(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

[outliving]

[ Of all the things to hear in this place first is a remark about his hair. At least no one tried to mistake him for a woman. He's reluctant to turn to look - to acknowledge anyone's presence here, because that was part of acknowledging him being here at all - but he turns regardless, gaze travelling down from the umbrella to the girl in the chair.

He's about to say how he doesn't careabout how long it will take but then he's realizing she's still talking about hair.

First:] It doesn't matter. [ not the time, not the humidity, not your frizz or non-frizz!!

A beat, a huff. ] Yes.

[whatsupcroc]

Welcome to Exsilium, in that case! But here, one sec...

( She twists around, pulling something out of the satchel at the back of her chair. An umbrella, all collapsed in and black. She offers it out to Kanda, looking him over with open curiosity as she does so.

Interesting looking guy. Japanese? Was he even from an Earth? She knows it's best not to assume. )

Here! I pick up extras to hand out to people when they first get here. What's your plan of action?

[outliving]

You're welcoming someone to a war?

[ Now he's really giving you a Look. Then there's a beat, and he's looking down at the folded umbrella being offered to him.

For this, he should say thank you; but that term is very seldom used and instead he's shaking his head and putting up a hand in uncomfortable refusal. ] I don't need it. Save it for someone else.

[ He doesn't remark that because he cares for what someone else out there might need. He doesn't; he could care less, really.

A pause, and his stare is a mixture of irritation (common, on him) and question. ] What's it matter?

[ Why are you asking? Why does it matter to you? Because normal, casual and helpful curiosity is yet another thing that is on his very long disapproves of list. ]

[whatsupcroc]

( She snorts, still holding out the umbrella to him. )

Not the war, silly, the island. Since we're all here either way, I figure it's a little nicer to say welcome instead of "try not to think about how much this probably sucks."

( Said amicably enough. )

Nawh, it's fine. like I said, I've got a bunch! And I ask in case there's anything I can help with. You know, information, stuff like that. I've been here for almost a year, I tend to have at least a few answers. Of the answers we know!

[outliving]

[ realizing that she apparently intends to keep the umbrella held until he takes it, he's reluctantly reaching for it. ] Making it sound better doesn't make it better.

[ he sounds deprecating, really. he never liked sugarcoating; and never really thought it good to withhold that opinion.

then she offers to answer questions and he's pausing again. ] The war — are our own worlds gone because of this place?

[ he may not have been listening as well as he should've have. he recalls some things, and will ultimately discover things on his own, but even he can sometimes agree that outside opinion can help get the idea of a place. ]

[whatsupcroc]

No. It makes it less isolating, though. Just a little!

( She smiles once he takes the umbrella, settling back in her chair with minimal fuss. Collette rubs her hands together to work heat back into her fingers. )

Ah. ( It's a breath; not quite an exhalation. )

It's not a guarantee. Your world is fine up to some point in time, probably even now! But I can't guarantee it, not yet. Caesar says we need to be patient... so we'll know for sure once we've found all the places the United Earth accesses other worlds from. We can't open up a portal straight home, though. That pretty much seals your world getting attacked by the United Earth. Some places could totally handle that! Most can't.

( Delivered factually enough. )

Do you know what bombs are?

[outliving]

[ No, this woman wasn't making any sense to him with her pleasantries!!!

It's odd, as he holds the umbrella. Uncomfortable, even.

Then she's saying a bunch of information that oh-so closely sounds like the things That Woman in the beginning said. To his skewed mind, it only sounded like the Initiative wanted to assure its own victory, since this was the future, and all the other worlds were in the past. Especially if they couldn't even . . . link their worlds together. Seems like they lacked foresight (funny that Kanda would notice) and that was borderline infuriating.

A blink, and he's giving her a disgruntled stare. ] Explosions. [ Do go on... ]

[whatsupcroc]

( She nods, releived he does know. Her attempts at explaining them in the past have all gone with variosu levels of breain aching success and failure. Mostly failure. )

Yeah, some bombs are just explosions, and others are like the nuclear ones that made the weather like this all the time, and burnt out whole big parts of the continents world-wide. The UE, that's the United Earth, they've got all sorts of bombs that also have different gasses they spread that can get pretty nasty. That's part of what they were using last time.

( Collette turns both hands palm side up. )

I don't think the UE can track everyone home, 'cause we can't even predict how long someone will stay before they get pulled back into their timestream, and no one else has ever gone home with someone from a different place. Which makes your home pretty safe for now! You're supposed to be pulled back in to when you left, so even you and your friends won't see how long you've been gone. I thought that was totally crazy before it even worked for Elmer -- um. That's the name of the guy whose world was attacked by the UE, the one we know about from us Transports.

[outliving]

[ Now, now she's starting to lose him because what the hell was nuclear. He makes a little more effort to listen, though it doesn't make him understand the Initiative any more or less. All it really sounds like is that the Initiative is crudely outnumbered.

And then his thoughts drone out the last of what she says after the mention of inability to track their home worlds.

As long as the idiots don't pull out the Millenium Earl - but who's to say other worlds don't have something like that, too. ] Tch. It all just sounds like a losing war.

[ Think positive !! ]

[whatsupcroc]

It's a guerrilla war. Which yeah, tends to be a losing game, until you find the chink in the other guy's armor!

( She won't call it a winning stance. It's not. She's used to that, to be honest. )