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Post by Seya on Nov 24, 2017 16:48:05 GMT
Kat didn't put up a fight at returning to the bunker room, sparing a quick glance to Bunnie then settling down against the wall. As Joyce and Christine worked on her, she mumbled small thank-yous, the pain from her injuries becoming more and more noticeable without the adrenaline of combat to keep her distracted.
When the lights flickered back on, and the hum of power buzzed as background noise through the walls, she let out a sigh of relief. She wouldn't take the injection like Cecil did--she still couldn't bear to relax that much--but she settled more comfortably against the wall, curling up with Hazel once Amber had returned.
She wanted to do one last sweep of the facility in the morning, perhaps as everyone else was getting ready to leave... but for now, rest sounded like an excellent option. Her body felt strange, almost as if she was catching a cold, somehow. Amber calling her 'infected' came back to the forefront of her mind. But Christine had fixed that, surely?
Only time would tell. She drifted to sleep with a few reassuring words to her new family, ready to see the sun again tomorrow.
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Post by Lockdown on Nov 25, 2017 6:53:53 GMT
The little bat looks between Christine and the pokeball with curiosity. It seemed to be thinking over the offer she had made quite firmly... before flapping over and clinging to her shoulder with a small nuzzle. Joyce, who'd been watching as she made sure that Cecil and Kat were both comfortable, giggled slightly. "I think you won them over with the promise of food and space to fly in."
Amber's short rest had given her a bit of insight into how this place was set up. While mostly similar to her home vault, it seemed that the air circulation was a bit less robust. Though given that this vault had living oxygen scrubbers floating about, it was likely deemed unnecessary when the vault was built. It's enough to finally clear the last of the miasma from the area, leaving the pools of slowly thawing green sludge, the shattered pieces of Sampson... and the six corpses of obviously mutated women.
Ruby was keeping a nervous eye on them, and once it seemed that Amber had gotten her energy back, the little spider-girl had wasted no time in prodding her waifish trainer to return to the others.
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Post by DataNinja on Nov 25, 2017 7:25:40 GMT
Christine holds a smile at Cecil as the drugs he requested take effect, even as his words fail to reassure her. Did she do the right thing? What was she going to do now? Could she even really return home like this? This wasn't something to worry Cecil with, though. Once she's sure that he's out, the smile falls from her face, and she whispers, "I'm sorry. I wasn't there when you needed me most."
As the bat settles on her shoulder, it reminds her of Coiffe - though, this is certainly heavier than the bird was, so she's glad that it's decided that her shoulder is a better rest than her head. Those first days, they seemed so long ago. Back then, all of this was unimaginable.
She dwells on that momentarily, before smiling back at Joyce. "Well, I can see why something with wings would want to be free. I suppose if you're able to move in it, having all that emptiness above you isn't so... disconcerting."
She looks back at the bat. "You must be hungry now, though." With the power back on - a double relief, since that also means that Amber's safe - she's able to feel slightly more secure about their food supply. So, reaching into her bag, she opens up a ration bar, and begins feeding half of it to the Pokémon. "I should probably give you a name." She considers for a moment, thinking back to what she can remember of the 'Dex, before settling on "Clarion suits you, I think."
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Post by Slytherclaw on Nov 25, 2017 18:40:29 GMT
Amber mutters to herself on the way back, considering again the strange, floating airscrubbers they'd captured on their entry. Perhaps there were more? Their home vault was against pokemon, for some reason, but if it meant better oxygen quality, surely they wouldn't be that stubborn?
At the door back home, she'll knock instead of barging in, just in case. Rest sounds wonderful--although there's a burning in her chest she knows she should probably have Christine look at.
