meadowlarklogs | ARRIVAL LOG 009

ARRIVAL LOG 009

WHO: Everyone
WHERE: New Tokyo
WHEN: October 10
WHAT: The ninth arrival
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Coercion and loss of autonomy. Further notes at end of log.

> ARRIVAL LOG #009

Awareness comes to you in blurred snatches, cloudy fragments of sound and light, color, sensation. Hazy and difficult to grasp on to, but slowly aligning into focus. A series of regular, rhythmic beeps. A sharp, cold breeze that blisters your cheeks as you walk through a thick, cold snow. That soon fades, replaced with warmth. A medicinal, astringent smell. The sensation of movement, a low hum and accompanying vibration under you. Your eyes are heavy, hard to keep open, but in the glimpses between slow, dark blinks you see four people in black body armor seated opposite you, as well as a man in dark gray scrubs.

You realize there are others next to you. All of you in heavy winter coats, water-resistant pants, and snow boots, hair recently cut but at various stages of growth and haphazardly tucked under warm winter hats. You're all restrained by straps across your chests, arms, feet, holding you to the bench under you. To your left, an armored interior door, two more people visible, though due to the storm there's hardly any visibility through the windshield. You try to open your mouth to speak, but it's as if your tongue is coated in tar, and you manage nothing more than an empty parting of lips.

The vehicle stops, landing gingerly in the snow. The guard opposite you stands and comes to unbuckle you from the bench, helping you to your feet. Your limbs feel wooden and heavy, slow to move. One guard opens the back of the vehicle, there's the sound of a high howling wind and that same blast of cold that signals at being somewhere else, combined with a sea of white as far as your eyes can see. The nurse moves to stand at the back, checking each passenger over one by one just before they're helped out of the vehicle, quick and methodical. He doesn't climb out after you, moving to sit as the last passenger is unloaded.

The guards keep their heads down. Their actions are quick, firm, but not entirely unkind. Once all the passengers are out, most of them climb back into the vehicle and close the doors. One stays behind, pointing you and whoever else is near you to one of the closest buildings. "In there," he orders, just before he interfaces with the doors and they slide open. "Stick around until your buddies come to find you. You'll know who they are."

Snow comes up to your knees on this city street, and you're left with no idea of where you are or why you've been brought here. But you'll feel compelled to move toward the building that the guard pointed at and step inside. In fact, you'll have no choice but to follow that order. Once you're in, he closes the doors behind you and hops back inside the vehicle. The engine powers up again, and then the large truck lifts up slowly and flies off.

Inside you'll find the lobby of what seems to be a corporate building. After taking note of the fact that there's a small group of other people dressed in similar clothes who are also confused about how they got to this place, you'll be able to warm up and try to figure out what's going on. For now, it's impossible to exit the building. The same door you came in won't open no matter what you try, so you're all stuck for now.

But don't worry, help is on the way.

◉ Though entirely capable of independent action and thought, new characters will find themselves completely, unquestioningly compliant to any verbal statement which could be taken as a command or request.

> WATANABE CORPORATE BUILDING

The message from El comes the same as usual: insistent, not waiting for any active attempt to open it. Scrolling within your vision as if being written while you're reading it.

I know you all were wondering what would happen if we had a batch of new arrivals while you're all out on your little field trip, but it turns out that they've all landed in New Tokyo too. They're holed up in the lobby of a corporate building, so make your way over and escort them to the PRESERVE dorms. Try for a warm welcome, okay?

At the lobby where the new arrivals have been dumped, they'll find that there's a check-in desk which is currently unmanned, and on the wall behind it there's a logo mounted which reads "Watanabe Corporation." There's no one to be found here and no one to greet them. The good news is that the building is heated, meaning that those heavy coats can probably come off for now. Further in on the ground floor, there's a set of six elevators that presumably lead up to the many floors of the skyscraper, but they're non-functional, and there don't seem to be any accessible stairs either.

For now, all the newcomers can do is make use of the comfortable chairs in the lobby and commiserate among themselves about what's going on. There's a water cooler and some cups to make use of as well, all of it made of biodegradable material, but there's only so much. Try to share.

