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]

[So someone is either conducting experiments, or trying to dump their cargo to avoid discovery. Neither conclusion is particularly pleasant or preferable over the other. In either case, they are at the mercy of ignorance, a position Armitage never likes to be in.]

Broken out by this “Morningstar”?

[forcevisions]

The very same. We were lucky they were there. Walking around this city with no identity on our implant is a good way to get taken. Recovered, probably, by whoever took us. Instead they've made it so we can move around and hopefully learn more.

[harmistice]

[Armitage absorbs every kernal of information she gives him, but none if it comes close to being enough to make sense of how he’d gotten here or what was going on now. Still, his pokerface is better than Rey’s (though, not by much) so he opts not to bely just how frustrated he is.]

Not very much of a rescue operation, is it?

[His tone suggests the question is rhetorical.]

[forcevisions]

Well, they're not meant to be a rescue operation.

[ There's some defensiveness there. The Resistance is 12 people and a walking carpet all jammed into her dead foster dad's weed van at this point, so like. Morningstar is doing just fine. ]

They're rebels. They're trying to fight against an unjust government, not save us. They just happened to be the only ones who care enough to do it — and for what it's worth, they're doing a great job.

[harmistice]

[Oh. How cute. Rey just hands him all that information in one nice neat little package. It takes effort not to openly laugh at her defensiveness. Of course she would feel that way.]

Are they? History might tell a different story.

[The very same story the galaxy will tell about the Resistance, he imagines. He glances up at the ceiling of the safehouse, and then down to the torn sleeve of his jacket.]

Success is rarely measured by the amount of holes in one's clothing.

[forcevisions]

Then give them back, if that's what you want.

[ Rey snarls it out. It feels personal. Of all the people she has met through this, who have come through Morningstar, she has scarcely wanted to throttle another as much — and she actually had attacked Kylo, ultimately. So that's saying something. She only has more control over her faculties now. Even Illya had not been such a pain. ]

But that clothing is all you have. You should be grateful.

[harmistice]

I'm wearing it, aren't I?

[That is all the gratitude he will find himself capable of showing. He is not one for gratitude by any stretch of the imagination. Even after spending many years being cast aside, disregarded, ignored, the only thing that had ever gotten him anywhere was being as ruthless and ruthlessly clever as humanly possible.

He hadn't been so strong on that second point as of late, but he could stick to his plain old ruthless guns just fine.]

Regardless, I cannot agree that there is any success involved here if there is still an ineffective government in power.

[Rebels or not, the First Order had also been in the business of removing ineffective government. The only difference was that the First Order was merely putting back the system which had already been established. They were the true power, not the New Republic.

He could not begin to guess the situation here without the history of the planet. And he does not imagine a scavenger has that information on hand.]

I do not suppose you have seen any other efforts first hand -- besides our retrieval.

[forcevisions]

I have.

[ She lifts her chin a bit, looking proud and stubborn and entirely unrepentant for her previous criticism. If anything, she seems to be made more stoic in the face of his continued critique. ]

Because I offered them my help in exchange for theirs. If you do the same, you'll see it yourself. Do you have experience staging rebellions? [ Spoken like somebody who doubts it because he looks like a drowned weasel. ]

[harmistice]

I see.

[Armitage can’t stop himself from scotfing. She is far too proud of herself for the badge of honor she isn’t wearing for an organization that can’t afford real clothes or lodging for their “refugees” so to speak. This girl was naive to think that their rescue mission was anythihg more than a recruitment tool.

Oh this silly sand rat.]

I have extensive experience in wrestling control from powers that should not be.

[So both a yes and a no — he avoids the oddly direct line of questioning without shying away from his reality.]

[forcevisions]

[ Something about his careful phrasing makes her brow furrow. She reaches intuitively for the Force, trying to feel him out, but — Nothing. Just the dull ache in her chest, punishment for the crime of daring to reach for what had always been hers. ]

Tell me about it.

[harmistice]

Perhaps I will tell you after you tell me what your interest is.

[He's definitely trying to wring her level of investment in the Resistance out of her. Plus, he knows the value of secrets and secrecy. To make his story sound important and worth knowing, he had to lean into it.]

[forcevisions]

I have experience too. [ Said somewhat coldly. Suspiciously, at the very least. It's hard to not know whether it's justified or not. Her instincts feel dull. ] None of the other rebels I've met acted like you.

[harmistice]

I prefer order over chaos.

[He'll let her draw her own conclusions from there. Much as he would like a grand reveal and to see the look on her face when he confirms her suspicions, he is not going to make such overtures in the safehouse of a rebellion, when he'd been forced to rely on Kylo Ren's guidance to get here in the first place.

Unlike his rebel adversaries, he knew well enough when he was outnumbered.]

Perhaps that is the difference you are so keen upon.

[forcevisions]

[ It sends a crawling, cold feeling up her spine. That gives Rey everything she needs to know — not enough to conclude that he is from her galaxy, least of all that he is one of the most powerful men in it. But that his ideals offer nothing in the way of common ground. ]

I've seen the likes of what order can justify. I'll take chaos.

[harmistice]

Pity.

[Something in his tone suggests that he doesn't really pity her at all. Or anyone else who might align with her ideology. Instead, he gives a simple shrug.]

I suppose we'll just have to see which form triumphs, won't we?

[He doesn't sound quite as smug saying that -- even if the First Order had essentially won the war, Kylo Ren had proven himself to be an abysmal leader. They might have had the power, back in their end of the universe, but without the firm guiding hand -- well, the First Order might soon lose its advantage.

He would not yet gloat over a victory that he could see with both eyes as horribly precarious -- not to mention the fact that he is not prepared to give Kylo Ren any credit for it if he does not have to.]

[forcevisions]

I suggest you learn how to hope for chaos.

[ She draws herself up a little straighter, stepping up closer. Were she taller than she is, she might be getting in his face. As it is, the six inches of difference mean she just looks like a petulant child next to him. ]

Or we'll all be in trouble.

[ Morningstar's loss is everyone's loss now. She steps around him. ]

Good luck settling in.

[harmistice]

[Armitage meets her eyes evenly, and they remain full of malice regardless of the height discrepancy. His amused smirk does fade some, making him look more dangerous and less smug. His hands unfold, like he is preparing for her to attack him.

She does not. He turns with her as she seeks to stalk past him.]

I should hope everyone to be as kind as you.

[There's just enough mildness in his tone that it becomes difficult to tell if he is being sincere with that statement. Once she is far enough away, he will turn back around and go back to what he was doing.]