biteys: (Default)
NIMBO ([personal profile] biteys) wrote in [community profile] turnout2024-07-20 09:50 am

week 4

WEEK FOUR


road trip!
As the doctor mentioned, the next leg of your trip is quite long, so walking isn't advised; hopefully, you've all secured alternative methods of travel between the abandoned cars and the wild pack of horses you found last week.

These cars are long abandoned, and most of them still have things like CDs and magazines in the gloveboxes and trunks - so at least you’ll have some entertainment for the trip! Conveniently, music you can find comes from the year 2024 and earlier, because in the Turnout universe, CDs were still widely a thing in modern times because I said so.

Be aware that there are not enough cars and horsies for everyone to go solo; you’ll need to group up and decide who’s driving! And, more notably...

Your drive won't be entirely peaceful! There are bound to be some zombies littering the street, which characters will need to clear in order to keep going. Whether that's through running them over, sniping them with your newfound long-range gun skills, or doing it the old fashioned way by hopping out of the car and beating them to a pulp, they've gotta move! Be careful not to let the horseys get bit.


respite

Whether or not you were suspicious of whatever the “SAFE” marked on the map was supposed to mean, when you come to the coordinates that are marked, you’ll be in front of a door that opens down into the earth — it's a bunker. The entrance is slightly hidden by foliage, seemingly intentionally so.

Inside, it’s obvious this place is not like the places you’ve been traveling to thus far. It’s clean, well stocked, and nicely furnished. Judging by the pictures on the wall, it’s a safe house that’s been used many times by Dr. Bei and her five associates. So, it was built by a bunch of super nerds surviving the apocalypse, meaning that it's pretty well fortified and self sufficient. It seems like the Doctor must have been here at least a few weeks ago, judging by the dust levels and quality of the food.

That means there’s clean running (and hot!) water, as well as a freezer that’s stocked up with some raw meat, vegetables, and a rare ice cream treat. Also in the kitchen are some seasonings and other staples: flour, rice, etc. There are cooking utensils too, of course! Characters well versed in cooking may just be able to throw together a nice feast for everyone.

There’s also, you know. Alcohol. Not a ton of mixers, though!

It seems like the nerds had simple things for means of entertainment: there are some party and card games hidden away in drawers — think pictionary, uno and twister, or other such party games. Of course, only your imagination is holding you back: while you have a safe place to rest, it might be easier to let loose and have fun.

The six rooms in the bunker all have one bed and a connected bathroom - each one is identical but decorated with sparse things, like stray trinkets or a picture frame. Only Dr. Bei's really has anything different about it, because in it, there's still a working computer.

Characters will be able to open basic programs like wordpad, MS paint, or iTunes for music purposes. Like everyone who had iTunes, she has U2 songs on there. There's still no internet, but there are some saved messages from her and another colleague using an alternative connection method.

While exploring, characters can discover a chat log between ♛, which appears to be Dr. Bei's display name, and ♝, another user.

Aside from the beds in the six rooms, there are also sofas and armchairs to rest on.


oops all memshare
While within the safe house, your bracelets will start acting strange. It might have to do with being underground, or perhaps just the highly advanced technology at work down here, but at inopportune times, you’ll find your mind linking with other party members’, especially when initiating physical contact.

When connected to another survivor, you may exchange memories, which may come with 1) the physical sensations you felt at the time, 2) the emotions you felt at the time, or 3) the thoughts you had at that time. Players can be creative with this mechanic and have the memshares be like watching a movie, or physically acted out — whichever is your preference. There’s no prerequisite on the type of memory that might accidentally spill over, and characters may share multiple memories with one person.

According to the map's schedule, you have some time to rest your weary feet from the long ride… you’re not scheduled to leave for two or three days. It seems the Doctor might want you to fill up and face the second half of the trip with your most well rested selves. So, why not relax while you can? What’s the worst that could happen???


venomnom: (045)

[personal profile] venomnom 2024-07-31 03:04 am (UTC)(link)
Sanji has never asked me for anything.

[If he wants her to leave, Reiju wouldn't know. Besides, he has no obligations to their family. Much as she loves him for having a heart, she can't say that she understands it very well. He's always surprised her in that way.

