event: portal six | the wasteland

[mayfield_mods]

If you had thought that a charred nuclear hellscape couldn't possibly get any worse, turns out you thought wrong.

The sixth portal is located just a few yards across from the entrance to the Mayfield Dairy. The door to the Dairy is, as always, locked, but those of you who stare long enough at the drawn curtains might notice them fluttering slightly every once in a while- as if there's movement behind them. As if someone is watching.

Even just by glancing at the portal from the Mayfield side, you can tell it makes the desert portal look like a tropical vacation by comparison. The portal opens up to the interior of a ruined schoolhouse, its walls and floor caked with dust and ash. The hallways are bare and desolate, save for the occasional scorch mark. Inside the classrooms you can see small skeletons beneath the desks, curled up as if for warmth.

The world outside the schoolhouse is no better. Not only are the old hazards still here- pockets of intense radiation, air clouded by ash and smoke -but things have apparently deteriorated since your last visit. There are glitch pockets, as expected, but they're not sitting in place anymore: they're moving, slowly at times, quickly at others. And they're not moving at random, either: they'll come straight for you, as if they're hunting...

But glitch pockets aren't the only ones out for your blood. The roaming gangs of cannibal survivors are still here, but they appear to have been as changed as the landscape. Many of them bear the same deformities as the drones of the carnival- multiple or lacking limbs, two bodies fused together, mutated growths spreading up and down their limbs. Many of them are wearing scorched hazmat suits, patched together haphazardly. All of them are armed. None of them are friendly.

The sun hangs high in the sky, but you can barely see it through the thick brown clouds. This is a dead world, and unless you find that memento fast, you're about to become a permanent resident.

Comments

[suicidoll]

(Kreutzer is definitely not in a good mood. It's a mixture of depression and angst, but she's more than willing to release her built up aggression on the mutated survivors that try to attack her. Oh, do they try attacking her...an 18 year old girl all alone? They never expect the swarm of magical bullets she summons to demolish them. Never.

So here she is, flying and occasionally walking through the area, several little dolls flying around her with a single inanimate doll in her arms. She hugs it occasionally, as if it comforted her when she did so.)

[768mph]

[Bursting through the dairy portal by pure accident, sonic skids to a stop in front of one of the ruined buildings.]

Well that was definitely a wrong turn.

[He'll look around to find someone to ask about this weird place, finding Kreutzer nearby.]

Any idea why the world just decided to shift like this?

[bantorain]

-Virginia drew both pistols immediately upon rolling in, taking aim at visible entry points of the room her group wound up in. Nothing so far... but this place stank of a strange and sickening familiarity. That's right... this was how she 'died' last time, wasn't it?-

Balin, you're on point. Caesar, stick behind me and keep your eyes and ears open. If you see something we need to shoot at, don't be afraid to shout.

[commentboxtroll]

That's something I won't be shy about.

[Caesar's not happy to see where this portal has led them. He remembers the dangers from when last Mayfield, their Mayfield, looked like this, and those aren't good memories. He steps clear of the portal and over towards the classroom windows instead, crouching down so only where he's peeking over the sills is he at all visible.]

Those black holes are out there... [He can see one, at least, somewhere in the distance.] Pretty sure we can expect anything from last time, too.

[He'll put a hand idly on the hilt of his sword, but making sure it's still there isn't all that reassuring. How is he going to fight gun-toting cannibals?!]

[captainofthe10th]

[ Garviel pushes his motorcycle through the portal, then clambers onto his combat motorcycle, heavily armed and armored in his war-plate, virtually festooned with weaponry. He muscles the motorcycle out of the schoolhouse, holding his bolter one-handed as he pushes the heavy piece of ceramite and adamantine hardware. His helm scans for something, well, anything that looks out of place to the location. Once he spots the glitch pockets, well, he'll have a fairly good way of evading them. For the moment he's on overwatch, motorcycle idling, waiting for others to join him. ]

[a_clockwork_melody]

♪ BGM: Whispers of the Dead (R)

[Hesitantly did Aurica step out of the schoolhouse, as she peered out, a hand on the doorway's frame. The interior had already bothered her, with bones and walls reeking of death, so she already had the feeling the outside was as broken.]

This place is terrible... Why am I back in something like this?

