vault66 | MONTH 2 LOG

Entry tags:

MONTH 2 LOG

WHO: Everyone
WHERE: Vault 66
WHEN: ???? – Day 1, Month 2
WHAT: The second wave of pods open
WARNINGS:Reference to suicide, 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.

THE VAULT EXPANDED

In the month following the first pods opening, Jiro and Elizabeth DeWitt enlisted the help of the Mr. Handy ‘Louis’ the clear the debris and create a stable passageway to the rest of the testing area. Slightly smaller than the rest of the hallway, there is still plenty of room for people to move in and out of the area without discomfort.

This portion of the vault, if possible, is even dirtier and more decrepit than the rest, having been cut off from even the most basic maintenance for an untold period of time. The emergency lighting has been cut off to this area, leaving the whole zone in the dark besides what little light comes through the newly formed passage.

Those willing to venture into the area will find this isolation has allowed a handful of more intimidating creatures than radroaches to establish a home (though there are still roaches, just fewer than are found in the rest of the vault). Several breaches in the metal walls along the hallways open into small tunnels, which the occasional mole rat will venture out of. Though usually only appearing alone or in pairs, these creatures are even hungrier for fresh meat than the radroaches and will attack with their huge, sharp, pointy teeth. If killed, they could supply a decent (if slightly irradiated) source of meat for a while, along with hide to make more reinforced clothing. But taking one down without proper weapons will likely require some teamwork.

There are several important (and often concerning) areas to find in this zone. First are two firmly sealed doors, one at the upper corner of the new area and one at the lower middle. Each door has a very helpful (currently unlit) sign over it: ENTRANCE and OVERSEER, respectively. Next to each is another of the computer terminals characters have grown used to seeing around the vault.

Next are Testing Areas 1, 2, and 3. Each of these testing areas has an observation room with a smaller containment chamber attached to it. The doors to the observation areas can be pulled open with enough effort, allowing entrance to the small room filled with chemistry glassware, lockers, and tables covered in long since rotten scraps of paper and books. The doors to the containment chambers, for the moment, remain sealed shut with yet more computer terminals next to them. These doors look weaker than the ones sealing off the entrance and overseer area, and can possibly be broken down with time and effort. But characters will want to think long and hard before doing that. Each observation room has a bullet proof, reinforced one-way window that allows characters to look into the containment chamber without whatever is in the chamber being able to see them. And the chambers are occupied.

Testing Chamber 1 (WARNING: SUICIDE) contains the corpse of a super mutant splayed on the ground. The walls around it are dented, and its head caked in long dried blood. Anyone with passing medical knowledge can observe the super mutant apparently killed itself through repeated blunt force trauma, banging its own head against the walls and door until death.

Approaching Testing Chamber 2 causes character’s pip-boys to start crackling a warning of increased radiation. Standing in the observation chamber the levels are low enough that it isn’t healthy, but no one is going to die without prolonged exposure. The source of the radiation is clear, inside the chamber is a corroded barrel of radioactive waste. Along with it, a grotesque creature that is very clearly alive, moving around and around its small, enclosed space.

Testing Chamber 3 also crackles with radiation, though the source of this isn’t a barrel. Rather, a walking, emaciated corpse shambles about the containment chamber. Other than the walking corpse bit, there’s two characteristics which stand out: the corpse is glowing an eerie yellow-green with an inner light that pulses as it walks and it’s wearing the torn remains of what is very clearly the same blue and yellow jumpsuit all characters arrived in.

GENERAL EXPLORING

Whether you venture into the new area of the vault or not, the rest of the vault awaits. This includes the three Mr. Handy’s floating around, as well as more radroaches wandering around the many corpses/blood splatter patterns.

OOC NOTES

To talk to a specific NPC one-on-one, leave a comment on their thread below.

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Azula had been following Yunlan as he explored, her newly constructed spear in hand when they stumbled across this bold woman apparently ready to face her own death.

The crackling of the device on her arm wasn't missed by Azula as she looked to her own device.

"Radiation? Saya mentioned that. She said it was a bad thing."

Dangerous, deadly, normally things Azula could appreciate but not the way Saya explained it.

