exsiliumlogs | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Er. [He looks down at his hands, remembering he hadn't brought his own today, so that he'd have two free hands to lug food home. Ah, well. He'd have offered it, otherwise.]

One of the vendors might be selling some! Or a coat, at least.

[He takes a step, gesturing down a line of shops.]

Perhaps, this way...?

( he glances down the way allen points out, as though maybe hoping an umbrella would materialize out of the ether. he's been shopping before since his return from the abyss - with gil and alice, sure, and gil always handling the money (and haggling), but still! - so he can buy one himself. there is definitely no way this can go wrong. )

Someone there...?

[He waves for Oz to follow]

Someone might have one.

You've just arrived, haven't you?

[Kind of obvious.]

( oh, then he follows, looking around with interest. )

Is it obvious? ( he asks brightly even though of course it is. ) Well, I guess it would be. Yes, I just got here.

( allen seems really not surprised at running into someone new, he notices. )

New people seem to arrive every month. Around this time, as well...

[He glances back at Oz as he walks, expression sympathetic now.]

Have they explained this place to you?

( regular arrivals of new people. that's something to quietly file away and consider. )

Really? That's very organized.

( as if he's actually impressed. he nods at allen's question, though his demeanor doesn't change much. )

Yes, the lady explained it all. Though it was kind of hard to follow all the details.

( or hard to believe. but he offers a rueful smile, like having that kind of difficulty is something he's used to, before going on )

It sounds more like something out of a story, honestly.

Mm.

[Allen nods, rubbing the back of his neck. He's been told his own world sounds like a story. He could easily say the same of everyone else's.

At least this guy appears to be taking it well.]

A lot of what you hear here might... sound that way.

It's quite a lot to take in at once. But the things that she told you about the weapon, and traveling in time-- all of that is true.

( so far, everyone's story has been matching up with hers, which is interesting.

he bobs his head in a nod as he listens. the time travel he's heard a little more about, strange and unsettling as it is, but not yet on the weapons. he waves the sheathed rapier in his hand in a blithe sort of way that might be a little alarming, given that it's still a sharp swordy object. )

Ah, right! So this is really alive?

[RAISES A HAND AUTOMATICALLY careful... with that...]

I— I suppose it depends on how you mean 'alive'. It shouldn't behave like a living thing... But if you train with it, it will grow stronger with you.

Curiouser and curiouser! So it'd be something like, the blade gets less likely to break? Sounds like it'd get heavier too...

( oz stop gesturing with it before you take an eye out )

Something like that, I believe. I'm not certain if it'd get heavier...

Oh-! [He holds a hand out, to shake, with a small smile. HE HASN'T INTRODUCED HIMSELF, how rude!] My name is Allen Walker, by the way.

( he reaches out to take the hand and give it a shake, smiling himself. )

It's nice to meet you, Allen! My name is Oz Vessalius.

[Pulls his hand back with a nod.]

It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Oz Vessalius. [And glances over the vendors as they walk. No raingear yet...]

If you have any other questions about this place, I can try to answer them for you.

( he lets his hand drop, arms swinging a little as they go. he notices the complete lack of reaction to him - at the very least, his surname should've prompted recognition from someone from their world. )

Have you been here a while, Allen?

I've been here two months, now...

[Which seems like a while to him. Two months feels like a lifetime, when your life's been uprooted so completely.]

( it may not be any ten years in the abyss - and even he'd assumed at first that it'd only been a few days - but that's quite some time. )

Ah! No wonder you're so knowledgable.

[Haa.]

There are people who have been here for months longer than I have, though. A lot of the things that happened before I arrived, I don't know much about.

[Oh! He stops at one vendor's table, lifting up one of the rain slickers laid out on display.]

Something like this?

Scaaary.

( and it actually is. he doesn't have months to spare, whatever the people here might say about going back to when they were taken.

you can never return to your own time, zwei had said.

is this really going to be different? last he was in reveille, leo was more than ready to throw him into the abyss, kill pandora operatives, go to any lengths with his black-winged chain that oz first saw in ruined sablier with the shade of the glen baskerville jack knew (and yet who had recognized him, pitiful existence with no place to belong and what does that mean?), because leo is glen baskerville now.

some of that apprehension filters through his features as he's lost in thought, and his head snaps up at the question, blinking before he realizes what he's being asked. )

- oh! ( of course, this means he has to crank up the brightness a notch to make up for that lapse. ) Yes, that's great!

( wait is that polka-dotted... )

[Allen's no stranger to that feeling.

But right now, he's got his attention focused on finding young Mr. Oz something to help keep him dry.

It might be a little bit polka-dotted.

Purple. It'll bring out your eyes.]

Good! [He smiles back, though not quite so intensely.

And in a show of truly inspiring ~~generosity~~ parsimony, he makes absolutely no move towards his own wallet.]

...Had the woman from the Initiative given you money?

( even oz can't help but wilt somewhat in the face of purple polka dots. maybe he should've taken a good look at it before agreeing.

maybe.

he...there are worse things than polka dots. in fact he would probably look very fetching in polka dots!

maybe he can come back later and quietly ask for an exchange. )

You mean this?

( he dubiously pulls out the card she'd provided him, instructing him to go and get it filled. )

[There's no backing out now.

Or, there is, because Allen has no particular attachment to the raincoat either, but if Oz is willing to buy it!...

Allen raises his eyebrows at the card, though. He's seen people using them around the city, and he'd been given the option to carry one of those as currency when he had first arrived... But at the time, he hadn't the faintest idea how he was meant to purchase anything with a single card, so he'd opted for physical cash.]

Yes, I think that should work.

[Just don't ask him how.]

( he'd missed the part where he could just pick up coins instead, which would've been a lot easier - or rather, he was getting distracted by trying to work out how this bank place works on his own. in any case, he offers it to the vendor with maybe a little trepidation.

will this really work... )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only