ARRIVAL LOG 010

[larkers]

WHO: Everyone
WHERE: New Amsterdam
WHEN: Evening of October 21 and 22
WHAT: The tenth arrival
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Coercion, loss of autonomy, sexual themes and alcohol usage. Further notes at end of log.

> ARRIVAL LOG #010

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 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 white scrubs, hair recently cut but at various stages of growth, 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, the movement of streets passing through a 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. 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, and false, colored light, illuminating the streets in the distance will first alert your senses of being somewhere else, combined with air that's only cooled with the setting of the sun. 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, they drop some masks on the ground in a tan-colored tote bag. "Pick a mask," they bark, and then turn to climb back into the vehicle and close the doors. The engine powers up again, and then the bus is gone.

You're left alone in an alley, with no idea of where you are or why you've been brought here.

Around the corner of the alley, there is the sound of various different carnival rides and men yelling for someone to step right up and try their luck on the various assortment of games that are available. Off in the distance, there's a large, hulking structure – perfectly vertical in nature, and people on it twist upward and then come slamming down mere moments later. It seems that you've just arrived as a part of some festivity, though it's probably hard to tell if you're an attraction or a coincidence of this all.

Either way – time to pick a mask. They're nothing special: they go over the head, but no one was ordered to put one on. They show various monsters – generic and otherwise – and it looks like they were purchased in bulk.

◉ 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.

> 10 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN: OPENING CEREMONY

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.

Here we go again. You know the drill by now. Our new batch has been thrown into the middle of a Halloween party. They should have masks on which doesn't make them much easier to find, but I trust you guys can figure this out. You know the signs to look for by now. So… Happy Halloween. 🎃

Having ten actual days dedicated to Halloween may seem like a bit much, but New Amsterdam takes the festivities seriously. Thanks to being a melting pot of two millenia's worth of cultures, they try to touch on every aspect of it. The launch party is a two-day event set in the cultural district. Thanks to the lack of ground traffic, the city easily rolls in what acts as a mini-carnival. The ground throughout the carnival is lit with candle-filled pumpkins, providing a warmth of inviting light as the nights grow cooler. While the carnival shuts down during the working day, it opens again in the evening, allowing working parents to bring their children before the hours come to a close. During this time, children run around with their friends in costumes to ask for candy or food from nearby businesses or carnival booths. Sometimes these children have to perform a task before they get what they've asked for – either through playing a game or answering a trivia question – but they're never turned away empty handed.

The first two days are largely billed as a time for people to come together and have a good time, but Halloween is also known for offering opportunities to local artists to get their work recognized. Whether digital or otherwise, artists are asked to commit to a theme and produce art on the first day of the event that's viewed throughout the next nine days. Part of the tradition is the crunch of trying to produce a work of art with limited notice and time. If they aren't done before the first two days are over, they won't be able to get free advertisement for their work. When the event is over, all of the art will go up for auction, and the artists will receive 75% of whatever is offered for their work. This year's theme is "Remembrance and Renewal" – and most themes from past years are just as open for interpretation.

As it gets deeper into the evening and children have returned home, the festivities turn toward being more adult. While barred from selling alcohol until 9 PM, the various carnival booths change their tune after that point, offering a wide array of alcohol – including their own takes on moonshine. The first night even features a competition over who's brought the best, and everyone's invited to try a sample and put in a vote – for free. A rather savvy individual would likely be able to find themselves well in their cups just off of these samples, as the moonshine contest is the way for the adults to get a treat of their own. For these evening festivities, everyone is allowed to wear a more risque costume, and sex workers come over from the neighboring Red Light District in order to advertise some of their more unique services for the evenings ahead. Every brothel will have a unique theme of its own to mark how special the event is, and their services will match.

Otherwise, the first two days of Halloween are known for allowing kids to have fun and for adults to be anonymous for a little while. Anyone who holds down a day job will still be expected to turn into work, but there's a tacit understanding that most people will be under the weather during this time.