Her smile eases into something more neutral. She's been reaping what she's sown; staying was only natural.
]

I stayed with my family. That's all.
insinnerate: (9)

back to suicidal ideation cw

[personal profile] insinnerate 2024-07-31 11:17 am (UTC)(link)
But he... [should want to bring you with him. She grunts, consternated with her lack of understanding, and draws up short. The unfamiliarity that creases the skin between her brows is obvious. The mind of a Sinner often struggles with thinking in absolutes; fixation has a tendency to make other options cloudy and obfuscated. Now that Ninety-Ninety knows freedom and knows the toll of being brought up solely to be a monster, it's difficult to wrap her mind around someone who would reject it on purpose.

Perhaps all of Reiju's family is not like her father, the one who wanted monsters in the first place. Perhaps there are things she's done, on purpose or on accident, that can't be recovered from. Perhaps Ninety-Nine could understand that.
]

Do you still think you should die?
venomnom: (052)

[personal profile] venomnom 2024-07-31 11:36 am (UTC)(link)
[ . . . is beholden to nothing, she finishes inwardly. He saved her life once. Any imagined debt on his end is now as good as paid. To expect more from him would be out of place—cruel, even. It would be better if they were to never see each other again.

But she understands, maybe. Her stance is radically different from Ninety-Nine's where freedom is concerned, hence the firm set of her brow. Ninety-Nine would see that freedom shared, and that's a good, kind thing; it just isn't meant for everyone.
]

Yes.

[There's no point in keeping her sentiments on the matter under wraps—not after what Ninety-Nine has witnessed.]

At the end of the day, I'm still part of an organization that's been built on bloodshed. As my father's accomplice, I ought to be destroyed alongside it.
insinnerate: (3)

[personal profile] insinnerate 2024-08-02 01:20 am (UTC)(link)
[She doesn't necessarily believe that. Wasn't Reiju used, too? The real revenge would be to tear it down and go on to thrive - to live in a world built in the wake of that organization would be a chance to be more than what her father made her.

But she wasn't hidden from the sun the way Ninety-Nine was, as far as she can tell. Maybe she already looked out into the world and found it lacked something. Maybe it was never the right place for her.
]

I understand. [She says this even though she doesn't agree.] What do you think it will take to kill you?
venomnom: (074)

[personal profile] venomnom 2024-08-02 08:49 am (UTC)(link)
[It's a practical question—and seemingly an earnest one, coming from Ninety-Nine. If Reiju is next to suffer a bite that can't be cordoned off, at least one person should know how to put her down. Other intentions aside, this is perhaps the biggest reason she answers easily:]

My exoskeleton is as durable as metal. Pierce that, and I'll be susceptible like anyone else. Then it'll just be a matter of killing me before I can recover.
insinnerate: (7)

[personal profile] insinnerate 2024-08-03 01:40 am (UTC)(link)
Your exoskeleton, [she repeats, with a level of understanding that's only superficial, like she gets it without really getting it. She understands there needs to be a deep wound to pry into, and really, isn't that what she really needs to know - if it comes to it?]

If we succeed here, you'll go back for the same thing?
venomnom: (015)

[personal profile] venomnom 2024-08-03 04:21 am (UTC)(link)
[She exhales through her nose with a smile.]

Who can say? I don't go around seeking death. Maybe I'll fall in battle, or another scheme will ensnare my family.

[If she dies, she dies, and all will be right with the world. If she lives, it is what it is.]
insinnerate: (7)

[personal profile] insinnerate 2024-08-08 01:44 am (UTC)(link)
Hn.

[That explains a question that Ninety-Nine hadn't even known she'd been thinking. In many ways, she's inert, isn't she - the way Ninety-Nine was when she was still locked in that dark underground laboratory? And yet, in that memory she saw, what Reiju did for her brother had been anything but.

She's no good at thinking through these things, and she doesn't care about speculating why things are the way they are.
]

Something could still happen to you here. But you wouldn't mind that, as long as we kept going, is that right?
venomnom: (022)

[personal profile] venomnom 2024-08-08 05:41 am (UTC)(link)
That's right.

[In a mission as prolonged as this one, casualties are inevitable. Reiju isn't especially attached to life, but . . .

A memory lances through the kitchen, swift and sudden: An airborne Reiju crashes into the ground from a lethal barrage of flames. One of her brothers calls out her name from the sky, but another—the eldest of them—shouts, "Leave her! Niji, Yonji! That's what happens to the weak. Do your job!"

Once it fades, Reiju smiles wryly. That brother of hers is so unlovely, but it's true that she broke the line with her fall, and this neatly segues into her next point:
] As a mercenary, the mission is paramount.