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Mayfield Mods ([personal profile] mayfield_mods) wrote in [community profile] mayfield_rpg2012-09-06 12:44 pm
Entry tags:

event: portal six | the wasteland



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.
a_clockwork_melody: (I'm Not That Great Really)

[personal profile] a_clockwork_melody 2012-09-06 06:14 pm (UTC)(link)
[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: (Fightin)

[personal profile] captainofthe10th 2012-09-06 06:21 pm (UTC)(link)
[ 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. ]

photonicfighter: (Dakki upgrade - What?!)

[personal profile] photonicfighter 2012-09-06 08:37 pm (UTC)(link)
[Dakki almost didn't set foot inside the portal. Not for fear, so much. Aurica's drone had insisted on following her, for some reason. She didn't mind the company, normally, but there were things to do. Dangerous ones. And she needed her head to be clear. Hopefully enough sweet words about "mother has something to do" and "you've got homework to finish, young lady" would be enough.

She hadn't followed, at least. She hadn't paid the portal any mind... she didn't think.

So she had left the schoolhouse and scouted carefully about, up until she spotted Garviel in the distance. Ah! A friend! A familiar face! A partner in battle! She doubled back at a run.]


Garviel!

[...and... and Holy Light, that was Aurica speaking with him. That was Aurica. She stumbled to a stop, stunned.]
a_clockwork_melody: (Chotto Kowaii Yo)

[personal profile] a_clockwork_melody 2012-09-06 09:02 pm (UTC)(link)
[It takes her a moment, her senses still having difficulty adjusting, but the helmet and armor jolted her back to a sense of familiarity. Security.]

...Garvi?

[She rushed over to the Gray Knight, heeding his request.]

Garvi? What's going on? I don't understand... [The expression of confusion was clearly plastered on her face as she looked up. It had to be him, right?

She had only been undroned for a short time from the morning, but unknown to Dakki she was fully in control of herself.

!

Which was why she frowned, mouth slightly agape, as she noticed "Dakki" finding her here. In a body as unfamiliar to Aurica now as when she followed her clearlynot!mom out of the house.]
Edited 2012-09-06 21:06 (UTC)
captainofthe10th: (helmet)

[personal profile] captainofthe10th 2012-09-06 10:24 pm (UTC)(link)
You've picked an unfortunate time to come back to us, Aurica. [ He hears Dakki, and while he doesn't turn to greet her, he tags her presence on his helm's HUD, and says. ]

Dakki, I assume you are exploring this?
photonicfighter: (Dakki upgrade - kind)

[personal profile] photonicfighter 2012-09-06 10:38 pm (UTC)(link)
[Garviel addressing her is enough to snap her back into the moment. She continues forward at a brisk walk, eyes still fixed on Aurica.]

I... am. I've gone a bit ahead, and it's a mess out there. It's...

[There's only so long that she can make herself focus on reporting to him. It's Aurica, she's here, and there's light in her eyes, isn't there?]

Aurica...? You're really...?

[She stops just a few feet away from the girl, and drops her weapons, letting them vanish into nano-storage with a flash of blue light. And then she clears the rest of the distance between them with the intention of pulling her into a hug.]
a_clockwork_melody: (Chotto Kowaii Yo)

[personal profile] a_clockwork_melody 2012-09-06 11:34 pm (UTC)(link)
[Purple hair. Yellow eyes. A white and black shell covering purple skin. It was an entirely different image than Aurica remembered for her time gone from Mayfield, back in Ar Ciel, the voice from it being the only sign of the truth that walked closer. She stared back in wonder, until it rushed at her.]

Gi—!!

♪ BGM: Silver (R)

[Aurica stumbled forward into the hug, not sure what to make of it all. It was so disturbing to be back, even if she was back with people she knew before. Her heart was racing so much from the tension she was putting on herself, the best she could do was to wrap her own arms around the CAST.]

Am I still dreaming?
captainofthe10th: (Fightin)

[personal profile] captainofthe10th 2012-09-07 01:28 am (UTC)(link)
No, you're in the real, but you might well be doomed if we do not get moving.

[ He continued to scan the middle distance with his massive boltgun raised, on edge as the forms of the shambling mutants with hazmat gear are made out. ]

This is unfortunate.
photonicfighter: (Dakki upgrade - ready and near)

[personal profile] photonicfighter 2012-09-07 01:44 am (UTC)(link)
...am I still dreaming?

[This was all a bit much for Dakki, too. And it WAS like some sort of jumbled dream, cobbled together from fragments of the things that haunted her when she went into a deep sleep cycle. That bombed-out town. Garviel, her friend and bringer of "mercy". Aurica, the girl that she never quite properly apologized to.

She squeezes her just a bit tighter for an instant, but pulls away. Aurica's afraid? Of course, of course, it's all frightening, isn't it? Though she's looking at her rather strangely.]


I... it's been a while. I'm sorry, did I startle you? I-

[And then Garviel's calling out. She turns her head, looking where he's looking, then focuses her visual and audio sensors.]

Something's coming. Isn't it? Something's coming.

[Reluctantly she turns away from Aurica and pulls her handguns back out of storage.]
a_clockwork_melody: (Chotto Kowaii Yo)

[personal profile] a_clockwork_melody 2012-09-07 02:25 am (UTC)(link)
[The stare never stopped, even as Dakki saw her expression as she moved away from Aurica. She had been staring the whole day, behind the veil of an act, but the realization of her being here again — of having no choice but to endure this place again — made her dazed rather than lucid.

Though, oddly, she was more composed than she could have been. She felt afraid, yes, but she hasn't lost control of herself or cried. Yet.

