First Annual Pod Day

[nolandmod]

WHO: Everyone
WHERE: Vault 66
WHEN: ???? - Day 1
WHAT: The first pods open
WARNINGS:TBD

AWAKENING

 

 

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:

 

Watch on YouTube

 

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.

 

 

RAD ROACH RIOT

 

 

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.

 

GENERAL EXPLORING

 

Whether you help with the Battle of the Kitchen or not, the rest of the vault awaits. This includes two other robots floating around the medical wing and water/air control systems, as well as more radroaches wandering around the many corpses/blood splatter patterns to be discovered and potentially cleaned up.

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!

Comments

Sandy Marko // OTA

[justoutrunyou]

[Arrival.]

Sandy unconsciously keeps reaching down to tug at her vault suit. She hasn't ever worn a jumpsuit before unless you count onesies that she wore when she was a baby, and she can't remember those for obvious reasons.

The room itself feels ominous and heavy, she feels like even if she had anything to say she should say it in a whisper as if she might wake up the other pods before they're ready. Curiously she goes up on her toes to try and peer inside but she can't see anything of use.

Suddenly...others! People moving and mumbling, asking questions, poking at computers. Why didn't she think to try the computers? Oh well no time for that. Now she had to figure out if she should run and hide or let the others know she's here.

Instinct says run and hide. She can already feel her legs tensing and her eyes scan the room for an exit. Just one from the looks of it and no way to open it quietly.

She inches closer to the people as they climb out of their pods, waving nervously and hoping that whatever this is, it has nothing to do with the monsters that had fallen from the sky before she woke up in the pod.

"Uh...sup. You OK?"

__________________________________________________

[Running of the Roaches]

Peering around the entrance to the kitchen Sandy had to admit this was one of the most disgusting things she'd ever seen, and she'd seen a lot of alleys in the low rent parts of her city.

A floating robot...thing...was being swarmed by the biggest roaches Sandy had ever seen in her life! She couldn't even imagine a bug that big being real and yet here they were fighting a dinged up disco ball with arms for some food?

The jet of flame was enough to make Sandy shrink back as she realized the robot was armed and dangerous, but maybe not more dangerous then the dozen or so bugs that were swarming them.

"OK Marko...you gotta do something...like find a weapon or...maybe find someone bigger then those dog sized roaches..." Hardly able to believe this was a thing she was now considering she turned to look back down the hall and see if anyone was coming.

_________________________________________________

[ Snooping around.]

Still nervous about running into bugs, Sandy was moving as quietly as she could through the halls as she tried to make heads or tails of the rooms and what this place was for. It was in this way that she stumbled upon the Classroom.

School had never really been Sandy's favorite place in the world. Most her teachers seemed just as interested in her as she was in them which was to say...not at all. She wasn't a star scholar and mostly learned from hands on activities of which her school was sorely lacking in funding for. The only adult who showed interest in her was the gym coach who wanted her on the track team, but try outs hadn't come around yet and now it looks like she'd never find out if she actually belonged on the team or not.

This classroom like the rest of the vault was gross, old and unkempt but maybe there was something useful here? Or at the very least something interesting?

Roaches

[cicadashell]

Jiro is conveniently in the hallway, heading for the rec room to take some of the pool cues. Once he sees what's going on, he raises an eyebrow at Sandy.

"You just gonna stand there?"

She's going to die by the end of the week; that's his prediction.

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy's face lit up when she saw someone coming and then fell immediately when he took in the situation and turned it around on her.

"I was about to go get some help. What should we do? If we're not careful the robot's gonna roast us too."

That and she really didn't feel like punching a roach with her bare hands.

[cicadashell]

"Hey! Robot! Stop fucking panicking!" that's his solution to the fire, which probably won't do anything.

The roaches aren't a real problem for Jiro. He doesn't find them gross or frightening. He's seen creepier giant bug-like things, really. He doesn't punch them, though, instead going for the apples. He figures it's what they came in here for, and what they'll leave for if he takes the food away.

[justoutrunyou]

"Oh...yeah alright." That's a better idea then fighting them outright sure. She edges into the room trying to look for a way to help, opting to move towards the pool table while Jiro basically does all the dangerous stuff.

