transport log » ❝ welcome to Exsilium ❞

[initiates]

Date: January 3rd
Location: The Initiative Hold & Courtyard.
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: New Transports have all arrived and have been led to a banquet room within the Hold.
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.

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

[fujibayashi]

[Pff, newbie. She smiles awkwardly.]

I'm Sheena. Nice to meet you.

[She examines the apple.] I'm honestly surprised anything can grow here. This world looks like it doesn't have much in the way of mana.

[skirtcladgunner]

It's nice to meet you too, Sheena! You know, that's a pretty name too~

[She giggles a little, but when Sheena speaks again, she raises an eyebrow.]

Mana? What's that?

[fujibayashi]

[She almost responds with 'it's not my real one' but decides not to confuse the hell out of people. For now.]

Um, thank you.

You don't know what mana is? Seriously? It's what keeps the world alive... or at least, my world. Everything-- from magic to monsters to the crops that grow-- depends on mana.

[skirtcladgunner]

You're welcome!

[She looks down at the other apples for a moment before looking back to Sheena, taking in what the other girl said.]

My world doesn't rely on something like that, but we do have magic. [For better or worse, she supposes.] We've gone more the way of science, though. For the most part, anyway!

[fujibayashi]

Magic and science are different?

[This is an actual serious question.]

[skirtcladgunner]

[Nods.]

In my world, they are. With science, you can explain the process of how something happened step-by-step. Evidence left behind to explain, logically, what happened. With magic, there's no doing that. No real explanation--if you have the ability to make things happen, you make them happen. All you need is the right amount of control over your ability. [She's... never had to explain this before. She hopes she's doing a decent enough job of it.] But if your world runs on something that keeps it alive, then I'm not surprised it's different for you.

[fujibayashi]

Wow... [She rubs at the back of her neck.] Sounds different all right. On Te... Aselia, magic isn't something inexplicable. It powers machines, but it also helps the rain fall. When there isn't enough mana in the clouds to cause a reaction, there's no rain-- and that means nothing can grow.

[She tilts her head slightly.] On your world, what determines if someone has this... ability? Is it birth or something else?

[skirtcladgunner]

...woah. Yeah, my world's nothing like that.

[Tori hesitates to answer Sheena's question for a moment or so, but she does:]

It depends on the type of magic! There's some types of magic that's carried down by blood--psychic abilities are counted as magic in my world, for example, and that's one of the types that's hereditary. But elemental magic? Well... that happens completely at random, and most don't even know they're elementals until reaching puberty and those abilities awaken.

[fujibayashi]

Psychic abilities? [She has no idea what that might even entail, damn.]

Oh, jeez. That sounds like an awful time to find out you have magic.

[skirtcladgunner]

Yeah. It's a more "mind" focused magic, and it takes a lot of discipline and concentration to master. Uses of it can range from silly things like bending spoons to things like moving things around while using the focus that sort of thing requires. People born with that ability also sometimes get glimpses of the future.

I know, right? [She shakes her head.] I've heard of people's powers awakening earlier than their teenager years, but usually they awaken during the ages of thirteen and seventeen. It's a bunch of shit, if you ask me, and definitely not fun.