biteys: (Default)
NIMBO ([personal profile] biteys) wrote in [community profile] turnout2024-08-03 09:54 am

week 6

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.


empression: (Daddy?)

[personal profile] empression 2024-08-25 01:26 pm (UTC)(link)
[ It's like a self-perpetuating cycle. The guilt reaches her, rekindling the own guilt Haru had felt, that she hadn't been able to argue harder against it at the time. Suzuha might not have had to go through with it. But then maybe he would have turned shortly after, and bitten someone else and he would have had to be killed anyway and...

It's too late to ponder what-ifs anyway, but she moves closer to Suzuha, reaching out to grasp her hand. ]


I know. It's... deeply unfair. This situation, and also what you had to do. But I don't want you to have to go through the aftermath alone, Suzuha-chan.
parttimesoldier: (downcast)

[personal profile] parttimesoldier 2024-08-30 07:24 am (UTC)(link)
[It’s meager comfort to know she’s not alone in the feeling, even if it’s a little like being caught in an echo chamber. Better than being lonely in the despair. She’s kinda used to that, but it’s not like it helps any.

Haru steps up to her and reaches out, and Suzuha has to force herself to relax her hand from its fist in order to accept that offered support. She squeezes the other girl’s hand gratefully.]


He deserved so much more than getting caught up in this, for it to end up like that and…

[And maybe Haru is right that’s it’s dreadfully unfair to her too, but she’s never really allowed herself to think to long about that sort of thing. It hurts to confront it, and she finds herself squeezing her eyes shut. She doesn’t want to cry again, but it’s starting to feel like an inevitability.]
empression: (Give it back)

[personal profile] empression 2024-09-02 01:56 pm (UTC)(link)
... Would it be all right to hug you?

[ Very carefully. She knows Suzuha prides herself on being able to hold herself together, but this is really all the support she can offer... even though it's well after the fact, that there's nothing either of them can do to change the outcome. ]