[EVENT POST] I FEEL STUPID, AND CONTAGIOUS.

[dishearten]

CHARACTERS: Open to all!
DATE: 3/11-3/12, ICly
WARNINGS: Zombie attacks? Violence? Shopping???
SUMMARY: Lockdown at the mall! Grab your CDs and your soft pretzel, it's about to get bad.

LET'S GO TO THE MALL LOCKDOWN Business has been rough for Woodhurst Shopping Center ever since riots and unrest about the Bristol Virus have shunned most to their homes. Perhaps ill-advisedly, in attempts to draw a few more customers back into the polished halls of the grandest shopping experience Woodhurst has to offer, a weekend of big sales, great bargains, and fun family activities was widely advertised in the Woodhurst Watch. There was even a scheduled public concert, performed by the University Choir. The turnout was smaller than hoped, yet the air was quite optimistic. Shoppers enjoyed the day of activities and fun, and the sense of security was bolstered by the increased security detail. There was even some members of the press on hand to document this return to normality in a troubled time. Everything was going well, until a scene broke out in the food court. Security tried to quietly remove members of the choir that suddenly seemed to snap, plowing into one of the food stands and starting to feed on raw meat. However, a good handful of them escaped instant confinement, and while many of the visitors fled the mall as soon as they could, soon Police Detail arrived and put the entire building on lockdown. Nobody in and nobody out until the situation was resolved. 18:00 TO 23:00 HOURS Anyone unlucky enough to be trapped in the mall is left to their own devices, with very little knowledge to go on. This includes many civilians, as well as a small number of Audentes agents. This also includes a small number of infected, more than just the university choir. There's a voice over the loudspeaker imploring people to hide in stores, barricade doors, and stay put until help arrives. The majority of the infected seem to linger in the Food Court especially. Bad news for anyone trapped and starting to get hungry as the hours pass by, without any obvious assistance from the outside. The members of ALASTAIR have a choice, help protect or just do their best to avoid the infected themselves. Characters can get into the Security Office for a camera feed on what is happening in the mall, and potentially use it as a base of operations to work from. 00:00 TO 02:00 HOURS It becomes apparent that the number of infected in the mall are somehow increasing, despite the lockdown. It means that those that have squirreled away into stores and outlets are growing less and less safe as infected numbers multiply and they begin attacking barricades. To make matters worse, anyone that hasn't found cover will find the infected extremely reactive, and willing to give chase around the mall. The security feed indicates the infected seem to be coming in from the Parking Garage. Investigation will reveal a sewer outlet on the bottom floor. Characters will have to decide whether they should utilize the tunnel as a means of escape, or if sealing it off would ultimately leave the remaining hours of lockdown a little less violent. 04:00 TO 09:00 HOURS It's been an agonizing 12 hours, and with surprisingly little aide from the outside. With time to make preparations and put plans in place, now it's time to end this lockdown once and for all. Audentes is tasked with neutralizing the remaining infected as well as escorting any remaining civilians to safety, by any means they decide on. It is up to Audentes to decide how the end of this event plays out, be it removing or otherwise drawing away the lingering infected, or putting them down once and for all. There are plenty of civilians that have been bitten and attacked, leaving the question in the air as to whether they are infected as well. What should be done with those that could be bringing the virus back to their families? The team is going to have to decide on the answer to that.

Comments

joins 00:00 to 02:00 party

[longtempered]

[Yes, the infected horde is more or less an intentional chase here--or rather, an accident that he'd just sort of ended up rolling with. Shizuo had run into a civilian surrounded by this same mob minutes earlier, and had sent them off in favor of drawing the lot of infected to himself with a lot of angry shouting and arm-waving and similar attention-drawing things. Getting to a slightly wider area so there wouldn't be quite as much collateral damage to either people or objects once he opted to deal with the infected personally had been the rough plan--the actual dash to a wider space had just turned out to be a little longer than anticipated.

But get there Shizuo does, eventually, some kind of main thoroughfare or another here. He probably stands out like a sore thumb in the horde, the bartender suit and the stop sign propped over his shoulder at decided odds with the more local getup of the infected. He's slowing down in his run around the time Sans opts to launch his attack, too, which is a good thing--otherwise he probably would have plowed right on through the bones that suddenly spring up from nowhere.

But it's still a close thing--startled in equal parts by the shout and the...glowing blue femurs(?????), Shizuo stumbles into his halt, most likely brushing a shin against a bone or two anyway but none the wiser of it (a nigh-inability to feel pain is inconvenient like this). Staring at the newly-penned infected, Shizuo resumes pacing out of the bizarre magic bone garden setup, looking around in confusion for the possible source and attention finally drawn upwards by another yell.]

