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meadowlarklogs2019-07-13 09:16 am
- !arrival log,
- dceu: diana prince,
- detroit become human: kara,
- dogs b&c: nill,
- game of thrones: sansa stark,
- gangsta: alex benedetto,
- gangsta: worick arcangelo,
- kingdom hearts: riku,
- kingdom hearts: roxas,
- kingdom hearts: sora,
- marvel comics: billy kaplan,
- mcu: carol danvers,
- mcu: daisy johnson,
- mcu: steve rogers,
- overwatch: soldier 76 (jack morrison),
- the man from uncle: gaby teller,
- the man from uncle: illya kuryakin
ARRIVAL LOG 012
WHERE: A research outpost not far from New Amsterdam proper
WHEN: November 22
WHAT: The twelfth arrival
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Body horror, general horror, experimentation on animals and humans, violence, etc.
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. Murmuring voices saying indistinguishable words. There's fleeting memories of something else, too: an accident, and the pain that followed. Chaos, the echoing noise of gunshots overhead, and the cold sensation of your body going into shock. None of it can be grasped onto in any detail, the flashes of memory more like a fading dream than any real recollection.
When you fully awaken, you'll find your movements to be weighed down and heavy, your body struggling to respond the way that you want it to. Your hair is grown out, perhaps even past its usual length, but not maintained in any way, and you're wearing a hospital gown. The room around you is small and sparsely furnished. There's a bed, the one you woke on, along with a desk pushed against the adjacent wall, but no other distinguishing features. It feels, somehow, that you have been here for a while -- even if you can't put any of the memories together.
As soon as you leave the room, you'll find that your sense of something being very wrong is proven correct. You exit into a dark hallway. There are other doors lining said halls, most of them leading into rooms similar to the one you just left. The area you're in seems to be some sort of dormitory wing, intended for the people who work here, though for now none of those people can be found. Sometimes lights will flicker up and down the maze of halls, but the facility remains dark, and for the most part, quiet. Is it the middle of the night, or is this place completely abandoned? Soon enough you'll come across others like you: wearing only a hospital gown, confused, lost, barefoot.
Unfortunately, it turns out that you're not the only ones here. There's a loud blaring noise that rings through the halls, and somewhere in the facility, a door is unlocked and the proverbial floodgates are opened. At first it won't be clear what happened, but then you'll hear them: scrabbling claws, guttural growls, the thundering approach of creatures that want nothing more than to feed.
They might round a dark hallway and leap, claws extended, or burst out of the vents to wrap around you, fangs ready to sink in. They're twisted, grotesque creatures, but one thing that all of them have in common is their golden glow and eyes. It will take smarts, strength, or speed to survive. Killing them is an option, but without any weapons or your usual powers, it might not be as simple of a task as it once was. Running and hiding is an option, too. There is a new power you've been granted — maybe the stress of the situation will allow you to discover it sooner rather than later. Or maybe with enough teamwork, you can all find a way out.
But don't worry: help is on the way.
Instead of the usual head's up from El, the Displaced receive a very different kind of message to tell them of a batch of newcomers who need their assistance:
@100342
Well, well, well, I'll save the trivial "nice to see you again" for later, as it's time to put yourselves together and go. Funny story, a bunch of your pals have been located somewhere outside the city. I know what you're going to ask: How do I know? Let's just say I have some access to points that usually lay beneath the radar to keep it friendly.
Since I was feeling generous, I left you a gift to bring them back. The best part is that you don't have to drive, the worst part is that if you miss it, it'll be gone and you'll be SOL.
Don't be late, or there won't be much to salvage.
Along with the message, all of the Displaced will receive a GPS pin and a warning that they're on the clock. They'll need to reach their destination before 1900 hours or they'll be left behind, and when they arrive at the place in question, they'll see why. It's a boarded-up entrance to a subway station, one that seems to have been out of commission for some time now. Once they break their way in and walk down the stairs into the abandoned station, they'll find that there's a train waiting for them.
How did it get here when most of the public transit is still down? How is it functional? Why hasn't anyone noticed this on a map before? Who knows, but the Displaced will be able to board, and as soon as it hits 1900 hours the train will shudder into movement. There are no announcements to let them know where it's going, so they'll simply have to wait it out.
