[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

THIS IS POOR MAN'S ICE CREAM, CLEARLY...OR SOMETHING.....close enough

[longtempered]

[Yeah, she'd sort of looked like she needed one, hence the offer out of the blue; Shizuo's always found that sweets of any kind tend to help at least a little when a bad mood's coming on, and being somewhat beaten down by a long and tiring night fighting infected people in a locked-down mall probably counts as a bad mood of its own.

Aqua takes her pick from the box, and Shizuo follows suit, picking a yellow one for himself before setting the box back down behind his elbow. Straightening, he looks over at her remark; yeah, kind of gloomy small talk for sure, but it's a gloomy situation. Not like he's got anything better to talk about either. So she gets a hum of agreement in turn, faintly irritable--not at her, but more at this problem in general here.]

Yeah, I was about to ask--but I guess you haven't heard anything new on that front either, huh? [He leans back against the wall almost in sync with Aqua, even, half-pinching half-tearing the top off his own pop (inevitable, when even your hands tend to be unnecessarily strong) and tipping it into his mouth before it has a chance to spill anything. Ah, you never know with the yellow color...will it be banana or lemon....?


Oh. It's banana. Sucking out the juice, and then taking a bite himself, the next bit is mumbled around melty banana-flavored ice.]

Police are always so damn slow...hope our people'll be a little faster. [By which he means the Audentes members not locked in the mall...]

ASLKDFJ yes...

[keeper]

[ Shizuo that is some awful luck, unless he actually likes banana-flavored things... (No offense to anyone who likes banana-flavored things... But why...) ]

We're on our own, I'm afraid.

[ She takes another bite-sip of her aggressively strawberry ice pop, a light sigh passing through her like an object deflating. She isn't one to complain, however, and whatever vague disappointment she feels is brushed away. Replaced with... Well, just weariness. ]

Is law enforcement pretty much the same in your world...? [ (Sans the belligerent motorcycle cops that like to chase poor Dullahans around the streets... Also I'm pretty sure I've used that reference already... Anyway!!)

Their conversation is briefly interrupted by a crashing noise somewhere downstairs. Probably another infected mindlessly throwing themselves against the steel grating guarding one of the shop entrances. ]

...I'm not sure how much longer the barricades will hold up. [ Here sits Aqua, bearer of Keyblade and Bad News, and her friend Shizuo, bearer of Freeze Pops and Stop Signs. ]

[longtempered]

[Eeeh, banana isn't his favorite flavor in the world, it's true...(why do they even make banana-flavored freeze pops).....but it's sweet, and it'll have to do as the closest replacement for a smoke right now, so Shizuo's quite ready to take it without complaint. Evidently, anyway, if the way he's already inhaled at least a quarter of the freeze pop's contents is anything to go by. Aqua's confirmation is unsurprising but still disappointing, and Shizuo huffs into his pop accordingly.]

Figures...aah, well. It'd be weird if our luck started being good now. [But the question has him looking back up at her, and then pausing to consider it genuinely thoughtfully.] The law enforcement? ...I mean, pretty much? More or less. They're usually just as slow in my experience...a friend of mine hates them, though. She says they're fast as hell when they're on motorcycles? So maybe that's what these guys need to do...

[Get on it, Woodhurst PD! Motorcycles for the whole squadron!!

But the crashing noise definitely puts a considerable damper on the conversation, and Shizuo quiets alongside Aqua until it dies down. --Which is good, because if it hadn't died down, Shizuo would have been quite ready to get up and give the source a piece of his mind (and stop sign). As it is, he shakes his head a bit to himself.]

You're right. I don't know either...but if we're going to keep being unlucky, it probably won't be very long. Guess we're gonna have to be ready for that when it happens.

[keeper]

(( omg for a moment i was reading your tag in another thread below and almost... started replying to that one... HAPPY MONDAY... also i'm sorry she's the worst conversation/break buddy, tips her over ))

Motorcycles, is it... [ She mulls over that for a good moment, even if it's too late and the PD's more than a couple Harley-Davidsons short of a full calvary. ] Perhaps I'll suggest it to Lucina when it's all over.

