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

[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?!]

[walking_nuke]

[Balin's just treating his as if it were a sweep by a squad of AFS soldiers, so after Virginia and Caesar enter the portal, he follows with his sidearm drawn and sweeps in toward the opposite corner of the room, checking for targets. Much as he'd like to use the Series 3 for this, it probably doesn't have enough canisters for more than a shot or two. It looked like the portal led into the interior of a building anyway, and the incendiary shotgun is best applied in more open environments with lots of targets to blast.]

[—but no, this room seems clear ... and a lot like the nuclear devastation they'd experienced last Thanksgiving. The skeletons cuddled up under the desks makes him grimace.]

Nice touch with'a "Duck an' Cover" kids.

[Balin's voice is thick with sarcasm as he heads away from the corner he'd swept toward, glancing outside. He stops when he notices the glitch holes out there—just as Caesar points them out.]

Aw, fuck.

[idkmybfforin]

[And making up the tail end of the adventuring party is one (1) hell raven. She had spotted Virginia disappearing into...something, and Caesar and more importantly Balin. She was intelligent enough to draw the connections between the other scraps of air that weren't and people walking through them like they were doors, so this must not be any different. And where the competition was going, she had to at least go and look.

Utsuho tried to dive in straightaway, wings half-folded to fit. It was only after she had blustered through and tried to snap them back open that she realized this place had a ceiling. And that her wings were brushing it and she was not going to fit.

Her form shrinks with a squawk, until there's a much smaller raven skittering and fluttering to a stop on the floor and dragging a feathery trail through the ash. And then preening one of her feathers casually after that, as if trying to say "I totally meant to do that."]

[bantorain]

-Oh boy... Not as planned.-

Okuu?! -And here she thought she'd taken such care to make certain the bird didn't follow them and stayed safe... Though, more firepower wasn't necessarily a bad thing.-

Great... change of plans, I guess. Well, not too bad, at least. C'mere, honey. You're with me.

Caesar, what's your best guess as to where we're gonna find what we're after?

[commentboxtroll]

[The arrival of the giant freaking hellbird is startling enough to get Caesar to turn his attention back to the rest of the party, sword half-drawn. He looks scared at first, but the second he realizes who it is, the's quickly replaced by a scowl.]

Are you kidding me... [No, clearly not.] Make sure she understands she needs to stay small unless we need a giant 'here we are, come eat us' sign, will you?

[Then he nods back towards the window.]

Well... Knowing nothing else about the librarian besides that she's a librarian? We're in town. I say we check the library.

[walking_nuke]

[Balin grits his teeth when he notices the cannibals. Many of them mutated now, just like with the carnival. And ... oh look, there's some of those hazmats everyone talks about.]

So they got a whole other "simulation" of'a town'ey musta dropped us in last year. But'is place is comin' apart just like'at other carnival.

[Balin turns to look back toward Virginia and Caesar. Oh, Utsuho's here too, huh? Lovely, this is how he first met the hell raven. He starts heading for the classroom door.]

I wouldn't worry about'a bird. If'ey're anything like before she can eat one in seconds if'ey crash'a party.

[Said with just a hint of disgust. He still hasn't forgotten Utsuho's haughty "there'll just be more humans" attitude, and the post-apocalyptic atmosphere isn't helping. But he's not going to dwell on that right now—he has his "game face" on. Kind of like back when Virginia got killdroned.]

[He stands by the closed classroom door, up against the wall next to the doorknob, before looking over to Virginia and Caesar.]

Goin' to'a library'en. You ready?

[idkmybfforin]

[Utsuho hops up onto Virginia's shoulder with little more prompting, ruffling her feathers out. They stay fluffed out as she draws her head back into them at the reminder of the last time Mayfield resembled this. The raven resembled more a ball of feathers with a beak and red eyes at the moment, and if she had a mouth that was mobile enough to scowl with she would. There were some unpleasant memories that wanted to tag along. And the last time she had gotten some horrible indigestion, but that was less relevant to PEOPLE I CARE ABOUT ARE DEAAAAAAD.]

Won't!

[...either meaning "no I won't eat anyone you care about" or "no I won't attract the horde", one of the two. Possibly both.

The bird perks back up again in interest when they seem to be moving again, though. Or will be shortly.]

[bantorain]

Alright... We're going to have the fight the whole way there... Let's go!

-Virginia gives the signal. They were as ready as they were going to get. One could only hope that the monsters outside weren't nearly so.-

[commentboxtroll]

Not just the carnival, but everywhere. How long until these holes begin showing up in the Mayfield that's supposed to be stable?

[He's going to guess "soon".]

The whole way? [He spares a second to give Virginia an uncertain look.] Only if they're between us and our goal. I know the shortest route from here... [But he frowns and nods towards the classroom door, indicating for the better armed ones to go ahead.] But it would figure if that's the worst route to take, wouldn't it?