◉ The carnival will have a wide array of rides that are set up rather quickly. There's a ferris wheel with seats that will rotate around a large machine like an atom, but with many different "branches" to allow a great deal of people to go on at once. Everyone gets on at the same time, and the seats "float." Each person can pay for how long their ride is in increments, and extend that time if they so choose. For the after dark people, there is a definite badge of honor in having a good time in a ferris wheel without getting caught with your pants down. Other rides include the Wicked Force – which rapidly takes people up 500 ft into the air and then drops them – as well as carousels that allow someone to customize their mount for an additional amount of money. Want a lewd mount? That's fine … after the kids have gone home to play, and some people like to show off whatever they thought up on Cooltalk.

◉ As always, there are a large number of food options available thanks to the local food trucks coming out to sell their food. Taco trucks are the most popular around this time, and that's most of what will be offered. Many trucks will have some homemade candy that they offer for free with each meal – with the option to get more.

◉ Throughout the city, there will be controlled bonfire pits that are lit every night at 8 PM, though they won't be present in the less cared for parts of New Amsterdam. Ahead of the event starting, there will be a website to let people know where these pits are going up so they can set up meeting places with their friends – or even reserve a pit for a private group. Reservations around the more popular areas cost more than ones that are nearing the "disreputable" sections – though "disreputable" is shorthand for rundown buildings in need of repair more than any crime.

◉ There are, of course, costume contests! While many local bars – dive and otherwise – will have smaller affairs, there is a large contest held on these first two nights. Because of the wide array of people and costumes available, someone has to enter their costume according to a certain theme. Some of the themes are: vampires, ghosts, zombies, pop culture (animation), pop culture (action movies), pop culture (celebrities), political figures, historical figures – and more! In the five days that follow, people will be able to go online and vote for their favorite costume. Whoever accumulates the most votes gets a meal of their choice at a number of participating restaurants – HAPPYHAPPYJOYJOY, SOL, Monde Pizza, Sweetwaffel and more – as well as 200 credits added to their funds.

◉ There will be dealers around the carnival trying to get someone to buy something to "heighten" their experience. While the "monster drug" is out in the city, it won't be available here. Halloween is thought of as a neutral ground for the city, and even the gangs recognize that. Most drugs will be hallucinatory in nature, providing effects similar to shrooms. Of course, any drugs are still illegal, and people will want to be careful not to get caught – or buy from the wrong person.

◉ Anyone who chooses to take part in the more illicit and sexual activities will be advised to go home to finish out their nights. Being handsy is fine, but getting caught on the ferris wheel? Well, the goal is to not get caught. Public acts are still illegal, though most people just spend a night in jail thinking about what they did. It's treated as more embarrassing than anything, but sometimes people let things get away from them. Many of the brothels will offer rooms to couples for the evening, complete with toys and supplies to practice safe sex. Even if they aren't spending their night with a sex worker, the themed goods are still there to enjoy.

> 10 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN: THE NEXT EIGHT DAYS

After the rowdier events pass, Halloween splits into two main categories: corporate popups and remembrance. Halloween parties continue to be thrown at restaurants and bars, allowing people to enjoy a more low key version of what was previously available. Many of the bars have karaoke contests and themed parties, and many retail stores maintain a Halloween section until November first. If anyone's been invited to a party last minute – or they need a series of costumes to be extra about the whole occasion – they can hit these stores when needed.

◉ Pulsar's hover car-focused subsidiary, Bakker, advertises their 2512 line of cars by having hover hay rides around the city. Their trucks can hold up to six. Anyone hoping to go on a hover truck hay ride around the city to take in the sights and bonfires in the evening can call one on New Amsterdam's special Halloween app! These rides don't only show the city: they give a glimpse at the large amount of forestation just over the wall, allowing people to see that the Earth is gradually improving.

◉ There are, of course, haunted houses set up around the city! Haunted houses come in two varieties: virtual reality and 4D. Vyonation's gaming subsidiary, Vizija, sets up the virtual reality popups around the city. Due to the high tech nature of these setups, people do have to be on site to enjoy them. They interface with someone's neural implant, and depending on the experience, they can involve puzzles, escape rooms, murder mysteries, or even dissection tables. The 4D houses are the result of a joint partnership between Poe and Polarized – which are subsidiaries of Giles Bell and Pulsar, respectively.

4D haunted houses involve a great deal of props, realistic sights and smells, as well as the potential for certain drugs that can help provide a certain physical or emotional response. Whereas Vizija's simulation comes with the reassurance that nothing is real, Poe and Polarized team up to scare someone – and try to ensure it's as real as possible. Nothing offered at either is illegal, including the drug – though people with a history of heart issues won't be allowed to use the drug at all.

