[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

[perma_banned]

Old? [Ban paused, touching his cheek. He was 23 when he drank the elixir of life. Was he older looking than he thought? Naruto's comment made him wonder if he had any wrinkles from the beginning. When he stopped and realized that wasn't the case, he leveled a brow a bit lower and sustained a bit of doubt.] Ah, not like it matters.

I'm the only one who's drunk it, so I dunno if it makes you younger. I was at least twenty-three when I drank it and I haven't gotten any older. It might make you younger if you're old--I dunno.

[He offered a wide shrug, knowing no better than Naruto did.] Course, most people wanted it for the immortality side of it--not so much wanting to be younger.

[thinhammer]

[ Then it should definitely be called the Live-Forever Fountain in his opinion but he won't keep pushing it. ]

Huuh. That's pretty neat, not bein' able to die and all. I guess that's why you didn't back down from Sonia-chan, huh?

[ Naruto had thought Ban one of those bad guys with a death wish or maybe a desperate guy with nothing to lose, and now he realises Ban is.. just a guy, with a crazy ability. He can't begin to imagine what being incapable of dying might do to a person's level of recklessness, but he has a feeling the end product might look something like Ban. Then suddenly, he does a double take. ]

Wait, you're the only one? Did ya drink the whole thing?? [ He looks more impressed than scandalised or anything. ] You musta been real thirsty to drink an entire fountain!

[perma_banned]

Ah, who's Sonia?

[While Ban would easily remember the face of the girl who didn't flinch when she had to stab someone with a needle in the middle of a fight--he was terrible when it came to names, normally.

He was understandably caught off guard by Naruto's follow-up question and the excitement that came with it.]

It wasn't really the entire fountain. It was just a mouthful of water from a chalice~.

[thinhammer]

[ He squints. Was Ban teasing him again? How could he forget Sonia??? She almost killed him not a few weeks ago.. ]

The girl who was with me when we met, y'know. The one ya pissed off by takin' her stuff.

[ Bad, Ban. ]

Aaah, so how d'ya know you're the only one then, huh? If ya just drank a cup of it then there's gotta be lots more cupfuls to the whole thing.

[perma_banned]

[Naruto, later on, probably wouldn't be as surprised to know that Ban didn't really think of 'people who tried to kill him' as always that memorable. While Sonia was an intelligent girl, Naruto would have had to lead with--]

Ahhh, the one that stuck me with the needle. OK, I remember her~.

[Pursing his lips, Ban made a cupping gesture in the open air with one hand.]

Nah, see--the fountain was just a chalice that would keep pouring water out of itself until someone picked it up. Once it was set down in place, it'd keep pouring water out--so you could drink it entirely if you picked it up.

[thinhammer]

Ohh-- [ He says like he understands completely when he really only has vague understanding. It sounds pretty magical, so he supposes it makes sense that it would give Ban magical powers at the very least. He can't help but wonder if there are negative effects to taking away the whole fountain, though. Things didn't usually exist and then disappear without some kind of cause and effect. Not in his experience, at least. ]

Were you normal before ya drank it, then?

[ He remembers ban saying most people drank it for the immortality, but the way he phrased it kind of made it clear that he didn't count himself as one of those people. ]

Did ya drink it for what it'd do to ya, or for another reason?

[perma_banned]

You gotta tell me what normal is, first ♪. [A smile found its way on Ban's face when he considered the prospect of normalcy, especially when compared to other villagers and people from Raven. It was difficult to even think of himself as normal on a human level even omitting the prospect of magic and strength. To begin with, even when he wasn't strong and had powers--people would have considered him subhuman for being a street urchin and even lower for becoming a thief.

He snickered, though there wasn't any real humor in the gesture.]

Can't say I'm at all normal, either way. Before or after.

[Then, with a smile that contained absolutely no joy or promise of a punchline, Ban looked to Naruto and admitted something he hadn't said aloud in over a decade--]

I thought I'd drink it because even though my life was crummy from the start maybe if I lived long enough, something good would happen to me eventually.

[thinhammer]

[ Naruto stays quiet for a long moment.

He can understand the appeal of immortality, sure; it's total offensive and defensive freedom, the kind of freedom Ban has to be totally reckless when he fights or antagonises people, but Naruto can't shake the feeling that it has it's fair share of drawbacks too. It sounds lonely. Not many people are immortal, after all. He can't imagine what it must be like to constantly watch people grow while you stay in the same spot, what it must be like to watch people leave to places you can't follow.

Naruto isn't immortal and isn't very old, but even so he feels he can relate to what Ban says. ]

An' has it yet? [ He asks. Yet, he says, because that's his way of saying that if it hasn't, he knows it will. Eventually. ] This place is a good thing, don't ya think? The whole team thing, and ALASTAIR.

[ He pauses, stretches out his legs in thought and hums. ]

I'm not gonna live forever, y'know, but I'm gonna do my best to live as long as I can. Till my arms don't work anymore an' my legs are just stumps from all the runnin' I'll do, an' my eyes go misty an' my voice goes all quiet from yellin' so much. I'm gonna chase after all the good stuff and keep it close, y'know. [ Another pause. ] I think it's good to not be normal. Normal is boring.