meet-and-greet | January 2016

[governors]

The Governors do this, sometimes; they hold a meet-and-greet for the new arrivals to help them get acclimated, and also to distract them from destroying their rooms. A message goes out to all the new arrivals informing them of a party with free food. Everyone likes free food, right?

In one of the recreation areas - sadly, not one of the ones accessible by slide - there are some chips, dip, some sodas and Solo cups, several large pizzas, and a surprising amount of Oreos.

Party.

Comments

Chase Collins | OTA

[bastardofipswich]

Chase hasn't been here long. Actually, it's been... two and a half days. Long enough for him to learn what's going on, explore some of the facility, and come to the conclusion that he should play along-- for now, at any rate. Beyond that, he hasn't done much, and he hasn't really met anybody yet. So, when he receives a message that there will be a meet-and-greet, complete with food, he pretty much jumps at the opportunity.

Hell, he even dresses up for the occasion. Well, "dresses up" by wearing the clothes he arrived in: a nice black button-up shirt, dark wash jeans, and a black coat. When he arrives, he finds himself... well, disappointed by the culinary offerings. Hey, he's a teenager: he likes junk food just as much as the next guy. But, come on, he was hoping for a better spread than this.

...

Not that it's going to stop him from eating the snacks laid out on the tables.

*slams down tag!

[allthesame2me]

There are only a few people in the room thus far, but Aex is going to take full advantage of that to meet any other new arrivals. After all, those invited were amongst the newest to this whole mess and, presumably, at just as much of a loss as he was.

He had his waist length hair secured in a braided crown, dressed in a loose tunic shirt and flowy harem pants, bare feet padding against the floor without any seeming concern.

He pauses near Chase, nostrils flaring widely as he catches a familiar scent.

"Oh, please tell me those are Oreos..." He walks over with a smile, his movement unintentionally cat-like and smooth.

Alex Marsters // OTA (will match prose or brackets)

[allthesame2me]

Alex had been polite to everyone he'd spoken with over the past few days, since life as he knew it had been turned upside-down, but there was only so much to see in the underground facility. His senses felt dulled and muffled, but he kept as busy and distracted as he could by learning the layout of the facility and what it had to offer.

The message that the Govenors sent out was a welcome distraction that he immediately took advantage of. He dressed the part, but it certainly wasn't the sort of outfit one might expect to find a young man wearing: flows tunic like shirt and matching harem pants; and yes, if you happened to catch sight of them, his feet wear bare beneath it all. The cut of the shirt would flatter either the male or female body, and he'd braided his waist length hair into a crown around his head.

He follows the directions to the meet-and-greet and blinks from the doorway. There aren't many people mingling this far and... Well...

He starts to laugh, the sound low and genuinely amused. "Oh, God... It's like a sleepover gone awry!"

[cisskabob]

Cissie couldn't help a dry laugh when she heard his reaction. She was standing nearby, mostly keeping to the edges of the room and taking stock of the contents and the people around her, but the party itself was honestly kind of baffling.

"Right?" she asked, shaking her head. "It's like Saturday night in the dorms. I was expecting something... a little fancier, honestly."

Not that she'd dressed up for it; jeans, a t-shirt and sneakers were all these people were going to get from her for a while, at least until she stopped feeling perpetually threatened. Getting basically kidnapped (even if apparently for her own good) will do that to a girl.

Cissie King-Jones | OTA

[cisskabob]

A party. Cissie honestly can't say she feels much like partying, but if she's stuck here--which increasingly seems to be the case--then she may as well stop sulking in her room and at least investigate a little. Meet some of the others, find out a little more about the place and what they're doing here, do... something proactive.

Considering why they're presumably here, a room full of red Solo cups, pizza and more oreos than she's ever seen is kind of a let down. She stands off to the side of the room, frowning thoughtfully at the food, and absently rubbing at her left palm.

Mostly to herself, she mutters, "...This looks... just like the parties at school."