Chocolat was surprised to suddenly see the other two turn into the hall just as she was contemplating her next move. But despite her serious expression and the pause of silence that overcame her as she though over Yulan's words, her response was calm.

"Poison you say," She had no idea what radiation was, but she could understand the concept of poising. She had dealt with such things far too many times to count. "So you're saying if we go in we may be in danger?"

Hmn, that could pose to be a problem. She did really want to go in.

"Will it spread if I open the door?"

"It, uh." Now that she seemed to be listening, Yunlan let himself relax a fraction, slowing to a walk as he joined her at the door. He wasn't a scientist himself, or even an engineer. Could radiation spread? There had to be something causing it, right?

"...Don't leave the door open," he concluded, finally. "It comes from, uh, chemicals. It can spread if the chemicals spread... like." Waving a hand, he proclaimed, pleased with himself (this sounded right! It probably was right!) "Dust! Or gases! And the longer you spend around it, the sicker it'll make you."

He squinted at the dirty door. "There's a monitor that goes with the beeping. It'll tell you how dangerous it is to go in there.

"You, uh, might want to zip your top back up first, though." Shooting the girl a sidelong look, he added, "I don't think you want that shit on your skin. So -- are you Peggy? Elizabeth? Chocolat?" There's three women he hasn't met yet. Jiro hadn't given him enough detail to guess which one she is.

Azula moved behind Yunlan in a less then subtle manner just in case she needed a human shield between herself and the poison dust.

"The smart girl said it can also mutate living creatures and render an area unlivable if that helps your decision making." She offered sounding like she was on the line of disinterested even if she was watching them both with a fierce stare.

"Hmnn..." She only contemplated the warnings for a moment, trying to weigh out their advice against what they were already facing. So this was a situation that could probably put the life of herself and those around her at risk, huh? But then again, how was that any different from what they were already facing? They were all approaching a dead end, and the more they looked around the less it looked like they would find a way out unless something drastic was done. They had made little progress over the past month in regards to getting out of the Vault and their options were dwindling.

Also, she was going to ignore the comment about the shirt. That was just stupid.

"Well then, if you're both worried I suggest you leave the immediate area."

With that she kneeled down, running her hand along the doorframe to examine it before unbuckling the wire from her hip. "The sealing here is weak. Whatever poison is in there could already be seeping out and affecting us.

Yunlan rolled his eyes -- she wasn't going to zip up her jumpsuit, either, was she? Great. He took a step forward, giving the door a dubious glance up and down.

"Yeah, some of it must be. That's why the wrist things are beeping. Well, fuck it, I'm not going to stand back and watch you walk in. What else do you think might be in there?"

Sandy'd found a few weighted batons; he had one hanging off a belt loop, and one of his hands strayed to it, absently, as he watched her feel her way across the doorframe. Radiation wasn't an enemy that could be fought with a stick, but if there were more of those nasty giant vermin hanging out in there, better to hit them before they hit one of the teenagers.

Azula on the other hand was perfectly content watching the two of them walk in first. Carefully, quietly she ran her fingers along one of the scalpels she'd stolen from the Med bay. She'd hidden it in her sleeve for now and was considering how much force might be required to throw it with accuracy. It wasn't weighted for throwing like the knives she had practiced with.

But she was more confident in her abilities then in how much sense Chocolat and Yunlan had between them.

"I'll cover your backs, you two focus on whatever's waiting for us in there."

"We don't need to be stupid," She remained kneeled despite the other two bracing themselves for the inevitable. Unraveling the wire, she began to toy at it with her fingers, forming little notches and knots with an unnaturally quick expertise. It was only after she had done this a couple of times over that she unhooked one of her batons and began to start tying the wire against the frame of the door. Zig-zagging it to and from the entrance almost as if she were trying to further barricade it.

It was only as the lower third of the door frame had been tied-down that she finally stood. Pausing for one more final moment before knocking her baton loudly against the door.

An unnatural gurgling screech erupted from the other side, scurrying noises suddenly made obvious.

"Just as I thought. Somehow whatever's in there still seems to be doing just fine."

Just how long had it been down here? How was it surviving without food and water? Her mind was reeling with questions.

