(no subject)

[initiates]

Date: August 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

[maddeninghatter]

[ Brightly ]

Welcome to Exsilium~! I believe you'll find the decision making on par with the highest levels of bureaucracy.

[ Now opening the door to the housing building ]

Another apartment building would be an obvious choice, but most housing here is hardly fit to live in. Bombs and disease will do that to a place, alas.

[lucency]

Then -

[ bombs and disease. oh, that sounds wonderfully pleasant. belle digs in her heels and stops at the door, frowning, nearly delving into scowl territory. her eyes glance up at the building in front of her. ]

We're their soldiers. They should treat us decently.

[ she shakes her head. ]

There isn't anywhere safer?

[maddeninghatter]

[ He's not sure why she has stopped, but he'll keep holding the door open in any case. He begins to answer her, but seems to think better of it. A twitch of a half-smile and then he asks, gently: ]

Do you... know anything of soldiering?

[lucency]

I -

[ she's fought. she really has. she hadn't the experience but somehow she'd managed to get through it, but does a chance adventure really count as fighting a war? do overheard conversations between her father and knights count as knowledge?

she takes a step forward. ]

I know enough.

[maddeninghatter]

Good, good!

[ She knows nothing, he's sure. Ah, well. She'll learn. He flashes her a bright, puzzled sort of grin. ]

Are you coming in? Or are you enjoying the weather too much? Or are you expecting to be carried across the threshold like a bride~? ♥

[lucency]

[ her face hardens, slightly, a glare taken aback, and finally she shakes her head. ]

That's not necessary at all. [ and finally, she's through the door. potentially ready for more sickness and bombings. awesome. she rubs her hands together, thankful to be out of the rain, but does not remove her coat. ] Thank you.

[maddeninghatter]

[ He's already shutting up his umbrella and twirling it. ]

Ha! Ha! Ha! No need to be so put out, my dear, I'm only joking~♥

[ There's a lift; his fingers slide with a studied sort of carelessness across the buttons and he pushes the one that says, "up." ]

A little levity is essential to cast out the damp and darkness, don't you think?

[lucency]

I - I guess. No. You're right.

[ she sighs, leaning back against the elevator. honestly, something to support her, even if it's for a moment is nice. ]

But I don't think you can blame anyone for being so standoffish.

Was it like this when you - showed up for the first time?

[maddeninghatter]

[ A flash of a guilty sort of grin. His antics made her standoffish. It wasn't necessary. Why did he do it?

Ding! The elevator doors swish open, letting them out on the fourth floor. ]

When I...

[ He trails off. He'd found and teased (that is to say, fussed over) the kids: Oz and Elliot, bustling them into raincoats and out of the rain. ]

Yes, the weather was terrible.

[ And then he'd had to ask Oz for help, how humiliating. But even he was forced to admit, there was no way he could get along entirely on his own, no way he could hope to compensate, in such an unfamiliar world. ]

I say! You ought to ask around, once you get settled in. There might be one or two people you know from home. That sometimes happens.

[ He swings around, positioning himself between "Lacie" and his door, so that she won't see the very slight bit of difficulty he has getting his key into the lock. ]

[lucency]

[ she peers after him, not commenting on the weather, nor seeing the trouble with the key and the lock. she takes a cursory glance around the hallway: an escape route, if she needs to.

she shouldn't go in. should she? it isn't as though he's tried to hurt her, or done much other than invade her personal space. maybe he's harmless, for which belle will feel guilty for wondering otherwise. but there's only one way to find out. for now (and for the foreseeable future), she keeps a safe distance.

besides, she's pretty cold. ]

Someone told me that. A woman, in the crowd. I - um. Haven't had the chance to see much of anyone yet.

[ besides, rumplestiltskin's gone and the likelihood that he'd wind up here is slightly stretching it. but there's a pang of hope. ]

Do you have anyone? Here?

1/3 can't be tamed

[maddeninghatter]

[ He has, by this time, unlocked the door and pushed it open for her, so he's facing her when she asks... that loaded question.

How do you describe ten years of angry, resentful, devoted loyalty? Or a child who is already dead; and one who was never alive. And can he really say that he has any of them? ]

[maddeninghatter]

[ --yes, probably. Yes, definitely. Idiots all of them. Urgh! ]

[maddeninghatter]

[ Self-awareness sets in eventually, at which point he rearranges his features into something less embarrassing. }

Yes, several of them. It's... it's a bother, really.

[ He remembers that he's holding the door, so he beckons her in, with gusto. ]

ilu

[lucency]

A bother?

