ARRIVAL LOG 009

[larkers]

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

Comments

[corrosive]

( options? what options? she hasn’t given him much to go on. commit arson or go outside and enjoy nature? gee, what a tie. however will he decide? not to worry, damon doesn’t push his decision making onto people that he’s just met. he’s a big boy, he can figure out something to keep himself busy. he understands why her suggestions ( or lack thereof ) are disappointing, once she clarifies that she’s essentially a newcomer to the area. guess they all get to be tourists. he idly wonders if there are any hawaiian shirts buried in the pile of winter gear. )

So what? ( the implant isn’t puzzling because he’s read the guide from front to back twice. ) You’re okay with being cooped up because you can read your way through the boredom?

( is that deflection? maybe she doesn’t have any interests. maybe she’s tried them and failed miserably. those that can’t teach and all that. in any society, there are those that prefer to be in the thick of it and those that navigate the sidelines. it’s difficult to pinpoint where she fits into that from a few comments but damon knows which way he’s leaning towards. )

I told you. I’d find a bar. ( setting the bar low is easy for him. ) Explore, probably. Try and get my bearings. But if this isn’t where we’re going to end up, I’m not sure there’s much point in learning the layout.

[strove]

No, I have things to do in the meantime. I just don't think you'd like to hear about them. [Studying for her classes, which she's somehow still taking despite all of this. Preparing for her new job that she doesn't have the chops to do. Swallowing down her impostor syndrome—a thing that Clarke's certainly felt to some degree before, but it rises up and threatens to climb out every time she thinks of how little she was able to assist with the Nightblood "solution" until she jabbed the needle into herself. Definitely not fun.

She leans against the inside of the doorway, crossing her arms.]

It won't be long until someone brings back alcohol. It's not a bar, but ... [Her eyebrows raise almost in tandem with her shoulders, as if she's shrugging twiceover.] You could keep yourself entertained.

[Alcohol can also help burn things. Clarke pushes that aside as she presses on.]

I've been known to bring some to those who can't get it for themselves. What do you prefer? [Oh. And one more thing:] And what's your name? I'd like that if I'm offering you this favor.

[corrosive]

( true. if she isn’t going to throw exciting tasks at him, damon probably won’t care. he raises his shoulders in nonchalance and shrugs at clarke. )

Try me. ( so what if he won’t skip off into the sunset with her to run his fingers over the spines of textbooks ( if that’s even a thing here; he suspects not, if everything’s on these implants of theirs ) or to prepare for work study, but it doesn’t hurt to know what matters to a total stranger. damon collects details like some people gather stamps.

and he doesn’t want to look like he’s salivating at the idea of someone brewing moonshine in a bathtub somewhere. he may not be an alcoholic, though he does need it, if he’s meant to behave while he’s here. it’s so readily accessible back in virginia that he almost doesn’t know what to do without the crutch to lean on, to curb the hunger and other such violent inclinations. )

Bourbon but I won’t turn down a decent Añejo. ( what can he say? he has expensive tastes. something he dreads altering to make the best of a terrible thing here. he sits up now since she’s offering him a favor and her trade-off seems minimal to him. people don’t just do nice things because they can. ) Damon Salvatore in the flesh.

You realize if you bring me a bottle, I’m going to expect you to have at least one glass with me. ( he doesn’t ask for her name in turn because he anticipates that she’ll offer it. maybe that’s his bad? )

[strove]

[Unfortunate truth: Añejo is definitely put through the neural implant translator and spit out the other end for her, even if it can't for him just yet. She doesn't know what that is, but assumes it's a special type of bourbon? (Or moonshine. Clarke has a lot of experience with moonshine.)

As it is, she nods, absorbing his name.] Clarke Griffin. I'm stuck in here for the most part until people come back hurt. [Not her idea of fun, but going out? Also not her idea of fun. Again: she hadn't come here. Her limited experience with winter involved a thin layer of snow on the ground, partly because she knew better than to mess around in Azgeda lands.]

That's a yes to the drink, by the way. [She turns somewhat, and then nods toward the room.] Not here. I'll be back soon and we'll share one in the common room. [Or whatever it's called.

If he were a familiar face, she would do the college tradition of drinking in a small dormitory. Not that she knows of that particular tradition. But he suggested arson, and while that wasn't meant to be taken seriously, she suspects there's at least an edge to him. It helps that she knows she has one—even if few people expect it.

Just the same, she slips away to go get that bourbon. Hopefully it hasn't sold out already.]

[corrosive]

( if she asks ( which she doesn’t ), damon would tell her point blank that añejo is what you drink when you want to dance on tabletops and forget your name, your life, the problems that people in it create, and consequently, the next six hours. the abridged version is tequila but how lame does that sound in comparison? )

Why? Do they only let you out when the A team fails? ( he doesn’t instantly piece together that she’s the one rey was speaking of, that she’s the one in the handbook, if only because damon doesn’t want to connect the dots. he doesn’t want to be here. he doesn’t want to help. and even if he did, being underestimated works in his favor nine times out of ten — though that isn’t the case here.

he perks up at mention of her willingness to share a drink with him. whatever her hobbies are, at least they have one in common. )

Your booze, your rules. ( whether they drink in a public space or here in his "room", it doesn't matter. he gets it. he's a complete stranger and there's no love lost between them at the suggestion to move elsewhere. ( he doesn't trust her either, the difference is that his arrogance is taller than both of them combined. ) there's no such thing as privacy when there are three other bunks and any of those people can walk in whenever they please. unrelated but maybe he should bring back putting a sock on the doorknob. that's one of the many things that he's debating in the time that clarke departs and however long it takes her to return, empty-handed or otherwise. )

What did you score? Please say drugs. ( he's not joking but he is if it makes her feel better. )

[strove]

[There's a low hum in her throat as she pulls out a bottle of a local brand of whisky. It's a dark amber color—though Clarke's entire existence is one where she wouldn't know good alcohol if it hit her in the face. She's confident that this will be ... decent? Then again, that's based on it being the last bottle left at the store she went to, which isn't a vote of confidence during a snowstorm.

So, she tried.]

I can probably get you some painkillers instead. [Not an actual offer. After all:] They'll be mildly disappointing, though. [Or incredibly. Unsurprisingly, the future doesn't like to deal in drugs that are likely to make someone addicted to them. It's a good thing, but ... it comes with a lot of mitigated effects that might make someone enjoy the experience.

She pulls out a pair of white mugs. Nothing special, but she figures that PRESERVE gets these things in bulk.]

This—[she holds up the whisky]—will just have to do. And if it doesn't, they're sold out of anything else. It does keep you warm. [And does deliver a lot of those "painkilling" effects, so to speak.]