other man. Despite being outside Bucky's immediate link. Maybe it's the flashes of similar memory doing it. But if Pidge is at ease with things, good. That's all that matters.]

Hey, if you need someone pestering you, you've still got me, right?

[Taller Matt, right, Pidge?]

[greentech]

I'll always have you to pester me. No matter where I end up.

[ She elbows him and shoots him a smile that isn't entirely felt, but she does her best. ]

You came all the way back to Earth to bug me, remember?

[ Not really, but. ]

[shiro2hero]

You know it. You're stuck with me.

[He leans into her a little when she elbows him, just short of dumping his whole upper body weight on her.]

I heard Katie Holt was all by herself and hightailed it back. Couldn't leave her without someone to pester her.

[This... actually feels pretty good. Feels like something they could have done back home. It helps.]

[greentech]

[ There's a pause from her and then she curls against his side and stretches her legs out, gaze distant. There's something in the link. A ping of curiosity. A sensation of a cat cocking its head to one side. ]

Are you going to be OK? With Sam up on the Station?

[ They have a Thing. It's worth asking about. ]

[shiro2hero]

[When she leans into his side, he puts an arm around her. An absent, automatic gesture he doesn't even think about. The way it tightens briefly when she asks the question is also automatic.]

I'll be fine. Was fine before him, remember?

[Just like her.]

[They've already talked about it, anyway. It's not ideal, but...] It's what we have to do.

[greentech]

Well, yeah, but you were fine before him because you hadn't met him and didn't have a relationship.

[ She is onto you, Shiro. ]

Just - if you're not fine, I'll know. So don't pretend you are when you're not.

[shiro2hero]

I know. But... he'll just be on the station. Probably safer up there than down here.

[And after the whole incident with trying to heal Keya? He'll take it. In a heartbeat.]

Hey, with any luck, we won't have time to not be all right.

[He shoots her a half-smile, but it's weak.] I couldn't even try to hide it from you. Even if we weren't in each others' head.

[greentech]

If everything is happening too fast for us to really process... Well, I'm not sure that's a good thing.

[ She laughs, because the idea is funny, even if the reality wouldn't be. ]

If we could handle Voltron, we can handle this, right? Just... Less lions. We'll make it work.

[ She enjoys this, even if the subject matter is heavy. She's curled IP with Shiro, just enjoying some time with him. It's... relaxing, in its own way. ]

[shiro2hero]

Ouch, good point.

[It really is sort of funny, in a morbid kind of way.]

[It's weird to want to look forward to that kind of busy. Maybe he just doesn't want to process it.]

[Like it's a trial run for... something else.]

Maybe they've got their own robot lions here. And then we'll have to step in and wrangle them.

[Despite the subject matter? Yeah, this is pretty good. A welcome respite from everything else.]

[greentech]

Lion wrangling. Is that anything like lion taming? It sounds way more hands on...

[ Now she's just being a bit silly. But laughing about this is a good way to try and blow off her own stress. ]

Are robot lions even wild? I mean - they're not really tame, right? They have minds of their own.