meadowlarklogs | ARRIVAL LOG 011

ARRIVAL LOG 011

WHO: Everyone
WHERE: New Amsterdam
WHEN: November 5
WHAT: The eleventh arrival
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Coercion, loss of autonomy. Further notes at end of log.

> ARRIVAL LOG #011

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.

"Stay here," one of the guards barks, right before looking to the guard to their left. "You've got the honors of passing on the message from the boss?" he asks. The woman nods, and then steps just in front of him. "Now listen up, everyone! This is way warmer than I'd ever go for, but he's got a soft spot for you." She offers a twisted smile, as if she isn't keen to play messenger. "Hello, everyone. You're likely wondering how you got here." She pauses to roll her eyes at the joke – because it is a joke, albeit a bad one (in her opinion). "That's not something I can share right now. There are too many hands invested in this pie. But I need you all to stick to the festival, and not go looking for trouble. Don't hurt anyone. Don't look for a police officer. Have fun out there until it's time to process you. I don't actually know how that goes, but the ones like you? They've got it down to a science." She pauses here, looking puzzled. She's read this message in advance, but there are still aspects of it that stand out. Oh, they were warned about the others. To avoid them at all costs, because they'd be looking. "And sorry for the scrubs – I know they aren't great for a party, but they make you stand out. Have a good time. Just don't get arrested out there. I can only pull out my Beijing contacts so many times." This message is read entirely off her neural implant – not that the people dressed in scrubs in front of her would realize that.

After she's done, the last of the guards 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 are many food stalls selling foods in mason jars, as well as a stage off in the distance with people in colorful outfits moving in unison. It seems that you've arrived at some kind of festival, and believe it or not, this is low-key compared to some of the last.

◉ 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 – and that includes the lengthy message passed on from the mysterious patron.

> HARVEST FESTIVAL

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.

Well, everyone, it's time for another round of saving your newly arrived displaced kidnapees. This time they're not blending in at all. It's white scrubs all the way. Probably doesn't really go with a harvest festival – is that some corn-in-the-cob in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? Anyway, have fun out there.

The New Amsterdam Annual Harvest Festival begins with a parade bright and early in the morning. Rather than being dressed up with large holographic displays with AR functions that interact with everyone's neural implants, this parade is au naturale. The floats themselves are handmade with careful craftsmanship and designs, especially given the lack of wood available in this world. Everything is bright and colorful. Between each float, there are large dancing troupes dressed in lavish costumes full of colors. Some of the dances featured are unique to this world and its future, while others pay homage to harvest festivals of the past, hailing from regions of Japan, Korea, China, India, Nigeria and the Philippines. The garb itself is unique to these regions – relics of a previous world, celebrating the harvest and promise of what may come in the future.

Unlike many New Amsterdam events, there is very little room for technology and heavy advertisements. While numerous subsidiaries provide donations for the harvest festival, they do so with the understanding that their involvement will be obscured. The harvest festival is meant to act as a way of celebrating the natural way of the world, and of stepping away from technology for a time. That said, there is little emphasis on any artificial intelligence or mentions of the Xelkoven War – it seems as if this celebration is meant as more of a pure revelry of what the Earth used to provide, rather than what humans managed to avoid.

Once the parade is done, there is a large festival in progress. Every worker at the harvest festival is there because they believe in this celebration, and thus they volunteered to be involved. Anyone who wants to be there because they chose to volunteer can. As for the native volunteers – a large number of them will be sporting numerous tattoos of unique symbols that have been seen around the city (most notably the Insomniac's Ball and the shrines to the Displaced). They'll look at any of the Displaced that they recognize with admiration, but won't be quick to engage with them.

The harvest festival is just a one-day event, but it's jam packed full of things to do!

> HARVESTS

While the hydroponic farms around New Amsterdam are always working to keep the citizens fed, they celebrate their harvests once a year at the harvest festival. Many of these farms come together and sell their vegetables in mason jars and even create various sauces for citizens to purchase. Want some delicious spaghetti sauce that's ready to go? What about taco sauce or something to make quick tikka masala? These food stalls have everything ready to go – and they're all too eager to share what they've made. The stalls all offer discounts to anyone who buys their jars in bulk, hoping that they can happily impart their delicious and natural foods to the citizens of New Amsterdam. While hydroponic farms on a whole are "less natural" in how they grow food, these jars of food are less processed. What's in there is, for the most part, pickled or cooked down into a sauce, making it so that New Amsterdam citizens can enjoy a flavorful meal.

