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

[kneecaptain]

I'm dead. You don't gotta mince words. [He should find out if they roped in dead people to this place. If people were here, who knew him, if only sideways— he had to decide what to do about that cover story.]

Steve's fine though, now— right?

[peaceinchaos]

But how can you be- Ah, no, I suppose you wouldn't know.

[ She covers her eyes briefly, giving herself a few moment to properly collect her thoughts and what was left of her composure. ]

I haven't really been in touch with the other Avengers since I came back, we've only spoken a few times and... It is not always easy to tell when Steve's hurt, he- He's gotten very good at hiding that part of himself. [ Particularly when it came to Bucky, but that part was just better left unsaid. ] He seemed well, last I saw him.

[kneecaptain]

That guy.

[He shakes his head.] He's got it in his head that he has to take all world's sorrows on himself. But he deserves to be happy.

[He loses himself, for a second, worrying about his friend. It was a nice break from worrying about the rain, here, and everything that came with it. Well. Maybe not a nice break, but a familiar one.]

[peaceinchaos]

I very much agree.

[ She can smile again, though it's small and a bit sad. ] I could say the same for all of them... Ah.

[ Her awareness of her surroundings kicks back in when a particularly large rain drop lands on the end of her nose. She wipes the rain water off her face, drawing the hood of her cloak over her head. She fiddles with it for a moment. ]

There are Avengers here. Or... a version of them, I'm not exactly sure.

[kneecaptain]

Yeah? [That snaps him out of— wherever he was.]

[peaceinchaos]

I'm afraid there's not much I could tell you. Thor was here for a time, but that's all I know for sure.

[ She turns away to retrieve her umbrella. ] I... haven't spoken to any of them personally.

[kneecaptain]

And now you've spoken to me. Personally. [His lips are a grim line that punctuates those words like he means them. Bucky's dead. But once an Avenger…]

[peaceinchaos]

[ She glances at him, briefly, closing up her umbrella (bit of a dead loss now with both of them soaked). She can imagine him as Captain America, moving among the other Avengers and for a moment, she's utterly and painfully homesick, but she puts it aside. ]

So I have. [ She turns to face him properly, offering up a warm smile. ] And I'm very pleased to finally meet you, Bucky.

[kneecaptain]

I'm sure Steve spun me up big. [He could never live up to the picture Steve has of him. Not in his own mind, at least.] But it's nice to meet you, too. [He meant it. He was too new to the place to feel homesick, but he could tell this was the sort of place that forced acquaintances into allies.]

[peaceinchaos]

He may have, but it's not always easy to see our loved ones objectively.

[ Not that she was speaking from experience or anything. ]

Now then, shall we get out of this rain?

[kneecaptain]

Yeah. I probably should've done that a while ago. [He shrugs a bit.]

[peaceinchaos]

I'm sure you had quite a lot on your mind at the time, but you ought to be sure to warm up properly. [ And that might be a mild scolding tone. ]

[kneecaptain]

That'll take a while.

[peaceinchaos]

[ Well, you shouldn't have been brooding in the rain is what she doesn't say. Not out loud at least. But really, Bucky. ]

[kneecaptain]

[It's a metaphor, man. Coming in from the cold.]

Well, you lead the way. [He's new.]

[peaceinchaos]

[ Sorry, Wanda lived through the Stan Lee period, she doesn't understand metaphors that aren't wildly dramatic. ]

Right this way. [ She starts off in the direction of the apartments. ] They should have assigned you housing when you first arrived, if they haven't changed anything in the few weeks since I've arrived.

[kneecaptain]

Yeah, they did. [Following along.]

I guess I should be used to it.

[peaceinchaos]

What, strange shadowy officials telling you where to go?

[kneecaptain]

I was in the army, you know.

[peaceinchaos]

[ She looks over at him, eyebrows raised. ]

I would hope they would not be that shadowy.