Maybe that's supposed to be comforting, but she mostly finds it off-putting. You're Special-with-a-Capital-S so we whisked you away from everything you know to protect you even though you're totally capable of protecting yourself, here have a party just like the ones at your All Girls' Boarding School.

[highprofilerichkid]

"This is even lamer than the parties at my school," Tony says with halfhearted humor. "This pizza sucks." Leave it to a New Yorker to be snobby about pizza.

He'd noticed the girl as soon as she'd walked in - she's his age, she's pretty, and most importantly, she looks as skeptical of this whole deal as he is. 'Commiserating together' probably isn't what the Governors had had in mind when they threw this party, but living in an underground bunker being some random person's bodyguard isn't how Tony had intended to spend the next year, so he doesn't feel too bad about being ungrateful.

Anyway, if he's going to make friends here, this seems like a good enough place to start. You know what they say: misery loves company.

[bastardofipswich]

Here, Cissie, meet another boarding school kid. Chase is out to get to know as many of the other newcomers as he can, figuring some networking could be valuable in the long-run, especially considering that his goal here isn't to help whatever weak little Fatemarked he's going to have to protect, but to find a cure for the problem that's plagued his entire bloodline since the dawn of time-- or the dawn of magic, at least.

Which means he needs to get to know people from all kinds of realities, just in case they have some information that may be useful to him.

"Oh, yours had oreos?" he remarks, even though the girl wasn't talking to him. "Lucky."

[highprofilerichkid]

Tony isn't happy with the state of affairs, and it shows. Unlike his usual chipper self, he's widthdrawn, his shoulders hunched and his expression sullen. He hadn't even bothered to dress up for the party.

If you can even call it a 'party'. There's almost no one here, and the food is an uninspired after-school-club-meeting spread. He picks resentfully at a plate of chips. If their new 'hosts' are trying to make this trans-universal kidnapping seem appealing, this is a pretty pathetic first showing.

At least the facilities are nice, he has to admit. Doesn't make it any less of a prison, peppy promotional materials or not, but they won't be uncomfortable during their year-long enforced vacation. He guesses that's something.

And he is curious to meet his fellow recruits. Abductees. Whatever. They're all in this together, apparently, so he should get to know them. It's not going to do him any good to sulk in his room until he's assigned a Fatemarked.

He tries to put on a more agreeable expression and look sort of inviting as he glances around the room at the other new arrivals. Time to socialize. Yaaaaay.

[allthesame2me]

Alex is playing the part of mister sociable, because it doesn't hurt anything to get to know those he's going to be around for at least the next year... Well, the Sentinels, at least. He and his fellow fatemarked would presumably be living in the facility for the rest of their lives, with the occasional jaunt above ground. Yay.

As it was, it seemed not everyone here was thrilled at the arrangements; and Alex couldn't really blame them. While he was upset at being taken from his mom and the pack without any warning, he was looking forward to various opportunities that he hadn't had back home. Others that had been brought in, however, might have been in a much better position than he had been... In any case, some people were upset.

And the young man picking at the chips looks to be one of those less thrilled to be here.

Alex sidles over on bare feet, his smile easy and his hips swaying with feline grace in the flowy harem pants he matched to a loose tunic. His voice is lilting and teasing as he speaks, "Whoa, buddy... I'm going to have to ask you to take your excitement down to at least a three."

[aquilawful]

Pretty much everyone here doesn't look particularly happy about it and some are hiding it with varying degrees of success. Others are practically radiating misery, like a young man who's looking at a plate of chips like they've done him some great personal wrong. Jack watches him for a minute or two before sidling over to stand next to him, soda in his left hand.

"You look like you're having fun," he begins neutrally.

[traqueur]

Given the last three or so days, Martha Jones had thought that there couldn't be anything left in this place that would surprise her. Being taken from her home and told that she was going to become a Sentinel to protect someone who was somehow important to something was an oddity in a life that was already filled with them. What she didn't expect (other than the obvious of everything) was what this party was like.

