exsiliumlogs | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Date: July 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Jesse nods along with what she's saying. Yes, he's smart. Yes, he could be using Jesse - probably is, in fact. And yes, Jesse's watching, and being careful...

But he stops at the final question.]

I can't tell you.

Of course you can't. [She just sounds... cool.]

If these people want him to die so much, why doesn't one of them kill him?

Because they're not killers.

If they want him to die so bad maybe they should figure out how to be.

No - I mean, that ain't even the point. I don't want anybody to die.

What's your plan, Jesse?

Do what he wants. I mean, that's what I gotta do. He's gotta think everything's okay or else he'll snap.

What about when he wants you to do something you can't do? What about when it comes to something neither of you can do anything about? That won't work forever.

I know.

[And he doesn't have a plan for that.]

You need a plan. To me, it sounds like you have two choices: kill him... or have somebody else kill him... or take him out somehow.

I can't. I can't sign off on that when it seems like he's sorry for everything he did. Even if he did kill me, even if he's lying about it, it really seems like he's sorry. And I deserved it, anyway, and he's still sorry. So I can't just turn around and say it's my turn now and take him down. He deserves a chance to make it right. I wish I had that chance.

I'm not saying you should out and kill him now. But get ready to if you have to, Jesse.

[He... laughs.]

What's that even mean, anyway? "Get ready"? People're always saying that. How do you get ready for that?

Get your stuff ready. [She shrugs.] Get a prison ready if you want to try that. Find somebody to kill him who's okay with it if you can't. Get ready.

[Find somebody. How monstrous would that be? If he's going to sink to that, he might as well kill himself now. What's the point of getting rid of Heisenberg if he's going to become Heisenberg?]

No. No, no, no.

What could happen to people if he is just as bad as he was, and he doesn't get... controlled?

Jesus... I don't even know.

[Honestly, there's so much Mr. White could be hiding. If he remembers Siren's Port and has the same power he had there, like Jesse does... The guy could literally be an atom bomb waiting to blow up. But if Jesse says that, she'll just point out the obvious: he's gotta go.]

A lot of people, or just you?

A lot. A lot.

[Softly. She's trying to be gentle, here.]

That's different from it being just you, Jesse.

Yeah. I know.

Your life is yours... if you want to give it to this person... [She glances away. Not liking the idea, but.] It's yours to give. But if it's about a lot of people...

[Oh, she identifies.]

I know. I know it's gotta be done, and I know he deserves it, and I know it'd be better for me and better for everybody. Right?

You don't know how many times he's said the same exact thing to me. There's always somebody who needs killing, "for a good reason". Whatever that is.

If you really don't want to kill him than figure out something else. Ask for help from someone. Find someone strong enough to control him.

There's only me. If anybody in the world can control him, it's me. And it's only as long as he thinks he's the one in control. The second he smells somebody else getting in the way is when it'll all go to shit. That's why I don't even wanna talk about it. Trust me, I been through this before. A lot. Anybody who tries to help me is toast.