![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
First Annual Pod Day
WHERE: Vault 66
WHEN: ???? - Day 1
WHAT: The first pods open
WARNINGS:TBD
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.
Outside of the pod room, the rest of the vault is limping along on an emergency power supply. The air is stale from lackluster recycling and deep shadows occupy the corners of rooms and edges of hallways as only the pale maintenance lighting flickers from the ceiling. The pip-boy flashlight helps, but can still only light up a small area, casting anything outside of it into even darker shadows.
In those shadows there is skittering. The noise isn't too noticeable when there are groups of people, but get down to one or two and it's impossible to ignore. Venture into an empty room and you’ll spot a small number, maybe even just one, loitering in what, until today, had more or less been their sole domain: radroaches. Giant, mutated cockroaches that have a hunger for fresh food (like say, new vault dwellers) when it’s available.
The majority of roaches, however, seem to have a destination in mind, mostly ignoring characters unless blocked or directly bothered. This hoard, gathering from all over the vault, all move through the shadows and vents to the kitchen. If a character is unthreatening enough, they can follow the trail unmolested by the creatures.
In the kitchen itself is a whole different matter. Even from down the hall, characters can hear a masculine, slightly French-accented voice exclaim:
“Mais! Get out, out you nasty things!”
After a moment, a burst of flame can be seen through the door, followed by the new yet distinctive sound of mandibles ripping at metal. Those that decide to enter will see over a dozen roaches trying to take down a lone, floating robot. Despite the robot occasionally hitting them with a blast of fire from a small flame-throwing on one of its arms, the roaches appear to be winning.
The source of the fight can be seen behind the robot: a counter full of various kinds of packaged foods, some of them newly opened. One roach has managed to make it to the prize, ripping into a things of what seems to be apples with its mandibles.
OOC NOTES
To talk to a specific NPC one-on-one, leave a comment on their thread below. Note an exception is Louis in Radroach Riot, he will pop up on his own in threads related to him.
Looking for loot in a specific area? Looking for a specific item/kinds of item in general? Ask here and we’ll let you know.
If you have any OOC questions, please leave a comment here!
no subject
That does explain the video we saw before we were released from our pods. Though however long ago that was is another matter entirely.
[The video had seemed like some sort of underground bunker paradise, and wherever - or whenever - they had woken up...it was no paradise.]
Still, you'd think some enterprising soul would have stockpiled away something useful.
[She's going through yet another footlocker, with yet more useless stuff.]
On the bright side, at least we haven't opened up a roach-in-the-box surprise as yet.
no subject
[His next footlocker yields nothing either. He pauses in rifling through things at her mention of the cockroaches.]
I haven't seen any other insects, have you?
[If roaches are all that survived, if they ever get to the surface, there may be nothing left at all.]
no subject
They've always joked that the cockroach will be the only thing to survive the apocalypse. I wonder if that may not have been as much of a joke. Something else to ask this mysterious Overseer about whenever we're confronted with whomever they are.
[She's silent for a long moment as she rummage through yet another footlocker. This one produces more nonsense, but also something possibly useful - a belt.]
I suppose radiation and nuclear fallout would explain why they're the size of human infants, wouldn't it?
[She adds the belt to the pile of weaponry that they're gathering.]
To whip a roach and smash it, or perhaps...well, who knows. It could prove useful.
no subject
I don't know much about that kind of shit, but looks that way.
[He hasn't had much of an education to speculate anything too scientific about radiation levels. Peggy's belt find has Jiro going back through his own footlocker to remove shoelaces and gather any ties or the like as well to add to the pile.]
Guess we don't really know what'll be useful.
[The bunk of 'weapons' is starting to look like a pile of junk.]
Should we organize things?
no subject
[The implications of nuclear war had always been great, but Peggy had never thought she'd ever live to see the day where it happened - and here she'd all but comfortably slept through it for God only knew how long. Clearly a little irritated with that idea, she picks up the belt and reaches her hand out for the laces and ties.]
I think that's wise. One pile for weapons with obvious, easy uses; another for objects that will need to be constructed into weapons, and a third for odds and ends and bits that have potential, perhaps?
[She's already started sorting the objects in such a way, but she's amenable to any other thoughts Jiro might have.]
Perhaps once we've taken stock of what we have and what we can do with it, we can band some of the others up and explore, try to see what other secrets - or horrors - the vault may hold.
[Just because they were seemingly trapped doesn't mean that Peggy's going to become docile and sit in one place, even if the world has stopped around them.]
no subject
Yeah, that works.
[He has no further suggestions, and closes the footlocker with a dull thud.]
There's gotta be something that explains things somewhere. The whole computer thing is weird, right? Because the video was so old, so was there a second wave of people?
[Did they have computers in the 1950s or whatever?]
no subject
[Peggy turned away from the piles she was sorting, an eyebrow delicately raised.]
