OPEN ★ ARRIVAL LOG

[futurologists]

ARRIVALS ( OCT 2 ) The dragons are taken from you, sent off to a safe haven. You're back in Oska for less than a day when you hear the announcement and head to the rendezvous point. You blink, step through the portal, there's a loud crack, and... You're thrown into darkness. You taste copper and, for a moment, your ears won't stop ringing. All common side-effects of portal travel. The entire crew arrives just beyond the city gates, so you might also be feeling a little bit claustrophobic. It takes a second for the eyes to adjust, but one can make out buildings and the cobblestone beneath their feet. To the right is the Trade District, where all the vendors are gathered to sell their wares. Up ahead is the City Square, where the rest of the citizens out and about seem to be gathered. To the left of the square is the Commoners' District, and to the right of it is the Nobles' District, the two main residential areas. Further travel west will come to the outskirts, a makeshift residential area, this one densely populated with goblins. Many of the people are holding candles or lanterns. You might want to try getting your hands on one of those. If you have not already done so, your enchanted jewelry will manifest words in front of your very eyes — or sounds in your ear, if you're illiterate — asking you to identify yourself. A quick look around shows that you seem to be the only one able to see it. All you have to do is think or say how you wish to be identified. After that, you're immediately given a message. Those who participated in the dragon mission at Anwick will first receive this: We appreciate your help at Anwick. The wyrmlings will live to grow up and bring about the world's natural end. Thank you. -- ALASTAIR Afterwards, the crew will be given an abridged version of this, then told to familiarize themselves with the city and natives, report all information gathered back to ALASTAIR, and wait for further instruction. At the end of the night, wherever they may be, everyone will receive a letter with the royal seal thanking them for their efforts to end the goblins' defiance and inviting them to the Festival of Illumination on the 4th. FESTIVAL OF ILLUMINATION ( OCT 4 ) Candles are sitting on windowsills throughout the entire city, but the main event is in the city square. In the fountain float lit lotuses, and people all around are holding lanterns, waiting to light them. There's a minstrel playing songs, and several of the vendors have pulled their carts up to the square in the hopes of making a sale. Many sweets are for sale, including baked apples, gingerbread, cherry tarts, pudding, and more. There's also some drinks for sale. Some children are playing games in the corner, and others are dancing to the music or writing wishes on slips of paper to be sent into the sky with their lanterns. Everyone seems merry for once, but you'd better be careful. This is an ideal place for a pickpocket. About an hour and a half into the festival, the lanterns are sent into the sky. They're sent flying, the sky becoming filled with bright lights, until... A strong gust of wind sends all the lights out. At least, you think it was a gust of wind. What else could have done that? On closer inspection, however, you'll see that even the candles sitting on windowsills inside have gone out. For a minute or so, there's only darkness and chaos. Suddenly, the flames begin to burn again, revealing a message in the cobblestone in the center of the square. It almost looks as if it's been burned into the ground: IT IS COMING, followed by a symbol of a creature with a lion's head, goat's body, and serpent's tail. [MOD NOTE: This is a catch-all log for the first few days. For the sake of organization, all arrival threads should be posted under the subheader ARRIVALS and all festival threads should be posted under FESTIVAL. Threads that don't fall under either of those categories can be top-levels. Also, please remember to add your character's tag to the post! Thank you, and have fun!]

Comments

mikasa: the prompt.

[keeps]

[ After several hours floundering in disordered confusion, her balance - both physical and mental - thrown dangerously off kilter by the unknown situation, the lack of oversight from her military superiors, wondering where Eren is— Eren -

She hears his voice and her knees nearly crumple with relief. (Nearly, because her completely exerted control over her body isn't something to be surrendered on this night, in this place.)

Her hands jerk out, reaching for any fold in his clothing she can find. ]

Eren.

[ Red hot anger, likening him to a furnace close to boiling over. It wears at her, but at the moment, it's the most welcome sound in the world. ]

Are you okay?

the prompt: the movie: the video game.

[counterattacked]

[He's feeling his way around this, and so far he doesn't like a moment of it. Picked up out of his own war to fight someone else's, to put a (natural?) end(?) to entire worlds under ALASTAIR's command, to do whatever it is they ask him to without really knowing what the hell is going on. It's no surprise it grates on him, catches at his skin like sandpaper. He's strung too-tight and seething over it, restless and aimless in the unfamiliar streets and the unfamiliar straits. Baring his teeth at shadows. She reaches for him, and he reacts before his eyes can adjust to her in the dark. Hands twitching up, teeth bared against a would-be threat.

He doesn't get far, because he stops shock-still and stunned for a second when she speaks.]

Mikasa?

[It ends in a question, but it doesn't need much answer. (Of course. It's a law of nature, a force of the universe. Eren charges ahead, and she follows.) His teeth clack together, in the ensuing silence. Unease settling only slightly. He moves again, grabbing for her wrists to tug her into the tepid light of a windowsill lantern so he can see her face.

As he does—]

What do you think you're doing?

the novelisation of the video game.

[keeps]

[ And, ultimately, she doesn't need to reach for him because he's tugging her into a faint sphere of light. It cuts a swath of shadows on her face, bringing out some creases and lines while swallowing others. He stands outside of it, shrouded but recognisable. She hears it - him - in the fiery pitch of his incredulity; in his heavy, hard steps.

He answers her relief with caustic, unbridled energy, and it sounds like home to her ears. ]

I was looking for you.

