(no subject)

[initiates]

Date: June 1st
Location: The Initiative Hold & Courtyard.
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: New Transports arrive and are shuffled into the Courtyard after their initial briefings. Now with 200% more People-Seeking lists!
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. Now and then around you you might spot paper fluttering in the faint wind from somewhere relatively dry. It looks like a list.

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

[galactically]

[So far, Sheryl has had little luck spotting people from her world, despite her own mixed feelings about their presence. On one hand, she wouldn't want to any of them to be roped into her situation, but on the other hand, she can't help but feel a spark of joy if either Ranka or Alto shows up in Exsilium. Just a familiar face can give her some small comforts, she supposes, at least to get rid of the annoying loneliness.

Just as she turns around the corner, her blue eyes open wide in seeming recognition, and she gasps with a hand hovering over her mouth. A man in a ponytail captures her attention immediately, could it be...?]

Alto?

[She murmurs out loud. 'Is that really you?!' Her mind is racing with all kinds of thoughts, ranging from 'Where have you been?!' to 'I've been trapped here for too long!', to even 'I missed you, you idiot!' Sheryl wastes no time in jogging over to the presumed man in question, a look of happiness lasting for a mere minute or two before the expression slowly morphs away.

The grumpiness is definitely Alto-like... but it's not him. Not Alto, not especially when that man's hair is black, not blue. Her jogs turn into slow-winded strolls, and a disappointed frown tugs at her lips as she approaches him.]

For a moment there, I thought you were someone else!

[outliving]

[ If (when) Kanda sees someone from his own world, he won't find comfort it. Some sort of minor relief hidden behind the same cold, abrasive walls as always. Maybe he'll withhold habitual displays of irritation. Maybe they'll be the same as usual.

Out of the corner of his eye he catches motion - a motion towards him - and there's the subtlest tension as his tilting his body just a bit her way.

He blinks twice, looks to her, utterly unsympathetic to her disappointment. That isn't my problem is right on the tip of his tongue ] That so.

[ Said with standoffish passivity because what is being friendly. ] Guess you'll have to look somewhere else.

[galactically]

What a shame, but oh well.

[It's a simple but no less disappointed reply from the idol, but she's quick to push that aside. No point in feeling down when there's a newcomer to greet, even if he's the unfriendly sort. At any rate, she adjusts the grip to her umbrella and fiddles around with the handle, combing through her hair with a free hand at the same time.]

There's a warm room you get to live on at the apartments. Have you checked it out yet?

[outliving]

[ The said shame is hardly mutual. This is her problem, and he was unwilling to entertain the thought of offering to help look. Though he makes a small, almost minuscule note that there may be someone here who looks similar to him.

Then she mentions the room and the idea is certainly better than sticking in the rain. He slips a hand into his pocket, finds the key given earlier then looks back up, as if recalling that he, in fact, was actually having a conversation.

He's shaking his head. ] Which way are they?

[galactically]

[Better to start this off on a positive note, especially when she remembers her last conversation to a friend involving greeting people. Just as true to her shameless nature, complete with a grin intact, Sheryl nonchalantly points to the direction behind her with a delicate wave of her finger.]

Two blocks north from where you're standing! I'll take you there myself so you won't get too wet.

[outliving]

[ His eyes follow the wave of her fingers; he has the direction now, and he's already shifting back out into the rain.

About to pass her, he falters for a moment, glances back with an arched brow and shrugs. ] Do what you want.

[ It's not an invitation, but he's not entirely saying no to her showing the way. She didn't ask as much as stated, and that was fine with him. His logic is entirely simple, bordering on entire passivity to what someone else chooses to do, as long as it doesn't directly get in his way.

Though somewhere very deep in the back of his mind, there's a flicker of gratitude for, at the very least, the point in direction. But not enough for him to thank her. ]

[galactically]

[Oh right, Kanda doesn't have an umbrella and his pretty hair will get ruined by the rain drops once more... but Sheryl does! Guess what she's doing? Adjusting the handle once more, she scoots over and shifts the umbrella over their heads as a shield from the rain. Luckily it's big enough that she doesn't need to take up a lot of space, and she thanks herself for spending a nice amount of money on a larger one. Who knows what kind of newcomers will she bump into?]

Aah, there. No one should catch a cold on the first day of Exsilium, after all. [A beat.] Or deal with bad hair problems.

[She states in a light, but playful tone at the end. Of course, this is coming from someone who keeps her hair in near perfect condition due to her fussiness, but hey.]

[outliving]

[ There's a flinch that's manifesting in Kanda looking up at the sudden umbrella over his head, and a disgruntled glance the woman's way.

What was it with people and his hair?!!

He's sighing. ] I wouldn't catch anything.

[ Wouldn't he? His regenerative abilities should keep that at bay — they have before, at least. But who knows, now. ] You care about the wellbeing of someone you don't even know? [ And appearance, apparently! ]

[ The thought in itself is nearly incomprehensible to Kanda. ]

[galactically]

Oho, are you sure about that?

[Hey, Kanda's hair is mesmerizing in its own way, okay??

Letting out a few chuckles of amusement due to the remark, Sheryl sighs a bit and smiles faintly, silence reigning for a few seconds before she speaks, her expression more subdued.]

As someone who's been here for many months now, I can understand why most people would be uncomfortable here. Fighting in a war that's not their own, helping out a resistance they're never part of... I can at least try and do something to make their stay just a bit bearable.

[She'd rather do a lot more, like plan a large-scale concert for everyone. Of course, this won't be possible without a completed stage, but she's confident that it'll happen eventually]

[outliving]

Yes. [ Mostly sure? Sort of sure. He hasn't ever dealt with a cold or anything the like before. But his tattoo has been behaving differently so maybe it was safer to be cautious.

Which is exactly what Kanda was not likely to do.

Then she answers him in earnest and it's only making his scowl because what was it with people and trying to make things better in this place? Comfort or easing or sugarcoating. ] It's a war. It's not going to be comfortable.

[ Or anymore willing than wars anywhere else. ]

[galactically]

[In all Sheryl's frankness, she knows too well that wars are a disaster for people in all walks of life. She'd been there and saw the devastation herself — from the Vajra attacks at Frontier to the recent disaster at Elmer's world — and they tend to be filled with despair, don't they? But if there's anything she can't stand is when there is too much of it.

Defiantly, she gives Kanda a look, unfazed by the scowl.]

But it doesn't mean everyone has to live miserably forever, just because they're here in a place where it rains every day and danger occasionally happens. It's how they make of it!

[outliving]

[ Everyone deals and accepts despair differently, though Kanda is too set on his own ways to actually acknowledge that. So when the woman hands him a look it goes entirely ignored. He's immune !! ]

Whatever. [ He disagrees, though he gives his standard answer, dissmissive. Though he doesn't wage everything in misery; that, like most feelings, doesn't accomplish much at all. ]

[galactically]

I'm right.

[She states in a matter of fact way, insistently, and no, she doesn't care if he disagrees; that's how stubborn she is. Just as soon as the apartment building is within her sights, she lets out a sigh of relief, a little heavier than intended, and her casual walks quickly turn into a jog. How she's able to run in high heels takes a lot of practice, even in rainy weather.]

Now hurry up! We're almost here!