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MONTH 3 LOG
WHERE: Vault 66
WHEN: Month 3
WHAT: The pods and the vault door opens
WARNINGS: Violence, likely language
You awake laying on your back in an, admittedly comfortable, pod. You can't move anything but your eyes, can't even feel your body yet. How you got here or why is a blank. You may have been in the middle of your day, asleep, or even- for what you remember- should be dead. Then a screen directly in front of your face flickers to life and in crisp, black and white displays: DON'T PANIC. The following video then plays:
The screen flickers again and reads: CONGRATULATIONS ON PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE! WELCOME TO VAULT LIFE, CITIZEN. WELCOME TO YEAR: [ERROR]. YOUR PERSONAL BELONGINGS ARE LOCATED IN [FILE CORRUPTED. SEE SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR]. ENJOY YOUR STAY AND THANK YOU FROM YOUR FRIENDS AT VAULT-TEC.
The pod then unseals and you are able to, unstably at first, climb out of the pod. Your body may feel foreign for a moment- perhaps entirely foreign if you suddenly find yourself a human, ghoul, or super mutant for the first time. But whatever your form, you have two items on: a bright blue jumpsuit with the number 66 in yellow on the back, and a mechanical device known as a Pip-boy sealed onto your arm. If you click on the buttons it takes you to an instruction screen.
You look around to find yourself in a room of other pods. Some are just opening, other people looking as confused as you climbing out. Others remain closed with the status of 'STASIS' on the screens attached to the pods. The rest of the room is less than impressive. Computer systems that seem out of place compared to the technology level of the pods are scattered across the room, apparently running the chambers. Trying to access them, even for the most talented hacker, will simply result in SEE OVERSEER being displayed. There is large metal door leading to the rest of the vault, a lever on the wall next to it that will cause it to open.
Welcome, dweller, to vault 66.
It’s finally here, at long last. In the lead up to the Vault opening, Louis has turned the recreation area into a celebration. It comes with a modest feast! A whole cake, some tasty cola, and grilled meat (if you helped kill the radroaches or mole rats, you know where that meat came from). He even found some old party decorations that were supposed to be used when the Vault was unsealed after the war. The original party, of course, was supposed to be a few hundred years ago. The colors are faded and it’s horribly water stained, but the HAPPY VAULT DAY banner still holds. There are even party hats, for the particularly festive.
The event starts first thing in the morning and will last until early afternoon, when the Overseer announces it’s time to gather in the entry way for the main event.
The time has finally come for the Vault to open. After walking down a corridor of rusted and corroded radiation scanners and security terminals, characters are face to face with the ground level of a huge elevator shaft. At the very top, the four yard thick monstrosity of a door that has sealed the Vault closed for several hundred years. Despite its age, the old girl is as functional as the day she was made. Looking up from the bottom of the shaft, characters can see an intricate formation of deadbolts, gears, and other machinery holding the door in place.
Captain Simmons, the robot in charge himself, has come out to do the honors of opening the door. At an innocuous enough computer station, he plugs in the very tip of one of his three robotic arms to begin the unlocking sequence. What follows is a good minute of flashing lights, warnings that the door is being unsealed, and the grind of machinery as the locking mechanism unengages. The large, gear shaped door at the very top of the elevator shaft pulls back slightly, turns, then begins its descent down towards the gathered group. Make sure you’re not directly under it, Vault-Tec did not install any safety mechanisms to stop the door/platform from crushing anyone standing beneath it.
The door isn’t the only thing that comes down, however. The moment the door begins to lower, water rushes in after it. From the sudden activation of all pip-boys in the area, characters can instantly determine this is heavily irradiated water. It pours in until there is roughly two feet of the stuff on the floor of the entry way, then finally seems done. As if this weren’t enough, however, things come in with the water. Most of them small, about the size of your average radroach, scampering around and jumping at whatever source of fresh meat they can reach. There’s about half a dozen of these hatchlings. Two of them, however, are huge. Standing at about six feet tall, they look like a cross between a gigantic horse-shoe crab and an alien invader: mirelurks. And they aren’t pleased to find themselves suddenly stuck in a Vault.
