[As it becomes apparent that it's time to move on—to shift forward in what feels like an endless pilgrimage, one in which none of the Hosts will gain any "true" enlightenment, as they will never see this culture as anything more than a means to an end. (At least, that's as far as Lexa sees it. Perhaps it's disrespectful. Perhaps she would bristle at it herself if it were about her culture. But then, no one is calling these people primitive and uncivilized like she's heard about her people in the past.)

Not that any of this will be spoken. This mission will go on, but it's a mission that can come to an end. That is something within their reach.

Which is why she opens up a mental communication to all the Hosts.]

( We must discuss, as a whole, how we hope to proceed moving forward. Before we pack up our things, I would prefer that we have some plan in place for how we act next. It'll prevent any further need to take on actions individually as we will be acting for each other. With the knowledge of each other's future actions.

That is not to say that I recommend against actions. But we can't act in contradiction to one another. Out of impatience for each other. We all hope to be done with this mission as soon as possible.

We have confirmed the presence of the Enemy. How do we hope to proceed? How will we ensure that the Descendants do not claim control of this power?

Furthermore, I implore you all to consider why it is the Enemy would act to prevent peace talks that could secure them the Nectar. And why it is that they need the Nectar. We are only fighting one battle here.

I won't lead this discussion. But we must have this discussion. We work well under time constraints. Let's have an idea of how we hope to proceed before we continue our journey. )

[That's her way of setting a time constraint, all in hopes that people will discuss what they will have to do. It's no longer about Keya (as far as she's concerned), but about their greater mission.]

[ooc: please please please treat this as an IC discussion post where people can threadjack and discuss whatever! i figured it would be a good idea to facilitate discussion here!]

CHARACTERS: Murphy & OPEN
WHERE: Red Coast
WHEN: DAY :028 - :032 (see headers for specifics).
SUMMARY: Seviilia goes into a coma, Murphy is left as the last Elnath
WARNINGS: Most likely mentions of past violence and death.

( Read more... )

CHARACTERS: Joshua and anyone
WHERE: The Red Coast, barracks.
WHEN: Anytime in days 28-34.
SUMMARY: Sick jams.
WARNINGS: None yet, but I have great faith in y'all's ability to make anything horrible. Will update if needed.

( Read more... )

CHARACTERS: New Hosts & EVERYONE
WHERE: Station 72; Hyrypia - The Red Coast
WHEN: DAY :025 - DAY :026
SUMMARY: Somewhere deep in the void between multiverses, a fresh clutch of Hosts hatches; getting them down to Hyrypia proves to be more complicated than usual.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. Need a warning added? PM this account please!

( the bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars did wander darkling in the eternal space )

CHARACTERS: OTA
WHERE: The Station
WHEN: DAY :040
SUMMARY: A dinner party.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. Need a warning added? PM this account please!

( I FOUND A WOLF SMILING AT ME... )

CHARACTERS: New Hosts & EVERYONE
WHERE: The Station
WHEN: DAY :039
SUMMARY: New faces and old losses - a hatch occurs and a number of older hosts go comatose. Coma'd hosts include all auto-piloted dropped characters to date.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. Need a warning added? PM this account please!


( WELCOME TO THE STATION... )

CHARACTERS: Cathaway & [Ilde/Prince/insert option C]
WHERE: Station 72
WHEN: Day :036+
SUMMARY: Catchall for Cathaway on the Station mid-Waypoint Shril and beyond; Cathaway and Ilde prepare a meal; Prince and Cathaway have a serious conversation over tea.
WARNINGS: N/A, will update as necessary.

( followed me followed me without moving )

CHARACTERS: Ilde & Murphy
WHERE: Station 72
WHEN: Day :036
SUMMARY: Hey-o.
WARNINGS: N/A, will update as necessary.

CHARACTERS: All (New Hosts may tag anything from their arrival date on Waypoint Shril forward.)
WHERE: WAYPOINT SHRIL
WHEN: Day :033 - :038
SUMMARY: Come one, come all, to the most amazing show you will ever see! Catch-all for the all ABA! Events, excluding the Demolition Man Derby and Awards Ceremony on day :039.
WARNINGS: N/A, will update as necessary.

( [insert swirling spotlights here] )

[ Pidge is a bit distracted. She's been working her job and trying to figure out how to find things and the combination has been a bit exhausting. Especially since she's tiny and some of the aliens she's had to try and deal with have been much, much larger. Still, she's found time to get away and despite the note of exhaustion, there's something triumphant in her mental tone. ]

( Hey, I found out where they're keeping the prizes! They've got it on some sort of ship, way out in the system, behind one of the moons- )

[ And here everyone is treated to a mental image of a sprawling, edge-master looking ship that's been finished rose gold chrome. Sort of a contradiction. ]

( It's called "The Fair Heart" and apparently it used to be some kind of prison ship. "Sorrowful Death Hole" or something. Uh, either way, it's where they're keeping the prizes until later in the competition.

I think we should go out there and grab them. )

CHARACTERS: Ilde & Open
WHERE: Station 72 / Waypoint Shril
WHEN: Day 28 - 32
SUMMARY: It lives.
WARNINGS: N/A, will update as necessary.