[ukelelenogood]

[At some point the noise of idling motors changes from one to two, although the second motor is appreciably softer in how it sounds. Haruko smirks over at Garviel as she takes her helmet off and leans over the handlebars of his Vespa.]

Scenic view huh big guy?

[electrowhipit]

[ Jolt's waited for far too long to get through a portal, and while this one certainly doesn't look inviting, it at least looks like it's leading to a room where he'll fit. In vehicle form, anyway.

The Volt slowly drives through to the ruined classroom, nosing desks out of the way as he does. He doesn't need to check to make sure Sideswipe is behind him- they agreed they'd be doing this together- but he pings the other Autobot anyway, just to be sure he's following.

This place feels so much like a war zone. After so long being absent from his own war, he'd almost forgotten what it was like. ]

[stabbywheelfeet]

[Never fear, Jolt. He's right behind you. Right behind you. He may have even knocked his bumper into yours once or twice from sheer proximity. Yes, they'd agreed to go, and yes... they would be together. But All Spark, if anything happened to the other Autobot...]

[He answers the ping, a little hastily, as a result.]

[It's not going to be easy driving here. But the sight of the blackened walls, the curled human corpses... it silences any quips he might have made about the cramped conditions.]

All Spark... Just like being back home, isn't it?

[And by that, he means Cybertron. At least here there aren't any corpses dangling from buildings. Yet.]

[freakinblur]

[It's a good thing Scout's always armed to the teeth. Holding his scattergun and creeping through the ruined schoolhouse, he's trying to make it outside for whatever waits them all.]

Geez, I'm pretty sick 'a this cheezy horror movie crap.

[bye_to_yer_head]

I think I liked it better when you were a really pathetic attempt at a vampire.

[a_clockwork_melody]

[A broken world. A barren world, having lost its life long ago. A scenario similar to the one Aurica lost her own childhood in, as she slunk through the portal with morbid curiosity.

The girl, dressed in Mayfieldian blue with that red hairband she wore a year ago, grimaced as she scanned the schoolhouse she ended up in, but not long before the air made her cough, revealing her presence to those she followed into the portal, even though she tried to keep her distance.]

[captainofthe10th]

[ Loken turns back on his bike, bolter up and ready but the red targeting icon does not flash hostile, in fact, it flashes an old recognition Signal he hasn't seen in over a year. ]

Aurica. With me. Now.

[ He turns away, scanning for actual thread, moving back to his combat bike before things get ugly. ]

[bread_goes_bip]

[Mayfield is strange. Sometimes it introduces new feelings of helplessness. But sometimes Death still has a hard time getting her mind around the idea of being able to take a more involved role.

But looking at a scene she's seen so many times... this is dangerous, no question of that. But... well, so is she, when she wants to be. And if she knows the people here...]

No more watching and waiting.

[likescats]

IT WOULD SEEM NOT

[Standing next to her.]

[falsereligion]

[Kyouko can be found lurking around the school building, poking at everything and anything with the tip of her spear.

She cringes when she sees the skeletons underneath the desks, but it doesn't stop her from turning over absolutely everything she can find that might hide something.]

[freakinblur]

[In one of the rooms, she'll come across a guy who's tearing apart some desks and closets, with little concern. He turns around when he hears someone come in.]

Nothin' good here, neither. Unless ya like rotted wood. There's lots 'a that.

[photonicfighter]

[The schoolhouse and its little horrors are long behind Dakki at this point. She's broken away from some of the others to scout ahead and see what else there is to see. She had a photonic gun in both hands, and she's proceeding along slowly. The confidence that she could easily slaughter whatever cannibalistic mutants came her way was diminished by the presence of those roving black holes. Caution was still paramount.

She survived this wasteland once, and wasn't even herself at the time. Round two shouldn't be a problem at all. Right?]

[silver_reign]

[Dynamo had taken note of the portal and simply waltzed right on in. Looking around, he simply shrugged at what he saw. He's never been here, but it looks almost like home. In a ruined and desolate sort of fashion.

Heading outside, he lofts a brow. He wasn't used to seeing the drones looking so... mutated. He shook his head and decided to scout around when he noticed a glitch pocket.

Curiosity got the better of him, and he picked up a rock from the ground and was about to throw it at the thing... when he noticed someone familiar!]

'Ey! Dakki!