Unfortunately, she was paying no heed to the current situation at hand and was just standing there, unaware of their predicament.]
captainofthe10th: (helmet)

[personal profile] captainofthe10th 2012-09-07 03:42 am (UTC)(link)
That remains to be seen, Dakki. They don't have visual yet. IF I was with astartes, I'd order an advance, neutralize with grenades and assault tactics.

[ He shifts a bit, keeping the bolter pointed at the shambling denizens, still too far away to engage, but close enough to watch. ]

Given our present situation, more subtle tactics may be in order.
photonicfighter: (Dakki upgrade- look left)

[personal profile] photonicfighter 2012-09-07 04:31 am (UTC)(link)
You're with us. I think we may lack the firepower you're used to having.

[She casts a look back to Aurica, and winces. Is that dazed look better or worse than the empty drone smile she had worn for all these months? Worse. Much worse.]

Aurica... I'm sorry that you're back here. And that you're in here. I'll... we'll do everything we can to keep you safe. We will.

[And her yellow eyes flick back to Garviel.]

What've you got in mind for tactics?
a_clockwork_melody: (Just Me Being Derpressing)

[personal profile] a_clockwork_melody 2012-09-07 05:29 am (UTC)(link)
[Too many things, both here and back home, crept through her mind, but Dakki's voice cut through her thoughts, bringing her back to the reality and time her body was in.

...No, I should be sorry. If she knew she wasn't dreaming, and didn't play the Drone Game, she wouldn't be in this position. Vulnerable. Useless. A burden.]


I believe in you, both of you. [Even if you seem a little different now.

She took a step towards the two, the floorboards groaning as she did so, peering towards whatever the Astartes was aiming at.]
captainofthe10th: (Fightin)

[personal profile] captainofthe10th 2012-09-07 12:06 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Loken shoulders his bolter, sighting through a combination of iron sights and the HUD generated on his helm, red crosses appearing over the mutatns, and says quietly. ] We strike, we withdraw, we move on.

[ The bolter makes a coughing bark several times in quick succession as he unleashes a burst of mass-reactive death towards the incoming mutants, the bolter rounds powerful enough to rip tank skirt armor asunder. ]

photonicfighter: (Dakki with weapons)

[personal profile] photonicfighter 2012-09-07 12:37 pm (UTC)(link)
[Upon confirmation that the mutants had taken notice of their group, Dakki's mood took an immediate shift. This was no time for sentimentality. She nodded in Garviel's direction and raised her guns, taking aim.] I like the sound of that.

[Garviel may have had firepower that she could hardly match, but she was no slouch with her own weapons. Several short bursts of potent green photonic energy are fired at any mutants that the space marine's attack might have somehow avoided. And as she fires she side-steps, putting herself between anything that may be incoming and Aurica.

She'd failed in her defense of the girl once. It wouldn't happen again.]

a_clockwork_melody: (I Feel Like Crying...)

[personal profile] a_clockwork_melody 2012-09-07 03:00 pm (UTC)(link)
♪ BGM: Z.C. Enemy 2 (R)

Oh no!

[She didn't realize the floor would make so much noise at the spot she stepped on. Cursing herself, she moved behind both Dakki and Garviel instinctively. It was a familiar formation, one more out of necessity now than practicality.

She faced similar situations before with her party back home, but she could at least have helped back then. Left without anything else she could do, she clasped her hands together towards her chest, hoping they would make it out alive.]
captainofthe10th: (helmet)

[personal profile] captainofthe10th 2012-09-08 02:23 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Loken growls, and says to Dakki. ]

Scatter, but keep firing, we need to draw them off so that other groups may have a chance to find the memento.

[ He eyes the grenade launchers. Such weapons generally can't breach astartes plate.... however, Aurica would be reduced to a wet stain on the wall, and he's unsure about Dakki's ability to survive such shots as well. If the creatures advance within the schoolhouse, garviel changes his tactics, aiming the bolter at the ceiling directly in front of the mutants, looking to drop part of the environment on them by collapsing it, his bolter still firing deadly explosive rounds. ]

photonicfighter: (Double Saber)

[personal profile] photonicfighter 2012-09-08 03:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Damn it! They weren't like this last time!

[Dakki whirls about to check on Aurica, spotting the new group emerging from the crater. The heck? This was beyond how things had been last time around. She fires a few more shots at the first group, but isn't pleased with the results. Long-range isn't her forte. Time to change it up.]

Watch for Aurica! I'm engaging the new ones up close!

[She breaks away and charges ahead, ready to quickly dodge any oncoming fire that her line shield can't absorb. Her guns vanish back into storage, to be replaced by a blue-bladed double saber. If they launch any grenades? She fully intends to volley it back at them with an energy-coated swing of her weapon. And when she's close enough she'll start carving and slicing with practiced fervour.]
a_clockwork_melody: (Huh?)

[personal profile] a_clockwork_melody 2012-09-08 03:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[The beings behind Aurica startled her, terror beginning to take a solid grip on her, the three of them becoming severely outnumbered. She reflexively reached a hand out towards Dakki as she ran past them to intercept the new group, but without a voice to accompany it, nevermind that the CAST was too far away to notice by then.

Can't think about it don't think about it stop thinking about it

This place was a disaster, a reality too cruel to wish upon anyone. But it wasn't Skuwat. That's what she kept trying to tell herself. And for the moment, it was working. The adrenaline and fear wouldn't stop though.

Still, she wasn't helping either of them by just standing there, but moving away from them would likely end in her own death.

... Was that something she was willing to risk if it kept them alive?

No, it wouldn't solve anything. She would die, they would get distracted, and they would die too. There was no way she could play hero this time, let alone martyr. Aurica steeled herself as best she could, deciding to stay near Garviel so that he could at least cover her.]