(no subject)

[initiates]

Date: April 1st
Location: The Initiative Hold & Courtyard.
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: New Transports arrive and are shuffled into the Courtyard after their initial briefings.
Warnings: None.

You've just been hustled and bustled through mazes of information and literal, wide corridors of the Initiative Hold and you've been equipped with your weapon—be it a gun, a sword, or even your existing powers. They've handed you this light netbook and a small pouch of coins (or a debit card, if you're more inclined), and there are several Transports before and after you going through the very same motions. You can hear the Greeter's voice as she walks alongside large groups, telling them all about the history of this place and sharing with you your purpose here in a hurried and urgent tone. "You're in luck that we have enough rooms for all of you; the housing building is getting awfully full. Please, let me show you into the courtyard."

You pass what looks like huge gymnasiums, all with dummies and targets strewn and splayed around the room. Training areas. There are even classrooms, and a few small offices. You're rushed past a large library while the Greeter informs you that you can find almost all your information there, if you've got the time to look—and trust her, you'll have time. You don't spend a lot of time in the bank, and it's a bit of a blur of exchanges with more and more of these strangely-accented and oddly polite-seeming members of the Initiative.

Soon enough, you're in a massive courtyard bustling with all the other Transports. It's not exactly what you'd expect, and it looks more like barracks than anything—huge walls of concrete and stone, separating you from all of the hallways you'd just passed through. It's raining heavily, and dark clouds loom in the air, though it hasn't turned to snow. It's a chill cold, and there are shelters—long cloth hangings that extend from the walls of concrete to house you from the rain, but not enough. Most notably, the courtyard is filled with a marketplace. Even in the cold and the rain, there are several citizens seated at their covered booths and tables, bundled up against the weather. They're selling all manner of their own handmade goods and foods, and citizens and Transports alike are traveling from one small covered shop to another in search of all manner of necessities.

The Greeter's voice has become so faint now, but you swear you can make it out in the back of the crowds as she tells you, "Good luck. Be safe!"

Her voice is drowned out by the busy marketplace, though even the transactions taking place are somewhat subdued. Nobody is overly happy, really, though most citizens can be found with smiles on their faces. It doesn't seem like they're that shocked to see you, either; even if you're not bound in tattered rags and wrapped in heavy shawls as they are. You're welcome to walk up to a shop, and find yourself something to eat—hey, maybe you'll even find something akin to a raincoat. Or, you can join the others under the coverings against the walls. Where am I? What war? She was talking so fast, and it didn't all make very much sense… did anyone else catch it all?

Welcome to the courtyard. Welcome to the Initiative Hold—and most importantly, welcome to Exsilium.

Comments

[alphonse]

[It's only been a month since Al first found himself standing in this very courtyard, so he can certainly sympathize with that confusion. A big, armored guy probably isn't the most reassuring sight for a newcomer, but he at least attempts to sound chipper and non-threatening.]

You're new, right? I don't think anyone believes the whole story all at once, but it does get easier once you've had time to take it all in.

[pabulously]

[Bolin looks up at the guy in the giant suit of armor and laughs a little.] That obvious, huh? [Right now Bolin's in the stage of fairly cheerful incomprehension. He can't wrap his mind around his current situation, so he isn't even trying.]

That's some suit of armor you've got there.

[Pabu leans over, sniffing Alphonse cautiously. Why doesn't he smell human?]

[alphonse]

[Al laughs a bit awkwardly in turn, holding a hand still for Pabu to inspect. The little guy kind of reminds him of Xiao-Mei.]

Thanks. It looks like you were lucky enough to bring a friend along, at least.

[pabulously]

You can't keep me and Pabu apart!

[Pabu climbs carefully onto Alphonse's arm, intending to peek inside and figure out what is going on.]

Pabu! Don't climb into his armor! That's rude!

