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

[mercurio]

[prompto, for his part, is looking over the counter tops and seeing if he can catch a glimpse of some bottle behind all the cans and other preserved foods. no such luck. there's quite a variety of drinks, but not quite the alcoholic ones, not that he can see.]

Yeah, uhm... With our super cool shaved head looks, we definitely make a lasting impression.

[he sighs and then squats to look under the sink. nothing much here.]

I guess there isn't the possibility of being picky. [he looks up from his squat at her] I'm Prompto, by the way.

[mechanisch]

[ Anyone here likely has somewhat of an advantage on her in terms of height or even sheer size; she's dressed in clothes that are at least two sizes too big for her, the pants rolled up several times at the hem and the sleeves of the shirt similarly adjusted to bunch at her elbows.

And she pauses in her munching to adjust one of them, nudging one up from where it's started to slip down her arm before he introduces himself. ]

Gaby. Now we can say we've exhausted all immediate options, unless we find someone who's resorted to more... creative methods.

[mercurio]

[he seems comfortable where he squats, and so he stays put, considering her words.]

Creative? Like, what? Adding club soda to orange juice, or something?

[his favorite drink is the fantasy equivalent of capri-sun, he is definitely 20 years old and a total innocent in all this.]

'cause I could go for that, to be honest...

[mechanisch]

[ If nothing else, his current choice of position leaves her being the one towering over someone else for a change, which is a new experience in and of itself; she's accustomed to a very specific type of neck strain.

Oh, Prompto, you sweet summer child; Gaby's lips purse with the effort to hold back a slight grin before she shakes her head. ]

Does that even taste good?

[ No, what she's envisioning is adding something a little more extreme to OJ, unless she can bribe someone into scoring her some liquor on the sly. Or they could always try their chances with the kombucha. ]

[mercurio]

[he shrugs, rolling back and forth on the balls of his feet. he rubs at his nose with the back of his hand, making no attempt to move unless they got a plan ready to go.]

Maybe? Depends. It's like fizzy orange soda!

[he can tell that she isn't exactly convinced.]

Any other ideas though? I'm all ea- [wow, don't look at his ears; he rubs at them with his hands] I'm down for most anything. [aka: it's boring af in this place.]

[mechanisch]

[ Well, she wouldn't have looked at his ears until he actually started rubbing at them; now, her gaze flicks briefly to that point, but there's no remark made before she hoists open the fridge door with a decisive pull, rummaging around until she finds what she'd spotted earlier: the kombucha.

Gaby plunks the bottle down on the counter and screws the cap off, giving it a cursory sniff. How does one even tell if it's gone bad? Or maybe that's the point. ]

Not many ways to pass the time otherwise. [ Alright, so which one of them is going to be brave first? ]

[mercurio]

[at that, he gets up, leaning against the counter and watching her go about the bottle she just happened to find.]

I was thinking of making my own deck of cards.

[is what he supplies, before leaning forward just a bit to see if he can also catch a sniff of the opened bottle. unsurprisingly, he makes a face.]

What is that?

[mechanisch]

I'm not sure how to explain it as it was explained to me. Some sort of tea?

[ It smells as though it's been accumulating its fair share of fermentation, but someone had mentioned it as a potential option for getting drunk, and inevitably desperation wins out.

She doesn't quite pinch her nose while she takes a swig, but there's a face she makes as it fizzes against her tongue, not entirely unpleasant. The flavor definitely leaves something to be desired, and she mutters something under her breath in German while she tries to decide if it's even worth drinking again. ]

[mercurio]

Tea?

[prompto's eyebrows rise at that, feeling slightly more positive at the prospect that it's a familiar kind of drink, if nothing else.]

[he watches, expectant, as she takes a swig, his interest catching.]

...so, how was it? Worth the risk?

[mechanisch]

Undecided.

[ She's still trying to gauge whether or not she wants to chance another sip, but in the meanwhile she'll hold it out to him, raising both eyebrows as if to extend an invitation to share.

Mostly, she wants to know if he finds it as potentially disgusting as she does; the jury is still out either way, but maybe she doesn't have to be alone in her potential suffering. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO, PROMPTO. ]

[mercurio]

[he can almost hear gladio's voice in his head say "when a girl offers you a drink, you don't leave her waiting on ya," which is probably something gladio would never say, but prompto can't help it. he takes the bottle at the invitation anyway, looking at it skeptically before glancing up at gaby.]

[he's not sure he wants to, but he's going to go for it anyway.]

Better than outright disgust, I guess...

[sounding a bit uncertain, he sniffs at it first before bringing the bottle to his lips, closing his eyes as if expecting some kind of pain, and taking a sip--enough to taste... whatever it is he's tasting.]

[unsurprisingly, he's making a face at it:] Okay, uh, really underline on that undecided. It has-- this weird aftertaste...

[it's all that lovely bacteria, for sure.]

[mechanisch]

[ Save for when a group of her fellow mechanics at the chopshop had tried to install their own still with results that were purported to be able to liquefy a man's insides, there's not much Gaby won't try at least once in regards to alcohol or anything that's rumored to even contain a hint of liquor.

She's running her tongue against the corner of her mouth, trying to decide if that lingering taste is a result of her own nausea or whatever appears to be growing at the bottom of that bottle. It's possible the two are very, very connected. ]

Here. [ She's motioning to take the drink from him and force another swig, as if a second attempt will be enough to improve the situation, muttering something in German low and under her breath upon swallowing. ]

[mercurio]

[he tilts his head at the words she's uttered, not really understanding them. he figures he wasn't supposed to. it sounds like they're sharing, right? but, still, prompto decides to lean against the counter instead, arms crossed as he studies her expression.]

[he snickers]

It's so bad that you wanna keep having it, right?

[prompto is, by no means, an expert.]

Hopefully there's better stuff outside the safehouse. --not that I drink a lot. But. Food, too, y'know.

[mechanisch]

Pretty much.

[ If nothing else, she can suck it up long enough to see if there's anything resembling a buzz provided she keeps drinking, but whether or not he wants to keep pace with her is entirely up to him. ]

You know what I could do with? [ She's already been thinking about food, too, as she winces through another swig of the kombucha. ] A hamburger.