As it turns out, the train takes them all the way out of the city. When it reaches the city gates, it's let through with no incident, and then it continues on its journey, winding a path through the wooded area that at least a few of the Displaced have explored before. When it finally comes to a stop about an hour and a half later, they'll be let off at an outpost. They're miles out of the city now, too far to easily walk back, and before them lies an unmarked building. On top of that, the train keeps going without them. For the moment, everyone's stranded.
They'll be able to get inside the building with little trouble, as it's from this research outpost that the new set of Displaced will need to be collected. By the time that they arrive it's late into the night so it might not be surprising that the place feels abandoned, but it won't take long to realize there's a commotion. A pack of genetically altered animals have been unleashed on the Displaced who woke up here, so they'll need to help everyone get out in one piece and then figure out a way back to the city.
Some notes about the research lab and these monsters:
◉ The building is six stories tall. The first floor has a lobby/waiting area, a cafeteria, and some office spaces. The second floor is the dormitory floor, which is where the employees would usually sleep if they chose to stay at the facility while working rather than returning to the city in between shifts. This is where the new arrivals woke up. Floors three through five are dedicated to lab spaces, which is where the actual research work is usually done. Most of these laboratories are going to be locked, but that won't stop Displaced from breaking into them if they want. Some of the lab rooms also have exam rooms, rooms with gurneys, stacked and locked cages (some even holding sedated monsters), and other evidence that both people and animals were being experimented on here. Displaced will be able to swipe lab equipment and medical supplies, such as syringes, vials/beakers, first aid supplies, scalpels, bandages, multi-lens microscopes, etc. The top floor is dedicated to offices for higher-ranked scientists, so think of it as the C suite. All floors also have bathrooms, of course, and the dormitory wing also has showers.
There are also a few rooms which might be of interest to the Displaced. These will all be locked tight and will have to be opened through brute force, as they won't respond to any of the Displaced's implants. Of course, a locked door doesn't always mean that there's no way through, especially for this bunch — breaking the locking mechanism, brute force, or even finding a control mechanism are some ways the Displaced can get inside. As for what's beyond these doors:
◈ An operating room. It's clean and emptied out, but the consoles, surgical tools, and lighting make it obvious that surgeries are performed here.
◈ A room that holds in-progress experimental subjects. Some of the animals look almost normal, while others are further along in their mutations, but all of them are sedated and either held suspended in fluid pods or kept in cages. It's possible they could be woken up with enough effort, but why would you?
◈ A morgue. This is where all of the discarded animals and yes, even scientists are kept. It's essentially a dumping ground for failed experiments. The corpses are in sliding drawers as you would expect from any morgue, but opening these drawers will reveal disturbing monstrosities. Some of them are humans, but only barely recognizable given that they've been ripped limb from limb. Others are various animals twisted into impossible positions, or with added appendages/defects. These are experiments where the mutations didn't enhance them, but made it so they could no longer survive.
◉ The monsters who are attacking have the same golden glow and eyes that some of the Displaced have already seen, but they are not the same ones. They look like different kinds of animals that have been spliced with monster DNA, and that DNA has warped them into different forms. Here are a few examples of the monsters, though you are also welcome to come up with other types based off of what we've already outlined:
◈ A large snake, except that it also has four small legs (two near the front of its body, two near the back) which allow it to skitter around rather than slither, making it much faster than any snake has a right to be. It's large and strong enough to strangle its victim, making it difficult to remove by a single person. Don't let it unhinge its jaw, it's got way too many teeth.
◈ A hyena-creature with impressive amounts of agility, due to the fact that it seems like almost all of its joints are double-jointed. It can turn its head almost completely around as well, making it an extremely skilled hunter. Its fangs protrude from the top of its mouth in rows of three like a shark. Even if it's disemboweled or it loses a limb, this creature will still continue to attack in a frenzy.
◈ A stag beetle, except that it's the size of a medium-sized dog. It's still able to fly and its pincers can do damage if it's allowed to get too close. Worse than that, they tend to move in swarms of three or four. Beneath the hard shell are human-like eyes with dilated pupils that follow shadows and light.
◈ A humanoid creature that stands on two legs. Its eyes glow in the dark, catching bits of light from a distance. Upon closer inspection, the creature has snake-scale skin, a long, flickering tail, and claws for hands. These scales are incandescent in nature, shimmering whenever they're underneath enough light.
◈ A sloth-like mimic that cries from a distance for help from hidden, high places. Once it hears a voice, it can mimic it, drawing someone in toward it due to it sounding like another Displaced. Getting too close will leave them within reach of the creature that's all arms and little else, leaving a toxic and poisonous trap to weaken its prey. Its hiding places include the rafters, where it may drop on those looking for their friends. Under certain lights, the slothly creature's eyes are humanoid in appearance, sharp and aware — yet still gold.