[aozaki]

[Usually, Touko doesn't get involved with the town's shenanigans, and honestly, she's still feeling on and off about actually exploring these portals. The letter left her indifferent, and what the other side of this particular warp reflected was nothing pleasant (nuclear wastelands hardly are). If it was up to her, she would've jumped the first leading to the island and just settled for getting herself a nice suntan.

But no, day 6 is what Shiki has decided, so as her boss, Touko Aozaki snorted, shrugged, lit herself a cigarette, and went 'why not'. Hence why she can be found on the ruined streets outside the wreckage of the school, a half-burnt cigarette dangling at the corner of her lips, one suitcase casually held onto in her left hand, and a cat seemingly made of shadow with sharp glowing yellow eyes attentively prowling at her side. She looks about as tense/worried as you'd expect someone who has no qualms smoking in a nuclear wasteland: meaning, not concerned at all.

Hm, now where to start...

The cat by her side stops to look around for the tallest object in the vicinity - the roof of the school, a lamppost, a tower of debris, - anything. The cat can easily climb a height of any stories, and once it finds a suitably tall place to perch on, the puppet's eyes can serve as Touko's own: she'll see what her 'familiar' sees. Is there anything else here other than the school? Visibility may not be superb even from above, but might as well start by trying to get a scope of their surroundings. She can always go back in if there's nothing out there, and besides, everyone knows that you're not supposed to be smoking inside buildings! Ignoring the fact that she'd do it anyway, yes...]

[ryougi]

You always had the cat thing before? [If so why didn't you bring it with you to the hospital maybe you wouldn't have looked like such a fake!! But no Shiki's probably come back from a cursory walk around the place herself, and judging by her face she's a bit disappointed. Why is there never anything neat to kill... q_q]

[achromous]

[The wasteland reminds Hilda of the events of last November in all the worst ways--but this time she has her Pokemon, and she's going to use them. Reshiram is brought to the fore this time, for her flying prowess, and Hilda strokes the large Pokemon fondly before hopping onto her back.]

Be careful--I don't think it'd be good if we hit any of those--spots.

[Reshiram nods agreement.]

[suicidoll]

(And just flying past Hilda and her Reshiram is this girl here with a group of her flying dolls. She seems unfazed by the presence of the large dragon, but still stops mid, flight.)

This place looks as unstable as the carnival dimension. I hope you two are ready for whatever may come.

[condescent]

[Joshua walks into the portal and almost walks straight back out; given the whole 'god of a city in Japan' thing, a bombed-out shell of a world is so not something he's looking forward to investigating. On the other hand, he's already picked his poison and is well aware he won't be able to access any other portals now that he's entered this one, and sitting back on the sidelines is an even less appealing prospect.]

Well, this is certainly charming.

[...there's something deeply ironic about him walking around a town that's been razed to the ground, but he's going to go ahead and pointedly refuse to acknowledge it.]

[graffitis]

[ It's the same story with Hanekoma. He's been on the sidelines for long enough, observing and recording, playing his regular part as best he can in irregular circumstances. With so few of his powers available to him, it's been the only smart move to make -- not even a safe bet to stay off the front lines. This place is unpredictable in a way he doesn't like.

But patience comes less easily to humans, and he'd be the first to point out that sometimes the sidelines simply didn't afford for adequate viewing. It's time to take his chances and see how the dice fall.

Not in his favor, it turns out.

So here he is. ]

Joshua? [ He goes still at the first glimpse of a familiar figure, and, no, the irony of them winding up here isn't lost on him. There's no attempt at levity in his tone or his expression; this is too big. This has him gone quiet and serious. ]

[knight_of_discord]

[Sayaka steps through the portal transformed into her puella magi form, glancing around cautiously. Unfortunately, the post office only returned the transformation itself with the enhanced resilience it entails, so she's completely unarmed for the time being. Even still, that's enough for her to feel confident exploring. She makes her way through the school quietly and carefully, grimacing at the skeletons littered about the area.]

Geez... this is worse than I thought it would be.

[suicidoll]

(And just turning the corner is Kreutzer, followed along by her usual group of flying dolls.)

Quite the unpleasant choice in scenery, isn't it? The town never was any good with decorations...

[grumpiest_tree]

[Groot was feeling that he should try and be more proactive in figuring out what might be going on, so when he noticed the portal, he went to put together a duffel bag of provisions and returned to step through.

