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

[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]

[aozaki]

Mm. [she hums in nonchalant affirmation while taking a huff of her smoke.] Ah, you've never had a chance to see him until now, have you? Don't concern yourself with it, I just took him with me because he could use to stretch his legs a little. [tapping the smoke now to get rid of the ash...

and then, a few meters away, a pocket of Nothing is drifting by. At its sight, Touko's sardonic expression fades a little to become something more sober.]

...Oi, Shiki. What do you see over there?

[Gonna gesture towards that void with the butt of her cigarette. CAN YOU SEE THE DEATH OF VOID, CHILD OF THE VOID...]

[ryougi]

[Staring... But at that she looks over at the VOIIIID before blinking and raising an eyebrow.] Something not good, that's for sure. That thing's been happening around the town every now and then, right? Pretty sure they didn't move around like this though. It's probably going after the people here.

[aozaki]

Obviously. 'Reality' itself is corrupt there, those are spaces of emptiness. [Finishing up her current smoke, she tosses the butt into the hole - and it vanishes, instantly.] The pockets swallow anything they come in contact with. I was curious to know if you can see anything inside literal 'Void', but I suppose it doesn't really matter in the long run.

[fiddling with the box of cigarettes in her pocket, debating another one...]

Found nothing interesting?

[mayfield_mods]

[As they stare at the glitch pocket they are likely to notice that it is slowly drifting toward them.]

[ryougi]

Eh, s'not much of a void if that's what you're looking for. [Shiki not everyone has a firsthand experience of what AKASHAAAAA looks like like you do...] But aside from that thing actually coming closer, not really. Just a bunch of cannibals again.

[aozaki]

[Touko gives the pocket another glance.]

Then let's get going. You wouldn't want to 'kill' these even if you could, there's no fight in that. [Saying that, she turns around and starts taking a few steps towards the wasted streets, away from the school and the approaching void.]

Any direction in particular you want to go? I doubt that you're interested in finding what the letters asked for.

[ryougi]

I'm not that bored yet. [And with that she turns the same way and starts walking, obviously with no particular destination in mind.]

Not really. Everything looks pretty much the same. [Ah but right there was... a letter wasn't there...] What did those things even say again? Can't say I remember much about it.

[aozaki]

Heh. Really? Trudging through a nuclear wasteland still isn't exciting enough for you? Your body must be breaking down as we speak, but if this is the portal you've decided to pick... [she lets it hang, the amusement in her tone evident.]

These portals hide a memento that's necessary to jog the memory of the Librarian in Mayfield. It's supposed to be a clue in breaking free of this town. [lighting up another cig yep...] So you did come here without knowing, huh? [A faint scoff.] How unsurprising.

[Saying that though, she'll start heading north, figuring that Shiki doesn't mind following. Her 'cat' hops down from where it was, now resuming its place by its creator's side.]

[ryougi]

We managed to live last time, right? [She couldn't be less bothered if she tried. Shiki...]

Ah, I guess it wasn't completely pointless then... [i.e. yes pretty much, but she actually seems like she's thinking before waving it off] Someone else is bound to find it anyways. They can get their glory or whatever.

[aozaki]

[just a faint chuckle here...]

It makes no difference to you regardless, but won't you consider picking the beach next time? The landscape'll be easier on your senses.

[ryougi]

We already went to the beach. If you want something that relaxing, at least pick something new. [Granted all she did was sulk there that time... Actually well no it probably wouldn't change much this time either. c_c]

[aozaki]

It was an island this time, though. How about that mountain, then? There was one that led into a blimp in mid-flight, too. [let's pick our next vacation spot inside a nuclear wasteland, sounds legit]

[ryougi]

[it was totes a good idea to her okok] You wanna go into the sky or something? Though I guess going flying sounds sorta neat.

[aozaki]

It would've had a better sight than this, hm? [for future reference. FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.]

[ryougi]

[pouting!!] Alright, alright, I get it. I picked a bad day to want to go.

[aozaki]

[chuckling.] Well, no use griping about it now. You may as well make the best out of it now that we're here anyway, Shiki. [peering aside as some gunshots sound off from the distance.] That way, then?

[ryougi]

[She shrugs.] It's as good as any other.

[i.e. doo-dee-doo walking in that direction yep...]