1st Team Meeting

[makeadragonwannaretire]

WHO: Azula and any vault dwellers who show up.
WHERE: The Rec Room
WHEN: Three hours after her annoucement.
WHAT: Azula's "War Council" to disseminate information and introductions...also snacks.
WARNINGS: Possible discussions of violence and/or dark backstories.

Azula had attended a number of war meetings growing up as well as social affairs for meeting with important members of the public or military. This was different for a number of reasons, the largest being that this was a place no one seemed to have any respect for her title.

But she could handle that. It had taken her half a month to come to terms with it but here the title "Princess" was only as important as she made it.

Unfortunately that meant having to play "Nice" having to bite her tongue and not get frustrated when she wasn't catered to. That would have been harder for her two years ago, and impossible a year ago.

But here we were, with her waiting patiently near the entrance to the Rec Room to greet people as they came in. Oh how far she'd fallen.

"Come in, help yourself to some snacks. We'll get started soon."

Comments

Reading the Terminal for Test Room 3

[justoutrunyou]

As people start talking about what they've been learning Sandy raises her hand again.

"So after I got bit by the mole-rat I went back into that area we just opened up and started looking around. that's where I found the Batons and helmets." She starts before lifting up her Pip-Boy and scrolling through the texts.

"I found a computer password and used it on the computer in that room. I think we can use it to unlock the door if no one else has done that already? And there was this file. I don't really understand all of it so lemme just read what I copied."

" Subject 004-02. Modified FEV injection appears promising. In contrast to previous attempts, subject has maintained ambulation and some coherence two weeks following exposure. Preliminary data support my previous theory this mutant strain may benefit from continued radiation exposure following acclimation to host. I have requested permission for maintained high radiation levels in testing chamber. Louis remains unconvinced cognition will survive such measures, but I'm certain the overseer will understand the merit of this modified protocol. As he so often likes to say, humanity depends on us."

After she finishes reading it she offers to show the screen to anyone who wants to read it again.

"So I think like...it sounds like they were trying to cure whatever's in that chamber? And Louis had something to do with it?" She glances around for the robot curiously.

"What do you guys think?"

[cicadashell]

"Sounds to me like they were experimenting on whoever was in there, not trying to cure them. Acclimation to host."

Jiro doesn't understand some of those words in the write-up, and he's not very smart, but that phrase doesn't sound benign to him. Nor does referring to whatever it was as a 'subject'.

"And they did it to others first if they're comparing it with previous attempts. We're fucking lab rats, that's what happening here."

[justoutrunyou]

"Oh..." Sandy looks at her screen again re-reading it.

"See I was going off the part where it said he was still coherent. I don't know what ambulation means though." She shrugged.

"I saw some other computers back that way, we could go see if they have anything useful on them. Maybe Saya can help..." She mused already thinking she wouldn't get lucky enough to find two passwords let alone three the same way.

"But why would they want to turn us into...whatever that thing is?"

[cicadashell]

"Ambulation means walking or something."

Moving? It's close enough. He nods at the suggestion of Saya, she's apparently been designated the computer person and he has no problem with that. They need someone who can pull information out of the system since that's where they've been keeping records, it looks like.

"Probably to survive outside. Gradual radiation exposure so they wouldn't die in the new atmosphere up there?"

Fuck. If they even get out of here, they might not be able to survive anywhere but the vault anyway.

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy hadn't even considered that the world outside might be too irradiated to survive in. She suddenly found herself wishing she'd found more Radaway.

"I'll take a look at the suits they used to fix the power. Maybe we can make them better at keeping out radiation somehow. I don't wanna have to glow in the dark to survive outside of here."

[cicadashell]

"It might not be a problem anymore."

He's at least trying to spur hope to some degree.

"Everything's old down here. Radiation dissipates, right? It may be fine up there by now..."

It's not fine.

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy shrugged, she really didn't know how radiation worked. By the end of this though they might all be unfortunate experts in the effects of it on humans.

"Maybe. Or maybe the roaches up there are ten times bigger."

Just how she wanted to die. under the grossest Kaiju ever.

[cicadashell]

That's another possibility. Worse monstrosities up there.

"I've seen a lot of weird shit; I'm sure we can deal with bigger roaches. At least they don't fly... much."

[justoutrunyou]

"If they did maybe we could tame them and ride them."

A disgusting idea but also kind of fun in a way. Beats her current mental image of whatever wasteland waited for them up on the surface.

"I'm starting to wish I'd watched more zombie movies. Do they ever end well? With like people rebuilding the world?"

[cicadashell]

"That's not a bad idea."

He's all for using giant roaches as transportation if it's viable. As for zombie movies, he shrugs.

"I dunno. I don't watch that shit. But I killed a cannibal demon who wanted to take over the world? Sometimes things end well."

The ending is a guess, though. He doesn't know what happened after that, because he blacked out and then he was here.

[justoutrunyou]

"Wait so...was he a cannibal because he ate humans, or a cannibal because he ate other demons?" She got stuck on that part because clearly that's the most important part of the sentence. Not the fact that he saved the world.

[wildguardian]

"Can I see that?" Yunlan leans over, scanning through the text with the expression on his face slowly smoothing into neutrality. "Hm. That's... maybe so. It depends on what whatever was in that chamber looked like before they got that injection."

It sounds a lot more like unethical human experimentation to him, but without more information, he can't be sure the scientists deserve to be condemned. If Simmons was telling the truth, after all, they'd rebelled over orders that went too far.