> CHARITY

In a continuation of the mindset during Halloween, the harvest festival doubles as a site for charitable activity around the city. Gaby will ask Morningstar's people to set up a booth to collect any clothing donations, and it'll be obvious that while this booth is not noticeably linked to Morningstar, it's set up every year in hopes of gathering these clothing donations for people in need. The Morningstar booth isn't the only of its kind, and many of the food stalls with mason jars will also have a box for people to donate goods should they want to help people in need. Unlike every other New Amsterdam festival, there are no food trucks. Instead, there is an all-day buffet that constantly rotates out food so that people who are hungry can have a full meal as the day goes on. Everything is free. However, this buffet includes no alcohol – as if to counterbalance the drunken revelry during the Halloween celebrations, there is none on the premises here.

> FERTILITY

In the past, harvest festivals have almost always been linked to fertility. While fertility is less of a concern in 2511 – thanks to the rigid population control – there is a sense of hope that Earth itself, as well as the terraforming colonies, will eventually give way to a future where these mandates aren't as necessary. For now, the harvest festival celebrates the idea of fertility, as well as allowing the Earth to replenish itself. Fertility is an aspect in that, after all. One section of the festival's stalls is dedicated to this ideal, and has a unique tradition brought over from Japan. Each of the stalls feature large phallic structures on the top, and like the parade floats, these are newly made every year from scratch. In addition, the food stalls also partake in an all-natural popsicle contest (after all, it wouldn't be a New Amsterdam festival without some kind of food contest). These popsicles come in all different flavors – from strawberry to pickle brine – and are all slender and phallic in their presentation.

> DANCING

Throughout the day, music will always be playing while some form of dancing goes on on the main stage. Most of the day, this dancing is thanks to the dance troupes that come in and perform, even though they've already done it at length on the parade routes. Many of the volunteers will be put in charge of keeping these dancers fed and hydrated so that they can keep at it – though they're always happy for the opportunity that the festival offers them. When these staged shows aren't happening, they have interludes where festival-goers can come on stage and learn more simplified versions of the different dances from the Earth's cultural history. Once it's dusk, there is a two-hour long dance contest where these troupes compete with one another, putting on a unique show that they've prepared for the event.

> WRESTLING

The other event that goes on all day is an event borrowed from Korea: ssireum. Multiple people enter this wrestling contest, and thanks to the amateur-nature of it, there is little concern about who wrestles with one another (outside of age, of course). The sport itself involves two opponents holding on to each other's red and blue band called a satba. Throughout the contest, they try to put the other person down, making it so that their upper body touches the mat. There are rules set up to ensure that no one brings any real harm to their opponent, and since it's wrestling, there is no room for any dirty tricks like punching, kicking, biting or anything similar. When it's over, the person who's wracked up the most wins throughout the day is given a sash that declares them "The Most Powerful."

> SAFEHOUSE

Located under an abandoned hover-bike garage, access to the safehouse is a hatch in the floor beside a rusted set of metal shelves that used to hold tools and supplies. The immediate area is similarly abandoned: full of rundown and dilapidated warehouses and forgotten businesses, where numerous people squat in hopes of having some stability because they can't afford a place themselves. 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 safehouse is a large space with multiple rooms for storage, with the largest of the rooms 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.

◉ There is a mini-bar set up in the kitchen. The quality of the alcohol inside is akin to what someone might get from the well, but it's well-stocked.

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

◉ 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 NOVEMBER 09 (JUNE 17). 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 NOVEMBER 09 (JUNE 17). 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.

As a note: all new characters arrive after the parade ends.

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 June calendar rundown for a look at things happening this month, as well as some additional notes from the mods.

As a note to the entirety of our playerbase, we are at 58 players, which is 2 players away from our game cap! This is very exciting for us as moderators, especially as we quickly head toward our one year anniversary! There is a very good chance that this will be our last "full" arrival log for a while, though we have plans (and ideas!) in mind for future months.

As a reminder, AC for new characters accepted in June 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 July 1 at 12 AM UTC and close on July 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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm gonna have to keep tracking you down if you keep bolting out of safehouses looking like you saw a ghost.

