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

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[That definitely gets her interest. The fact that Sniper isn't really in that one means that they would be featured in later volumes. Not surprising given their personality: they strike Clarke as being a bit like her, but approaching things with a smile and a game, whereas she does it with chicanery and bluntness (which oddly go hand in hand with how Clarke functions).

Her hand reaches across, and then turns over.]

Can I have a look at it? [Better to ask outright.]

[Sniper doesn't hand her the book, but they do hold it out, and let it fan open in their hands. It lands on this page.

They add, tone apologetic:]

There's a lot of personal information about me and other people.

[So no, Clarke's not getting her hands on the book. All of the really top secret stuff was at the end, but Mycroft refers to them as Sniper throughout, and why a sniper is named Sniper is not something they want to get in to.

'Personal information' wasn't far off the mark, either. But if Mycroft stayed linear, the juicy stuff wouldn't be until the next book.]

[There is no real surprise there. Just the same, Clarke leans in, hand parting the two pages of the book that Sniper chose carefully. Her eyes scan the text, looking up once to meet Sniper's eyes as she gets past the bit with the Latin. Curious. Her neural implant scans right through it, but that means that part is just repetitive dialogue, so she assumes there's another language there. (Kind of how she introduces others to Trigedasleng, only her implant hasn't fully sent that language into the language pool just yet.)

And then she reads on. The big about torture, about trials. A successor and a Caesar. Positions of power. Political in nature.]

A book about my people's history would involve a lot of personal information about me, too. [Hence: understandable.

Clarke draws her hand back.]

This Caesar sounds like he chooses his successor in a way that a people I know did. Not my people. [Clarifying.] Only it's called an Ascension Ceremony. They believe that the former Commander will choose the next Commander through whoever's the victor of this ceremony. It's a fight to the death. The former Commander is dead by this point, so it's a matter of their spirit passing on. [Clarke knows that this is not how it happens by this point. But she can't judge the entire notion just because of what she knows and believes.]

It sounds as if this Caesar likes a more literal and active role. It's fascinating. [A beat.] Thank you for sharing.

A battle royale? [Intriguing.] Too much ambition for the throne would probably disqualify most people from being named heir. The Masons are one the largest Hives—government systems—in my world, because of their stability. They also have the strictest laws of anyone.

So these other people—They're a military society? Why?

Rival clans that were partly set against one another by an outside influence, and partly because they lived without technology and believed that was the only way to be. The outside influence made them afraid of using weapons and other guns. Basically set them up with a bunch of superstitions, and they were afraid of all technology.

[Though Clarke is missing a piece to this story and doesn't realize it.]

This influence needed them weaker. So, they were made weak. Forced to be that way. Strength came by how well you could fight as a warrior and how well you could protect your people off the battlefield. Death is the worst thing that could happen when most of the population was already gone, so ... well, I guess you could say all humans wielded it like a weapon.

And what did this 'influence' want? What would be the reason for perpetuating such a horrible system?

Their blood.

[Clarke wonders if this will ever get past Ojiro. Will someone else know about this story, and wonder if that's part of her issues with Caroline, with this entitlement to other people's blood? She remembers finding genetic markers in Emerson's blood.]

It helped heal them, so if they kept them weak, they couldn't defend themselves effectively on runs to take more of their people in.

They were being farmed? Is this still going on?

[The revulsion is real. Sniper's world treasured progress and and freedom, and sought them endlessly. The injustice of the situation ran deep.]

No. [Firmly, yet not loudly. And then: an edge creeps into her voice. Careful. Unemotional at the same time.] I took care of them.

[Not it. Not "the problem."

Clarke doesn't give away any feelings of pride over this. It just is: this needed to happen, and she stopped it. Pride doesn't come into it.

(Because the guilt she feels? That's a constant.)]

Good.

[The connotation isn't lost on Sniper. The vast majority of human history was a constant see-saw of injustice and conflict, one endlessly chasing the other. Those people had earned fate.

Some might say that it was unjust that it had fallen to Clarke to see it through. But it had been necessary, and Clarke had been strong enough to do it. That was history, too—Individuals with enough steel to take the burden of change.]

[A thoughtful sound creeps into her throat. Agreement, yet not. Was there another way? Given the crunch of time, there couldn't be. Lexa hadn't allowed her that, had abandoned and betrayed her for some sense of twisted loyalty to her people. There is a glossy sheen that moves over her gaze, but never moves beyond that. As hardened as she hopes to be, she can never actually accomplish it.]

