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

[hostage]

[Jesse looks out the window again, sucking in another sharp breath.]

God...

[That's all. That's all he can say. It doesn't make sense that he's here and he's okay and thousands of people just died in the blink of an eye. It shouldn't be that way.]

[vaccination]

[She nearly winces. Okay, Ellie, maybe not focus so much on it all being gone.]

I'm sorry, Jesse.

[Maybe if she'd lived there longer, she'd care more.]

I--I don't think you should be by the window. It's not helping anyone.

[hostage]

[He shakes his head. He doesn't want to leave.]

[vaccination]

[She sighs, wetting her lips and folding her arms over her chest. He's just making it harder on himself, but who is she to say anything?]

Okay.

[She leans in to study the planet. Earth. She's seen dusty, wobbly globes and pictures in faded textbooks, but it's so much more massive in reality. It makes her a little nervous.]

Europe, and then... what's that? [Her nail taps on the glass, over the large mass that is Africa. Maybe she can try to take his mind off of what just happened, if only for a little bit.]

[hostage]

[It takes him a moment to figure out what she's even asking about. He gives his head another shake to clear it, then follows her finger to the continent.]

...Africa.

[vaccination]

[There we go.]

Africa. Lions, right? I've always wanted to see a real lion. Did you ever go to a zoo?

[hostage]

[Distantly:]

Yeah, with school. A few times.

[It feels like a hundred years ago, and technically it was a thousand.]

Did you know girl lions are better hunters than the boys?

[vaccination]

Your school took you? Nice. [Field trips aren't really a thing anymore.

At his question she smiles, faintly, but shakes her head.]

No, but that makes sense. Girls are better at most things.

[She's not entirely serious.]

[hostage]

Yeah, they are.

[He is entirely serious.]

It's all like backwards, with lions. The dads are the ones who look after the kids.

[vaccination]

Is that really that backwards? Dads taking care of the kids.

[She doesn't know any parents but one, and he raised his daughter all on his own.]

[hostage]

I guess not anymore. But it used to be moms stayed at home and dads went off to work. I think that's how it is with most animals, too.

[vaccination]

[Ellie looks from Jesse to the window, then back at him.

She shouldn't.

But it's too good to pass up.]

You're not lion to me, are you?

[Badum-tsshhh.]