December Arrivals- OPEN LOG

[thepull_mods]

Who: December Arrivals, Greeters, NPC recruiters & anyone else who happens to be hanging around the Tower Apartments to 'welcome' newcomers.
When: Throughout December, 2012 (Please Specify Date & Time in Thread Header)
Where: The Sector 4 Baseball Diamond, Parking Lot & Lobby of the Tower Apartments
Summary: This is your catch-all one stop log for arrival interactions! New Newcomers can also meet and mingle in the apartment lobby.
Warnings: Nausea, potential for violence, language- add on any warnings or ratings as they come up.



It feels like a whiplash, like being plucked up into the sky and sucked through a very tight dark space before being deposited rather roughly in the City. You will be disoriented, dizzy, slightly nauseous, and very sore upon arriving in Siren's Port. Every new arrival from another world gets deposited in the dead center of an ill-kept baseball diamond.

The weather is chilly in December, and while new arrivals may be lucky enough to arrive during the safety of the day, the danger of nights are growing steadily longer. Pedestrian traffic is hurried and bustling, particularly in the hour before siren.

Newcomers are thrown from their pull somewhere within the fenced-in baseball field, either in the dirty infield or tossed rolling into the overgrown dirty outfield. Standing on second base and facing home plate, one will see a rotten, old and deteriorating backstop and chain link fencing, much like any little league baseball field. Broken down bleachers made of worn out green painted wood can be seen in disarray behind this, and some old trees line the wall and fencing along the right side.

To the left is a walled in Dugout with a secured door. The dugouts are made of thick concrete and set low into the earth. This one has been outfitted as a safe place to enter during the night to hide and wait out the morning. The dugout interior is lit with a string of Christmas Lights by night, and contains a box of coats, an electric kettle and a box of Hot Cocoa packets, provided courtesy of the Newcomer Community Center. Sometimes Greeters can be found here, waiting for people to show up. The Dugout to the right has also been cemented over and secured with a heavily guarded and armored door.

Some of the fences and signboards have been replaced with information and welcoming signs, posted by Newcomers as encouragement, but from time to time some form of degrading graffiti'd tag might appear here or there, 'Go Home!' or 'Now You're Fucked, Newmeat' 'Welcome to Sirens Port, Population: Too Many to Add One More' and 'Attention Newcomers: Please wait here till sunset sirens to receive your welcoming package!') However, someone has also recently decorated the fence with silver and gold garlands.

The Baseball Diamond is maintained by the city Government, who allow greeters access to the infield to retrieve new arrivals, but preserve the area's neutrality. Everyday citizens and corporate affiliates are not allowed access to the diamond. The small building constructed over the right dugout is still guarded heavily by government-controlled Voids, to block public access to the Core. Those who cooperate with greeters will be treated fairly and be given helpful information, lead to the Tower Apartments and offered a month's lodging. Those who put up a fight will be met with Voids and detained by police.

Just beyond the fence, in the Tower Apartments parking lot and lobby, SERO and AGI recruiters will be passing out informational leaflets presenting company propaganda, including discounted coupon booklets and travel-sized toiletries as a "Newcomer Welcome Package".

Other then the lights around the Core dugout, there is one single electric light above home plate that remains on, even in the Darkness. There is an open walkway near the dugouts that leads into the parking lot of the Tower Apartments. The front doors of Tower One are always kept unlocked, but you had best close them again quickly if you slip inside during the night. The office of the Landlord is well marked near the lobby, and you'll receive keys there.

The second tower is abandoned and boarded up, still scorched in places. Asking around, you might hear about the anti-newcomer movement and an attempt to blow up both towers back in January. You'll be advised not to go wandering in there- it's no doubt structurally unsound, though the first tower still stands tall and (mostly) functioning.

The general atmosphere in the city is tense and full of mood whiplash this month- the darkness is longer and the nights may seem claustrophobic. The Underground Mall is a packed escapist paradise on the weekends, with overnight stays at the many motels popular. Conspiracy theorists and doomsday preachers seem to be found on every streetcorner, and they seem to have more of a presence than charity-collection "Santa's Helpers". Retail stores seem doubly desperate to rake in holiday profits during daylight business hours, and competition between the companies is mounting as the year comes to a raucous close.

