exsiliumlogs | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Date: June 1st
Location: The Initiative Hold & Courtyard.
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: New Transports arrive and are shuffled into the Courtyard after their initial briefings. Now with 200% more People-Seeking lists!
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. Now and then around you you might spot paper fluttering in the faint wind from somewhere relatively dry. It looks like a list.

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Shintaro wasn't even really in the rain. He isn't even without an umbrella. But he was just stepping out of a store into it with his umbrella held in his hand. Maybe that's why. But that doesn't matter because when he looks up and sees Christopher's face his immediate reaction is to back the hell up.

What the hell is this? It's not Halloween is it? It can't be. Maybe he just got here from a Halloween party or does he work at a haunted house? What if that's real?! It looks real! He's going to die.]

N-no I'm fine thank you I'm sorry!

[Is it just Shintaro? Or did an edge of extra maliciousness just find its way into that smile?

Nah you're probably just imagining it.]

I'm sorry. [Still that gentle voice.] Did I frighten you?

You didn't! [Yes you did.] You don't have to apologize, I'm sorry I didn't mean to be rude.

Um.

Thank you but I'm really fine?

Ah, I'm glad to hear it.

I'm glad to hear that a friend is fine.

But you see, I'm not fine.

I've been lied to by a friend.

What is the pain of being lied to by a friend?

It isn't a sharp pain like knives.

It isn't a hot pain like fire.

It's the cold pain of falling rain.

I'm not fine, friend. My heart has been rained upon.

You've lied to me, and now my soul has no umbrella.

[Wait wait wait.

What's going on? what did he just step in to? He didn't even step into this the other person came first!]

T-then why don't you put that umbrella over yourself again! Really, I'm okay, I've got my own umbrella here, see?

[you don't understand shintaro

He looks into Shintaro's eyes.]

It's my soul that is rained upon.

[His SOUL, Shintaro.]

I'm sorry!?

[He looks like he's going to start crying.]

[Christopher closes his umbrella so he can jab Shintaro with it. (Gently.)] There's no need! Apologies are unnecessary between friends.

[He yelps and backs away like if he doesn't get away fast enough it will shoot lasers and kill him.]

F-friends?

[Christopher swings the umbrella back up over his head and opens it up again. It freezes the rain that touches it, but he doesn't seem to notice.]

Aren't we friends?

Oh, I've been very rude. My names is Christopher Chareau de Red. [He bows.] I'm so glad to have met a friend so soon.

[Shintaro pales again. He could've been frozen.]

Uh, um, we just, met?

I'm... [SIGH] Shintaro Kisaragi...

It's nice to meet you, Shintaro Kisaragi. Now that our souls are both dry, I need to take my baking supplies somewhere safe.

You'll help me, won't you?

I will?

[Really? This is happening? He should have stayed inside. Yes, he should have stayed inside. like every time. Like the time he got stuck with terrorists at the mall. Like every. Single. Time. Why.]

Uh, I can show you to the housing building...?

It's kind of you to offer, Shin. Lead the way!

[That just happened.]

...! It's Shintaro.

[SIGH fine he turns and starts toward the housing building the sooner he gets there the safer]

[But he can smell the loser on you, Shintaro.]

Hahah, I'm sorry, Shintaro. I guess I just let my enthusiasm get away with me.

[gtfo]

It's. Okay. It's this way, come on.

Thank you. [He follows Shintaro, keeping his humming to a minimum.]

[What a strange person. Pushy and probably with no sense of personal space, romping into people's bubble without so much as a second thought, probably, but most probably he thinks, this person wouldn't allow anybody else into his. People tended to be that way, and as strange as this person's appearance was, he seemed... people like, in the end. Unfair. One-sided. Selfish. (Not that he was any better.)

Even Ene was sort of like that. He wonders where she is now.]

... Why did you put the umbrella over me?

Mm? You were getting wet.

[Does he need to say anything else? Umbrellas are designed to save people from wetness.

Don't make him elaborate. He'll start praising umbrellas. Don't do it, Shintaro.]

... ... That's it?

[He knew it. He's pushy. He should get out of this right now or else this is going to suck.]

That and . . . [Christopher has that strange, gentle, airheaded smile. It stays there.] To tell the truth, you looked like someone who doesn't have interest in the world.

... Huh?

[He's not sure if it's really the rain, or he's confused by the guy's smile, or the strange answer. But there's a small chill down his spine, and all thoughts on getting out and away are pushed away as he turns all his attention to Christopher.]

W-what do you mean?

Sorry, was I wrong?

[The smile persists. And Christopher, unperturbed, continues.]

You seem like a person who feels like there's nothing in this world that interests you. Maybe there are one or two things that you're attached to, but . . . I thought, 'Ah, that person won't acknowledge this world.'

That was my impression, at least.

[What's with this guy, he wonders, disturbed. Shintaro considered himself fairly interested -- he'd watched the network, he'd talked to people, he'd stepped in to go on a mission even though it ended disastrously. Even back home...

Something cold seems to wrap its fingers around his heart and squeeze, as he tries to think about what Christopher said. So he stops, pushing all of it away, choosing to brush off the words. The hand stops and disappears, leaving behind only a lingering chill. He's suddenly glad to be wet from the rain because he's sure there is some cold sweat on his brow. He doesn't tease Christopher, though. Doesn't insult his abilities to read people. He's not sure if Christopher was wrong, and besides -- teasing meant letting him step in further, and stepping in, himself.]

I'm not sure what you're talking about... but I'm sure that's not true?