exsiliumlogs | (no subject)

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Date: November 1st
Location: The Observatory.
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: New Transports arrive and are shuffled into the Observatory after their initial briefings. The zombie plot will not spill over into this area, this area is safe and unaffected! To face zombies, characters must leave the area, and please move to the event log with those threads.
Warnings: None.

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, solemn and taciturn. 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, or tells you that the DITR's greeters will explain everything. On the tablet, 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. It's night outside the great wide windows, and the lunar landscape isn't much to look at right now; the only lighting comes from dull red emergency lights, but there are… noises. Listen carefully. Over the voices of your fellow Transports, now and then you might catch the sound of a scrape, or a low and muffled cry. It doesn't sound human. Are there animals up here?

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, and to the remains of Exsilium.

[[ ooc; As a note for players of current characters: please keep your root comments confined to the various groups and organizations that set up root comments to greet new characters! We highly encourage tagging around here, but since it's a log meant for new characters specifically, we ask that they be the ones to set up root threads to the entry. Thank you, and happy playing! ]]

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[It wasn't supposed to be like this. They had a plan, okay - a plan to deal with that twisted lying psychopath who ruined all of their lives. Everyone is standing by, waiting for Jesse to push the button and alert them so that they can move into position. They were going to get all the information they wanted from Walter White's brain, and then - and then...

Jesse takes a step back, still staring at Walt like he's seeing a ghost. And he is, kind of. This person has been dead to him for so long. He can't say for sure when it happened, when Mr. White became something else, but there isn't a doubt in Jesse's mind that what he's looking at right now is the real deal.]

When..?

[That's an odd response. Walter frowns. It's the doughy face of a soft, soft man. The sort that people cut in line in front of at the grocery store, because they know there won't be any retaliation.]

It's 3313, I believe.

[Well, he sort of believes that. It's...also possible he's dead or dreaming. But if he's not, this is the future. And they have summoned Jesse Pinkman to it. Which is just absurd.]

No - I mean - yeah. Yeah, it is.

[He takes a deep breath. Calm down, Jesse. This is the best possible scenario, isn't it? Except that it hurts. He can feel the heat on his face, his eyes stinging - but if he cries, that's going to really wreck things, won't it? He has to think fast, but it's impossible to think at all. He can't stop staring dumbly.]

Jesse.

[Is he going to cry? He looks like he's going to cry. For Pete's sake.

Walter manages to direct the eye roll at the wall, rather than in view of Jesse, and then claps a hand on his shoulder gently. He picks up a cookie and presses it into Jesse's hand.]

Here, take a cookie. The sign says they're free. Sit down for a minute. Just relax.

[Jesse lets out a short laugh, the mirthless kind that says that couldn't have just happened. But it did, and Jesse's fingers close around the cookie. He's not going to sit down, however.]

Mr. White... Was it your birthday like a few weeks ago?

[How on earth...or, in this case how on the moon...?]

Who told you my birthday?

[Walt abruptly lets go of Jesse's shoulder, frowning again.]

The personnel files at the high school are confidential. Reading them without permission is a crime.

[Says the soon-to-be druglord, in his chemistry teacher voice. It's a reprimand, not a warning. Don't make him keep you after school, Jesse.]

You told me. Two years ago. When you turned fifty-one.

[Now that he's been released, Jesse sets the cookie back down.]

We got a lot to talk about, Mr. White.

[That doesn't make the frown go away. Fifty-one? He's just now fifty. But...this is the future. The distant future, in fact.

And Jesse does look different. For a moment, Walter searches his face, looking for signs of aging. Jesse's face is familiar of course, but it's familiar at the age of seventeen. He's still getting used to seeing Jesse as an adult at all, forget about one who may or may not be developing crow's feet.

Ah...there. He is. How about that?]

I'm listening.

What's the last thing you remember? The last thing that happened back home.

It might be better to have this conversation somewhere else.

[They're in public right now, after all. And the last thing Walter remembers isn't exactly selling girlscout cookies.]

[Jesse doesn't stop for a second to consider this whole thing might be a lie, that Walt might be luring him somewhere private just to kill him, that this might be a trap. He only nods and steps around the table, beckoning for Mr. White to follow him. The cookies will have to take care of themselves for a while.]

This way.

[Unguarded cookies, score!]

[But no really.

