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nolandspam2020-07-18 03:17 pm
TEST DRIVE MEME
IF BOTH CHARACTERS APP IN AND AGREE, THREADS USING PROMPT 1 CAN BE COUNTED AS GAME CANON.
PLEASE READ THE FAQ TO DECIDE YOUR ORGANIC FORM BEFORE POSTING!
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:
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 living quarters of the vault leave something to be desired. While the current occupants of the vault have made some improvements, it's hard to ignore the pile of skeletons placed into storage (it’s a pretty impressive pile) and the mildew on the beds. It's clear that whatever happened to the last occupants of the vault, whoever they were, it wasn't exactly a peaceful end. The medical wing has some of the worst blood splatter...but that at least you can pretend was from needed medical interventions. Right?
Thankfully, the Vault has power at least. The juke box in the recreation area cheerfully pumps out some jazzy tunes and the refrigerators are happily humming along. There's also clean, if very mineral tasting, water in the sinks, toilets, and showers. There's a pool table if someone can relax enough for a game and doesn't mind the fact it looks like a pool cue shoved in the eye socket may have caused the death of a couple of the previously mentioned skeletons. Further, the kitchen is stocked with some food! It's all pre-apocalypse or some newly collected ‘meat’ (ask the current residents if you want to know), hyper preserved canned goods and sugary cereals that somehow haven't gone bad yet, but it's something.
Today all the local robots have been recalled by the newly found ‘Captain’ to undergo mandatory repairs and maintenance. They’re locked away in the Overseers office, leaving only the human residents to great the newly awakened dwellers. Or to do any of the other day to day tasks in the vault, like make food or keep things tidy. The pool table was cleaned before Louis took off, leaving a fine game open for people to try.
The Vault opening earlier in the month lead to a few unintended side effects. First, of course, were the giant mirelurks and their young that had to be fought off. A few weeks later, though, there's a new one: frogs. In the now standing two feet of radioactive water in the entrance area, what used to be eggs in the water turned into tadpoles, then turned into frogs. Not super huge killer frogs or ones that shoot acid, mind you. Just somewhat ugly frogs, occasionally ones with two heads or eight legs or some other small mutation. And without their normal predators around (radroaches don't swim), they're starting to venture into the vault at a somewhat biblical plague level.
Dwellers can find them everywhere, in the food stores, in their beds, merrily croaking in the toilets. Sometimes they can gang up and take out a radroach or two (good for them), but more often or not the roaches will win, meaning even more of these insects are venturing into the open to snatch up these free meals. So the occasional radraoch in the bed may be happening too as they chase down a froggy snack.
Captain Simmons has requested the frogs be herded back into the entry way and that dwellers start working on a way to drain the radioactive water out of the area, but it's not much of a priority. For now, enjoy the newest Vault pets- or eat them, race them, or just get used to waking up to them bouncing on your pillow.
Post text or audio messages to the pip-boy network to get to know your fellow dwellers!
Wu Xie | The Grave Robber's Note Series
It shouldn't even surprise him about waking up in an entirely new place any more. Sure his days of adventure and mysteries was far behind him, but there was still a large part of him that knew that the adventures were only on hold. He was from the Hangzhou Wu family after all. They may have declined but they still held power.
Still, he wasn't exactly thrilled by this either. Wu Xie had given up on adventures after all. He was tired of all it and just wanted to spend his days pretending he didn't owe his Uncle Two enough money to buy himself an island. But no, someone had to sneak him out of his room to wherever this was and stuff him into what felt like a... coffin?
As that thought hit, Wu Xie's eyes fully opened and he shot upright, looking around quickly before looking down and - oh, he didn't remember having any clothing like this before. It was almost uncomfortably like a wetsuit in a way, complete with some kind of device on his forearm. Frowning, he smacks it and the loud screech of static had him let out a startled yelp as he slapped at the buttons to shut the thing off.
Then he pulls himself out of the pod - what kind of weird tomb was this? - and heads for the nearest way out. Which means there's a good chance a rather youthful looking man of Chinese decent is stand confused at a tunnel knocking a code into the nearest wall that sounds a bit like modified Morse code.
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There's little enough.
He skids to a stop as he comes around the corner of the tunnel to find a stranger. The man's turned away, knocking industriously at a wall in some kind of weird code. Zhao Yunlan's pretty sure he'd remember that mussed hair. Had he made his way out of the pod and out here? Somehow?
"If you're trying to pass on a message, my friend, voices work better!" he calls.
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And then he realizes he just started talking to someone coming up behind him and he knows that Fatty and Kylin would both give him various levels of grief for being so utterly trusting to let a complete stranger come behind him, so he turns around quickly, pressing his back against the wall. It limited his movements somewhat but at least this wall isn't like others where things sat in tiny holes waiting to grab him.
