(no subject)

[initiates]

Date: February 1st
Location: The Initiative Hold & Courtyard.
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: New Transports have all arrived and have been shuffled into the Courtyard after their initial briefings, while older Transports are returning from the mission to Uruguay.
Warnings: None.

While those who have been guests of Exsilium since at least the last wave of Transports return from their desperate mission and are pressed out of the Transporter room and into the Courtyard, the Initiative prepares to receive a second wave at the same time. And if you're in that second wave, the fresh meat, then 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

[skennen]

[For a second or two, he looks mildly skeptical. Moving it around easier? What other way could there be to move a shield but carry it? Maybe she could work on building up her strength, but he doubts she could make enough progress to hold it easily in time for whatever mission they're all sent on next.

No point in voicing those concerns, though. At least, not right now.]

I do not mind. [He steps in, grabbing the shield with one hand.] Did you mean to stay around here a while longer?

[motioned]

Oh, no, I was planning to head to the housing place and put this away. I mean, that's changed since there's someone else carrying it, though! I wouldn't want to ask you to take it all the way there with me.

[She glances back towards the shield, though, wondering how she was going to get it up stairs or maneuver it into an elevator if wherever she was expected to live wasn't on the first floor. She sighs, frustrated, and pauses. Tentatively:]

Unless you wouldn't mind?

[skennen]

[He is all too happy to help.]

I will take it back to the apartments for you.

[motioned]

[She exhales, visibly relieved, and smiles up at him.]

Thank you so much! I'll find a way to pay you back, I promise.

[skennen]

[He raises his free hand up in a open-palmed, 'that's okay' kind of gesture.]

This way.

[And off in the direction of the apartments he heads.]

[motioned]

[She trails along behind him, occasionally looking to the side to take in her surroundings. It's harder to make them out with the rain falling as hard as it is, but still she peers into the distance as they walk.]

Have you been here long, Connor?

[skennen]

Compared to many, no. I have only been imprisoned here for two months.

[He looks ahead to the massive building at the end of the one city block they have to cover.]

I must say, you seem to be taking your arrival very well.

[motioned]

I'm glad it hasn't been a really long time.

[She pauses, considering that. Was she? She feels panicked and nervous, but calmer than she did a few minutes ago, certainly. Maybe she knows from the last world she was trapped in that there's no way to fight against it. Even when she began to want to stay, she knew she'd be sent away someday. She'd expected to be sent home, though, so - maybe it's that it hasn't sunk in all the way yet. Maybe some part of her is expecting this to be a dream, despite all odds. She doesn't really know.

She's silent for a moment or so more, thinking on how to address that, before she replies.]

It's not the first time something like this has happened to me. I guess that could be why.

[skennen]

[He's not particularly glad. He was hoping his stay would last a day or two at most. No such luck.

What she says next strikes him as odd. He stops and turns back toward her, his head tilting slightly.]

Something like this?

[Forced into another war back home, maybe?]

[motioned]

[She pauses for a moment, wondering how to phrase this.]

Oh, um... Like, how everyone got sent here all of a sudden. There was another world I was sent to before this one.

[She worries a bit about the words after they leave her mouth. Knowing there are other worlds out there that could steal someone after they'd already been ripped away from their home might be a bit overwhelming.]

[skennen]

[Riku has already introduced him to the whole 'multiple worlds' concept, thankfully, so he doesn't take to looking at her like she's sprouted a second head... or, you know, feathers and a beak.

Really, he can only blink and resume walking stolidly toward the apartments.

Another place... like this one?

He doesn't even want to think about it.

Connor keeps quiet until they've reached the building.]

Stairs or...? [He makes a vague, straight up motion.]

[motioned]

The elevator would probably be easier for you, since you're carrying something, huh?

[skennen]

Elevator...? [Clueless.]

[motioned]

Oh, an elevator is like...

[She pauses, wondering how to describe this.]

It's like a really big box that you get into, made out of metal and other stuff that makes it more safe than an actual box, and you press a button and it pulls you up to whatever floor you need to go to.

scoots back here for a quick wrap-up!

[skennen]

Oh.

[More machines. Good to have a name to put to the lift mechanisms he has never actually used.]

You do not...? [He trails off mid-sentence, hand caught in a repeat of the same upward gesture. It's an odd suggestion, he realizes. A surprising number of people here are skilled in traversing buildings and rooftops, but he should not assume everyone is.

... Still, he thinks he prefers the idea of climbing up. There's little challenge to be found in stairs or moving boxes.

She hasn't mentioned the room number, though. He searches the windows above them in silence.]

I suppose I could... [This finishing-thoughts thing is proving so difficult all of a sudden. Connor stiffens where he stands, his attention fixed on the far corner of the building. He could have sworn he saw someone standing there a second ago, someone very familiar...]

Lee.

[A snarl right out of nowhere. He almost dumps the shield back into her hands to go chase after some shadow, but the weight of the thing holds him back. He glances down at it with a wince before abruptly darting into the housing building and dropping the shield off next to what looks to be the 'elevator' she described. He hurries right back out without pause and takes off like a man possessed.

... At least he got it most of the way for her.]