[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

[ofobedience]

[Again, his reactions are subtle - a slight tightening of his shoulders, the jump of muscle under skin - but they're there all the same, small indicators that no, it's not a topic he particularly wants to discuss. The signs are brief though, abortive, brushed away with another quick clatter of laughter.]

There's nothing much to say. Nothing that would hold your interest, I'm sure.

[mistruths]

I'm sure I'd disagree.

[ Still, he lets it go. Loki, for the first time since leaving Asgard, seems to have found someone who he just might, might be able to get along with. There's no need to alienate him further by pressing into issues he's clearly unwilling to speak of. Besides which, Loki can understand. ]

Might I have the pleasure of your name?

[ofobedience]

[He chooses to ignore that first statement entirely, decides instead to focus only on the question posed. If this man is providing him with a change of subject, he's readily prepared to take it. Readily prepared to brush the more difficult subject matter to one side.]

Giovanni Rammsteiner. And yourself?

[mistruths]

Loki.

[ He remembers, belatedly, that mortals had an odd habit of shaking hands. It isn't one he's particularly fond of, one way or another, and Loki makes the decision to ignore the tradition unless it's offered first. ]

Well met, Mr. Rammsteiner. Or do you prefer Giovanni?

[ofobedience]

[And Giovanni makes no move to offer his hand-- he's not quite so far removed from humanity as Loki, perhaps, but far enough that the ins and outs of social niceties often bypass him entirely. When one is created solely to be a weapon, a hound of war, polite manners aren't exactly placed high on the list of things one ought to know.]

Giovanni, if you will. Rammsteiner isn't much of a name, anyway. More a make and model, hahah.

[mistruths]

You speak as though there are others of you. Many, perhaps.

[ And not quite in the same way Loki has an other running around the town. For a brief beat, he spares a moment to wonder where Loki might be, and if he's all right--but then he carries on. Loki takes care of himself; he always has, always will. No one would know that better than another Loki. ]

Would you be so kind as to explain?

[ofobedience]

[Well. If nothing else, it's a question he finds easier to answer than the topic he'd brushed aside, at least on a surface level. As such, Giovanni shrugs. Smiles his razorblade smile.]

The Rammsteiner series-- genetically engineered weapons, created with speed, strength, and endurance in mind. There are a few of us around, yes.

[Not as many as there had been, but never mind that.]

But not in this place. Here there's just little old me.

[mistruths]

Oh, you undersell yourself, Giovanni, I'm sure.

[ Loki rolls his shoulders in unsubtle interest, leaning in slightly as his eyes skate down Giovanni's sleek form. Like himself, the other doesn't look at all like the dangerous man he's describing himself to be. Still, Loki knows better than to judge purely from appearances. ]

[ofobedience]

[Loki's interest is an overt thing, but if his brazen appraisal bothers Giovanni, there's nothing in his bearing to suggest it. Instead there's the slight upward lift of his chin, a continuation of his hard bright smile.

Lithe and slight, yes. A little unassuming. But as Loki has devised, appearances mean little. Something Giovanni is equally aware of.]

Well. I do my best. Hahah.

[mistruths]

[ Though they've only just met, something about Giovanni fascinates Loki in a way few others have. How fun. ]

A deliberate calculation, then? To make others underestimate you, I assume.

[ofobedience]

[It's not entirely one-sided. It isn't every day around these parts that one meets a well-dressed stranger who adds a little flair to his fighting technique. The beheading-- it has pleased him.]

It never hurts to maintain the element of surprise.

[mistruths]

[ He adds a slightly flick of the wrist to his gesture as he spreads his hands; a lifetime of playing to the dramatic is not so easily subdued. Nor has he any interest in doing so. ]

And yet, you've told me about yourself. You flatter me greatly.

[ofobedience]

[At least he's found a receptive audience-- Giovanni has something of an inclination for the dramatic, himself. As something created and raised to be nothing more than a weapon, a tool, he has no formal education. Most of what he knows is self-taught, gleaned from revenge tragedies and the like.

he's still smiling. Motions vaguely to the corpse at their feet.]

You caught my attention with your pretty display.

[And he's a little less secretive than he used to be-- having been here nigh on a year, there are of course those around who've caught glimpses of what he is. Are aware of some of the intricacies of his nature.]

[mistruths]

I do try.

