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

[ofthegrey]

[He lets out a longer breath, his brow furrowing.] Well then. Let us hope that is not the common thread, all of us drawn from battles. It doesn't bode well for those left behind.

[Or for them, again something left unsaid.]

[kneecaptain]

Can't be. Some of these people— they're children. [But he's saying that mostly because he wants to be convinced.]

[ofthegrey]

[He's silent for that. Most don't willingly send children in to fight in Thedas, yet the streets are teaming with vicious urchins as hardened as any soldiers and quicker to kill. He should know. He was one of them. It wouldn't surprise him to learn that such circumstances are fairly universal.

When he speaks, his tone is mild.] Perhaps we should start asking.

[kneecaptain]

[Hey, he enlisted when he was fifteen, and he doesn't regret it, even in retrospect. He just isn't sure other people should follow his example.]

If people'll let us. I don't think a place like this'll do a whole lot to build trust. [He's been to a lot of prisons and everyone was always trying to shank him.]

[ofthegrey]

We can ask. Whether they'll tell us or tell us the truth is a different story.

[He frowns and sluices the water out of his eyes and down his cheeks.]

I wouldn't be surprised if you're right about that. Letting us get too cozy would also risk having some of us do something about what has been done to us. I'm not too eager for much boat rocking yet, not before I get the lay of the waves, so to speak.

[kneecaptain]

If I had to guess, someone'll try rocking the boat before you get around to it.

[ofthegrey]

If they haven't already. [He's feeling restless again and wanting to explore a little more. He moves away from his spot he has claimed near the wall and gives a slight bow at the waist.]

I have a feeling we'll see more of one another in the coming days, Sera Barnes, whether we wish it or not. Perhaps I'll have something interesting to relate by then.

[kneecaptain]

I hope it's the right kind of interesting. [He doesn't wave, but begins to turn around.] Good luck.