"Hi?"
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"Shen Wei?!"
He looked older -- weatherbeaten, cheekbones even sharper, eyes traced with fine lines that Yunlan knew Shen Wei hadn't had except when he smiled and meant it. His hair was a mess. He was in a Vault jumpsuit, baggy and bright blue and as unflattering as Yunlan's. And what the fuck had that line been about tombs? Tombs weren't normal.
"What," he said, voice cracking, and managed to get one hand flailing up to scrub at his face as he leaned hard on the wall. "How did you. When."
He pulled the hand away from his face and held it up in front of him, gesturing as incoherently as he'd spoken. Ten more seconds, and he'd definitely be able to muster a complete sentence. Twenty, tops.
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Xiao Hua had used his face and mannerisms to wiggle past a lot of things since the last time they met, but he wouldn't go as far as completely create a new persona while still using his face. There might be other face-changing masters in the world but again, why go through the trouble of copying his face while not using his name with it? So was there someone else with his face? Did he have enough face to pretend to be someone else?
"I... just woke up?" Well he could at least try to get some information before he confesses, right?
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Shen Wei was dead. Zhao Yunlan, of course, was also dead. And Ye Zun was dead too.
Yunlan tipped his head back until it also banged against the wall, focused a slit-eyed glare at the other man, and spoke in a dead-level voice.
"Why don't we just introduce ourselves. You first." The smile he produced felt like a horrible grimace, and he doubted it looked any better. "Don't lie."
If it was Ye Zun...
... well, he'd had one wish about Ye Zun and he had truly hated the way it came true. Second chances came so rarely in a lifetime.
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He huffed, which turned into a slight coughing fit before he was breathing steady again. Then clearing his throat he attempted a smile, a little refrained but still it's not like he knew this guy."
"Wu Xie. I'm... an antiques dealer." Because that was so much easier to explain than former grave robber.
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... an archaeologist would have introduced himself by his actual credentials. Zhao Yunlan was going to put his money on 'grave robber.'
He banged his head against the wall a few more times, in hopes of shaking loose a few more brain cells from the overall mess of howling grief that was taking up most of his higher brain function, and slitted open one eye.
"Right." If Ye Zun had been trying a lie like that one, he'd have done it from a different face; Yunlan focused on old Wu's left ear, forced his expression into something that might pass as a smile on a dark night, and put both palms hard against the wall to help as he dragged himself back up to his feet. "I'm Zhao Yunlan. Head of the Dragon City Special Investigations Department, and I swear I am not going to arrest you if the answer to this is yes: are you Dixingian?"
That face. Was he, what, some kind of very distant great-great-grandson? Or was this just the new and crueler version of their memories not being reliable, after all?
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Anyways, that was back home. He needed to deal with things here first.
"Dragon City?" Special Investigation Department? There were things that needed a better hand than whatever group just was there at the time; that's why he often ended up in strange tombs in the middle of nowhere because he knew things a regular archaeologist wouldn't dream of, but the rest? "Dixingian?"
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Not knowing what Dixing was didn't mean Wu Xie didn't have a touch of Dixing in him somewhere, but... well. Maybe it was just a coincidence.
His gaze flicked from Wu Xie's left ear to his face, and away again, fast as a wince. It was a hell of a coincidence.
"Not that any of that matters here. Welcome to Vault 66, the introduction video's mostly full of shit, there's about a dozen of us plus a handful of robots kicking around down here and as far as anybody can tell we're a couple hundred years in the future and someone nuked the surface so bad parts of it are still glowing."
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He should know too, he was born there. He went to school there. He went into the holes earthquakes caused in homes there. Wu Xie just gave this Zhao Yunlan a look before rolling his eyes and returning to the other matters involved. Like where he was.
"I can guess who would do that, though it does beg the question of why people are using such outdated technology like this." He points at the pip-boy on his arm. "I haven't seen anything this old since I was ten."
Since all the clocks on the SID wall have fictional city names on them...
"Couldn't say! I've never heard of Changsha. But I grew up in Dragon City and I can say with confidence that it is smack dab in the middle of the old meteor crater... anyway."
He spread his hands in a dramatic gesture of uncertainty, turning to begin walking along the hallway. It was easier when he didn't have to make eye contact.
"Come on, I'll give you the five yuan tour. My guess on the tech is that they went old school to keep them long-lasting and proof against EMP! Those pods sure as hell aren't old technology, and the robots kicking around the place float and have fully functional AI."
dang it show!
"I can imagine that there is a theory about all this already brewing."
