( open ) i'll fly you to the moon and back

[initiates]

Date & Time: September 21st - September 30th, 11:59 PM
Location: The Hold, the Moon Base
Characters: Any/all.
Summary: The Transports are evacuating to the Moon Base. Those on the Moon Base try to settle in and figure out their next move. Setting info can be found here.
Warnings: Talk of nuclear warheads and reference to immense loss of life. Please contact the mods should any individual thread get graphically violent or anything else of the sort.
Note: Use date and location tags in your subject headlines! Such as "On the moon, 23rd onward" or "On the spaceship, 25th" or "down at the Hold, 29th."

The Hold is a flurry of activity, grim faced members of the Initiative group directing supplies and people with the subdued air of people facing their own doom, and wondering at how to process the knowledge. None of the Initiative appears unaware of what will happen; their eyes linger on the Transports, expressions pleading, hopeful, doubtful, or immeasurably sad in turn.

Every eight hours, the space ship is sent back up with a load of people and supplies. The pilots are worked until they can't; the AI stolen ages ago by the Initiative greets and corrals people and supplies at both ends, and in the middle step between.

The network continues to broadcast on narrow channels between the Moon Base and Exsilium, up until the time that all connections are lost, with the carrier located en route to Exsilium. The first airship will pass by without dropping anything, but it's too early to celebrate. At a six hour delay from behind, the second airship arrives, and with it, the dark promise of the Black Code's nuclear weaponry.

The six hour window allows for time for those left behind, either by choice or circumstance, to be pulled to the Moon Base with the successful activation of the Transport Pad. New characters will ultimately arrive with the remainder of those not yet on the Moon Base, all in time to witness the explosive contact of the nuclear warhead with the ground of Exsilium live on satellite.

But until then, there's only the hurry, the silence, and the potential for full out rioting should the Transports spread word to the Exiles inevitably left behind to face this fate.

Comments

Early side of Evac Week (OTA)

[anotheryosuke]

[This guy's probably been scarce at the Hold all week (not that any of them have been 'home' much lately, that's the thing, isn't it?); he's much too busy wandering around random corners of Exsilium where you probably wouldn't normally expect to see a Transport, carrying a whole lot of grocery bags whenever he does pop up.

He stops once in a while to enter a shop or to speak to some Exiles with suspicious seriousness. There's a bit of underlying familiarity there, but mostly he just goes away with an ever-increasing supply of grocery bags.

Occasionally, he can also be spotted at the side of the road cursing at his ubiquitous navy-and-orange motorcycle as he attempts to stuff said bags into its storage. Oddly, although he does have some trouble you never seem to see him take bags out of there. Sometimes bags of ice end up going in, too.

One afternoon, though, it finally happens: some of the little Exiles get curious about the big shiny vehicle pointlessly parked in the road and never properly going anywhere, and Naoya comes back to his motorcycle to see one of them literally disappear headfirst into the storage trunk.]

H-Hey! Seriously, don't go in there! I mean the rest of you!

[As the rest of the children freeze, he drops his bags and dives for the trunk. Sticking his own head and shoulders in is the obvious solution, even if from the outside there's just no way the compartment should be big enough for that. Or for an entire kid to disappear inside, but details.]

[maddeninghatter]

[ Gilbert left in a hurry, on the first ship, with Collette and Oz in tow. Meaning, of course, that he had no opportunity to shop for supplies. Break knew full well that tensions were likely to rise over the course of the week, as information filtered through to the Exiles; so after waving a lazy good-bye to Gilbert and his sleepy charges, he headed out straight for the market.

Now he has his own set of grocery bags, too. Exsilium foodstuffs are hardly luxurious, but he strongly suspects they'll be better than what they'll find on the moon. He is heavily laden, with packets full of dried applepears, flour, raw nuts, sugar, canned not!chicken, rhubarb berries, and other mutated foods selected not only for his own tastes, but that of Gilbert and Oz and Collette (he'll make sure the food appears mysteriously and disavow all knowledge of how it got to the moon, of course).

Thus may Naoya possibly run into him: a slightly-built, white-haired man awkwardly managing four sets of bulging grocery bags and a cane. ]

[anotheryosuke]

[Naoya can perhaps be forgiven for the following offense: considering that between his grocery bags and the other guy's they can hardly fit in the narrow street, much less see each other, all he's getting is the white hair and the cane and some of the bean-pole legs.

He does manage to stop before they literally run into each other, though there's a few moments of fumbling when his bags attempt to overbalance and correct that.]

Ah, hey, gramps! Careful where you're going! [He tilts his head a little, tries to see how they can get past each other without knocking everything over or playing London Bridge or something.] ... You need help with that? I mean, there's no way both of us can pass right now, but if you put those on top of mine...