These experiences are made unique for everyone going in: people are allowed to opt out of anything that might make them uncomfortable, or even add in something along the way. If someone is feeling too much anxiety thanks to the drugs, they'll find a counter-drug added to their system to negate the artificial effects rather quickly.

◉ Remember that art contest? Anyone who finished a work will find their art somewhere in the city – and that includes anyone among the Displaced. If anyone is looking for artwork that's similar to what's been featured on the shrines, there will be a few, only they will seem more inviting. Whereas they celebrated people before, they now involve hands outstretched, welcoming someone down a blue-lit path. The same imagery – triangles and overlapping circles – will still be present, especially on the hands as tattoos.

◉ Five days before the 31st, there is a tradition of everyone donating a knife from their house to make it so that "spirits" can return safely. While no one in New Amsterdam genuinely believes that they might be visited by a spirit, the odd occasions around the city recently have lent some credence to this superstition. There will be knife disposal boxes all around the city – and anyone who doesn't give up a knife, butter or otherwise, will be seen as a bit of a spoilsport.

◉ On October 29th, there will be a procession from one end of the city to the other that starts just as the sun goes down and finishes when everyone has reached the other side. As you might imagine, this is a very, very long walk, and many people slip in and out according to what they can individually manage. People walk with candles along the way, and there will be booths selling new or replacement candles for a low price. Since the procession goes along the path of a lot of bonfires, it won't ever be difficult to get them lit. The purpose of this? Everyone uniting in remembrance: of a world that's healing, to celebrate the lives lost to usher in a peaceful era, to thank everyone on the colonies for offering a humanity a new home, and any personal losses that people might have faced. Even though there are still billions of people alive, there is the sense that everyone knows that they remain on Earth on borrowed time.

◉ For the last two days, people light candles and put them in their windows, and they also leave food outside of their windows and in the front of their apartments so that "spirits" can return safely. There's an implicit understanding that most of this food will be taken by people who aren't doing as well, and much of it is nonperishable. Anyone who's down on their luck will see candles in the window and will know that they will likely find food there. Many people stock up for this occasion so that they can replace any food. Unsurprisingly, most high-end apartments with well-off people don't honor this tradition, but people in mid-to-low end apartments will almost always have something to spare in the spirit of charity.

> SAFEHOUSE

Access to the safehouse is a hatch hidden behind stacks of empty storage shelves in the back of an abandoned supermarket in an outer district of the city. The immediate area is similarly abandoned, empty stores, flanked by several blocks of dive bars and clubs which cater to more niche tastes. A place where people can come and go unseen, or, if seen, not spoken of. A dark haired woman called Gaby is ready to greet the new arrivals and get them settled in, brusque and no-nonsense – she'll be open for in depth questions later, but will advise everyone to ask the people who brought them in for the beginning bits of information.

◉ The safe house is a large open space, filled with rows of basic cots set up to sleep a large amount of people. Basic, but outfitted with everything necessary for daily life. A few doors lead to back rooms for storage, medical care and a large communal bathroom, and past the long rows of cots there is a communal kitchen, fully stocked, and an eating area. Privacy is at a minimum.

◉ New characters will be asked to pick their beds, and provided with a change of (second-hand, mismatched and somewhat threadbare) clothes and basic toiletries.

◉ Any belongings from previous safehouse occupants have been packed up – and that includes any current Displaced who just got back from a trip. If someone left something out while they were in New Tokyo, Gaby will tell them where these objects can be found. For her part, she's just trying to get everything set up for the upcoming move.

◉ Gaby will make it clear to all new arrivals that if they have any requests or queries, they should contact her or El.

◉ Once everyone that El spotted has arrived back, they'll be informed that the safehouse will be a temporary location. By the end of the month, everyone will be moving to a new location about fifteen blocks away.

◉ The drugs making new characters compliant will remain in their systems for a few hours after their arrival at the safehouse 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 in the safehouse, 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.

◉ New characters will not be allowed to leave the safehouse until OCTOBER 25 (MAY 19). These 4 days are for them to adjust, learn about the world they've arrived in from their fellows, and for El to speak with them and work on setting up their IDs.

