here they talked of revolution, here it was they lit the flame

[initiates]

Date: October 1st
Location: The Observatory.
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: New Transports arrive and are shuffled into the Observatory for the show of the year. Initial briefings are very brief this time around, and that Greeter just won't stop crying.
Warnings: new confused people and old sad people??

Your arrival here has been very unceremonious. One second you were somewhere else, and now, very suddenly, your feet hit the glowing white of the Transporter pad, and you're here. You aren't alone, either. There's a crowd of others around you, each seeming just as bewildered, angry, or confused as you might feel. At the head of the group is a woman in purple robes, with eyes red as if she'd just finished crying. She hurries over a quick overview of your intended purpose here, and gives direct answers when asked for them, but to most things she simply shows you how to access the tablet you've just been given. There, you can find the history of this place and a record of what your new cohorts have experienced — although it won't have Network access for another 8 hours. Someone stands on hand to give you a weapon, and though the armory is now greatly reduced, you should be able to find something to suit you.

You're shepherded down a walkway tunnel and into the Observatory, where you will find screens mounted on three sides of the wide room. The only lighting comes from dull red emergency lights, and the scenes of a dreary, rainy city from various cameras up on the screens; the largest of the screens opens up to a view of Earth from a good distance away -- this one isn't a screen at all, you might realize, but a window. As you watch, all screens in the room fill with light, impossibly bright. It consumes the buildings, the people, everything. There is no sound played, perhaps mercifully, only that white light -- and then nothing.

Through the large window, there's a pinprick of light over one of the landmasses on the blue planet. It grows to a tiny blossom and then dies away, but a cloud begins to mushroom outward in the same spot. It pushes the natural clouds out of the way, claiming that small portion of the world and wrapping it in a uniform gray.

Strings of numbers begin to fill the blanked out screens as the base's AI begins collecting data and calculations, but the show seems to be over. You're free to explore the base, visit and use any of the VR rooms, or discover your new room and roommates, but try not to step out of any airlocks if oxygen is a requirement for your system.

Welcome to the moon base, with front row seats to the grave of Exsilium.

[[ooc; reminder! The Network will be down for 8 hours after the wave of new Transports.]]

Comments

Charlie Cutter & Chloe Frazer | Uncharted | OTA

[alittlesweptup]

[There’s a distinctly familiar, hollow sound as his boots hit the transport pad - the usual spinning disorientation, the nausea directly following the displacement. What isn’t usual, isn’t expected, is the press of bodies crowding the pad alongside him. Though what about this most recent mission had been usual? He and Chloe had been scheduled for a few quick days in Egypt - off to burn a few scrolls for the sake of the Initiative and lifts a few key artifacts for a little personal gain on the side (the latter of which were safely stowed in the satchel at Charlie’s hip) - but then they’d been left there to rot for days on end and--

And now here they are, being shuffled like so many cattle through a narrow, unfamiliar corridor. Charlie reaches out for Chloe automatically, nominally to keep from being separated from her in the press - really because there’s something strange and disorienting and frightening about the angle of the walls. He catches his fingers in the arm of her jacket.]

Shit. [There’s the tug of his fingers as they’re filed in, as her slightness versus his bulk means she has less trouble keeping a quicker pace amongst the crowd, straining his grip from time to time when the shuffle pulls her along well before him. As they’re shunted into a room with screens and a massive window, Charlie knocks elbows with a few of the other Transports.]

Blimey, that’s Earth.

[And then that small pinprick of light goes hot, mushrooming out and upward. There’s something undecipherable about it: an image that doesn’t make any sense except in the barest senses. She doesn't like it. And like bloody hell is she planning on pretending otherwise, given the tension in her fingertips-- her jaw. Everything she says hissed through gritted teeth.]

Don’t remember signing up for this one, Charlie.

[He’s not stupid. He can put two and two together. Something’s gone wrong and now they’re in a corridor. A very cramped corridor potentially with only space beyond it. Darkness and nothing to breathe and-- His fingers may be digging into Chloe’s arm but that doesn’t stop him from pawing at the person in front of him as he starts to go light headed.]

((ooc: joint post within a log - log inception! Chloe is in red. expect replies from both Charlie and Chloe.))

[matre]

[ vanozza starts when she feels someone scrabbling at her back. she turns swiftly, stepping away in case-- ]

My good man, are you well?

[alittlesweptup]

[Charlie's sporting one hell of a sunburn but it doesn't do much to hide how not 'well' he really looks. He definitely breaking out into a sweat and-- Christ. Charlie lets go of Chloe's sleeve, doubling over to grip his knees. It just results in more jostling of the people around him, Vanozza included.]

I think-- Shit. I need to sit down.

[totallytrustworthy]

Easy, mate. Easy. [She'd be concerned about losing him in the bustle if not for the fact that Charlie Cutter is a mountain, even hunched over in a cold sweat. Chloe's arm finds his instead; she tosses a somewhat genuine look of concern in Vanozza's direction.]

He's not a fan of tight spaces that aren't--[You know what, probably not the time for it.] If we can just get him out in the open he should be all right.

[matre]

[ definitely not and she saves any questions she may have for later. vanozza goes around to his other side to help him up as well. ]

Come along then. We'll have you settled soon enough.

[alittlesweptup]

[The immediate instinct is to shake free of the both of them, but-- but then he changes his mind abruptly, letting Vanozza take one arm and Chloe the other: fingers catching back in the sleeve of Chloe's leather jacket and digging in tight.]