[ Undiminished in her intent by his unfairly timed question, she repeats her own - ]

Are you hurt?

the broadway musical

[counterattacked]

[She insists, of course. "Are you hurt," before anything else. Of course. He exhales sharply, dropping his hands away from her wrists as if just remembering that they're there.]

Mikasa.

[Emphatic and impatient, because he's clearly fine but he knows she doesn't let these things go. Even when there are bigger things to worry about. He's not even doing anything more dangerous than walking around. (With the bandits, and the black sun. Details.)]

Cut it out. I'm not the one creeping up on people in the dark.

[She shouldn't be here. Neither of them should. They don't have the slightest idea how they might fix that, save for trusting ALASTAIR at their word. There are those who can take an interdimensional conscription in stride, and there are those who need to work their way through it. Eren's very much the latter. He's had little success in focusing his restless and aimless aggravation on much of anything, since arriving here, with means he's still humming with it. Seeing Mikasa here sparks a different sort of aggravation in him. But his stern tone evens out a little, and his presses his mouth thin before opening it again.]

You've been here the whole time?

[He'd missed her entirely, in the crowd of arrivals.]

the dvd release of the broadway musical.

[keeps]

[ She should be used to this, his petulant disregard for the far reach of her attention. Truthfully, Mikasa is cognizant of it, although she has never bothered to step back and consider that, maybe - just maybe - she might be overbearing, even smothering. She continues on, unbothered. Her eyes appraise every visible inch of him, with all the untempered desperation of a makeshift older sister. She doesn't even know which of them is older, honestly, but still she clings to the idea as much as she clings to Eren.

So, he accuses her of creeping in the dark, and Mikasa doesn't even dignify it with a response. (Although, if we're being perfectly honest, her fingers twitch with the disallowed urge to cuff him upside the head.) ]

I arrived when everyone else did.

[ And immediately plunged into the crowd like a bloodhound on the scent, with him and no other thoughts in her head. ]

You did too, right?

[ Subtle in her intent to lead, Mikasa starts to move out of the alley. He'll either follow or get picked up and carried like an infant.

Your move, Jaeger. ]

[counterattacked]

[He nods a little, frowning out at the streets with a new sense of perspective while she looks him over. If he and Mikasa are both here—there's no way it's coincidence. What the hell is going on?]

I didn't see you.

[She is, maybe, possibly a little bit smothering. Most of the time. And she can take care of herself. But she is important, and running into her here, in this place, with so much of this still strange and tense—it's not like he wouldn't have tried to get in touch. And it's not like he's not in a rush to shove her away. So he keeps pace with her as she starts moving out of the light.]

What about before? Anwick?

[With the dragons.]

[keeps]

[ Anwick doesn't ring a bell, but if he was somewhere and she wasn't -

Only barely, Mikasa resists the urge to grind her teeth, to gnash down to the bone in a fit of unhappiness. Her reply, when it comes, is stiffly given. ]

I wasn't there.

[counterattacked]

[Well, at least it means he hadn't managed to miss her there, too. Anwick is something of a sore subject, still, in the wake of the troubling message they'd gotten about it after their arrival. (He may not know exactly what "bring about the world's natural end" means, but he can make a few good assumptions, and all of them set his teeth on edge.) And that's written loudly in the tense in his jaw and the stiff line of his neck and the way his brow knits as he frowns out at the horizon. But he very deliberately doesn't get into it, unless she decides to press the subject. Instead—]

Have you seen anyone else?

[Eren will (violently) run into Levi, later. But for now, she's the only familiar face he's seen.]

[keeps]

[ She almost holds her tongue on her answer, knowing full well he won't like it. Keyword: almost. As ever, there are very few mistruths between them. She errs on the side of complete, brutal honesty. ]

No.

[ ... ]

I didn't look for anyone else.

[ Well, that's not entirely true. She had kept an eye out for Armin's underwhelming build and wheat-coloured hair. Him, too, she craves to have at arm's length when possible. That point barely feels worth mentioning, though. Eren knows. ]

[counterattacked]

[She's right. He doesn't like that kind of thinking. It chafes at his principles and his patience. As close as they are—as important as they are to each other, they don't actually understand each other most of the time. But they don't really do dishonesty, either. He works his jaw.]

Then I'm gonna go look.

[Comb the crowd for familiar faces with a little more attention than he had before. If she wants to help, then she can. He expects she'll come either way.]

[keeps]

[ She's coming. Of course she's coming. Mikasa doesn't hesitate to fall in line, happily guided by Eren's whim - or, in this case, Eren's initiative. Even if her happiness is flatly indicated, her expression unchanging.

Eventually, she confesses, ]

I don't think Armin is here.

[counterattacked]

[The slums are less dangerous with the two of them keeping an eye on each other's backs, but they walk in silence for a while anyway. It's not uncommon. Of course, she knows what he's wondering without him needing to voice it. Counterpoint—]

I didn't think you were here, either.

[And yet. It's not that he wants to see more of their comrades, here. But he's always relied on Armin's judgment when things get bad. And "eternal night" and "brewing war" are pretty bad. Still—]

He shouldn't be here. [But then, neither should she. Kidnapping people out of their own battles to do their dirty work for them hasn't endeared him to ALASTAIR's cause. Having been away for days already is making his restless. After everything that's happened—] Things are fucked up already without more of us disappearing to this place.