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

[theflyingone]

No.

[ No, that is his usual response. And, no, it isn't what he means at all. Altaïr has even less reason to trust people around here, and yet... all the more reason to do just that. These circumstances are more than just foreign; they're worlds away.

He isn't surprised that she didn't take notice of him right away. His footfalls are quiet out of habit, and since arrival he felt discretion would be the wisest path. He'd been blending in, just a blade in the crowd. ]

...I suppose you can tell me what that creature is.

[ It's not like any bird he's ever seen. ]

[aheroipray]

[ she glances over to cloudline as the chocobo curls and sets his head down, smiling as she sees his eyes close. chocobos are scared little things, but even terror can tire someone out. looking back to altaïr, hands folded in her lap neatly, she speaks. ]

A chocobo. He is my mount, and he is named Cloudline.

[ a light pause. ]

Seems to be that chocobos do not exist in this 'Earth' place. I imagine they don't exist where you come from, either.

[ quietly; ]

New experiences for us all, it seems.

[theflyingone]

[ He shakes his head, agreeing with the fact that he hasn't seen anything like this bird mount, on Earth or on the moon. He hopes the Initiative had the foresight to collect feed for any animals that were taken as well. Occupying his mind with little things like that is helping keep him grounded. It helps to do that when one finds themselves on the moon. ]

I did not wish to come here. I had business back home. What advantage does this Initiative think they'll have, throwing together an army of people who share no common goal, other than to leave?

[ His displeasure is showing. Talking to strangers about this instead of remaining silent and discreet. ]

[aheroipray]

I suppose they think that they'll find, in the pile of those who want to go home, those who have nothing to lose by fighting their cause.

Perhaps they think there are some that will help out of wanting to help.

[ she cracks the stem of the greens once more before she covers them up with a thin cloth, tucking them back in her bag. ]

Not very good advantages, but advantages. From what I've heard, they are hopeless if not for the help of this makeshift army.

[theflyingone]

That does not change the fact that we are being held against our will. Take everything from a man, and he may well give you loyalty. That is the way slavers think.

[ It's not hard to tell that Altaïr's a little offended by being whisked from his world and conscripted like this. After all, didn't he just get done with a whole summer's worth of freeing slaves slated to become brainwashed and sent to help the Templars' secret war? And after that, assassinating the high ranking officials in charge of that atrocity... ]

[aheroipray]

It sounds as if you, too, have experience with this way of thinking.

[ she's seen it in... much more forceful ways. ]

What will you do?

[theflyingone]

[ He gives her a long look. That isn't a question he's willing to answer straight. Assassins keep their secrets on pain of death. Revealing them could mean danger from enemies, and execution from allies. ]

I cannot abide by this method of recruitment. I will do what I must.

[aheroipray]

As cryptic as I would've expected from a man in a hooded robe with numerous weapons.

[ not that she can talk. ]

I hope you find your way. It would be taxing, to figure out what to do, in such a strange place.

[theflyingone]

[ He supposes his appearance may be strange. But back home, there are many scholars and religious orders that arm themselves. To travel long distances without a blade or a guard would be foolish. ]

I will. I do not plan on taxing myself with puzzles for long. Safety and peace upon you.

[aheroipray]

[ being what's technically referred to as a 'monk', she understands--in her own way. even so, she turns back to her resting mount. ]

May you walk in the light of the Crystal.