exsiliumlogs | open log » ❝ mission oo1 briefing ❞

Date & Time: 04.04.3312
Location: Training Gymnasium in the Initiative Hold.
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: Everyone is summoned to a briefing and training, pre-mission for the very first mission.
Warnings: None.

There would come a demanding ping on every netbook at once. An urgent call to arms, a request for each and every transport to return to the Initiative Hold immediately. If ignored, the ping would continue until it reached its full volume -- overtaking the senses only until its owner complied, deafening in its insistence. At the Hold, there were several more Initiative attendees to rush each and every transport into a large training gymnasium previously unseen by all residents of the island of Exsilium. The auditorium was massive -- its walls whitewashed, its ceiling patterned with dim, purple ambient lighting.

There was a stage set up near the very back of the large room. A man, stern and young-looking, stood in the center of the stage and held a microphone in front of his pursed lips. Behind the stage was a set of time travel plates more populated than even the arrival room -- there had to be at least forty-five plates, all attended by a member of the Initiative, who stood beside the plate in wait and with a distant expression. Only once all of the transports were successfully congregated into their auditorium, did the astringent, black-haired man begin to speak. "This is a briefing," he began, his voice equally authoritative and matching the expression of great urgency on his angular features. "Tomorrow, we begin our very first mission. A mission into the past.

You will be sent to the year 115 CE, in the midst of a turmoil between the Romans and an Assyrian village. It is in both ours and imperatively your own best interest to help defend this village, and to send the Romans retreating to their own homes. You absolutely must comply with this mission. Not only for yourselves, but for your families at home in their own worlds. For all of us.

You will have twenty-four hours from this time to utilise this gymnasium. You will find an array of weaponry at your disposal, and will have access to your own chosen weapon. Use them. Train fiercely, as you have no choice in this initial mission to pick a different path. You all must fight. After your twenty-four hours of practise, you will be given your cloaking devices -- they will make you untraceable to the native people to the time in which you find yourself. Do not, under any circumstances, remove your cloaking device. It will not only be detrimental to you, but to your friends and your colleagues here, as well as your friends and family in their home worlds.

You will be summoned back from whatever your whereabouts at the success of your mission. Should you die during your mission, you will be summoned immediately and brought into the Initiative Infirmary and you will be healed. Do not die. Do not turn your back on your colleagues and your friends. Remain vigilant. The imperative nature of the success of your mission will be made clear upon your return to this world. There is nothing more that we can give than our word.

Finally, I will be coming with you. I will be your mentor and your guide during our mission and I will do my utmost to keep you safe, prepared, trained and informed. Slowly, our world here in Exsilium will become less and less enshrouded in mystery. Slowly, we are able to reveal our true selves, and with it we hope we will gain a much-needed trust. We do not withhold information easily, and it comes to us at a great cost. Thank you, everyone, and let your sessions begin!"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Since she was a kid... "I guess it's like how swordfighting comes naturally to me."

After all, you didn't start fighting with a toy sword at four to just give up on it when you were sixteen. He could identify with starting early and keep going. Perfection and strength in specialization was only given to those who did the hard work for it. "I guess it'll take me a while before that ever happens. I only just started to learn how to a week ago."

And I'm not even that good at it yet. Riku was far more used to being in motion than sitting around, and he shifted his eyes away from her--and then paused.

"... you're meditating, not training?"

"Meditation is part of the training to me. But if you wish to spar with me, I can move on to the next part of the training."

Uh--

He glanced away for a moment, thinking on his options. Honestly, he hadn't meant to break through her meditation. Riku, however, was interested in how powerful she was and what kind of powers she had to have to meditate to such a level.

"If you're okay with that. I was just going to interrupt to ask."

"If I wasn't okay with that, I wouldn't have offered."

She took a few stays away from him and easily fell into a fighting stance.

"Ready when you are. You get to deliver the first blow."

Riku watched her closely (trying to figure out her weakest point) before shifting quickly, darkness arcing with his foot as he aimed a kick at her abdomen to knock her out of her firm stance.

He was not the best at hand-to-hand combat, though he knew quite a bit of it. Raven was, however, unarmed. He couldn't summon his Keyblade against someone unarmed.