[But he'll draw his sword free of its sheath, for what good it'll do once they hit the outside.]

[walking_nuke]

[Balin throws open the door, then deftly rounds the corner—ducking down so that Virginia and Caesar can fire over him if need be—with his handgun held in both hands.]



[In fact, he already fires—once, twice. He must've seen a cannibal or two roaming the hallways. Silence persists for a moment, then,]

Clear!

[mayfield_mods]

[The body of the dead cannibal crumples to the floor of the hallway, a gun falling from its hazmat-suited grip. The rest of the hallway appears to be empty.]

[idkmybfforin]

[Utsuho pokes her head around the corner once Balin goes out, feathers deflating only momentarily at the gunfire. The body dropping immediately attracted her attention, though, and she glided down off of Virginia's shoulder to investigate. She alights on the corpse's chest, and rolls the hazmat suit's head back and forth with her foot almost quizzically.

She doesn't remember the suit...things. The bird stops messing with it after a moment, though, and does something actually useful this time.

She flits back and forth between each door, perching on the doorknob or otherwise clinging to the wood with her strong claws and trying to peer through the glass.]

[bantorain]

-Virginia takes the next point, ducking low as she moved between the doors. All the while, her eyes and ears trained to them, ready for a burst in at any second. She silently instructed with her hands for the other three human sized party members to do the same.-

[commentboxtroll]

[Caesar isn't inclined to move to take the next point, with him only armed with a sword, but he will stop by the dead hazmat. He sets his sword against a wall for a moment, crouching down to retrieve the gun it dropped, though he does hesitate to do so at first. Guns... He still doesn't care for them, but this isn't a time to be picky.

So, he'll be taking that. It finds a place in his belt and he grabs his sword up again.

After that, he looks at the others and waits to see how getting out those two doors goes.]

[walking_nuke]

[Balin keeps on the move, with methodical, almost clockwork-like professionalism. If this really is the nuked version of Mayfield, then this must be what remains of the elementary school—he's never been here and doesn't know his way around, but at least the hallways are easily navigable.]

[They should find a hall with an exit out of the building soon enough. Until then, he's keeping his eyes peeled for any signs of movement that isn't the nukebird or acting family.]

[mayfield_mods]

[And there is an exit -- at the end of one hallway lies a set of double doors, one ripped off its hinges to reveal a glimpse of the wasteland outside.]

[idkmybfforin]

[Finding nothing through the doors, Okuu pauses to see where everyone else was going--and then lifts off to weave between the human party members to perch on the side of the still-standing door and peer out.

Normally she'd at least croak once, but everyone else was being quiet. So she should probably be quiet too. Utsuho does look back once, as if asking permission before proceeding.]

[bantorain]

... Looks like we're good for now. Let's move. -Virginia signaled with her hand for emphasis, stepping out the door with pistols ready.-

[commentboxtroll]

[And Caesar follows. Once they're clear of the front doors, he takes a look around. Even in the state it's in, he's made enough maps of these streets that he can figure out the one they need more or less at a glance.]

We go that way.

[He says it quietly, pointing in the direction they need to take as he does.]

[walking_nuke]

[Balin would have preferred to have gone out the door first as the designated pointman—and the only one in the group with actual armor—but he follows after Virgina and Caesar without a word.]

[The outside environment is just as harsh as it was during Thanksgiving, causing Balin to grimace—does that mean there's still heavy radiation here? He's got no way of knowing, himself. When Caesar points out where to go, though, he starts heading that way, keeping his pistol at the ready and watching their surroundings carefully.]

[idkmybfforin]

[Utsuho was the last one out--technically. Her tail feathers clear the door last, at an rate. She glances in the direction Caesar is pointing and sees only more ruins in the distance, so she circles up over their heads to a decent height. Not so far that she couldn't hear or see any commands given, but high enough to scan the ground for any hazards--or even things of interest. Scavengers were good at that.]

[bantorain]

Alright. Let's make this quick. Don't run, but we can't be slow at this. There's no telling how long we've got before the radiation poisoning sets in. Wide steps, eyes open.

On three... One, Two, Three! -And away they go.-

[commentboxtroll]

It took days for it to get to that point last time and I don't plan on us being here that long.

[Assuming radiation poisoning still works like what they experienced... Nothing else to add, he moves along with the other two on the ground, trying to keep between Virginia and Balin as they head out in the direction of the library.]

[walking_nuke]

[Balin is still moving like he's got a purpose, quickly moving between whatever remains of ruined buildings he can find on the way to the library as cover, and still keeping an eye out for trouble.]

Radiation poisoning don't work like'at, Caesar. We prolly got a lethal dose after'a first day an' didn't know it until'a third.