The Displaced who received a message from El will have also received a GPS pin showing the location of the new arrivals. At this point, the promised supplies (which includes clothing appropriate for the harsh weather, along with additional foodstuffs to stock the dormitory kitchen) have come in compliments of PRESERVE. Everyone will be allowed to leave the dorms where they've been cooped up for the last two days to explore the city or go help out the newcomers.

Getting around a city covered in snow is a little more of a challenge. Going by foot is an option, although most of the streets haven't been shoveled yet and it will be slow-going. It's more feasible to make use of a hover bike. There's a garage connected to the dormitory that's stocked with twenty-some bikes. While they don't function perfectly well over snow and reckless driving with such poor visibility could easily lead to a cold and painful crash, it has to beat walking. If you don't how to drive, guess you'll have to find someone who does. (The bikes can seat two.)

> PRESERVE DORMS

With the help of the current Displaced, the new arrivals will be brought back to a dormitory building managed by PRESERVE. PRESERVE is a world-wide relief organization that focuses on environmental conservation and disaster relief. While a good number of Morningstar agents have joined up with PRESERVE thanks to their charitable activities and because they're UN sanctioned, it is not an organization that's affiliated with Morningstar. As a group, they are entirely pacifistic in their ideals – they believe the world can be saved through being conscientious.

The Displaced are here because they agreed to help PRESERVE with a very different disaster, but that's now a very severe and uncommon snowstorm. This is where they're all staying during the trip, so while this isn't anything close to home, it will have to do for now. A representative from PRESERVE by the name of Nico has been hanging around the dorms, ready to answer any questions from any of the Displaced, new or old. Nico is also a member of Morningstar, as well, though she'll be very hush hush about this fact when around her fellow PRESERVE members.

Newbies will be allowed to pick out additional clothes and gear from a cache of supplies (there's coats, thermal underwear, boots, scarves, hats, gloves, and anything else that would be needed to survive the intense cold), and they'll also need to figure out which of the rooms has an opening where they can sleep. It's four people to a room, with the use of two sets of bunk beds, and space was already limited before the newcomers got added to the mix. Hopefully peace can be maintained and there won't be too much fighting over who gets top bunk.

Other than the rooms, the dorm building has a kitchen, a large common area with comfortable couches and chairs, communal bathrooms, and a small, modestly stocked infirmary. There's also a viewing room which is a large space furnished with bean bag chairs and other comfortable things to lounge on, and a large blank wall that's meant to be used for group viewings of movies, shows, etc. This requires one character to "throw out" their feed from their neural implant onto the wall, and anyone who wanted to watch with them would need to sync up with their ID to watch along. Anyone not synced would just see a blank wall – and unfortunately, that does include anyone new.

There are other PRESERVE volunteers staying in this dormitory and milling about. Many of them already had supplies, so they've been in and out since the Displaced arrived.

◉ The drugs making new characters compliant will remain in their systems for a few hours after their arrival at the dorms before finally beginning to fade. They will be gone entirely after a night's rest. In the meantime, they may want to be careful of what others say to them.

◉ New characters will be given rudimentary access to the network on arrival to the dorms, but will not have their ID set up yet. They will be able to make posts and replies, but their messages will be anonymous and they do not have inboxes yet.

◉ Normally, new characters are confined to a safehouse for 4 days before they can leave and explore the city. Given that these newbies have arrived under unorthodox circumstances, that won't be the case for them. They'll be able to come and go from the dorms, but given that it's a frozen tundra outside, they'll at least want to prep first. At some point during this adjustment period, you can assume that El will contact them and work on setting up their IDs. There is no law enforcement around in these conditions, so anyone wanting to head out can.

◉ New characters won't be able to abscond to somewhere else in the world, as a lack of ID means no tickets or travel papers.

◉ While most businesses in New Tokyo are shuttered, a few convenience shops remain open near PRESERVE's dormitories because they know they can make money off volunteers. New characters won't have any means of paying, as they don't have a registered ID. They'll have to see if a kind soul will spot them the credits if they want something.