Ah? [Oh, that sure is a person up there in the chandelier. Which is where the bones came from, apparently, if the context of the shout is anything to go by. Alas, the pun flies right over his head--Shizuo was never particularly studious on the bone anatomy front, uncultured in the ways of skeletons as he is--but otherwise he accepts this readily enough, to be sure. He just...has other questions, now, as he cranes his head and frowns up at the guy.] This is you? Thanks, then...but hey, the hell are you doing up there?! You need help getting down?

[How did you get up there even, small man......Shizuo's already looking around for possible ways up to the light fixtures, legitimately fully prepared to consider scaling up any he might find if it'd help get the latter guy down.]

[skelepun]

[If Sans is taking inventory of the kid (and he is, of course), it's not readily apparent. The cant of his head is as skeptical as it is curious.]

Four hours, huh? [He seems to be doing his own mental math, or maybe he's just imitating the guy. Unclear.] Little long, dontcha think? Know any shortcuts, chief?

[ex_mettacrusher33]

[Being shut off is something he really never wants to have to explain to anyone. He isn't hearing through any sort of audio processing like he normally would; he's hearing through himself. His body is down, but the part that controls it, the part that's actually him, continues to sit awake in an useless shell. With all the glass surrounding his core, surrounding him, it... It's like being underwater. There's no light. Every sound is dim and muffled. "I think I can still hear," he said. It's barely hearing.

Even still, he'd have to be completely deaf to not notice the change.

Mettaton jolts "awake" the moment he has the charge to do so. There's a blanket and mirrors and pink... Oh. Sans must have teleported them to his room in the apartment (maybe? Did they find Undyne? Sans wouldn't go through the effort of carrying him, he knows the man that much).

First instinct says to rattle off a I told you not to go into my room. Instead, he just says:]

Did you find her mother?

[skelepun]

[Undyne was, more than any of them probably, just fine. With the Mall doors open and the relocation process nearly complete, most of the mall's captives were filtering home in groggy waves.

Sans just had a shortcut back, that's all.

Closing the magazine (ear marking it, he fully intends to finish that What Season of Pals Are You? quiz), Sans takes a sip of his drink before answering.]

That's kind of a yes and no deal.

[ex_mettacrusher33]

[Sans.]

...what does that mean?

[He thinks he already knows. He just doesn't want to.]

[skelepun]

[His jaw clicks, clearly not relishing what he's about to say.]

Big bite, right here. [Sans taps the side of his neck.] She got patched up, but they had to take her with the others. She was halfway loaded up when I found her.

[Another pause, another sip.]

Kid didn't see and I didn't tell her so mom's the word, you get me?

[ex_mettacrusher33]

... [Of course there's no good news. If he had actual human eyeballs, he'd be rolling them into the back of his head for how annoying this constant swell of awful has been.

Well! They'll just have to make their OWN good news, won't they??]

And I'm certainly glad to know we have people looking into that, but I'm even more grateful for the assistance in keeping the civilians safe. It's a lot less glory than solving a mystery, but no less important!

'fraid I've had my hands full though and haven't quite had the time to check the network. Does anyone have a place in mind for the recently infected?

[ex_mettacrusher33]

[Sigh. That sounds about right for this mission.

Mettaton pulls his legs out of the blanket and lets them dangle off the side of the bed, turning himself to face his friend fully. At least they were with her to make sure the same thing, or worse, didn't happen to her. They could keep her occupied until help arrived. They tried and she's safe now. That's all that matters.

Although that last bit is a touch strange. What does it matter what Mettaton says? She's not...

Oh no. He's already raking his fingers down his face.]

Tell me you gave her to the police.

[prodigism]

[ He shrugs. Honestly if this were back home and these were ghouls the outcome would be much worse. So any infected he hasn't killed thus far is a step in the right direction in his mind. The mindset of extermination is the harder part for him to get over. Ingrained as deeply as it is into his being his progress is pretty good. ]

The results are acceptable. [ In his opinion, but not everyone is of similar thought, which he understands why. ]

If you're looking for a haven, we've managed to clear a sporting goods store on this floor, and it's currently serving as a base for all those unarmed and unable to fight. I suggest you go there before more infected come.

Undyne | ota

[aspearation]

[ LOCKDOWN ]

[ Don't ask how Undyne got Dogberry in here, because she's not going to tell you. (She hid him in an employee area with a dog bed and food and water and some toys. If anyone saw him, they didn't have the gall to complain. She's been doing this since day one...) But as soon as the mall gets locked down, she fetches him and he sticks by her side.

It's a tough decision to not use her spears to help things along where she can. Instead, she arms herself with a pole that was in the middle of being used as a clothing rack. She can return it later, self defense is a little more important than a couple of shirts that will do fine jammed together on one rack. ]

Come on boy, let's go.