"I'm going to kick the door inward and lure it to us. That way we don't have to go in ourselves. Are you sure you two want to stay?"

At the distorted screech, he freed the baton from his belt, swinging it up into his hand. There was something alive in there?

"You think you can get rid of me at this point?"

It wasn't a bad plan. The thickly laced wire would stop or trip anything small enough to get through the door and big enough to be a threat. They were going to have to go into the room if they wanted to investigate its contents, but handling whatever had made that noise?

That came first.

Maybe she wasn't as reckless as she looked.

"Go on," he said, and flashed her a scimitar smile. "Kick away."

Azula watched her work with keen interest. This one was skilled at least in this respect. The Princess had learned long ago how best to leverage minor skills and party tricks into dangerous and useful tools. Perhaps this girl was similar.

But there would be time for manipulations later, for now she simply nodded "Someone should be here to witness what happens and tell the others if you die in an unseemly manner."

"Well, if you both are going to put it so sweetly," It was with a single swift kick that somehow the petite woman had managed to break the door inward. A sudden unhuman wail rattling out from the darkness of the room before a series of crashes could be heard.

And then silence.

Bracing herself, Chocolat held her batons at the ready as it all too quickly jumped out toward the group of them. Screeching in surprise when it's legs gave way from beneath it. Chocolat was quick to step to the side in order to allow it to land not-so-gracefully upon it's face.

Wow.

That this poor thing most certainly not getting any points for its looks.

Yunlan's eyebrows soared as one kick from the redheaded girl sent the door crashing in, but he didn't have any time to admire her martial technique. The thing lurching out from the darkness at them was more than enough distraction.

"What the fuck?!" He leapt backwards on its other side, pinning the creature between himself and Chocolat in the hallway. Tentacles writhed from its mouth, and bony nodules broke through the burnt-looking skin at random. Its feet were... hands, its whole body just human enough to make it clear that, somewhere in its ancestry, human was closer than animal.

He wasn't sure he wanted to know what it was now. He adjusted his grip on the baton, holding it defensively in front of him as his wristband chattered a frantic radiation warning. How was it even alive?

"Can you understand us?" he called. How human was it? He'd be aggressive too if a couple strangers kneecapped him with a wire trap....

Azula was not normally one for sharp and sudden kneejerk reactions...but with how hideous this thing was she found herself taking up a different more aggressive stance and posing with her palm open and the other in a fist.

Only then did she remember that she couldn't use her bending here and she felt foolish. Almost more foolish then disgusted.

But no, disgust won out.

"Hideous." She said frankly turning her nose up in distaste and backing up another step. "We'll be doing it a favor."

"Indeed, that seems to be the case," Her expression was one of utmost serious as she lifted up her baton.

Meanwhile, the creatures sudden notice of the voice that called to it caused it to scramble onto it's hand-feet and growl out gutturally. It was almost immediately that it would lunge towards Yunlan, the tentacles in it's mouth extended outwards in attempts to wrap around it's preys neck.

"Shit!" Bending down, Chocolat braced herself to charge forward and engage. Taking only a moments pause to see if Yunlan would be capable in blocking the oncoming beast himself.

Instant hostility, no meaningful response to his question. Yunlan bit back a curse and brought his baton around hard, aiming for the side of the thing's head. If it hits with full force the blow should be enough to crack its skull; if not, at least his arm's going to be between those mouth tentacles and his own throat.

Regardless of how hard the blow hits, he's dodging to the side a moment after impact, spinning to throw a follow-up roundhouse kick at the same target on the mutant's head.

Interesting...very interesting.

Aside from the horror show that was this creature Azula was watching the other two fight. They were experienced, maybe not experts but very skilled. More then she'd have guessed from her interactions with them.

Shuffling sideways Azula tries to circle around behind the thing looking for an opening. Can it even feel pain anymore? If not she'll have to try and incapacitate it or kill it swiftly.

Chocolat was grateful. It seemed that both of these two had some experience when it came to handling themselves against such frightful creatures. And at least one of them was well versed in combat. That was enough information for her to take in at the moment. Smiling softly as she took a step towards the creature that had already been knocked out from the blow to the head that Yulan threw.