[ it's his own fault, really. if he had one percent more chill, maybe she wouldn't have been distracted enough to zoom after him. that said, it isn't criticism meant to be an accusation, and her tone is light enough that she hopes he doesn't take it too hard.

besides, the smile that pushes into her cheeks at his correction takes any bite out of the words whatsoever. ]

You do?

[ god, she hates how surprised she sounds. she's used to being around people, but it's always been about caroline pushing her way into the situation, about making friends and doing things for them so that they'll see her as useful and want to keep her around. she can't remember the last time someone just wanted her around for her company. ]

Yeah. [ he was absolutely not intending that to happen with anyone but it has and while he doesn't know what, if anything, that means, he thinks she deserves to know. he knows he hasn't always been very nice to her or very open but she's handled it all with grace and compassion and he's not used to that. ]

You're... [ something something. he doesn't even know but maybe some of that fondness bleeds through the bond where their hands are attached. he doesn't know. the misery from before isn't sitting heavily on his shoulders so things like softness and comfort start peeking their way through. ]

I like seeing you. [ he repeats the words, quieter this time, almost a little shy about it. ] So, I'm glad you're here.

I'm what?

[ she's not supposed to ask. if someone trails off, the polite thing to do is to let it go, water under a bridge swiftly flowing out of the conversation. but caroline is not polite, nor is she particularly selfless in this moment; she asks, eyes bright, smile soft and gentle, as their hands swing between them while they walk, because she wants to know what he's thinking. she wants to know how he thinks of her, beyond the obvious. ]

You can tell me.

[ at first, marcos doesn't answer but he's not trying to avoid the question. he's just gathering his thoughts, figuring out how he wants to put into words what he was trying to say. ]

You're surprising. [ he starts there because it's true. before she can question him, he presses on. ] I...didn't expect to enjoy just being around someone so soon.

[ after lorna. but he doesn't want to talk about that. ]

But I like being around you. I don't feel so — so lonely. And I know being around someone is the opposite of being alone but what I mean is I don't feel as sad as I typically do when you're around me.

I like being around you too.

[ maybe that's too simple or too obvious to say, but she means it. she likes his company, his bad jokes, his self-deprecating humor. she likes the way he smiles when she manages to coax one out of him, and the fact that it takes a little effort only makes the victory that much sweeter.

and, admittedly, she'd be lying if she said she didn't also like the memory of how his hands (and the rest of him) felt against her skin. how good she'd felt, how alive — though she didn't necessarily expect those things to happen again, they were still good memories. ]

But I hope you feel something better than just "not sad"?

I do.

[ he just wasn't great with words. when he'd first gotten here, feeling something other than sadness would have been enough, it would have been desired because he'd been so miserable and so torn apart by everything that had happened before.

that sadness was still there, like an open wound but he'd been managing to find ways to bandage it and be comfortable lately. ]

I feel good. [ it's not a very descriptive word but, in his eyes, it's a lot, a major admittance all things considered. ] You...make me feel good.

[ so there. ]

Well, good.

[ a soft puff of air through her nose isn't quite a laugh, but her eyes crinkle at the corners all the same, and a flush of something bright and warm and welcoming comes through the bond as her hand squeezes against his own. it lingers for a while in relative silence as they board the ground tram and find a pair of seats off to the side.

once they're seated and comfortable, caroline offers an admission of her own: ] The feeling's mutual. Obviously.

[ he can feel that, if nothing else, in the pulse of warmth betwen them. ]

[ it's his turn to feel somewhat surprised at her admittance. it's not that he didn't think she didn't like being around him but hearing it said like that, feeling it confirmed through the empathy bond was...enough to give him pause.

he knows he hasn't always been the most friendly, the most open, the easiest to deal and most of that's been intentional to keep something of a distance between himself and other people. apparently that wasn't working very well.

apparently he sucked at being aloof and separate. or maybe she was just very, very good at dealing with people like him. maybe a little bit of both. ]

Do I get to know where we're going?

[ he sits back, keeping his hand tucked against hers while the tram gets itself moving. ]

Or just wait and see and shut up and don't ask questions?

No.

[ this is a Surprise Location, mr diaz, so you do not get any hints. just a cheeky grin as caroline nestles the bag onto her lap, a necessary movement in order to put herself in its place beside him.

his unconscious habit of using physical objects to create a buffer between himself and other people could just take a five minute rest for now, okay. she wants to cuddle. ]

You don't have to shut up, but I'm not spoiling the surprise.