> 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, nor be allowed out of the safehouse until OCTOBER 25 (MAY 19). At that point 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 an artist character, please feel free to comment below under our QUESTIONS header to submit a description for a work of art! As long as they submitted something, you can feel free to assume they made some credits off of the whole experience!

Since there is a part of this log that involves explicit sexual activity, please remember content warnings. If your character engages in a sexual act, slap a warning on that! None of the drugs available at the event will involve aphrodisiacs or anything that will remove consent. Some of the brothels may involve play with that, but everyone entering those arrangements would need to consent from the start. We're well aware of the sensitive nature of having a Red Light District-adjacent event while characters are under the influence of compulsory drugs, so no characters will be forced or asked into any acts against their will. There will be no exceptions to this. In addition, any newcomers won't be able to skip off into a brothel because they're new, won't be able to confirm their ages, and they won't have any other identifying information. Otherwise, please be respectful and check everyone's permissions.

As a blanket reminder, all arrival logs are designed as mingle logs for the entire game.

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 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 May 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 June 1 at 12 AM UTC and close on June 8 at 12 AM 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

[saviorexe]

[He gives her the moment she needs, a steadying quiet that passes through them as if it existed in a bubble, while the rest of the world whirs past in celebration and disorder. And when she stands, so does Markus, still eying her with vague concern and the protectiveness of a leader who's found yet one more of his own.

Kara. She's right that he doesn't remember that name but not for the same reasons the other android might believe. Markus knows, from the start of his arrival, that timelines do not align -- there is no steadfast rule that dictates they should run parallel with each other. Whereas the last thing he recalls is his leap off of Stratford Tower, Connor told him that the revolution had been met with success, even if they still had a long way to go.

Meanwhile, she relays to him that they had met at Jericho. His brows pinch together, considering, and he's surprised vaguely by the flipped-around question; is he okay? When she's the one under the command of a drug, in the wrong body, and in a foreign world?]

Please try not to worry about me. I've been here long enough to have... adjusted in a lot of ways.

[Some more worrisome than others. While he remembers how jarring it had been to move from android to human, what's worse is the thought of how natural things had begun to feel with the mere passage of months. Weeks, even.]

Will you follow me, Kara? [Markus is sure to phrase his words as a question, and not a command. There's a seating area nearby, in front of a row of food trucks hocking their wares. They can sit and talk, away from the bustle of the crowd, and she needn't worry about cleaning up her mess.

Prompting her to follow, he leads the way.] I know your main questions will revolve around what's happened to your original body. I wish I could tell you. Mine's organic, too, since day one. No one knows how they did this to us, or why, beyond the sorrowful history of AI in this world.

[hadtolose]

[ Trying not to worry? He may as well have asked her to chop an arm off. If he hadn't said he'd been in this hellscape long enough to adjust to it, she'd probably have doubled down on the worry.

Actually, no. She will definitely double down on the worry. Secretly, though.

Kara follows him without hesitation, nodding silently. What he says doesn't help her comfort levels, either. If someone as resourceful and intelligent as he was didn't know what was happening, thing were worse than she could've ever imagined.

Eventually, she settles into a chair, ten times more the bundle of nervous energy than she was before. He's right; so many of her questions revolve around her body, their situation. But if Markus doesn't have answers, she doesn't want to waste time asking for them. ]

I'd thought it was revenge, because you'd finally freed us. Now...I don't know.

[ She takes a moment to frown down at her hands. The skin feels taut and dry. She hates it. ]

Maybe you can answer something else. [ She swallows thickly, her chest tightening in a very uncomfortable way. ] Have you seen a little girl? She's the one I was trying to leave Detroit with. Her name is Alice.

[ It takes some effort, but she's finally able to utter something she'd been harboring some strong denial for. ] She's...a YK500.

[saviorexe]

[Because you'd finally freed us. A revelation that would sink deep into his bones, stilling him where he sat, if Markus hadn’t already been told about the revolution’s initial success. At the time, the news had been such a relief, such a wonderful kind of exhilaration, knowing that the potential of such a future even truly existed. That Markus’ promises of hope and a better future had not misled them all.

But now, as the days crawl by in New Amsterdam, it was nothing more than another obligation to return to. A pressurized point of victory that his thoughts would pivot around, that he had to make certain to repeat and not stumble on his path towards, should he ever go back. So when Kara is quick to mention it again, Markus’ chest churns with conflicting feelings, and he pushes it aside for the more rational sake of knowing he needs to clarify something.

