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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!
no subject
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...."
no subject
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."
no subject
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."
no subject
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."
no subject
"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!"
no subject
"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."
no subject
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.
no subject
"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?"
no subject
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.
no subject
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."
no subject
With a wave goodbye in Louis's direction, he headed back for the rec room door. "This way!"
no subject
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?"
no subject
"You know how it is, when all you have is a chainsaw arm, everything looks like a possible amputation."
He turned towards the bunk rooms. "This one over here's where most of the kids stay. Hey! Anyone in here?"
He poked his head in. "Nope, they must be hanging out somewhere else." He waved his hand around the room -- vaguely institutional, with rows of bunks, but the occupied ones had a few little personal touches. Folded clothes, scavenged items: it wasn't much, but it was so much nicer than it had been to start out with.
no subject
Not that he cared as much as someone like Fatty would. Maybe if he was younger; there had been a time in college when it was kind of normal for him. These days, he just didn't bother. What was the point, especially when it left him coughing until he passed out.
"I'll keep that in mind. I wouldn't look half as good if I was missing an arm or a leg." An easy smile, well-practiced as any Zhao Yunlan has given him, even as the tilt of his head brought out the thin scar along his neck.
"So instead of women in one men in another the sleeping places are sort into kids and adults?"
no subject
"Which, let me tell you, everyone should be grateful for. I'm nobody's first pick for nanny."
He waves a hand to the door on the far side of the room. "Bathrooms and showers over there, the water stinks but it hasn't made anyone sick yet; just watch out for the mutant roaches."
Any teller of big fish tales would have been impressed by the generous estimate Zhao Yunlan's gesture gives to the size of the roaches. Unfortunately, he isn't indulging his love of hyperbole this time. They're just actually a couple feet long.
And, what's worse--
"They bite."