(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

[bloodyashes]

[Aaaah, to be a spoiled noble again with no concept of how laundry works. Alas, not for him.]

With your hands, obviously. I doubt anyone's going to do it for you here.

[Har har Asch, har har.]

[nobleminded]

[Yeah, see, in Elliot's world that still does not compute because there's always someone to do it for him. So why should he expect otherwise?]

You honestly expect that I'm doing to clean these?! There has to be someone that can do washing here!

[bloodyashes]

You're not in your household anymore. There's no servants for you here; it's a military institution, or did you miss that part?

[Elliot, you're no longer in your world, silly. Asch just holds his arms and sets the noble with a "how stupid are you?" stare.]

This is already going great XD

[nobleminded]

[Yeah, he did miss some stuff due to the whole "being in shock" thing, but he can perceive enough from that to make an argument. After sputtering for a second.]

Academies usually have employees, as well! The one I attended never made me clean my own uniform! [Also Leo was there, shhh.] Or did you never go to a school?!

[bloodyashes]

[And there's a small pause because the idea of going to school, to Asch, is one of those ideas that doesn't fit in with any of the places he's lived at all; nobles on Auldrant got private tutors, not schools.]

No. Straight from private tutors into the military.

[Not that he got any choice in the matter.]

[nobleminded]

[Well he went to a fancy academy for nobles so HA. Not that there's any shame in being in a military, but still.]

What kind of military wouldn't have a way for its soldiers to wash their clothes?! Don't they care about making a good impression?

[bloodyashes]

[And here's an "are you stupid" look. Nobles.]

Again, it's called "do it yourself."

[How do you think he learned to remove bloodstains in the first place, Elliot.]

[nobleminded]

[Most people would say "yes", but he wouldn't. So have the argument continue!]

I could understand that being a requirement for lower-ranking members. [Since classes are just the way of the world.] Higher ranking officers should be too busy doing their duties for activities like that.

[bloodyashes]

You'd be surprised how much of command is just waiting around for paperwork to come in.

[Especially when you're the guy with the special assassination corps. Asch had spent a lot of his few few years at the Order bored until someone needed to die. He folds his arms.]

And by your own logic, you'd be doing your laundry here anyway. Unless you think they're going to give you a command position with no rank and no experience.

[nobleminded]

That doesn't sound like an efficient military at all! I would assume a place like this that's under attack makes the most out of what they have.

[...And that hadn't hit him yet. Wow, dying could really throw you off your game. But he's obstinate, so after a moment of silence, he becomes even louder.]

THEY STILL CAN'T EXPECT PEOPLE TO JUST KNOW THAT! IT'S NOT NORMAL!

[bloodyashes]

In wartime, yes. Wars are hardly a constant.

[Or at least where he came from, they weren't. As Elliot gets louder, Asch gets progressively more disdainful. What a loud, spoiled brat this one is.]

Actually, it is normal. In case you've forgotten, the vast majority of people aren't nobility like you. The only people in the world who don't do their own chores are the ones rich enough to pay someone else to do so.

[nobleminded]

We may not be the majority, but that's just a way of the world! Did these people just select their soldiers at random?! They should have known exactly who I was and what I would need in a place like this!

[Y'know, outside of "not being dead".]

you are not making a good first impression here Elliot

[bloodyashes]

[You are really twitching his last nerve with your ignorance, Elliot. As bad as a certain dreck at his worst please don't need to destroy a city in order to clean up your act.]

They told us themselves that the technology is imperfect, weren't you paying attention?

[Please, little noble, have some form of redeeming value.]

Regardless - you're here now, so get used to it.

Yeah he's good at that

[nobleminded]

I had more pressing matters to think about when I found myself here! It really wasn't a good time to explain all of this!

[He does, it just takes time to get there. And the frown he has now won't help him get there any faster, whoops.]

Yup

[bloodyashes]

[A moment's pause. Asch's eyes go down to the bloodstains on the noble's shirt again. Okay, he'll give some ground on that one. more pressing matters indeed.]

...The point still stands. You should get those in water as soon as possible, before the stains set.

[nobleminded]

[Elliot's a bit thankful for the change of topic. As comparatively open he is about his death compared to other people here, he's not overly willing to talk about it at the moment.]

I might appreciate the information if there were any place I knew of where I could do that. Or if I had something else to wear while they were being taken care of.

[bloodyashes]

[Great thing about being in the military, you don't question the random bloodstains much.]

You wouldn't want to get another shirt wet anyway. They gave us apartments, go use the sink in yours.

[nobleminded]

[...Wait, he's not implying...]

There's no way I'm not wearing anything else! That's completely inappropriate! We aren't lodging by ourselves, right?!

[bloodyashes]

Then you'd better go have a look at that market of theirs.

[Although at this rate, the boy's going to need a new shirt anyway.]

[nobleminded]

And do what?! From the looks of this place, I doubt they have anything presentable.

[He'd seen the peddlers in Sablier, he knew he couldn't be caught wearing any of that stuff.]

[bloodyashes]

Well, your options are that, naked, or bloodstained. Take your pick.

[nobleminded]

[It was very hard for him to imagine a world that didn't have the kind of clothing he was supposed to wear at the ready somewhere.]

If that's really the cast, this place is entirely ridiculous!