transport log » ❝ welcome to Exsilium ❞

[initiates]

Date & Time: Sept 23rd, 2012.
Location: The Initiative Hold & Courtyard.
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: New Transports have all arrived and have been shuffled into the Courtyard after their initial briefings.
Warnings: None.

You've just been hustled and bustled through mazes of information and literal, wide corridors of the Initiative Hold and you've been equipped with your weapon—be it a gun, a sword, or even your existing powers. They've handed you this light netbook and a small pouch of coins (or a debit card, if you're more inclined), and there are several Transports before and after you going through the very same motions. You can hear the Greeter's voice as she walks alongside large groups, telling them all about the history of this place and sharing with you your purpose here in a hurried and urgent tone. "This isn't standard," she's saying, walking perhaps faster than most of the people she's dragging around. "We don't normally have so many Transports at once. Please, let me show you into the courtyard."

You pass what looks like huge gymnasiums, all with dummies and targets strewn and splayed around the room. Training areas. There are even classrooms, and a few small offices. You're rushed past a large library while the Greeter informs you that you can find almost all your information there, if you've got the time to look—and trust her, you'll have time. You don't spend a lot of time in the bank, and it's a bit of a blur of exchanges with more and more of these strangely-accented and oddly polite-seeming members of the Initiative.

Soon enough, you're in a massive courtyard bustling with all the other Transports. It's not exactly what you'd expect, and it looks more like barracks than anything—huge walls of concrete and stone, separating you from all of the hallways you'd just passed through. It's raining heavily, and dark clouds loom in the air. It's a chill cold, and there are shelters—long cloth hangings that extend from the walls of concrete to house you from the rain, but not enough. Most notably, the courtyard is filled with a marketplace. Even in the cold and the rain, there are several citizens seated at their covered booths and tables. They're selling all manner of their own handmade goods and foods, and citizens and Transports alike are traveling from one small covered shop to another in search of all manner of necessities.

The Greeter's voice has become so faint now, but you swear you can make it out in the back of the crowds as she tells you, "Good luck. Be safe!"

Her voice is drowned out by the busy marketplace, though even the transactions taking place are somewhat subdued. Nobody is overly happy, really, though most citizens can be found with smiles on their faces. It doesn't seem like they're that shocked to see you, either; even if you're not bound in tattered rags and wrapped in heavy shawls as they are. You're welcome to walk up to a shop, and find yourself something to eat—hey, maybe you'll even find something akin to a raincoat. Or, you can join the others under the coverings against the walls. Where am I? What war? She was talking so fast, and it didn't all make very much sense… did anyone else catch it all?

Welcome to the courtyard. Welcome to the Initiative Hold—and most importantly, welcome to Exsilium.

Comments

[payback]

... I don't know how it works. I think if it's real, they all exist side by side. Like soap bubbles, or threads.

Want to go inside?

[getwrenched]

[ Bubbles? But bubbles -- pop -- and if that was a concept that had her rubbing at her forehead in confused consternation, it was also part of what prompted her to agree that this much rain didn't do anybody good, and standing outside in it to argue how something was impossible was pointless and likely to end up with one of the two of them getting a cold. ]

It'd be good to get out of the rain.

[ To continue this line of questioning in someplace that wouldn't leave her completely soaked after enough time. ]

Which building holds the administrative offices of this -- [ she flicks her fingers, frowning ] -- Initiative, or whatever they call themselves?

[payback]

I think you left it behind. [Rin looks sardonically amused for a second.] Want to go to the apartments? You can find your place.

[getwrenched]

[ Sounding so dry. ]

Have you found yours?

[ And then a sigh, because the meaning of finding a place as something other than a literal taking wasn't worth thinking on. ]

That is I'd be glad if you'd show me the way.

[payback]

[She lets the aside, or whatever you'd want to call it, slide right by with a nod.]

It's not too far. Come on. [She'll lead the way.]

[getwrenched]

[ Winry straightens, falling in line with Rin as she begins to move. ]

Thank you.

[ Politeness above all else. Winry needed ot get her bearings. If she woke up from this later, then the only thing wasted was nightmare time. If not... ]

This is not making a great deal of sense.

[payback]

What do you want to know? [It's not, unfortunately, a nightmare. Though Rin understands the impulse to wish it was more than she would like. Oh Winry.] I might be able to answer your questions. But there's a lot I don't even know, I guess.

[getwrenched]

They said a whole lot about the whys when I woke up, but there wasn't all that much time for asking questions.

[ She frowns again, more disturbed by what had been said. ]

I don't understand how we're here, or how this other group can do what they say. Going to our homes, stealing resources?