[ hey, maybe he's in the mood for a cuddle tonight okay. it's been a long day and he was emotionally wrecked just a little while ago. cuddling didn't sound bad so when she moves the bag, he doesn't protest. ]

How mysterious.

[ it is actually a little exciting. he's walked through the city a lot but he knows he hasn't seen it all so he's hoping she's got a place in mind he hasn't seen. ]

All right, keep your secrets. I can be patient. [ ish. ]

Can you?

[ she only half believes that, but he's in luck: the tram ride itself isn't long enough to give way to a full critique. before they know it, they're pulling into the stop, the tinny voice overhead announcing forstblom station after the chime. ]

Come on, then. [ this time, there's no hesitation in the lacing of her fingers through his own. better hope he still retains the frame of mind to grab the bag with the other, because she's all too eager to pull him out of the seat and onto the station platform. it's only a short walk from there along the path to a smaller skypark, this one shaded by trellises wrapped in ivy and twinkling lights.

it's a pretty destination, but at this time of night, it's deserted. this is the edge of the business district, somewhere caroline's only just started to explore as she attends job interviews and maps out the city, but she's already become quite fond of this small little space of greenery. it feels... alive, in a way. alive enough to not entirely feel like the future. ]

What do you think?

I can try.

[ he's...patient. sometimes. other times, he's not patient at all but this isn't a situation where he has to get worked up and angry and lose his temper. it's not a matter of life or death and no one's about to take something important away from him.

so, patience.

if the ride had been longer, he might have pestered her with questions just to be a jerk but it's short and soon enough, she's got a hold of his hand and he's got a hold of the bag and they're off the tram and stepping into a quiet skypark. he's heard about these but he's never been to one and, for a second, he stops and just turns in a circle, looking around and taking it all in. ]

Wow. I didn't even know something like this was here. [ he'd explored but not this thoroughly. ] It's beautiful.

[ the smile she gives him isn't quite smug, but simply satisfied, pleased that he isn't bored or annoyed with her choice of destination. it's not that a skypark is particularly exciting — but it is quiet, out of the way, and roomy enough to offer a nice place to get away for a little while, and some part of her had hoped he might appreciate it. being proven right definitely makes her feel good about the choice.

it doesn't take her long at all to claim a space underneath one of the arching trellises, twinkling lights around and overhead, to splay out a blanket from inside the picnic basket and to divvy out their meal. most of it is finger foods, things that don't require utensils, and drinks with lids so they can't be spilled by an errant hand, all perfectly suited for an impromptu meal al fresco. ]

So, have you found a job yet?

[ they'd talked about it, bits here and there, but she wasn't sure how successful he'd been at the process. ]

I think so.

[ it's...not what he wants to be doing but it's a job and it means he can be outside and mobile. he can scout the city and its people and hope that gives him an idea of what they might need and how he can help them get it. ]

Bike courier. [ it's not very glamorous and he shrugs as he says it, reaching to pick up a piece of food and popping it into his mouth. ] I wouldn't be any good behind a desk so...

[ he trails off and shrugs. ] We'll see how I do.

You don't sound very happy about it, [ is caroline's astute observation as her fingertips work at prying off the skin of a fruit. she's not sure what it is, exactly — not quite as small as the mandarins she used to favor as a kid, but not nearly as firm to the touch as a grapefruit. maybe a weird hybrid fruit?

but it's not that important. what is important is asking: ] Why not? I think it's a good job. You get to move around, you can work your own hours. Flexibility's nice.

[ she did courier jobs here and there for some of the other displaced when she'd first arrived. nothing steady, but just one-off jobs off their plate to help her make a little money. it wasn't something she enjoyed, but it had been a good way to get the lay of the land. ]

I still haven't decided what I want to do.

I'm not unhappy about it. It's just...a change. But I know that's how it is for everyone. I'm sure I'll sound better once I get started. I just haven't really done anything but get the job and do some initial orientation things.

[ but he'd like it once he got the hang of it and realized it still gave him time to hopefully do what he wanted to do: help people who were different.

he shrugs and shakes his head. ]

You got anything you're trying to decide between? [ let's talk about you, caroline. ] I'm sure there's a lot of suitors trying to hire you.

