(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

[speakveryclearly]

[In similar talksprite-typical fashion Kanaya's hand flies to her temple as she tries to think. She knows very little about this part of the future]

To meet--Roxy and Jake and Jane and Dirk, right? You and Jade are going in that direction. After the Scratch.

[ectobiological]

Uh, yeah, I guess that sounds about right. I think Jade knows more about that sort of thing for some reason. But I think that is about the gist of it.

[He circles around her for a second.]

So...which troll are you?

[speakveryclearly]

[Narrowed eyes. She's not sure if she should be more or less offended by this than when Rose had never even learned her name.]

I'm Kanaya. Trolltag GA.

[therapeutics]

But it was definitely insightful? [ she takes a sip of her water and narrows her eyes at the briefcase. she doesn't mean to pry, but -

who are we kidding. she totally means to pry. and things like this have always been interesting to her. ]

[therapeutics]

[ to a normal non-belligerent person, yeah. she does tend to disregard that. it's an issue. ]

Seriously? You're muttering that you're lost, basically, and you're saying you're not confused. Pure denial. [ honestly she really just wants to be right. ]

[ectobiological]

[He blinks, tries to think back all those years when- oh right! The troll who was trying to talk to Rose, right?]

Right, hi, it is nice to finally meet you properly. Even if not at the expected place!

[skilful]

It'll be okay.

[ smiling, because as long as he's by this person's side. ]

wow rude

[counterattacked]

[Maya he doesn't even know what a telephone is.

Yes, tell him not to push himself that'll make him cooperate. The odd look he's giving her only gets odder, frown deepening and brows drawing together. If nothing else, telling how bad he looks only seems to make him more determined to prove her wrong. The hand braced against the wall pulls itself into a fist.]

You're joking, right? They brought us here to fight a war, not take it easy.

[hoody]

Annie can't really bring herself to look at the girl. There's something in that kind of wide-eyed idealism on the concept of war that she feels something for, but the rest of her can't entertain it. War wasn't about protecting people. It was about survival. Sometimes grievous sacrifices had to be made to ensure that.

She feels like trying to explain that now wouldn't benefit anyone, so she keeps these thoughts to herself.

She does look to the girl — Lucy — when she introduces herself. "Annie." She pauses, then decides to ask, "So, how long have you been fighting in this war?" She isn't sure if she's been here on the moon for a year, or more, or if she had just heard of it from people who had greeted her, much as she was doing to Annie now.

[heartsink]

"I wanted the upper hand." It's strange to admit it after so long; it doesn't even feel real. (Is it real? Can she be sure? Is she confessing merely to a telepath, to a shapeshifter, to some spy of the United Earth, of the Initiative? How can she know, for sure? She can't. She can't really trust him, or anyone else.

But something like this doesn't feel like trust, either—not when it feels so disconnected from the rest of her existence. "Even from my own world, there are people who would take advantage of me, if they could know me, before I knew them. Who have, before."

The instances were limited, she knows, and the damage small in scale to the rest, but even as a child, she regretted allowing those unknown enemies the advantage—to know where, to know when she was from, to use what she could not know against her.

(The weapon Karkat has now been given, she knows.)

"Besides that," she goes on with a shrug, attempting something like nonchalance, "people react differently, when confronted with the idea that you know them, as they are not. You can only be who you are; hearing the story of your other heart won't replace the one you bear. I can't burden them with a debt like that."

[skilful]

I see. That's alright.

[ He doesn't mind! ]

Is it okay if I asked you some questions about this place, not as an interview, but as somebody who's new?

[skilful]

[ and he already looks at home here! very cheerfully! ]

Thank you for sharing it with me, Eric!

[skilful]

[ Ah, she said "royal court'... And she looks reluctant -- so he'll give her an out. ]

It must have been very lonely for you, Kou-chan.

[hoody]

Annie would agree—it was a shame. It was a shame that Eren, a titan shifter and unique by his own right, should be handled by people who had little idea how to deal with him. The thought of the squad he had been assigned to still made her blood boil. She had heard of it even in Stohess; Levi's squad, one formed of the soldiers most proficient at dispatching titans, led by "humanity's strongest warrior." Whatever front the put on (to ensure "safety"? please) was a farce; they were a firing squad, meant to destroy Eren should he do something even slightly out of their control.

To this day Annie does not regret having killed them, though it had been yet another shame that she had not been able to fully liberate Eren from his 'keepers.'

She glances to him at his reply on their new surroundings. She'd very nearly forgotten his unrelenting enthusiasm (well, no, not really, but certainly seemed newer after these months). She forces back a ghost of a smile. "Certainly much different than the world within the walls." Another world within different walls, perhaps, but the change was worth something at least.

Annie keeps her expression carefully guarded as ever as he speaks on the war (humans fighting against humans, insane? She's fighting back another sardonic smile). "You haven't seen how it is in the interior," Annie says, leaning her own shoulder against the window. "Despite it all, crime rate is high. Where humans have no common enemy to fear, they turn upon themselves." And that had been in a relatively small place. It isn't difficult for her to see how, on a larger scale, war such as this was possible.

...Then again, that hadn't been hard for her to imagine in the first place.

[capitulated]

[ he's only seen wings like that on a strain, a horse strain, but a strain nonetheless.

doesn't matter, he doesn't particularly care anyway. ]

Okay.

[aleviate]

[ Being Levi was suffering. Why would he apply for such a horrible job?

Whatever train of thought he had going was quickly derailed. What in the—really? He straightens out a bit, weight shifting appropriately to accommodate the injury. ]

What are you even talking about?