Comments

Angeal Hewley | Greeter | Open!

[mentors]

[As it gets closer and closer to the time of month more people will be appearing, Angeal spends more and more time at the diamond, ready to help people as he can. Things have been getting a little hairy lately, so he hasn't minded doubling up with a member of the protection program either, just for everyone's sake, especially those who found their way to this place.

With the Buster Sword secure at his back, and the more generic sword within easy grabbing range, the man is simply keeping watch over the field for now, an extra scarf wrapped around his neck to help with warding off the cold.]

December 3, For Frau, Teito, Tenma, and Will?

[ibreakrules]

Frau was falling or sinking. He really wasn't all that sure. About all he knew at the moment was exhaustion, complete and utter exhaustion, and a heaviness that was hardly natural. Most of the weight stemmed from his right arm, which felt like a hundred pound weight and continued to drag him down, and down, and down. There was no fighting against it, even if he had the energy to do so.

What had happened? Why did everything hurt so much? Why was it so dark? Where was the light?

Teito. His light.

The minute the name came up, the image of Ayanami, a triumphant smile of victory on his face, flashed into Frau’s mind. Ayanami had taken Teito! Frau had failed to protect him. He’d lost him. Once again Frau tried to pull himself out of the darkness surrounding him, but he couldn't. Somehow, somehow he had to get to Teito, had to get him back... but he was too weak right now. And so, so tired.

Frau hadn't moved an inch since he'd arrived at the baseball diamond of Siren's Port once again. Unconscious, his white winter coat in tatters in covered in dirt, he appeared dead. The fact that his body was ice cold and he had no pulse didn't help either. While Frau was alive, he was hovering just on the edge of his second death. Ayanami's attack, while it had been partially repelled, had been incredibly powerful. Zehel's core, the only thing holding Frau's body to life, was fully exposed on his chest. He wouldn't last much longer without treatment.

[mikhail_in_me]

Somehow Teito knew. He knew that Frau was back. It was like a feeling in the very bottom of his gut that told him something very important was happening. White wings burst from his back and he soared up into the air. His own body was tired, exhausted from a meeting with a monster the night before. But none of that mattered because something far more serious was about to happen and he had to move quickly.

Once in the air he looked around, especting to see the familiar dark form looming somewhere, but there was nothing. Teito felt his heart sink for a moment. Maybe he was wrong..but then he remembered. The diamond. The place he had arrived at not too long ago. Perhaps it was there that this feeling was driving him towards.

He flew rapidly and when he saw the figure lying there he just knew. He recognized the clothing first and as he got closer that sinking feeling returned, only this time it was dread. Frau was in bad shape and Teito could only imagine the reason why. Ayanami.

"FRAU!" He screamed the name at the top of his lungs as he rushed to the figure's side. He landed a few feet away and ran the rest of the distance, those wings disappearing in a burst of feathers. Kneeling by Frau's side, Teito's eyes widened in fear as he saw the exposed core. "What..what is that.."

Teito looked towards Frau's face and gently but frantically gripped Frau's arm as he tried to rouse the other man. But then..is waking him really smart? What if it causes him pain? Teito was at a loss..not sure what to do.

"Frau! Please..Frau, wake up!"

[ibreakrules]

The moment Teito arrived at his side the world seemed to light up for Frau. He knew Teito was there almost instantly, though he struggled to pull himself out of the exhausted stupor he was in to respond. There was no way he could be wrong, and yet... how could Teito be here? Ayanami had taken him.

Frau's eyes snapped open and his fingers curled around Teito's arm, squeezing tight as he suddenly sat up. For a long time he just stared, taking Teito in. He really was here next to him. After the relief replaced his earlier adrenaline though, Frau couldn't hold himself up. He couldn't even stay awake. Slowly, his fingers loosened on Teito's arm and he slumped back to the ground, unconscious once more.

December 3 | Closed!