> RELIEF EFFORTS

With the new arrivals successfully recovered and supplies delivered to keep everyone warm in the harsh conditions, it's time to set out and fulfill the reason for everyone being here: to offer support and relief to the population affected by the harrowing storm. Nico will provide the Displaced with the information they need to get their boots on the ground and make a difference. There are a number of ways that she'll suggest to help out.

◉ First, she'll deliver a word of caution. While New Tokyo is a large, entirely steel city that runs deep underwater, most of its citizens have evacuated to the upper levels and are huddling down in various locations hoping for some relief. Heading deeper in the large city structure could prove dangerous. In this emergency, heating is centralized on the upper levels of the entire man-made metal city structure, while the lower levels are frigid and dangerous at this time. The only heating revolves around the trains coming and going, and their schedules have been largely delayed thanks to the storm.

◉ Delivering food, clothing, and medical supplies. With power cut off from most homes and all of the citizens having been cautioned to stay indoors and conserve warmth, there are a lot of people running low on food stores. Those who live in impoverished areas are even worse off, with little insulation in their homes. The threat of some people freezing to death is real, so getting the needed supplies to those people could allow them to hold out until power is restored or the storm has passed. Nico encourages people to travel to these neighborhoods in pairs for safety reasons, and again, the hover bikes will come in handy here. Supplies can be carried in heavy-duty backpacks or in a side-car attached to the bike, and all of this is provided by PRESERVE.

◉ Shoveling snow. For those of the Displaced who aren't opposed to grueling manual labor, one of the largest concerns is getting the major streets cleared of snow so that transportation is easier. The train lines also need to be cleared off so public transit can eventually be reinstated, so assuming they're not afraid of heights, the Displaced will get access onto the train tracks that crisscross above the city to clear the snow off. Some homes are also completely snowed in, trapping the residents inside, so those will also need to be cleared. There's no shortage of work to be done. PRESERVE will provide the snow shovels, and they have access to a single snow plow that can be used in shifts by anyone who's got a driver's license (also found in the garage). Nico will also hand out hot packs. Everyone should be bundling up, but in the event that someone takes a fall or ends up with too much snow-to-skin contact, the hot packs will help stave off the cold and prevent frostbite.

◉ Missing persons. There have been multiple reports of missing persons sent into PRESERVE, and the Displaced will be assigned particular people to go look for, if they let Nico know they're interested in this task. She'll give them the description of the missing person and their last known location. This could be anywhere within the city of New Tokyo -- a shopping district, a residential area, a park, etc. If they manage to find the missing person, they'll be instructed to take them to the closest PRESERVE relief center so they can receive medical attention and be reunited with their families.

◉ Restoring power. Turbines are jammed due to ice build-up past any conceivable norm, and need to be carefully thawed and given a jump from a backup battery pack. This is a highly dangerous, but necessary endeavor. The turbines are located offshore due to the fact that New Tokyo primarily generates energy through tidal power. When working correctly, these offshore turbines then feed energy into local sources within the city. For those who have any sort of experience with electrical work, they'll be directed toward areas in the city where covered electrical boards interconnected with the city's branched power source have been buried. They'll need to be cleared of snow, checked, reconnected, and made ready for when the turbines begin to flow again.

While the new arrivals are welcome to help out with these relief efforts if they wish, it certainly won't be expected, given that they're still getting adjusted to everything that's going on. They're allowed to stay in the warm confines of the dormitory building until everyone returns to New Amsterdam, if that's what they would prefer. As for the rest of the Displaced, there will be some expectation that they're going to contribute. That's the whole reason they came all this way, isn't it? And it's not like Nico knows that some of them didn't actually sign up for this.

> FINAL OOC NOTES

Welcome to Meadowlark, newbies! You're now free to post to the network and logs comms. To reiterate, your characters will have no IDs or inboxes until October 14th (OOCly, April 25th). All posts they make on the network until that point will be anonymous. During this time it's expected they'll have gotten a good idea of their new situation from their fellow characters, and will have discussed their background and job potentials with El in order for their false IDs to be set up.

