( open ) our ag wing's back and you're gonna be in trouble (hey now! hey now! our ag wing's back)

[initiates]

Date & Time: October 31st, 3313, 11:59PM - November 3rd, 3313, ????
Location: Agriculture Wing, Moon Base to start. Cafeteria, warehouse, docking bay, VR rooms, Transport Pad, or Observatory later on.
Characters: Any & all!
Summary: Space Zombies are allowed out of the Agriculture Wing, slowly revving up their systems to try and infect and absorb as many of the Transports (or 12 Initiative Members) as possible.
Warnings: Log will be locked for potentially graphic violence. Please warn in threads should the violence or gore become graphic.
Notes: Specify a date and location in your top comment. You may specify multiple dates/locations. Specify a time if you wish as well.

Everything is a success at first, from the cool rush of air out of the Agriculture Wing once the doors are fully unlocked, to the heady sense of accomplishment for finally moving forward on something good for the long-term usability of the Moon Base. It's intended to remain a resource, after all, but not be a permanent home. Fraying tempers and the sense of cabin fever descending on Transports continues to showcase how important it is to get back down on Earth to regain some breathing room.

There's little enough dust between all the unmoving, unlit structures, many even supporting the barest dried husks of what once grew there. Upon the lightest touch, they disintegrate, turning into a dust that falls to the ground. The silent rows will be reclaimed and turned into functioning units, based on Transport efforts, and Transport time invested in the project.

There's just one problem. Something stirs in the reclaimed wing, among tangles of hosing and wiring. Skitterings and movements that make no sense for a long abandoned Moon Base. The further in Transports go, relying on magic or technology to generate light past the bare minimum maintained by the base, the more disturbing sights they may run into.

Of course, the most disturbing of all might be lying just around the far corner -- but don't worry, it's only a flesh wound. Try not to get surprised in the machinery, caught suffering from not looking up or caught making out with anything unsavory this holiday season, Transports. We need all of you to stay alive!

We can't bring you back right now!

Comments

[timehalt]

[There's a certain frequency to the attacks; a familiar tightening in her shoulders and arm as her Innocence and the the bubble it's shaped to bears the force and shakes them off. It's familiar enough to her that any change to it gives her pause and enough hope to crack an eye open to see if they might be getting bored enough to leave.

There's still plenty of monsters hounding her; their malformed, grotesque bodies enough to make her want to vomit--not even akuma were this horrifying to her senses--but as they scramble and climb over each other to get to her, they leave a gap in bodies and just enough time to see what's behind them.]

--Mr. Break!

[maddeninghatter]

[ If Miranda keeps looking, she'll see another gap in the bodies.



...as in a gap between their top halves and their bottoms. And then the creatures sort of twitch and sigh and slide to the ground. ]

I say, Miss Miranda? Is that you?

[timehalt]

[Perhaps the effort would be better noticed if there weren't a shrieking, malformed face between them. Miranda shields herself instinctively from the thing, trying to not look.]

Mr. Break! Look out! There's something--ah! Stop, please--!

[She can't get to you and keep you safe if you're all the way over there!]

[maddeninghatter]

[ The problem with these creatures, Break is beginning to understand, is that they won't die — which is something that ought to be unsurprising in the undead, he recognizes in retrospect. Bother. A dismembered hand closes around his ankle; he shakes it off, with a shudder, as he brings his sword around again, slicing the latest wave into pieces.

Unfortunately, cutting them up just seems to make more of them, even if they're less mobile in pieces. And he has heard whispers of "infection," so...

What he needs to do is slice them into sufficiently tiny pieces somehow, or.... disintegrate them.

...that's Mad Hatter talking, and while Break generally does his best to ignore the ravings of his unhinged familiar, in this instance he has to admit that the creature has a point. ]

Stay where you are, I'm coming to you!

[ He swings his sword, forcing a path towards her, even as the body parts of zombies try to cling to him. ]

[timehalt]

Eh? [He ca't be serious!] --you're what?

[As relieving as that is to hear (and as much as she wants to be rescued) it's too dangerous!] Mr. Break, please! It isn't safe!

[maddeninghatter]

You're right! It isn't! Not for them, aaaahahahaaaa~!

[ So focussed is he on repressing his Chain's power, Break can't keep Mad Hatter from giggling, even as he hacks the remaining zombies to pieces.

At this point, he's made his way right next to her, but — he can't sense her at all. He stops, just outside her bubble, clearly confused. ]

Eh? Miss Miranda?

[timehalt]

[ Miranda tries not to watch, after realizing his intentions, she'd rather not have the memory of shredded flesh spattering the walls of her safe haven. It's only when she hears Break's voice, oddly confused that she dares open her eyes. ]

Mr. Break? Are you all right?

[maddeninghatter]

[ Now he's really confused. Is there something odd with the acoustics of the place? ]

I — where are you?