[primes]

[It's pure instinct that has him transforming. His short range sensors going haywire as soon as the Core grabs a hold of him, the feeling of being torn from Jasper, Nevada to wherever he's heading, all of that has his mental processes focusing in on one, little thing in a matter of seconds. That he's moving, traveling, and he has no idea where to.

And so, he transforms.

Which is why, during this flood of new arrivals, there's suddenly a truck falling through the air, tires skidding over the grass of the baseball diamond, leaving an unfortunate muddy smear in their wake as Optimus stops his forward momentum. As he comes to a stop and kills his engine, just a truck in the middle of a field, still, except for the slow, subtle turns of his side and rearview mirrors.

Now. To figure out how he was here instead of in the wreckage of the Autobot base.]

[momchester]

[SON OF A BITCH HOLY WHAT

about accurately sums up Mary's reaction to a truck falling out of the sky onto the baseball field. And the other Greeters and annoying company people with pamphlets, too. They all duck screaming behind the dugout building, cowering and hoping everything doesn't somehow explode.

Mary is the first person to poke her head out and see... yeah, that sure is a truck.

Sitting on the baseball field. She stares at it for a while before concluding that a talking House can't be the weirdest thing, so maybe (since it's in the field during newcomer arrival season) she should try approaching it.

She feels very stupid talking cautiously to a truck while walking carefully around the side, but that's life.]

Hello? Can you hear me?

[primes]

[His sensors aren't working. In fact, none of the positioning devices Ratchet fitted every one of them with are. He's on Earth, that much he knows. He can recognize the people who had scrambled for cover as being humans, the writing on the walls and this... field, he knows the shape of it. It's a human past time, something they do for sport and fun. Baseball, if his memory circuits haven't fried themselves mid transport.

He's about to drive off, though, to leave the humans staring wide-eyed at his arrival behind, to find a vantage point within this city in order to attempt to figure out what's going on, where he is, when one of the humans detaches themselves from the group and warily approaches.

If there's one thing Optimus always takes notice of, and rewards with respect and honor, it's bravery. And this woman, wisely cautious, is showng just that. So, he sits, watching her through rearview mirrors, and debates.

He needs to maintain cover, that much is certain. It's one of the key things he's taught his Autobots on this planet. To remain undercover and in secret, to avoid mass panic and unneeded attention. And what better way than to be claimed by a human, to find shelter and cover as an ordinary truck?

Decision made, the engine in the cab turns over and the doors unlock. If this woman is brave enough - and she just might be, considering how she's calling for what Optimus assumes is the person driving the truck - this might be just the cover he needs.]

baseball field | december 4th

[empathetics]

[The pain is worrying. A debilitating, disorientating ache that starts behind his eyes and spreads from there on. It's the kind of ache that vampires should never naturally feel. Jasper is no stranger to pain, but this has no rhyme or reason to it, and it sets his teeth on edge.

He blinks, his gaze inexplicably switching between blurriness and sharp focus on the blades of grass and churned-up earth as he turns his head skyward. The night sky stares back down at him, which only increases his worry; it had been mid-day just moments ago. He had been at home, settling down with a book and Alice tucked under his arm. And now, laying in what appears to be a long since unused baseball field, with no plausible explanation of just how he got there coming to mind, it's safe to say Jasper is getting more tense by the second.

The sound of approach prompts the vampire to jump to his feet- he isn't used to the searing pain that occurs when his muscles scream in protest. A low snarl rumbles in his chest. The scents in the air are familiar; a city, the not so distant aroma of humans setting a burn in his throat- and yet they're completely foreign to him. Warily, Jasper's tests the emotions in the air, but can hardly get a reading past his own current state. He tenses, his body instantly locking down, and another snarl rips through his teeth. This time it's one of warning as the strangers get closer.]

Re: baseball field | december 4th

[ochitashinigami]

[Eric has been in the port long enough to know that new arrivals come in waves, and that a new one has started. He has his scythe, in the shape of a large handsaw, and he hefts it up to his shoulder.

There's the newcomer, and he appears to be suffering. This isn't new. So he approaches slowly.]

Hello. Stay calm. You're not in danger.

[empathetics]

[He doesn't shift from him crouched position and bares his teeth. The stranger's scent is entirely unknown, it floods his senses and only increases his wariness.