"Don't let those things bite you. They might be poisonous or something." She shouted unhelpfully.

[cicadashell]

One thing he's learned from talking to animals for years is that most of them will agree to anything in exchange for food. He can't actually ask the roaches in this place, but it's a simple concept he thinks they'll still follow. Maybe there should be a backup plan. He collects a few apples, trying to not to get bitten or set on fire. Looking over to see what Sandy's doing, he eyes the pool cues.

"You! Grab one of those and make noise!"

He still has no idea what he's doing, but insects run away from earthquakes and commotion, so..? He throws an apples towards the doorway. Maybe one of the roaches will start the mass exodus, either for food or to get away from a perceived threat.

[justoutrunyou]

"Huh?" Sandy jerks her head to where he's pointing.

"Oh right!" It takes her only a moment, she may be scared but she's fast and scoops up two of the broke cues smacking them together making a loud clacking sound that would annoy the hell out of most humans.

"HEY! COME ON YOU STUPID BUGS LEAVE HIM ALONE!" She opted that shouting would make a fine amount of noise as well if that's what he was going for.

She does not however get any closer to the melee.

[cicadashell]

With the noise and a few more apples thrown out into the corridor, the roaches skitter away. They'll probably be back, but that's a problem for someone else.

"Problem solved."

Louis

[nolandmod]

"But for the moment!"

Louis had not hovered after the roaches, opting to stay in the kitchen where he can avoid being snacked on. But he still has the flame throwing arm up and ready to use. Just in case. His optic sensor goes back and forth between the two humans, sizing them up the best he is able.

"Humans still require food, yes?"

It's an honest question, asked at a lower voice and a bit hesitantly. Things may have changed.

Snooping Around

[102sweetdreams]

The last time Peggy had found herself in a classroom, it had been at a Soviet military complex where young girls were being trained in the art of war and espionage, learning to infiltrate the US as sleeper agents. It had been disturbing on many levels, that complex, and Peggy had never quite forgotten it. Though this classroom didn't give her the same feel as that one had, there was still something impossibly eerie about an old, dusty, rusted, abandoned classroom. Had the Vault-Tec people assumed that children would simply go to school here? Was there enough space in here? How many children had they been expecting?

"Who ever suspected that an empty classroom could be distressing?" she asked. "Normally, the distress is caused by the presence of some angry disciplinarian."

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy couldn't help but snort and grin at the way Peggy spoke. While she knew what the word "Disciplinarian" meant she couldn't remember the last time she'd heard someone say it so casually like it was just a normal term for day to day life.

"Yeah no kidding. I never thought I'd miss just being stressed about math." She agreed picking up at Lunch Box and shaking it gently. Something rattled around inside heavily so she set the lunch box down on a desk and popped it open taking out a wooden toy car.

"I never liked math. Hard to focus on numbers and stuff. I was always better at like, hands on stuff." She mused taking out the car and testing it by rolling it back and forth across the desk.

[102sweetdreams]

"I was never a fan of maths myself," Peggy responded as she picked up the lunchbox, looking it over. It seemed such a relic of the world above, this lunchbox. How odd a thing to have when your entire world shifted to the underground. Then again, people would do most anything for some semblance of normalcy, wouldn't they? It was a big part of why women were forced back to the kitchens once the war had ended - a snap back to normal which was unfair to those who had discovered a world beyond what had once been offered them. "Unfortunately, maths was a very big part of codebreaking, and for that reason, I'm glad I was at least a little adept at it." Which was her way of saying that she was actually very good at something she hadn't much cared for before.

"Hands on stuff. Do you mean physical education, or something like chemistry?" Another subject that Peggy had excelled in, thankfully. She was no science expert, but she knew enough to defuse a bomb with household chemicals, and that was nothing to sniff at.

[justoutrunyou]

"I mean...a little? We didn't really get into chemistry but we did some science projects that were cool. I liked the physics stuff you know? Making containers to keep eggs from cracking if we dropped them. But mostly just...you know stupid stuff like art."

Her mother had encouraged her to take art classes but she was the only one. Even the art teacher tried to discourage anyone from assuming art was going to be a career path considering the strict censorship laws her city had put into place.