But first, her question.]

A YK500? No, I haven’t seen a child matching that description. [A pause, eyes trailing across her profile, spotting the hesitation and worry there.] There haven’t been instances of children being brought to this place. I know that’ s not much consolation, if any at all. [A muscle works in his jaw, brow slanting a little.]

Kara… you should know something. My last memory of home was soon after I left Stratford Tower, having sent out my message to the humans. If we had met after that, I don’t— [Remember.] It hasn’t happened for me yet. Neither has the outcome of the revolution itself.

[hadtolose]

I see...

[ It's all she says outwardly about the news of no children, though she's feeling so much more inside. On one hand, she's utterly relieved that Alice doesn't have to suffer through this, not so soon after what they'd been through, and potentially have had to suffer through it alone. She was a smart, brave little girl, but Kara never wanted her to deal with unnecessary hardship.

On the other hand...it meant she may never see her again.

She takes a few breaths, tucking the thoughts away for later. Whenever she was alone, she'd be able to handle it better. Thankfully, the other topic Markus had presented was disturbing enough to make that task easier. ]

Are you sure? You had just given your speech to everyone and--

[ His victory speech. She'd only caught glimpses of what he'd been accomplishing beforehand through the snippets of news she managed to see, but she knows that his broadcast to the humans was days before she'd been at the recall center. ]

Sorry. I don't mean to question your memory. This just doesn't make any sense. [ She clamps her eyes shut briefly with a furrow of her brow. ] How long have you even been here?

[ How long might she be separated from Alice again? ]

[saviorexe]

[He shakes his head, his mind certainly without any remembrance of giving speeches in a grand manner — only to his fellow Jericho members, within the confines of that old freighter, encouraging them to take action, to lift themselves out of the mere acceptance of their circumstances.]

I know it doesn’t make any sense, but that’s the reality of the situation. There’s another from our world here, another one of our kind. His name is Connor, and he’s also from my future — or some version of it. [They could never be sure if their universes aligned perfectly, or they were both from parallel copies with minute differences. In the end, it didn’t matter.] So this isn’t the first time.

[Though it makes Markus wonder why he was left days in the past, while the rest remained further along in time.]

It’s been three months. Almost four.

[hadtolose]

[ There seems to be a fluttering of recognition in her eyes for the briefest of moments at hearing Connor's name, but it passes by quickly. Beyond a hazy memory of the squat she'd stayed in with Alice, her mind won't let her delve deeper than that. She'll have to tuck it away with the millions of other thoughts she can't focus on now. Her mind's too busy trying to handle what he's saying, after all.

Kara clutches the sides of her chair. If she weren't already sitting, she'd probably have fallen over. Such a strange sensation.

When she feels less dizzy, she slowly looks back at him. ]

Three months.

[ She repeats it dazedly. Saying it aloud almost seemed like it'd make it sound less insane, but it didn't.

Again, she returns to what she knows best--caring for others. That way she can think less about her own situation, her own pain. ]

How have you managed this entire time? Did he help you? [ A pause, then she whispers: ] Do any humans know?

[saviorexe]

[A worried glance at her slight sway, the telltale signs of someone having trouble focusing, or the world beginning a slow spin. Markus recognizes it, and gently places a hand on her shoulder to steady Kara, his gloves making certain the empathy bond doesn’t activate. That would be the last thing she’d need right now.

They’re similar in that way, maybe without realizing it in this moment — Markus was also created to care for another, and that caring nature has superseded all confines of programming and simply became a part of his personality. Such is the case now, with how much concern he divvies out in her direction. Wondering if she might need something to drink, how hydrated their kidnappers had really kept her once she was human.]

I managed because I had others to help me. [Just like he intends to help her.] Connor did, to a certain extent, but he was dealing with the same issues as I was, too.

[Brows draw close together.]

I haven’t made a secret of who I am to the rest of the humans who’ve been brought here like us. I know it might be hard to trust them at first, after what so many androids have gone through back home, but here— [An exhale of air.] Here, they treat me like one of their own. Ever since day one.

