[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

[thinhammer]

oh :(

[ Shot down. Sad times for ninjas with not the slightest idea of how to formulate plans alone. ]

yeah i figured spreading out would be the worst idea since stuff can get kinda confusing when theres too many points to deal with

the group i got together has like three people who got hurt but all of them are saying its not infected
im good at defense though
ive been keeping them all safe so far!!!

[dishearten]

( sorry ninja friend. he really wishes that were plausible. as it stood, it wasn't, at least not at the moment. )

it can be. in an ideal situation, I wouldn't argue, we are simply operating in a situation that is far from ideal.

keeping them safe is the best we can hope for. how injured are they? if they need more than basic aide, getting them to the security room might be the best option. it's well fortified and I'll do what I can to locate someone that can help with their injuries.

( push come to shove, Graham isn't actually so bad at first aide these days. thanks Sieg!! )

[thinhammer]

[ There's always next time for his Great Ideas. Watch out, world. ]

yeah i get it
no big deal
its just some cuts and scrapes i think
i gave them bits of my bandana to keep them from getting gunked up but i dunno how well its gonna last

[ He's got incredibly basic knowledge of how to deal with wounds simply through having a medic nin on his team, but it's better than nothing. ]

i dunno where the security room is though
is that where you are???

[dishearten]

bandages would likely serve them better. antiseptic as well. if that's the only injuries they have, though, they might do fine with just a first aide kit. where are you? I might be able to get one sent.

yes, that's where I am. it's on the third floor, it has security cameras that give me overwatch on the mall itself.

( he'll offer a ping of the location on the Magitek, just to be safe. it's a good location to know, in the madness of the lockdown. )

[thinhammer]

yeah i didnt have any bandages
thats why i had to sacrifice my bandana

[ RIP his orange patterned eyesore. :( ]

id just walk it off but these guys are softer
im just kinda guessing and going off what theyre telling me
it could be worse than it looks but i dont have any medical training

[ Though he's starting to see the uses of it. Naruto hasn't been taught how to really access the full uses of his magitek and is too much of a bumpkin from a technology deprived world to figure it out for himself, but luckily his ninja training means he's decent at location scouting and has probably run around this mall at least ten times by now, so he has a pretty good idea of where he is in correlation to the security office. ]

were on the second floor toward the back
there was a store with big muscly men and loads of computer looking stuff in the front
but we dragged stuff out to make barricades

how do the camereas work where you are?? can ya see me??

[ He's probably looking around. Probably waving. ]

[dishearten]

( rip bandana... that is so horribly sad... i mean kinda )

some things are harder to detect like that. concussions, internal bleeding, things like that
I think coming to you might be easiest, I can deliver the first aids kit and sort out whatever problems might be present, does that sound fair?

( as for whether he can see him from his current position, that's an almost innocent query, isn't it? it's almost charming. maybe it'd be charming to a not heartless guy. )

most of the cameras focus on the halls and main walkways, not specific stores
are you waving?

( apparently standing near a store window is good enough... )

[thinhammer]

sounds good to me!! i dont want anything bad to happen to these guys after theyve survived all of this

[ He doesn't want anything bad to happen to them in general, but the point still stands. ]

yeah!! im wearing an orange hoodie and ive got a frog backpack and yellow hair!!!

[ He's ventured just a little further out into the hallway, still waving energetically enough to break his arm, like it will make him easier to spot and not just a blurry mess. He's keeping an eye on his little collection of survivors, of course, but being seen by someone a fair distance away is Very Cool to a kid who's only experience with technology back home is very basic short distance radio links. ]

[dishearten]

neither do I. we're on the same page as far as that is concerned.

( the people of woodhurst have already suffered a great deal as it is. it's horrible that a day that was supposed to be a happy one turned into this, and if Graham can at all help it? the initial injuries were all they'd incur.

that was a far away dream, but he would put everything he had into seeing it happen.

there's no seeing the ghost of a smile on the heartless guy's face, but it's there. )

yes, I see you then. I know where you are. I can be there in less than ten.

[thinhammer]

[ Even though Naruto has no idea what the surveillance setup looks like or how he might appear on the screen, the mere idea that someone can see him from a distance is an exhilarating one, and it has him laughing like someone's told him a hilarious joke, right there in the middle of the hallway. Is Graham sure he's ready to deal with this kid....... ]

aah cool!!! :D okay no problem
i'll stay put!!

[ Like he has anywhere else to go, really. He's protective of the small group of people he's kept safe all by himself - he's just one kid and a few brother-clones after all, it's quite an achievement - and wouldn't let them out of his sight for just anything, so to wait for the Network Man's arrival he trots back to the storefront to... look busy, probably. ]

im crying he's so cute though [ ACTION ]

[dishearten]

( tbh he probably doesn't have any idea what he is getting into... good luck graham... as bizarre as it is to laugh at the idea of being captured by a security camera, though, it's also a little charming. even for a heartless guy. and if not for him, then certainly for the not so heartless person that writes the heartless guy.

Graham doesn't answer again, focusing instead on making good on his promise of making it there in short order. he does, too, armed with his kit and arriving in a surprising amount of silence.

he's not a ninja, but huntsmans do okay for themselves. )

Are they in the back? ( how about a hi or greeting there, graham? no? guess not. )

uwu* !

[thinhammer]

[ He's almost surprised by Graham's silent arrival, or he would have been if he weren't keeping an over excited eye on his surroundings and spotted him at just the right moment. ]

Oh! Hey!

