week 6

[biteys]

WEEK 6

!

home, home on the range

Last week’s events have understandably driven the group off the intended course — so this week will be about righting your little forest-beach-detour.

However, it seems the rain that began at the tail end of last week hasn’t quite let up yet. Mercifully(?), the worst of the storm looks to be over, which means the party will only have to be mildly soggy instead of fighting for their lives against daunting sheets of rain.

Perhaps due to a combination of poor weather, overexertion, and lingering germs in any of the places everyone’s been traveling through, Leontuzzo Bellone and Mark Grayson come down with the flu.

Covering a wide area of land between the lighthouse and the next marked place on the map are a series of abandoned farms and vineyards. Fruit trees and grapevines have all been left to grow (and overgrow) naturally, and with the party passing through at the height of summer, there are plenty of fresh peaches and grapes to be plucked from the foliage on the way. The rain has made the ground muddy and sticky, which may lead to some unfortunate falls…but maybe it’s worth it for a tasty treat.

Also in the abandoned farms are, of course, farmhouses and barns. There are stray farm animals here and there who have happened to survive through sheer luck, though there are no human inhabitants. No living ones, anyway: there are only skeletons, telling the tale that people died here long ago, perhaps of natural causes. One can only hope they did not succumb to the virus as so many others have. There are medicine cabinets inside the houses that have standard things like painkillers, cough syrup, and things of that nature, so it might be a good time to stock up.

As characters linger in the farms, they’ll also notice another side effect of their bracelets: throughout the entire week, they’ll be empathically linked to the other survivors, being able to feel their emotions as strongly as they would feel their own.

city escape

Once the group passes through farm country, you’ve finally made it to the outskirts of your destination, San Francisco. The map seems to suggest that you should travel along the east outskirts of the town along the bay, rather than directly through it — similar to how the party had stayed to the edges of Los Angeles.

Hordes here are similar to the ones in LA, though with the added difficulty that San Francisco is very hilly. Groups of zombies will chase the survivors uphill and downhill: they seem to have limitless stamina, so running up the hills and hoping for the best isn’t the best strategy. Conversely, they run full speed down the steep declines of San Francisco roads, which can lead to them completely wiping and possibly knocking you down with them.

Several zombies are also special: of the zombies that attack downhill, a handful have retained enough intelligence to simply stand or sit on abandoned skateboards and bikes, which increases their speed greatly. Of the zombies that prefer to attack uphill, they’ve learned that throwing anything they can find at their prey may slow them down — pieces of glass, bricks, and even shoes might be thrown at the survivors.

Henry Townshend attracts the attention of zombies in these hilly zones, forcing the need for a City Escape™.

fisherman's wharf + pier 39

Towards the end of the week, as characters continue taking the long way around San Francisco, they’ll eventually end up at the northeastern section of the city. More specifically, Pier 39, and the harbors it borders.

Here, after all the rain and gloom, the weather is a bit clearer, allowing characters to look out into the bay and see some marine wildlife that has kept away from the virus; there are hundreds of sea lions and seagulls here, though because they stay down on the rocks below the pier, the sounds of waves crashing drown out their incessant barking.

There are a number of abandoned shops here, and similar to the mall the group traversed weeks ago, many of the stores seem to be looted, but there are still goodies to be found here and there. With the wide variety of goods, from music boxes to candy to jewelry, there’s sure to be something that tugs on the heartstrings you’re all sharing this week.

Take a look around, find a souvenir, and maybe pick what store you’re going to be camping out in for the night?

This week, Ninety-Nine is infected.

code

Comments

[bicth]

Oh, 'cuz you're so big and scary.

[ She sneers, eyes darkening at his threat. It doesn't matter the sympathy she might have felt for him before, if he turns his threats on the party members, then he'll become her enemy immediately. Hella is optimistic because she had to be to survive in Syndicate and the laboratory, and she'd rather die herself than kneel to the whims of the doctor. ]

Up yours. Over my dead body. Not even you can kill me, asshole. [ She will get in the way if he attacks someone, being the implication. Still, she doesn't slam her foot all the way on the gas of causing an altercation just yet, folding her arms stubbornly. ] How do you know picking people off isn't just going to make things worse? Maybe we need everyone to get across.

[unliminal]

[ It's one thing that she pushes back against him, but another entirely that she makes it into a challenge. She doesn't think he can kill her? She's barely seen what he's capable of. None of them have, even Shoko.

But you could do it, Satoru. ]

Didn't I tell you all at the very beginning? The only person you need to get to the end is me.

[ He should have taken the cure and made a break for it when he had the chance. Once again, working with a group is only a hindrance, a handicap to what he's truly capable of.

Rising to his full height now, he steps over towards Hella, towering over her with a sharp grin on his features. ]

Wanna put that to the test? Just try me.

[bicth]

[ She laughs, she actually laughs when he puts himself above the rest of them like that, so sure of how he's the only one they need. Hella's pissed off, sure, but she also thinks he deserves to be provoked and knocked down a peg. He towers over her, and she meets his eyes without hesitation, looking haughty and wild, her Mania steadily rising, almost like static in the air around her. Whatever he can do to her, she's sure she's endured worse. ]

...But weren't you, like, the first one to get infected? [ snrk. ] Wow, you sure showed us how you can do it all on your own.