Gold eyes watch the approach, taking in the weapon and every single irritatingly slow step.]

Baseball field | Noon on the 7th | Reserved for Mary

[ofthursday]

[He awakens to the feeling of dry grass against his hands and face, scratchy and irritating, and despite the nausea and the pain all over his body he lifts his head, looking around.

It isn't familiar. He has no idea where he is, and he slowly shifts to sit up as he glances around in confusion. It's a baseball diamond, he knows that much; that's about all he does know.

He looks down, trying to get his bearings, and suddenly his head spins because there's red, everywhere. All over his hands and his clothes and it's mixed with something thick and black and he feels the urge to throw up, though that very urge seems wrong at the same time, like it shouldn't be how he reacts. He wonders why, for a moment--how should he react?--and then realizes with a horrified shock that he doesn't know.

As he tries to look back in his mind, to call on experience and memory, there's nothing. A solid, impenetrable wall stands between him and anything more than a few seconds ago, and the heavy feeling of doom prevents him from even trying to look that way again. There is one thing he's suddenly very certain of: he doesn't want to know what's behind that wall.

So instead he pushes himself unsteadily to his feet, and it's only as he stands that he takes a breath and realizes he wasn't breathing before. Surely the wind had gotten knocked out of him and that was all. He must have hit the ground hard or something, judging by how sick he felt, and maybe that was what happened to his memory.

He didn't know how or why, but he knew he should go indoors or at least get out of this field, and so slowly he began forward toward the buildings not far away. One of them had to have someone who could help him.]

[momchester]

[Mary, meanwhile, was having a rare stereotypical moment of filing her nails by the fence, headphones in and blaring some music from way past her time. Nobody else has shown yet today, so she isn't concerned - and okay, maybe she's trying to shut off from the fact that her son got almost eaten by her dead friend and her adopted little sister is dead. Yeah. There's always that.

It takes her a minute to catch the movement in her periphery and even after she pockets the headphones and hops the fence to meet the poor injured bastard it's another few seconds before she sees under the blood and grime and sees Cas. She shrieks a little and starts running.]

Cas!

[ofthursday]

[His attention is caught by the shriek and then someone's running toward him, and he steps back on reflex and trips over the ground. He's too unsteady and startled to give much more reaction than to catch himself on his hands and scramble backward a bit, utterly confused and more than a little alarmed.]

Who are you?

[It comes out less intimidating than intended but more than expected, his voice stronger and deeper than he would have guessed, having no knowledge of what he sounded like. But what little authority he commands is countered completely by his wide eyes and defensive posture.]

december 6, afternoon

[halfagirl]

She walked through the door and into another world.

Her first thought was that whatever had knocked her off her feet and gave her this headache was going to pay. Her second was... where are her swords? She staggered up with a groan, shaking her head to try to clear the dizzy feeling--it's not my fault this time, sunshine, so stop looking at me like that--while she rolled her eyes. She couldn't even look Tyrann in the face in the first place, so what the hell was he bitching about anyway?

A man nearby was picking up a pair of very familiar weapons. She was on her feet in a flash and whipped the swords out of his grip. "Don't touch those. They're mine."

Maybe it was her outfit. Maybe he could sense something off about her already, even if her shade limbs were hidden and she hadn't used any magic. Or maybe it was both, and a little extra. Being confronted by a furious-looking woman in a negligee wielding two heavy saw-like blades was probably not in the greeter's job description. He looked terrified.

Like most people aren't scared shitless by you already?

She ignored the laughter in her head and leveled a sword at the man on the ground. Who he was didn't matter. What did were her friends and where they could be in this place, wherever the fuck it was. "Hey, asshole. You're going to give me answers. Now."

[seclusion]

Several times, now, Emil had been around the Newcomer Apartments and the baseball diamonds to make a habit of feeding the birds. Some people had told him feeding pigeons was just encouraging pests, but some other people had told him it was perfectly fine, and he liked the perfectly fine option a lot better... Plus, he told himself, it was a good way to get acquainted with his surroundings, which still seemed very new. Snake had encouraged him to acclimate himself, so he supposed he ought to do his very best - but he could tell, from the chill in the air and the lessening bustle around him, that evening would be here soon, so he really ought to be getting home—

Hey, asshole.

