sirenspull_logs | December Arrivals- OPEN LOG

Entry tags:

December Arrivals- OPEN LOG

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yeah, that poor jackass who tried to lay a hand on my swords." Well, possibly to pick them up for her, even she realized that. But this was supposed to be the Shadowlord's castle, she couldn't let her guard down for that. Popola and Devola were human, supposedly, and they'd still attacked.

But she just stared in confusion at Emil's attempt of an explanation. Just what exactly was he talking about? "A couple of months? I just saw you. We went through the door to the castle together..." but Emil wasn't the type to lie, and there seemed to be way too many humans and not enough shades for this to be the Shadowlord's lair.

"... So this isn't the Shadowlord's castle, is what you're saying," she finished slowly. Stuff like timelines and inconsistencies flew over her head. The book would've been more suited to stuff like that. Her job was just to kill things.

Almost all of Emil's anxiety was phased out in favor of utter confusion, at that. He stalled for a moment, at a loss, and then shook his head again, slowly this time. "The Shadlowlord's castle? What..." How did this make any sense at all? It was too hard not to falter, and so he did. "Kainé... The last time we were together, it was when - when that really huge shade attacked Nier's village, and - "

The small part of him that wasn't preoccupied with this bizarre information felt kind of bad that he was just as lost as Kainé right now. He'd meant to give her a better explanation, but none of this was adding up right. "I don't understand. Castle? Kainé, what happened?"

"You're joking, right? That was mont... I mean, years ago."

That five-year petrification still tripped her up sometimes. But as confusing as this disconnect was, she was starting to have something of an idea of what might be going on, as crazy as it seemed.

"The last time I saw you was years after that. We were entering the Shadowlord's castle together. All of us. Nier, Weiss, me, and you." A pause, as she wondered if she should say it or not. "You were a little different from how you are now."

His mouth hung halfway open, but he lacked a voice as he tried to process this. So Kainé - she did come from after? At her arm, his fingers went tight, then lax again. Years went by, and then they were all together again, and...

The ridiculous muddling of timelines clicked, and Emil sighed, deeply and very, very thankfully.

"I fixed it?" he asked softly, finally relaxed. Who knows how many years she had meant, but even if it was a lot more than the five he'd already been waiting... that was all right, as long as it worked. As long as the four of them were standing by each other.

So he really did come from before that time, did he? However that happened. But it explained why he was still human. That was enough.

"Yeah. You brought me back." She smiled, a gesture he couldn't see, and then dropped her hand to his shoulder reassuringly. "I knew you would."

It wasn't really a lie. Half of her had trusted Emil to find a way, even as half of her had been perfectly fine with dying. It was what she'd always wanted... but living was a good enough alternative, too.

A smile is something he can hear, though, and hers felt like sitting out on a sunny day. He could remember her features, too, even if he wished he'd never had to see them. His own smile held a lot of comfort. He couldn't remember breathing this easy in a while.

"I'm happy... even if it's no good you had to come here. Oh! This place is really different, Kainé. I bet you noticed, right? But there are all kinds of weird things... The sun goes down! Um, I'm not really sure what that means, or where 'down' is or how it goes there... but it gets dark. Colder, too. We can't go out then, though." More lively, now, he folded his hands in front of his chest, tilting his face up as though he was really looking at her. "And there are so many people! A lot of them are really nice... All kinds of people do magic, too. And there are cars. I still don't really know what those are, but you sit in them and they move. We're in a different country, now, and lots of people end up here like us. Um, what else... Oh, do you want to go inside somewhere? It's kind of chilly, right?"

"Hey, Emil, not all at once." Who knows if he could hear her mouth twitching as she tried not to laugh, but that was definitely happening. Talking non-stop was just something he did when he was happy, wasn't it. It definitely made their camping more tolerable, when all of her stories were retellings of kicking monsters' asses. There were only so many ways that could go. But enough of that, she had a reputation to maintain.

But now that he mentioned it, this place was a lot colder, even than the Aerie. "Inside where? And what do you mean, the sun... and magic..." where does she even start.

"What exactly is this place, if it's really not the Shadowlord's castle?"