He was expecting a rather strange scavenger hunt, yes, but not what awaited him on the other side. While he has been to such a wasteland during his time as a Guardian, he was in a much hardier state than he is now, meaning that he might not be as equipped for this as he thought. Reflecting on this, he can only grab the bridge of his nose and sigh.]

I should have brought some more damaging weapons... Maybe if I make this quick, I won't run into a fight...

[inthebones]

I would suggest you turn right back around, actually.

[She appears in the blink of an eye as she is wont to do.]

This is far too dangerous for anyone to just be wandering around through.

[thecoolexec]

[Tony pokes his head inside the portal long enough to take in the wasteland's sights. Death, decay...dust... Door hinges... Lot of D's here. This looks like... Nukeville, USA, aka Mayfield a few months ago. He blinks, sniffs a little, thinks better of it, and says:]

NYOOOOOPE.

[and he walks right the hell back out.]

[soveryhuman]

[ Rory is having second thoughts about accompanying the Doctor on this particular journey into death and destruction within five minutes.

He does not stop to wonder about the fact that that's not even a record.

Rather, he soldiers on and tries to keep one 900-year-old alien genius out of trouble, armed with a sword and a few basic first aid supplies. It probably would have been prudent to pack more than those two things, but... well. Somehow he gets the feeling that he'll be doing a lot of running, and the last thing someone needs around then is to get weighed down when they're running for their lives.

When it comes to the contents of the schoolhouse, Rory tries not to do more than keep his eyes ahead and find the door. Kind of a pity he can't do exactly that for the rest of the place.

Eyes open, on guard, and attempting to help get things finished off without dying or being unable to keep someone from being eaten- god, not this, not again- that's about as far as he's going in specific plans for the future. The key to not being upset that your plans are made useless by a surprise is to make them generic, isn't it? ]

[godcomplexed]

[The Doctor reaches out and slips his hand into Rory's, giving the other man's hand a gentle squeeze. This place isn't safe. He knows it. That's why its his job to keep the people he loves safe, starting with Rory.

He's not afraid of death, not anymore. It's watching someone else he loves die that he fears. And he will do anything to keep that from happening. Especially since he knows Rory is thinking the same thing about himself. So he has to be quicker, smarter, and faster to make sure Rory doesn't do any self sacrificing for him.]

[madboy]

[Gil had been avoiding the portals, but they just kept popping up... when he finally caves in, it's not without a hastily cobbled-together death ray. It has a bad recharge, and will probably melt upon too much use, but it's better than nothing.

The first thing he does, though, is kneel down in the classroom, frowning and reaching out to touch one of the skeletons. The room was scorched; whatever they'd been hiding from, this hadn't saved them.]

okay were doing it were makin it happne

[myblimpisbigger]

[It's okay, Gil, Klaus has been putting this off too for the purposes of weapon construction. He's seen those portals and there's no way his war clank is fitting through, so he's instead dedicated his time to improving the shrapnel gun Dist originally made for him. Of course now that Gil is going in, he has to go in after him.]

I wouldn't touch those if I were you. They may be contaminated with any manner of things.

[gezellig]

[Holland looks pretty unhappy about this. After all, he distinctly remembers being shot and killed by cannibals in a very similar-looking wasteland.

Then again, notdaughter wasn't there to see that. That's precisely why he's outside the portal with her, trying to convince Hilda to stay in the town.]

[aozaki]

[and here comes the swish of a possibly familiar orange coat that he hasn't see in a while. Touko's carrying a suitcase, and a black cat with golden eyes of some sort is following her.]

Having second thoughts?

[silver_reign]

[Dynamo simply walked right through the portal without a second thought. Glancing around the school house, he shrugged and headed on out. He eyed the landscape for a brief second before chuckling.]

This place had better not be boring...

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY

[mayfield_mods]

[At the moment that a certain photograph is obtained, sirens begin to blare. The cannibals, whether in or out of combat, stop what they're doing and make for their trucks, speeding off into the distance. Even the glitch holes seem to have abated for the moment.

Sadly, they've been replaced by something else. Between the thick brown smog clouds you can barely make out the sight of planes flying overhead. And it looks like they're dropping something...

And then the world is exploding around you. The bombs are leveling houses, scorching the ground, and leaving craters in the earth itself. Better get moving.]

[electrowhipit]

[ He's not sure what the hell Sideswipe just did, but he flings whip down into the crater and all but screams over their comm systems ]

::WE HAVE TO RUN!::