[ It's okay, Naruto is suffocatingly friendly enough to do the greetings for them both. He's beaming at the sight of Mr Stranger and leads him to the storefront and past the elaborate barricade of empty shelves to where his little group of people are housed. ]

Yeah, I kept 'em back here 'cos I thought it'd be the safest for 'em.

[ He looks to Graham then, interested on what kind of first aid he's going to be applying here. He's only seen medical ninjutsu, after all, and he's nothing if not curious. ]

[dishearten]

( thanks for picking up the slack, Naruto. Graham isn't big on greetings, even with the people he's most friendly with. he offers a nod in response, not necessarily words, but good enough for the guy that poked in without any sort of hello in the first place. )

Good thinking. ( it's certainly smarter to keep them away from the front and the windows. Graham follows to where the civilians are housed, noting the barricades and the protective measures already taken. he might not have expected them of someone so young, but the shop was well fortified and the people housed in the back room relatively well looked after, as promised, with ripped orange cloth.

most of them look fairly well looked after, but a mother spots the kit and immediately notes that her son needs looking after. Graham nods and directs the boy over, working at easing the orange cloth off a long cut on his arm. the huntsman works at pulling gloves on and fishing antiseptic from the case, glancing toward his company. ) This might sting a bit.

( Graham knows he has little to no bedside manner. he suspects his teammate might be better able to calm the boy and distract him from any pain, however shortlived it would happen to be. )

[thinhammer]

[ Naruto bends down beside Graham to watch with childish curiosity as he starts pulling on gloves and opening the case, but when he looks to the worried little face of the child he suddenly can't care less about the medical performance and instead tells the kid how brave he is. ]

--Ya remember I said I'm a ninja, right? Well, bein' a ninja I sometimes get hurt an' it really stings, but ya know what I do? I grit my teeth an' I close my eyes real tight, an' I think about how brave I'm gonna be so that I can carry on being strong for the people around me.... an' before I know it there's no pain anymore. Can ya do that too? Do ya wanna do it with me?--

[ He screws up his eyes with the kid while Graham applies the antiseptic and the mother smiles at Naruto's "made up" story about being a ninja. It's endearing and she obviously assumes he made it up to make the kids feel better, and that works for him. He can't help but wonder what Graham is actually doing, though, so when the mother comes over to take over in holding the kids hand, he peers at the bottle. ]

What is that stuff, huh? Are ya cleaning it up or what?

[dishearten]

( it is endearing. Graham works quickly, hoping to keep from prolonging the discomfort any longer than he has to. still, he's not blind to the easy way that Naruto manages to take the boy's mind off of it. it's not something he's personally gifted with, and yet he can appreciate it quite well in others. thankfully it's not a deep cut, nor a difficult one to clean.

he's on to the bandage shortly after, and nods at the question. ) Antiseptic. It's used to kill any bacteria, to cut short the risk of infection.

( after the many months he's spent under Sieglinde's tutelage, Graham is fairly knowledgable as far as simple triage is concerned. the boy seems to be the only one with an injury severe enough to merit attention, and once it's wrapped he closes the kit and offers it to Naruto instead. )

I think you have things well in hand here, but if you need anything more, you know how to contact me. ( they've already spoken over magitek, after all, it's an easy way to track down a teammate if need be. ) Is there anything else you need?

[thinhammer]

[ He'd definitely like to learn more about how medical stuff works from a non-ninjutsu standpoint, but when the kit is suddenly offered to him Naruto looks down at it and back up at Graham, nonplussed. He doesn't really feel equipped enough to use it, but hopefully if it's a well known medical item to the people in this community they might know how to use it themselves, so he sets it down at his feet. ]

Uuh, nah I don't think so. I can probably handle stuff from here-- Oh! Wait! Yeah, there is somethin' I need!

[ His face cracks in another grin, and he looks straight at Graham. ]

Your name! I don't know it yet! I'm Naruto!

[dishearten]

( Graham might be able to teach him more, given the opportunity. sadly, now isn't a particularly good one. there's too much on the line, there's too many other things pulling his attention. he'd be happy to show Naruto more when he can, though arguably Sieglinde would know more; he's learned enough in the year and longer he's been a member of Audentes that he could teach a little on the subject.

now, though, he'll have to leave Naruto for higher threats. the boy does seem to have things handled, after all, and if he needs anything further it won't be too hard to make further contact. Graham isn't expecting anything more, though he does have to admit that's a fair request.

he really has to work on his introductions. )

It's Graham. It's nice to meet you, Naruto, despite the circumstances.

[thinhammer]

Nice to meet ya too! An' thanks for all the help and stuff.

[ He puts his arms behind his head; not exactly bashful but there's a certain kind of childish shyness to the way he says thank you in that genuine sort of way. The kid from before then approaches him and tugs at his jacket, so he relents. He picks up the kit and starts to walk back like the gentle pulling is a lasso around his middle, but before he turns away completely he turns around to wave at Graham. ]

Hopefully I'll see ya around, maybe when we're not stuck in this place!

[ He doesn't make it sound like a question, because it is one, he'll definitely see him again, for sure. ]

[dishearten]

Perhaps we will.

( Graham doesn't make it sound like much of a question, either. for starters, they're teammates — running into each other again is more likely than it is unlikely. and now that he's gotten some sense of who Naruto is, he certainly seems to be the sort of person he'd like to keep an eye on.

for now, though... he'll leave him to the civilians that need him most. Graham has other things to pull at his attention, so ultimately he can't linger long... but he'll remember what he saw here, and Naruto himself as well. )