WEEK 1

[biteys]

WEEK ONE

❝Don’t panic. You’re waking up somewhere unfamiliar, but try to relax. You aren’t dead, and I don’t have any intention to harm you. You’ve just been selected for a very special mission. A delivery, I guess. I’d do it myself but… let’s just say I can’t travel in the state I’m in. Take the blue container I’ve left to where I’ve marked on the maps within eight weeks, and you’ll be able to go home happy. More than, really. Any time or place you want to go… I can send you there. It's kinda my thing. Think of it as your payment. Everything else you need to know, I’ll tell you in time. Know that I’m sorry that I had to resort to this, and I’ll pay for my sins in Hell.❞

!

the beginning of the end

That’s what’s playing on repeat on a tape recorder, when the survivors come to.

Characters will find themselves in a humble, American townhouse, which other than being a bit dusty, is still mostly clean. All characters will be sprawled out on the floor and furniture of the living room, in front of what looks to be a giant portal. Characters will also notice they have a seemingly indestructible silver wristband around their wrists, and they have nothing with them but the clothes on their back.

Take a look around, and you'll realize that everyone in the room is likely a stranger. Aside from the tape playing, there's little explanation or proof that what's being said to you is even true. For all you know, one of the people in the room could be responsible for you being suddenly taken here.

Exploring the house's many rooms will reveal that there are small stockpiles food, water, weapons (a few guns, a few bats, a few knives), and maps, along with a large, strange container of blue liquid. The maps all chart a route from Los Angeles to San Francisco, and sport detailed recommended time stamps on them. Strangely, the recommended path occasionally diverges into two separate routes.

Upon searching the house, Haru Okumura finds a set of notes, while Leontuzzo Bellone finds a separate set. They are free to keep these notes to themselves, or share them with the group.

Nothing has anyone's names on it — not the notes, and certainly not the supplies. Everyone will have to compete for the same things. Or maybe all of you can be civilized about this, before anyone goes hoarding weapons and food? Maybe you can even introduce yourselves, while you're at it. For some strange reason, every window and door in this place is locked (and impossible to break), and will be for at least 72 hours, as if someone wanted you all to be cooped up together for a time before heading out.

Most interestingly, in the deepest basement of the house, there's a room with a large, heavy dresser shoved in front of it… and a low moaning and banging emanating from the other side. The door’s slightly ajar, and a closer look reveals a zombie is the source of the sound. Context clues around the basement, like the PhD in interdimensional travel hung up on the wall (for a Dr. Bei), hint that the woman inside is whoever left you this cryptic message - the woman who brought you here, allegedly. But she's long long gone, only this monster left in her wake. It seems she was smart enough to lock herself away to prevent you from being harmed, at least... and it'll give you a preview of the threat that looms outside.

sewer diving

After 72 hours have passed, one and only one door unlocks – in the very same basement that the zombie of Dr. Bei can be found. It leads down to a dark, dingy tunnel that connects to the sewers. Not only is the smell awful, but (non-infected) rats scurry about, keeping to the shadows – but the smell of any of the food you've taken from the house will attract them. Careful!

The party will need to create some light to navigate their way out and keep the rats at bay, or they’ll be bumping around in the dark for quite a while. Now might be a good time to share if you have some matches, or a special talent for being a lantern. Mercifully, there's only one exit that actually opens down in this labyrinth, as if it's a route the Doctor designed to take all the time.

At one point, Puppy falls into the sewage, and loses something they brought from the house.

oh! that's a baseball

Once characters make it out of the sewers, they’ll be a day’s travel to the first mark on the party’s map: “Dodger’s Stadium.” The road they’ll have to hike to get there is winding, curvy, and uphill, which will give the party a good overview of the now dilapidated Los Angeles, along with the many abandoned buildings and cars that litter the place. The stadium itself looks to have been cleared of threats and fashioned into a safe spot a long time ago, as all entrances but one have been completely welded shut. The high walls keep zombies out, and the winding path up here deters most of them from even approaching.

Inside the stadium, there’s some baseball merch (and equipment) to scavenge, not to mention some really old peanuts! Delicious. Maybe there are even some old fireworks laying around this place. Setting up camp here won’t be very comfortable… but at least it’s very safe. A luxury the party won’t have for much longer, if the map is anything to go by. You'll be heading through the city, next, so rest up while you can.

!

week one objectives

➤ make acquaintances with your fellow travelers
➤ decide what to do with the zombie of dr. bei
➤ arm yourself with what you can find
➤ scavenge some portable food from the house and while traveling
➤ make camp at the stadium

code

Comments

i

[venomnom]

[Reiju can understand if someone wants to leave. There's no future in this place, and their time is supposedly limited—to say nothing of things that are beyond her comprehension. So she stands behind the threshold to the bathroom, watching Ninety-Nine through the steam (curious) in silence until the futility of it all becomes clear.]

It won't break.

[insinnerate]

Nnggh... I don't care! You can't stop me!

[The voice that comes out of her is halfway to a terrorizing roar, guttural and frenzied. Somewhere during her rampage around the house, Ninety-Nine has earned a few superficial cuts in parts of skin that haven't been corrupted. A few drops of blood slip from the slice on her cheek and fall to the counter - where they sizzle slightly like fat in the pan.]

I'll make it break! ...I have to get back to her!

[venomnom]

[Well, that explains the steam.

It's not a sentiment Reiju fully grasps, but even she can tell where this will lead. She folds her arms. She won't stop her, no, because this place is already doing it for both of them.]

At this rate, you'll break yourself before you ever make it out of here. Is that what you want?