Coming in, Martha just stared at the refreshments that had been set up, and then she laughed. Really, considering the slides (which she'd taken more than a few of, Martha was not sorry or embarrassed to say) and the rest of it, she shouldn't have been surprised at how the foods on offer seemed more at home for a pajama party than where someone was going to meet the people whom they were confined together with until further notice.

Feeling entirely too dressed up even in her jeans and a jumper, Martha headed towards the drinks and she wondered if soda was really going to cut it for some of the people here. Of course, given the food fare, the liquor might have ended up being something terrible, cheap and sweet.

[inrecovery]

"I'm not sure if this is a little out of touch or actually just right," Malcolm admitted nervously as Martha approached. His probably sad attempt at small talk. He had a paper plate with a couple of greasy pieces of pizza set aside as he poured some soda into a cup.

[brewglory]

A while later, Severus meandered into the common room, not because he particularly wanted to go to a party, but because it seemed like the wisest place to go for him to encounter his fellow abductees. He wanted to see what sort of people were considered by the Facility's management to be adequate protection for himself and others like him: the 'Fatemarked'.

They were easy to pick out. They were the ones with unmarked hands - or those who weren't hiding their hands, as he was, tucked in the pocket of his thoroughly Muggle trousers.

Thus far, it wasn't terribly unimpressive, he supposed. If Nymphadora Tonks could be an Auror, well then, why couldn't that man with the abnormally large head? Why not that short woman by the food? And if said woman happened to have a glance at him while he was sizing her up, then of course he would do the appropriate thing and scowl bitterly before looking away.

[cisskabob]

If you can't beat them... Well, Cissie wasn't quite ready to join them yet, but she'd met enough other people to begin to relax, and to come to the conclusion that ignoring perfectly good pizza was probably a crime. Especially for a teenager. So she grabbed herself a slice and made her way over to the drink table. She stood there for a moment, considering the options. The lack of alcohol made it feel even more like a kids' party than the rest of the food, but it was probably a good idea, all things considered.

Even if she would not have minded something with a little kick to it. She was only underage in America, right?

She glanced over, feeling someone approaching. She couldn't very well pretend she hadn't looked once Martha made eye contact with her, so she offered a small, if hopefully friendly, smile. "Hi. I hope you like soda."

Daniel Kinney | OTA

[accipiterrible]

This is exceptionally awful.

Daniel slouches in a chair near the door in the same suit he's worn for two days, making a face as he sips the lukewarm Fanta in his Solo cup.

"Would it have killed them to put out a little alcohol?" he asks nobody in particular, soliloquizing to an Oreo in his other hand. "I think not."

[dragonaught]

"Probably don't want people getting tipsy where we're a stone's throw from armories and other dangerous stuff," said Casey. Not to say they were hovering, but the idle musing called out to their own isolation and thoughts of similar nature.

Even so, alcohol in a situation like this would have probably just made the adjustment harder. Casey was secretly glad for that because it kept the temptation away no matter how bad of an idea it was.

[aquilawful]

Jack was not overly enthused by the idea of a 'party', but it was more interesting than pacing in his room. Plus, it presented an ideal opportunity to meet other people in the facility. When they were all apparently in the same boat (kidnapped for one reason or another to what was ostensibly a different universe), and no one was happy about it, they were more likely to talk to anyone who was willing to listen to their complaints. Information gathering shouldn't be too difficult.

Going to the meetup had an unexpected bonus: a familiar face near the door.

"Figures the first thing you'd complain about is no alcohol," Jack says, interrupting his Oreo-soliloquy. It's lighthearted, but he's very relieved to see Daniel. "At least we got kidnapped together this time."

Tim Drake | OTA

[mrsarcastic003]

Even the pile of pizzas and Chocos (or Oreos, or whatever they call them in this dimnsion), isn't enough to distract from the fact that this is... honestly a pretty fail party. No one seems happy to be here, and there's not even any music.

