0003: NEW ARRIVALS

[crux_npcs]

Who: New Arrivals, Captain Jack Hollis, Science Captain Urist McEngineer, Graham Baker
Where: Briefing Room
When: Late afternoon
Warnings: None

When awakening, you'll find the area you're in to be very busy. The people in the medical ward are polite and understanding, but firmly refuse to answer questions until the briefing. The same goes for the robots in the hangars. Either given hospital outfits resembling very comfortable pajamas, drone bodies, or their own bodies, they are escorted by polite, unyielding people in red and black uniforms to the briefing room.

The room is large, but not quite large enough for some of the bigger Cybertronians. They've been given drone bodies at least, skinny little things with no real features beyond primitive masks made of paper plates. There's seats for everyone, at least, well-cushioned and comfortable, and the room is pleasantly lit.

A few Security personnel, dressed in their red and black uniforms, stand at ease in the rooms in strategic areas. Three men stand at the head. One is Graham Baker, a slightly nervous-seeming middle-aged man wearing a multi-layered business suit that seems rumpled and oversized. The other two men are dressed in military uniforms, one with the blue undershirt and piping of Command, while the other wears the gold of Science.

[Questions to the NPCs will go in the briefing thread. The rest of the post is there for people to mill about and do whatever with.]

Comments

[velveteened]

"You must've just arrived," he says, and it's not a question. "I know it's a shock, but the situation here isn't so bad."

[quackery]

There's a rush of disappointment, somehow, as he speaks; there's a lack of familiarity that she knows Oz, her Oz, the boy she knows, wouldn't display. There's a momentary expression of sadness, but it doesn't last long. She's aware enough to know that she's lucky enough to even have this, and there's a part of her that protests that it's selfish enough to be glad to see him.

"Yeah? What's it like?"

[velveteened]

"It's — "

He starts and stops and cants his head, lips curling into a wry smile. It's strange, strange, all too strange, and not even he knows what to make of it.

"Ah, everyone's very friendly."

[quackery]

"Who have you met so far?"

She lets that linger only for a moment, not long enough for him to consider the question and then answer. She realizes, all of a sudden, a way to be certain that he really doesn't remember.

"...Oz?" And if he seems confused by her knowing his name, she reasons to herself, there's an easy explanation there. She can tell him she looked through the communicator to check for any friends and his name stood out to her as unusual, enough so that she glanced at the image there.

[velveteened]

He inhales sharply in surprise, then — 

"Ahiru?"

[quackery]

She pauses as well, bringing a hand to her mouth in surprise before abruptly throwing her arms around him in a tight hug. Something immensely relieved and unspeakably sad arises inside her.

[velveteened]

He — almost feels like this could be one of a hundred times she's hugged him, and that's what makes it so special. His arms come around her to hold her closer, as though for a confirmation of this is real.

"It's good to see you."

[quackery]

Her arms move a fraction tighter, as if she's worried he'll slip away from her again. She takes a deep breath, trying to steady herself before she speaks.

"You remembered." That sentiment, she feels, is worth more than a hundred other words she could say.

[velveteened]

It makes him laugh, just a little.

"Of course. Aren't I supposed to be saying that?"

[quackery]

Of course, like it's something natural that everyone else has done— so she shakes her head, because she knows it's something special.

After that, there's a short laugh, a little shaky, and she pulls away.

"What do you mean? I can say it too!"

[velveteened]

He laughs as he pulls away as well, unable to stop himself.

"Well, you did say it first. But, really — I'm happy you did."

[quackery]

She pauses, smiling.

"...How long have you been here?"

[velveteened]

"Just a couple of weeks," he answers easily — and, this time, he isn't even lying about it. "I don't think anyone was pulled here before that."

[quackery]

She sighs, looking towards the ground.

"...I'm sorry. If there's anybody who deserved to make it home, it's you."

[velveteened]

It's not even hard to muster a smile.

"Isn't that true of everyone?" And her, especially her. "Besides, we aren't the only ones here, from Exsilium!"

[quackery]

She blinks, genuinely surprised.

"Who else is here?"

[velveteened]

He counts it off mentally as he answers, looking upwards.

"There's Alice, Break, Rosette, Chrono, and Kevin."

There's Elliot too, but he doesn't remember Exsilium at all, and there'd been Allen, briefly.