Simmons immediately starts shooting and hovering away from the group, trying to distract the creatures from the gathered characters. Fighting may solve the problem, assuming no one is killed in the process. Fleeing back into the Vault, closing the heavy entrance door, and just letting the things starve to death for a few weeks is certainly an option. As is rushing the elevator and getting the hell out of the Vault while Simmons is distracted, but whether you’ll ever get back in again unknown. Whether you help, run away, let them kill Simmons then help, or another choice entirely is up to you.
Happy Vault opening day!
To talk to a specific NPC one-on-one, leave a comment on their thread below.
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If you have any OOC questions, please leave a comment here!
no subject
"One last meal, coming up!"
The meat had a gamy, unpleasant odor that even the fairly decent preparation couldn't hide; roach and rat wasn't exactly pork or duck. Maybe there'd be less horrible game outside. Maybe it wouldn't all be radioactive.
Probably it would all be mutated into some awful, unrecognizable form, given the vermin they'd seen so far, but that didn't mean it was still radioactive.
A few minutes later, he returned with two plates of the grilled meat, holding one out to Azula.
"There you go. Hey -- at least we're in no danger of starving down here."
no subject
And while she didn't hate all the music, it wasn't her style. She took the food offered and settled in to eat before pausing and studying it curiously.
"I'm still learning about radiation and what it can do, but if it is in the meat we eat and the fluids we're drinking...would it kill us or would we build up an immunity over time like other poisons?"
no subject
"Best guess? -- I'm not an expert, but from what I remember, the more radiation you get, the worse it gets. Extra bad if you get a lot all at the same time! But mostly? Little bits over a long time just give you cancer."
His smile wasn't amused. He took another bite of the roach meat anyway.
"It kills you slower than starvation."
no subject
Her stomach had suddenly knotted up and she tried to drown it by taking another long drink.
"Safe to assume Cancer is some kind of illness. We'll have to ask Charlotte if she has a medicine for it since apparently she can treat the poisoning without much difficulty."
no subject
He shrugged, one-shouldered. "It's the one where lumps grow on you. And who knows, maybe they do have a treatment for it, if they can treat radiation exposure. That's something they couldn't do a great job of back where I'm from."
no subject
But she knew she couldn't do that. Information was the best weapon she had.
And sleep opened her up to far too many attacks and dangers that she couldn't fight back.
no subject
He pulled a face. "You know, I'll be honest, I don't sleep that well these days. Guess we just have to keep our focus on our daily tasks!"
no subject
Spoilers: She would neither die nor make it to the surface today.
"I stopped being able to sleep well before coming here." She confessed softly and then gave him a pointed look that was meant as a warning. Tell another soul and she would make him regret it.
"After the throne was stolen from me I was locked away in a cell. Bound so I could not firebend or defend myself against any who thought they might enjoy their newfound power over me. I thought I would sleep better without the straight jacket but here we are."
And that was it. Follow up questions may be considered but even sharing that much was a feat of emotional fortitude she didn't think she had in her.
But even if Yunlan used that information against her...she found herself struggling to care.
crabs = rats, this thread is too early for giant crabs!!
It could just have been that she'd had power someone else wanted, of course. Or her nation could have lost its war. Mere brutality and injustice, from a princess, probably wouldn't have been enough to get her locked up.
Maybe it was unfair to judge other monarchies by the example of Dixing, but hey, it was the only one he'd observed in person.
After a moment, he shrugged, and finished off his skewer of barbecue in a final bite.
"You know, I've been lucky enough to dodge getting locked up much so far. It helped that the Dixing invaders showed up right around the time the Ministry put a warrant out for me!
"But just because something's over doesn't mean you're over it."
no subject
"What was the warrant for?" She wondered idly picking at her food with renewed interest. It sounded smart enough to consider that as much as she wanted to put it all behind her, maybe she couldn't.
Maybe she shouldn't.
no subject
no subject
"Even when you're breaking the law you do it for some kind of noble reasoning. I can only hope they returned your loyalty in kind."
Because at the end of the day Azula had learned loyalty could make or break entire empires.
no subject
"And he did return it." He shrugged, glancing away for a moment as memory flickered darkly behind his eyes. "Probably still is, in my absence. Chu Shuzhi's not a nice guy, but he's got more honor than most."