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

[livinuptothename]

[ He should find a pair of glasses and have three identities. Meanwhile, Bat-grade paranoia rages on. ]

I guess... What's your deal though? You know about superheroes right?

[kneecaptain]

Doesn't everybody?

[The Fantastic Four is big-time.]

I don't know who you're supposed to be, if that helps.

[livinuptothename]

Yeah, but this is crazy different dimension stuff and why would they be bringing people here if they already had superheroes?

[ Flawless logic. ]

Plus, it's pretty freakin' weird if you know about superheroes and don't know about me.

[ Okay, not him, but still. Batman might have been shrouded in mystery, but Robin was a pretty big deal! ]

[kneecaptain]

Maybe you're just not that big a deal.

[livinuptothename]

Pff, whatever. I'm totally a big deal, I'm practically freakin' Superman.

[ Okay, probably not, but there's a lot to be said for posturing. ]

[kneecaptain]

I've never heard of him, neither. [It had to be alternate universes. Above his pay grade, dammit.]

[livinuptothename]

[ He can't even imagine a world without Superman.. ]

So who do you got?

[kneecaptain]

Spider-man. The Fantastic Four. Probably a bunch I haven't heard of. [And God, he just saying that makes him realize how big the whole thing got. He could remember a world without superheroes, before them. But the cape-and-costume thing just grew and grew, didn't it? So many files he'd never got around to reading. People he never got to meet.]

[livinuptothename]

Never heard of any of them.

[ And that was just weird to think of. An entire universe of heroes he'd never heard of? Insanity. ]

[kneecaptain]

Probably an alternate universe thing.

[livinuptothename]

Probably.

[ He runs a hand through his hair. ] Man, this shit is so outta my league.

[kneecaptain]

Above your pay grade, right?

Not that you're supposed to get paid for that.

[livinuptothename]

I got room and board, guess that ain't too bad, but yeah, pretty much.

[kneecaptain]

Kind of a bum deal, right? [Bucky got a bit more than that, since he was in The Army and stuff, but he still felt like he was the worst paid guy they got, which was saying something.]

[livinuptothename]

Better than my last gig anyway, but when you're right, you're right.

[ Not that he still has nightmares about Dick coming back to be Robin or Bruce just flat kicking him out or anything. ]

[kneecaptain]

Yeah? What'd you do before?

[livinuptothename]

[ He shrugs. ]

Boostin' tires.

[kneecaptain]

Well, there you go. If you want to make bank, you have to steal the whole car.

[Bucky Barnes: role model.]

[livinuptothename]

Yeah, see, I get that, but it's a bitch trying to sell off the whole damn car when you're a kid, especially with the shitty ass cars people got in Crime Alley.

[ Wow, kindred spirits. ]

[kneecaptain]

So you swipe a few tires, get some connections.

[Oh wait.]

I mean, stealing is wrong.

[livinuptothename]

You got it.

[ He smirks. ]

Nah, too late, man.