Pale Decantation

The hatchery marked Pale Decantation with tally strokes instead of a name. Their pale, folded body was one among many, counted for a purpose that shifted before anyone could explain it. When the count was lost, the hatchery’s keepers treated the missing record as an accounting problem rather than a life.

Decantation left with others who had been similarly overlooked. Some chose names as soon as they were free. Decantation kept the designation, partly as a reminder and partly because they wanted the hatchery to recognize what it had failed to see.

Hatchery Surplus travels in search of the unclaimed. Its captain offers food and a place to recover, but does not promise a new collective will solve every injury the old one caused. Decantation understands the comfort of belonging and the danger of being reduced to a number. They insist that everyone aboard be counted by someone who knows them.