◈ Humanoid creatures that give off a thick, putrid smell of decay. Not unlike zombies, they move sluggishly, but upon closer inspection, it appears that something is off about these people. They have claws, sharp rows of teeth, and skin that flakes off with every shuffle of their feet. Potentially some early or later stage experiment of the snake-skinned humanoids. They're highly aggressive and will follow someone with the intention of attacking until they're incapacitated.
◈ A cross-breed insect that looks like a mix of a wasp and a mosquito, but is only the size of a dime. Its sting can draw out a large amount of blood, sedating the individual. The toxin that they inject will leave large, red welts, depending on the efficiency of the immune system. They're blotchy and painful. Once they have found a target, they will swarm around that individual all at once.
◈ A naked creature resembling a dog with a reptile's body, with patches of hair. This creature has long rows of crooked fangs protruding from its lips, mouth and tongue, with a large, dilated eye. It has sharp scales on its back to keep it from being touched, but it has a thirst for blood. This creature will attempt to surprise its prey from around corners, jumping onto someone's shoulders with hopes of sticking to them and drawing blood like a reptilian tick.
◉ These monsters will move through the vents in the building and up and down the stairwells, but they can be killed like any other creature. Or hidden from, if you want to go cry in a bathroom stall or something.
Once the newbies have been collected and taken outside, the Displaced will have to decide if they want to try and get back to New Amsterdam on foot or wait to see if a train arrives back at the stop. The train will return 24 hours after it originally dropped the Displaced off to return everyone to the city, though they won't get any indication of that other than a cryptic hint from Cassius.
Have fun camping, hiking, waiting it out in the building barricaded somewhere, or whatever else you decide to do!
A final note for characters who have been in Meadowlark from the first arrival log (Bobbi Morse, Clarke Griffin, Kylo Ren, Loki, Ojiro Sniper, Rey, Stephen Strange): You are free to have your character recognize any of the newcomers as having been on the bus crash during that first log, if you want! Have these characters been kept in this facility all this time?
For new characters, all of your characters were "present" during the very first log, but either injured to the point that they couldn't trail after the first bunch to the safehouse, or killed during the initial crash and resulting fire fight. We'll leave whichever it is up to you, though your character will not remember the circumstances beyond the vague recollections alluded to at the start of this log. For now, all signs point to them being in captivity after that first crash was cleaned up and swept under the rug.
Eventually, the Displaced will all make it back into the city one way or another. What the newcomers will find is a city that is very much in recovery mode. There was a recent disaster that has left the city badly damaged and killed people in the hundreds of thousands. For their first few days the new characters will be confined to the safehouse (more on that below), but after that they'll be let out to explore the city as they wish.
◉ Relief efforts. Given that the city is still trying to rebuild and will be for some time, many of the Displaced have already thrown themselves into helping, whether through their normal jobs or by pitching in with the relief organization called PRESERVE. Everyone can pitch in with delivering supplies, escorting people who've lost their homes to relief centers, furnishing and repairing shelters, and so on. Unfortunately, only a few trains are in working order, so getting around is going to be more difficult than it would be normally. Hope you don't mind walking!
◉ Golden-eyed animals. While they're not like the monsters in the research outpost, there will be animals with golden eyes who've somehow found their way into the city. This is noteworthy given that animals are very rarely seen in a megacity. They're not aggressive, and if anything they seem sickly. Some of them look like strange chimeras, like two or three different animals mashed together. Others have too many limbs or eyes. Either way, they will die within a few days of arriving, so it's also possible to stumble on strange corpses scattered around.
◉ All Star game. It's not all doom and gloom, thankfully. The city is trying its best to pull itself up by its bootstraps and carry on despite all the tragedies, which means that the annual soccer All Star Game is still on. Near the sports stadium there will be stalls selling food and merchandise, bands performing, and so on. It's not a full-blown festival the likes of which New Amsterdam is known for, but it is a place to swing by if anyone needs a break.
Please refer to the Setting and Locations posts for more ideas of what the city has to offer, and you can also check out the Aftermath Post from the last event and the July Calendar if you want a better idea of what's going on in New Amsterdam!
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.
◉ 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.
◉ It can be assumed that new arrivals will be told that any requests or queries can go through El for the time being; Gaby is currently not available.