[ she tries not to look so bluntly shocked or - not quite disturbed, mind, but dumbstruck. tentatively, she lets herself be ushered through the door and takes a moment to measure the distance to the door from a few points in the room, and she stands off to the side. enough to stay out of the way. it's warmer in here, she finds, and that is indeed a plus.

but a bother. strange. she'd think familiar faces would be a comfort, regardless of who they were. ]

You - don't get along with them, then.

[maddeninghatter]

[ As she passes him, he touches her shoulder, lightly, feeling wet wool beneath his fingertips. ]

Bunch of kids. Two of them are. The third's too old to be a kid, but he is anyway.

[ He deposits his umbrella in a stand by the door, and brushes off his hat, setting it on a shelf. ]

I can take your coat, if you like.

[lucency]

They're immature, you mean.

[ she doesn't necessarily shy away from his hand, but it's not exactly a comforting gesture. she clnches her hands and passes by. ]

I'd think they'd be happy you were here. You could be a mentor, if nothing else.

[ instinctively, at his question, she shakes her head. better to keep a soaked jacket on than to be stuck in a soaked barely-there dress in front of a man she's only just met. ]

Oh - I'm fine. Really. Thank you, though.

[maddeninghatter]

That's really...

[ Yes, right, it's time to disappear into the hallway, amid a staccato burst of nervous laughter, reappearing moments later with a couple of towels. ]

Haha, I'm not the mentor type. More of a tor-mentor, if you ask Gilbert...

[ He moves to hand her the towels, but hesitates, clearly puzzled. Why won't she take off her coat? ]

Eh? It's all right, I can hang it up by the air vents.

[lucency]

[ that quip, simple as it may be, doesn't really do too much to ease her anxiety, and belle straightens her back and nods. it's a joke. peculiar though he may seem, belle has the idea that he's harmless, when it comes down to it, but still. it makes her wonder. ]

So they're not happy, in other words. I'm sorry. That must be - [ a frown. that must be worse than having nobody here, she thinks. ]

I - it's no trouble. Honestly, I'd be colder without it. [ goddammit lacey you and your faux 80s fashion making everything uncomfortable right now. ]

[maddeninghatter]

--terrible for them! Oh well, haha!

[ The truth is, that he doesn't think too much about how other people feel about him; or at least, when he does, he sticks to a certain set of assumptions...

Besides, having people grab you and declare themselves your "friends" is - damned annoying. Anyway. His mind flips back over to trying to sort out his guest's behavior. ]

I don't think so, you won't be able to dry off and you'll just stay wet if you don't...

[ He breaks off. Hm. ]

What is the difficulty, Miss Lacie?

[lucency]

[ she forces a smile at the arrogance, joking or not. the laughter deserves a bit of acknowledgement, if nothing else. and then - oh jesus, she wishes he would just drop the coat thing. she crosses her arms over herself and that's that. the coat's nice. the dress isn't. she'll probably hide it in the depths of her closet once she actually gets settled, but for now, she hasn't much of a choice.

but she could do with a towel or fifty. ]

Nothing. [ she sighs. ] I just - the dress under it. It's - [ gotten criticism. then again, storybrooke townspeople are used to seeing certain things. ] It's not my favorite.

1/? buckle up

[maddeninghatter]

[ His mind clicks through the possibilities. If it's simply a matter of an ugly dress, she's an idiot. But that hasn't been his impression of her so far. ]

[maddeninghatter]

[ It could be damaged - ripped or bloody perhaps. Could she be one of those unfortunate souls taken after their deaths? But she's said she had "something to do," so that seems unlikely as well. And she doesn't move as though she's injured. ]

[maddeninghatter]

[ Which leaves possibility number three: it's really racy. In fact, maybe she doesn't have anything on underneath her coat at all! ]

done

[maddeninghatter]

[ He blinks once, the picture of perfectly befuddled innocence and murmurs: ]

I really--

I'm hardly an expert on ladies' fashion. I can't tell one frock from another, I assure you. So don't be silly. You'll catch your death if you stand about in wet clothes.

[ He bows, offering her the towels, holding them formally with both hands as if making a presentation. ]

Let's trade - nice dry towels for your coat, what do you say?

[lucency]

[ her eyes flick from the towels to his face, then back again. it's not going to do for her to stand there arguing with him, all the while growing ever-so-slightly colder as the water drips from her coat onto the floor. there's not a puddle around her just yet, but it might get to that point soon. and it's not that she's insecure, but.

still, she's not going to budge that easily. maybe if rumplestiltskin were here, but he isn't. she straightens. ]

Do you - um - is there a bathroom? I can take the towels in there.