[Open Log] November Arrivals & Greeters/Protection Force

[thepull_mods]

Who: New November Arrivals, Greeters, & anyone else who happens to be hanging around the Tower Apartments to greet newcomers.
When: Month of November (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!

Comments

November 12, 8:20 p.m.

[un_fated]

It was like being forced through the neck of a very small bottle, stuffed and forced until muscle and bone cracked, creaked, split, and at last yielded, spit out with a great gust of air onto the earth.

A man -- a boy? -- dressed in a long, dark cloak thick with dirt and travel dust rolling, hurling over the ground into a dark heap.

No. A woman.

It was a woman who stirred, pushed her head up, balling her fists in the dirt. A woman, dressed in clothing faintly reminiscent of ancient China, male clothing, her hair bound high. She pushed up; the air kicked up suddenly around her, scattering the thick grit like raining sand against the dugout walls.

"Shit . . ."

Not a very ladylike word, but she didn't seem to care. Twisting, her eyes raked across the dugout areas. "Where the hell is this?"

Louder, "Takiko?Her elbows jolted, caught at the point of weakness, almost faceplanting her back into the dust. Her teeth knifed into her lower lip, and perhaps by sheer force of will, she remained with what little bit of upright position

[boundbytreason]

"Don’t move so sharply."

A delicate, darkly gloved hand reached out to settle on the girl’s shoulders with the intention of steadying her. It belonged to a hooded woman enshrouded in a bluish-black robe, which may have seemed more like another silhouetted shape in the Darkness. A gentle smile lightly curved lips sleeked in a violet hue, before she spoke again.

"Everyone that comes here feels like this, including myself," Caster calmly continued in a soothing voice. "But it will pass. Right now, you are in a world separate from your own, so don’t worry about time. Whatever happens here should not affect your original timeline."

[un_fated]

Again, a sudden, sharp gust of air as the woman, startled, flashed her eyes up to the source of the hand. Just as quickly, though, it broke, merely ruffling at the edges of Caster's cloak.

So much for not moving quickly, though; the suddenness of the movement brought a wave of dizziness and the sudden urge to vomit. Uruki locked her teeth against it, biting down into the inside of her cheek until the moment passed. This in itself was no help; the taste of copper trickled onto her tongue.

Time and her timeline were the last things on her mind at that moment. "Who're you?" The words came out sharp; for all she knew, this hooded woman could well have been the one to bring her here.

[boundbytreason]

As the wind grazed the edges of her robe, the brief light of surprise in her eyes went undetected beneath her hood, and only her sedate smile remained visibly unwavering.

"I am Caster," she answered, speaking softly to the poor girl. "I am like you, taken to this world without any knowledge or action on my part. Now it is my duty to inform others who come here about their circumstances."

She allowed for a moment of pause, giving the other some time to ask anything she would like before she launched into her explanation. Sympathy colored her voice with gentle warmth, akin to the treatment one would give a wounded creature. After all, she understood well how it felt to arrive into the City, disoriented and raw with aches and scratches.

[un_fated]

Sympathy. Or pity. And Uruki had absolutely no use for pity. The softness in the woman's words poked. Rankled.

Yet there wasn't much she could do. Every movement reminded her that she was off, even ill. Pride for the moment was placed at the side, even though it burned at the edges of her voice.

"What's wrong with me?"

[boundbytreason]

The young lady’s question tugged at the edges of Caster’s heartstrings once more, as her hand gingerly rose to clutch the front of her own robe

[un_fated]

A blink -- a sharp one. The truth of the matter was, that with the adrenaline pumping through her, Uruki had barely even registered the cold. The woman's cloak was heavy, warm . . . and Uruki would have to be blind to see the cost. She'd been in the cold herself often enough to understand the bite.

"Oi . . ." The harsher, fiercer lines in her face softened slightly, giving way to an embarrassed, prideful irritation. "Don't. I come from cold. Ten to one you don't." Managing to settle back to her knees, she drew the cloak off her shoulders, holding it out. "Keep it."

She set about the task of pushing herself to her feet -- easier said than done, it was clear, by the wobble of it. "You'd have to be stupid to pull me here and then try to take care of me. Why'm I here? What is this place, anyway?"

[boundbytreason]

On a first impression, it was easy to mistake Caster as a delicate, passive woman. The soft features of her face, coupled together with her gentle eyes, tended to mislead many into that misconception. However, it didn’t take long to see that she was anything but spineless.

Grasping the offered robe in her fingers, she nimbly proceeded to pull it back around the young lady once more.