So do the computer consoles.
[She was used to all sorts of inventions, but she was still from 1940s America. In some ways, technology had only marched so far.]
After speaking with Elizabeth and Chocolat, I've been surmising that we're all from different places, but it also somehow felt as though we were from different times. The fact that the video seemed old to you, but the fashions and other trappings seem advanced to me suggests that there might be something to this theory.
[Confirming this theory was something of a wrinkle that she didn't particularly like, but it was also good to know. There had to be a reason why they were all put into pods and then released, and she needed to figure out the why. So far, no one had signed up for any of this.]
I wonder how many more surprises we're meant to suffer through within a twenty-four hour period.
no subject
I talked to Sandy, and her version of New York City wasn't anything I'd heard of. I've never been to America, but I don't think they could hide the kind of shit she was talking about if we were from the same time. It would be on the news if there were a bunch of people with superpowers over there.
[It's all but confirmation of different times, with Peggy saying the video and computers were advanced, but it might be worse than that.]
I'm not sure we're even from the same universes.
[Which sounds absurd on one hand, but he doesn't have a better explanation.]
no subject
In that case, it might be possible that none of us are native to the Earth above us.
[Wasn't that a happy thought? Though it still didn't explain how they all ended up in those pods. A possible kidnapping by the Overseer? Whatever was going on, she was beginning to wonder if there were intentions more sinister there than she had considered at first.]
Seems like for every partial answer we find, there are more questions standing behind it. As much as I enjoy a good mystery, I'm not certain this qualifies as a fun one.
no subject
[He has another theory, but it's too simple and doesn't really mesh with his conception of the afterlife.]
What if we're dead?
no subject
I don't believe that we are. I've imagined the afterlife to be many things, but this certainly wasn't one of the scenarios that ever ran through my head. Not that anyone can truly know what the afterlife is - if there is in fact one.
[She sets the jagged piece of metal down and considers the question for a moment longer.]
Do you mind if I ask why that scenario came to mind?
no subject
I've died twice. Thought it might be a thing.
[Death number three with no revival and this is limbo or something.]
no subject
[She's been on the brink of death a few times, certainly, and she's lost her fair share of people - Steve and her brother Michael chief among them - but she's not sure what dying itself would be like. The fact that Jiro managed to come back twice - not even once, but twice - was wildly outside of anything that Peggy had ever deemed possible. Super soldier serums, fine. Cosmic cubes, sure. But coming back from the dead...well. Clearly it was possible. How very stunning.]
I also hope for your sake that we aren't dead - you seem far too young to have died thrice. I won't push you for the details surrounding your deaths and resurrections, but if you ever want to talk about them, I'm happy to listen.
no subject
[Both had happened within the span of a month, and Jiro hadn't had time to reflect on either. He can't help himself from snorting at the word 'thrice', and it's not with any pain or sadness that he speaks about the deaths. It's just blunt and straightforward. Which in itself is odd, as he tends toward being too emotional one way or another. Maybe it's shock.]
First, demons exist in my world.
[Which is important for this story.]
I was impaled through the heart by one, a really big one; just his claw went through. Left a giant hole.
[He makes a circle with his hands, about five inches wide.]
He got me from behind and I didn't... feel it right away? I had a sword and I cut off his finger and freed myself and then it hurt. I died quick. Then, I was possessed by the other demon who was there and he saved me. A lot of shit happened in between, but when I died the second time, it was from using too much power that I got from Rago, the one who possessed me, but we were separated at that point, and he just... did it again to bring me back. Then we left the demon realm and I ended up here and he didn't, but his mark's still there.
[They shared a soul, and now Jiro can't feel him inside at all and can't talk to him. Now that he thinks about it, is he technically dead without demon power sustaining him? Does he even have a heart? Fuck if he knows.]
no subject
She's silent for a long moment after Jiro's finished speaking. Her first instinct is to give him her sympathy, but she's not sure he's the sort of person who appreciates sympathy like that.]
Do you suppose that this - Rago, you said? - do you think Rago might be dormant or asleep inside of you still? Or do you think you were perhaps forcefully separated before being put in the pod?
[Would the people who created this vault even have that kind of power? And if they did, what else were they capable of?]
no subject
[There's a fondness to it, as if he actually likes the demon; which he does. He and Rago had a strange relationship, given the circumstances, and Jiro's a little worried about what happened to him. There were a lot of people, both demons and humans, who wanted to get their hands on Rago's power.]
But we've been forcefully separated before; a demon did it. So it's possible. Makes me wonder what the fuck's really going on here. There has to be something more to it than a fallout shelter.
[At that, he's going to turn the conversation on Peggy. She may have some weird shit going on too.]
What were you doing before this, do you remember?
no subject
I was at work, saying good-bye to a friend before I left to go back home to New York.
