(no subject)

[initiates]

Date: August 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

Artie Nielsen | Warehouse 13 | OTA - Tablet Lessons!

[curatesecrets]

[Artie's got a table set up at one side of the tent, out of the rain, with a sign hanging off the front. it's hand-lettered but legible, and reads: TABLET LESSONS.

he'll just be sitting here, munching on a cookie or two for quality control purposes and waiting for any takers among the newcomers]

[justgo]

[Tess here is sizing up the booth when she walks over, raising a brow at the sign.] What's the price?

[curatesecrets]

No price! [he smiles warmly, gesturing to a folding chair] Absolutely and totally free. It's hard enough to get other things around here, you shouldn't have to pay for knowledge.

[justgo]

Nice to see some generosity 'round here. [A nod as she takes a seat, some relief on her face. She slides her backpack off and keeps it nearby, holds out a hand.] - Tess.

So, the tablets. How hard are they to use, from your perspective?

[curatesecrets]

Nice to meet you, Tess. Call me Artie. [he returns the handshake firmly]

From my perspective? Not hard at all, but I was familiar with something very similar before I even got here. What level of technology are you used to? Television, telephones, smartphones, computers... anything of that nature at all?

[justgo]

Artie, got it. [Getting settled as she searches for the tablet.]

Been about twenty years since I handled anything like a smartphone - think it'll be a 'get back on the horse' scenario?

[curatesecrets]

It might be. This is a little more high-tech than that, but it's the same basic concept. Mostly, the thing to really get used to is the flexibility. It ... makes accidentally pocket-dialing people a lot easier.

[justgo]

That's still a thing here, even with all its advancements and capabilities? [Well, Christ. Pulling it out, she sets it on the table, shakes her head.] What a place to be in.

Alright, so where do you wanna start? You're the teacher here.

[curatesecrets]

Tip of the iceberg, I'm afraid. [he smiles ruefully] But since you know smartphones, you're really off to a good start. In fact, you might even barely need my help. Touch here to pull up the control panel, and you'll have a row of icons ... it's all pretty intuitive. Video, voice only, text ... and this is the Initiative database.

[justgo]

Great - I was afraid you were gonna say that too. [She flashes a little smile back at him, brows pressed together.] Alright, think I can manage my way through that.

Anythin' else I should keep in mind about making calls, anything like that?

[cesar]

[ There's plenty of food for the body at the welcome tent but few for the mind, except for this one. Cesare is quick to set his own tablet on the table as he easily takes a seat in front of the man and rests his elbows on the surface. Ready to go? ]

The first lesson is?

[curatesecrets]

[Artie is always ready! he looks the man over quickly, easily assessing the time period of his garb, but not making any assumptions yet, given how many different worlds are represented here]

Actually, the first lesson is to know what you don't know, so I don't waste your time telling you anything you already do. [he smiles and taps Cesare's tablet with one finger]

Are you familiar with these at all? Or anything like them? Computers, smartphones, electrical technology in general...?

[cesar]

[ Cesare dresses with the times. As utilitarian as he might be, he is also vain and thirsty for awe and approval from Italy's greater families. It would also show that he is wealthy, even when he wears all black and nothing but a Cardinal's ring on his right hand.

All the items mentioned only makes his frown deepen as he slowly shakes his head. ]

[curatesecrets]

[he looks so familiar, too. he hasn't seen an image of Cesare as recently as he has the portrait of his sister in the Warehouse archives, so it's going to take him a little while to put his finger on it, and it's going to bug him. but that happens to him a lot, so it's relatively easy to push aside for now]

Okay. Well, then, ah ... We'll start from the ground up. It lets you speak to anyone without having to be in the same room as them, and send messages without needing to carry around quills or ink or parchment.

[cesar]

[ Oh, and what dark humor he would find at being told his face has been used as a model for Christ. The most blatant atheist he is. ]

Now quills and parchments I know. [ He smiles a little, self-deprecating, holding up his tablet again to figure out which part of it does what. ]

Can this box fly to send my messages for me then?

[curatesecrets]

In a way. It's the messages themselves that do the traveling. The tablet stays with you. This button here transmits video, which works like a window: anyone looking at their tablet can see you, and you can see them. Go ahead, give it a try. [he takes his own out so Cesar will be able to see the transmission from both sides]

[cesar]

But how do the messages travel?

[ He looks between the tablet and this man, terribly wary, but then he presses the button as instructed. ]

[curatesecrets]

They use something called radio waves - it's the same way sound carries, but it's at a frequency that we can't hear. The tablets can pick up that frequency and transform it into something we can see and hear. It's like ... [he thinks a moment] ... well, something like alchemy. Or chemistry.

[he may have just labeled himself as a horrible terrible heathen, but honestly, it wouldn't be the first time. so he's not really worried.]

[devotedtothecore]

[ The sign catches the eye well enough, and so serves its purpose. Chrys stops for it, at least, where he'd been coasting past some of the others under the tent. Followed by a level glance at the man behind the table. ]

Are you occupied?

[ He doesn't look it, but it's a courtesy to ask. ]

[curatesecrets]

I am now, if you're interested. [he smiles and gestures to the chair] Please, go on, make yourself comfortable.

[devotedtothecore]

...I am.

[ There's something about the man that he finds reassuring--- maybe it's the bookish look-- so he sits, pulling the chair up close enough he can rest his forearms on the table. His shiny new tablet is produced and set on the table with careful fingers. ]

I've not encountered a device such as this, before. It seems intuitive in basic use, but I would know more, if possible.

[curatesecrets]

Sure. Nice to meet you.... I'm Artie. [he smiles, glad so many people this month seem eager to learn] First off, how familiar are you with the concept of electronics? Do you know anything about radio or telephones?

[devotedtothecore]

My name is Chrysos.

[ He doesn't quite smile back; he does ease a bit more into the chair, but his expression still has that perturbed wrinkle to the brow. Radio is unfamiliar, but telephones... there'd been plans to lay out a system of cables for those in the eastern part of the city, an early trial...

...he doubts, even then, that it's anywhere near what Artie might mean. ]

"Electronics". Do they bear some relation to electricity?

[curatesecrets]

As a matter of fact, Chrysos, they're called electronics because they're powered by electricity. But they're perfectly safe. I can show you how the basic functions work for now, and then once you're used to those, I can show you more later... That way, you won't get overwhelmed.

[devotedtothecore]

...thank you. It's appreciated.

[ He's already worked out some of the basics of using the device (pictures and movement that respond to the touch, what a library the treatises on it might fill), but it rarely hurts to start from the beginning. ]