[ She is sitting on the floor of the Nesting Deck covered in blood. She slows her heart rate, and the wound in her neck slows to a dribble. But she is tired, and her thoughts fluctuate unevenly, ]

( I hope all of you are treated this well, when you lose someone, everyone, beloved. To have your pain thrown back in your faces and mocked, to be abandoned by your brood, to be assaulted in the very hall where you watch over your loved ones... )

[ Her disgust is bone deep. ]

( Do not look to me, when it is your turn. I will have nothing for you. )




may be choosey with who she really answers and to what extent, but post is open at large.

CHARACTERS: Shiro & Virtually Everyone
WHEN: Day 11 - 13 (ish)
WHERE: Training area
SUMMARY: Taming the savage brain symbiote.
WARNINGS: violence, probably some kind of triggering nonsense, will update this as needed


( eye of the tiger, etc etc )

CHARACTERS: Ilde
WHERE: Around
WHEN: Day 20 onwards
SUMMARY: 2 boys down, 1 to go.
WARNINGS: I sincerely hope Ilde somehow injures every single person who tries to talk to her. I am here to burn my CR down.

CHARACTERS: Beth and YOU
WHERE: here there and everywhere
WHEN: any day and every day
SUMMARY: open prompts for downtime. if you'd like something specific hit me up at pineappamatic!
WARNINGS: N/A! will update as necessary

( and how long has that been? )

CHARACTERS: petre and whichever unfortunate soul happens to run into him.
WHERE: The Station.
WHEN: DAY :010.
SUMMARY: aoba is getting a beating, petre refused to go to Magical Sleep despite advice, and now it's hurting a lot. his reaction will develop while the thread unfolds, too, so he might or might not go into berserk mode. this means he tries to kill people and/or eat them.
WARNINGS: there will probably be nasty things here, but i'm not 100% sure. you can count on swearing, gore (i introspection or otherwise), anti-religious speech, etc.

( Read more... )

[ It begins in drum beats, louder and louder over itself, begins like eyes opening out of childhood nightmares, begins like a mother waking to her child's crying in the night, between Sam and Zhukov and something that is the sea - something that is a river in full flood. Out and out to where there is no difference between them. Through the hive and through the void in a space that is not space and like any waters, the void takes the path of least resistance, eager to expand in every direction.

Finds Sam first, of course it does. Wraps about him like a sycophant. It beats itself out against him, demanding, demanding, wanting and pushing and clawing and gnawing at once. Looks for a crack, any crack, just one simple divide, and as Sam splits his mind. It slips in stiletto blade thin between ribs and cracks apart at the edges. To take and take and take, to carve on the edge of a knife a way forward and engulf.

Not in words, but it speaks:

( a city, a city overrun in gnawing creatures, rats, thousands of them, their fur wet and spillery smooth as nails try to pry their teeth out of supple muscles, between fingers as they crawl, of flies, loud and buzzing, sickly honeyed hives that are corpse sweet and they nestle like lovers into flesh. Of something older than modern lights and inventions that sits at the back of the tongue and is suckled out by empires as oils. This is what the flesh of the sea looks like, this is what the water tastes like free of everything and full of nothing. Of cities under the earth, forgotten. Of the rot and the festering and the piling: this is what happens to a body that is on top of another body, this is what happens when the flesh is stripped away in salt and dried to air. Lovers that are in sewers and together, together, together. Looking up is to look down to the depths. There is no left or right, there's only a deep, deep breath and coughing up the taste of blue and violet and dark-light. This is the sun through the ice, reflected over and over again until it sears the skin in its reflection. Objects that float like they never knew the ground, or that they exist and don't exist and forget where to walk, paths that overlay paths that overlay paths,

and black - black eyes. There is nothing, nothing so black as those eyes. Nothing so beautiful as them as when they stare down into these oceans of you. Above and below and no where at all. Crawling in the sewers, through grand mansions, not welcome here but oh, so very, very wanted. Come, come, you are its lover, and it wants to carve purpose in bones. You are so beautiful, it wants to lick the marrow out of your bones, and it will call you pure for the broken parts of you, it wants, just give in, just give it everything.

these waters will never give back what they have taken. )

It takes Sam, where they are a half beat apart, and when he slips, it rushes over the top of him, holding to him tightly and then the everything stops. Expanded as far as it can go. The healing on his body is nothing but tinder, something new to be devoured.

And then, there is nothing but the dark and a naked flame.

Out of mind and body, Zhukov starts screaming as he burns. ]

( ooc: this is the continuation from this thread here, and is open for anyone to feel and react to. I am also happy to have the void reach out to touch whoever wants to from him. If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a plurk to @aeneia or send me a message here! )

CHARACTERS: Parker ( unfavoured ) & [ open ]
WHERE: Station 72
WHEN: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
SUMMARY: Why are you the way you are?
WARNINGS: Parker.

( (971): I just want you to make me second guess my worth as a human. Is that too much to ask? )

CHARACTERS: New Hosts & EVERYONE
WHERE: The Station
WHEN: DAY :009
SUMMARY: What's this? It's a whole new set of tools!
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. Need a warning added? PM this account please!


( WELCOME TO THE STATION... )