His head snapped up, almost painfully, instinctively straining to get a better taste of what he had just heard. His shoes scuffed the sidewalk abruptly, the edge of the grass, and he stood rigid, deer-in-the-headlights, lips parted but with an incredulous What? stillborn in his mouth.

Now.

"Kai... né...?"

Her voice may have been a fair ways away, and it may have been years, but this really sounded like her. His little bag, meant for carrying bread and crackers for the birds, slid slowly down his arm and landed softly on the ground beside his feet. He was probably being silly - maybe some weird manifestation of homesickness - this was probably kind of pathetic of him -

Head swiveling round, trying to get his bearings, and not caring an inch about the risk of looking foolish, Emil said loudly, and with taut shoulders, "Kai - Kainé?"

[halfagirl]

He didn't have to be stammering like a jackass and pissing his pants, she wasn't going to kill him. That is, unless he did something to Nier and Emil and the book. They'd all entered the castle doors together, but where the hell were they now? She thought the scenery was bizarre enough at the top of the Lost Shrine, but at least they'd been together.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the other greeters frantically gesturing for backup. Figures. Can't even point a sword at a guy anymore without having people flipping their shit. Well, that's fine. If it turned out they had something to do with Nier and the others, she'd cut them down too, human or not.

Just what I like to hear.

... Wait a minute, was someone calling her name? "Emil?" she blinked out of a rising battle-readiness, glanced back over her shoulder on reflex to where she thought she heard the familiar voice.

December 10th - Morning - Open to all!

[cruelties]

[It may be noticed that soon after his arrival an AGI representative talks to this young man for nearly an hour as he fights his way through his nausea. He vomits on her shoes on one point but remains polite and engaged through-out the conversation. When she leaves he has an information pamphlet in hand which he sits down on a bench to read with a frown.]

[psychopath]

[jack arrives, plait flying out behind him, looking around just very slightly frantically for a certain blond. he looks worried.]

[cruelties]

[Vincent on the other hand looks perfectly serene. He's perched upon a bench, tossing a pair of earrings up and down in his palm.]

You came.

December 15th / night / open to any

[fitofgrandair]

A shock, a tearing sensation of displacement as Paris disappears. For a rushing instant there is darkness and non-thought, inability to think the darkness comes so swift and if he could think he would think he had died, but there is only suspension that seems an end--

And then a sensation of impact, his headache roaring a fierce return, and Grantaire's thoughts begin to piece themselves together. Pulled out of suspension to... What? What in the name of all the gods that never were is he doing here? By rights, he should be nowhere at all. By rights, this ought to have ended.

But Grantaire breathes. He can feel his mind turning, his body aching against… what? Clods of dirt, matted grass? And he can still feel the effects of the drunk he’d only partially slept off before, before—

There have been hundreds upon hundreds of theories touching the notion of some afterlife. Grantaire had never believed a one of them. Rather, he wielded the banner of emptiness and—if he cared to name it, and was in good humor—The Great Nothing.

But this… This is something else, entirely. Not The Great Nothing any more than The Benevolent Creator or The Wrathful Deity. Something absurd and almost incomprehensible. Grantaire almost tries to turn his mind from it, but he could never restrain his mental meanderings, and suddenly he realizes that he is surrounded, everywhere, on all sides. More than he has even known before the world is full of space and all of this space…

It is gray, everywhere gray, and at first he believes himself to be alone. Alone and surrounded by gray, and more than he has ever known before the world is full of space, the world expands around him into vastness that is not quite emptiness and can never be escaped, immeasurable uncontainable vastness that engulfs and replaces and that contains not even death but only empty continuation.

He needs a drink. He needs a drink right now.

