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

[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.

[falsereligion]

[She scowls, shifting her grip on her spear.]

Guess outside is the only option, unless I can come up with a good enough excuse to stay in here.

[freakinblur]

Nah, it's probably more excitin' outside anyway. Night of the Livin' Dead or Molemen or somethin' ta beat up.

[falsereligion]

Aren't we supposed to be findin' somethin'? Seems more logical to hide it in a place where it doesn't get crushed.

[She lifts up another one of the desks with her spear, and flings it across the room. Someone mad.]

[freakinblur]

Yeah, yeah, I know, but this is borin'. I guess I can look a little longer...

]Scout watches her flip the desk and nods approvingly.] Nice arms, kiddo. Wanna try another room?

[falsereligion]

[She sighs.] Why not?

Who're you, anyways? I don't think I ever saw ya in town.

[freakinblur]

[Alright! On to the next room to start uncerimoniously digging through everything.]

What, are ya kiddin'? I've been here forever! Name's Scout.

[falsereligion]

[Kyouko peers at one of the corners of the room, propping her spear upside-down.]

Scout? [head-tilt] Never heard of ya.

[and with that, she slams her spear into the tail end of a floorboard, in an attempt to break them up.]

Maybe somethin's underneath.

[mayfield_mods]

[There is something underneath -- something alive. A one-armed cannibal with a rusty knife clutched in its teeth rises up from the space under the floorboards with a shriek, grabbing onto Kyouko's spear with alarming strength.]

[freakinblur]

[Scout's about to respond when the cannibal busts out. He's on this lickety split. Not risking hitting Kyouko with scattergun fire, he whips out his trusty Atomizer bat and aims to clobber the thing upside its head. FINALLY, SOME ACTION!]

[falsereligion]

--shit!

[Kyouko pulls back as quickly as she can, letting her spear extend into parts, to get a long enough distance away.]

[mayfield_mods]

[It -- you can't tell whether the creature is male or female, due to its charred, deformed body -- is faster than it looks. Scout's bat misses its head, and still clinging to Kyouko's weapon, it pulls itself along the spear shaft, rushing toward the red-haired girl.]

[freakinblur]

What the crap?! [Faster? Than Scout? Looks like he was just insulted by a mutant monster. If the bat won't do the trick, he'll be dropping it in favor of the pistol in his bag and firing off a few shots at it.]

[falsereligion]

The hell! [wow what the fuck this thing was strong. Kyouko plants her feet on the ground, trying to use her edge of her spear as a kind of lasso, hoping maybe whipping the creature around would make it get off.]

[knight_of_discord]

[At some point, she'll run into a familiar face exploring one of the other classrooms. Sayaka's dressed up in her puella magi gear, but without the sword she typically carries. She hasn't noticed Kyouko just yet, poking around herself looking for clues.]

[falsereligion]

[Soon enough, there's the sound of Kyouko tapping her spear against the floor.]

Oi. You're here too?

[knight_of_discord]

Kyouko!

[Her tone is half-surprised, half-angry as Sayaka springs to her feet, hands balled into fists. She eyes that spear pretty hard, tightening her fingers and wishing she had her sword.]

[falsereligion]

Stop that crap. I ain't hurting you.

[knight_of_discord]

...All right.

[Still looking suspicious over here, but she drops her defensive posture.]

Did you find anything yet?

[falsereligion]

[she shakes her head.] Nothin' that isn't in plain sight already.

[knight_of_discord]

It didn't look like there was anything outside of here. Whatever we're looking for has to be in the school somewhere.

[falsereligion]

Then the only option's to turn over everything in here.

[knight_of_discord]

Yeah, I guess we don't have to worry about messing up the place looking.

[fatedmagica]

[ Madoka wandered away from Sayaka for a moment, which is how she came to find Kyouko. At first she gasps in frightful surprise when she sees something moving among the corpses, but immediately recognizes the red haired girl. ]

Kyouko-chan...?