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

[revolutionized]

[Utena frowns, and her focus turns to the view outside the window, the sea of stars. She can't look at them for very long — they make her feel dizzy.]

There's no guarantee we'll fix it though, right? [...This is asked reluctantly, and she adds:] It'd be good if we could change it.

[After a while, the frown evens out to a tired flatness.] But I don't care where we go anymore.

[redheadcarrier]

When is there a guarantee of anything?

[ small>That question is a bit rhetorical. Asuka folds her arms and shrugs.]

I'd rather try, because like Hell I'm spending the rest of my life up here-

[That's different. And not really like the Utena Asuka knew.]

Are you sure you're OK?

[revolutionized]

[No answer to that.

But after a while...] Himemiya...

[It seems like she is going to leave it at that, but then she pipes up again, quieter now.] She was in trouble, when I left.

[redheadcarrier]

[Asuka's expression twists and then settles. Something tightens in her at the mention of Anthy. She was sent back ages ago, but Asuka still has a memory of feeling empowered by her. Of feeling like she mattered.]

...do you think that's why they sent her back first?

[revolutionized]

I don't know.

[She shakes her head, runs a hand through her tousled hair.] But I can't reach her now.

[A shrug.] So I don't really care where I go, anymore. [This gray, lonely place. The whole time she'd deserved to be here, and hadn't known it.]

[redheadcarrier]

[That definitely clues Asuka in to something being horribly wrong. Even when they'd both been in hospital beds, Utena had never been one to just sort of shrug and accept the things life threw at her. Asuka wasn't either, unless she was feeling particularly cynical.

She had no idea what to do about it, though. There's a bitter snap to her voice when she replies.]

What, you're just going to stop caring?

[She remembers when she did that - checked out, dropped out and tried to let her body waste away into nothingness, because the alternative was living in a world where she was unloved and unwanted.

Then she figured out that death was even worse.]

What kind of response is that?

[Yelling at people motivates them, right?]

[revolutionized]

[She's unsurprised that Asuka's angry at her, but she can't muster up the energy to be upset about it.]

There's not anything left to care about.

[She hadn't been able to help Anthy. She hadn't become a prince, so what else could she be?] Wherever they send me, it's fine. If I can help with some of the things going on here, that'll be enough.

[redheadcarrier]

So, what are the rest of us? Nothing?

[She really means "what am I?"]

I don't know what happened to you, but you need to snap out of it!

[revolutionized]

[She looks startled.] No, that's not what I meant...

[How could she explain? It was too much, to articulate, to bring to the surface. She didn't even know where to start.] It's not like that.