1/2

[maddeninghatter]

[ He's worried about a thousand things. Will Collette and Oz recover? What consequences there will be of their captivity? He's learned just enough about "nanobots" to be afraid. Will there be room for them all in space? How long will it take the United Earth to find them? Not long, not long, there's no doubt of that. What will it be like, what's the moon made of, is it very cold up there? Will his groceries make it? Is the pie all right? Are the-- ]

Eh--?

[ Gramps? Tch! ]

[maddeninghatter]

[ Emily peeks her horrible head over one of his bags and shrieks: ]

OUT OF THE WAY, PUNK!

[anotheryosuke]

GAH...!!

[That was probably the most unexpected thing that could've happened at that particular moment in time. Naoya lets out a half-yelp he'll deny till his dying day and falls backward -- luckily there's a stoop in the way, so he just sort of trips and lands on it without dropping too many things.

Good thing, too, or Break would've had groceries on his feet to add to the entire mess.]

What the-- hell... [He recovers quickly and embarrassedly enough, though that still doesn't explain the talking doll... thing... Either the old man is a ventriloquist or the doll is alive. Either way, he's starting to wonder if he shouldn't maybe back away and take another street. Old men with dolls don't bode well. Dolls don't bode well, either.] Um, you didn't have to yell so loud, jeez.

[He doesn't actually know which one he's talking to...?!]

[maddeninghatter]

[ His irritation, having flamed up, now dies down immediately (possibly helped along by the satisfying sound of yelping). He doesn't recognize the voice. Is this a Transport? Or a doomed Exile? He's only a kid, either way, and that is... desperately sad. He lowers his bags, so that is face is visible. ]

My goodness~!

[ Not unkindly: ]

Are you okay?

[anotheryosuke]

Ah--

[Okay, wait a second, that's not an old man.... His first thought is that Mochizuki is going to be doing this one day, just casually walking down the street with groceries and end up being called gramps by some whippersnapper; then he has to suppress a snicker.

Wouldn't do to call the guy old and then laugh at him about it, too. He might sic his creepy doll on him again -- not that he's afraid of a doll or anything. They're just decidedly unpleasant to have around.]

My bad, I just tripped, that's all. No problem! [An apology and an excuse all wrapped up in one. He yelled because he fell, that's his story and he's sticking to it.] Um, just gimme a minute to get these so you don't trip.

[Time to pick up his bundle of groceries, which fell decidedly smack in the middle of the tiny street. There's a surprising lack of junk food, but it's not for lack of trying; there just isn't very much of it to be had.]

[interspace]

[ There's a young redheaded woman standing off to the side and watching the boy with the obvious bag of holding in his motorcycle. She's seen him around a bit while doing her own errands — catching him going in after a kid who was too curious for his own good is enough to make her laugh outright. ]

Get some padlocks on that thing or something! [ Wait, that's not the right reaction. ] You want some help?

[anotheryosuke]

Jeez, does it look like there's time to be getting locks?

[Even if it's a little peeved, his expression is good-natured once he manages to extract himself from the trunk. (Without the kid in question, because yeah, there are definitely too many nooks and crannies in there; maybe what he should invest in is a trunk light....)

The woman talking looks vaguely familiar, but everything's been a bit of a blur, lately. He glances back at the trunk -- nope, not getting any less dark and mysterious.]

... Though, if you happen to have a flashlight or something, I'd really owe you one.

[As though it's a cue, the remaining kids suddenly break out of their stasis and scurry right off with a whole rush of whispering -- it's debatable whether they've gone to get help or just to spread rumors about people-eating motorcycles.]

[interspace]

[ Misha walks over, leaning a bit to peer into the space for herself. ]

How big is it in there? No flashlights, but I could probably get in and out pretty easy if it's not infinite and only responds to you or something.

[anotheryosuke]

[He scratches his head, a little sheepish.]

Man, it'd be great if it did do that. [Then they wouldn't have the lost-child problem.] It's definitely not infinite, though, I think it just started doing that recently? But there's way too many bags to hide in down there...

[He pauses to think for a moment, then sticks his head back in the compartment.]

--Heeeey! If you come toward the light, I'll treat you to a popsicle around here! You pick the place!

[At least there's no echo...?]

[interspace]

[ Misha shakes her head and strips off her messenger bag, setting it down beside them in the wet road. If a kid could fit in there, it's probably not an impossible squeeze for her. ]

Let me try this, then you can go look for a rescue rope or something.

[ Without really explaining, she waits for Naoya to extract his head then hefts herself up from the edge (without managing to tip it over, miraculously enough) and sticks both her feet in with intent to lower herself down. Being athletic through training and able to fly through a miracle really helps in situations like these. ]

[anotheryosuke]

What...? [He reflexively throws out an arm across the compartment to stop her going down just yet.] No, wait, shouldn't we find a rope first? What if you get buried in bags and lost forever?! Then I'd have more people mad at me for losing two people!