If you have any questions or ideas about how you'd like to get your character involved in the world, please head over to the plot engagement post and drop us a comment! For questions specific to this log, there is a thread below.

Please check out our April/May calendar rundown for a look at things happening this month, as well as some additional notes from the mods.

As a reminder, AC for new characters accepted in April will be 10 comments across 2-4 threads, while current characters will need to provide the full AC of 20 comments across 2-4 threads. AC will be posted on May 1 and close on May 8 at midnight UTC. If you do not reply to AC, you will be considered idled and dropped from the game. We will not post a warning list.

> NAVIGATION

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He notes that tone in her voice-- it's painfully familiar, so he's quick to respond.] Right? When you come this far, you expect things to be totally different from what you're used to. Simple things feel complicated. My... [Fighter? Friend? Both seem strange. He clears his throat.] Cain had to tell me what was shampoo and what was body wash this morning. [See? Silly but no one can expect them to know everything.]

[He sets the microwave and hits the button to start it. Everything is fine in the microwave, but his expression turns a little troubled and thoughtful.]

Very complicated. Not unfamiliar either. [Abel looks at her, the weight of the memory coming to the surface.] I was escaping too, gunfire included.

You're lucky to have "your Cain" then.

[ She gives him a cheerier smile than before and tries not to think about how she also has no idea how to tell the difference between body wash and shampoo. It's been a long time since someone tried to give her genuine comfort and she's not exactly sure how to process it. It's a nice change of pace, though.

So her brows knit in concern at his troubled expression. ]

There's no need to talk about it, if it causes you distress.

[ She has a lot to put together when it comes to the machinations of this place, no known connection of how people are brought here or why but she's interested to see if she can find any connection. In part to sooth a worry that she may be followed. ]

--Oh! I'm sorry, you've been so helpful and I haven't introduced myself. My name is Angel.

[ Strange, to get to introduce herself so freely so many times in the last few hours, but much like the comfort, it's nice. ]

Well I wouldn't say he's 'mine', I mean, he's. Just Cain. [The Navigator doth protest too much.] And I'm Abel.

It's not that it causes me distress, it just seems significant that both of us were experiencing the same thing. [The microwave goes off and Abel goes through the motions of pulling out the tray-- yikes, this thing isn't fooling around, it really is freakishly hot after only thirty seconds.] Just be careful removing this film, there's still steam trapped under there. Usually I'll pull up a corner-- [He peels the film back and yanks his hand back before the steam really gets him.] Like that.

Don't worry, I was just joking-

Careful!

[ She takes a stray towel that had been hanging in the crook of the refrigerators door and uses it as a barrier between skin and steam, pulling the rest of the film away to, in practice, make it cool faster. Now that she can smell it she realizes how hungry she really is. ]

That concerns me as well. The connection could be as broad as general distress, or perhaps only mortal peril counts.

...Or it could be entirely random, I don't have enough data to make a statement either way.

[ She turns away from the meal as it cools to eye his hand ]

Is your hand alright?

Yeah, fine, just a little steam. I've accidentally touched things that are way hotter. [Dumb mistake, trying to fix something on his motorcycle before the engine cooled. Was never pleasant, but it definitely could have been worse.]

You've got the right idea, with the towel. [Abel turns on the faucet and runs his hand under the water quickly, just to soothe the tingle.]

...Maybe it is random, but I usually don't believe in truly random occurrences. Nature makes patterns, people make patterns even when they try not to. So if this isn't caused by nature or a pattern, I would be at a loss to explain any of it.

Neither do I. There must be a reason to it, even if it's not logical.

[ Angel picks up the stray fork used for poking holes from the counter, and taps it against her lower lip in thought. ]

To your knowledge, do you know of anyone- or any group of people, who were experimenting irresponsibly with technology they didn't not know the limits of?

[ Markus had mentioned his world was like this one, same name but key differences. Perhaps there were the equivalent of Vaults and Eridians across many universes.