"I do like P.E. I'm the fastest girl in my grade." She added hoping that sounded less lame then she thought art sounded.

[102sweetdreams]

"Oh, nonsense." Peggy shifted her focus to Sandy, watching the girl play with the car for a moment. Though she seemed too young to be here on her own, she knew full well what young women at that age were capable of. She knew what she had been capable of, as well as what the girls at that Soviet facility were capable of. She'd even learned of Whitney Frost's past, and she knew that there was more power in Sandy than perhaps even she knew. But she also knew how well people could beat that power and that light out of you. The possibility that Sandy had been told early on - and possibly with an awful sort of regularity - that something she loved was stupid was enough to raise Peggy's hackles. "There's nothing stupid about art. I admit there's something stupid about men having private art collections that they don't share with the public, but art itself is a wonderful thing, both for the artist and the audience, for any number of reasons. If you're lucky enough to find art supplies down here, I suggest you hold on to them. They may prove a good outlet for anything you're going through."

She gave Sandy a firm nod, adding, "And the running may well keep you alive down here, which is no mean thing. I once overheard someone say that when you're faced with an opponent, and there's nothing you can do but run, then run until you're at a place where you've either lost your opponent, or you can make the fight yours." Granted, Peggy had never really heeded that advice, being the sort of person who went straight for the eye of a hurricane.

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy listened, at first not meeting Peggy's gaze but the more she talked the more confident Sandy felt. Art wasn't important to the adults back home but...it was still something that made her happy. Maybe that was important enough.

Either way Peggy was not stupid, and if she didn't think art was stupid then maybe that was just another lie Sandy had been told.

"OK...yeah. Maybe I can paint something to make this place look less sad and gross." She agreed though she wasn't sure if she even could.

As for the running thing she smiled at Peggy's advice "My dad always used to tell a joke about running. You never have to outrun the bear...you just gotta outrun whoever else the bear is chasing." After a moment she added "I think yours sounds cooler though."

[102sweetdreams]

"Or outrun the roach, as the case may be," Peggy said. "It's sound advice, but I've always been of the mind that no person gets left behind when there's danger." Hell, she'd mounted a rescue effort for Dottie Underwood, and Dottie had been a special thorn in Peggy's side.

"Honestly, if we could find something to rid the walls of the blood splatters, that would even be a positive step forward. We know that horrors have clearly happened here - we don't need a constant visual reminder of it." Granted, the entire vault was a constant visual reminder that Horrors had clearly Happened in the entire world around them. She took a deep breath and walked around the room, taking the rest of it in. She wondered how much an education mattered in this grave new world. Was there anything to glean from history any longer? Did the works of Aristophanes even matter anymore?

Talking to Sandy - someone who had more of a future in her than Peggy did - in a classroom, of all places, made Peggy wonder more and more what the future held for any of them. They were all still in some form of shock, learning to accept their new normal, and that was just the thing - what if this was the new normal? What if there was no going back, or no going up?

Peggy picked up a test tube from a nearby chemistry set and examined it, lost in deep thought. Finally, snapping out of it, she said, "Perhaps some mural painting thing in the common area. We can all pitch in. Get our minds out of our worries and get to know one another better." They were all each other had, she realized, and though she wasn't always ready to let people in and get to know the real her, they were going to need to build trust and move forward together. Like it or not, Peggy had realized that they were a society unto themselves now.

[justoutrunyou]

"Oh uh...yeah I mean...I guess you're right." Suddenly Sandy felt a fresh wave of embarrassment. Of course someone as cool as Peggy wouldn't leave the other camper behind.

Thankfully Peggy didn't hold it against her and was already thinking practically about how to make this place more livable.

"I guess if we're gonna be stuck together we should get to know each other." Sandy agreed. "So far everyone's been cool...except Jiro. He's a jerk." But even Jiro had some good part to him Sandy had discovered while he helped her chase roaches away from Louis.

