[closed to S72 hosts] mental link

[polyphonos]

[Hosts have returned to Station 72. It's the most populous this place has been for some time, but the dull ache of missing links - the numerous comatose individuals now carefully tucked back into their respective pods on the Nesting Deck - looms like a shadow here. It's quiet and still and strangely barren. The distance which stretches between the Hosts here and those who chose to remain on Hyrypia is a physical presence as well. It's as a curtain between two rooms, two slowily turning mirrors on different rotations, infrequently capturing eachother's reflections. In the gap, in the waiting stillness, Cathaway's mind is a steady, rythmic drip of cool water into the mirrored surface of some greater, unmoving body of water:]

( Should you need to reach out to anyone left behind on Hyrypia, we will happily assist. Find us if you need us. ) [There's no image projected along with the words, just the certainty that if someone came looking then they would inevitbly find her.] ( If you have questions or require anything else from us, feel free to ask after that as well. We're here to help. )

[There's a bizarre texture to the shape of the thought: it wavers and shifts, malleable and untethered as if for a split second she is uncertain. Then that two turns, solidifies. Curtly:]

( Welcome back. )

Comments

[polyphonos]

['You know the Station pretty well.' There's a flicker of humor there in the older woman's face, some wry appreciation for what it's meant to be regardless of its accuracy. Yes, some people might say that. In the grand scheme of things, it's very nearly true.

The easiness of her expression lingers for some moments after. It's true that her attention is divided, but at least the fraction that stands here in this strange empty room has a personable attitude.]

We're sure we could find something like that. Would you like us to take you there?

[earthborn]

Only if I'm gonna be able to find it myself, later.

[Your weird psychotropic station is a horrible warren of confusion and death, she means. Our station. Whatever.]

Kinda hoping to hold a few instructional get-togethers. Kinda defeats the point, otherwise.

[polyphonos]

[She laughs. It's a bright, sparkling sound - strange given the narrow space and how distant fragments of her remain.]

It's fine. We're sure once you've been there, you'll remember the way. It isn't really that hard.

[With a decisive step, Cathaway moves from the center of the hexagonal room. It's clear she has every intention of leaving it in the exact same direction that Shepard had arrived from. She touches the woman's elbow lightly as she passes (and there is nothing unusual or chilling about the touch; it just is) and then leads the way from the bridge.]

Is this for your personal use, or do you have something else in mind for the space?

[earthborn]

I wanna use it for training. A lot of the people we have here aren't spacers. They don't how to move in Zero-G and they don't know how to manage basic safety precautions, for themselves or others.

[She offers Cathaway a shrug-- not that she can see, up ahead as she is. But then, Shepard has no doubt she'll get the gist.]

Seems to me, we're doing a lot of space travel. Last I checked, the margin of error was still pretty slim out there, so it just makes sense.