She spares a glance down at the cooling food, a watched pot never boils but a microwaved meal should be cool enough by now. Tentatively she picks up the tray, the fact that it doesn't burn her hands a good sign, and brings it over to one of the the small tables in the room to eat. ]

[Abel watches Angel move to sit down and eat, leaving a very pregnant pause while she does it. Irresponsible experiments with unknown technology sounds a lot like exactly what Abel was fooling around with right before he arrived here.]

Why would you ask that?

[He's trying to sound casually interested, but instead he sounds a little strangled. Abel is incredibly bad at lying.]

[ Angel quirks a brow up at him as she sits. So that would be a "yes." ]

I'm not judging. I only ask because that's exactly what was happening in my world.

[ She turns back to her food, skewering some of the contents with her fork before blowing on it a little and taking a bite.

It is. The best thing she's ever eaten??? And maybe that's unfair, since its only competition is ten years worth of the equivalent of 3D printed meals masquerading as something hand-prepared and tasteless sustenance shakes, but this is good. And after a moment of surprised delight she's wolfing it down like a starved kitten, conversation not forgotten but taking a backseat to the freshest food she's had in ages. ]

[...woah, that's a lot of enthusiasm for a microwaved meal. Abel is of course glad that she's enjoying herself and happy to be eating instant food, he wishes he had an appetite like that right now.]

No I didn't think you were judging, I just. Right before I found myself here I found out there was alien technology installed on my Starfighter. And I was supposed to use it. [He leans against the counter, face scrunched in thought and worry.] I had used it before but I thought it was just a malfunction. But the technology is meant to transport matter from one place to another.

[He just didn't imagine it could bump him into a place where the Federated Alliance didn't even exist.]

[ As enamored with good food as she is, Angel pauses to consider what Able has to say. ]

That certainly doesn't seem like a coincidence. The technology being immediately exploited in my world was for a super-weapon of sorts, but there were other's like it. I know some were searching for access to one specifically titled "the Traveler."

[ An awful thought suddenly occurs to her, what if the Vault Hunters hadn't succeeded in taking down Jack? What if he had carried on, razed Pandora to the ground with the Warrior and moved his focus to the Traveler? And somehow...combined with similar technology in other worlds it had culminated in this?

She puts down her fork, appetite lost. ]

I think I ate too quickly.

Oh... [Abel looks around at the counter quickly, then goes to the fridge. He really doesn't know what he's looking at, but eventually he produces a bottle with bubbles on the label and sets it down in front of Angel.] Here, sip this slowly, it might help.

[He sits down at a comfortable distance from Angel, still frowning slightly but only in curiosity.] What was 'the Traveler' supposed to do?

['Jump Drive', 'the Traveler', it had to do with movement from one place to another, right? What if that was the key?]

[ Angel appreciates the casual kindness, small smile and a "thank you." Jack was so wrong about people, about their nature to selfishly exploit those around them. The whole time, he had been talking about himself. ]

To travel anywhere, presumably, in order to keep its cache safe. What that cache is I'm not certain. It could have been more advanced technology, or even knowledge if its predecessors are anything to go by.

[ She takes a small sip before continuing ]

All I do know is that there were scientists at one point working on the ability to tether it to one place for an extended period of time, and that the man I was....involved with helping would have been very interested in pursuing it in full once he was finished with his current project.

[ She's matter of fact in explaining, but her tone takes on a terse edge at that last part. ]

Edited 2019-04-27 05:17 (UTC)

[Abel is possibly a rather extreme exception to the rule that most people are out for themselves. He's a protector, an extreme giver, someone who would risk his own safety for someone else's. A stomach ache doesn't really fall into that same range, but the point still stands.]

[It seems odd that there was some kind of trove of information moving from one place to another, one had to wonder what the point of it was. But it wasn't like a computer sprouted legs and ran all over the place, this had to be similar movement to the jump drive in order for scientists to focus on tethering it.]

But he wasn't pursuing it when you made your escape? Is there a possibility that this Traveler might have used its effect on you during that?

No but the forces he was playing with were- are all connected. I was...

