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 continues to take in the information around him, rather passively, as he paces around the cafeteria. He's also thinking very vaguely about getting something to eat... His body being flesh, it now reminds him when he's hungry. But then he notices the suspiciously regular footsteps behind him. Is someone following him?]

[He turns around and eyes his surroundings. The footsteps were coming from a bearded man with tattoos. He approaches, slowly, considering.]

Pardon me...? Are you following me?

[His ability to figure out things just by looking at people is hampered by the fact that not everyone is from a universe he can comprehend, and he doesn't have access to the library to do further research. But this man has keen eyes and carries himself with ease, as if he understands and is aware of all that goes on around him. A bit like Philip himself.]

Do you think, perhaps, that we are kindred spirits?

[deductus]

[An eccentric, how delightful. And arguably that would make them kindred spirits.]

Perhaps if you elaborated on your thought process for that I might be able to give my opinion.

And yes I was following you, but only to determine how long it might take one to notice. You did very well by the way.

[kyoumibukai]

[He is actually quite pleased. Were he able to access the library right now, or even possessed of a book, it's likely his level of concentration would be such that he would have missed the cues... but his expression barely changes as he continues to look over the man]

Let me see. Intelligent, flagrantly uninterested in mainstream social mores... I would say you could be a criminal but you have a very forthright manner... Criminals don't just test you, teachers do that...

[He narrows his eyes and strokes his chin, pulling his shoulders up to correct his poor posture at that]

Too independent for formal law enforcement, but you are an investigator of some sort. And... have you had contact with something that makes you greater than you are, but costs more than it's worth...?

[He considers explaining Gaia Memories, because this man has the air of someone who's used one, in its unprotected form... As if he's become a dopant, but overcome... Though the characteristics are similar to-]

Ah, such as an addictive substance of some kind?

[deductus]

[Oh... oh. Sherlock is in love with his mind already. It was one thing to watch another person grow into it like Watson had, but this was truly special.]

Heroin.

[He's long since past the need to keep his drug use quiet.]

You're also rather forthright. And while my reasons for it are indeed because of a general disinterest, yours suggests inexperience. A sheltered or isolated background.

[kyoumibukai]

Heroin... Fascinating. There is very little drug use in my home country, at least in public. A lot of public drunkenness, though, comparatively speaking...

[He lights up at the assessment.]

You are correct, sir.

[He's already begun to use more respectful language towards this man, unusual for him. Significant. He's never felt the need to show respect with his words before.]

Due to an accident in my youth, I was exposed to a great deal of raw knowledge and information. After which I was reduced to little more than a tool. My access to that knowledge was used for nefarious means, but I was incapable of caring about it as long as I was allowed to live as I wanted. I had no memory of my life before... No desire to learn how to live in the world of men.

[He brushes a bit of hair back past his ear.]

The only knowledge I had of social mores I used as a weapon to unnerve the people who used me, a child's idle games. I was rescued by a man with a strong heart. He taught me how to care.

[He looks back at the bearded stranger.]

Who taught you? Or did you learn on your own... I suppose someone not as sheltered as I would have... Are you a private detective? I am. My partner and I run an agency together.

[He looks a bit proud and fierce about that, even if the detective agency is hardly the most glamorous of his jobs. His desire to protect his city as a man and a Kamen Rider is strong, even here, even divorced from everything he knows.]