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! ]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She's, um... I mean, she's okay, yeah. But she might act a little, you know, rattled. She's from even further in the future than me, so I dunno the whole story. But you might wanna... I mean, I'll take you to her. You'll see.

Rattled?

[Oh, there's the tension again.]

Rattled about what? What happens to my wife in the future? Why would she be rattled?

[You happen.]

Yo, that's between you and her. You wanna see her or not?

[There's something very weird about that answer. It doesn't sit right. Something is going on, here.

Trusting Jesse? Maybe not. The kid is clearly withholding information.]

Of course I want to see her. And my son.

Your kids ain't here.

[That stops his heart cold, for a moment. It's any parent's worst nightmare.]

Just Skyler, then. I'll see my wife.

[God, but Jesse knows that feeling and there's no one who deserves his sympathy less than Walt but here he has it.

What kind of cosmic joke is this?

Anyway, he nods, and it's his turn to pat Mr. White on the back as he moves for the door to lead the way.]

[And Walter, of course, follows. He doesn't have a clue where he's going yet, nor where to find Skyler at in this place. Jesse will have to be his guide dog for the afternoon.]

[Jesse doesn't say much along the way, which is just another sign of how he's changed in the past two or so years. It's wiser to keep quiet, and he's already said more than he should have, he's realizing. Oh well. That's what happens when he improvises instead of following the plan.

Whatever. He's got this. It's sad and it's painful but the only person who's hurting is Jesse - and maybe Skyler, in a minute. Or maybe she'll be happy. This Walt's more like the man she married, right? Well, Jesse can't hide him from her. Or her from him. The best he can do is be there to oversee the reunion. Eventually they'll all be okay. And hopefully nobody will die.]

[She stays busy because she has to. It's what has kept her head on her shoulders the past month. It's easier now. Maybe Steph was right about adjusting here. This is hard still, but she's found her little niche here, and it's not perfect and it's home-- but maybe that's why it's good. There's no lies or manipulation. Part of her is free, and that is a godsend in itself.

She's come to the new arrival greeting a little earlier, but by now she's managed her way back to show some new people what they have at the clinic. No one is injured, she just likes this feeling of helping.

Sky's heading back toward the observatory when she spots Jesse first. It's strange she doesn't even notice her husband, but she's about to ask what he's doing away from the cookies when the person next to him dawns on her.

And she stops cold in her tracks. That's not Walt. That can't be.]

No. No no no no no. [It's not even registering as a possibility. This is too surreal and her head is spinning. Sky steps back and she puts out her hands.

This is not Walt.]

[Jesse steps forward immediately, reaching out to take Skyler's arms gently as a support, because he knows exactly how he feels and he could have really used that a few minutes ago. At the same time, he leans in to whisper while Walt's out of earshot:]

It's okay, I'm here.

[And what he doesn't say, what his eyes alone say, is that he'll kill Mr. White if anything happens. If that's what needs to happen or if that's what she wants. But he doesn't think that's what she really wants. It's a shock, but she loves Mr. White, doesn't she?]

[Walter has been gone a long time. He must have been, because the last he'd known, Skyler and Jesse had never even heard of one another. It was strange enough for Jesse to tell him that Skyler was here, but...the familiarity there. The intimacy, make his head spin.

"No no no nono" isn't the greeting anyone wants to hear from their significant other. And even worse, to see their idiot former student leaning in close. Allowed. Invited.

His spine tenses, and so does his jaw. This is a cruel and unexpected development. Far worse than a nuclear apocalypse. Everything is always worse on the micro scale, where it's personal.

Walter steps forward, and clears his throat.]

Thank you, Jesse. That'll be all.

[Her eyes look from Jesse to Walt, hands grabbing at the younger man. Her husband is younger. There isn't a hardness, a roughness to him. He isn't trying to play some game. Is this a game? Is he tricking her? How is this even possible.

When Walt tells Jesse he can leave, she shakes her head again.]

Don't leave. [It's decisive. She doesn't know what Walt wants, and even the option of being alone with him isn't something she wants to think about.]

What do you want? [She exhales slowly, lifting her chin up. For as much as she wants to run away and not confront him, no matter what version of Walt this is, she knows she has to stand up. She has to get through this somehow.]

[Jesse had no intention of leaving, anyway. For as long as Skyler wants to hold onto him, he isn't letting go.]

He just got here.

He's from before everything.

[That is not just unexpected, it's insane. Skyler, his loving, beautiful wife Skyler, is...is...Walter grits his teeth. He can't manage to tear his eyes away from Skyler, but his words are directed at Jesse.]

What I want is to comfort my wife in the face of this lunacy.

[That, however, is clearly not going to happen. Has Skyler stopped loving him so suddenly? In two years? Has she forgotten every beautiful memory they have together?

Has she replaced him with this imbecile? Has she lost her goddamn mind?]

Is there something you forgot to tell me, Jesse? Something that just, oh, I don't know, slipped your mind? Now would be a very good time to speak up.

[What the hell is he getting at? All fucking riled up and shit. Jesse squeezes Skyler's arm lightly in reassurance, but his eyes are on Walt now.]

Chill out, old man. There's a lot I ain't told you, but me and Skyler are gonna fill you in if you can shut up for like ten seconds. You think you can handle that?

[There's a look of absolute confusion on her face at what Walt was trying to imply here. This last month has been nothing but chaotic, and having Jesse around was something stabilizing. Her first emotion is anger. There's been too much of Walt trying to through her affair around that this is just too perfect.]

