(no subject)

[initiates]

Date: May 1st
Location: The Initiative Hold & Courtyard.
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: New Transports arrive and are shuffled into the Courtyard after their initial briefings, while those Transports on the mission to Wollongong return.
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

Jaime Reyes | Open (reusing the test drive blurb...)

[khajidont]

[Jaime isn't exactly a stranger to the idea of alternate worlds. He's been to other worlds... or the one world, at least. He knows they exist as abstractly as he knows that there are wars going on on the other side of the world, which is to say, when they do exist it's the sort of thing he expects the really big guns to take care of.

He can't say that he ever expected to be hauled off to one himself but, well, story of his life. It's not that Jaime hadn't listened carefully to the spiel that he had been given upon his arrival, but seeing the streets themselves is still something of a shock. As he wanders the streets, he reaches out to skim one hand against one of the starkly colourless, utilitarian buildings only to tuck his hands underneath his armpits again, hunching his shoulders against the rain.]

If this weather holds up, I'm gonna need some new clothes, [he mutters to himself - hint hint, Scarab, that's kind of your field of expertise - and slows to a standstill to get a better handle on his environment. When this doesn't elucidate matters for him, he rummages around in his pocket until he produces the tablet he'd been given and tries his best to shield it from the rain with his body.]

Okay, [he says out loud, half because it helps him think, half because he'd really like some more intel from the scarab right about now.] First off, a map. [He glides his fingers against its screen, frowning.] Is there even a map on this thing?

[perdre]

[Unhelpfully enough, Peter lifts his head when he thinks he hears someone next to him speak, without quite realizing the other boy is talking to a piece of technology.]

Sorry-?

[khajidont]

[Jaime at least has the grace to look a little sheepish at being caught talking to what is, for all intents and purposes, himself. He's really got to watch out for how much he has to do that out of his armor.]

I wasn't talking to you. I was, uh, talking to myself. [He shrugs a little apologetically in his direction.] Force of habit.

[perdre]

Oh - right. Sorry for interrupting you.

[He sounds sheepish in turn, arching his brows with a hesitant little nod. Woops.]

[khajidont]

[Jaime lets out a light laugh, rubbing at the back of the neck.] Aw man, now I just sound crazy. I'm not, promise. It... helps me think?

[Change the subject, Jaime, you are not doing yourself any favours.] Are you new around here too?

[perdre]

That doesn't sound crazy at all, don't worry, [he smiles briefly, shaking his head.] There's much crazier stuff going on around you.

Not really. Not anymore, at least. I've been here for a month.

[khajidont]

Good point. Apparently we just came out of a time machine, there's more worrying stuff going on than some guy talking to himself.

[That's not without a hint of self-deprecation, but it's mostly in good humour.] I'm. Not really sure if a month sounds like a really long or short amount of time to spend here, actually.

[perdre]

I've met people who have been here for a lot longer, actually. I'm hoping it won't be much longer than that for them. ['Or for us', is implied. And before he forgets-]

I'm Peter.

[khajidont]

[Jaime winces, but he doesn't look too surprised. Even though he had maintained hope, even only having been here for a little while, it's been made fairly obvious by the volume of the population alone that there's not a big red button you can push to go home.]

Jaime, [he says in return, sticking out his hand for him to shake.] Nice to meet you.

[perdre]

[Hand: shaken.]

You too, Jaime. Where are you from?

[khajidont]

Earth, if we're speaking generally. El Paso, Texas if we're not. [He figures it's worth it to make things clear, considering the whole different-worlds schtick.] How about you?

[curatesecrets]

Not sure. It's got more than enough bells and whistles, that's for sure.

[the voice speaking behind Jamie's shoulder is muffled slightly.

probably because Artie's talking with his mouth full. what. there were free cookies]

[khajidont]

[Whoop, and there's an interruption. Jaime turns around a little more warily than someone who looks like Artie warrants, but to his credit, he relaxes once he figures out that he's not being jumped by some sort of alien creature.]

