(no subject)

[initiates]

Date: December 1st
Location: The Observatory.
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: New Transports arrive and are shuffled into the Observatory after their initial briefings.
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. 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; they show multiple variations of satellite images, focused on... somewhere snowy. It's difficult to say more than that, but those that record heat readings seem to suggest there are people there, where ever "there" is. It's night outside the great wide windows, and the lunar landscape isn't much to look at right now. But, hey, at least all the lights are on, right? No more creepy red emergency lighting upon arrival — not that you'd know anything about that.

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! ]]

Comments

[ectobiological]

[Blink blink.]

Oh, hey, you're Jake! [Question? What question!] Dude, thanks for helping me out with all those cool weapons.

[mortuaria]

[ Here it comes. The disgust. The horror. Nico can feel it crawling up his neck like oil over his skin. ]

Maybe I can.

[mortuaria]

Yeah, well. That doesn't mean you can expect them to work together.

[ It's hard to work with people who hate you, no matter how common your goals should be.

He glances guiltily at Nill, feeling her death brush against the edge of his mind. It's not right. ]

Before you get the wrong idea about me, there's something you should know.

[reassures]

[That gives her pause, and for a moment, Nill actually looks surprised. She could be wrong-- he could be planning to tell her something else, but if it's about the fact that he knows she died--

It wasn't really that she had given him little credit - she just hadn't given him quite that much. No one ever really got that much. No one liked to tell people what they were thinking, and it was something she had come to expect from people.]

What is it?

[mortuaria]

[ Nico isn't the type to tell people what he's thinking. But if there's one thing the last few years of his life have taught him, it's that while death may be a universal, shared experience all of humanity gets to enjoy, it's also intensely personal too. Seeing all the people who are here who have died, it's like seeing into a secret part of someone's life without them deciding to share - and Nico knows what that's like all too well.

And Hazel. It's the right thing to do because Hazel, too. ]

I can sense death.

[reassures]

[He's a good kid. Better than she is in a lot of ways - she'd spent a good portion of her time, her life the past several years, convincing people that her only method of communication was through words typed out on a screen. So few people knew she could 'talk' to them in a sense.

She was very, very tired of it though. She looks back, thinks of the friends she had who lied to every single person they knew, and she doesn't know how they lived as long as they did.

After a pause, Nill folds her tablet in half, and tucks it into her jacket. She holds her hands together in front of her, and lifts her head to look him in the eye. The voice he'll hear in his head is quiet and gentle - so very careful.]

Thank you for telling me.

You should probably know this about me, too.

[moonlitlove]

"I'm not all that strong. But I won't let these people suffer if I can help either," Usagi promised, clenching her tiny fist in front of her. "I'll do my best."

[mortuaria]

[ You know how the brain has that funny way of thinking about things you don't want to think about them? You think, "I really shouldn't think about this," and then that's all you can think of?

Now couple that with demigod ADHD and finding out the girl you've been talking to has probably been able to read your mind for the entire conversation. (And he's pretty sure he thought about that entire mess with Cupid more than once.)

His immediate reaction is horror, because Nico doesn't share things about himself for a reason. But he forces that down and swallows back the emotional recoil, because this girl reminds him too much of Hazel and Nico knows what it's like to be shunned for what he can't control. Take a risk, a voice that sounds suspiciously like Jason Grace whispers in Nico's mind, and he really doesn't want to, he wants to turn and run and hide because Nico di Angelo can't let anyone in, but--

But he lets his eyes drift closed and slowly draws out specific memories to show her: battling ghosts in the Labyrinth, Minos leering at him, and Nico stabbing his sword into the ground and forcing the ghosts to submit to his will; fighting off Kronos's army as they emerged from the Labyrinth into Camp Half-Blood, an army of skeletal soldiers crawling from the earth to fight at Nico's side; the other campers afterward, keeping as far away from Nico as possible. ]

Okay.

[reassures]

[It's something that Nill is actually a little used to, and it makes a small crack of a smile spread across her face. When people realize that someone is listening in, they immediately start scrambling around, trying to hide minor details that she's probably heard half a dozen times before now and never been bothered by them.

She watches Nico in silence, one of her hands coming up to rub her arm, uncertain of what else to do. She listens though, and realizes, with a quiet, sad sigh, that he's had a tough life. The kind that most people should never actually have to deal with... and he was so young, too.

