ARRIVAL LOG 004

[larkers]

WHO: Everyone
WHERE: New Amsterdam
WHEN: Night of August 05
WHAT: The fourth arrival
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Coercion and loss of autonomy. Further notes at end of log.

> ARRIVAL LOG #004

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, bright sunshine and the rushing sound of a crowd flooding in, a heavy wave of warm air. 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 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. The sound of the crowd nearby carries on uninterrupted. Music, chatter and laughter, the occasional sound of a large splash into water. At the end of the alley opposite to where the van left you, the street opens out to a wide artificial river. Gathered on the banks, on several boats across the surface and in the water are hundreds of people: a giant pool party under the blazing summer sun. ◉ 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.

> THE PARTY

The message from El comes the same as previous: insistent, not waiting for any active attempt to open it. Scrolling within your vision as if being written while you're reading it. Who's ready for bus #4? Looks like they want you to have some fun this time, they've dropped them off right on top of the river party. Someone get down there and find them before they fall in, please. The New Amsterdam River Party is a near annual event, scheduled for whenever the heat begins to really climb. Located roughly at the middle of the river's length, six large boats take anchor, blocking any water commute for the day. Smaller boats move between them and the river banks, taking any passengers who'd prefer not to get wet back and forth. The area is decorated for the occasion, with several huge palm tree and mermaid sculptures curving over the river, flashing in alternating neon colors. Curling strings of bright lights are strung between them, dangling low and promising a truly flamboyant light show when the sun goes down. For the moment the the focus is fun under the sun. Colorful floats, balls and slides are strewn across the water and banks, with a wide array of water pistols, balloons and slings available at stalls. Beach umbrellas offer shade along the banks, and music blares from the boats, where food sellers have booths and tables to feed the crowd and provide plenty of cool drinks. Lifeguards take posts, watching everything with careful eyes, and large, marked stalls declare themselves to be skincare centers, handing out free sunscreen and reminding everyone to regularly reapply, especially if they've been in the water. In all the colorful, skimpy swimwear and sunglasses, six bewildered people in white scrubs are sure to stand out. Hopefully the citizens are having too much fun to care, but with such attentive lifeguards and event security around, it would be best to find the new arrivals in the crowd as quickly as possible.

> THE 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. ◉ While there were previously also NPC occupants of the safehouse, natives to New Amsterdam, these people have now been moved on to somewhere safer. A few of their belongings remain, discarded or accidentally abandoned. ◉ 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 AUGUST 09. 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 August 9 (November 16). 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 any questions or ideas about how you'd like to get your character involved in the world, or if they'd like to join Morningstar, 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 November calendar rundown for a look at things happening this month. As a reminder, AC for new characters 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 November 20 and close on November 27. 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

[harmistice]

You know what I mean.

[That is violently hissed between his teeth, and he feels the fiery urge to rip his arm from Kylo Ren's grasp -- but the urge dies down almost as soon as it flares. We need to leave. Now. It echoes in his head like a mantra, and there is no ability for him to refuse.

It doesn't feel quite right, and leaves him chewing his lip uncomfortably even as he is guided around by his arm.

And so, beyond his verbal protests, he does not actually hinder Kylo Ren's ability to escort him. He couldn't even if he tried, of course.]

Safehouse. Safe from whom?

[warfares]

The people that took you. [ The "obviously" hanging on the air between them, unsaid but very much felt. ] And brought you here.

[ The trend of dropping them into crowded public spaces has been consistent since the second round of arrivals. Something that itches at him for reasons he can't quite put his finger on.

They make slow progress through the crowd, Ren's fingers still curled ttightly around Hux's bicep. He's grateful for the gloves, for the additional layer between skin, because the last thing he needs is for Armitage Hux to realize just how unsettled he is. ] What do you remember?

[harmistice]

[Though Kylo Ren's fingers pinch his arm quite considerably, he is not the only one who is generally unsettled. Armitage is lost, mostly bald, in white scrubs with no memory of how he'd gotten there or the circumstances leading up to it.

He does not stay close to Ren because he wants to, but because he recognizes him as the safest and most familiar option in this case...which is a new low that he never could have imagined aspiring to.

Luckily, he opens the door to a more comfortable topic that brings him back to his confident fury, even as he remains closely huddled to his comrade in arms.]

We cornered what was left of the Resistance on Crait, shortly before you allowed them to slip away. [But that was obviously neither here nor there, at the present.] One moment, we'd entered the bunker, and the next...

[He gingerly picks at the white scrubs with obvious distaste to represent his arrival in New Amsterdam. Something is very wrong. Kylo Ren seems to be leading him to safety -- or to somewhere more private, where he can murder the hell out of him. Either way, now was hardly the time to lecture the "Supreme Leader" about how to win a war.]

[warfares]

[ The same as him, then; his final memories had been of Crait, of the bunker, and the feeling of Han Solo's dice dissolving beneath his fingers. ]

Nothing of the transport?

[ It's a long shot. Nobody from the previous waves has been able to offer further insight once the drug haze had lifted. Those that had been willing to talk. ]

[harmistice]

No.

[He does not sound pleased to give that answer. But even as he gives it, Armitage casts his eyes skyward, swallowing down the swell of nerves that follows. He can't even see the stars -- as if they would tell him what system they were in.

He can tell that Kylo Ren's attention isn't really on him -- he is using him for information. That gets his hackles up, and causes him to reach for the other man's hand in an effort to assert some authority.]

Enough of this. Start explaining. Where are you taking me? How long have you been here -- wherever here is?

[warfares]

A month, at least. [ possibly longer, his hair had already been showing signs of growth when they had been pulled from their own transport. someone — Fitz, perhaps; perhaps Daisy — had mentioned the possibility of it being more than a matter of weeks or months. that they might have been here for years. ]

We were pulled from a transport not unlike the one that brought you here. They thought we were weapons.

[harmistice]

Weapons.

[Armitage puzzles that out, frowning. How could a caravan of prisoners be confused for weapons? That would have to be some extremely faulty intelligence, and possibly a severe lack of technology. Looking around what he can see of New Amsterdam tells him that it isn't the latter.]

So "they" are staging a fight.

["An uprising", "a rebellion" are words you don't say out loud when you aren't apart of the controlling power. Even Hux, raised in the twilight of the fallen Empire, knows this.]

How have you been surviving here, if we are all considered misplaced assets?

[Because that's the only thing that seems to make sense to him. The only reason he could have woken up as he did, and the only reason Kylo Ren is bothering to rescue him now.]

Who is harboring you?

[warfares]

Agitating everyone, including the less savory elements of the city, it would seem.

[ mentions of Morningstar had almost always ended in confrontation, if not outright violence, which might have offended him if he were at all interested in the group's ideology. as it stands, the only thing Morningstar had going for them was familiarity, and even then recent events had led him to wonder at their objectivity.

it was certainly convenient for them, this monthly delivery of new converts. ]

Nobody is harboring me, [ he picks his next words carefully, ] I left the safehouse as soon as I obtained my ID.