Ah, yeah, he was kind of getting ahead of himself... He covered his mouth quickly with a quiet 'oops,' and then lowered his hand and straightened himself. "Right... Okay. This is Siren's Port, a city in the middle of the ocean... the rest of the country is kind of far away." From what he understood, at least. "People who come here can't leave, because they get... sick?" How did that work, again? "Sorry, I don't really understand all of it, yet..."

Turning halfway, to where he knew the street was, he gestured with an outstretched arm. "Do you see some buildings across over there? Those should be the apartments! It's really nice, they let you stay there for a month. Usually, places cost to live, but people have to figure out to take care of themselves first..." Which had thus far been proving difficult. He rubbed the toe of his shoe against the ground. "I can take you there, if you want. It's supposed to be really, really dangerous here at night. These scary monsters come out."

A pause, and not a very happy one; his shoulders hunch up.

"No one's figured out how to get us all home yet."

There were buildings practically everywhere. But now that he pointed them out, she was suddenly aware of exactly how many people there were. A city. She wouldn't have let herself be caught dead in one... except for the King's wedding, or the attack on the Aerie.

Fun times, right, sunshine? So much to kill, so little time. Wait a minute, did the kid just mention monsters?

"I'll skip on the apartments, thanks. And you mean shades, right?" The last comment made her hesitate. Going back wasn't exactly an issue, except it meant they still couldn't save Yonah. "You haven't seen Nier or the book, have you?"

"Not shades, I think... I don't know. Everyone says they're part of, um, darkness, and... that's kind of like shade, isn't it?" Well, at least he could still sound lighthearted about it - though, his tone did droop just a little when he said, "But I haven't heard from either of them... Sebastian isn't here, either, so..."

It's one thing to be almost all alone, which Emil is all right with, and another thing to meet people but be really missing other people. He didn't like all of this unfamiliarity.

"Are you sure, though? It gets really cold when the sun is gone!"

"About that. You're going to have to explain to me what exactly you mean by... gone." No matter how she tried wrapping her head around the concept, it was just weird. Whoever heard of a time of no sun?

But it wasn't hard to pick up on the hesitance in Emil's voice. She shot a glance around them at the greeters, many of which were still keeping an eye on her, like a bomb waiting to go off. Well, the bastards could keep watching. She gripped Emil's shoulder. "Where are you staying?"

Like he was trying to get answers from this finicky sun itself, Emil tilted his head back further, as lost as Kainé was, at least in this. "I don't know, it doesn't make any sense to me either..." And he hadn't had the guts to take a look, even if he couldn't harm the sky. This place was much too crowded to take any chances. "Every time I ask someone about it, they just tell me 'the sun goes down,' or 'the sun is setting.' It goes from light to dark, I know there's a... moon? I think it's basically like the sun, but not as... bright? It's really weird. It seems pretty normal to everyone else, though." Some laughter. "Maybe we're the weird ones!"

Kainé's grip was a comfort to be able to have, but also a little - well, he felt kind of bad, for some reason. Inept, he supposed. Realizing how poor he was at taking care of himself hadn't left him feeling very good about it. "For a while, I stayed in one of those apartments, too... It wasn't so bad, you might like it! But, um, there's a lot I don't really know how to do, Sebastian always took care of... everything. I made a friend, and she said I should stay with her family. I've only been there about a week, but..." But it had been a pretty uncomfortable week. "It looks like you have to get everything at a market here, and I'm not really good at markets right now."

"You're staying with someone?" Who's not Nier or Weiss? She scowled. You couldn't trust people. Even Popola and Devola hadn't allowed them to stay in the village, so what exactly was this 'friend' doing, taking advantage of Emil like this?

... Then again, he was human now. Unlike you.

She hadn't had much experience with markets, herself. Look at how well the one at the Aerie went. But she pushed the thought out of her mind, shook her head a little to focus on what mattered. Other people could take a hike. If Emil was living here and he was still blindfolded, she had to help. "Your... friend... doesn't happen to have a place to camp nearby, do they? If they don't, I'll make one."

"Uh... I don't know if they do, but we can look for a spot... Are you sure? Or I could camp with you, I've never been camping outside before! I bet it's exciting." Sure, maybe Emil was a little bit... naïve about all of this... but he'd been all right so far! And he didn't want Kainé to feel stuck like he had. "I know I haven't been a lot of help, but I do know some things, and there's a lot going on in this place. Oh, when you got here, did you get a... thing?"