It had never been an issue for Nill, because she'd always kept it a secret. Fractured memories of a lifetime in a world where she was belittled for her muteness and her wings, or her own world for being less than human-- then, after knowing a dozen ninjas it had become an easy instinct, one she never needed to question beyond growing tired of it.

Except-- once, over the summer. Sometimes she still thinks back to it, to the man that thought the worst of her, the man that thought she would pry into his mind simply because she could. He had thought it with absolute certainty, and she was so upset she shook, and the only thing he could evn think beyond it was "sorry".

It doesn't compare to him; not at all. But Nill wasn't sure she'd told more than four people about what she could do in the months since then.]

I don't mean to do it most of the time. It only really turns off when I sleep.

[She pauses slightly again and rubs her arm, before lacing her fingers together in front of her.]

Does it hurt you?

[There's only so much his thoughts can tell her, and there's only so much she can comprehend from something she's never experienced. But Nill knows her death was bad, and she hopes - really, truly hopes - that even if he's aware of it, maybe he can't feel it; can't see it.]

[astion]

Oh. Okay....

[She nods, listening and learning. Eager to take the advice, given Estelle is always able to tell when to learn from others who clearly know more, in spite of some others with her status possibly not considering that. The idea that others are more knowledgeable.]

P....P, okay, let's see....oh, there it is! So that means I just send the message to you?

[datastream]

My name is Ene!

[She answers promptly, with much jubilance, raising her hands a little and tilting her head as she does so. She is quite blue, and while his staring is getting a little weird, she doesn't pipe up quite yet. She's far more concerned about the amount of red on this guy.]

Are you sure? [Well, she won't push it.] You should at least take a shower!

[Oh, and]

What's your name?

[counterattacked]

[Her name is Ene. Well, that clears just about nothing up. His brow creases when she suggests he cleans up, and he looks skeptically down at himself. (What is it with people here and telling him to shower.) It's true that someone had cleared the worst of the gross titan spit off him before they'd treated his wounds, but there's still plenty left to be desired on that front, unless you happen to like the smell of horse. (Not to mention the bloodstained cloak around his shoulders. At least most of that isn't his.) But is this really the time...]

It's Eren.

[...Yeah, he really can't resist it much longer.]

Do you always look like that?

[fintastic]

Yes! If you wanted to, you could send it to multiple people too, but let's just send it to me for now, and I can show you how it looks when I get it!

[dayplanners]

[HUFFS. Well, that's just not cool.]

That's not fair, we can still try! But... If not...

Then I guess I really will have to wear my armor to go outside! I can do that!

[ectobiological]

Armor? What kind of armor- like in the old days? Like a Knight?

[He circles around her curiously. She doesn't look like a knight!]

[pauldron]

[At least there's no while animals to attack her up here if she wanders too far, Lightning thinks. Just wild Hopes appearing around corners. A bit of relief flows through Lightning's veins at seeing him again, whole and intact, but she simply steps aside to let them reunite as she continues her search for Snow and Serah.]

She did. Found her in the observatory.

[velveteened]

"So," Oz says after a moment, curious, "does that mean you've never seen a human before?"

[protects_no_one]

[His eyes narrow in thought as she speaks, knowing that she does, in fact, speak the truth. However:]

War occurs only when those in power do not realize the severity of the errors they are making.

[He's the Lord of the West, and even he didn't oppress those under his rule. Hell, most of the time he ignored the humans.

He's still confused by her willingness to help and uses her question to mask the emotion.]

In a different time.

[crab]

He actually laughs at that, a short bark of it, and shakes his head.

"Hell no. I've had way more experience with your species than I ever needed, wanted, or asked for. I created humanity's entire universe, where I'm from, to start with."

1/2

[velveteened]

Wait what.

wait i lied

[velveteened]

No really, what?

[velveteened]

done

[velveteened]

"Is that so?" asked ever so cheerfully, like he really believes it (really!). "How impressive!"

[crab]

Welcome to Homestuck, Oz.

Karkat's eyes narrow at that tone. "Yeah, that's so. I watched it grow and everything. You are basically in the presence of a God right now."

Well, not really. He never did manage to get the tiger.

[velveteened]

There's a pause, perhaps in which the gravity of Karkat's words sink in.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not very religious."

Or maybe not.