[ And then her supposed sister can take it to the head of the dept., etc...!! She's only half-joking, tired enough some latent humor is beginning to show through, though of course she's not one to spin full comedies in the middle of an apocalyptic crisis, or even outside of one.

She nods at Shizuo's comment, gaze drifting in the direction she thinks the disturbance had come from. Better be found on their feet than not, and she quickly finishes the freeze pop before she gets to her feet—just in time for another resounding, metallic clang to rattle the silence. ]

...We should go.

[ SORRY SHIZUO, NO REST FOR THE WICKED. She offers him a hand up, forgetting in her fatigue that he could very well just drag her back down by accident. (2stronk!!!) ]

[longtempered]

((oh my god omo......smhes both at this and at aqua's riveting conversational skills))

Ah, yeah, she's with them right? I bet she could make a good argument for it. [Does Lucina even properly know what motorcycles are though Shizuo......but you know, those are the little details, surely easy enough to iron out. Aqua might be half-joking, but Shizuo does not sound joking at all as he genuinely considers this.

But before they can get any further with discussing the semantics of a police motorcycle cadre--or just relaxing and eating the rest of these freeze pops in peace, really--the rattling metal clang resurfaces yet again, as clear to Shizuo as it is to Aqua, as they exchange grim looks almost simultaneously. She's standing up first, and when she offers a hand Shizuo takes it automatically, freeze pop still in his mouth, other hand closing properly around his stop sign pole and he idly tugs himself to his feet--]

these are the people standing between these woodhurst citizens and an infected demise.........

[longtempered]

[--and promptly drags Aqua straight down to the ground in the process, as his strength betrays him yet again. Whoops. Shizuo manages a startled splutter around his freeze pop.]

Oh--shit, sorry--

they're pretty much doomed

[keeper]

[ (That's a good point... Lucina and modern transportation probably aren't best of buddies yet, though she's probably been immersed in the 90s long enough to have a reasonable understanding of two-wheelers...)

Anyway, Aqua lets out a small yelp as she crashes to the floor next to him; in a different time and place she might have dared to laugh at herself, but as it is they're in a mall full of flesh-eaters. The accidental commotion serves as a homing beacon, and it isn't long until the source of the rattling finds them instead.

Without thinking, she picks up Shizuo's stop sign as she rises (the object strewn on the ground after their ludicrously failed attempt to get up), and hooks the poll behind knees of an approaching infected, knocking it flat on its back. Following that, a hefty whack for a rabid young woman who tries to lunge at her from behind.

...In the brief opening they have before the next wave arrives, she quickly offers the traffic sign back to the bartender/elementary-school-crossing-guard. ]

...Sorry. This is yours.

rip...........

[longtempered]

[Man...didn't he do this to Lucina too, way back in Perdition's Rest? He really needs to stop doing this. Somebody's going to get seriously hurt by him doing this one of these days. So Shizuo's thinking, at the moment, as he accidentally drags down Aqua and has to go about awkwardly trying to prop her back onto her feet...

--Except there turns out to be no time to actually do that, as a couple of infected arrive in the area rather sooner than expected. Maybe they'd already been nearby, and got drawn over by the commotion--but either way Shizuo's straightening to face them, only to realize he dropped the stop sign with his recent fumble--

But that's alright, apparently, because Aqua's already leaping into action, grabbing up his stop sign to pull it off and everything. One infected trips down, another is whacked away, and Shizuo has just enough presence of mind to at least straighten and promptly slug a third incoming infected in the face, knocking that one out cold. In the resulting lull, he finishes taking a very large and irritable bite out of the last of his freeze pop before accepting the stop sign back from Aqua with a short scoff of a laugh.]

Ah, no problem. Owed you that one for pulling you over like that, anyway. Hey, you landed some pretty good hits too.

[With that, Shizuo hefts the sign easily back over his shoulder, dropping his empty freeze pop wrap and flatting it under the heel of his shoe. He turns his attention to the shop behind him, where the people within are beginning to peer out the doorway with alarmed faces at the commotion.] Alright, you guys need to shut this door and put stuff in front of it, yeah? It looks like there's more infected people coming over, we'll deal with them.

[Immediately voices start rising in alarm, some with panic. But Shizuo helps the calmer ones shut the door, leaving both him and Aqua outside.] Alright, time to get this over with...