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Post by Lockdown on Nov 27, 2017 6:12:06 GMT
The night passes peacefully, the thrum of power in the Vault clearing the oppressive darkness and the dull red glow of the emergency lighting. It almost seemed like a weight had been lifted off of the shoulders of the humans inside. The next day, the sweep of the vault goes smoothly. The wild mon seem to have realized that these strange two-leggers destroyed the horror at the center of the vault, and each passage you go through is deserted, sometimes hastily. You do find quite a few interesting items and locations. In the armory there's a locked security locker; with a bit of searching you're able to find the key. Inside, Amber finds a repair kit that seems to have been intended for the cryopistols. There's also a set of schematics. It looks like one of the security team was a hobbyist engineer, and had worked out a way to streamline the power draw and cycling of the weapons, allowing for more frequent use. Amber finds a Cryo-pistol repair kit, and Cryo Pistol upgrade schematics. There's another intact suit of security armor in the locker as well; everything else appears to have been scavenged either by the personnel that had chosen to flee, or been picked apart by the wild pokemon for use as weapons and nesting materials. Kat, going through the desks, also finds a well-preserved advertisement; a colorful thing showing a large variety of pokemon with items and stones superimposed on them. The ad is for the "Seattle Winter Pokemon League Pavilion", and apparently has a large number of evolutionary items for sale. The small map on the back indicates... that it's located in the northwest side of downtown Seattle. Right in the heart of the Old World city itself. ȚȶȴȬǧȶȭǧȻȯȬǧȰȻȬȴȺǧȻȯȨȻǧȰȻǧȫȬȺȪȹȰȩȬȺǵǵǵȻȯȬɀǧȬȽȬȵǧȯȨȫǧǩȺɀȵȻȯȬȻȰȪǧȷȶȲȬȴȶȵǩǧȭȶȹǧȺȨȳȬǵǧǧȐȻǮȫǧȩȬǧȨǧȽȬȹȰȻȨȩȳȬǧȮȶȳȫȴȰȵȬǧȶȭǧȖȳȫǧȞȶȹȳȫǧȻȬȪȯǧȨȵȫǧȹȨȹȬdzǧȷȶȾȬȹȭȼȳǧȰȻȬȴȺǵǧǧȑȶȺȪȶǧȾȶȼȳȫǧȩȬǧȶȽȬȹǧȻȯȬǧȴȶȶȵǧȻȶǧȮȬȻǧȯȰȺǧȯȨȵȫȺǧȶȵǧȺȼȪȯǧȨǧȺȪȶȹȬǨȃȩȹȅè The most important and perhaps valuable find however, is the greenhouse/conservatory. It seems to have become something of a nesting ground for the Skrubbing, watched over by a larger entity that eyes the humans warily, but allows them to come and go so long as they don't approach the eggs that are nestled in vines crawling up one wall. The place is filled with light and growth, along with a squat machine that appears to be modeled after some kind of pokemon; a squat blue-green saurian with a massive plant bulb on its back. The entire machine is only slightly shorter than Cecil. The things jaw drops to reveal a menu, with different plants listed, mainly foodstuff. Joyce, being curious, presses one of the buttons. There's a series of flashes and whirs from within the machine... before the bulb opens with a hiss of steam, revealing a large handful of Oran Berry seeds. Several automated arms immediately descend from the ceiling, picking up the seeds with a couple while others quickly and efficiently clear one of the planters; placing the seeds in the newly cleared, watered and manured soil. There were still dozens of planter basins that were empty, and inspecting the menu revealed that the machine was still missing some genetic templates for seeds. The greenhouse can be instructed to grow and maintain up to 12 instances of tier 1 berries. The berries will grow and be cared for by the automated system; and upon returning to the Vault, the berries may be harvested with a harvest roll as if they'd been planted in Good quality soil with Mulch. Switching the type of berries in a specific planter resets the progress for that planter. Finally, having scoured the length and breadth of the Vault, the group has amassed a large quantity of caps and some resources. The group is free and clear to leave when they wish, Bunny still somewhat out of things due to the lingering medicine in her system, while Joyce was quietly hopeful about the data she'd found. While the group can likely come back whenever they wish, it would likely be a good idea to take care of any last bits of business for the immediate future. Each player receives 3K caps. 5000 in medical scrap and 3000 in tech scrap is also scrounged up.