Not that Tim really thinks there would be any dancing or frolicking even if there were music. The people who have turned up to this soiree seem pretty grumpy, and if he's honest with himself, he's not really any exception. He can't think of anyone who would want to be kidnapped from their home dimension and held in an underground facility, told they couldn't leave "for their own safety."

Possibly he just doesn't know the right sorts of people.

He leans back against the wall with his cup of soda (alas, not Zesti), and watches while others arrive. He's curious as to how the other new arrivals are taking things. While he's keeping his own irritation and frustration to himself at the moment, he's got plenty of both to spare, and he's pretty sure he's not alone in that.

WELL FANCY MEETING YOU HERE

[cisskabob]

Cissie's been mingling for a while, meeting some of the others and finding that most everyone here is also newly kidnapped. It's not exactly comforting, but it's nice that so far most of them seem to be equally perturbed about the whole mess. Nice, and helpful that none of them seem to be taking it out on each other either--yet.

Despite the fact that most everyone has been friendly enough, she's still wary. It's hard not to be, given their circumstances. She's been mostly keeping to the sidelines, playing the wallflower, but in looking around, it seems a lot of people are doing the same. She's scanning the room, taking stock of the others there (and the possible exits), when she spots Tim.

...Or rather, when she sees Tim and looks right past him because she absolutely does not expect to see anyone she knows here. It takes her brain a few seconds to process that--wait, was that... no, it couldn't be... and she almost gives herself whiplash looking back to double-check. At first, all she can do is stare. And then she's moving without thinking about it, weaving through the crowd and working her way toward him.

He's watching the door, and not the people showing up, not the people in the room, so she manages to get close enough that she doesn't have to shout before he sees her.

Still, as much as she wants to just throw herself at him and hang on because they're friends and it's been a long time, and it's both thank God, he's here and oh no, he's here at the same time... Part of her still doesn't really believe he's here. So she stops a few steps away and clears her throat.

"...Tim?"

Casey Ramone | OTA

[dragonaught]

Casey wasn't good at parties. Not to say they didn't go to them every now and again, but those were the sorts you could blend into the crowd and no one would look twice at you — or, well, you didn't have to care if they did, anyway. This party was smaller, more personal, much more meant to make sure those who came left with a few new acquaintances.

It was more daunting than they had anticipated.

That said, Casey ended up in the corner of the room seated on one of the fold-out chairs and tried to look like they were people-watching rather than waiting for some indeterminable amount of time to pass where it wouldn't be rude to bolt out. Socializing might come later on, but right now it was just a matter of not feeling completely and totally detached from the situation. There was a lot to take in, after all.

[aquilawful]

Most of the people in the room are making some kind of effort to socialize or appear less unhappy as they are. This kid, though... they look like an animal that's been cornered. Jack takes his time on the approach, observing some of the other attendees, chatting with one or two, before he gets within close enough distance to be heard.

"You know you're here for protection, right?" Jacks asks, leaning his back against the wall. "No one's going to bite you; too many eyes to be mistaken for a pizza."

Malcolm Ducasse | OTA

[inrecovery]

Malcolm isn't an anti-social person, but he's also a little rusty at doing the people thing. Pleasant people don't deal with drug addicts, which worked out while he was being a spy. Still, he was anxious to try to get back into it, even in these circumstances. Maybe a friendly smile and some encouraging words is exactly what everyone here needed. He wasn't exactly unfazed himself, but he'd read that sometimes just projecting an aura of confidence and calm can become real confidence. It was worth a shot.

He approached the nearest person, soda in one hand and a plate of greasy pizza in the other. "Hey, I'm Malcolm. Great party, huh?" He hoped the subtle sarcasm came through, otherwise he'd just sound like an idiot.

[accipiterrible]

"Magnificent," Daniel said, gesturing grandly with an Oreo. "Absolutely superb. Though I am a little disappointed that the spread stops at Oreos. Hook a guy up with some Chips Ahoy, huh? Or splurge on some Pepperidge Farm, maybe even get real fancy with it and ply us with some Samoas."