[ is this a good idea... no.... but she doesn't care. This is just her everyday life at the MBCC, taunting Sinners way stronger than her until they whale on her. here's where i should say she can survive cartoonishly gory shit which is why she acts like this, so it's fine if he whacks her 🧍‍♂️ ]

I guess you just wanna kill me to prove something after sucking so bad.

[unliminal]

[ He's being provoked, and he knows it, but it doesn't matter. He's fucking sick and tired of this, of just being expected to go along with the group when people are dying around them left and right. When there's no one left, when he's alone, again, always again — ]

Do I look infected to you? Hah, more than you can say about your friend double-Nines over there.

[ Gesturing to wherever Nonety-Nine is, drawn into this against her will. Actually, Gojo has been itching to fight her, too, maybe he can get a two-for-one deal.

At the tip of his finger that he now turns towards Hella, energy begins to crackle: Red. ]

I don't need to kill you to prove anything, but if you insist~

[irreversal]

[ It's almost painfully familiar: Gojo picking a fight, casting aside any moral quandaries in the name of his strength, like his powers put him above anything and everything, and maybe they do, at home. But they are a long, long way from home, and Shoko has personally seen his powers failing him that very first week, sawed his arm off her-fucking-self, and they're both being too damn loud for how tired Shoko feels.

And it's not like at school, an argument breaking out in the gym, where she can run off to skip class and smoke behind the building. They are all in this together, and like hell is she going to let either of these bozos start a fight that could well blow this whole argument out of the water. ]

Stop—

[ Ugh. That was too quiet, between their yapping and something surging within Hella and Gojo's cursed technique firing up, both of them just standing in a swirl of untamed energy, so she properly pulls her cigarette out of her mouth, takes as deep of a breath as she can, and says, firmly: ]

You two had better fucking quit it right now.

[ She is also reaching out to try and grab Gojo from the back of his shirt's collar. ]

[bicth]

[ Three things flicker across her face when he mentions Ninety-Nine out of nowhere — first confusion, then doubt, then anger. Because Ninety-Nine has staunchly kept her infection a secret from Hella, currently, she has no idea that's even true. And thus, she thinks Gojo is just trying to say whatever he can to upset her. There's no way Ninety-Nine would lie to her, she just isn't built that way. Ninety-Nine would never betray her like that, he's so full of shit. (laugh track plays here)

Hella doesn't budge an inch when he points his finger at her, even squinting closer at the crackle of red energy — it looks like Mania — but Shoko intervenes before she even has a chance to brace herself for what kind of hurt it might bring her. Burns, blunt force, cutting? Psychic? Gojo gets pulled back and Hella stubbornly stays right where she was standing, letting out a hmph under her breath. ]

—The fuck, Shoko! Why am I getting yelled at?! I'm not doing anything! [ She throws her arms wide to gesture around them — then gives Gojo a big ol' accusatory point. ] He's the one saying he's gonna kill people!

[ There's something comical about the way she complains about this, far too unserious for the tension that's in the room, but hello? She's being unfairly prosecuted? Of course she's going to file a complaint, especially while she hasn't been blasted to smithereens yet. She continues shouting, petulant while she turns her attention back to Gojo. ]

So if that's how you're going to treat all of us, then fine! Don't look to me for help when you fail again on the bridge! Can't wait to see it!

[insinnerate]

[And she is getting dragged into it against her will. Ninety-Nine, who clams up every time there's a big group discussion because she has nothing to say in the middle of rapid, difficult-to-follow snippets of conversation, lifts her weary head when she hears Gojo refer to her. When she rampages, he's one of few who could probably stop her permanently - she knows this. But there's a reason she spoke to Reiju and not him. She's too straightforward to mastermind games. It seems she can't even keep a secret for very long. For saying it in front of everyone like that, she wants to kill him. It would 't be like back at the saloon. She wouldn't stop until there was nothing but pieces left behind.

Shaking her head to keep it clear (it hurts her congested chest), Ninety-Nine bares her teeth in warning, red eyes flaring and even more pronounced against her paling skin. When light crackles at his fingertips, she's on her feet, barely stopping because there are people she doesn't want to charge through indiscriminately in between them. When she moves Hella to the side so she can body-block, it's a little rougher than she means it to be.]

I'm not doing anything else for that scientist. And I won't do it for him.

[We are not even talking to Gojo, it seems, to maintain the last stability that exists. Shoko and Hella can carry the message.]

[unliminal]

[ Good. They're both mad, they're furious, and they should be, before getting into a fight with him, he wouldn't want to bother with someone who didn't want to rip his throat out. What's the point in that? The adrenaline spikes in his blood as Ninety-Nine surges forward, the mire of infection in her energy like wisps of black smoke to his Six Eyes, and he gathers cursed energy within his gut to his fingertips —

You two had better fucking quit it right now.

And then Shoko snags his shirt collar, when Limitless should be keeping her out. Should be keeping all of them out.

The energy at his fingertips flickers out of existence, his feral grin fading into resignation. Just about the only thing that could stop him from starting a fight right now is Shoko's insistence, and much as he would have loved to let out his pent-up frustration, he won't do that to her. He will not actively make things worse for her than they already are...which is pretty fucking bad. ]

...Tch. Fine. Whatever. I won't save your sorry ass either, so no skin off my back.

[ If Hella's delusional nobility gets her killed, then that's her choice, and he'll make his own. ]