[Okay, that wasn't the whole story. She'd been kissing Daniel Sousa, her friend, colleague, and love interest, with wild abandon. But it had been at their workplace, and she had been saying good-bye. It was just that discussing that fact with someone she barely knew seemed awfully forthcoming and perhaps just a tad bit tawdry and salacious.]
There doesn't seem to be a common denominator there that ties us together enough for us to be brought in here. Either it was all haphazard, or there's some larger design that we're simply not aware of. Yet.
[She intended to get some answers, though.]
no subject
I dunno what kind of design or plan would involve what amounts to random people from everywhere. Maybe that computer thing malfunctioned and it's some sci-fi time travel bullshit.
[He scoffs to himself, because it's ridiculous. A month ago, not even fathomable to him.]
no subject
Honestly, thinking about it...I have a background in intelligence and espionage as well as dealing with some very, ah, interesting people; you have a background in dealing with demons...depending on the sort of backgrounds that Elizabeth, Chocolat, and Sandy have, there may actually be a reason we're all here. We all, each of us, bring something different and interesting to the table through our backgrounds and our expertise. Perhaps it's not all as random as we suspect.
no subject
[He says it with disdain because he didn't get a choice whether or not to join the Bureau of Espionage. His experience is very limited, and it's certainly an unconventional organization with their targets being demons and not officials or foreign politicians. But it's a commonality.]
You work for your government? Not that it's what we all do, but...
[Sandy, he's sure, has nothing to do with any government organizations or espionage at all, given what she's told him about how people with powers were treated.]
I dunno what the fuck Chocolat does, but Elizabeth's got some engineering background or something and there's robots in her world made from people, I think. She said there were tears in the universe and I dunno, lots of weird shit for 1900 or whenever.
no subject
[She says this lightly and without any offense. It's certainly not the first time she's been called a spy, and it certainly won't be the last, but preferences are what they are. She raises an amused eyebrow at Jiro's reaction. It's not the life for everyone, it's true, and she knows some who left and settled down into quieter lives that fulfilled them more. She didn't expect it would be a choice she ever made, though.]
I work for the Strategic Scientific Reserve. It is a government entity, yes, a war agency. It's not where I ever expected I'd end up, but I'm not sure I'd want to do anything else either, now. I take it that you're not so fond of the, ah, spy game?
[She silently takes in what Jiro says about the others. Peggy hadn't written Sandy off completely - she knew what children could be capable of - but there was more of a civilian vibe to her than anything. She couldn't quite get a read on Chocolat, and Elizabeth...well, truth be told, Peggy saw something of a kindred spirit in Elizabeth.]
Such different backgrounds, disparate puzzle pieces, but when put together against the tableau of this vault...they do fit together in some rather interesting, useful ways.
no subject
Not so much. Better than being locked in a cell or whatever the fuck they were going to do. It was work for them, that, or erasure, which doesn't sound good.
[He's kind of pissed off at everybody involved.]
Puzzle pieces... Maybe things will make more sense when more pods open. Do you think they will? There's a lot.
[Granted, everyone could be dead in there even if they do.]
no subject
[Were they going to strip his mind of memories or something? That sounded awful, but also not something she would put past some governments doing - including the ones she worked for. She loved her work, but she held no illusions about the darkness and depravity that some governments were capable of doing, all in the name of the greater good.]
Did you have a choice at all, or was it made for you, regardless of what you might have wanted?
[She'd always had a choice herself, for the most part. She could have walked away any time she wanted - after Steve's death, after proving Howard Stark's innocence - but she hadn't wanted to. For her, the intelligence game was her choice.]
It's hard to say, to be honest. There's clearly some issue with the pods and their timers, given how we weren't even told what year we were in. The last thing I remember is it being 1947 - clearly for you, it's a different time, the same for the others. I'm sure the pods will open again, but the when is the difficult part. After all, we found skeletons, which means that it was a great deal of time before ours opened. Not a comforting thought, I know. It's possible that we can force them open, but I'm not certain it'd be healthy for whomever is inside them. We'd need to induce the pods into opening on their own, rather like a birth, but I haven't the sort of knowledge that could do such a thing. ...But you did say that Elizabeth was an engineer. Perhaps she might be able to finagle up a solution.
no subject
[They essentially kidnapped him after the possession and declared him a missing person.]
I escaped once, and went home, but turns out my grandfather was one of them and he tried to kill me.
[He later apologized for it, but it's still a point of contention. It's a convoluted story, and Jiro doesn't have the eloquence to convey nuances or coherency for the most part.]
Anyway, I went back as a prisoner, but I didn't try to leave again because they had resources and I wanted to protect Rago. It was a success, and then I ended up here.
[He looks at Peggy curiously when she mentions the skeletons.]
I assumed the skeletons were people here before the pods. Which doesn't make sense, does it? Yeah, I think maybe we should look into the computer shit and try to open some of them.