here they talked of revolution, here it was they lit the flame

[initiates]

Date: October 1st
Location: The Observatory.
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: New Transports arrive and are shuffled into the Observatory for the show of the year. Initial briefings are very brief this time around, and that Greeter just won't stop crying.
Warnings: new confused people and old sad people??

Your arrival here has been very unceremonious. One second you were somewhere else, and now, very suddenly, your feet hit the glowing white of the Transporter pad, and you're here. You aren't alone, either. There's a crowd of others around you, each seeming just as bewildered, angry, or confused as you might feel. At the head of the group is a woman in purple robes, with eyes red as if she'd just finished crying. She hurries over a quick overview of your intended purpose here, and gives direct answers when asked for them, but to most things she simply shows you how to access the tablet you've just been given. There, you can find the history of this place and a record of what your new cohorts have experienced — although it won't have Network access for another 8 hours. Someone stands on hand to give you a weapon, and though the armory is now greatly reduced, you should be able to find something to suit you.

You're shepherded down a walkway tunnel and into the Observatory, where you will find screens mounted on three sides of the wide room. The only lighting comes from dull red emergency lights, and the scenes of a dreary, rainy city from various cameras up on the screens; the largest of the screens opens up to a view of Earth from a good distance away -- this one isn't a screen at all, you might realize, but a window. As you watch, all screens in the room fill with light, impossibly bright. It consumes the buildings, the people, everything. There is no sound played, perhaps mercifully, only that white light -- and then nothing.

Through the large window, there's a pinprick of light over one of the landmasses on the blue planet. It grows to a tiny blossom and then dies away, but a cloud begins to mushroom outward in the same spot. It pushes the natural clouds out of the way, claiming that small portion of the world and wrapping it in a uniform gray.

Strings of numbers begin to fill the blanked out screens as the base's AI begins collecting data and calculations, but the show seems to be over. You're free to explore the base, visit and use any of the VR rooms, or discover your new room and roommates, but try not to step out of any airlocks if oxygen is a requirement for your system.

Welcome to the moon base, with front row seats to the grave of Exsilium.

[[ooc; reminder! The Network will be down for 8 hours after the wave of new Transports.]]

Comments

i.

[wolfchild]

It's bombs. [ the girl to his left has her fingers curled into her wolf's scruff. she doesn't look away from the screens. ] It's nuclear bombs.

[ the distinction is important, that much she learned. there were people down there who had been kind to her. an old barkeep who let her sit in a little table by the corner and would give her food and sometimes allowed her thimblefuls of whiskey. a red-haired whore for whom she would run errands and would cut her hair and tell her stories. more who had continued to be nice even when the other transports were hated.

it's not her home, though. this should have been expected. she got out and robb got out too and some others and that's enough. people die in war all the time. ]

[bitedown]

[He hears the voice beside him but doesn't turn to look right away, eyes fixed on the screen in front of him. He'd only caught a glimpse of the city outside the massive window before the light blotted it all out. He doesn't know what a 'nuclear bomb' is, but he can surmise that it's not good.]

Did that just happen outside?! [ he gestures at one of the screens, now only displaying a continuous stream of numbers ] What the fuck is that?

[wolfchild]

There's naught outside. That happened on Earth.

[bitedown]

[What.]

That doesn't make any sense. Would you people quit talking out y-

[The rest of that sentence dies in his throat as a raspy exhale, the moment he turns around and takes note of the MASSIVE GODDAMN WOLF.

You could almost say it's

titanic.]

shoves you off a cliff

[wolfchild]

[ the wolf ignores him. the girl narrows her eyes. ]

Quit talking out what?

no regrets

[bitedown]

[He doesn't ignore the wolf. He's a city kid, an animal like that is not the sort of thing he's often seen in the flesh (not even a domestic dog, really), and he watches it closely for a beat before he's satisfied it's not about to rip his head off.

Not that he couldn't take it out if it tried, he's sure. His focus drops back down to the girl.]

Your asses. [ the furrow between his brow deepens. is she being obtuse on purpose? ] You and that woman, you're both spouting nonsense. There can't be nothing outside.

[wolfchild]

We're on the moon, stupid. There's not even air outside. But if you think you know so much more, go out. After you die, I'll let you know I told you so.

[bitedown]

[THEY CAN'T BE ON THE FUCKING MOON but he addresses the most important part:]

If I were dead, you wouldn't be able to let me know anything.

[wolfchild]

I would when you come back.

[ yes. when. hush, she hasn't seen the announcement. ]

[bitedown]

[That makes two of them! So he instead, he begins to wonder if she knows something... about him...

But no, that's impossible. It has to be something else...

Maybe nobody's actually explained to her how death works? Goddamn.]

People don't come back, kid. If you die, you're gone. [ a gentle way to break the news. ]

[wolfchild]

[ she only fixes him with a look that clearly explains what she thinks of his intelligence level. ]

You don't listen at all, do you?

[bitedown]

[The quick rundown he was being given lost him at 'the year 3313.'

So, not really. Unfazed by her expression:]

Are you talking about that woman? She was yammering on about exiled royal families and how we're supposed to fight some war for them now, against the 'United Earth.' And I'm listening to you now, and all you're saying is that you think we're on the Moon and the dead come back. [ tone clearly implies what he thinks of her intelligence level. ] Is that it?

[wolfchild]

Unless you're not a Transport. Then you don't come back.

[ she points to the screens. ]

That's what you saw happen. That's why we're here. We're the only ones that survived and they bring in idiots when our supplies are already limited.

[bitedown]

[He goes quiet for a moment, looking back at the screen.

The city, and that flash of light... He's being asked to accept too much all at once, but that, he definitely saw it happen. You can't invent something like that (as far as he knows.)

Does that mean... did he really just witness a city full of people die in a massive explosion? Set off by - another government?]

...What is the United Earth? They're humans...?

[This is an important question.]

[wolfchild]

[ her eyes are dark. ]

What else would they be? Demons? Men are the worst of any.

[bitedown]

Demons? [ who believes in demons, come on now. ]

They say people used to fight against each other, but that was a long time ago... [ humanity's united against a common enemy now and threatened by extinction, a war fought between men would be unthinkable

even if this isn't his world, but he can't imagine one without them: ] What about the Titans?

[wolfchild]

What Titans?

[bitedown]

[Some part of him had been expecting that, but actually hearing it...

His smile isn't a smile at all. His hands might be shaking slightly.]

Are you being serious right now? You really don't know...?

[wolfchild]

I only know of one Titan. It's in Braavos.

[ she doesn't sound afraid though. or even concerned. or anything really. ]

[bitedown]

[One?!]

In Braavos? [ wait ]

Where's Braavos?

[wolfchild]

Not here. [ so-- ] You can't go see it.

[bitedown]

[BUT...] Did they capture one?

[wolfchild]

It's carved into the wall, stupid. It's stone.

[bitedown]

[Fists clenched. She's got some nerve calling him stupid, when she doesn't even know what a Titan is. Everybody, even the fat rich bastards deep within the innermost wall know.]

Nobody carves things into the Walls! I'm not talking about a fucking sculpture, I'm talking about the giants that have been eating humanity. Does that ring any bells?!

[wolfchild]

No.