(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

[crystalia]

_{( Crys just shakes her head and smiles, like someone caught in a memory. )}

He's... a person I'm very glad to have met, all told.

[bumbles]

( Atlas tilts his head, grinning a little at her expression. It's a good face to see on someone, when they're remembering something good. It felt like he'd seen too many lost, confused faces today, people who were overwhelmed. He wasn't looking forward to walking past a window when he turned back to Adonis. )

Good. I won't take it personally if he beats me in a plumage competition, then.

( "Glad to have met, all told," makes him think of the Sphinx, though. She has chaos, in some ways, she called herself so many terrible things, but she did so much good. That phrase didn't really sum up all the things he felt about her, but it scratched the surface, enough to make him duck his head for a second.

It'd be fine. It'd be okay. )

[crystalia]

_{( She smiles again, more at him this time than at her own memories. Johnny had been a long time ago; now she has Ronan. Or she’s supposed to. Not for the first time, she wonders where he is and how he’s doing. The concern for him she’s tried to ignore pools in her stomach and she looks up abruptly, focusing on Atlas so she doesn’t have to think on her would-be husband. )}

I don’t know. Maybe you’d give him a run for his money. He’s only got fire, after all.

_{( Rather, he is fire. But that's not the point. )}

[bumbles]

( That is true, that is very try, and Atlas nods as sagely as he can as he deeply contemplates this information. )

I have more variety for puns, at least.

( And, a look. Because everyone loves puns, right? Right. Totally. )

[crystalia]

Lucky you.

_{( Heh. )}

[bumbles]

You're not a fan of puns? :(

( He seriously drew a smiley face.

And his face falls, appropriately tragic. )

[crystalia]

_{( Crystal smiles with all her teeth and shakes her head with a laugh. )}

You can't exist in my world and not like puns. You'd never survive.

[bumbles]

They don't punish you, do they?

( No Crystal don't encourage him )

[crystalia]

That's what they call it when you have to hear even more of them, yes.

_{( Laughing so hard, now. )}