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

[kyoumibukai]

[Philip purses his lips.]

I see, well. You may be right. My family at home was not the one I was born with, but the family I was born with is still important to me, even if they are now gone.

[He sighs.]

No one will replace Shotaro, but perhaps someone will stave off my deterioration.

[Then he frowns and picks up a pen, doing a few quick calculation on the nearest available surface.]

Though without access to the Gaia Library or contact with the Earth, and not in the city of Fuuto... It seems like my social and mental deterioration will start within a week, if the internal network is not brought up. Two, if it is.

[oncearanger]

We have a library...of sorts, though it's nowhere near as extensive.

And there are always new things to learn about people, right?

[kyoumibukai]

Perhaps two weeks, then.

[He nods.]

Though there are those who prefer not to discuss things with me. I can't blame them, of course. I am a stranger to them.

[oncearanger]

Maybe they're intimidated by your knowledge.

That can be isolating...it even happens to a fairly ordinary person who knows slightly more than average about one subject, like myself.

[kyoumibukai]

No, I think it has more to do with my lack of proper socialization and relative ignorance of the importance of social mores.

....Or apathy about them, I suppose.

[oncearanger]

In what way?

I haven't noticed anything really offputting. You'll probably be fine.

[kyoumibukai]

I was raised as a tool in a scientific facility, so it's hardly unusual.

[He gives Billy a wicked little smile.]

I find the only people who don't seem to notice are people who also have difficulty with social interactions.

I am blunt, have difficulties understanding what is and is not an appropriate thought to voice, and never spend much of a conversation actually paying attention to my conversational partner. These are, at the very least, symptoms of social difficulties, if not some mild forms of autism.

[oncearanger]

I understand. My classmates considered me to be less conversational than a robot for most of my school career.

[kyoumibukai]

I can see why. Perhaps we will speak another time, Billy...

[It feels odd to call him solely by one name... People he doesn't know well usually get the full-name treatment from him. But he lifts his shoulders.]

I will take my leave now.

[And he marches abruptly through the door, leaving Billy to his work without another word.]