Raven sensed the darkness around him. Similar to her own energy and yet different. As he aimed his kick at her, a question kept nagging at her mind. What's a keyblade? And why did she associate this word with Riku? It was part of the memories she'd kept from Astringendum, but she didn't remember more than that. She supposed it was a weapon but for now he didn't seem intent on using it.

Raven leaped backward to avoid the kick, using levitation to increase her speed. Then with a bout of telekinesis, she threw a nearby crate right at Riku.

She had darkness. Not the same kind she had, no--it was different, but similar. Like the difference between the source of an echo and the echo itself, maybe. He raised his eyes to see the crate and didn't leap away--with both hands, he flicked out his wrists and caused a translucent shield to arc around him, shimmering with iridescence.

He wondered if it was straining to have to control her powers. Did she have to do a lot of meditating, a lot of training, just to be able to do this? Or did her darkness not have that much of an effect?

Raven tried to throw several heavy objects at him at once to try and crack his shield. At the same time, she swifly took off, landing behind him and aiming a powerful kick at his midsection.

He would never guess how much meditating and training it had taken for her to be able to control her power like this. And she was still far from having full control over them, especially when her emotions got out of hand.

His shield refused to crack, though he was sent back a few inches every time she threw something at him. Remaining focused wasn't too hard to do--his body tended to act on instinct and on base logic. His fighting style meant he had to be defensive, defensive, defensive--and then strike when it was least expected.

He didn't see an opening in Raven's attacks. So all he had to do was defend for the moments. When she went out of his field of vision, his shield disappeared--he turned sharply enough that she hit the shield settled on his arm rather than his body. With his shield gone, he summoned Way to the Dawn, Keyblade appearing in a whorl of white and violet spirals.

Raven was preparing herself to strike again when she felt an unexpected energy outburst. She jumped backward and saw the unusual sword appear in Riku's hand. Her eyes widen and she muttered under her breath: "The Keyblade..."

But her surprise didn't last. She immediately fell into a defensive stance. She wasn't afraid of him or of his weapon. Her look was already fierce and determined again. Still she remembered Riku was a skilled fighter and she knew she couldn't afford letting her guard down. Especially not now that he had summoned the Keyblade.

Her recongiztion tipped him off, eyes going from determined to inquisitive--but he didn't get to actually voice his question as she fell back into a defensive stance.

Riku attacked with a quick flurry of strikes--in odd numbers, five shallow hits pointed at her midsection. After a moment, launching back onto his feet and a few feet away from her, he spoke. "How do you know about the Keyblade?"

Raven created a shield of black energy to protect herself from the hits. It broke after the fourth one. She hastily jumped backward, landing in a crouched position.

She sighed at his question. This time she couldn't use the fact that she knew of his housemates. "I knew you from before. I mean I met you in a place I was before being brought here. My memories are a bit fuzzy. But I remember you."

"In a place... before." He squints at her and tries to reason with what he already knows. She looked about his age--they couldn't have met when he was younger, and he would remember her if he'd known her in the past two years. (Wouldn't he? Unless there were memories fragmented from his time too, somehow--but he didn't think Namine had a reason to do that. Not that he'd know...)

"I don't remember you."

The unspoken 'why?' on his tongue stopped him from attacking.

"And I shouldn't remember you. This place, Adstringendum... We're supposed to lose our memories when we live it and be sent back home. But I was sent here instead and I still have some memories from Adstringendum."

She looked at him, noticing how confused he looked and that he had stopped attacking her. "I can't explain it any better than that."

... right.

So the chain of Raven's memory was likely, what--damaged? Somehow, links were missing, and links that should've been forgotten were still there. He frowns at the thought, even when Raven clarifies that it can't be explained further. "I guess... we can't do anything about it. Your memories." A sigh. "There's nothing wrong with remembering." He shifted back into his battle stance.

"No. We can't." She was starting to wonder if it really bothered him when he spoke. She nodded. "I guess that after a while the new memories will take the place of the old ones." She mirrored his move, falling into her own fighting stance.

open log » ❝ mission oo1 briefing ❞

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