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Post by DataNinja on Nov 28, 2017 21:42:22 GMT
While the Vault itself is peaceful, Christine's rest is not so much. While she's able to get to sleep easily once she's sure that everyone else is all patched up and relaxed, it isn't particularly restful. The demons from earlier in the day returned to torment her in her sleep, burning, choking... except this time also taunting, mixed with her inner demons. Saying that if she couldn't save herself, how could she expect to save others. That she was less than everyone else now. That even if she went home, she would be an outcast, and might possibly infect everyone else. It became a relief to escape into the world of the waking, seeing the familiar Vault architecture, and able to push her doubts towards the back of her mind... although, they're still there, niggling. In the Conservatory, which lifts her spirits some with the atmosphere, Christine watches Joyce activate the machine. Out of curiosity's sake, she takes the handful of berries that she's been keeping, and gives them to the machine. There are always more back in town that she can pick up later. Planting one each of: Cheri, Chesto, Pecha, Rawst, Aspear and Persim berries.
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I'm not going to say it was damage, but it was damage.
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Apr 27, 2024 17:48:03 GMT
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Post by Robot on Nov 29, 2017 13:49:04 GMT
Cecil sleeps for a worryingly long stretch of time, and rouses with great difficulty. When he's at last up, he's ravenous and eats well, reporting that his headache has diminished substantially. From there he mostly keeps to himself, though he does disappear into the vault alone with a muttered 'things to do'. With the place well lit, powered, and the Pokemon making themselves sparse it's a matter of keeping himself busy until they're ready to leave.
One at a time, he gathers the six bodies from the utilities room and brings them to the elevator, along with Fan from Horachne's chambers. Outside, he digs alongside Slick and Fink. Spending as long as it takes, he lays out seven individual graves, roughly carving the girl's names into chunks of concrete using a hammer and a chisel or screwdriver from the garage nearby. Daylight, moonlight, firelight, it doesn't matter. He accepts no argument to his task, but help is welcome.
Once the dead are buried, and Cecil has stood vigil for a time, he unclips Horachne's ball from his bandolier and holds the button down until the containment fries. The massive horror coming into being, free and clear on the surface at last. "I killed Sampson, the poison is no more. The surface, as promised." He gestures across the open landscape.
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Post by Lockdown on Dec 5, 2017 17:17:37 GMT
In the conservatory, the Seed-a-saur machine springs to life, taking the berries and inserting them into its bulb. Several flashes of light come from inside as it analyzes them, before a mechanical voice declares that the new stock genetic lines have been added to its repository. The arms get to work soon after, planting new berry bushes with alacrity. Joyce looks very impressed with it all.
Up top, Cecil's grim work would have taken much longer, without Fink and Slick helping dig in the rocky soil. The seven corpses are laid to rest eventually, each grave sporting a rough tombstone bearing a name which took substantially longer to carve. When Horachne is released, she's confused at first... before a sense of recognition dawns. Turning to Cecil, she looks at the headstones curiously.
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I'm not going to say it was damage, but it was damage.
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Post by Robot on Dec 6, 2017 17:34:39 GMT
"Graves. Places in the ground where you lay the dead so that you can return and remember them. A monument." He explained woodenly, the entire task having been emotionally taxing. "We're probably cleaning this place up and nesting here. Where were you planning to go?"
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Post by Lockdown on Dec 7, 2017 18:19:28 GMT
Horachne traces her claws over the stone, lingering on the names. She looks at Cecil, the at the graves, then around at the wilderness around them. Leaning down, she traces out three words in the loose dirt; the required concentration seeming to be less now that she's out of the vault. "Where. I. Wish."
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I'm not going to say it was damage, but it was damage.
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Post by Robot on Dec 7, 2017 18:31:33 GMT
"No better place to be.". Cecil offered her a small smile. It was a tired, ghostly, frail expression compared to the one he might've wore before Vault 116, but it was more then he had managed in a day. "Guess this is goodbye then. Don't let anyone tell you what to do, where to go, or who to be. That's freedom, true freedom." He waved her off, and sat down cross-legged in front of the line of graves.
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Post by Seya on Dec 9, 2017 22:01:17 GMT
Kat spends the first morning with access to the surface simply laying in the sunlight, staying close to the elevator in case she's needed. She doesn't get in Cecil's way, nor that of the other girls, not even bothering to train for what might have been the first time in months. She simply lays there, soaking in the sounds of the overworld and the beautiful fresh air like one who'd come close to drowning.