[alphonse]

[Unfortunately for Al, he's not used to dealing with animals quite as sly and quick as a fire ferret, so his attempts to grab Pabu don't quite meet their mark.]

Um, do you think you could--! [He cuts himself off with an undignified cry as Pabu reaches high enough to start nosing around his helmet.] Hey!

[pabulously]

PABU! [Bolin grabs the ferret after quickly adjusting his grip on his things. His knuckles ding on the armor, which gives a weird hollow sound, but Bolin's more concerned with Pabu's behavior.]

Sorry about that, he's not normally that rude.

[alphonse]

[This is karmic retribution for the cats and the panda, huh?

Al's too quick to take a step back to play it off as casually as he'd like, and he certainly sounds a bit unsettled.]

It's okay. [Maaaybe one more tiny step away, just to be cautious.] He just... caught me a little off guard. You should be careful, though. There are people here who are going to look a lot more strange to him than someone wearing armor.

[pabulously]

Do any of them wear masks? Because that might be his problem. Me and Pabu, we don't like masks.

[alphonse]

Actually, yeah, they're not all that uncommon. What's so bad about masks?

[pabulously]

There's this bad guy where I'm from. Seriously bad, and he's got a lot of bad guys working for him and they all wear masks.

[alphonse]

[Al nods. He's certainly heard stranger.]

And you ended up here before you could stop them? I'm sorry to say that isn't unusual for this place either. The Initiative isn't very good at taking everyone else's plans into account.

[pabulously]

[Bolin nods emphatically] Rude.

[But it's not his way to dwell on indignation. Not when there are other things to think about.]

So what's with the suit of armor? Are you going off to fight someone? [SUDDEN HORRIFYING THOUGHT] Am I gonna have to wear one of those things?

[alphonse]

[That gets a laugh, and he finally seems to relax from the Pabu Incident.]

I think you're safe. Wearing armor's just a personal hobby of mine.

My name's Alphonse Elric. I'd say it's nice to meet you, but I'm sure you can't be too happy with the circumstances. I haven't been here all that long myself, but I can try to help if you have any questions.

[pabulously]

Good. Not that there's anything wrong with it as a hobby! It's just [weird] not my style. I'm not a metalbender.

Nice to meet you, Alphonse. I'm Bolin, and this guy's Pabu. [And dude, how did it not occur to him to ask?!] Are you a metalbender?

[Fanboy glee in three...two...one...]

[alphonse]

[Head tilt. It's not the first time he's heard bending mentioned here, but he still has no idea what it actually is.]

Huh? No, nothing like that. I'm an alchemist, but I guess that word probably means about as much to you as metalbending does to me.

If it helps at all, I think there was a little girl talking about it on the network a few weeks ago, though.

[pabulously]

Great! [Another earthbender here! That's exciting!] So what's alchemy?

[alphonse]

It's a branch of science dealing with the understanding and alteration of matter. [More or less.] Depending on how your world has evolved it'd probably be easier just to show you, but I don't think the merchants would appreciate a demonstration in the middle of the courtyard.

What about metalbending? It sounded like that girl meant it was something more than just a fancy name for a blacksmith.

[pabulously]

Woah. That sounds cool. [Not that he really understood a word of it.]

Metalbending is this super advanced form of earthbending. Up until 70 years ago, nobody thought it was even possible! But Toph Bei Fong, who was the GREATEST EARTHBENDER OF ALL TIME, figured out how! And she taught it to other people and now we have a metalbending police force, which is kind of scary but also really cool.

[alphonse]

I'm not sure I follow you, but it must be something pretty special if you're that enthusiastic about it.

[Comparing metalbending to earthbending doesn't help in Al's understanding of it, but he chalks the confusion up to the difficulty of explaining basic concepts across universes.]

A lot of the people who were brought here have really amazing abilities, though, so you should try asking around if that's the sort of thing that interests you. One of the few good things about being here is that it's an opportunity to learn a lot about places we'd never be able to see otherwise.