cycleofages | ARRIVAL LOG

Entry tags:

ARRIVAL LOG - First Wave

Who; EVERYONE!
What; The new residents of HQ make their arrival!
Where; All unrestricted areas of HQ (and maybe some restricted areas, you naughty people)
When; July 24th, Mid-morning on
Warnings; None as of yet, can be changed if content changes

IT'S A MINOR BLIP IN TIME
Maybe you were showering, or sleeping, having breakfast. You might have been participating in your morning commute or fighting off a horde of zombies.

Whatever you were in the middle of, a strange sensation of disconnection comes over you, as though you're watching your life on screen, a passive audience to the proceedings. It's almost like, well, being sucked down the drain like every adolescent nightmare, the feeling of disconnection replaced quickly with a pain so deep, it's as though every atom of your being is pressed too closely together, and your vision goes dark. Then, just as quickly as the pain came over it, it's gone, reality snapping back into place like a stretched rubber band.

WELCOME TO NEW YORK CITY

When your eyes adjust, you find yourself in a slightly spartan room, standing on a platform that seems to be made of glass or some sort of crystal. Energy currents in blues and greens swirl within it, dizzying and hypnotizing if stared at for too long. You're shocked from the vision by a cheery, bubbly voice that belongs to a petite brunette grinning at you from the base of the steps that lead down from the platform. She apologizes for any inconvenience you may have been caused, and hands you a small package, explaining that inside you'll find a phone, a directory of locations within the complex you've arrived in, a charge card with a balance of $500, and a key to a room in the dormitories which can be reached by following the green line on your directory.

She apologizes again for how confusing this must all be, but assures you that everything will make sense soon!

OOC NOTES: Feel free to hit up any of the NPC starters, start your own threads under any of the locations provided, or start your own threads independent of the starters! Prose or brackets are welcomed! Once characters leave the Receiving Room, they will have full access to the Network, and you're free to post there as well!

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In the cafeteria in HQ, meals are served pro-bono and at specific times: breakfast is served from 8am-10am, lunch from 12pm-2pm, and dinner from 6pm-8pm. While there are a few members of HQ who help out with dishes, the ordering is handled at the counter, and if you want a meal, you'll need to talk to Gus.

Gus is an older but powerfully built man who stands 6'2" and has a dominate and gruff air about him. He's in charge of this place and there will be no shenanigans. When someone approaches the counter, he'll move to them, meeting their gaze without waver, and lean against the bar.

"What'll it be?"

The forest at the heart of HQ is probably the strangest aspect of the place, barring the way all the newcomers have arrived. It's contained within a large room roughly the size of an airplane hanger, but within is soil, towering trees, wind, a sun that rises and sets along with the true sun that hangs over the city beyond HQ, a small stream flows through the picturesque setting, and wildflowers carpet the forest floor. It's a place sacred to Airy and Nathan, as they were it's originators, and Nathan makes a habit of spending a great deal of time there.

The young man can be found reclining against a rock outcropping alongside the stream throughout the day, taking a reprieve from the new arrivals and communing with a very real forest he helped create. He may also be protecting it from any of the new people who might seek to do it harm. He'll smile in a friendly way if anyone comes close and incline his head in greeting.

"Have a seat. It's not as weird as it seems, I promise."

Very few areas of HQ are accessible by these newcomers, a fact Luther had insisted upon when it was decided this strange phenomena be redirected to HQ in the first place. Their enemies were certainly not few, and there was no reason to trust these new people with their secrets. Luther took it upon himself to police the halls, making sure all these people knew their place and stayed out of their areas. These people couldn't be trusted.

The vampire is a shadow, unseen unless someone wanders into a place they don't belong, at which point the shadow begins to tail them, only speaking when he believes they've gone too far.

"Areas are restricted for a reason."

The receiving bay is the first thing that you'll see when you arrive. It's a very plan looking room with white walls and a raised concrete ceiling. There are a few empty shelves still on the walls making the area look like it used to be a storage room. The platform is a lowered area at the center of the room with steps leading up towards the door out.