Unhelpful description. He pursed his lips a little, trying to come up with some better wording.

"Like something, uh... It's supposed to be something you can talk into, something you didn't have before. You're supposed to talk to other people with it, and ask them questions - hey, you could ask them about the sun! They'd know better than I do. And other things..."

"Sure we could camp together. It's what we always... I mean, we did plenty of that after I woke up." This timeline mismatch was going to take some getting used to.

"And you're going to have to be more specific than a 'thing', Emil." She stood up, removing her hand from his shoulder, but just then realized the object around her wrist. Well, shit. This counted as a thing, right? Whatever it was. She arched an eyebrow, poked at it and blinked at the new functions that popped up.

"... Actually, you know what, I think I might've found it."

Plenty? And if Emil was going into the castle with them... Did he stay with them often? Did he travel? What a thought. Scary, but... really, really nice. Maybe he'd ask Kainé about it sometime later; maybe she'd tell him some stories. For now, though - better to get her acquainted with things as best he could.

"Well it's - oh, you found it...?"

After I woke up. Hearing something like that was still sending a little tickle to his chest. So things turned out okay after all... This could only mean they'd end up saving Yonah, too. There was no way they'd give up.

He realized he'd been distracted by his thoughts, and gathered himself up again. "Um, you can hear and learn all kinds of things with that. A lot of the people have been really kind, Kainé. I bet they'd tell you anything you wanted to know. Some of them have been here a lot longer than I have."

"Yeah, I found it. I'll give a whirl sometime. And kind, huh... you'd say that about anyone, Emil."

He could be too trusting. Or maybe she couldn't trust enough. She smiled ruefully, but lay a hand briefly on his head, just as a reminder, before turning and heading towards the exit, whichever one had the least greeters gathered around. "Let's get the hell out of this shithole already. I want to see this place of yours."

Not like their camping was anything luxurious, but this friend of his had better be taking care of him, or heads would roll.

Emil laughed, bubbly as ever - so many people were kind, that was all. Hopefully Kainé could see it, too, in a place like this. "Okay, Kainé. I - oh! I dropped my bag somewhere over there..." This time, he swiveled around to where he'd been standing when he heard her, with some accuracy. "I've been trying to learn the streets here," he explained, following dutifully after her familiar footsteps. Kainé always sounded like Kainé. "I thought I'd start with these ones, since it's where I showed up. But don't worry! I won't get us lost. Anyway, I come here some days so I can feed the birds and find my way around. I never would have left my manor like this, before. Oh! But you said I go with you guys..." That still made him so happy to hear. "I hope I don't slow you down too much," he confessed, bright despite that moment of self-deprecation; it must be hard to lug a functionally blind kid around, which is the situation he assumed.

"Your bag?" Oh, right, he'd been in the middle of something before he saw her. She turned on a heel to fetch whatever it was he'd dropped, while surreptitiously glancing inside. She was curious, whatever.

"Cities are shitholes. All I need to know is the way out," she muttered, but even as she said it she could feel something sinking in her stomach at the thought of leaving Emil by himself. She trusted him, she just didn't trust anyone else to not be a little shit to him. And there were so many other people, she wouldn't blame him for getting lost at all. For a second she wondered if she should take his hand.

Really? That's a new level of pathetic right there.

"Don't think that way," she said, fantasizing about punching Tyrann in his stupid face over and over again. "You don't slow us down at all."

Bread and crackers and his own NV - a very small notebook, that, when opened, wasn't a notebook at all. It showed little functions and screens lighting up; posts on the network, voice messages he'd saved. That was about the sum of his bag.

"I'll help you find the way out," he said easily, in such a casual tone that his claim almost seemed fact. It wasn't that he sounded firm or determined - just, he didn't voice any doubt. "We'll look and look and keep looking, and we'll figure it out. I miss Weiss and Nier, you know?"

Perhaps he was a little too lax about this situation, but...

"And if I didn't slow you down at home, I definitely won't, here, either. So that's the plan, right?"

"Yeah, it is."

Well, if the kid could be that optimistic, she definitely had to be, too. She closed up the bag again and reached down to transfer it back in his grip. Fine, that would be enough sappy hand-holding for now. She had a reputation, damnit.

"We'll find our way back to them. Or kick their asses if they find us first. Count on it."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

December Arrivals- OPEN LOG

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject