(no subject)

[initiates]

Date: May 1st
Location: The Initiative Hold & Courtyard.
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: New Transports arrive and are shuffled into the Courtyard after their initial briefings, while those Transports on the mission to Wollongong return.
Warnings: None.

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

he's a weird chick magnet

[lar]

[ Ella smirks at him, although she notices some sort of change. Nothing she can totally sure about, so whatever witty remark she had is quietly buried. Enough poking at the squirming guy for now. ]

Dude, you don't even know.

So...were you going anywhere right now? I sort of stopped you in your tracks, but I honestly have no idea of what to do.

you should see his sisters

[bumbles]

( A faint twist of a smile, but it's something layered under everything else going on. Or something that's meant to gloss over it... he's really not so sure. Whatever it is, the outcome isn't exactly one of Earth's Greatest Smiles, or anything like that. )

I w-was-- I was um, g-going to check out the uh, the residence... place. That we're uh, assigned t-to?

( He saw the building earlier, and can point it out, or at least its general direction. ) See?

as a matter of a fact I have read about them, so I have an idea. cool stuff dude

[lar]

[ Hey, he smiles! Kinda. Ella's not sure if that was some sort of involuntary twitch though. ]

Ooooh right. Wanna go then?

[ She beams at him and starts walking anyway. ]

oohh man *u* thank you

[bumbles]

I--

( Anxiously, he looks back at the building he just exited, and back to Ella-- in time to see her start walking. Automatically, he jogs a few paces until he has caught up. ) O-okay.

( Worry was simply a fact of reality, these days. He wondered, on occasion, if he'd ever know what it was like to function without your body constantly kicking out adrenaline, making every second feel like a threat. )

What, um, w-what d-do you uh, think of the Initiative?

yw ♥

[lar]

[ Ella keeps walking, but she slows down a bit. ]

I think they are very, very desperate. That usually means they're willing to do a lot of unsafe things, and I'm not just talking about us. But it also means they want to be as careful as possible.

What's your take on them?

[bumbles]

I uh, d-dunno.

( A lie. He doesn't know much, certainly, but he doesn't trust them. It's a tactic that drags vulnerable people into a situation they can't escape. Victims, people already hurting, people who may not emotionally, psychologically, physically be able to handle a forced removal from their home or support systems. There was the potential for trauma, depression, all manner of damage, and that was before the war.

And then, it was an organized system of government that was completely unknown. )

You s-sound right, t-to uh. T-to me. ( Max always said he had to play his cards close to his chest. That was easier when people didn't talk to him, of course. ) It's, uh-- I th-think, um. We c-can't trust them.

( Which is why he is going to just grab some bedding and get out. )