At the end of the steps is a petite girl with chestnut brown hair and bright emerald eyes. She's wearing a warm smile as she greets you.

"Hi! I'm Airy. Welcome to HQ. Sorry about all this but if you have any questions let me know."

It was hard to believe that this was inside. Hanna stepped through the forest with the sort of expression that belied her thoughts. She's pretty sure that this shouldn't be possible. As she walks she looked up to try and catch a glimpse of the ceiling but instead saw something that might have been a sun and a bird.

She wasn't sure.

She paused when she saw the guy on the rock. He was pretty cute and cute a fairly interesting picture leaning against the rock like that. She approached with a slight frown, her eyebrow raised.

"It's pretty weird. Is there a breeze in here? Does it go outside? How did you guys get all of this, down here." She waved a hand when she said 'all of this' as if it wasn't obvious.

"I didn't see a sign posted."

Hanna turned to look up at Luther, her eyes narrowing at him while her arms cross defensively in front of her chest. She didn't like the idea of being brought here and then restricted to a small area. She needed to call her mom and her friends. There were more important things to worry about.

What's more annoying is that this pretty body was now getting on her case. She was trying to sneak but she wasn't very good at it.

Grace had been wandering around since she spoke to the nice girl at the receiving bay. She was looking for one person in particular though she didn't know where to start. She thought there might be someone here who an help which brings to her to current position; standing in front of Gus.

"Have you seen my father?"

Bright dark eyes looked up at him from beneath her red hood. With her dress and cloak it was easy to tell that she was one of those new arrivals.

"He's really tall with dark hair and blue eyes." She knew her father by sight and while she'd been waiting for him for months now she thought that maybe he was here. If she was brought here maybe he was too and that's why he hadn't come home.

HALLWAYS

Papa! Papa!

[She knows what that nice woman had said when she arrived but she wants to find her father. Her cloak is pulled over her cheeks but as she runs down the hall it falls showing off long her messy blonde hair.]

Papa are you here?!

[Grace continues to call out, her voice echoing down the long hallways.]

FOREST

I can smell mushrooms.

[Grace makes her way through the fores, her nose sniffing in the air. She crawls over a large rock and then pauses at the base of a tree. She kneels in the ground and lightly brushes her fingers over the familiar fungus.]

I found them papa.

[She closes her eyes and sits on the damp earth, trying her best not to cry. How long has he been gone? Now he'll never find her.]

DORMITORIES

[Grace finds her room after some trail and error. She looks around finding the single person dwelling lonely. She's not used to it considering she'd often sleep in the same room with others.

She moves back out to the common area of the Sun dorms and curls up on the small couch. Her cloak works well as a blanket and within a few minutes she's falling into a deep sleep.

In her dreams, anything is possible.]

REC ROOM
[Admittedly, there are a lot of games around here Joey has absolutely no experience with, but he can play a mean game of ping pong. Sure, maybe he should be trying to figure out what's going on around here, or how to get home, but at the moment, he's just going to be enjoying being corporeal again. Even if the place smells a little too clean. He's never ever sure it's that, or if he's just that unused to smelling anything. Being dead'll do that to a guy. If anyone walks near enough, he'll smile a charming smile and wave them down.]

Hey, mac. You up for a game?

Gus watched the kid come in, and his heart went out to her. She was displaced like the rest of them, sure, but she was just a kid. He shook his head at her question.

"Sorry, kiddo. Haven't seen him. What's his name? I'll keep an eye out."

Nathan smiled slightly at the teenager's questions.

"That's not exactly easy to answer. No, it doesn't go outside. It's all self-contained. We, uh, made it?"

"We didn't think we'd need one. We tried to trust you." He levels almond eyes on her. "Was that trust misplaced?"

"I sort of figured that."

Hanna stepped closer thought she paused just short of the lounging stranger. She didn't trust him, she didn't trust most of the things in this place though he wasn't giving her a bad vibe or anything.

"How did you get all this stuff down here? We are underground right?" She didn't know how far underground but she was trying not to think about it.

"No."