[insinnerate]

It doesn't matter what happens to me! [she froths, with an honesty that only someone in the throes of a rampage can confess.

Her red eyes are vibrant, the even redder lines carving through her arm practically glowing crimson as Mania threatens to pump through them like veins and fully conquer her consciousness. She's always been willing to submit the last of herself if it means saving what's important to her.]

... But I can't give up until I know! [She doesn't even know where they are and where she needs to be. Out is the only thing she really knows. The pain in her blood is getting unbearable, and she slides against the wall, still thrashing but momentarily breathless.]

[venomnom]

[Honest and driven, but short-sighted. She's a danger to herself.

Reiju looses a quiet sigh, less condescending and more weary.]

Take a breath. You'll need yourself intact if you want to reach "her"; otherwise, you'll never know.

[insinnerate]

[Not just driven. Desperate. It's easy to pick up on in her voice, so Reiju could easily tell that this is furor; it's illogical and manic instead of straightforward determination and stubbornness. She truly can't care about what happens to her because she also simply cannot. The only thing that registers as a solution - as an option at all - is violence.

And that might be equally noticeable when she at least tries to take a breath as directed and it just comes out a pained and shuddering pitch. A small piece of counter breaks off in her hand.]

[venomnom]

[She's volatile. This is a fit that could erupt anew at any second. Reiju isn't so arrogant as to think she can prevent what's to come next, but they're supposed to be working together, not scrambling about blindly in desperation. The least she can do is attempt damage control.

With this in mind, she allows for a moment to breathe.]

Who is "her"?

[insinnerate]

Rrrrgh...

[Even when she isn't trying to keep some information to herself to protect what's important to her, this is something that Ninety-Nine often forgets. It should be obvious who she's trying to find. In the midst of her frenzy, it's even easier to forget that.

So her first response is to growl, hackles raised, at this woman who could be asking for all the wrong reasons and could just be testing her, using her the way she's been used before.]

My - Hella. If they took me, they can get to her. I can't let her be taken again. [Never mind that, with things as they are, it's more like she's the one who's been taken.]

[venomnom]

[She's like a cornered beast. The information relayed is sparse, but it's enough to gather that this Hella, whoever or whatever she might be, is important.]

What does she look like? If the two of you are that inseparable, she might be closer than you think.

[insinnerate]

[This is actually a more difficult task than it seems on the surface. It's hard to describe someone who's so inextricably bound up in your life. Hella looks like Hella; is she supposed to describe the cadence of her footsteps or her mousy heartbeat or her litany of curse words?]

She wears big clothes and a big beanie. She's little... [Her hand, unconsciously, moves to Hella-height to gesture to the top of her head.] ... but tough. Her hair and eyes are the same color.

Now she might be a little taller. [They haven't been separated that long, though every day she has to wait for new tasks at the Bureau feels like a year. She'd trusted that Hella would be taken care of, but if she can't be in DisCity...then she doesn't have that trust anymore.]

[venomnom]

[That sounds like they haven't seen each other in some time, suggesting that their fates are inextricably linked somehow. Reiju files the thought away to focus on the supplied descriptions, which, though vague at first, ring a faint bell altogether.

Now it boils down to the unstated color.]

I saw a girl with lilac hair earlier. She was searching for food in one of the rooms.

[insinnerate]

[Lilac is an unusual word but not an unfamiliar one, not when she's been working little by little on the fine motor skills in her hands with things like writing and drawing or with some of the more artistically minded Sinners at the Bureau. It's a soft, pretty word, and it both sounds and feels right in her mind. More than that, if anyone would be rooting through the kitchen in a situation like this, it would be her.]

She's good at surviving. Someone like her would know where to look for food and how to find it. [It was one of the first things Ninety-Nine had learned from her, even if it had been clumsy: they'd needed to get their hands on food to survive.

She turns very quickly, with a motion to seize Reiju by the front of her clothes. Her body is still hot, a painful warmth radiating off of the skin.] Where did she go?!

[venomnom]

[It's the right girl, then.

This is a stroke of luck, and not one Reiju tests by making sudden movements. She's snatched by the front, but the naturally low temperature of her skin tempers the heat somewhat. It's still very hot, though she pays it no mind.]

I don't know where she is now. If you want to go where I last saw her, take a left down the hall once you leave.

[insinnerate]

[She can feel that natural chill, no matter how subtle it is, but Ninety-Nine's mind isn't in any position to do more with the stimuli than notice, as her senses do most of the work for her.

She steps forward again, pursuing the woman in her hand until she can forcefully back her into the wall outside the bathroom. The remnants of her violent rampage are evident still in the shaking of her body, the way something alien seems to vein its way through her muscles. She's holding herself back from continuing the outburst.]

If you're lying to me, or she's hurt or lost because of you... You'll never be able to run far enough to get away from me.

[venomnom]

[Reiju's steps are measured as she's pushed back, meeting Ninety-Nine's aggression with a cool smile once her back touches the wall. It's a dangerous position to be in, but panic serves nobody. What's more, this is a threat that isn't foreign to her.

She wouldn't dream of running.]

If you stay here any longer, you might miss her.

[insinnerate]

[The smile only prickles her hackles more, her crimson gaze growing more piercing and rising to the possible opponent in front of her.

It's a stand-off that probably lasts much shorter than it feels like it does. Ninety-Nine's arm shakes with the effort not to simply slip back into violence, the thrill of carnage almost enough to make her goal slip from her mind. Almost. She can't let this chance slip past her again. Roughly releasing her hold, she takes off into the condo with the boisterous charge of a wild animal freed from its cage.

They'll meet again later.]