[polarization]

[ After the rescue efforts, Sefton is... not in a good mental place, to say the least. He sneaks out of the Hold once things are somewhat calmer, instinct driving him to find a place that isn't quite so crowded and unpredictable. Last he's heard, there was still no room for him in the apartments and so he makes his way into the city while his legs can still carry him.

That isn't very far, but at least he tries. He makes it to a somewhat sheltered bench underneath a storefront awning before he just lays down, curls up and places his recovered bag under his head as a makeshift pillow. Sleep shouldn't be far, right? Right. Hopefully someone finds him to reprimand him for being stupid before he falls into his rock-like slumber. ]

[anotheryosuke]

[It's either embarrassing or just depressing, but considering Naoya doesn't actually know anyone here quite well enough to tell when someone's missing (not to mention he doesn't know the landscape, either!), he's really pretty vague on the kidnappings and the rescue missions in general.

Except for the people who left their weird notes, but if he looked at the number-of-people-freaking-out ratio to the number-of-people-leaving-creepypasta, there were probably a lot more people who didn't even leave notes.

So in the end, he doesn't have a very good idea who was missing, how they went missing, exactly, or even how the rescue went. He could find out with enough bugging of the right people -- but just at the moment, he's probably not the only one who's got bigger things on their mind.

The city is a hive of activity even under the relentlessly oppressive weather; so any stillness makes you take notice, at least a little. This particular street is a little less bustling, being less commercialized, and he's mostly just shortcutting his way to somewhere else, but there's that flash of familiar blue that makes him double-take again.]

... Hey?

[It's only after he shuffles his way closer with his little armful of groceries that he realizes: 1. He's double-taking at the wrong thing again. 2. He, unfortunately, knows this guy.

With that in mind, though, at least he can reach out to tap him on the shoulder without reservations.]

Hey, hey. Were the apartments so bad you had to go hobo already? C'mon, wake up or you'll catch a cold.

[polarization]

[ Sefton jumps about a mile high at the touch to his shoulder, pressing himself deeper into the bench and staring at Naoya for a long and very tense moment. The only immediate response he can come up with is a shake of his head. No.

No to what? Even Sefton isn't quite sure, but that touch sure did send his heart rocketing after the week he's had. It doesn't take long to realize Sefton recognizes the face, but that does nothing to quell the fear. Fear of his power, fear of something happening again, fear of the world around him. ]

... don't do that.

[anotheryosuke]

[The overreaction startles Naoya in turn, and he drops his groceries. Luckily, it's just fruits (and veggies, how are the Exiles this meddlesome when they live in a place like this), so neither of them get hit by anything more than stray oranges.]

Whoa, dude, it's just me. [Should've remembered how jumpy the guy was, but come on, a tiny tap on the shoulder??] How else'm I supposed to get you awake? Throw an orange at you?

[He's started picking them up as he talks, and hefts one experimentally.]

[polarization]

Banging pots usually works... [ It's a mumble, one not intended to be heard, yet who knows just how good Naoya is as paying attention to things he shouldn't.

Sefton sits himself upright, legs curled in front of him like some kind of barrier. ]

What d'you want?

[substitutable]

[Shintaro's in a hurry, bag slung over his shoulders and on his way back to the housing building to make sure Momo and the rest of them have gathered everything they need and maybe something more. Still, when he sees a child and half of a teenager disappear into the storage compartment of a motorcycle, he's got to stop and question that because what?]

H-hey, oy! Don't fall in there! [He runs over and reaches to grab Naoya back--]

[anotheryosuke]

[Life in Exsilium: This is apparently what you see walking down the street now.

Naoya's so focused on his panicked task of searching for the kid before it gets smothered by the packages or gets into one of the ice bags that he doesn't hear anyone coming. He's startled enough by the voice that he tries to jerk back out of the compartment on his own, but since Shintaro's reaching over it's probably just the perfect recipe for a collision of some sort--]

W-Whoa! Watch it! Look, this is my motorcycle, I'm not gonna just fall-- Oh, it's you.

[He does finally manage to extract himself, and just blinks at his new companion, a little nonplussed.]

[anotheryosuke]

... No, wait, I don't have time right now, I gotta get the kid out of my trunk!

[Time to dive right back in there...!]

[substitutable]

You have a --

Dude! This isn't the time to be playing some sort of kidnapping prank! What the hell are you trying to do!?

[anotheryosuke]

[Somewhat muffled:]

I didn't do anything! There is no prank! There is no kidnapping, this is more like a home... vehicle... invasion!

[There's a couple of distinct THUMPS, a faint yelp, annnnnnd no, you know what, there he goes, he actually fell in.

Oops.]

[substitutable]

[JFC MAN.

Shintaro dives to catch him!! He manages to grab him by the leg and hold on.]

What are you even doing?!