After that, she hesitantly returns to the vault. Part of it is to clean--with Christine using the planting machines and so much still left to uncover, she sets to organizing various objects into piles for the time being: tapes to look through, piles of scrap for Amber, bones from the long-dead resident pokemon to be cleaned away and burned, and various other things that she tries to guess what to do with. She gives those.... mind-scrambling devices glance after glance as she passes by them, until at last she wanders into the room where they sit.
Her friends had used them.... and whether that was for better or worse, well, she wasn't quite sure. But ever since the fight she'd felt funny in a way she couldn't explain, a fierce desire to protect her new family paired with the realization that there was so much more she could learn to help her with that task. She wasn't alone anymore, and... and these folks, new to the surface as they were, had grown on her far more than any other individuals in her recent past.
That afternoon she decides to toy with the device herself, seeing if she might find something useful inside its electric brain...
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Post by Slytherclaw on Dec 10, 2017 3:08:48 GMT
Amber wakes to a solemn group and a series of new tools to work with and schematics to examine. Following a quick morning routine including a bit of a workout with her pokemon to get them all used to each other, she collects her gear and settles in the safe room to keep an eye on bunny and work on her new tools. She attempts to fix the second pistol, and if successful, will consider upgrading one or both of them. She considers making a few extra capsules to replace the ones used, but after a solid few seconds of consideration, shrugs off the notion in favor of focusing on the pistols. Later, she thinks, she can work on restocking. She doesn't want to risk wasting the wrong bit of scrap in the meantime.
GD_m7qg46d6 Tech Edu - Repair 6d6 Tech Edu -Improve 6d6 Tech Edu - Improve 2? 5d6 Perception 4d6 Focus to work 6d6·6d6·6d6·5d6·4d6
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Post by Lockdown on Dec 10, 2017 18:51:57 GMT
Kat finds that, opposed to the setup upstairs, this system is much less complex. If she wished, she could probably even try and use it herself without any help from Amber. The thing seems to be set up for self-analysis, and unlike above the unlabeled tapes are kept in a separate storage locker, with the other skill tapes kept well organized.
Amber's work on the two cryo-pistols bears fruit, more than she was expecting even. With the materials at hand, she's able to juryrig the upgrade schematics she'd found for the cryopistols, as well as repair the one that was broken. (Used up 1000 units of tech scrap). As she finishes, Joyce, having scrounged up a vault jumpsuit to wear even though it's a bit tight through the chest, approaches her with a holotape in-hand. "Um, sorry for bothering you about this, but would it be possible to decrypt these files? I managed to find them in the Overseer's office... and I think they're his personal notes on the Joy and Jenny genomes."
Up above, Cecil feels a gentle pat on his head, matronly affection filling the gesture, before Horachne vanishes into the underbrush. Who knew how this would impact the world...
Bunny continues to sleep, even with the drugs out of her system the exhaustion from her ordeals and breakdown yesterday have taken a massive toll on her energy levels. It may be a struggle to get her motivated at all.
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Post by Slytherclaw on Dec 10, 2017 19:21:24 GMT
Amber blinks blankly at Joyce for several long moments, gaze blank and distracted with thoughts of the two pistols in her hands. After a few lingering seconds she blinks and her gaze sharpens on the holotape. "Joy...genomes..." She mouths, reaching out to accept the tape with a few curious glances between it and Joyce. She thinks for a moment, remembering early data files. Something about an early vault dweller who'd gotten pink hair and demanded to be called Joy. Her gaze lingers on Joyce's hair, a few lingering mental connections snapping into place so quickly that she feels dumb, almost, for not making the connection earlier. In her defense, she muses as she flips the tapes over in her hand, she'd been pretty preoccupied.
"I can give it a shot," She says, getting to her feet from her perch on the floor with a small grumble. Her breath comes a little faster than usual--recovery from the fight before. Christine had done her best and the kits had been useful, but she thinks time will handle it, hopefully. "Let's go find a good computer."
RFRJCDDM6d6 Tech Edu Attempt 5d6 Perception in the halls?