Her tone was low and defensive. Even if she had known that this was of limits she would have wandered this way anyway. It's a moot point in the end.

"I just don't see why we have to be ushered like cattle." Hanna's tone was sharp but she turned to face the way she had come. "Also, we didn't exactly get a large map saying don't go here."

If there were directions on her phone then she chose to ignore them.

"It's Jefferson."

She didn't know if he'd be handing out his name but it was worth a shot. Grace had the sinking feeling that her father might not be here and if he wasn't then there would be no way for him to find her. She wasn't where he'd look.

Grace's eyes moved towards the floor as disappointment gripped her heart. It's been months since he left but the pain hasn't gotten any easier.

"Please let me know if you see him." Her voice sounded smaller than before.

After receiving the package Zack scanned the room for anything that looked familiar. He then made eye contact with Airy.

“This is not the Lab”

Having been on his way back to the lab from a crime scene, Zack was in a dark blue jump suit covered in dirt and other undetermined material.

Without breaking concentration. “I need to get back to my lab at the Jeffersonian Institute in Washington DC. Is there any way of using this equipment to return me to where I was?”

Airy smiled at Zack, waiting for him to form a question or move on like some of the others had. She's patient and her expression remained open and kind.

"Oh, no. This is HQ." She frowned. "I'm sorry. You can't. You're not in your... wait Washington DC? That's in Maryland right?"

Airy shook her head. "There isn't a way to use this to return you." They don't know all the details of what'd happened yet. Airy flashed him a warm grin. "Hopefully it's just for a little while but we want to make you comfortable while you are here."

“As a Point of clarification Washington DC is not in Maryland it is bordered by Maryland on three sides and Virginia on the west.”

Zack then looked in to the package and pulled out the key and the map.

Looking back at Airy. “Can I assume that there are bating facilities attached to the dormitories? Also since it is apparent that I will be unable to leave this facility in the foreseeable future, would it be possible to get a fresh change of clothes?”

[ Jefferson had done his own brand of investigating after his arrival, but just about everything he'd found out was either irrelevant to what he was looking for or made him question both the people he'd met and his grip on his own sanity.

Being trapped in Storybrooke had been a nightmare. Of course it had. But this place? This place was like hell. Grace was painfully out of his reach yet again, and the fact that he didn't even know who to properly blame left him feeling more angry and bitter than he did on most days. At least he'd been able to see her before. Seeing her with them every day was its own kind of hell, but it had been better than Wonderland. It had been better than the utter hopelessness he felt now. Without much thinking, he'd found himself heading toward the dormitories. He needed time and quiet to process what all had happened and if he could do anything to make going back to Storybrooke even work. How could he even do that without the Savior? She had been the only shot he'd had in nearly thirty years.

Jefferson was so caught up drowning in his own thoughts and fears that he almost went without noticing the small frame curled up sleeping, but a certain pattern caught the corner of his eye and it made him stop dead in his tracks. He continued to look forward, knowing his mind was likely playing tricks on him. For a flicker in time he thought about going on his way, but making himself do that was impossible. He tried not to have any expectations when he turned his head, but all it took was a single glimpse of that familiar red cloak for him to know.

It was Grace. His Grace. His eyes shot to her face and what he saw there only confirmed what he already knew, a hand flying up to cover his mouth in sheer shock. She was right there. Right there. But would she even know him? He knew she didn't dress like that in Storybrooke, knew she didn't have her memories, and yet there she was looking so similar to the day he had foolishly left her.

He began to let her name slip, but that was when the panic set in. He had no right to speak to her. She had to hate him. She had to. Why wouldn't she? He'd made a promise and then he'd broken it in the worst possible way. He wanted to move, to hide, but he remained completely still. He couldn't think clearly enough to make his body do anything. The way his emotions banged against his skull made the situation worse and he could feel the threat of tears at the corners of his eyes. She had been found but he was still lost. ]

[Grace’s head turns, her cheek cradled by the long messy mass of wheat colored hair. Her lips part and a sleepy soft word is spoken.]