Lifting her baton, it was with no hesitation that she swung it down. Causing a hard thudding noise to form as the weapon made impact with the unconscious creatures skull. Lifting her weapon only to bring it down upon the creature again... and again... and again.

If wasn't until it's head was nearly concave and profusely bleeding out, not until she was certain that it was dead, that she stopped. Sighing out as she hooked the baton back up to her belt.

"Well, I suppose a conversation with it was too much to ask for."

"I suppose so." Yunlan kept his tone noncommittal with an effort. The creature had been unconscious before Chocolat moved in to beat its head to a pulp, but the sheer brutality of the action still left him unsettled.

And reevaluating her, not entirely to her benefit. Determination and willingness to kill when necessary were good. Smiling while she flattened the skull of a helpless creature was not.

Nonetheless, he'd been just as willing to kill it, and he couldn't judge too harshly. He skirted the corpse, heading for the lab door. "We should get that door back in place -- leaving it hanging open is going to let a lot more radiation out than we want." As evidence, he raised his arm, where the wrist computer chattered urgently away.

"Well done." Azula praised as Chocolat finished off the creature. While it was a less elegant solution then she would have preferred, it was more effective then...whatever Yunlan seemed to have in mind.

"I can't imagine there's much of use to us in there for now, but we'll need a safe way to clean it up and deal with the...remains." She was already covering her mouth in case the radiation could poison her faster that way.

"'Tch, and here I was really hoping to check it out," Well, so much for finding anything useful. She waved some of the carnage off of her baton before hooking it back up to her belt. Her mind already seeming to shift over to whatever thing she should check out next. "Well, at least that prevents any future danger we'd have to endure with this thing. I wonder if there are any others like it roaming this vault."

"There's no reason we can't check the room beyond out -- but in short trips. With the door closed in between!" He wrinkled his nose, thinking, and looked down at the sad malformed corpse. "Aren't there some suits by the reactor? This guy must've soaked up enough radiation that I don't want to haul the body around barehanded.

"And if there's any others down here, they must be hiding somewhere -- so either we've got big spaces we haven't looked into, there's a way out more than big enough for a human being, or we're safe. I like options two and three, what about you?"

As he spoke, he grabbed the door frame and hopped over Chocolat's tripwires, glancing curiously around the room as he reached for the fallen door.

"I prefer option three, which means it's probably options one or two." Azula considered it for a moment and then decided "It's option one. This can't be all there is to this facility. Especially not with all those pods still waiting to open. We'd run out of room in the dorms alone."

At least that was her justification. In reality it was more of a gut instinct thing. It would be just her luck to find out after they finished exploring this area there was some massive much more dangerous thing underneath them.

"I agree, this place has yet to be without it's dangers, and it seems to only be getting more gruesome the further we get," Surely the next thing they checked out would be even worse than the last. At least, that was the pattern.

The room Yunlan looked in seemed mostly empty, although just as dilapidated as the rest of the vault. A single medical table with straps bolted into it in the center of the room and a small office desk and chair in the corner being all that decorated it.

"At least there are some capable fighters among us. Hopefully with the right amount of preparation we should be fine."

She was hinting towards you Yunlan. That was some pretty decent resolve you had while taking on that creature.

"We do," Yunlan agreed. "Nice work with that wire, Chocolat... and there's no telling how many of those pods actually have live people in them, is there? Some of 'em must have been for the poor suckers whose bones we've been cleaning out of the hallways. But we'll have to keep looking to be sure there's not actually any big spaces we don't know about.

"Not much here," he added, looking around, and headed for the desk to try the drawers. "Except this..." They stuck; rust, he thought, not locks, and tried a whack with the side of his baton to rattle the runners free.

Azula folded her arms watching Yunlan attempt to smack the drawer open. There was always the chance there was something valuable or useful in such a mundane place but her hopes weren't high.

"Don't hold back. I can't imagine anyone will be clamoring for that desk in their private quarters if it's been sitting here soaking up this invisible poison for so long."

"We could take it apart, perhaps repurpose some of the material for weapons or barrier fortification. Might as well come away from this with something more then the blood of that creature."

MONTH 2 LOG

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