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

[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.

[idkmybfforin]

[Utsuho's circles had grown steadily wider, to the point where she was soaring over the next street to the left and passing over some tumbled wreckage that made her feathers prickle a bit. She winged away from that area and back towards the group.]

Tingles, that way.

["Radioactivity" was hard to say in this form and with a beak. At least for her and right this moment.]

[bantorain]

"Tingles"? -The heck were tingles? She gave Balin a confused look.-

[commentboxtroll]

It doesn't...? [These aren't things he wants to know, Balin, but he probably needs to know anyway.] So we're still going to get it?

[Of course, the bird interrupts. He glances up at her as they move along, not sure what to make of her warning either. Not the most understandable thing, is she?]

You know, if you're going to tell us something, at least use words like good or bad. We don't know what 'tingles' means.

[walking_nuke]

Radioactive shit's like a water sprinkler. You stay back, you'll get hit by some droplets but you'll be mostly dry. You get too close an' you'll be soakin' wet. An'at's if'ere's no fallout comin' down.

[Balin glances up in time to see Utsuho return with her tingly report. Which makes him frown in thought while Virginia and Caesar react to it. That's a weird observation to make—and since she has nuclear powers like he does ...]

[idkmybfforin]

[Had she been able to, Okuu probably would have frowned. She mimics the clicking noise of a Geiger counter.]

Bad, there.

[Man, this talking thing would be so much easier if she could assume her humanoid form again. But that would probably summon the horde, so she won't. Yet.

Besides, she only had two arms at most to carry people with and Virginia wouldn't like it if she didn't pick up Balin too.]

[bantorain]

Well. That's simple enough.

Let's avoid that, then. Stick to this path around here.

[commentboxtroll]

You're saying we have no way of actually telling, aren't you?

[That said to Balin. To them all, he adds:]

Then that's going to add a few minutes to our trip. We were going to cut down that one... [He looks up to Okuu.] Go see if the street next to the bad one is clear.

[walking_nuke]

[Balin's looks at Utsuho with surprised recognition at the sound she's making. She knows what a Geiger counter is and does? Balin turns to look back over at Caesar when he responds.]

Not unless we got'a right equipment. Which ...

[He looks back up at Utsuho.]

We might.

[idkmybfforin]

[Utsuho sort of learned it from this and that and the kappa scuttling about near the reactor.

...or maybe somewhere else, she forgets.]

Unyu!

[But she's happy to do this! And wings off in that direction, circling up and back again down the street. No tingling feeling, at least, which was all she was looking for just then.

She flies back, croaking a bit.]

Good!

[See Caesar she was listening!]