◉ New characters will be given rudimentary access to the network upon arrival in the safehouse, whether they had their ID set up by Cassius or they still need it set up by El. They will be able to make posts and replies, but their messages will be anonymous and they do not have inboxes yet. El will restrict widespread internet access while ze reviews everyone's preset backgrounds or reviews what's already in place. Once El has set up IDs — or revised/retained Cassius's work, the newbies will be free to go. See the comment below to learn more about this!
◉ New characters will not be allowed to leave the safehouse until NOVEMBER 26 (JULY 21). 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 — or review the ID that was set up by Cassius. We have another option for IDs this log which will be explained in a comment below; it's opt-in!
Welcome to Meadowlark, newbies! You're now free to post to the network and logs comms. To reiterate, your characters will not be allowed out of the safehouse until NOVEMBER 26 (JULY 21). 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 had job potentials reviewed with El in order for their false IDs to be set up.
If you would like your character to have a wildly inappropriate background or incredibly unique setup by Cassius, please comment to the background review below! Since Cassius has a different set of accesses and resources available, he'll be able to provide a different path for your character. This background does not need to be accurate to your characters' skill set — in fact, it's more likely that it wouldn't because Cassius is a troll that way. El will try to revise it into working order, but ze can only do so much.
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 July 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 July 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 August 1 at 12 AM UTC and close on August 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.
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Are you offering to be an elf? [ her nose crinkles up, but she takes a moment to take carol in. her hair is choppy and uneven, like she'd taken a pair of scissors to it herself, but she has cheerful eyes and gaby can practically feel the itch to be moving rolling off her.
she relates. ] I don't think you meet the height requirement for an elf. But I could use a friendly reindeer.
[ clip clop, carol. ]
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I don't see a sleigh around anywhere. Unless I'm supposed to carry you. [she grins mischievously, standing from her bunk and stretching. if she's gonna help, she should at least be nice and limber first.] Carol the reindeer doesn't quite have the ring of Blitzen, but I'm confident I'll be just as smooth a ride.
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[ so no, carol cannot piggyback her at this time. mostly because gaby is briefly taken for a moment by carol's smile and also the stray realization that she doesn't think she'd ever had a piggyback ride? her father was something of a workaholic and her mother was frail and gaby wasn't allowed to approach the american soldiers that played with the younger children in berlin...
she shakes her head to pull herself out of the past. it's not productive to dwell. ]
It means lightning in German... sparkle.
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gaby, you've got yourself a plus one.] Sparkle, huh. [if only she could right now. then gaby'd really have reason to call her blitzen.]
I'm in if you can convince him. Do I get to drive? It only seems fair if I'm volunteering to be a reindeer.
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I suppose we can take turns. Or we could borrow a second.
[ they could go on adventures side by side and more importantly, gaby won't have to relinquish control of the bike. carol seems nice and gaby isn't opposed to a bike ride, but she is a control freak. ]
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Let's see about finding a second one. I'm not one to let other people drive unless I'm incapacitated, and that look in your eye tells me that you're not either...
[honestly, riding side by side sounds comfortably familiar. it's been awhile, sure, but carol's always liked knowing she's had a wingman to look out for her.]
Any reason other than me being stuck on safe house arrest that this can't happen sooner? [patience. the constant struggle with this one.]
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[ gaby can ask illya to borrow the bike once she leaves and set about finding another one, but she can't do anything until blitzen has an id for the real world. with it how it is right now, gaby doesn't trust chancing it.
no doubt the police would question no id and the una would probably pick up on it. ]
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Can't leave. Can't sleep. Probably shouldn't be loud and disturb the others. [a sigh.]
Would it be pushing it to ask if you want to grab a night cap?
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Luckily, I happen to know there more than enough alcohol here, even while Gaby is on holiday. [ a beat. ] There is another Gaby. She tends to do the welcomes once people arrive here.
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[because what else is there to do? if she thinks too hard about her current situation she's liable to break something in anger and she really doesn't want to be known as that person who likes to fly off the handle, as much as that might be an accurate assessment of her personality.]
Same name and here you are helping people get settled. Does she look like you too? [is this some weird sort of multiple universe or clone thing??? carol holds up a finger to stop gaby's answer before she can start.]
You know what? Drink first and then you can answer that question. [as an afterthought...} Please.