[ While he puzzles over this, several zombies shamble towards him, in horror-movie slow motion, their awful mouths gaping. ]

[timehalt]

[ Huh? ] Mr. Break, I'm right in front of you.

Are you well? Should I--oh--[ Wow those zombies sure are reliably persistent huh. ]--give me a moment!

[ It's exhausting, but damn if she isn't going to try to reset her Time Halt to expand so he's inside it. Not that she can stop him if he moves out of the way first. ]

[maddeninghatter]

Oh! There you are, Miss Miranda.

[ He's actually smiling quite a nice smile at her.

Or, well, it would be a nice smile, were he not dripping with zombie goo. A piece of slimy entrail slides off his nose and falls to the ground with a plop! ]

I didn't see you there.

[timehalt]

Ah, yes, it's good to see you, too.

[ Er. Well, in the light of safety not so much. Miranda swallows, and tries to fumble through her pockets for some sort of handkerchief. Maybe if he wipes himself off a bit, she won't want to gag. ]

Um, you've got something on your...

[maddeninghatter]

Someone [ He corrects, gaily ]. Used to be someone, anyway, that's what they're saying.

[ He seems oblivious to her handkerchief. ]

Anyway, you shouldn't loiter about, these creatures can be a bit, er, tedious if you let them catch up with you.

[ Plop! Was that an eyeball dropping off his shoulder? ]

[timehalt]

That's...that's just--

[ Boy, aren't you a charmer. Especially the mess you're making in her little bubble of safety. If she weren't such a nice person--and terrified enough to keep you around regardless--she'd be tempted to put you out. You're starting to smell. ]

Oh, um, it's okay right now. We're in my Time Halt. They can't touch us here.

[maddeninghatter]

[ He is trying to shake the rest of the decaying glop out of his clothes, with very limited success. ]

Eh?

Your what? Time Halt?

[timehalt]

[ Dear God. ]

Y-yes. It's my power, I guess you could say. Right now we're inside it so nothing can get to us.

[ There's a pause as she remembers-- ]

Are you hurt? Did they get to you?

[maddeninghatter]

You have power over time? Dear me, that’s —

[ Terribly disturbing. ]

Haha! Why, that’s very clever. What can you do? Can you travel about in it, or make it speed up or slow down?

[timehalt]

[ Miranda flushes, torn between her natural pleasure at something of hers being called clever and the crushing knowledge it's hardly as amazing as everyone seems to think. ]

Ah, I can stop time or rewind it. B-but only temporarily. I...I can't affect anything permanently.

[ And that fact has affected her immensely throughout her time here and at home. ]

[maddeninghatter]

[ He puzzles through what she's told him, and draws the reasonable conclusion: ]

So — you can affect the flow of time in a small area, is that it?

[ He considers this, and compares it against his understanding of what significant powers do to a person. ]

How long can you keep it up?

[timehalt]

Yes!

[ Wow, you sure know what's up, huh, Mr. Break? She mulls over that question for a good minute; weighing her inner reserves against her determination. ]

Ah...for the next fix or six days? I can go longer, but having to deactivate and reactivate it quickly is a little... [ Exhausting. ] ...hard on me. I promise you'll be safe in here for as long as I can keep my Innocence activated.

[ Even if it kills her. ]

[maddeninghatter]

[ Five or six days sounds like a very long time, particularly given the comment about it being "hard on her." Deactivating and reactivating it quickly.... like she must have just done for him, though he hardly noticed it.

But before he comments on any of this, there's one point he's got to clarify: ]

Your "innocence"?

Dear me — the strength of your power is related to your virtue?

[timehalt]

Wh--[ Let the ground swallow her up; she's so mortified. ]

No! No, no, no, not at all! That's just what it's called! They're--they're holy relics! It has nothing to do with that!

[maddeninghatter]

Hahaha!

I'm just teasing yooou~!

[ He reaches out, as if to pat her encouragingly on the shoulder; but mid-gesture seems to think better of it. HIs hands are covered in zombie goo. He lets his arm drop, in a manner that's definitely not at all sheepish. ]

Well, you know, as much as I'd enjoy monopolizing your company for the better part of a week, I think we might do better to go and find ourselves a nice cup of tea, what do you say?

[timehalt]

...Oh.

[ Why would you do that?? ]

But it isn't safe!

[ And as bad as you're starting to smell, she's not about to let you out when she knows it's safer in here. ]

[maddeninghatter]

How tender-hearted you are, to care about these creatures' well-being.

[ Snap! He thumbs open the catch on his sword cane, and half pulls it out, revealing the steel. ]

But I assure you, they're beyond all kindness.

[timehalt]

No--that's not--not what I meant!

[ She can appreciate being gung-ho for eliminating the enemy (she's friends with shounen heroes after all) but--but--]

It's dangerous out there! And, and you must be tired. Can't we just--wait and rest for a bit?