(no subject)

[initiates]

Date: September 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. 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

sarah manning | orphan black

[variates]

[ arriving at the initiative hold had reminded her too much of the building she'd left ( what felt like ) mere moments ago. it was just like being with the pro-clone again; someone offering her a multitude of things for a price that she had no interest in paying. only she hadn't been given a choice this time. there wasn't any opportunity to say thanks, but no thanks — or rather, she'd tried and gotten the same response each time.

it seemed like she might be stuck here, but sarah was never one to let her circumstances control her. she wanders out as soon as she can, hood immediately up as she makes her way through the crowd to try and find a somewhat empty area. the minute she thinks she's out of earshot, she whips out a small pink phone and desperately begins dialing a now familiar number. ]

Come on, come on. Pick up, Cos— [ try as she might, phone companies just haven't started covering trans-millenial calls yet. her roaming charges are going to be killer. ]

Bloody useless thing. [ she stares at it a moment longer before deciding to vent her frustration at nearby wall... by kicking right at it. suffice to say, it isn't the best of ideas. ] Fuck.

[ now what's a girl to do around here when she doesn't think she's got any other method of contacting home and british though she may be, the rain is still rather irritating and is only managing to add onto her frustration? ]

[lucency]

[ it's a shame, belle thinks. the talk that they get is practically useless given the shock of the whole process and the disorientation that follows. throwing transports into the thick of things with a market and a large crowd might seem welcoming in theory, but in practice -

well. she's familiar with the need to escape to a quieter place. to be alone for a moment, and catch her thoughts. that's why, when she does choose to approach the woman, she's quiet and almost wary, with small steps. ]

It's not going to work. Your phone. [ well. that much is obvious. she looks down at the ground for a moment, sheepish. ] I'm sorry, it's - we can use the tablets to talk to one another. That's - nearly it, I think.

[variates]

[ maybe a part of her is hoping that when she turns around, the person she hears approaching will be someone familiar to her. she knows it isn't likely and any hope is crushed the minute she realizes that she doesn't recognize the other woman at all. ( after all, most of the people she'd say she trusted currently happened to look exactly like her and it would be pretty hard to miss one's own face. ) ]

Yeah, I seem to have figured as much. [ sarah frowns and spares a glance at the phone she's still got clutched tightly in her hand before shoving the thing back in her pocket.

she remembers being handed the tablet, but she hadn't paid it much mind in her hurry to leave. ]

Can the tablet thing make calls to someone who might not be here?

[lucency]

[ yeah, sorry. to be fair, belle would change that if she could, but, well. better to let the newcomer down gently, she figures; maybe that'll make it easier to get acquainted to everything. fighting. the crowds, the rain - whatever needs getting used to. ]

I don't think so. You can look through the network, see if their name comes up. [ she says it with a step closer to her, the thought coming to her almost suddenly, with a light lilt to her voice and the tiniest shred of hope on her face. it's worth a shot, maybe! ]

[variates]

What'd you mean?

[ she shuffles through the things in her hand until she can find it and examine it warily. ]

If they're not here, it's still useless, isn't it?

[lucency]

Well, you said they might not be here, right? It's worth a shot.

[ she pauses, taking her own tablet out of her pocket and shrugging. long shot, yeah, but she's been known to idly flip through names hoping (foolishly, she admits) that she missed one in particular. ]

If they're on the network, they're here. Somewhere. Not everyone comes to this greeting thing.

[variates]

Could they have ended up somewhere else?

[ she leans closer so she can just look at the list of names off of Belle's tablet and worry about messing with her own later ( if it's even worth using in her mind. ) ]

—wait, hang on, go up a bit slower.

[lucency]

Sorry. Here - [ she holds her tablet out to the woman, offering it over if she'd like to take it, while still scrolling just in case she doesn't. she smiles sheepishly. ]

What do you mean - in another part of the city? [ she shakes her head. ] Everyone comes in the same way, on a schedule, it looks like. But they could've come here months before, maybe.

[variates]

Or another city entirely. Not like this is the only place left, is it?

[ sarah takes it out of belle's hands momentarily and scrolls up to where she thinks she'd spotted a familiar name. her eyes widen when she realizes that it can't be anyone else with same first and last name but cosima, but her suspicions hold her back. plus, she'd really rather try and contact her when she's not in the company of a stranger.

she hands the tablet back with a nod. ]

Thanks. [ she hesitates for a second before blurting out what's been lingering on her mind this whole time: ] Why're you being so nice?

[ people weren't generally nice on their own in her experience. it usually came with a price. ]

[khajidont]

[While Jaime ends up hovering around the cookie tent for most of the day, he does get up once or twice to stretch his legs. This time, he's hardly been away from the tent at all before he sees a woman kicking the wall and swearing, and considering the pink phone in her hand, he can guess why.]

