transport log » ❝ welcome to Exsilium ❞

[initiates]

Date & Time: Oct. 24th
Location: The Initiative Hold
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: New Transports have all arrived and have been led to a banquet room within the Hold.
Warnings: None.

NOTE: This takes place during this plot, though the plot log will not be posted until tomorrow. The Transports already in game have returned from their mission to find the island overrun with monsters. The log is set within the safety of the Initiative Hold, however, so while characters will be aware of what is going on outside, they can otherwise go about their business as usual if they choose.

--

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. She looks worse for wear, pale and gaunt, though is putting a great deal of effort into maintaining her energy and professionalism for the new Transports. "I am truly sorry that you came at such a bad time. That wasn't intentional, I assure you."

She leads the way through the Initiative Hold. The walls bear the occasional claw mark as a sign of the misfortune that has plagued the island, but it hardly seems deserted anymore due to the other Transports recently returning from their mission. After turning several corners, you arrive in a large room that has been transformed into a makeshift banquet hall. The food presented is perhaps not as luxurious or bountiful as one would hope, but it is certainly enough to go around, and isn't inedible by any means.

"We wanted to try and make this up to you," she explains. "It's meagre, but we did not have much time to prepare." There are a number of Transports already present, some looking over the long banquet table, others seated throughout the room at large, round tables meant to each seat eight people. The mood is grim, despite the Initiative's efforts to raise morale.

Before the Greeter turns to leave, she is reminding you that it will be perfectly safe to explore the Hold, the courtyard, the housing building, and even a several block radius around it. "Hopefully things will be back to normal soon."

Welcome to the banquet. Welcome to the Initiative Hold—and most importantly, welcome to Exsilium.

Comments

[championhawke]

"Whatever you think I did," Garrett says, immediately, except with a mouthful of food it's more like a muffled slur. He swallows, coughs, and sits up straight, trying to pass off a slightly strangled expression as aloof seriousness.

"As I was saying, I didn't bed or kill--whoever it is you're thinking of, I have a well-known lookalike who's an absolute ruffian." Garrett nods gravely, folding his arms over his chest. "Unless you're here to congratulate me. In which case, thank you! But no reward is necessary, really, your gratitude is all I need."

Or, well-- "Of course, a small donation to the war effort is never out of place. I'll spend it responsibly, I promise."

He squints at the stranger, trying to jiggle lose a memory--the mercenary company, perhaps? He had that sort of haggard look to him. "I don't owe you money, do I? Or my lookalike, I mean. He's notorious for that kind of thing."

[noble_nate]

Nathaniel is slightly bemused by Hawke's diatribe. He'd remembered the man as being a little talkative, but he had realized how much of a smartarse he was. Granted, they'd only talked for a short while, under dire circumstances, but he's still taken aback.

"Maker, do you greet everyone like this?" Talk about covering one's bases. "I'm Nathaniel Howe. We met in Kirkwall about a year ago, in the Deep Roads. You saved my life."

He has no idea whether Hawke genuinely doesn't recognize him, or if it's another one of those distorted timeline things.

[championhawke]

"The last time I was in that place was three years ago, and I haven't and won't ever head back into that Maker forsaken pit." Garrett would sniff haughtily if he had the knack for it, but apparently some things just aren't transmitted by breeding, however nice your clothes end up. So he settles for a shiver, because ugh.

"And I don't greet everyone like this. You just look like the kind of person who wants me to do their shopping or save their family or something. Or who thinks I rescued them." That's...admittedly new, not many people falsely attribute pleasant things to him. It softens his mood considerably. "It does sound like the kind of thing I'd do, but I think I'd remember. Unless I was drunk. Was I drunk?"

[noble_nate]

"I... don't think so," Nathaniel says slowly. For all he knows, Hawke might have been, though it was highly unlikely.

"A group of Wardens and myself had been sent to investigate the Deep Roads beneath Kirkwall; we'd heard about the expedition you'd mounted a few years before. Things went very badly for us down there..." A dark shadow crosses his face as he remembers all of the Wardens who had died during that failed expedition. "Luckily, you and Anders found me -- apparently my sister Delilah had asked you to check on me."

