(no subject)

[initiates]

Date: December 1st
Location: The Observatory.
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: New Transports arrive and are shuffled into the Observatory after their initial briefings.
Warnings: None.

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, solemn and taciturn. 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, or tells you that the DITR's greeters will explain everything. On the tablet, you can find the history of this place and a record of what your new cohorts have experienced. 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; they show multiple variations of satellite images, focused on... somewhere snowy. It's difficult to say more than that, but those that record heat readings seem to suggest there are people there, where ever "there" is. It's night outside the great wide windows, and the lunar landscape isn't much to look at right now. But, hey, at least all the lights are on, right? No more creepy red emergency lighting upon arrival — not that you'd know anything about that.

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, and to the remains of Exsilium.

[[ ooc; As a note for players of current characters: please keep your root comments confined to the various groups and organizations that set up root comments to greet new characters! We highly encourage tagging around here, but since it's a log meant for new characters specifically, we ask that they be the ones to set up root threads to the entry. Thank you, and happy playing! ]]

Comments

Larissa Dunbar | OTA

[lafouldre]

[ She's heard of some fairly strange things happening to various acquaintances, people who went a little too far into magic and found that it wasn't actually safe after a while.

She's fairly certain this beats all of them, because she's on the moon and apparently it's the future and there is absolutely nothing about this that makes any sense to her. Nothing. She doesn't know what to do with it or how handle it all, but for the moment she's picked up a cup of tea and she's sitting down as she fiddles with it in a corner of the room, taking occasional sips as she watches everyone in the room, trying to figure out what she's supposed to do now.

And then, after a long hesitation, she pulls out the pack of cards in her briefcase, turns it on its side as a makeshift table so that she can try to lay out a spread, see if she can at least tell something about her own immediate future. ]

[revolutionized]

[Utena, as always, generally avoids the Observatory. She doesn't care for star-gazing (not anymore), and had found that being there too long made her feel dizzy and out of place, a weird sort of vertigo that was more psychological than physical. Night skies held bad memories.

But she has to be somewhere that isn't sleeping or wandering blankly and aimlessly, because otherwise Nanami will find her and snap at her, and the weathered patience she had in regards to that was beginning to run low. She's watching the new arrivals without paying much attention, watching but not seeing really — until she sees the woman with the cards. She's very pretty, in a way that draws attention, but Utena is more interested in what she's doing.

She heads over, and tries to observe in a way that she believes is unobtrusive but is very obvious (some old habits died hard.) Eventually, curiosity wins over.]

What kind of cards are those?

[lafouldre]

[ Fortunately for Utena, even nervous as she currently feels Larissa is hardly the most observant people. Besides, she's rather busy concentrating on the cards she's laying out, mouth twitching slightly. The Tower is never terribly good to begin with, but compounded -

The question takes her a little by surprise and she gathers them up immediately, looks up with a half smile, nervous but friendly enough. ]

Oh, they're just tarot cards. You know, for divination and - things. I'm sorry, am I in the way? I can move, I just wasn't sure where else to go really. It's all confusing and I don't really - I'm not sure where everything's supposed to go.

[revolutionized]

No! You don't have to move. [Utena raises her hands up, in a way she hopes comes off as disarming.] I was just curious about uh, the cards. Divination's like fortune-telling, right? Um, as for going anywhere...

[She gives the cards a once-over, but her eyes linger on the Tower. It gives her the creeps. Time to move on.] You should have a room assignment, but you don't have to go there right away.

[lafouldre]

Oh, right, of course. [ It's disarming enough, even if there's still clear nervousness in the gesture of her hands as she shuffles her cards, holds them. ]

They did say there was a room assignment, but I didn't - there are other people there, I think. I wasn't ready to go. Sorry, I'm Larissa.

[lambofcolumbia]

[Elizabeth is doing her usual walk through the new arrivals, looking for familiar faces that never appear and seeing if anyone is in need of anything. It keeps her from dwelling too much on, well, everything.]

[She's seen so many different things, but a woman randomly setting up a card game on a briefcase was certainly new. At first she almost keeps on walking, but the cards themselves don't look like playing cards, and one of them reminds her of something she saw in a book. Hmm.]

[After probably a bit longer staring than she really should have, she finally moves over, offering the woman a friendly smile.]

Ah, excuse me. Are those tarot cards?

[lafouldre]

Oh! Yes, um. Yes, they are.

[ Her concentration a little scattered now she looks them over, tries to hold onto the vague sense she'd started to get but lets it go after a moment. Maybe she'll try again later in more privacy, when she's been able to set up a little more routine, or just stability of some kind.

Or maybe she'll wake up. Also an option she would really like. ]

You've used them before, or just seen them?

[lambofcolumbia]

[Elizabeth hesitates, it's sort of obvious that she has pulled the woman out of something she was concentrating on, and she feels rather bad about it. Still, a question needed answering...]

Ah. I've only ever seen them. In a book.

[Also she thought they were foolishness, but she doesn't say that part.]

[lafouldre]

Well, that is where most people hear of them.

[ The idea that she might think they're foolishness doesn't even cross Larissa's mind - nobody ever does in her world. It's just natural. She stands, everything put away as she sticks out a hand. ]

Hi. I'm Larissa.

