(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

[fe_male]

[ well tbf if anyone can out-conscience tony acting as a conscience, it's steve

Well, he supposes that look was just as good an indication as to aptitude as anything else. Sigh. Also wow look he's just here in like, an undershirt. Tony's not even totally sure that Steve's skin counts as protection from the cold, he's so thin. ]

Yeah, and I owe you a coat in the future, so I'm gonna give you this one and then we'll be even, right? That totally counts. I'm counting on future you to remember that I'm paying you back in his past. [ it's basically cheating but Tony makes people do what he wants by talking until they don't have a choice, and in the meantime he's shrugged out of his own and basically tossed it over. ]

[frombrooklyn]

[ can you imagine the kind of shenanigans they would have Distracted as he is with the knowledge that his aforementioned possibility may well be real, Steve tries to catch it, he really does. But both his hands are occupied with objects he can't drop in a hurry, and the result is the coat finding its new home half-draped over his shoulder and most of his head. ]

I'll leave him a note. Future me. [ An amused, slightly muffled mumble before he sets down the shield and tugs first one arm through a sleeve and then the other. His smile is grateful when he looks up again, even if it is a small one. The coat's big on him and the cuffs hang over his knuckles, both indicative that this guy might not exactly be honest about owing Steve one. After all, how would any of Steve's clothes fit him? ]

Thank you. I know you didn't have to. What's ... what's your name?

[fe_male]

[ almost crazy frightening but awesome ones?

Tony considers that to be a win, he doesn't care, so long as Steve looks a little bit less like some sort of spider pitifully walking around in the rain. He's not particularly worried about the lie either way though - Tony knows he's an excellent-ish liar when he feels like it (not necessarily when he needs to be) and about something like this, he could easily come up with a slew of reasons as to why the coat should be hanging off of Rogers rather than settled across Tony's own shoulders. He's got a long-sleeved, ribbed shirt on underneath anyway, so he won't get too cold without it. He just works like a lizard and always wants to be warm or hot. ]

Tony Stark. Nice shield.

[frombrooklyn]

[ you know it, bro. jiminy cricket ain't got nothin' on this

Stark. It gets a brief, strange look out of Steve, and he's about to ask if Tony has -- but no. The name wasn't that uncommon, right? And if this really is all something happening in the back of his mind, then what sort of answer to that question is he expecting, anyhow?

... the shield. He might have decided it on it there in the armory, but Steve still wasn't exactly sure why this had tugged at him out of all the other things there. Something about the shape, maybe ... ]

Yeah, well, it was the only thing they had that I could lift and use as an umbrella at the same time. [ His lips twitch, just a bit, but the expression fades soon enough. ] Were we friends? You and the other me.

[fe_male]

[ so who gets to be jonah

Tony sees that. He's used to a variant on looks like that, and pretends like he didn't see it at all. He doesn't particularly feel like going down that road right now, and didn't get the chance to actually settle any of it with big Steve back home before he got dragged here. Better to put it off, right? Totally right. ]

Resourceful of you. [ Nodding at the weather, because really, not too bad. Potentially short-sighted, but he wouldn't bank on it, not with what he knows of the other man's thought process.

Which just sounds creepy, but, whatever. He's not that bothered. ] Sort of. Mostly, by the time I got here.

[frombrooklyn]

[ ...JARVIS

Yeah, that wouldn't be a feasible topic right now. Steve wouldn't really know how to start off, either. The last time I saw your dad, I was strapped down and half-nak -- yeah no see what he means. Putting it off = definitely the way to go. ]

Was that a first-name basis mostly? Or should I just stick to callin' you mister Stark?

[ He doesn't want to overstep any bounds here, y'see, aware that the other guy had referred to him by his surname ... but also aware that it could mean nothing other than camaraderie. Still, the "sort of" makes him wonder a little. How'd they even meet, the two of them? ]

[fe_male]

[ are you just matching all the J-names together

Well at least they're in agreement about what they're not going to talk about. And without even talking about it a little bit to make sure! This'll be easier than Tony thought. ]

It was a nickname basis, mostly. [ Sort of. He called you 'Capsicle', you called him, you know, other things. But whatever, how about a handshake. He doesn't remember having done one yet. It's a little late into the conversation, but signs of good faith and all that. ] Tony's fine. Or Stark. Mister Stark is a little formal, kind of a mouthful, all that consonance with the 'stuh' sound.

[frombrooklyn]

[ i can neither confirm nor deny that (yes)

A handshake. Steve can work with that, sure, and puts his free hand forward to do exactly that with a little nod. ] Tony, then. It's nice to meet you -- uh, again. Steve Rogers. [ Which he knows that Tony already knows but whatever, it goes with the handshake and the situation as a whole. ]

Been here a while? [ He tilts his head to the side, adding, ] I'm guessing we met before you got here, though. The first time around.

[fe_male]

[ It's cool, man. The only reason Tony didn't introduce himself is because he's a cool guy (and I hit 'parent' enough to realize he already had). ]

A few months. And yeah, we did, but not by much. Don't worry, we still don't know much about each other.

[frombrooklyn]

I see.

[ And Steve's got some follow-up questions, but -- standing out in the rain, not really the best of times for that. Or something. So he settles for a foot shuffle and a, ]

Should fix that one of these days, seeing as we're here for the long haul. Probably.

[fe_male]

It's a date.

You know where you're going?