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

[bitedown]

[BUT...] Did they capture one?

[wolfchild]

It's carved into the wall, stupid. It's stone.

[bitedown]

[Fists clenched. She's got some nerve calling him stupid, when she doesn't even know what a Titan is. Everybody, even the fat rich bastards deep within the innermost wall know.]

Nobody carves things into the Walls! I'm not talking about a fucking sculpture, I'm talking about the giants that have been eating humanity. Does that ring any bells?!

[wolfchild]

No.

[bitedown]

How can you not—!

[Ow no, too much yelling. He cuts off with a wheeze, doubling over as his body protests, sweat dripping down his cheeks. But he's okay!!, just needs a second.]

[wolfchild]

[ she watches impassively. ]

Are you dying now?

[bitedown]

You wish. [It's meant to be snappish, but it comes out as a groan, and he lets the floor spin under him for another moment or two before he tries straightening up. Calming breaths! Of course they couldn't have let him finish sleeping this off before they whisked him away to the Moon.

But his mind's on other things. She's from somewhere without them entirely? This world may be without them entirely. It's the sort of thing he's only been able to dream of, and the fact that it exists right here upsets him; but it's directed at no one and no thing. Just... why them?

Yet he wants to understand, too.] But you said there was a wall. Can you go outside it?

[wolfchild]

Yes. Under the Titan. It's how all the ships sail in and out of the harbor.

[bitedown]

[This is incredible...] Do they sail on the sea-? You've seen it all?

[wolfchild]

Yes. I sailed across it with my father. [ she cants her head. ] Have you never seen the sea?

[bitedown]

No! Even information about it is taboo...

[ not without a healthy dose of bitterness: ] I've never seen anything that far outside the Walls. Nobody has, 'cause we're all penned in like livestock.

But I'm going to see it.

[wolfchild]

Good luck.

[ turning away from him, she walks away, her wolf trotting after her. ]