Papa…

[The word settles uncomfortably in the air between them, lingering as if it isn’t willing to get go. A sigh falls away from her lips while small fingers curl around the edge of her red cloak. She feels the weight of his stare, even in her dreams. Slowly her slumber falls away. Thick lashes part while light brown eyes slowly take in the small plainly decorated room. Her head turns towards Jefferson and for a moment she only sees a dream; her father, finally coming back home to be with her. She’d been so alone.

She wants to cry out, to hug him and hold him but something is wrong.]

Papa, why aren’t you smiling?

[Her voice is tired and sleepy. Grace hasn’t fully awaken and her mind quickly turns to catch up and register that the man in front of her is her father, that he’s here and that he’s finally found her.]

Papa?

[Grace whispers as her awareness rises, disbelief seeming into her voice. Another second brings a smile to her lips, wide and bright as she vaults off the couch.]

Papa!

[Her arms wrap around his center and she buries her head against his waist. Tears dot the corner of her eyes but she doesn’t care, she can hold him, smell the tea, dirt, must and mushrooms that linger on his clothing and skin.]

Airy blinked for a few seconds before smiling at Zack. “Ah, is it?” She hadn’t actually known that though her knowledge of geography wasn’t all that bad. She’d never been that far south though it sounded like an interesting place to check out.

“Yes, your rooms will have showers and bathrooms attached. They’re sort of like dorm rooms.” Not that Airy went to college.

Her eyes glanced down Zack’s jump suit, noting the dirt. Her lips formed a slight frown. There were a lot of people here with sensitive noses. She turned and waved at Zack to follow her. “I’ll find you something.” It might end up being something of Nathan’s but it’ll last him. “Then we can ask for a few changes of clothes. What do you like to wear?” At least so she has an idea.

Nathan nods at the question, looking around as though hoping the forest will give him an answer to her question. When none are provided, he heaves a sigh, looking over to her.

"It's hard to explain. Airy, my girlfriend...she...creates things. With her imagination. I can...make them real. She...thought the place up, and here it is."

Luther crosses his arms, looking slightly down at the girl. She isn't much younger than him, truth be told, but she doesn't need to know that.

"Then consider yourself warned. We don't just trust people blindly around here. It has to be earned."

It's clear from his expression his heart goes out to the little girl. He can only imagine how...well, that wasn't important right now.

He leans over the bar, motioning to one of the seats.

"We'll find him, kiddo. How about I get you something in the meantime?"

[Joey's head's still swimming from all the information he was forced to cram into it in so short a time, and he's still reoccupied with all the revelations, too, like not being dead, not having Red, not being DEAD...wait, he'd covered that one already.

He was sort of wandering aimlessly, just sort of...exploring really. He has a hard time remembering what it was like to just wander around, do his own thing, when he nearly collided with the kid calling for her dad. He frowned at first, not wanting to get involved, but come on. Who could leave a little girl who was clearly lost wandering around the halls alone?

Even if she was dressed like Little Red Riding Hood.]

Heey, easy there, sweet-cheeks. Where's the fire?

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ARRIVAL LOG - First Wave

CAFETERIA | NPC: Gus

FOREST | NPC: Nathan

RESTRICTED AREAS | NPC: Luther

RECEIVING BAY | NPC: Airy

FOREST | NPC: Nathan

RESTRICTED AREAS | NPC: Luther (Near the training wing)

CAFETERIA | NPC: Gus

Grace | OPEN

Joey Mallone | OPEN

CAFETERIA | NPC: Gus

FOREST | NPC: Nathan

RESTRICTED AREAS | NPC: Luther (Near the training wing)

FOREST | NPC: Nathan

RESTRICTED AREAS | NPC: Luther (Near the training wing)

CAFETERIA | NPC: Gus

RECEIVING BAY | NPC: Airy

RECEIVING BAY | NPC: Airy

RECEIVING BAY | NPC: Airy

DORMITORIES

DORMITORIES

RECEIVING BAY | NPC: Airy

FOREST | NPC: Nathan

RESTRICTED AREAS | NPC: Luther (Near the training wing)

CAFETERIA | NPC: Gus

HALLWAY