Yeah, I'll say. [He wiggles the device a little, then admits.] I'm... guessing because it's bendy and that seems futuristic-y. I don't actually know much about what it does.

[curatesecrets]

[he fishes his own out of his doctor's bag as he finishes chewing. last time he spoke with his mouth full at length to someone, he got bitched at and freaked her out and - well - it didn't end well]

From what I can tell, it's not far off from an iPhone, just a little more flexible. There's a menu over here - [he holds it out so the kid can see while he plays with the controls] - aha. And that's the submenu ... which means that each open program probably has its own submenu but we're not looking for that we're looking for an application index which is prrrroooobably going to be over on the side somewhere if it has swipe screens which - it - yes. Good.

[his poking and prodding at the tablet screen eventually yields a list of tiny icons, and he points] That might be it, right there.

[khajidont]

Who can afford an iPhone? [It comes out jokingly, but he's halfway serious, mostly because none of the people he knows who are rich enough to afford a first gen iPhone care that much about technology. His own cell is a big, clumsy thing that's only really good for making phone calls and sending the odd text.

He pays attention to the explanation nevertheless while the scarab mutters and buzzes about terminology in his head while complaining that he could have told Jaime all that and more. This is because the scarab is rude. Jaime, however, is polite, so after he's through with mimicking the man's actions, he says,] That's easy enough. Thanks, Mr...?

[postpones]

[passes by, casually...watching to see if Jaime discovers anything new with that. Hey, maybe the tablet takes voice commands, she doesn't know. And exposing it to the rain is probably the quickest way to ruin it, so. If he's going to try that, why not keep hers away?]

[khajidont]

[Honestly, Jaime is too engaged in what he's doing to notice anybody watching him. Luckily, the scarab happens to be paying a little more attention than he is and, as clinical as ever, notes in his head:

Being watched.

He looks up and over to where a girl is watching him and cocks his head at her questioningly.] Something the matter?

[postpones]

[Kirika takes a step closer, and gestures at the tablet he's still holding]

Did you find that map?

[khajidont]

Just about. [He steps a little closer and moves his elbow out of the way so she can see what he's doing. They had provided all Transports with a tutorial, but Jaime's not even going to pretend he hadn't been too busy freaking out to actually listen to it properly.

Nevertheless, it's not that hard to find the pertinent information, and he shows her how to toggle over to the correct screen.] See?

[postpones]

Ah. [peering at his screen...she'd still rather not risk switching on her tablet right now] Yeah, it looks simple enough.

This place is sure big! I bet I'll get lost without reference of some kind.

[khajidont]

[With that done, Jaime turns the tablet off, folds it and stuffs it back in his backpack... which he's really wishing he filled with something marginally more useful than school supplies.] I haven't explored enough to see how big it is, but yeah, I'm betting we'll be getting lost more than once before we get the hang of it.

I'm Jaime, by the way.

[postpones]

Kirika. [she manages a smile, this is one of the few good things that could have happened to her since arrival, she can be thankful for it]

You spot anyone familiar yet? All that talk about multiple worlds and such, and I started wondering.

[khajidont]

[He shakes his head.] Not one. I took a look around, but the chances of us finding anyone we know must be pretty remote if they're taking people from every world. That, and the world's pretty big.

[He looks a little rueful.] I guess we should probably be thankful about that. How about you, see anyone you know?

[postpones]

Nope. [she's decided to withhold judgment on whether it's to be taken in the positive or negative sense until later] Why's that, though? Won't a friend help make the whole process easier?

[khajidont]

Well... yeah, of course. It's not that I wouldn't want to see them. [Or that he wouldn't be happy to see Paco and Brenda around this place. There are few people he'd rather have by his side more than those two.] But we've been brought here to fight a war. I wouldn't want my family to get caught up in all this.