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Drink first, [ gaby agrees, leading them to the kitchen so she can grab a stool and climb up onto the counter to fish a bottle from the very top and very back of a cabinet. instead of stepping down, she sits down on the counter, crossing her legs. ]
Glasses or no?
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Yeah. [only because this isn't life or death and she's not depressed drinking.] Let me handle that though.
[carol opens one of the uppers, wincing as it squeaks, to grab two heavy bottomed short glasses.] Ice or straight up?
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I can chill it, no need for ice.
[ in the safety of the aptly named safehouse, gaby doesn't hesitate to use her power -- frost spreads out from her fingertips, creeping swiftly across the bottle like she is one of the little snow fairies from disney's fantasia. which was never released in east germany, but gaby had watched it in a west berlin theater in 1952 so take that soviet union! ]
Now it won't be weak.
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We definitely wouldn't want that. [she scoots the glasses closer, allowing gaby to fill them.]
Real pours. None of that bartender shifty business. [she's been around the galaxy and the one constant she's discovered (other than death and taxes) is that when given the opportunity, the bartender will short pour you if he thinks you're not looking.]
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Hopefully that will suffice or we will need to find larger glasses.
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It's a start. [and with that carol lifts her glass to toast the occasion.]
Here's to ridiculous glowing chests and the powers that come with them.
[she prefers tequila, but the clear liquid is unapologetically strong and she's glad for the chill because she's sure it'd burn on the way down otherwise.]
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it's not a bad toast and gaby lifts her glass in return before drinking half the glass in one go. now it looks like a reasonable amount of alcohol to anyone that may stumble into the kitchen. gaby's got not looking like an alcoholic on lock.
she just looks like she likes drinking. ]
I don't look like Gaby, no.
[ drink first, then answer the question, that was the deal. ]
Only a coincidence.
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it takes a lot to get her wasted. always has. unless this is rocket fuel, she should be safe for now, generous serving size or not.]
Well, she might be the regular Gaby, but seeing as how I've met you first, I'm going to think of her as Gaby 2.0.
What do you do when you're not offering to help otherworldly refugees?
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[ it's more gaby's name than gaby's, but she isn't going to ask her to stop using it. gaby teller understands that codenames are necessary and she knows gaby needs to be safe. plus, this is her home. ]
I'm a mechanic, that is my day job.
[ that i'm gonna write down one day... ]
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Who does she think she is?
[her voice sounds huffy, but her eyes crinkle in unspoken amusement.]
I suppose it's too much to hope that vehicles in the future don't break down. Good for you. Is there still a stigma against women working traditionally male jobs?
[god she hopes not. it's not like she had the chance to ask natasha (or pepper or nebula even) when they were talking about taking down thanos and bringing everyone back.]
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[ it hadn't stopped her in the fifties and sixties, it isn't going to stop her in 2511. plus, you know, gaby is that good. she has a tendency to impress people with her knowledge. the fact that she did it in a minidress might have helped.
she plays to her strengths. ]
I can give you a tour, in a few days, if you'd like.
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[there's a certain admiration in carol's voice which is reserved another woman who ia no nonsense, who isn't afraid to take those preconceived notions about what a woman can and can't do and shove them down the first mouthy asshole's throat, but carol also means it in the less platonic sense sense.
carol's always liked women who were strong, whether that be physical strength or in their convictions. in 2018, carol danvers might not have had the time to flirt with gaby teller, but right here, stuck in the safehouse and sharing an admittedly very strong drink, carol can admit that it's okay to flirt. she has time.
carol leans a little closer, an honest to god smile spreading across her face.]
Yeah, I'd like that a lot. You can show me what you can do with an impact wrench and a little engine grease.
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these are questions that don't have answers. ]
I can certainly turn something on.
[ she can't. with an impact wrench and some grease she can take off a lug nut, but she isn't stupid, she is being flirted with and she is fine with it. she hasn't been flirted with since alexander vinciguerra tried to steal her away from her fiancé and while he was very, very handsome, he was also a nazi sympathizer. it was off putting. ]
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I'm sure that you can.
[carol knows full well what an impact wrench is good for. she's not super proficient with vehicle repair, but she is mechanically inclined. she's pleased that gaby isn't opposed, especially considering that she can't recall the last time she flirted with another person.]
Mechanics are supposed to be good with their hands. Do you know who else has a deft hand?
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Let me take a guess. [ she pretends to think for a moment, tapping her chin before taking a slow sip of her drink, watching carol over the rim of the glass. ]
Hmm. Could it be... you?
[ a strong contender. ]
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