As far as he could see, it was either stand at a wall and hope that someone he knew would show up, or follow this poor guy who still can't quite look him in the eyes. He doubts it's because he's shy; someone rising to the position of chief was not that, but maybe it had to do with that name he said. Old friend, or something more?
"Five yuan? Are there any special spots I should know about or is that the ten yuan tour?"
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At least Wu Xie was rolling with all of this. No panic, no denial: full speed ahead into banter, which honestly was weird as hell in Shen Wei's voice. Despite all the many other laudable traits Shen Wei had, he'd never been that good at banter.
"The ten yuan tour gets you extra radiation exposure and for fifteen yuan I try to talk the robot with the keys to the front door into opening that," he tossed off. "But I'm gonna play it cheap right now because I just got back from out there, and I think I've had enough radiation this week. Funny story, there's a little religious retreat up there that worships a glowing hole in the swamp...."
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If this was twenty years ago, he would be panicking. Even at ten years ago he would not feel as calm as he did at this moment. Maybe when one has seen the Gates or has been nearly turned into compost by an ancient Seven-Headed Hydra tree under a desert everything else was just there. Some far-flung future with radiation? At least Uncle Three wasn't going to try to get him to marry or pay off his debt here.
"And here I've been trying to avoid all that sunlight. And a robot guard? Standards slipping everywhere, tsk, tsk." He chuckles at that last bit, shaking his head. "That doesn't surprise me; I worked on a dig that was studying a culture that believed thunder was a language."
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He shrugged, dramatic. "We are sunlight free down here! But there's a nuclear reactor in the basement. That wrist thingy has a Geiger counter built in, so keep an eye on that shit and you won't end up puking and losing your hair. And to your left is the rec room! We've got, like, ten songs on the jukebox. Might as well learn 'em, because I'm going to drag everyone into a karaoke competition one of these days."
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He snorts, shaking his head even as he heard that. "Ten songs? That would be a very short contest unless you make it so people sing them with a fake country accent."
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"Anyway, we'd obviously have to allow doubling-up on songs. Maybe that could be the contest? Who does the better cover of the same song?" Waving the question away, he added, "I haven't figured out the rules yet. So that's the kitchen, over there, and that's Louis the robot. Great cook! Especially considering what he's got to work with!"
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"I hope one of the choices isn't snails. Or snakes. I'll eat a corpse before either of those."
Not that he ever had a chance to do that. His luck would stick him in the worse situations where corpse eating may happen but then whisk him away to something even worse.
"I'm not much of a singer but I can drone in passable creepy cultist chant."
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It helped, strangely, to catalog the differences. Shen Wei's occasional sarcasm was never so mordant. Shen Wei wouldn't be caught dead with a cigarette, or chatting about cannibalism. This guy was much more the kind of antisocial dirtbag Zhao Yunlan would've idolized in his college years, no matter who he resembled. A tomb robber! Well, fuck it, perhaps he can make a friend.
"Good news about the food, no snails. It's mostly cockroach, rat, and whatever's in cans." His grin was sharp-edged, but he was actually meeting Wu Xie's eyes, and he was proud of himself for doing it without a flinch.
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"Rat is okay so long as you have ketchup. Please tell me there is ketchup."
It was a joke; he had all sorts of unidentifiable food in his life, has eaten nearly everything and knew that hunger would even make a mummy look good within a day or two. Any grave robber - even one as pampered as he sometimes was - would not turn up their nose at food in whatever form it came in. Except the snails. Or the snakes. Or corpse-eaters but that was a whole different shoe.
And now he was looking at him again instead of staring at his ears. Wu Xie offered a bland smile in response, nodded at the pool tables. "They got a full set of balls?"
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Too bad he probably didn't share Shen Wei's culinary expertise, either.
Following Wu Xie's gaze to the pool tables, and quietly grateful for the excuse to look away from his face again, Yunlan broke into an easy, plastic grin. "They do. If you don't mind the fact that some of the pool cues had to be pulled out of dead guys when we were cleaning up!"
It's equally dubious whether he's telling the truth, but of the two remaining pool cues, both of them do have dubious stains ground into chips in the varnish.
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There it was again; this Zhao Yunlan really found his features uncomfortable and couldn't stand to look at him for any length of time. He was getting better, but still Wu Xie got the feeling that if he switched from young gangster to young master, it would get worse.
"What pool cues don't have unpleasant stains? It's not like I'm going to lick them."
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With a wave goodbye in Louis's direction, he headed back for the rec room door. "This way!"
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So a rec room plus eatery, bunk rooms that act like dorms with the youngsters in one. There was the place he woke up in, a place where they can go outside -where it is not safe but no where was safe - and there was still more? Making a hum in agreement, he follows Zhao Yunlan out of the rec room.
"What's next? Shower room? Medic Hall? Porn shop?"
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