Assuming a safe trip to a good, trustworthy computer, Amber will absentmindedly ask Joyce if she knows a Jen or Jennifer or Jenny. 6d6·5d6
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Post by Robot on Dec 10, 2017 20:03:05 GMT
The greaser watched her crawl away with a stirring sense of nostalgia, lovelorn at the sight of her moving on. Sampson really had thought he was creating works of art in the genetic freaks he had put together, and now Cecil couldn't help but feel a similar draw as a result. Softly he murmured a prayer for the departed, something Mom had taught him when he was still young and impressionable.
Before he started to make his own way.
Rising at last, he cast a baleful glance at the jalopy. They'd be going back to Vault 316 soon. He had plenty to say to Skrub. They hadn't salvaged much, and he didn't feel like cleaning. Metal was useful, and there were a few cars with decent unibodies lying around the yard between the two buildings.
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Post by Seya on Dec 12, 2017 18:56:51 GMT
Not wanting to bother the others, Kat flips through the labelled tapes. The writing's a bit different to how she remembers it--not that she'd had much literacy schooling at all--and she flips through the cabinet, taking her time. There was nothing that stood out to her, nothing that offered a straightforward answer to How do I better myself to protect my family?, so she put on the device and wondered if there was a way to just... organize herself, in some way.
I need a way t'lead them, to show I know what I'm doin', even when I don't, she thought desperately. What do you have for that, huh? Need to fight better... stand taller... be able to protect them 'gainst everything they don't know about yet. She squeezed her eyes closed at that thought, a sense of dread and exhaustion heavy on her heart.
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Post by DataNinja on Dec 13, 2017 20:09:34 GMT
After giving the berries to the machine, and making sure that everyone - especially Bunnie - is all patched up and as good as she can get them, Christine goes off to take advantage of some of the Vault amenities before the group leaves. Mostly getting her clothes clean, because who knows how much Pokérus managed to get into them? She also takes some time while those are getting cleaned to take a shower herself, temporarily letting her worries flow away with the hot water. Much preferable to the last one she received from Sapphire...
After getting all tidied up, and in a familiar environment again, she's beginning to feel a lot better. There's still a little know in her stomach regarding the Pokérus infection, but she's able to ignore that for now. They'd stopped Sampson. Amber'd found a water chip. It seems like things are finally starting to look up.
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Post by Lockdown on Dec 17, 2017 21:45:57 GMT
Kat's fiddling with the controls, before she sits and attempts to activate the machine seem to have triggered something. The machine begins to hum loudly, before she sees a message on the screen.
Error: Mutative anomaly detected. Inducing cerebral reformat.
The cables begin to spark and sing, before it feels like a clawed fist rips through her mind. Kat's entire world tears itself into pain, instinct and confusion, before the computer begins to blare an alert. "Segfault, logic error, reformat cancelled. Rebooting... As Kat tries to gather her mind and composure, the system quickly reboots.
Defaulting to last used reformat overwrite. Athelete.exe loading... Kat's mind is assaulted with images and information, filling in the raw gaps... but there's a strange sort of sharpness to her mind now; her senses and emotions seeming to be... more than they had been.
Joyce nods to Amber as she watches the younger girl work. The two of them had retreated back to the security checkpoint in order to find a computer they could use without fear of being ambushed. "Oh yes, they help with the security of the village and..." she grimaces awkwardly, "they patrol to find possible men to bring back to keep the population stable." She gestures to the files which Amber is decrypting rapidly. Apparently they had been individually coded, so it was taking a bit of time. "I'm hoping that with this information, and Christine's help, we can stop having to do that."
Christine, from her position near the labs, hears a high-pitched humming and sees lights flashing from the direction that Kat had gone.
With help from Fender, Cecil makes short work of the cars. A lot of their bodies seem to be plastic, but there's still quite a lot of metal, and with the pieces he has here, he's able to make a crude sort of wagon to haul their bounty back with them. The sun is starting to pass its zenith now; in this hilly terrain darkness will fall in just a few hours. It's possible that Kat may know someplace to camp on their way back at least, lest they have to spend another night here.
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Post by DataNinja on Dec 17, 2017 23:44:57 GMT
Christine's good (well, at least buoyed) mood is swiftly cut into by an unsettling noise. Something's going on, everyone's spread out all over the place, and whatever is causing that noise probably isn't good. Not here. Quickly, she hurries in the direction that the noise is coming from, Coiffe's Pokéball in her hand.
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