And if they were already willing to infect people with mutant viruses that destroyed their minds and bodies, what the hell was 'too far'?

[justoutrunyou]

"That's...something yeah." Sandy hadn't wanted to think that they were stuck in the kind of nightmare that might turn her into one of those noseless zombie things but the evidence was starting to build in that direction.

"If it's glowing that much though I don't know if even Charlotte could fix it's radiation."

[wildguardian]

"Sounds to me like the radiation might be good for it -- especially if it's still alive and walking."

Alive was dubious, considering how much it looked like a desiccated glowing corpse, but it was moving, so he'd count it.

"There's no way to tell unless it can communicate with us, though." He shook his head. "And the mutated thing in chamber two sure wasn't interested in communication."

Or not capable. He hoped it wasn't capable; he hated to think that they'd had to bludgeon to death something that had still had a mind. After that long trapped alone in a featureless room, even if its intelligence survived the radiation damage, it might have gone feral regardless -- but, he supposed, he'd never know for sure.

[justoutrunyou]

"I mean...we don't HAVE to let it out right? If there's nothing in there we need and it doesn't seem friendly why even let it out?" Then no one would have to try and kill a scary glowy zombie thing before the radiation killed them right back.

[wildguardian]

"Honestly, I agree! But I'd like to find out if we can talk to it first. And if it's basically like an animal, it seems pretty cruel to leave it locked up in there with no food, water, or company."

A barrel of radioactive waste, whether or not it helped the thing survive, was none of those three.

[justoutrunyou]

"Oh...yeah I mean...ok I guess."

Now she felt a little guilty, just a little.

"Hopefully the radiation suits work better for you then they did for the girls when they went to fix the reactor. Maybe Louis can fix them...or Nick."

She'd try to figure it out herself but she somehow figured her basic level of sewing skills wasn't going to do the trick.

[wildguardian]

"Maybe so," Yunlan agreed. "I'll try communicating from the other side of the glass to start with-- and hey, if we have to fight it I'm guessing we'll be able to lure it out to fight. I wouldn't want to walk into that room if there's any way to avoid it."

The radiation suits might help -- he doubts the levels are as high in the experimental chambers as they had been in the reactor core -- but they're only fabric, and they could be easily torn by a determined attack.

"But I'm getting ahead of myself! The point is, we should check in on the creature itself."

[justoutrunyou]

We meaning him, but Sandy might tag along out of curiosity...and an excuse to sniff around for more loot.

"Maybe bring him some of these cookies...as a peace offering. Or bait." She had already tried one and decided not to have any more. Did they even have flour? How had Louis made these?

[wildguardian]

"Can't hurt." He's tried one of the cookies himself. They're not terrible! But he judges terrible by the scale of his own cooking, and he once tried to make instant noodle using boiling coffee for variety.

"You want to come with?" She's probably the best-armed of them all, after all her scavenging, but he's still a little nervous at the idea of bringing a kid along to what's probably going to end in a fight. Better that she do it openly than sneak in, though, and she looks curious.

[justoutrunyou]

"Yeah if that's OK." She's still conflicted on if she actually wants to go. Every instinct she has says to stay as far away from the danger as possible except for the growing, undeniable desire to explore and make herself useful.

It's a confusing time to be Sandy.

"I won't get in the way." she added hoping that helped assure her place.

[torsion]

"Unfortunately this sort of text is familiar to me." She says, mulling it over in her mind. 'Mutant' isn't a word that's used, but it sounds similar. "Injections aren't uncommon in experimenting on organic material where I'm from, although radiation isn't often used as a catalyst."

A testing chamber. Does that mean there's one here? Is the text relevant to this particular vault that they're trapped in? Jill is silent for a moment while she considers her next move.

"I'm not sure I'd say it's a cure. I've heard language like that, about the advancement of humankind and evolution, when it's just going to mutate and kill millions if it were in the wrong hands. Though it mentions injections, there's a chance it could still be airborne."

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy looks concerned at the idea that Jill is not only familiar with this sort of thing, but that she might be right.

"So...why would they be testing something so dangerous here if they wanted us to...survive and flourish or whatever?" The video had told them they were suppose to live and survive after all and having glowing monsters in the closet seemed like a big hindrance to that.

"You don't think they were gonna do that stuff to us do you?"

[torsion]

"It might be their definition of survival or flourishing is different. Or, they might be lying. I'm not saying that it's likely but from what we've seen... it's best to err on the side of caution and stick together just in case."

Jill isn't sure what to say about this. Would they do this to them? Was there even a 'they,' any more?

"I suspect this place might be abandoned based on the condition it is in. I'd expect something like either the medical area or a medical area to be more taken care of and clean. I haven't found anywhere so far that seems like it's been kept up." Were they dead? Had too much time passed? Did they simple give up? "But we're also here. Someone brought us here and seems to be doing things, right? So we should be cautious."

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy can't argue with that. Staying in groups for safety was one of her main survival techniques back home. Easier to run away if the rest of the group is left behind.

"If somebody is watching us or like...experimenting on us they're doing a really sloppy job at it. I mean science wasn't like my best subject in school but it feels like we've got too much freedom to be a serious experiment doesn't it?"

At least that's what she was hoping. The more she thought about it the more she convinced herself that there was no way her getting bitten by Mole-rats or the girls getting poisoned by radiation could be part of an experiment. What was it trying to prove?