http://never-do-harm.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] never-do-harm.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] paixaorpg2007-02-27 08:37 am

Run aground [Active/Open]

Character(s): Simon, aaaaanybody else? (you know you want to.)
Content: Simon arrives in Paixao and immediately starts looking for River. In the snow.
Setting: Muspelheim Gates, heading toward Muspelheim Station.
Time: afternoon
Warnings: none

Simon woke up without a headache. This wasn't particularly unusual, except that he must have been knocked out somehow, or else he would likely have remembered how in the 'verse he wound up lying on his back outside some kind of giant dome. Most notably, one that was planetside. As soon as he'd sat up, he realized he'd be less visible lying down, so he rolled over onto his stomach and watched the line of people assembled at what looked like some kind of checkpoint.

He scowled, trying to remember what had happened. River had gone to bed. He'd been cleaning up the contents of three or four drawers in the med bay that she'd pulled out and upended all over the place, nothing too out of the ordinary. And then... he'd woken up here. On the ground. As far as he'd known, Serenity had been days away from the nearest settlement.

Simon didn't want to think he'd been out for days. That would raise about a hundred times as many questions as it answered.

Furtively, he took a look around for any sign of the ship, or of River, and found neither. Did that mean she was still on the ship? Or had she been dumped somewhere else? Or, worst of all, was she already inside that facility, past the checkpoint? What if they'd caught her?

That thought solidified his intentions. He hadn't been sure whether to try the checkpoint and likely get arrested, or take his chances in the wilderness outside, but he couldn't see River anywhere out here. If she was inside that place, he had to try. He stood up and brushed the dry grass from his vest as he started toward the decorative gate. Even if they'd been dropped here together, she might have come to first and gone for help or something. He honestly couldn't even try to predict her.

No one in the queue seemed to mind him joining, and it moved quickly. The attendant would ask for a name, the first in line would give one, and they were sent through. They didn't even seem to be asking for photo ID or papers, which, while odd, was a stroke of luck Simon wouldn't complain about.

"Name?" the attendant asked him, not even looking up, as he reached the front of the line.

"John Jenkins," he blurted almost before she was finished.

The attendant jotted it down on a clipboard and handed him both a paper brochure and ... a hand-held computer. "Here you are, Mr. Jenkins. Welcome to Paixao, and we hope you enjoy your stay."

Simon accepted both a bit hesitantly. "Thank you," he said quickly, after a moment, then continued briskly through the gate.

The second he was inside, it got nasty; the cold hit him like a shockwave, such that it took him a few seconds to notice the ... ash? falling slowly around him. What the- What was this? (Besides ridiculous.)

So they asked your name, didn't take two seconds to verify it, handed you free Cortex access and turned you loose in a freezing-cold domed city. Madness! Simon tucked the computer under one arm and started toward the nearest public-looking building, rubbing his bare hands together in a futile attempt at keeping them warm. Once he'd made inside, he would check for any news waves on his sister. That was his plan, anyway.

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