(no subject)

[initiates]

Date: July 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.

Comments

Re: Jesse Pinkman | Breaking Bad | OPEN

[payback]

[Look who's out and about today. Rin slips under xover from thw rain and selects a sugar cookie to nibble, with a small wave.]

Hey...

[hostage]

Yo, Rin, what's up?

[He tips back dangerously in his chair to look at her, sort of letting his head fall slack so she looks upside-down.]

[payback]

You're gonna smash your head open... [She sticks the cookie in her mouth and looks for a place to sit, eventually perching on the edge of a stray crate. A thoughtful munch.]

Nothing's up except me taking advantage of your generosity.

[hostage]

[Well he's getting dizzy doing this anyway so he straightens back up.]

How's it tasting?

[payback]

It's great. Delicious, sugary generosity.

[hostage]

Excellent. Exactly what I like to hear.

[payback]

Pat yourself on the back. [She grins a little. It softens up her vulpine, pale little face.] It's been a while. How have you been?

[hostage]

Aside from shitting my pants while we were getting bombed and everything? Great. Totally great.

[Nah, he's being sarcastic.]

[payback]

Umm. [If Jesse wants her not to press he shouldn't lie about it so clearly! Sarcasm counts, okay. u_u] What's going on?

[hostage]

[He does want to talk about it. Preferably with someone he hasn't abused in the past month. He doesn't really know what to say, though, so he takes a drag from his cigarette while he considers his words.]

What if like your worst enemy showed up, and you were supposed to kill him, and you knew it was probably the best thing for everybody if you did - but you still didn't wanna do it? Like, what if he showed up and he wasn't the same as he was before?

[payback]

[She sticks the cookie in her mouth. Slow bite. This is an extremely relevant question to her.]

... I'd probably tell some people I trusted about it, so they could help me keep an eye on that person, even if they didn't get involved. Any changes could just be a trick, so you can't count on that.

Is this a hypothetical situation?

[hostage]

[He glances up at her and nods a little too quickly.]

Yeah. Hypothetical. Just I'm always thinking about it, you know, every month. People coming in from all different times.

[payback]

[Slow bite. Slow cookie bite. Slowwww swallow and no new bite. Slowwwwwwwwwwwwwwww rise of her eyebrows, gazing at him calmly. So slow.]

[hostage]

[Ugh.]

...Okay, look, like literally everybody is freaking out at me about this right now so can you just promise not to flip your shit if I talk about it? 'cause I could really use - just - anybody who can keep a cool head about it.

[payback]

[Good.]

I won't scream at you or about it, I swear.

[hostage]

Okay.

[Deep breath. It's not that he doesn't trust Rin. He doesn't think she'd snitch on him, probably not ever. But talking to her means involving her in all of it and maybe getting her hurt or killed, so he still feels bad about it. Except that he's going to actually go crazy if he keeps going on like he has been, keeping it all to himself except for the times when he's talking to people who want him to go on being a murderer. He doesn't think Rin will pressure him like that. And he knows she spies on him anyway. He knows.]

It's...

Okay, so it's real complicated. But the short version is this guy I thought killed me is here, and he's saying he didn't, and I kinda... Um, I kinda believe him. But nobody else who knows him believes him. Except I know him better than any of 'em, so I would know best, right? Except, like, what if I'm wrong and it's a trick and he hurts somebody? Not me, either - I mean, everybody thinks he'll hurt me, but he won't. But maybe somebody else. I dunno. He gets weird when he's scared. So I've just been trying to keep him calm, right? But everybody else... God, I don't know. I know they wanna kill him - Well, me. They want me to kill him. But he hasn't even done anything here. He's just being nice.

[He takes another breath. That was a lot of words.]

I don't know. I don't.

[payback]

[She absorbs that for a moment, staring at him seriously. Though, really, it's not quite like she's looking at him; more like she blanks out and looks right through him, absorbing that and turning the idea around a little.]

You should keep an eye on him. How smart is the guy? I mean, you can't trust that he's not pulling one over on you if he's smart, or even if he's not and just good at faking it. He could be using you.

[She understands being reluctant to kill and feeling hindered, she does. She understands, really, why he'd be hesitating now...] You should watch him. You should be ready... for if you have to be... [A pause. She thinks: she'd kill the guy. Sometimes she feels dislocated enough from caring, it seems like she could do it, just make it quick. She'd kill people for Vanadi and Collette and Jesse.] Who is it?

[hostage]

[Jesse nods along with what she's saying. Yes, he's smart. Yes, he could be using Jesse - probably is, in fact. And yes, Jesse's watching, and being careful...

But he stops at the final question.]

I can't tell you.

[payback]

Of course you can't. [She just sounds... cool.]

If these people want him to die so much, why doesn't one of them kill him?

[hostage]

Because they're not killers.

[payback]

If they want him to die so bad maybe they should figure out how to be.

[hostage]

No - I mean, that ain't even the point. I don't want anybody to die.

[payback]

What's your plan, Jesse?

[hostage]

Do what he wants. I mean, that's what I gotta do. He's gotta think everything's okay or else he'll snap.

[payback]

What about when he wants you to do something you can't do? What about when it comes to something neither of you can do anything about? That won't work forever.