Lacking an immediate solution, Grantaire picks himself up slowly, swaying. Another day, another world, another damnable excuse for life. It occurs to him that if this is somehow a sort of afterlife, it’ll be a bitch to straggle through with a head eternally half full of wine and half of pounding headache. The thought is enough to cull a bark of laughter, and feeling slightly more right with himself, Grantaire takes another look around.

december 16 | morning | ota

[doctorfang]

[It is a curious thing, finding oneself in unfamiliar territory. Of course, that is not to say this is something that occurs to Carlisle often (at all, really), but he has always been one who can accept the curiousness behind any situation. The physical pain in itself is the most alarming occurrence, as it is a feeling that virtually remains unknown to his kind. At any other time, Carlisle would very easily have many, many questions, but he is well-aware that that is not a luxury currently available to him.

Carlisle pushes himself to his feet, simply to ease some of the disorientation of laying on the ground, being assaulted by the sudden overwhelming scents of grass and dirt. But he refuses to move quickly, as others of his kind might - truly, moving at a human pace makes things oddly comforting. He brushes away any traces of dirt that may cling to his clothing, almost self-consciously averting his gaze from the crater he no doubt left behind. Pain continues to accompany, and that encourages some concern.

There are two sides to his worry. The other remains back home, with the preparations to face the newborn army. The very thought of his family facing that terrifying, unfortunate disaster without him... A shudder passes through Carlisle’s frame at the thought of Esme, alone, and... well, certainly not defenseless. Jasper had made well-aware of that. That and basic instinct - he attempts to relax with these thoughts, replace the troubles from his face before he turns to speak with the person approaching him. No need for others to become pressed with worries meant solely for himself.]

December 16 | afternoon | all over the place

[proxysproxy]

[On November 20th, Vincent had just been changing into his overalls in preparation for another day's work at the garage in Sector 9, when he had suddenly found himself back in the ruins of Romdeau, face indented in a pile of rubble. He crawled up off the ground, feeling a little muddled. What had he been doing before? He had the vague impression of five months in a strange, pre-collapse city, but... There was the Rabbit, still heading towards him. That's right, he was waving it over and lost his balance. He sat himself down on a rock and held his forehead. There was no way five months could fit into five seconds of clumsiness.

And then, just as he was beginning to convince himself that Siren's Port was just a dream, he was back in the baseball diamond, with the same splitting headache he'd had on the day he'd first arrived. What on Earth had just happened? Vincent was confused. (So what else was new?) He stood up a little unsteadily. On second thought, the headache was worse than when he first arrived. He should probably head home and call in sick. Then he could ask Re-L or someone on the network about this. He headed on his way to Re-L's appartment.]

[countsrabbits]

[Her sister is still gone, and Pino is still blaming herself for letting it happen. This isn't just sadness; she's sure of that. She's worried, she's angry, but there's something else that she still isn't sure how to process...an emotion with no name.

But she knows when Vincent arrives again. Just like before, she can still hear him somewhere in the city. She doesn't dare leave the house, not when she's caused so much trouble for Papa already, but she does open her window and watch the ground below for him, knowing he'll walk this path towards Re-l's apartment eventually.

And as soon as he does, he'll find a stuffed rabbit suddenly falling at his feet from somewhere above. If he's quick, he'll probably see her face in the open window before she ducks out of the way.]

[awakenings]

[It's not difficult to figure out when Vincent comes back to Siren's Port. Like when he arrived, she immediately feels the second pulse in the city, calling to her, her own heartbeat pounding in her ears. It's almost painful after so long, simply because she's become accustomed to the silence. But the moment he returns...

She doesn't bother with a coat. She grabs her earpiece and is out the door, on the rooftops and bounding across the city. She calls his NV.]

Pick up, damn you...

20th December, midday.

[missingspice]

[ Running, flying, swimming with all her might, a struggle, invasion and trauma that pierced too deeply for her psyche to withstand for a brief moment: minutes, in the dream. And she's still dreaming. Atsuko doesn't arrive standing like most of the Newcomers. She tumbles in, collapsed on the damp grass, her jacket barely wrapped around her shoulders and the DC mini clamped firmly to her head as she wrestles with waking.

At the first contact she might receive from a Greeter, her eyes open to an unlikely patient in the dream. In reality, however, her hand lashes out in a lightning-fast slap to the face. Apologies in advance. She'll know you were only trying to help. ]