Yeah, alright. [Being anywhere but here sounds about right.]

[totallytrustworthy]

[ The flow of traffic doesn't subside for a good while longer (too many crammed in too tightly all at once) but the passenger quarters are thankfully spacious, and finding an empty space taken up more by crates than conscripts isn't all that difficult. ]

There you go, darling. Catch your breath.

[As Chloe moves to press Charlie to have a seat on one of the boxes, Vanozza earns herself an appreciative nod.] Thanks for the help. Any idea where-- or when-- we are?

[matre]

I do. [ she holds a hand to her belly. ] Both are equally strange.

The year is 3313. We are on the Moon.

[alittlesweptup]

[Letting himself be pushed down isn't hard, but sitting still is. Charlie folds over, just shy from putting his head between his knees as he tries to catch his breath - scrubs his hand across the back of his head and neck.]

The bloody moon? [His head snaps back up, heart racing.] For god's sake, what'd you lot do down there?

[totallytrustworthy]

[Her hand finds the back of his neck, sliding down to add pressure to the muscle meeting his collarbone through leather and knit fabric. Easy, Charlie-- not that Chloe looks to be the picture of tranquility, either.]

How bad is it?

[matre]

[ though displeased, vanozza only lowers her gaze, a picture of quiet grief. ]

The city is gone. We alone survive. United Earth decided to remove the problem by the root.

[alittlesweptup]

[He may lean into her hand, but he doesn't look at her - gaze fixed on Vanozza.]

What's that mean? They just shot you all up here?

[totallytrustworthy]

[Fixed on the current conversation, she doesn't bother to interrupt or derail it. Carry on, you two.]

[matre]

We boarded a ship. As it was explained, there was no time for anything but an evacuation and only for us and a handful of members of the Initiative.

[ she hesitates. while the term has been thrown around enough for her to determine its importance, it was never really explained. but vanozza won't patronize them assuming they too would not understand the implication. ]

There was imminent threat of nuclear weapons.

[alittlesweptup]

N-Nuclear-- [Stuttering from the panic, some misplaced anger shooting up from his chest. Charlie stops himself from snapping, though just. Jams his forehead into the heel of his hand a moment, then--] I don't understand. Things were fine when we left.

[Christ, good even. And now here they are, jammed into a tin can on the moon with everything he owns, everything about the past year, presumably burned to a goddamn cinder.]

[totallytrustworthy]

[There's something about those words that hits hard enough to knock the breath right out of her-- has Chloe sinking down to sit on the edge of the crate beside him, eyes set on a spot well beyond where they're hunkered down in shock. Shit.

Shit, she feels sick. Like the slow pull of gravity is too much for her equilibrium to keep pace with.]

So that's it, then? Just abandon it all to hide on the goddamn moon?

[matre]

[ vanozza cannot say anything about 'fine'. things were never fine that she could see, ]

The intention is to make it as if it never happened. Whether that comes true or not only God can say. Until then, we must remain here.

[ she kneels so she isn't standing over them, the skirt of her long gown puffing up a little. she smooths it out with a hand. ]

I wish I had better news to give.

[alittlesweptup]

[It wouldn't have been the first time the UE had bombed the island, but it had rarely happened without some kind of-- provocation isn't the right word. Some flash of the Initative, not quite hidden quickly or well enough to keep entirely secret. Or maybe that's just him grasping at straws, jumping from one possibility to the next faster than he can really flesh out the idea.]

Before this, before everyone was evacuated -- what happened? [He can't not know. There's a certain breed of panic lurking in that gap of time, something insensible that just makes the curve of the station's walls more oppressive.]

[totallytrustworthy]

[Which is the point where Chloe begins to withdraw, hand sliding off the slope of Charlie's back and down across her side, hugging the low end of her chest. Knowing the sort of errors the Initiative's made in the past, knowing the United Earth's willingness to strike-- she's not entirely certain she wants to hear the explanation that's coming.]

[matre]

A kidnapping—and a rescue. Many brave souls risked their lives to save their friends. [ being brave in her language isn't technically a compliment. ] None could have foreseen such reprisal.

[alittlesweptup]

Did they get everyone back? [It's the automatic question that springs up before he can reconsider asking it. Facts, figures, some sense of a timeline - none of this makes much sense, but if he can get the right amount of information and slot it into the right places then maybe something will start to fit.]

[totallytrustworthy]

[Heroism. Shocking revelation there. Something about those words leaves a bitter taste in the back of Chloe's mouth, leaves her lips thin, teeth pressed tight.

She can't recall a single moment in her life where she's ever been happy to be proven right.]

[matre]

I believe so. Are you well enough to be on your feet yet?

[ carefully avoids asking if he's all right. she knows the smartass answers to that. turning to chloe, she says: ] Perhaps some water. Or something stronger.

[ you both look like you could use a drink p much. ]

[totallytrustworthy]

[There's no wiping that bitter look from her face, not even at the prospect of a few shots on the moon, but the suggestion carries kindness; it's appreciated, obvious or not.

She's up on her feet a moment later, hand at his back again.] The stronger the better. They've got to have something decent stashed away here somewhere.

Chloe, by the way.

[alittlesweptup]

[Well he doesn't feel like he's about to pass out, so that must be an improvement. Charlie absently knuckles his forehead, catching the heel of his other palm against the crate he's sitting on. Yeah, alright. A drink sounds as good a place to start as any.

Dropping his hand from his face, he looks to Vanozza and absently echoes Chloe's introduction with his own:] Cutter.