[ She likes to think that as she makes her way down the hall towards the food court, that she kind of looks cool... even if this really isn't the time for it. ]

[ 00:00 TO 02:00 HOURS ]

[ Undyne is still armed with the clothing rack, that looks a little worse for wear. Needless to say, it's been used to crack a few shins and cause a couple of movement-inhibiting injuries. She regrets it, but it'll heal. She didn't have a better way to defend herself that wouldn't end in even more damage.

As the infected start to increase in number, and become increasingly aggressive, she questions her ability to keep them at bay without using her powers, and decides that it's not worth letting someone get hurt in order to shelter them. If ALASTAIR wanted them to keep a perfect cover, they shouldn't have sent them on such a dangerous mission.

She doesn't know if the innocents nearby are ALASTAIR or not, but a wave of infected are approaching all of them; Dogberry barks, but it doesn't do much to slow their movements. So instead, a wall of spears, glowing a soft blue, jab up from the ground in front of them, enough to stop them in their tracks, at least for the moment, though they start scrabbling at the spears trying to wedge themselves through the cracks.

Undyne yells over her shoulder, to whoever's still there. ]

You start running, I'll catch up! Dogberry, go with them!

[ Dogberry barks in compliance, and runs back to the other party, looking up at them expectantly. ]

[keeper]

[ A prince...? She can't help but laugh softly at that, shaking her head. ] I'm afraid I'm not a prince, though that's very kind of you to say, milady. [ Here, she offers Maya a knightly bow. (She's not a COMPLETE stick in the mud, she has Disney humor!!!)

—But back to Serious Business because she's still MOSTLY a stick in the mud. ] Unfortunately there are no libraries, either. ...But there is a bookstore just a floor above us, if I remember correctly. [ Because this is the 90s and Borders still exists... sheds a single tear... ] Shall we go there?

[ (btw she's not sure why the infected should have any particular feelings on printed materials, but she won't question Maya's logic...) ]

My name is Aqua, by the way.

[skelepun]

I gave her a a jolly rancher. [Sans shrugs, opening his magazine back up.] It had some fuzz on it. That's close enough, right?

[ex_adept136]

[Haise can easily agree that looking after the civilians is vital. It may not strike others as exciting, but it's no less imperative than getting to the bottom of this, and they're a team for a reason. Their efforts can be effectively divided, provided they ever learn to coordinate.

He's...still rather hoping for that day to come]

Others may have a different approach, but I've been dropping them off in one of the vacant stores under renovation. There's less for them to get into in there, and I knock them out and restrain them beforehand.

[And he's been thankful that at least a certain one-armed ninja had been inclined toward similar measures. Better to give a potential cure a chance than mow people down, since it's not so much saving if their lives are snuffed out]

I left a note, so hopefully no one misunderstands.

[ex_mettacrusher33]

...

[Okay. Okay. Just give him a second. That's all he needs. Just a moment. Yes, pillow, hello. His beautiful star-shaped pillow that he bought his first week in town. You're looking particularly plush right now. He can only imagine just how plush as he brings it to his face and proceeds to scream into it.

He drops it into his lap. We're good now.]

Sansy. Darling. Have we considered that she may have another parent she belongs to? Maybe some other family who would be severely distraught to know their sweet little girl went missing in a zombie-infected mall? You know I hate being the voice of reason, it's so boring. BUT. We cannot keep her.

...or feed her lint, though I'm giving you 50 points for the pun. That was actually clever.

[keeper]

[ She weighs their options for just a moment before nodding decisively, ] Let's try the back stairs, then.

[ There's always the risk that some of the infected might have wandered there, meaning they'll be fighting in cramped quarters, however it seems their attention is still drawn to the food court and to where any other sources of (...live...) meat congregate.

That said, even the two of them might be enough to lure unwanted attention, but it's a premeditated risk she's willing to take.

They move quickly for the nearest exit and slip into the staircase... ]

[keeper]

[ The sudden, deliberate offer has her faintly raising a brow; she isn't sure if he's entirely serious, if only because she's barely proficient in sarcasm herself... But she nods anyhow. ] Perhaps another time.

[ Right now they've got to make it out of this mess intact... (She doesn't get the potato reference either, clearly she's never played Portal 2.) ]

I believe I might have a solution for that, though... [ This really isn't the most discreet place to be summoning lightning from her fingertips... ]

If we could move somewhere more discreet...

[ Hopefully he gets the hint, and she offers to help transfer the dozing child to another caretaker. (Her blue hair nets her a few stairs, but otherwise the bystanders are gracious, quite willing to help in what little ways they can.) ]

[slapfight]

[it takes her a second to even understand that pun, because she has never heard "copper" used like that, but her delayed reaction laugh is probably worth it.] Ohhhh. It's a metal joke. Hah! Good one.