Once it was done, people could start to change. They could move a different way, and no longer be governed by the same superstitions and fears.

Don't you want the same thing, for this world?

I want the fantasy that everyone pretends is this world to become real for them.

[For her, too.]

What do you mean by that?

This world has the systems in place to work. [It's a constant point that she's returned to time and time again with the other Displaced. They make things look nice so that prying doesn't happen.] The fact that it doesn't is because certain entities need it to be broken for them to maintain power. [The lesson on capitalism.]

But handled correctly, this world can be idyllic. I believe that.

Anything can get better with enough trying.

[Clarke would find that same sentiment printed on the pages in Sniper's lap. Saying it aloud felt potent.]

But you know that it's not easy.

[They say it like a fact: about Clarke, about the world.]

I know that it's not, but that doesn't mean I destroy what's in place just because I might have the power to do so. [And they've all learned that they do, haven't they? That's the really explosive lesson from the dreams. They may not know what they were doing, but they have that choice.

It's as Sniper believed.

And that's bad.]

Besides. Nothing I do is easy. Nothing we do is easy. That doesn't mean we don't try.

Do you really think the institutions that shaped this world to suit them are just going to roll over and let you make a perfect world?

[Their own world had faced cataclysm and come out stronger. Even the most benign of changes meant destruction, it was just a matter of rhetoric.]

No, but I've been the person who thinks I can walk all over other people to make things better for my people. That isn't what I intend to do here, or who I intend to be. Or who I want other people to be. I've learned from that lesson.

[Clarke gives them a pointed look.]

When we were in there, I—it sounded a little like you hadn't. Like you've bought into the idea that we're important. [And then, lower in tone:] That we're heroes in some way. [It's the same tune that Loki's presented, so it's not altogether only Sniper who's done this.]

Could just be that our findings coming out of the dreams have me on edge. [What if the corporations start mass producing monsters even if they weren't before? What the hell did they do?]

Edited 2019-05-16 20:52 (UTC)

[It takes them a moment to recall the conversation.]

It's just a theory, and one that happens to fit all the known facts. Whether that's true or not, it's what's happening. The world is changing faster with us in it.

[Sniper could put those particular fears to rest easily, and tell Clarke they didn't care about this world—couldn't care about it—and had no plans to involve themself beyond what was necessary to get themself back home. But that indifference would have other suspicions attached, and ones that might be far closer to the truth.]

You can't have it both ways. You can't want things to be better and stay out of things at the same time. You can't deny we're important when we're changing changing reality in our sleep. If you're too afraid of what you'll do with that power to act then others will, and repeat your mistakes.

[Is it fear? Clarke wonders if that's really it. Sniper now knows about what happened in Mount Weather, and what she had to do to stop their atrocities. While others look upon her choice there with pride, she can't do that. I tried to be the good guy—no matter what, she returns to that notion. She had tried and tried and tried, and she's failed many times. Even ripping away the City of Light had led to more pain, pain that couldn't be overcome.

She just decided that she was the one to tell others to overcome it. In a split second, that was the choice she had to make. And she made it, even knowing how hard it would be for her.

And then there's the rest: trying to take the Flame to stop a war, ignoring all of the religious significance of it. Closing the bunker as Octavia fought to save people, not believing in her. Standing silent while people assumed it was Jaha and not her who made that final decision. She made that out of fear.

Fear isn't a better factor in her decision making process. Action or inaction—it doesn't matter.]

I never said I intended to stay out of it. [Though maybe she should. The thought lingers.] We just ... we have to be conscious of what it means that we're here. That we can do this. Otherwise, we're no better than the people in that mountain that I killed. [And there were better ways to handle that, too. Clarke just couldn't do it.]

I don't think the Displaced should be determining the fate of this world. The conflicts going on now were here a long time before us.

[It was part of the reason Sniper had asked Fitz to re-design the masks. So the displaced could become their own tool, separate from Morningstar. It was hard to look at a world where so much had gone wrong in comparison to the near-utopia they had come from, but it wasn't up to them to say what fixing this world should look like.]

But we can still do what we think is right while we're here. I think you're right that balance is important

What is "right" depends. For instance—[Her head cants ever so slightly to the side. It's not as if what she's going to say isn't public.] Well, we have gods here, right? And what they feel is right differs. It's an extreme example, but it's also where I'm most concerned.

Edited 2019-05-26 17:51 (UTC)

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ARRIVAL LOG 009

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