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

[covertness]

Yeah, that's fair. [ the confusion. the discomfort at showing something he'd rather not show. bobbi gets that, katelin even more so because katelin doesn't have bobbi's expertise when it comes to dealing with unexpected and unexpectedly terrible situations. ]

That's a good question. No one really knows how or why we're here, but we are. Someone keeps dropping off busses with people from different times and worlds and universes, no memory but shaved heads and implants.

[ her own hand, briefly, goes to the back of her head where her hair is still far too short. ]

That, and powers and an empathy link when we touch.

[mercurio]

[yeah, he can see the evidence of her own shaved head, but clearly she's been here longer for it to have grown quite a bit. it'll take forever for hair to grow out.]

This sounds straight out of a video game, you know?

[it's his attempt at humor in this situation, but at least prompto's managing a smile. it hides how actually insane it all sounds.]

[it's a lot to take in.]

Could we, uh, start from the top? Like... I'm Prompto, I come from a place called Lucis. [no point in bringing up niflheim at this point; it makes him nervous to even admit it.] Lucis's the country. [but he can see how it doesn't ring at all with the other] We call our star Eos...?

No?

[covertness]

No.

[ sorry. bobbi katelin makes a somewhat apologetic face. ] The planet is Earth, the star's called the Sun and the country America. This city's New Amsterdam.

As for me, I know Earth, the Sun and America, but not New Amsterdam.

[ a beat. her apologetic expression twists into a sympathetic smile. ] I'm Katelin. Katelin Philips.

[mercurio]

[it's discouraging how unfamiliar everything is. most of his life, prompto has dealt with things unfamiliar with him; trudging through a life that wasn't quite his own, stumbling into a role that was perhaps too big for him, trying to fit in with people who were far out of his league in every sense imaginable...]

[at least there was something he thought he understood: eos, lucis, insomnia. the empire, the astrals.]

[now, what good is any of it?]

[his tone is light, even if everything feels wrong.] Nice to meet you. Prompto Argentum. I... I got by Prompto, with my friends.

[are any of them here?]

How did we end up in this place?

[covertness]

Hi, Prompto.

[ her smile wavers at his question, growing a little weaker. ]

None of us know. We've all woken up on a bus with no recollection how we got there. Shaved heads, an empathy link, new powers... has anyone talked to you about that yet?

[mercurio]

...very briefly.

[is it discouraging that they know so little, or encouraging that so many of them are in the same boat? prompto can't seem to choose one over the other. it's a slightly less anxiety-inducing feeling, though, and so he hangs on to that.]

The shaved heads I know about. A neural implant, right? Got all of us hooked on the internet or whatever... [he's a technophile, if he wasn't so shook he would be digging the shit out of it.] I dunno how to access this new power I have, or know what even it is, and... Well, we shake hands and we feel what the other feels, or something like it, right?

[he doesn't seem open to that idea.]

[covertness]

I think emotions are somehow involved in the powers. Triggering them. But I haven't run any proper experiments, so I can't say for sure.

[ did she mention she's a scientist? ]

Not just when we shake hands. Any skin on skin contact will do.

[mercurio]

Right, skin on skin. That's fun.

[he wonders if people now feel less inclined to hugs or other forms of physical contact. not that he'd go for hugs or anything, but...]

[looking up at her, prompto is immensely curious about the powers they supposedly have.]

What power do you have?

[covertness]

[ bobbi is a spy; manipulation is her trade and she lies for a living. she's lying to everyone except fitz and daisy right now about who she is -- hopefully with good reason and not in vain. point is: bobbi isn't scared of her own power because it's just enhancing something she's always known how to do, that she's been doing for a long time.

katelin philips, on the other hand, is no expert at emotional manipulation and so her features twist into something a little regretful. ]

Please don't ask me for a demonstration.

[ a beat. she glances away. ] I can - manipulate people, I think. Their emotions.

[mercurio]

[if there's one thing prompto is, is that he's respectful. she tells him not to ask for a demonstration, and so prompto won't; it makes sense that she wouldn't want to. manipulating people sounds like a terrifying prospect in every sense. it could be a positive--under certain circumstances--but used wrongly and it could cause some serious damage.]

[it's what he thinks anyway.]

Huh... Cool, but kinda scary.

[he offers her a smile if she turns back to look at him. he leans forward on his knees, feeling somewhat more comfortable.]

How did you find out that you could do that?

[covertness]

The blue glow kind of gives away when we're using our powers. It just —happened. I'd tell someone to calm down and they would. I put two and two together quick enough after that.

[ she smiles back, a little tentatively. katelin clearly isn't too keen on her powers. but she'll use them for good, promise!! (the same holds for bobbi, but she has far fewer qualms.) ]