[hadtolose]

[ Kara simply studies him for a while. There's something about him that's...interesting. Not that he hasn't been interesting before, but it's different this time. There's a gentle calm there she wasn't used to. She was used to him exuding calm, sure, but it was one with an undercurrent of power and stoic poise. Crossing him seemed like it'd be a grave mistake.

...So why was he actually working with humans now?

She shakes it off as best she can. Perhaps it was some long-term strategy she'd learn about later, one that he didn't feel should be discussed in public. ]

I guess we should be thankful for that.

[ That statement carries some subtle darkness. Another thing probably not to be discussed in public? A lot of those horrible things she'd gone through back home. ]

I'm glad it's gone well for you, though. [ She smiles a bit. ] You deserve it, Markus, after all you've had to deal with.

[saviorexe]

[Were Markus so manipulative. But his eagerness to work with humans, some of whom he calls his friends now, is nothing but earnest. The Markus that Kara remembers is made up of sharper edges, of a quiet intimidation that's wielded like a weapon.

Something that this one pushes aside, chooses to ignore, for the sake of facilitating peace.

Her acceptance of their human company is smoother than that of, say, North's -- but at the same time, he can hear some kind of almost-irony in the statement. Markus knows that a distrust of mankind won't be so easily swept away, even by his own words.]

That's kind of you to say. And I'm glad that the sentiment is generally skewed towards cooperation. But Kara... [He shakes his head a little, dropping his hand back down to his side.] This isn't about me right now. You're the one who's just arrived. I want to help you adjust, in any way that you need the help. All right?

[hadtolose]

[ She blinks in surprise, her mouth moving to speak a few times but words coming up short. Eventually, she manages: ] A-All right.

[ No matter the timeline, it was comforting to know Markus always looked out for his people. Still, to have someone personally offer her such kindness was overwhelming. For so long, she'd put her needs second to others, especially when it came to Alice. There'd been no time to think about herself, and even if she'd had some, she probably wouldn't indulge. Her goal had been simple: protect Alice at any cost.

Kara reaches out and shakily takes his gloved hand in both of hers, squeezing it softly. ]

Thank you. Everything you've done, and everything you're still trying to do...it means the world to me. [ She lets his hand go, not wanting to overstep boundaries. ] No matter what, I owe you my life.

[ Then, without warning, she's inundated with a slew of emotions. All that she'd experienced in Detroit, everything that still felt like it'd happened merely hours ago, pull her under into a turbulent sea. There'd been no time to reflect or begin the process of moving on, and now she was faced with the daunting task of doing it alone. Her eyes clamp shut. It's taking all she has not to weep. ]

Anything that you can do to help, I'd be grateful.

[saviorexe]

[There’s nothing more that he would rather do. Markus is looked upon as a leader, and the responsibilities that come with it are ingrained deeply within. To protect his people had become his priority back home, one that followed him through both time and space to New Amsterdam. It’s more than obligation — it comes naturally to him, expectation and personality entwining to create someone who wouldn’t know what to do with himself otherwise.

He gives her hand a return squeeze before Kara retracts it. Can see the swell of emotion threatening to overcome her; knows that she’s justified in experiencing every single one that’s tangled up in her.]

Hey… [A low tone, spoken in the way a friend urges someone to listen, rather than a figurehead commanding attention. Her gratitude is affecting, a moment where he’s glad that he can be someone else’s anchor, but as ever, the concern is poured outwards again.]

We can get away from this crowd, if you want. There’s a safehouse in the city. You’ll be able to rest there and get yourself a change of clothes. And take some time to yourself to… digest all that’s happened.

[hadtolose]

[ It doesn't seem like she'll react initially, like she may fully succumb to the leaden weight on her shoulders, but eventually she nods a few times and glances up to give him a brief, wan smile. ] I think that's a good idea.

[ More than anything, she needed that right now. Her new human needs could wait. She needed to mourn the loss of countless things. ]

Could you take me there?

wrap it up here? :3

[saviorexe]

Of course.

[Follow me, he would say, but knows that would only translate into a command. And so, instead, as he stands up and gestures at her to come along-]

It's this way. Everything will be all right if you stay close to me.

[And he'll lead her, weaving through the crowd, until the sea of people abates, the two androids walking a path that leads to the safehouse -- and hopefully, for Kara, a chance to finally rest without the noise and buzz of the festival acting as distraction.]