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

[strategic_guile]

"Loaner implies you actually get it back," he said with a snort. If she needed to buy another, she was just giving them away. Blaine had no idea what he was going to spend his money on besides food, new weather appropriate clothes, and weapons. If he even had to buy them. He'd rather not let the initiative know just how many weapons he was hording.

"Why don't you just make some board games? We have plenty of time, unless they ration out paper or something." Considering the lack of trees that was a possibility. He blinked at the idea. He holds up an invisible list. "Let's see. Search for a piece of rubble in the shape of a heart... An umbrella with a pink handle... An apple that tastes like chicken."

[whatsupcroc]

Collette found she was enjoying Blaine's company. He was funny! She appreciated more humor in her life in general, particularly when it wasn't only self-generated. "Usually I get it back! I'm not expecting it this time." She held up a hand, coasting for the moment, and let her hand see-saw. "Crazy circumstances and all. You know how it is!"

Or he didn't. Given it was a closer detail to her own heart, she didn't automatically launch into a helpful explanation. She saved those for other people's stories.

"If you want to make a game, I'd be glad to help. All I'm trying to see about doing is finding a copy of Ski Free from over a thousand years in the past to play on our netbooks these days." Impossible tasks were fun sometimes for the sheer impossibility.

His list had her laughing once more. "Don't forget the rabbit ears on a headband!"

[strategic_guile]

Blaine was good company because only boring people didn't like jokes and fun. He also was very good at laughing at himself and others. The lack of shame did a lot towards diffusing potentially hazardous situations. Fortunately, other than be stuck in some horrible alternate future, he hadn't had to smooth over any confrontations. Crazy circumstances were a weekly thing for him at home, so he could only give an amused nod at her.

"I'm sure there are board games that don't need a million pieces to play. Or we can make one up, since I have no idea what Ski Free is." Yes, this poor man has no knowledge of the skiier eating yeti.

"Only if the ears match my hair." Because we all know rabbits come in highlighter yellow...

[whatsupcroc]

"I don't know if we even have highlighters this far in the future," she said, laughing briefly. "But we can see what we find when we ask around!"

His comment on board games did leave her wondering. There were a few that could probably be found on those netbooks. Bored people in the Initiative had to have made something! Not necessarily anything as silly-fun as ski free, but there was always something like lemmings, or minesweeper, or even on a desperate day a game of Hearts. "All you need to know about Ski Free is you absolutely need to out-ski the Yeti or you'll get eaten."

Fine wisdom for a first day in rainy Neo-London.

[strategic_guile]

"Some yellow fabric will do. Unless yellow is too cheerful and they only have gray or something," almost deadpan, because he isn't seeing a super saturation of vibrant colors around this place. The rain doesn't help anyway. It drowns out the colors by itself.

"Why... is there a Yeti? And why is it trying to eat you?" because he has to ask. He figures there is no real reason, but then again, most games where he's from have at least some shoddy resemblance of a plot. Aside from that, why were you outrunning it instead of blowing it to pieces?

"Well, I'll have to remember this place for later. I have to go get some cash out of my account and I'm feeling too lazy for that." Seriously, why didn't he get cash? Oh, right. People didn't use cash unless they were being especially shady and paying under the table in the time he lived. Right.

[whatsupcroc]

"I've seen yellow rain-coats! A few red ones too. The real question is do either of us know someone good at sewing?" Collette pointedly looked to Blaine. Did he have any hidden skills?

As for the rest, she grinned and shrugged. "It's a Yeti. That's just what they do. If you're really feeling lazy, you should probably head back toward the apartments. The best place to laze around on a rainy day is definitely from the comfort of a warm couch."

[strategic_guile]

"I'm sure we can find someone," he said with a laugh. "I don't think I want to try out my sewing skills on anything but scrap at first." He was good with his hands, but sewing never really figured into the skill set he needed. He could hide a tear or pin it together as a temporary fix if he was on a job. Better yet, he could just go out and buy a new pair of whatever it was and make due until he got them tailored.

"But it's always raining here. I'd lay around all the time and get fat. You don't want me to get fat, do you?" Sticks out his lip. Besides, with the little bit of money they gave him, he wouldn't be able to eat enough to get fat. He'd start losing weight, and since it'd be mostly muscle he wouldn't be pleased with that idea either.

[whatsupcroc]

"I don't know... a little love handles on a guy never hurt anything in my opinion." Her brother had been mildly obsessed with the idea he was forming any ever since he'd slimmed down in his mid-teens, and she'd never quite forgotten how that had amused her child-self. She grinned up at Blaine, laughing lightly. "I think you look fine just the way you are."

Healthy looking was a good look on him. It wasn't one every living person in Exsilium could boast.

"I've got some shopping that I need to do, but I don't want to drag you all around while I'm doing that when you probably'd like to get inside and warm up. Have you found the apartments yet? I can point you that way. The key you have should have your apartment number on it."

[strategic_guile]

"Yeah, you're trying to fatten me up. I see your ploy," he said, giving her a 'I see what you did there' face. Of course he was fine the way he was. It took a lot of work, damnit. He wasn't going to slack off on his regiment here. He could and would do it in his room, and if the little spiel was anything to go by, he was going to have plenty of time to train. Hell, he might get bigger if he ate enough...

"I should probably go and see what people I'm going to be harassing during my stay here. I got a vague direction towards the apartment." He smiled at her and held out a hand. "Thank you for the brief tour, Señorita Collette."

[whatsupcroc]

"De nada, Señor Blaine!" She waved him off, glad to have met another interesting person here despite the circumstances of why they were meeting in the first place. Now, what had been on her shopping list...