Brigid Finn | OTA

[bostonhowler]

Brigid has found herself a quiet corner to be in. She's overwhelmed by the smells and sounds of the room. It's giving her a headache, but she's determined to be here. She finds a single heartbeat - her own - and focuses on that, refusing to leave until she's come across someone else to talk to.

When this had happened, her Alpha - Marcus Hannigan - had told her not to hide. That this was a good thing. That she remains special in not only his eyes but everyone else's as well.

She's still not sure she wants to be here. It's overwhelming. She looks around the room, enjoying just trying to focus on her own heartbeat.

[paeon]

It wasn't hard to notice a wallflower in a party like this. Despite everything being off enough to confuse, O'danya understood the basics well enough to tell those who were coping socially with those who were not. Some had probably just come out of a feeling of... loneliness? Something like that. She was in a similar boat herself; not that she minded everyone around and would speak with many of them before the party was over, but because she was rather overwhelmed by the difference. Or lack thereof. There sure was a very strong hyuran presence and no other races that she could see as of yet. It reminded her of snowy, isolated Ishgard and even then, the frozen city-state had a mingle of elezen and hyuran and traveling salespeople of all sorts spotted here and there.

This was nothing like any of that.

All of that aside, she was noticing more and more those who seemed to need some prodding. Perhaps friendly conversation would help encourage them. If nothing else, it would give O'danya a better idea of what was going on.

"Are you all right?" she asked the woman in the corner, feeling there was a tension to her that O'danya couldn't place right away. Her voice was smooth, firm and light. Inexplicably somewhat Welsh. Even though some of her features were feline in nature, she would come off as nothing but an outdoorsy human to the senses; miqo'te relation to actual cats was still a hotly debated topic in her own world. "Is there something not to your agreement here?"

Rumpelstiltskin | OTA

[cantwalkwithoutit]

While a room can only have so many corners, Rumpelstiltskin does eventually appear when the need for sustenance overrides any anxiety he might have. While he comes to about five-eight in height, the way he hunches and shrinks tends to diminish any look of stature (however meager). Some may have encountered him earlier in his initial requests for assistance. Brought to this place without his son, and with little in the way of help from the people in charge, he made some noise before retreating back to his room to decompress.

One of the first things one might notice is that the food appears to alarm him, at least just a little. He has no idea what these things are, though the pizza is easier for him to figure out than the oreos, which he won't touch. He doesn't want to crowd an area that gets a lot of traffic, though, so after grabbing a couple small things, he retreats to a less populous part of the room.

[paeon]

As before, O'danya found herself surveying the room. Looking for anyone that seemed nervous, someone that could probably use a friendly face without any judgment or contempt. Being here was disorienting to say the least, although she was more accustomed to strange things enveloping her life than most it appeared. She only stood up to 5'5" (rather tall for her race, thank you very much) and yet this hyuran man seemed somehow... smaller. It was pitiful in the actual meaning of the word, drawing sympathy from her easily.

She approached carefully, tail low and still, and motions fluid and without speed. "Is there aught amiss?" she asks, accent odd for all that she herself was an oddity compared to the population of the Facility thus far.

Jack Metcalfe | OTA

[aquilawful]

This was a lame party, even by government standards. Then again, even if it were better furnished, Jack doubts that anyone would be in a particularly festive mood. Everyone here has been taken from their homes and their lives and the people they care about.

The party is a good opportunity to learn about his fellow abductees, Fatemarked and Sentinel alike. Regardless of any disgruntlement with his current status, Jack is falling back on his training: listen, observe, integrate.

And fitting in means grabbing a few slices and some soda. The food is pretty good, at least. He's hiding the Fatemark on his hand, but subtly.

[inrecovery]

"You look like you'd be more at home in an investor meeting," Malcolm said, coming up next to Jack. "No offense."