Because you want to be saving the world.

[ he has that hero complex, okay. he reminds her a lot of stefan, actually, except... well. stefan never wore a beard, and he never smiled at her the way marcos does. there were a lot of things stefan never did, actually. ]

You can save the world and pay the bills at the same time, you know. [ supposedly. that's what people kept telling her, anyway. caroline's never had to pay the bills before, so she has no real idea if that's possible or not. ] And don't call them suitors.

[ she wrinkles her nose at him as she pops a slice of hybrid citrus fruit into her mouth. definitely sweeter than a grapefruit. ]

I had a really good interview with the events committee. I think I'd be pretty good at it, but... [ a shrug ] It feels like everybody's trying to do important stuff. Is that good enough?

I want to help people like me. [ he doesn't know if that constitutes saving the world, though. maybe it's more...saving people who are different. who deserve a chance to live a long life when everything was stacked against them.

he sighs and twirls a piece of fruit around a finger before he pops it into his mouth. ]

What's wrong with the word suitors? It's not wrong. [ he can't help but tease now that he knows she doesn't want him to use the word. he's not going to push it but he has to needle her just a bit. ]

Why do you think that's not important? [ sounded important to him. ] Anything you want to do is going to be good enough, Caroline. It's important to you and it's important to people who hire you. You're going to be good at it and you want to do it. That's all that matters.

It's like a gentleman caller. [ caroline's really outing her gone with the wind obsession here. ] Suitors are romantic. Businesses that may or may not want to even give me a job are definitely not.

[ the woman she'd interviewed with had been nice enough, but ... well, this wasn't like interviewing for miss mystic falls or like being the only volunteer to run the homecoming carnival at school. in theory, there were other applicants, people who were just as if not more qualified to do this kind of work than caroline. she wasn't a shoo-in. ]

I just don't want to get my hopes up, you know? Like, I think this would be a really good job for me, but what if they don't want me?

[ there's that insecurity complex peeking out again. ]

Then, they're missing out on something good. [ he shrugs because, to him, it's that simple. he pops another piece of fruit into his mouth and smiles at her. ]

I get not getting your hopes up but stop thinking that they wouldn't want you. Anyone would be stupid not to want you.

[ she was willing to work hard, willing to put in the effort, and this was something she really wanted. there weren't a lot of people like that in the world. ]

You deserve this.

Stop, [ a playful shove to his knee, a small smile peeking out from the corner of her mouth. she's not blushing, either. don't even think it. ] You make me sound so great.

[ but, in reality, caroline didn't think that way about herself. she worked hard because she was so painfully aware of what it was like to be passed over for things, to be somebody's second choice. in the back of her mind, caroline hoped that trying so hard to be right would mean that someday, for someone, she'd be good enough.

which might explain why her heart seemed to skip a beat every time marcos so casually reaffirmed that she was. ]

You're great too, you know. Mister doom-and-gloom all the time has a nice smile and everything.

[ he shrugs because what's wrong with making her sound great? it's what he thinks and it's what he thinks everyone around her should think if they got to know her. ]

That's because I have eyes.

[ and he knows what he sees. anyway, her comment about him requires some attention and that attention is him making a face and trying really hard not to smile now that his smile was called out. ]

I don't smile. [ he did and he's not really clinging to that statement as fact but he has to resist a little. ]

[ that's just because he likes her, okay, it's not rational fact. she's willing to admit he might have the smallest possible bias when it comes to this topic. ]

Yeah, heart eyes.

[ ooh! gauntlet thrown, everybody. ]

I can't believe you're going to sit here and pretend like you're not totally smiling right now.

I don't even know what heart eyes are.

[ ...kind of true. he's all ears, though. please explain these eyes he has. ]

I'm not pretending. I'm not smiling!

[ he was doing his level best not to smile though just to try and prove her wrong. ]

I smile sometimes. I'll change my answer to that.

[ whatever, marcos diaz, you know what they are because you're doing them right now. ]

You're basically the heart eyes emoji, okay.

[ and she demonstrates, albeit a little exaggerated, her eyes practically sparkling as she shines a bright smile in his direction. it's... not that much different from how she looks at him normally. ]

It's not a big thing to smile, you know. It's nice. You have a nice smile.

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heliophilous - 2019-07-24 23:32 (UTC) - Expand

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