[a beat] I'll probably just wait for Graham to deal with them.

[that's... what a copper is, Peridot. BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ALLOYS AND ALLIES... she's about to chastize him for eating at a time like this until she sees the infected moving closer to get at the tasty snack.] Ah! Yes, yes, keep doing whatever you're doing.

[she scrambles over to the store, waiting for her cue, all but vibrating in anticipation of a plan well executed.]

[ex_adept136]

[It's the whirring that stands out most to Haise, a sound he doesn't expect from a sleeping man stirring. He'd much sooner expect that from turning on a machine, which leaves him with a rather distinctive impression. The lot of them aren't uniformly human, after all.

Still, it might be too early to make any assumptions, so Haise tucks that impression away for another time. He folds his arms behind him, one hand holding the opposite wrist]

Sorry for disturbing you. [Polite as ever] But it's just about dawn, now.

[And so it might be a good idea to be up and at it anyhow]

[slapfight]

[Peridot follows behind her, the RC car following diligently. once both she and her weapon are safely inside, she waves her hand and the metal grating falls down, effectively locking them safely inside.

that done, she leans against a shelf, casually, looking ever so proud of herself.]

Welcome to my secret base. It's where I'm making all the weapons we can use to safely combat the infected.

[it's literally a Radio Shack, Peridot. calm down.]

[slapfight]

If you run into any trouble... [she hesitates, remembering Lance and how he's infected now. she doesn't want that for anyone else she cares about.

and yet she still has no idea where to put these stupid emotions, so she just grits her teeth and says, in a demanding tone:] Yell very loudly. You're fragile and soft and human. Okay?

[expressing concern for people is still very new to her. especially for people who are, in fact, fragile.]

[feytality]

[Maya's got a perfectly legit plan and she doesn't need to be judged right now, Riza!!!]

[But, no, really, it's a wonder that she hasn't been swarmed already. She's in the process of taping another SNES to her shoulder when she hears Riza, and--- waves cheerfully, like there isn't a crisis going on]

Hey! You're.... the person.... from the post!

[Very specific, Maya] Do you like it? Those zombos aren't gonna stand a chance against this!

[Luckily there's no one currently here to overhear this complete lack of subtlety]

[feytality]

[Restaurant rules sure are weird and extreme!! They might not appreciate Shizuo--- neither do the infected who are currently getting their own makeovers thanks to him -- but Maya sure does. Some of those dresses are too hideous, even for her]

Waaah!

[But then she's snagged up by Shizuo again, thus ending the epic struggle between SNES and semi-man]

I-I'm not a sack of potatoes, you know! [The SNES falls from her shoulder and thonks on the head of captain grabby (alas, poor SNES, we knew ye) before Shizuo sends the whole thing crashing down and Maya notices just how many grabbyhands want a piece of her. Pretty literally, at that]

---Wait, I take it back, I'm totally a sack of potatoes! [She doesn't want to be fries, save her. She scrambles a little to hold onto the arm carrying her, then squints side-ways at.... wherever we are]

Oh, oh, um, we're in ladies wear! If you go straight through her and through lingerie, I think there's an exit. And dressing rooms! [Thankfully, Maya does know the mall layout pretty well, and can actually assist with directions. She's got something actually useful to contribute, unbelievable.]

[feytality]

Coulda fooled me. [Maya does a little cursty back, indulging Aqua's fedorism]

[And then does an actual bow while clasping her hands, out of habits] Aqua, huh? That's even a princely name! [How] Or knightly, anyway.... I'm Maya.

[She seems to be over the burger thing.... or maybe she's just barely holding onto the hope that Aqua, her new prince, will buy her another one. But, Aqua not questioning her train of thought... that's a beginner's mistake]

Perfect! A bookstore is equally boring! It's the perfect cover for us.

[unholey]

I've been misinformed. [Fugo continues to frown at his bag, while he retrieves one small plastic cup after another.] I was led to believe it was the sport they call football, but isn't, and... the... [He pauses, looks up, and squints while he tries and fails to remember the word he's looking for.] Patties of ground hamburger served on sliced buns with melted cheese, sliced tomatoes, and lettuce on top. Garnishes include pickles, onions, ketchup, and mustard.

[Hamburger. The word he's looking for is hamburger, but all he can remember is a forlorn cry. It was deluxe!]

[slapfight]

[that definitely looked like "putting" to her. she ain't gonna judge.]

We should find out where they're coming from and stop the madness at its source. [with the same hand she just used to slap him five, she makes a fist and pounds it into her other palm.] We might even finally find Percy.