Walter follows Jesse without any hesitation, either. It's not the action of a man who has burned all of his bridges.]

[He doesn't go to his own room, because Mike might be waiting there and that would be bad. Instead, he finds one of the unoccupied rooms and leads Walt inside, then shuts the door behind them.]

Okay, so... The last thing?

Do you remember bringing some friends of yours to meet me in the desert?

[That's not his amused face, Jesse. You dumbass.]

[That's not a face that's lying, that's what Jesse knows. And it feels like Walt's just hit him. He's reeling. He looks around the room for a second like he's searching for something - some kind of stability, maybe - and he ends up sinking down onto the bed because what he's really looking for is intangible and this is the best he can do with what exists in the real world.

He doesn't say anything.]

As usual, you've been a great help.

[Walt rolls his eyes openly this time, and massages his temples.]

I see you have nothing to say for yourself.

I'm sorry.

[That's all. And it isn't sarcastic or begrudging. It's quiet and weak and there's a depth to it that says he isn't just apologizing for that mistake. There are hundreds. Maybe thousands. He's made a lot of mistakes. It started there, though. It made them killers.]

[Huh...well. That is unexpected.

There's some strange emotional charge in the air that Walter can't read or comprehend.

So, he doesn't try. What's important here is that Jesse agrees with him, and has learned from his mistake.

That horrible, horrible mistake...though Walt might have learned more from it than Jesse has. He's not just awake these days. He's alive.

Not everyone is so fortunate.]

I handled it. I guess you know, being from the- from my future.

Yeah. I know. You got us out of it. I remember thinking it was like magic. Like movie stuff. I couldn't believe it. Never thought you had it in you.

[And he's such an idiot for that. Jesse smiles ruefully and picks his shoulders up.]

Mr. White, there's gonna be a lotta stuff that don't make sense to you here. I don't want you to freak out about it. Whatever happens, I got your back. That's something you gotta know first thing. I know it's weird asking, 'cause you remember me as like a total dumbass, but you think you could trust me?

You? Have my back?

[That's laughable. He almost does laugh. Would have, if it weren't for how very sincere Jesse appears at the moment. So, he chokes it back, and considers the situation.

Jesse knows what the future holds for him personally, and also seems to be more acquainted with the moon base. Has Jesse been here longer? Did they bring him sooner, to make the transition easier for Walt when he arrived? Hmm.

Everything seems to point to a sort of agreement. An apprenticeship, perhaps. Walter considers for a long moment, and then slowly, he nods.]

This is your second strike, Jesse. I'm willing to give you three, but you're going to have to learn to play by my rules, do you understand? I can't keep cleaning up your messes like that. We're both in it deep, here. We can't afford to make those kind of mistakes again.

Edited 2013-11-04 09:39 (UTC)

[It's funny how that condescension is so welcome now. It used to bother Jesse so much that he'd physically flinch and bristle when he heard that tone. But it's the truth, and god, is it refreshing after so many months of false praise and manipulation. Jesse doesn't need Mr. White's approval anymore, anyway. He's surpassed the old man in almost every way: he's a genius in the lab, he's so powerful it's absurd, and somehow he's managed to amass dozens of people who love him and would stand to protect him. The only thing Jesse can't match is Heisenberg's brutality.

And Heisenberg isn't here.

There's just this sad, desperate, dying old man who doesn't even know how many people are waiting in the shadows to finish him off. Just one call away, but it's a call Jesse refuses to make. The group's going to have to have another meeting, find another way to handle this. See, Jesse's the real king here. And he's a better one than Walter White.]

I swear it won't happen again, Mr. White.

No. It won't.

[The words are a little cold, but Jesse gets another shoulder pat, anyway. On the way toward the door. Because Walt has decided this meeting is over. It's been a long day, and anyway, there's some sort of big to-do about an agricultural wing. That sounds interesting.

He pauses, though, hand on the doorknob.]

Is there anything else I need to know?

[Jesse gets to his feet. Walt's not going anywhere by himself now that Jesse's found him. Not yet, at least.]

Mrs. White is here.

Skyler?

[The tension melts out of Walt, for a moment. Skyler is safe. Safe on the moon, but still, safe. The way he says her name, it's clear that he's a man who truly loves his wife.]

The baby? Has she...?

Edited (grunt) 2013-11-04 10:31 (UTC)