"The more we know about each other the more we can figure out about this place...everyone's got some skills either running fast or code breaing." She offered a shy smile to Peggy.

arrival

[dewitts]

Elizabeth was dead. Sally with glowing eyes and pale skin covered in veins. She remembers Sally who held Elizabeth's hand as she took her final breath. Elizabeth did it. Sally will be okay but Elizabeth dead until a comfortable pod and a movie with a too cheerful tone. It's a far cry from Andrew Ryan's introduction to Rapture. Instead I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose Rapture. She hates the man.

She stumbles from the pod and attempts to steady her breath. Her feet hit the floor. This isn't any world she ever saw through any door. So what does it mean? Booker's voice may have been in her imagination only but he's silent now. She searches for answers which do not come and cautiously watches people leaving their pods.

Then the young girl speaks. Immediately Elizabeth thinks of Sally again.

"Are you?"

[justoutrunyou]

That...is a fair question.

Even if this person had said "No" what was Sandy gonna do about it? She was barely keeping herself from sinking to the ground in terror and confusion. Every thought she had felt like it was either spinning wildly and bouncing off the inside of her skull or sluggishly dragging itself into existence out of a vat of glue.

But was she ok?

"No, definitely not."

There was nothing about this that was OK but she shrugged in a way that said she really didn't know what to do about that.

"I don't know what's going on." She confessed even though that video had given her some vague idea? But that couldn't have been real could it?

[dewitts]

Elizabeth manages a softness to her expression which isn't ordinarily there. The sharp edges of the way she holds herself disappear. Any young girl will remind her of Sally. They will remind her of the many Little Sisters running around Rapture.

They will remind her of herself (trapped, used, tortured, and forced down every last path until the end). Her voice is soft like her expression because protectiveness rises up at her.

"No one does but we'll find out, okay? You can join the rest of us in not knowing." They are not alone in this strange situation. Elizabeth doesn't know how much she trusts anyone else but it seems unlikely all of them are a part of this. "It's scary. Right?"

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy looks surprised at Elizabeth’s empathy, as if she hadn’t really expected the older woman to care. But it didn’t feel like she was talking down to her either, not yet anyway.

“Yeah this...is freaky. I was just running, there was a church and...”

Teeth. Claws. Dark slimy goop. She shuddered.

“And now this...this cant be real.” She pinched her wrist and grimaced confirming that it wasn’t a dream.

[dewitts]

Elizabeth hears what isn't said.

This young girl was already caught up in something terrifying before she ended up in this vault underground. She was running. She can see the way she shudders. The world can feel like it's caving in.

"I'm afraid it is real. At least you don't have to run." She winces. "For now."

They have no way of knowing the dangers of this vault. She won't lie about the reality of the situation to protect someone even to someone so young. Besides the girl's smart enough to recognize the danger in this place.

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy swallows hard, watching the woman's face for signs of treachery. It's refreshing in a weird way to have an adult admit they have no idea what's going on.

"Alright...for now. Not a lot of places to hide in here anyway."

She doesn't want to risk crawling back into that pod. Who knows when it might open next? She moves a little closer to Elizabeth, not in arms reach really but just so she doesn't have to raise her voice too loud.

"I've never even heard of Vault-Tec before."

[dewitts]

Elizabeth can see the suspicion on the young girl's face. Not many girls learn to grow suspicious so young. She wonders what happened to her to create it. Funny Elizabeth was too trusting until the age of twenty when she finally escaped her tower. It wasn't the fairy tale she'd always imagined it to be. No Paris.

"No. I wouldn't trust going back into that."

It seems an easier way to be trapped. She lowers her voice too so that those around them cannot hear.

"I haven't either. It seems to have made a name for itself if people would trust it enough to sign up to end up here." There are an infinite number of doors. She thought she'd seen through them all but maybe she only saw through the ones where versions of herself existed. "It's possible this is a different universe than the ones we're from."

[justoutrunyou]

"A different universe?"

Sandy's eyes widened at the concept. Her father used to tell her stories of heroes and villains and sometimes he'd say stuff like that but she never could wrap her head around it back then...but back then she was just a little kid.

Now she was...well still the smallest person in the room but at least she could maybe figure this out.

"Wait so like...hold on. Do you have a New York City in your world? Or a United States of America?" Some basic things to establish before Sandy could figure out just how different things were.

"How about superheroes?"