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

[verflair]

[ He’s certainly been caught staring, however briefly, because Jack makes his way over, and X’rhun has to prepare himself for what will likely be an awkward encounter. He had made an assumption about Prompto and that had started them off strangely, and he would hate for the same to happen here.

But instead of questions, he gets a simple remark, impersonal on the surface but just personal enough to spark X’rhun’s dimming hope. His ears perk, eyes sliding over to the man next to him. ]

You think so? It doesn’t suit me near as well as it suits you, my friend, though you had far less hair to lose.

[personalwar]

[ The response betrays X'rhun's familiarity, and it's all that they need to confirm that they both remember their interactions back on El Nysa. Their first encounter, with X'rhun getting stuck in a tree. A partnered fight in the coliseum, and that strange time when they'd gotten a front row seat to each other's memories.

X'rhun had hardly been the only person to go back into stasis, but Jack had been affected by it more keenly compared to most of the other refugees. ]

Well, bad haircuts or not, it's good to see you. [ A familiar face is a balm after the time he's had here so far, and Jack reaches forward to clap X'rhun on the shoulder. ] How long have you been here?

[ It would be impossible to know when time and space are apparently so malleable in the wider universe. ]

[verflair]

[ The relief is almost palpable in X'rhun's expression and posture the moment the cautious barriers come down and Jack addresses him as a friend. He'd be tempted to hug the man if he didn't think Jack wouldn't appreciate the gesture – and the added bonus of the potential empathy bond to make things extra awkward.

Instead, he grins widely, returning the gesture by clapping a hand on Jack's shoulder in return. ]

'Tis good to see you as well, my friend. It's been a couple of months by my reckoning, but it feels like so much longer than that.

[personalwar]

[ Jack gives X'rhun's shoulder a squeeze and a little shake before pulling back. Even if there's only a small number of people here, he's still not completely comfortable with showing any sort of friendliness in public, especially given the circumstances.

But he is relieved and glad to see X'rhun, and there's no hiding that. ]

A couple of months, huh. It's been longer than that for me, so I guess we've got a lot to catch up on.

[ He takes a look around them. A random hotel lobby probably isn't the best place for a conversation like this, though he doesn't know where else they would go. ]

Where are you staying?

[verflair]

A loaded question, that. How much time have you got?

[ He’s only half-joking, there’s a lot to cover, but he takes some solace in knowing that after all they’ve been through on El Nysa, the oddities of this world are likely to not seem so… odd.

Rather than ask his friend to sit and risk triggering an obedient response, he motions to a set of nearby chairs. ]

[personalwar]

Given the storm going on out there, I'd say a few hours, at least.

[ Whether they're going to try and wait it out and let the storm pass or actually travel through it, Jack has no idea. He suspects that X'rhun will get around to answering that soon enough.

At X'rhun's motion, Jack nods and walks over to take a seat. While he'd prefer to have this kind of conversation in a more private setting, there's no one immediately around them. The other people here are caught up in talks of their own. ]

[verflair]

[ He doesn’t mean to tell Jack anything the others won’t come to learn about their situation in time, so if other people want to eavesdrop, X’rhun certainly won’t stop them. They take a seat and X’rhun pulls off his gloves, flexing chilled fingers as the warmth of the room begins to make them ache.

It just had to be a blizzard, didn’t it? ]

I know not how much you have already been told, so I shall start at the beginning. This world is called Earth, though I am given to believe this is but one version of Earth out of many. Currently, we are in the city of New Tokyo as a part of the relief effort for the storm.

So, to answer your question in the simplest way, first, there is a dormitory here in the city where we are all staying.

However, the Displaced, as we call ourselves, are based out of the city of New Amsterdam. Usually, when new arrivals appear, they do so there. How you came to be here, I’ve no idea, but it is awfully convenient.

[personalwar]

[ X'rhun's presence here has made this entire situation easier to bear. While Jack still isn't thrilled about what's happened, the fact that he has someone he can actually trust who's explaining everything to him helps. It means he can take this information as fact without having to constantly wonder if he's having the wool pulled over his eyes.

So his initial assumption that this is a version of Earth had been correct. New Tokyo, New Amsterdam; the names are the same but Jack still has to get a better sense of how much has changed, of what the differences are between this Earth and his own. ]

A lot of this seems awfully convenient. I'm guessing you have no idea how you came from El Nysa to here.

[ He leans back in his seat, rubbing his hand across his mouth. ]

Thought the Storm took everything out.

[ Not this snowstorm, but a very different kind of Storm. ]

[verflair]

I haven’t the slightest clue. I am not the only one here who’s come from El Nysa, either, but until you arrived, we were the only two.

[ He briefly wonders if Jack and Ardyn knew each other before, but the answer to that will no doubt become apparent soon. As it is, there are other mysteries yet to unravel.

X’rhun rubs his hands together, trying to will away the pins and needles sensation, while Jack states what had been X’rhun’s first thought as well – and he knows which Storm his friend means. The capital “S” is practically audible. ]

As did I, though I’ll admit to being disinclined to wholly believe the Natha. There is someone here from mine own star, and she claims to have come straight from there to this world, a full several months after I remember waking up on the Natha’s ship. I’ve no reason to doubt her.

[personalwar]

Who else is here? Gabriel arrived with me.

[ X'rhun will remember the name, he's sure. On top of hearing of Jack's troubled history with Reyes, he also got to see him both in Jack's memories and in person at least once. Gabriel is hanging around in the lobby somewhere, probably terrorizing someone by this point, but Jack doesn't point him out. He and X'rhun can catch up later.

It's not as if Jack ever wanted to take the Natha at their word either, and hearing some kind of proof that their worlds might still exist out there is intriguing. Jack doesn't want to assume the best when the worst could still be true, but it's a point in their favor. ]

Huh. [ He draws a gloved hand slowly across his mouth. ] Then I'm guessing everyone here is still hanging onto the hope that they can make it back home.

[ Does he even want to assume that's possible? He's spent two years believing it wasn't even an option. ]

[verflair]

A man by the name of Ardyn. He kept residence in Olympia, mostly, but he is a friend of mine.

[ Oh, he does remember Gabriel. He remembers Ana’s story about his betrayal, something that hit very close to home for X’rhun, and his glimpse of the man in Jack’s memories. He remembers, too, their brief encounter in the snowy caves outside of Nadril.

His eyes scan the small crowd in the lobby and land upon the man in question, and he is just as X’rhun remembers him. His gaze lingers but a moment before he turns his attention back to the man across from him. ]

That might vary from person to person, but insofar as we know, going home remains a possibility. People will periodically disappear from here, but it doesn’t seem like whoever brought us here is taking them back. I hope, at the very least, that they return home.

[personalwar]

[ Ardyn. The name sounds only vaguely familiar, which means that Jack had probably heard of him in passing but hadn't ever met him in person. That should probably change now that they're part of a very small group that all share something in common.

If nothing else, it helps to have other people around to confirm that he didn't somehow hallucinate the past two years. ]

Guess disappearing probably beats being stuck in stasis. [ Or maybe it doesn't. Maybe they got dragged off and killed somewhere. That's just as likely as X'rhun's more optimistic assumption that people went home. Could it really be that simple? ]

So it sounds like eventually we go back to this New Amsterdam place. What happens then? What's gone on in the city since you got here?

[ Beyond the obvious goal of trying to find a way home, he'd like to know what the "Displaced" have been doing with themselves. ]