EVENT: HERE THERE BE MONSTERS

[initiatesnpc]

Date & Time: October 24 - October 31
Location: Throughout Exsilium
Characters: ALL; tag yourselves in
Summary: The Transports return from their mission to find the island crawling with monsters.
Warnings: Violence, possibly injuries (notify a mod if there's cause to add a particular warning!)

The Transports return from their mission to Medieval Russia, but the Initiative Hold is eerily deserted. Normally, their would be a number of Initiative personnel prepared to meet the Transports at the end of their mission for debriefing.

Instead, there is only silence.

That is, until a distant thumping sound can be heard. It is growing closer, and suddenly the beast is bursting into the room. It lets out a roar and charges. Within minutes, it is easily defeated, but damage has already been done -- it collided with the Transporter machine, which is now making a low fizzling sound and lets off a couple sparks. The commotion is enough to draw the attention of the few remaining Initiative personnel who still inhabit the Hold, who arrive immediately afterwards. They are able to tell the Transports two things: that the machine is broken and currently unable to sent anyone back in time, and that the island has been overrun with aggressive, mutated beasts sent by the United Earth. They have been under siege for months, with the island's population reduced to a mere fraction of what it had once been.

Comments

no

[feyted]

[ Learning more about what was happening here made it all settle in as some sort of bizarre reality, hard to deny for the evidence around her and the level of belief in the people she met who hadn't just been pulled from home. Either this was the world's most convincing, high budget cult experience, or it was what it said on the tin.

Too bad the tin wasn't particularly reassuring.

She was at least dressed now, not attempting to make sense of many personal things in an effort to instead start getting down to the bottom of what was currently going on. If she looked more determined than upbeat, that was precisely the case. ]

Having a good day?

[ She asks off hand to the one man around who seems like he's actually smiling as she steps back from where she was studying old clawmarks in the wall. Part of her shivers at the sight. How strong does something have to be to do that?

She gives herself a mental shake, eyebrows quirking up in expectation of an answer. For whatever it is, his half smile prompts a little answering one of her own.

Keeping a positive outlook. If you believed in yourself and in your -- not client, but in what you were working for -- then things were bound to work out. Thanks, random guy. It's a needed reminder after the emotional shake-up following Waking Up Exsilium. ]

i think you mean Да.

[moskva]

[ Ivan, in that moment, seems more surprised by the attention than anything. He'd almost become used to stirring in silence and letting himself be a wallflower even in major discussions—attention wasn't something he'd anticipated, not yet. His smile, however, only grows wider. ]

Da, it is good day. Even if I am only just arriving here.

[ Ivan turns his full attention to her, then, and lets himself start to try with a conversation—he might as well, since he anticipates that they will be rare. ]

You were always here in this place, or are you just as new?

only if that's moonspeak for "screams softly"

[feyted]

[ Ah, he's smiling even more. How... upbeat? She's hoping it's all upbeat optimism. It's the best kind. Also possibly the sanest reason to be smiling on a day like this. ]

Just as new as you, I'm afraid. Have you heard much about what's going on here lately? Not the resistance in particular, but how this -- [ she gestures to the marks on the wall ] -- is different from how it was last week, or five months ago. Depending on who you ask.

um no im afraid thats кричащий!!!1

[moskva]

[ Ivan follows her gestures to the marks on the wall and he takes them in with a sound in the back of his throat like an "oh, weird shit," before he's facing her again. ]

I have not heard much. Only what I am reading from the network! I have talked only to the people here who are selling their goods, and they say it is always being this way.

[ He looks thoughtful, then, as he considers the implications of the differing opinions here. Then he's smiling again, raising his eyebrows. ]

It is no matter. Monsters or not, I think is okay place to be.

oh then that is what i want

[feyted]

Always like this?

[ But in that case, how did anyone of the Initiative's people know that this hasn't been the case? Things weren't as mutable as they seemed.

Still, this man's optimism was bewildering, but pleasant. ]

It's... no Hawaii, but it could be worse.

[ It could be a literal Purgatory. With fire and brimstone and everything. ]

[moskva]

[ Ivan nods to her question, though he seems thoughtful enough when he replies a second time. ]

Da, they have said it is always like this. Only the people who are selling the things. I have talked to the people who are bringing me here, and they are saying that is not normal. Do you think is suspicious?

[feyted]

( Who wouldn't think that's suspicious? )

I think it's definitely suspicious that the two groups of people are saying different things. It either lends weight to the argument that what's going on now is an indirect effect of the change made in the past by those sent into Russia -- ( oh, sweet, sweet irony she knows nothing about ) -- or turns the whole thing around as a lie fabricated by the Initiative. It's in talking to the other Imports like us that I suspect the former over the latter.

[moskva]

[ Sent into my place? HUH THAT'S WEIRD BUT HUMANS ALWAYS SAY WEIRD THINGS LIKE THAT so he's going to let it go for now.... Though he looks momentarily curious about it, before his expression shifts to one of genuine interest. ]

What are you meaning, change in the past?

It was a mission, that did this?

[feyted]

Speaking with one of the survivors working with the Initiative, yes, she certainly appeared to think so. The Imports who were sent to Russia weren't expecting an island overrun by mutated animals, but the people you're speaking to here who don't work directly with the Initiative don't find it to be a new occurrence.

( She uses one hand to push her bangs off her forehead, more to one side. )

Yet the Initiative itself says this isn't how it used to be, with changes to the present having altered some months ago. I suspect something related to that mission had a negative effect that ended up changing this present from the one remembered into the one we met just now.

( Which sounds well and fine!

She just... has absolutely no idea what would have done that. How far back in the past had the Imports gone? What possible evidence could have survived to implicate the Initiative? )

[moskva]

[ Ivan nods to those words, and he seems thoughtful for a few more seconds as he tries to consider these implications; it does make sense, albeit abstractly. ]

I do not think they won't fix it. Do you?

They can't leave it like this always, can they? Not that it is that bad.

[feyted]

Allowing things to remain this way is unpardonable, as long as they have the means to fix what they've caused under their own initiative.

( ... No pun intended. )

I'm given to understand they move in their own better interest long-term, so no, I don't think they won't try to fix it.

( Pardon her for looking somewhat startled. )

Not that bad?

[moskva]

Da, is not very bad. There are many things can be worse.

[ Said, certainly, with quite the expression of confidence—maybe even a hint of knowledge. ]

[feyted]

I... suppose that's true.

( Such a strange man, but she makes an effort to smile and try not to let how confusing (and perhaps deranged) his statements are. )

What are you planning on doing with yourself now that you're here?