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

[preceded]

[Just because the last thing he wants to do right now is fight with Jason, it doesn't mean he still isn't really expecting one- that he doesn't instinctively brace his feet and it's only the fact that Jason's own muscles don't tense, that he slides his hand up towards the base of Dick's neck, rather than darting out and getting it over with- that stops Dick from reaching out and stopping the hand from making contact.

After a moment, he almost wishes that he had. It's the sparks of blue that distract him first. The way it radiates through the barely there material of his shirt- the way it glows so much brighter beneath the bandages taped to Jason's. There's unease pricking along his skin- just another way that shows he's not something else, something he knows nothing about, and has no method to remove. Healed over so long, he hadn't even noticed anything had been placed there. Not at first.

His brother apologizes, and Dick stops staring at the space they're connected, and his eyes snap up to Jason's, head tilted back slightly to manage it] That's all you have to say?

[Just- weird as hell? After the surprise of the side effect passes, it's hard not to feel tugged under by the things that Jason feels. The guilt, ever present and so much at once- Dick almost has to wonder how he has room to feel anything else, and it takes him a second to differentiate the anger Jason feels from it. Softer, than he was expecting.

It's that, that has him letting out a slow breath, and reaching his hand up tentatively to curl around Jason's bare wrist] Okay, so. You're trying. I still am. I meant what I said.

[That what he did- however hard it was, however unfair, he only did because the city and Jason both needed him to. Because the brothers left under his care were counting on him to keep them safe, whether they really wanted to acknowledge it or not. There's regret, from his end of the bond- He doesn't know how to feel anything else, first and foremost where Jason is concerned. There's anger still too, at the situation at him- an apology, a feeling of guilt- it's not enough. Not for Dick, not right now. It's a start, and more than he's gotten where he's from- and he's starting to see that the man before him isn't the one he's familiar.

Never let it be said that he doesn't catch on eventually. More so, there's grief, an open wound that never quite heals, and far below that- faint, pain, guilt, so old and constant- that Dick hardly registers them as something that should not belong.]

Are we? Fine, that is?

[He thinks maybe, it's about time, that you circled back to the original questions he wanted to know. The things that he now thinks have some merit. What do you know about him, what kind of greeting were you really expecting?] What kind of leads? I'll take care of Damian- that's a given, but if you think I can't multitask-

[He's gonna get in your way so bad, just to make you regret it. There's a tentative smile, curling at the corner of his mouth- it feels wrong on his face, directed at Jason, after all these years] Anyone ever tell you that you need to work on your delivery?

[reneger]

Yeah, you. Numerous times. ( jason gave dick an in, physical contact, a hand to hold and he took it. it's--strange, he's not sure he likes it. especially not like this; he's not trapped but not free to go, either, and it makes dealing with all of this a shitton harder. dick was the shift in dick causes a shift in jason, too: less intensity, softening around the edges even if it's obvious from the touch dick has on him that he's not quite sure what the hell he's doing here.

the guilt lessens a bit when dick smiles, replaced with a kindness in turn: more relief than anything else. relieved that he's not fucking pissed, relieved that dick isn't still doing the Voice even if he has all kinds of reasons to justify it. jason is a fuck up. has caused so many problems. never learned to stop causing them and can't justify learning to now. he's set in his ways as much as dick is in his own--and they don't match up. their vision of justice is too different, regardless of how close they've become. )

We're mostly fine. Or were. ( softer still. the rage and irritation is gone, dick's stupid smile has the tendency to do that. they're not fighting, jason has no reason to get fighty. as long as no one notices. ) It's a long story. You've been back as NW for a while, 's far as when I'm from. Back in Bludhaven. We went on stakeouts every once in a while. Had Sunday brunches with the family. Extended ones included.

( kate kane, cassandra, steph, duke. luke. you know, the bunch. anyway-- )

Not your kinda leads.

( dick grayson fights from the shadows but not the ones jason prefers. he deals in shady business but doesn't get down and dirty with it, that's just fine, they all have their thing. jason will respect dick's, as long as dick doesn't bitch him out about the shit he pulls. which. obviously isn't going to last for long, but. jason lets that sit for a moment, follows it up quickly enough: )

And all that's kinda been put on hold, can't do much when I can't stretch out comfortably.

( holes in his chest sure are inconvenient. shoulders slump a bit and the empathy bond spikes up with discomfort as it stretches skin, causes strain against stitches. ) You're gonna have to find your own leads to follow. I'll share shit I think is relevant.

[preceded]

Maybe actually take it under advisement.

[He says it lightly, but he means it. If either of them were in a physical position to do something about it, Dick knows that this situation would have escalated much more quickly than it did, with a much slower down period, at the first sign of Jason's threatening comments.

When the further information comes- Dick can't stop the confusion from curling around the bond, or the way it makes his brows furrow. Can't help the soft pang of sorrow- longing. Thinking of Tim lately, his first little brother, if he's more honest with himself than he likes to be- hurts. He's pushed him away, made moves he can't undo- doesn't want to- and their already fractured family has broken even further as a result.

Even before then, something like this was so far out of reach, the idea of it is laughable. Except that he can see Jason means it, can feel that- There's a sharp pulse of grief, of guilt, of self-loathing, before Dick's trying to stamp it down has hard as he can.

Nightwing and Bludhaven are far removed from him now. The last thing he wants to do is get into it now, so rather shortly-] There is no Bludhaven. No NW. Just the big, bad B.

[And his tone does nothing to suggest he'll take arguments or questions on the subject. His grip on Jason's wrist slackens- almost like he's determined to draw away, when he can't control what does and doesn't come through the link- but this is the first time he's felt like he's understood Jason, even a little- so he's sticking it out for the moment, no matter how uncomfortable.

There's wry amusement- the kind that strongly suggests, 'nice try'. He can't say he wasn't expecting it- but the more loathe Jason is to share the information or what he's doing- experience says it's more necessary for Dick to get involved, if only so all involved parties walk away.

The discomfort he'd felt earlier only gets stronger, and it takes Dick a moment to realize it's not coming from him- but crests with the way Jason moves. His head tilts, regarding him carefully]

What happened to you?

[reneger]

So you're back in his clothes. Or still in them, timeline depending. ( good to know. not that jason's ever going to stop and think about dick grayson as actually batman. he was fill in. will probably fill in again. it's--nothing against grayson, either. just he likes dick a lot more than he appreciates bruce right now, and the associations with the suit go a bit more negative than jason really wants to contemplate right now.

all things considered. his own hand drops it's weight, but he doesn't force or try to pull out of dick's grip. lets him have it. the empathy link provides a few things: the push and pull of emotion that shows jason doesn't have any rage directed dick's way, shows he's calm, quiet. doesn't want to hurt anyone. and shows jason about where dick stands, too. if that's what it'll take to keep dick off his ass, he's willing to give it.

for now. it won't last long, because jason can only keep himself so calm, too. he may be more tame than he used to be, but never quite got around to those anger management classes. )

Ah, this lil thing? ( with his free hand raising up, gesturing to the center of his chest. ) Little D and I wanted to figure out what the glowy parts were. Turns out, there's nothing there--just bone. And it's probably not a great idea to start sawing into bones, shit takes a lot longer to heal than a little flesh wound. So.

( maybe he did let their youngest perform surgery on him, whatever! it hurts, but it's manageable pain. he's recovering. )

Got stabbed a few times, too. You've missed out on all the fun.

( it wasn't fun. and god, he's not looking forward to dick being stuck in the middle of all this shit. it was hard enough with him and damian. trying to keep an eye on steph and kara, too. at least dick is better at people managing than jason is, means he doesn't have to worry about that. )