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

OPEN

[kneecaptain]

[He's used to being rushed through hallways without explanation, used to lonely corridors that are still full of people. But he's not used to not knowing what's going on, even a sliver of it, and that shakes him up good. He's not gonna show it, though. He's not gonna show it.

Instead he stands off to a corner, like instinct's drilled into him, crossing his arms, trying to ignore the rain as best he can though its sticking his hair to his forehead.

He watches, and Bucky tries to figure things out.]

[ofthegrey]

[Duncan has made his rounds of the stalls to take in what sort of place this might be. A lot of what's in the offering isn't so dissimilar to what he'd find at home that it's off-putting, not nearly as off-putting as the circumstances surrounding their presence here.

He notices the man in the defensible position and defensive posture while he's still looking over some scarves that are too brightly colored for his taste and as soggy as he feels under his armor. The slick, olive drab poncho he's wearing conceals how differently he's dressed from the others. A pity he didn't find it before he got soaked to the bone.

He approaches at an angle rather than head on so that he can find some wall to the side of the man without giving the impression of being confrontational. Rain drips from the end of his ponytail and the edges of his beard.]

The rain gear is serviceable. If I knew the exchange rate, I might say I haggled a good deal. It's just as likely they ripped me off. [In another life, it's the sort of thing he would have done.]

[kneecaptain]

[He's… momently startled, that someone is talking to him.]

Yeah?

[He notices the raincoat, and ruffles through his own pockets.]

I guess they gave me some money. Nothing I recognize, though. [He says it like a confession.]

[ofthegrey]

[It seems it's a good thing he approached from the side. The startled reaction tells him he read his body language correctly.]

They accept the coin, for whatever that's worth. Did they try to give you a little card instead?

[He wonders what's happening to those who took the cards. He can't see how that could possibly serve as currency.]

[kneecaptain]

I figured it was like an ATM card.

[Good thing for the poncho, buddy, or you'd be getting even weirder looks.]

[ofthegrey]

Ah. [He hesitates briefly.] I'm unfamiliar with that term.

[He has the sense he's not the only fish out of water here, though. He continues undeterred. Casual.]

I imagine unusual terminology will be the least of our concerns, don't you?

[It's important to get a handle on how other people think, particularly if he's going to be trapped with them for any length of time. The wary ones are either the ones who have enough training and sense to know they should be on edge or the ones to watch out for. He can't tell yet which type this man is.]

[kneecaptain]

We've just been Shanghaied into some other dimension's war. So yeah. Priorities.

[He's trying to make a joke at his own expense. It might not have worked.]

[peaceinchaos]

[ It's as if she can tell the new arrivals by their lack of raincoats and umbrellas... Well, Wanda isn't one to pry, but there's just something sad about a person standing in the rain like that.

She approaches him with a smile and lifts her umbrella to cover him partially. At least she has a hood on her red cape. ]

Pardon my intrusion, friend, but I don't believe it would be wise to complicate your arrival with a case of pneumonia.

[kneecaptain]

[Yeah, okay, maybe that was obvious. He was wet enough that he didn't really feel the rain. Or maybe he was just too caught up in other worries, other circles his mind was running in.]

Oh. [Trying to be polite!] You don't have to worry, I can take worse than rain. [He just got back from shirtless Siberian prison fights.]

[peaceinchaos]

[ She laughs lightly. ]

That's good to hear. Forgive me, it's a habit to worry.

[ A near life time of broody Avengers does create a kneejerk reaction. ]

[kneecaptain]

They brought you here, too? Before? [How long has this been going on, he's thinking. His instincts are still trying to find a way out.]

[peaceinchaos]

[ Her smile fades into a more serious look and she nods. ]

Yes. A few weeks ago, in fact, though I have spoken to some who have been here for several months time.

[ And she can anticipate the next question: ] If there is a way back home, it's none that any of us are aware of.

[kneecaptain]

I wasn't gonna ask. I had already figured.

[He goes back to staring at… something, the rain still pouring down his face. He's trying to make sense of the situation and trying to be a person, too, not just something programmed to run and bolt and hide.]

My name's Bucky.

[implying]

[ It's a good impression of knowing what's going on, but no one just stands there like that when they belong somewhere. So nearly as soon as Vanadi catches sight of him, he's heading over. Transports! How can he resist?

So he sidles up next to this damp stranger, near enough that his umbrella casts some shelter, and watches the going-ons before them rather than Bucky. ]

You look a bit lost, my friend.

[kneecaptain]

[Jeez, people are just crowding in with the umbrellas, today. What happened to the blinding apathy of strangers? He likes that apathy. He relies on that apathy.]

I'm not lost. I'm exactly where they put me.

[He came up with that line back in '43, when the Army fudged the intel and sent him parachuting into the middle of nowhere, instead of the middle of nowhere next to a German bunker.]

[implying]

What, in a corner, all by yourself?

[ He leans away just enough to look the guy up and down, the downward twist of his mouth speaking for skepticism. ]

Seems a lonely place to be put.

[kneecaptain]

You're a friendly guy, huh?

[implying]

Friendly is what I aim for! [ Cue a wide smile, and he sticks out a hand to shake. ] I'm Vanadi.

[kneecaptain]

[You're not getting a smile from this end, you're getting the same semi-bewildered scowl.

But he does take the hand, shakes it.]

Barnes.

[totallytrustworthy]

[Chloe knows that feeling all too well, but the problem with suppressing all that agitation is that no matter how cool you might play it, a new face is a new face. And so, hair and jacket slick from the rain, heavy pack slung over her shoulder, sipping away at an iced coffee, Chloe casually slips up beside him to press her back against the wall.]

Still making sense of it all, yeah?

[kneecaptain]

[He's gotten resigned to people coming up and introducing themselves. Oh, well. People aren't always a bad thing.]

I'm thinking I should've bought one of those ponchos, maybe. But now? [He's totally soaked.] What's the point.

[totallytrustworthy]

A little water never hurt anyone.

Well-- not everyone, at least. With some of the crew they've dragged in, I wouldn't be surprised if here was a creature or two that melts in the rain.

[kneecaptain]

Like the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz. [He understands that reference.]

But if she were out here, we'd hear her.

[totallytrustworthy]

[Oh hey, he actually got it. There's a little half smile in response to that, because most people don't really get pop culture around here.]

So I like to think.

Chloe Frazer, by the way.

[kneecaptain]

Barnes. Bucky Barnes.