[ How could she put it in a way both someone unfamiliar with her world and the vaults, and also in a way that wouldn't give too much information about herself. Able and the others she's met since waking up had been kinder and more generous than she'd been lead to expect people could be towards her, but she didn't trust them yet. ]

Also connected, deeply, to those forces. A chain reaction of sorts could have happened when I became disconnected from them.

[ After all, Jack had been attempting to use her to speed up what should have been a 200 year process. Who knew what kind of ways things could backfire when something meant to be so gradual was forced into overdrive. ]

[Abel sighs and taps his fingers on the table in thought. Without any data it's hard to know for certain, but in science, chain reactions that produced unexpected and exponential results were more often than not extremely dangerous. He can't say that what happened with the jump drive was some kind of chain reaction or cascade failure, but could he say for sure that it wasn't?]

My ship was equipped with a piece of alien technology that was only activated through strong emotional response. I was trying to protect my Fighter, he was injured and unresponsive. [And he lost his damn mind and flung them both here. No amount of reassurance is going to convince him that the drive didn't have something to do with it.] But I'd only done it once before under less strenuous circumstances, and even then we only moved a few hundred feet. This is... way off from anything anyone could have anticipated, probably.

[ She wonders, with the idea that these worlds could all be parallel, if a version of Eridians reside to some capacity in all of them. She knows that if that's the case, there is a likely chance they don't go by the same name, so without the components present it's impossible to compare.

Instead, she focuses on the distress Able is in. There's only so much they can do with their immediate information anyways. ]

Even if your jump drive was part of the cause, you couldn't possibly have known the result it would have. It sounds like things were desperate, that you didn't have much time to consider other options.

[ It had been the same for her, the rushed decision to have the Vault Hunters abruptly take her down. No time to find another way, a way where maybe things could have gone different for her. It's another coincidence that is maybe not just a coincidence. ]

And...if your drive did contribute to this world jump, then so did I. You're not alone.

I didn't have time. I didn't even think it would work, honestly, it was more of an accident than a choice. [How incredible would it have been to have control over it, though? To move matter simply because he willed it to happen? Because he finally had a connection with someone that was deep enough to move an entire Starfighter?]

Contribute... [He drums his fingers again and puts a knuckle to his lips.] Like a multiversal cascade failure, events lining up somehow to create a metaphorical flashpoint.

[ Angel claps her hands together ]

Yes! Exactly. The circumstances would need to be extremely precise to create this rift between our worlds, and the margin of error near indecipherable but...it isn't impossible.

As for how chaotic it is in nature, and if those who initially find us intended for this result or were blindly experimenting with alien technology and this was the result...

[ Her brows furrow, teeth worrying at her bottom lip ]

One scenario has a much higher chance of reversing the process than the other.

[Yes... that's not a terribly positive thought, is it? If this was a reaction based on several factors all lining up, undoing that would be highly difficult. He wants to go back, yes, but with everything going on between him and Cain it's hard to find the motivation at the moment.]

I suppose the first step to figuring out which it is would be to find the people from the trucks. If they can't reverse this, then we have to.

[ It actually is a pretty positive thought for Angel. Arriving in this place is a second chance she never thought she would get, but she would face death again before going back. Her fists clench reflexively at Ables words, but she keeps her voice casual when she asks ]

Oh. Do you want to return back to your world? I was under the impression things were going poorly there, if you were in a situation that was causing you to flee for your life.

You're not wrong, I guess. [Abel's brows come together, conflicted but also resolved in what has to be done.] It would be better in some ways if I never went back, but I was part of a war to defend Earth and the Mars colonies. My friends are still there fighting, I want to protect them.

[ Ah, of course. It would be selfish, to think only of her situation in this scenario. Most people would have things they want to return to; a familiar bedroom, a job, friends and family. Angel can't dismiss Able's wish to go back just because she lacks those things herself. She should help, for those who want it. And when it comes to herself...to the chance of returning, if there is one, she'll cross that bridge when she comes to it. ]

That's very kind of you. Not many from the planet I last resided on would be so selfless, at least not without a large monetary reward. It is...admirable.

[ Hero material. The real kind. ]

If my skills can be useful in any way to this, then you have my aid.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

ARRIVAL LOG 009

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