He's not particularly fond of the idea of his sister babying him like that, but he can't complain as it had likely saved his life.

[championhawke]

Garrett stares intently at Nathaniel for a few moments, going so far as to lean in with furrowed brows. Clearly, his deepest thought is devoted to the matter, culminating in--

"Aha!" He sits back with a triumphant grin, folding his arms.

"I have absolutely no idea who you are," he goes on, "And I'd hazard you had me confused with my brother, but I'm much better looking, and Carver mixes with Anders like--two things that hate everything the other stands for." He shrugs. "Maybe I actually do have a double. That'd be something."

[noble_nate]

“You may be more right than you think,” Nathaniel says under his breath.

Anders had told Nathaniel about Carver Hawke, or at least the little he knew about the situation. Carver had died as Hawke and his family fled from Lothering, killed by an ogre. He had never made it to Kirkwall, nor had he ever met Anders.

A sneaking suspicion was forming in his mind, a suspicion reinforced by the staff propped up next to Garrett, and the mage’s robes he was wearing. The Hawke that he remembers had not been a mage, so far as Nathaniel knew.

He has to tread carefully here, so as not to cause any upset. “Your brother... where is he now?”

[championhawke]

"Somewhere with the Grey Wardens." Garrett is notably cooler speaking of his brother, although even he isn't quite sure what part of the situation does it--that he doesn't know where Carver is, or that he's a Grey Warden, or just that talking about Carver calls up too many half-scarred wounds.

Things are better than they used to be. But still.

"If he's in some kind of trouble..." Garrett would deal with it, like he always did, to absolutely no gratitude, also as usual. But it's an odd question.

"I doubt he's here, if that's what you want to know. We would have heard him by now."

[noble_nate]

So Carver's a Grey Warden... Nathaniel's hesitant to bring up Bethany, and how she's the one who is a Grey Warden. But he's convinced now that, although this man may be Hawke, he's not the Hawke that Nathaniel knows.

"No, he's not in trouble." Nathaniel is definitely skirting the subject of Carver now. But there are certain things he should perhaps share.

"Time works a little strangely here. As does... reality." Maker, this feels strange to explain. "There are several people from Thedas here. All of us are from the same world, but different times within that world. And some of us are from different... realities."

There, that should explain everything.

[championhawke]

"...I see."

There are plenty of ways to intone such a simple sentence. In this instance, Garrett is politely implying that Nathaniel is...touched. And it's probably safer to humor him, for the time being.

"Maybe you should have a little rest, Serah Howe. I understand it's been a trying time around here lately."

[noble_nate]

Nathaniel rolls his eyes at the patronizing tone. "I'm well aware that I don't sound sane, but that doesn't make it less true." He leans forward and looks at Hawke intently. "As I said, the Initiative has seemed to take a liking to Thedosians. We have, currently residing here, King Alistair, Queen Anora, and King Cailan -- all three of them the rightful rulers of Ferelden. We also have the Hero of Ferelden, Elissa Cousland. A woman whom King Alistair and Queen Anora are convinced died during the Blight, and whom Anders and I knew quite well after the Blight. There was a woman named Morrigan here for a time, and her Hero of Ferelden was a mage fresh from the Circle."

This is a long speech for Nathaniel, and it's likely that his speech has only served to prove that he really is touched in the head, but it's important for Hawke to know these things. "It also explains why you are quite obviously a mage, even though the Garrett Hawke I know is a rogue who favors twin blades... not a staff."

[championhawke]

"Ah," Garrett says, which is another word capable of numerous inflections. This one is unmistakably suddenly certain of something, empathetic, and guiltily amused.

"That does sound like a lot of trouble to sort out. Too many kings and queens and heroes for me, I'm afraid." He stands up and comes around the table, pitching his voice soothingly low.

"Why don't you take me to see some of them, then? Then we can settle this. Of course you're sane, not a doubt in my mind, it's just not the easiest thing for me to understand. Shall we?"

[noble_nate]

"I don't recall you being quite this patronizing" Nathaniel says irritably. "Everyone is most likely battling the monsters that appeared here when we got back from our last mission, but you can check the network if you need proof. There are plenty of conversations on there to show who's here."