You have no right to say who I can and can't be friends with. [Her voice shakes, trying to keep herself steady. She comes across as calm, but her blood is boiling.]

You don't get to say anything about who I spend my time with. Tell me, Walt. How many lies have you told me, yet? [This may be the Walt before he gave his whole 'I am the one who knocks' speech, but he was still fucking people over long before that.]

Or how about the hospital visit? Or your other phone?

[Jesse Pinkman has never had a good attitude. From him, the rudeness is not a big concern. Jesse still doesn't warrant so much as a glance from him. This is a family matter, regardless of who Skyler make have sought comfort from without him. He can deal with that later. Right now, he doesn't give a shit about Jesse Pinkman.

Skyler, on the other hand, he very much gives a shit about. Unfortunately, at the moment she isn't making any sense at all. By lies she can't mean about the drugs. If she knew about that, she certainly wouldn't want anything to do with Jesse, either.

The words "hospital visit" are unnerving. His eyes go automatically to her abdomen, where the baby bump should be, but isn't. He tries to put the pieces together here, but she isn't acting the way he expects. He can't imagine a world in which Skyler would give a meth head the time of day. He doesn't like this situation. Something is very wrong, here.

Did he die? Is that why they all look like they've seen a ghost? It was inevitable anyway, but this isn't the kind of reunion that a dead man expects. Moreover, he has no idea what she's talking about. For a moment, he just gapes stupidly.

How exactly does he diffuse a situation that he doesn't understand? He falls back on an old teaching standby. Get the students to describe the situation back to you. Make them "teach" you what you need to know to balance the equation.]

Let's try going back to the beginning. Some of the pieces seem to be missing. Let's talk about the phone, and the hospital. Tell me about those things.

[Jesse feels like he's only getting half the conversation here (and maybe he is). He looks between Walt and Skyler, not quite easing up yet even though his mentor's temper is cooling, because now Skyler is losing it.]

He's really from the beginning, Skyler.

[And it's funny, because Jesse's the one without telepathy here, but he just knows. He can feel it. Or he believes it with all of his heart.]

He don't know anything about all that. It was just his fiftieth birthday. You remember that? Holly ain't even born yet.

[Skyler is not feeling the teacher/ mentor manipulation here. Her eyes just squint even more, and she doesn't like being talked down to. But Jesse gets through to her, Sky's eyes fleeting from him back to Walt to look him over.

It's not a trick. She has to repeat this to herself. There's a slow breathe.]

I know, Walt. I know about everything.

[What exactly does she mean by everything? She keeps mentioning things that he doesn't even know about. It's obvious by now that she isn't happy to see him, but he can't begin to fathom why.

She loves him. He loves her. They love each other. What else is there to know? Cancer? Drugs? ...Does she know about Jesse's friends? Is that what she means? Would she stop loving him, if she thought of him as a killer?

It was self-defense. But he can't explain that to her, without admitting that it was self-defense because he'd gotten wrapped up in a situation with dangerous criminals. A couple of crazy local drug dealers. Is that what she knows?

He definitely can't tell her why. That it was for her. The kids. That won't make her feel any better. And what he needs, is to make her feel better. He's not planning to sleep on the sofa tonight. He's a sick man. What he wants is to wrap his arms around Skyler and to show her just how happy he is to see her. But this situation is tricky. He doesn't understand what's going on. He can't anticipate and dissipate her moods the way he usually does when small things go wrong.

Well. He'd better say something.]

I know that it's frightening, but we can handle it. Are you alright? You look alright. Hell, you look good. The hair? That's nice. Highlights, isn't that what they call that? It looks good on you.

[He's really pulling this shit? Now?]

Mr. White.

[Jesse wants to believe in him. He really does. But that's not going to be possible if he's going to keep up this slimy act. The way Jesse's looking at him now, he's practically pleading for Walt to drop it. Do anything but lie.]

[She's been through this act for so long now, the way Walt tries to slip out of everything. No. Not again. She looks back at Jesse and shakes her head.]

Why did you bring him to me? Why didn't you go to Mike or Saul?

[Why her, Jesse? She can't do this. There's too much anger there. He took Holly, and she can't even say anything because this Walt hasn't yet committed those crimes.

But he will.

Look at him, Jesse. He's the same. She sighs and looks back at her husband.]

You never change, do you?

I thought...

[He did it because Mike and Saul want Walt dead, and Skyler doesn't. Or didn't. She told Jesse not to kill him, didn't she? But maybe she's changing her mind about that. And maybe that really is the smart thing to do. Jesse wishes he could shake sense into the man. There's still time to do things differently. There's time to make better choices. Why's he trying to play her when he has a chance to be honest?]

[Hmm. What most people regard as a good thing, Skyler is reacting very unfavorably to. Does he change? Not really. Not in the time that she's known him, no. He was different once, but when the wind got knocked out of his sails professionally, he never did get it back.

Recently, he's been thinking about that. Maybe, Skyler is right, even if she seems to mean something else. Not that he knows what, exactly, but maybe...maybe she doesn't want him to have the answers this time.

Does she want to hear what he's thinking? He can't remember the last time she actively participated in an actual conversation with him, anyway.

Maybe that can change, too. If it's change that Skyler wants, she's in luck. Walter has been thinking all about making some changes.

Jesse is still more or less invisible to him. He sees that exchange, bristles for a moment and then tamps it down like a dark, bitter shot of espresso. He'll deal with that later. Right now, he needs to do something about his apparently rocky marriage.]

No, honey. I don't. But you know, I've been thinking that it might be time to start.

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Haven't you seen the show tho Skyler it's all about how Walt changes duh