[ His knife had vanished as quickly as it had appeared earlier, but he draws it out again, making a point to clean it and run a hand, glimmering in magic, over it. ]

What then, if I might ask, is your weapon of choice? Forgive me for saying so, but you do seem rather too well dressed to prefer a blade.

[ It's splashy, after all. ]

[ofobedience]

[It's an action he observes with a detached kind of interest-- his world may be bereft of magic, but he's been here long enough to have become accustomed to seeing it used, at least. Knows a little more about it than he once did. Still--]

A useful trick.

[And then he moves to pat at his suit, in close to his chest, where beneath the jacket his twin pistols are concealed.]

And I'm a gun man, myself. I'm handy with a number of weapons, but they've always been my preference. Or, when all else fails, one can always use one's hands.

[Although he says this with the slightest curl of his lip-- he may have the capacity to break bones with a twist of his palms, but in his opinion it lacks a certain refinement. Overt brutality-- that has always been more his wayward brother's forte.]

[mistruths]

[ A similarity that lies, unknown and unspoken, in the space between them. Loki dips his head in agreement. ]

When all else fails. It's so, mm. Brute force, though. I much prefer something with a touch of elegance, myself.

I take it you are a fair shot, to use a ranged weapon. I had a man like that, once, though he preferred the bow to the gun. [ His smile is edged and sharp. ] He was most impressive.

[ofobedience]

[An unspoken similarity indeed-- his brother being the exalted one, despite his defection. Giovanni the unwanted consolation prize-- thoughts that ever simmer in him but remain unspoken. Instead there's the slight canine cant of his head, curiosity showing in the angles of his face.]

You had a man. That's an interesting way to put it.

[But he shrugs then, continues.]

But one should always strive towards elegance. And I'd like to think my marksmanship has that element about it. Precision and efficiency-- all that jazz.

[mistruths]

You should consider the blade, then, might appreciate the art of it. I rather think you might enjoy it. Besides, it would be good to keep your enemies guessing. A gun runs out of shots; a blade doesn't lose its edge.

[ Well, it does, but not mid-fight. And really, it's the analogy he's going for here. ]

[ofobedience]

I'm all right with a blade, though certainly not the best I know. Still, room for improvement and all that.

[It's hard to imagine himself ever living up to Fruhling's standards, however-- she does cut things so beautifully.]

I suppose there's a certain nostalgia for me in using pistols. A reminder of my childhood. Hahah.

[Though his bright crack of laughter, the smile that follows-- there's a hollowness there. Something bitter-edged.]

[mistruths]

Would you be willing to teach? I've never used one before, though I have made use of something...similar.

[ Insofar as "magic" is similar to "guns" anyway. ]

You've left me dreadfully curious now, I'm afraid, of your past and childhood.

[ofobedience]

I can't say I've ever tried my hand at teaching before, but that doesn't mean I can't give it a go. If you wish it.

[it might even be fun-- he's therefore prepared to try. As for the rest, he issues another of those broken-glass smiles.]

It was the kind of childhood you might expect of something created only to cause destruction.

[only infinitely worse than that, something that haunts him even now. Still, he shrugs. Shakes his head.]


But you've yet to say very much about yourself.

[An invitation perhaps, or just testing the waters, discerning how willing this person is to speak of themselves.]

[mistruths]

[ "A childhood of something created for destruction," and it sounds all too familiar, somehow, and prods at soft spaces in Loki that he'd rather not think of. He tips his head slightly in acknowledgement. ]

I would like that. My own methods are, likewise, born from childhood habits--one where I had to learn how to keep up with others much stronger than I am. So I found ways to make myself more powerful than they.

[ofobedience]

[Likewise, Loki's statements do Giovanni the same, ignite a sick twist of recognition in him that leaves an unpleasant taste in his mouth. He knows how that is, after all, to have been smaller, weaker, horribly flawed. He's not that broken child anymore, but nor is he quite what he ought to be.

There's the slight curious canine cant of his head.]

Then we shall find the time. A pleasant distraction, if nothing else. And lucky you, I suppose. No easy feat, that. Although sometimes all one has to do is outlive the rest.

[He's almost the last of his batch standing. Almost]

[mistruths]

I've yet to manage that, though I've, ah... Well. Sometimes, things can be rather dangerous for all involved.

[ofobedience]

[And again, there's the bright crooked slant of Giovanni's smile.]

Dangerous for all involved. It sounds as though you have a good time.