"Look here," she firmly stated, with her hands still clutching the front of the cloak to keep it secured around the girl. "You’re hurt, and I’m not. I’ve been in this climate long enough to withstand it, and seeing you suffer from it will trouble me far worse than the cold itself." Bringing one arm around the other’s shoulders, she continued to speak in that same, no-nonsense manner.

"I’ll tell you what you want to know in a moment, but first, lean against me. You don’t want to make your condition any worse."

[un_fated]

Uruki's eyebrows rose sharply -- after all, the refusal had nothing to do with Caster's delicacy, but the fact that it was cold, and the woman was wearing very little compared to her. Having been yanked from Bei-Jia, where the weather was nearly always cold, even snowing, she was far more dressed for the weather.

A small snort, barely audible, escaped her. Whatever. Let the woman fuss. If she wanted to freeze, it wasn't Uruki's problem.

She leaned, but only because at the moment she had to. She wanted up, and damn it if her body was obeying her properly.

"One more question." This one weighed more heavily, as though she would get it out, no matter what. "Have you seen a girl? Dark hair. About my age. Takiko."

[boundbytreason]

Caster lightly shook her head as she kept her arm secured around the other girl's body.

"No," she answered, softly. "As far as I'm aware of, there is no girl by the name of Takiko here, so you can be assured that she isn't here in this city."

Offering her a reassuring smile, she continued, "Now, to answer your previous questions...this city is called Siren's Pull. At the heart of the city is a device called the Core, also know nas the Siren. No one knows how it functions or how it came to be here, but it is the source of your arrival. It pulls in people from other worlds -- others like you and me -- into this city."

She paused for a moment before she tentatively took a step forward, encouraging the girl to walk alongside her with her forward momentum.

[un_fated]

She didn't know if that was reassuring or not. On the one hand, it meant that Takiko was away from whatever this place was, tucked away into another place and time.

On the other, it meant she was away from whatever this place was, tucked away into another place and time . . . and therefore thoroughly out of reach. Even before, eternally racing away from her, Uruki had always had the option to return, always had been able to make sure that she wasn't poking her nose into something that would get her hurt or killed.

Annoying or not, that wasn't a fate that Uruki wanted for her. She was silent after that, lips pressed together tightly, forcing her thoughts into the focus of the movement as she listened to one ear. One foot. Then another.

Damn, this was going to be annoying.

"And you get home how?"

((ooc: *thanks you for having a conversation you must have had 150 times before*))

[boundbytreason]

"You have three options," Caster answered, promptly. "Some people believe that our purpose for being here is to free the natives of this city from their fears of the supernatural. You see, it doesn’t matter whether you came here with the ability to perform supernatural acts. The Core changes you, and if you didn’t have one before, you do now. It mutates anyone living in this city, including those born here. However, they discriminate us as foreigners, so it’s possible that we are supposed to erase this prejudice."

For Caster, repeating all this information should feel automatic by now, but somehow, it always felt different. Sometimes, the person was more volatile, and other times, they were calmer. Occasionally, there were those in-between, like this young lady

[un_fated]

Uruki's lips turned up at the mention of supernatural abilities -- very much a smirk. "Hn. People believe what they want. They do stupid things. No one's going to stop them."

An image of Takiko, lingering in her mind, reaching out to rub a woman's back . . . then yanked away by her hair, screamed at, buffeted by pebbles and water.

And yet . . . her hand outstretched, ready to try again.

The smirk softened. Faded.

Again Uruki concentrated on moving one foot in front of the other, listening with one ear.

"Both . . . companies made by people pulled in, or what?" A glance to Caster as the woman's eyes caught at hers. What exactly a company was could come later; for the time being the fact that it was a group of people sufficed. "And what do you mean, 'venue of interest'?"

((ooc: Aw! Thank you! <3))

[boundbytreason]

"Both companies are started by people born into the city," Caster answered, recalling the information that she gleaned from the books on the matter. "However, their members do consist of people pulled in. Those who ally with them in hopes of finding an escape or for the benefits offered

[un_fated]

"So really . . ." The smirk re-emerged, though whether it was amusement or wryness was anyone's guess. "This isn't a mercy thing they're doing. They just want us all out -- and if they snag or kill a few of us for fun times in the interim, all the better."

Sharp eyes flicked over Caster's face, catching the flutter as it emerged and lingered like a shadow. "What'd you choose?"

[boundbytreason]

Caster softly shook her head, her breath emerging as an opaque white when she uttered the words of her next response