[hellosailor]

[Coming to see the new transports was completely different from being in their shoes. A month in and this feels old-hat. The new people mill about, confused, lost, angry or sad, and while he remembers what it's like he doesn't feel it anymore. It isn't unlike a zoo, being on the outside looking in. Eventually he stops staring and ventures further into the room. The press of people is enough to send him quickly to the edge of the crowd, skirting the walls and keeping his eyes open for trouble.

He doesn't find any, at least not right away. But his eyes do catch something else. A woman smart enough to get a wall to her back, pretty as a picture, a calm in the center of the storm. It gets his attention, as do the cards. He was a deft hand with cards himself, though he preferred poker and find-the-lady, but he got the feeling this wasn't all for show. Tarot, what a world. Knowing this place it was real. With that in mind he doesn't interrupt her, instead leaning against a nearby wall and watching her hands with interest.]

[lafouldre]

[ She really wouldn't classify herself as smart or pulled together at the moment, just barely holding onto calm by dint of using what she knows as familiar, and in this case it's not so much helping as informing her of what she already knows, in that the Tower won't go away.

She finishes her second read and then shuffles her cards, shuffles them again as she glances up and around the room, and then her glance lands on Sullivan because he's watching her and that's a little bit - she doesn't know what it is. Everything's a little bit worrying here. ]

Hi? Sorry, can I help you?

[hellosailor]

[When the woman finally notices him he gives his best charming smile and peels himself off of the wall.]

Sorry about that. I just noticed the cards. [He takes another step forward, careful not to loom too much, and holds up a finger- the universal sign of 'just a minute'] Now, this might sound completely crazy, but do those things actually work?

[He thinks getting right to the meat of the issue might be a better tactic. Good enough ice breaker anyway.]

[lafouldre]

[ She blushes.

Not that she means to, but her skin's quite fair and it's a biological reaction and his smile really is quite charming. But his first question has her blinking in confusion as she puts the deck away, stands with her hands clasped in front of her. ]

Well, yes, of course. I mean, I'm not one of the frauds. [ Really, as if she would be that foolish. ] Not that I'm terribly good either, but. They work.

[clansman]

[ A shadow tilts across her briefcase.

There's a thing to take into account about long, patient and thorough explanations in spaces crowded with confused folk, and it's the fact that some men just aren't made to pay attention to those. He's slipped from the thick of the gathering and nearly out the door -- when the arrangement of cards catches his eye instead.

Maybe it's the patterns.

Regardless, there a stranger stands, looming over Larissa's opening spread. ]

. . . A game, huh.

[lafouldre]

[ Really, if she'd known it would bring this much attention to her she would have waited for somewhere far more private. But she falters, looks upwards. ]

Not quite, no. Just - trying to see if I can find out something more about this place.

[clansman]

[ It -- isn't quite the expected answer! Surprise flickers in his blink, the slow flick of his brows, but that doesn't last. Lazily, he crouches for a proper look. ]

Is that what they gave you?

[lafouldre]

[ She doesn't quite back up, but she does look a little bit more wary. ]

What do you mean, gave me? These are mine.

[redsea]

[ Kougyoku recognizes those card patterns. After all, getting her fortune told was always fun. It wasn't everyday that she got to go out in the streets and find a fortune teller, so seeing someone do this was a refreshing sight. However, Kougyoku gets so engrossed in the cards Larissa is handling that she forgets where she is.

That is, a couple of feet away from the woman, watching her intently. ]

[lafouldre]

[ She looks up eventually, feeling that prickle of eyes on you that means that someone's watching, and after a little while she spots Kougyoku, smiles a little hesitantly. She looks quite young and harmless, surely? ]

Hello. You - did you want something?

[redsea]

[ The woman was speaking to someone but Kougyoku isn't sure whom she is addressing for a second. It becomes clear when she realizes that she is the only one watching at such a distance. Kougyoku freezes and panics. ]

I'm sorry! I only—um, I thought you were telling fortunes. [ She was too shy to ask for one. ] I can leave if you wish.

[lafouldre]

[ She is a child, and Larissa can recognize panic if nothing else. She smiles a little tentatively. ]

Well, I suppose I am. Kind of. You don't have to go.

[therapeutics]

Tarot cards.

[ julia, nearby, squints. she's got a cup in her hand - water, as much as it pains her, but if she pretends, it can be something else, but the cards catch her attention and she tilts her head forward to look at them. she knows she saw some similar - if not the same illustrations, then the same suits - elsewhere. collinwood, probably, for all the weird shit (to speak frankly) that they had. ]

They let you keep those?

[lafouldre]

[ She'd say hello, but she's slightly preoccupied with that question because it's quite confusing to her, really. ]

Yes? I mean, is there a reason they wouldn't? [ Starting to pack them away, because as much as she isn't fond of magic she doesn't want anything familiar taken from her right now. ]

[therapeutics]

[ a beat. sometimes, julia doesn't think things through. ]

Well. I guess not. I just didn't think that they were in the habit of letting us keep our belongings. Or our lives.

[ so um. shots fired, or something. after a moment, julia inclines her head toward the cards as they're put away. ]

What did they say?

[lafouldre]

They didn't take anything from me. Of my belongings, I mean. They left them all with me.

[ Well, what she had with her when she came through. She glances down at the deck in her hands, puts it in the briefcase. ]

Nothing easy. It's hard to tell, sometimes, whether they're talking about what just happened or what's going to happen.