[ The tone is gone, but Maya... Oh my god. ]

[capitulated]

[ oh.


oh okay. nodding his head??? how does he react to this. ]

[skilful]

[ by smiling back

do you have smiling icons, do you. ]

"not* educated" wow self

[counterattacked]

[If Mikasa were here she'd probably shove Eren off the bed for being an asshole to his best friend and wait for him to realize that he deserved it before lending a patient and stoic shoulder. Which is part of why Eren really needs Mikasa around sometimes. But she isn't here, and for such a habitually quiet presence back home her absence in the room right now is a loud one.

Without her there to refocus him, there's a very large part of him that wants to keep on going, say something harsh in response, to accuse Armin of running away from the reality of things. The apology ("I'm sorry...I was being selfish-") stops him short and pulls him back in its own way. A few years ago, he wouldn't have even hesitated. But he's learned a lot about responsibilities and shouldering burdens over the past few years. The past few weeks. The part of him that's grown up since then knows that it's not Armin he really wants to hurt.

(It had been her. And remembering that puts a sharp and sour taste in the back of his throat. The female titan- he hadn't just wanted to kill her for what she'd done. He wouldn't have stopped at that. He'd wanted to beat her to pulp, rip her apart, tear her to shreds with his own teeth. Devour her. Like a titan. And instead of revolting him like it should have, he'd wanted it. He could taste it. He'd come pretty close to achieving that before she'd shifted to a (familiar?) different stance and knocked him out. And how is he supposed to tell Armin something like that?)

There's a hesitation, a telling one, his expression shifts away from "mulish" and goes a little distant and his head bows. He moves just enough for their shoulders to knock together in a clumsy way so he can lean against Armin. Like when they were kids. (To see new things and explore, and not have to worry about the titans- isn't that what they've been dreaming of, what they've been fighting for all this time in the first place?) Eventually-]

I can't even remember- [What had happened? He vaguely remembers being bitten out. Someone had to have rescued him. Which means-] She had me in her mouth. They must have caught her and pulled me out.

[And if they caught her, it wasn't all for nothing. It can't have been. Because the kicker is-]

There's someone inside her. Like me.

[fintastic]

It is nice to meet you Estelle!

[ She laughs, good-natured. ]

That's part of it! I have lots of friends here, both from my world, and from others. But I like to come here whenever we get new people, just to meet all them, and to help them if they need it.

[skilful]

Yep! [ He's lowered the camera, though. ] Did you come from Japan, Koujaku-san?

[capitulated]

[ not yet.

stop giving him looks it's weird. ]

[counterattacked]

[It really is. Luckily for everyone, he'll likely be skipping out of the moonbase to the surface as soon as possible, snow or no snow.]

Honorific? Like a title?

[Repeated, sounding it out, because that's sort of weird but it's new and thus definitely sort of interesting. (Why would you even need titles for someone younger than you?) Totsuka's proved to be a fount of new things, and he's been obliging enough to humor a handful of dumb questions, so he only gets nosier.]

What sort of place is Japan? A city?

[He's never heard of Japan before. If his question doesn't make it obvious enough, his tone is 100% earnest.]

[blondtactician]

"That makes sense," Armin replies. He hears himself saying it as if he's in the next room, listening, because no, no, it doesn't make sense, he doesn't want to believe it. Some part of himself wishes to be ignorant enough to be made hysterical by this revelation. But he realizes it is true, that he isn't the least bit shocked by information. It would be stranger if the titans were truly and utterly aimless. It's the truth everyone's refused to acknowledge since the appearance of the colossal titan.

"After all, how else would they know about the gates? And you're the key to this war for us, to winning. It's surprising they'd want to take you alive, but... there must be some reason."

Armin puts his arm around Eren's shoulders, more because he needs to touch Eren than to comfort Eren, if he wants to be honest with himself.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there. I'm sorry I can't tell you what happened."

[hoody]

Annie exhales through her nose; great, forcible enlistment. Even back home, the choice to become a soldier was still that: a choice (well, within the walls, at least). Still, it seems that the rest of these Transports weren't being sheep about the matter. The knowledge that they did rebel against this Initiative actually gave Annie some sense of relief. It was good to know that others were just as concerned about being used, even if those people had been captured and were being put on trial. Not that Annie would be so bold; she knew better than to stir up trouble when the odds were not in her favor. Besides, if it would eventually lead back home, it wouldn't be such a hassle to fight.

The concept that this United Earth might very well attack their own world was a little bit more alarming to her. Considering Armin was mid-explanation, she decides to ask him more about this later. An entire planet being eradicated based on the actions of one a universe apart? It sounded far-fetched, but, then again, so did this place drawing an army of soldiers from other worlds in the first place.

Annie's gaze gets a bit more of an edge when Armin mentions something that she might not "understand," but, to be perfectly honest, he's right. It's hidden well behind her usual impassive mask, but this UE attacking civilians as a result of this war doesn't affect her so much as the idea of them threatening their own home. She had been passive in such acts of terrorism in the past, after all. It was very difficult for her to feel remorse for a faceless humanity, especially one she had so little knowledge of in the first place (in the beginning, the same had been true for the humanity that lived within the walls).

As Armin's explanation winds to a close, Annie lets out a slightly derisive, "heh." She shifts her weight, her maneuver gear clanking as she does so. "You should know better than to try to guilt me, Armin." She had told him before, when they had presented their gear for inspection, that all she does is to save her own hide. She hadn't been lying. "I will fight if it means getting out of this mess." But it wouldn't be to help some foreign mass of people.