I guess you've already figured out that's not gonna work, [he offers from where he stands, hands jammed in his pockets.] You'll want to save the juice if there's any pictures or anything on there you wanna keep.

[variates]

[ the advice coming from the teen is sound, but sarah also doesn't want to acknowledge the fact that she feels kind of stuck with her primary method of communication taken away. ]

Haven't they got chargers in the future? [ not that there was anything worth saving really on the phone. she's deflecting more than anything. ]

[khajidont]

They change up cell phone chargers every few years. [He tilts his head, a sympathetic cast to his features.] If this is the future for you too, then that thing's an artifact by now. They shoulda given you a tablet that should be able to replace everything but the info inside it pretty well.

[variates]

Isn't it the future for everyone?

[ considering last she remembered, london wasn't presently in such a shitty state.

she does remember being handed the piece of technology that she'd tucked away without much thought — time to take it out, she guesses. ]

Right and this is their way of what — trying to show us the benefits of staying here?

[khajidont]

Nope. Some people are from the future, and others are from worlds that look nothing like this.

[It's the best way he can think of o explain it. Honestly, it had taken more than a few pointedly pedantic questions on his end before he was even remotely able to wrap his head around it. The next question's a lot easier.]

They're not so much for showing us the benefits of this place. It's just for easier communication with each other, that's all.

sorry for the late!

[variates]

If they wanted me to have easier communication, they could've made it so my phone still worked.

[ she'll give it a look, she supposes, but no promises!! ]

So when are you from?

No problem!

[khajidont]

2000s. '06. There's a lot of us from around my time around here. How 'bout you?

[variates]

2013. Must be a favourite of theirs if there’re more of us. [ she shakes her head ] Not like any of it matters when we’re here, yea?

[cracking_shot]

Hey, least there's cookies and umbrellas.

[It might have been the hundredth time he's told himself that, but the first time Tim had actually let that one out online. It was just a little tough to be a jokester when the world was at the end of its own punchline. Tim had already considered his own cell phone and given up on it quickly enough.

Tim held up a cookie in one hand with his cell in the other, shrugging weakly. He took a bite out of the chocolate chip cookie with his own little sarcastic smile, looking even less serious in his flannel shirt and wife beater as if he just got out of the back of a Winnebago.]

And guns. Lots and lots of guns.

[variates]

Is that supposed to make me feel any better?

[ because at this point, it really does sound like a joke whether or not that had been the intention. she can't even tell if he's just someone trying to mess with her at this point and it only makes her frown deepen. ]

Maybe we can all have a party with the loads of guns and cookies under a nice umbrella, yea?

[cracking_shot]

I've been to less hospitable outings, really.

[Tim had an intention to mess with everyone, if only because it ran the chance that it would make everyone feel a little less nervous and misdirected and have something coherent to be irritated with. He could take anger. He just couldn't take people losing their minds and deciding to take it out on the world with said giant piles of armaments.]

I take it this bothers you, too--otherwise you won't be rarin' to bite my head off over an overly sarcastic bit of reparte.

[variates]

Well it isn't easy finding out you've just been kidnapped.

[ not that it'd exactly been super surprising considering the way her life had been going for the past few weeks. the only thing that threw a wrench into it all was the fact that the people behind it weren't who she'd have thought would be responsible. ]

Were you serious about the gun thing?

[cracking_shot]

Oh, it's easy findin' out. The real problem is not screamin' in their faces when you hear it.

[In that, Tim felt surprised that he was as reserved as he had been at the moment. The level of composure he felt was borderline Herculean, he imagined. Everything that could have been wrong with the world was wrong and he had little say in the matter.

The only thing he could scowl about had been along a number of other lines of dialogue he exchanged with his tour guide.]

But, yes, I am. You've seen that ridiculous medieval slash modern day armory they've got holed up inside, right?

[variates]

Yeah, I failed at that part.

[ someone hadn't been too happy when she'd arrived nor too ready to comply and had a bit of a row with the guide. oops. she's smiling at the memory of the encounter though, so she's clearly not very sorry about it. ]

Oh that place. I don't trust what they're offering, to be honest.

[cracking_shot]

I'd be a little at a loss if anyone really did. [There wasn't much else to say on the matter. Tim shrugged, reached up to scratch his head with the tips of his fingers and smirked sardonically.]

We'll see. I don't much trust people who give guns and swords to kids.

[variates]

Jesus, are they really?

[ it's news to her, though to be fair, she hadn't been paying much attention to anyone else who'd arrived along with her. it makes her think of her own daughter and how she'd absolutely hate it if they even dared suggest that kind of thing to kira. ]

They can't expect children to fight for them.