( 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]

Oh--[ She flinches at the sounds, then looks up to try to find her, she has to be out of their reach, right? ]

--n-not very long! [ Hours. ]

Are you all right? Are you hurt?

[anklets]

[Not enough to matter, which makes it a:] No. I'm fine!

[This is what she knows-- cracking things beneath her heels, being used to bomb-- and she takes to it with angry zeal, coming down a second time and swinging wide and hard.]

Will you be able to run?

[timehalt]

[ Oh man, you have no idea how relieved she is to hear it. The idea of Lenalee being hurt is enough to make her blood run cold. ]

I--I think so! But-they'll chase me! I can't outrun them!

[anklets]

[The very walls shake as she throws their weight around, frothing and fleshy and putrid and nicking her where she fails to outmanoeuvre. Weren't zombies meant to shamble? She'd thought that was how she had always seen them described. What right did they have to this speed?]

They shan't-- [ a grunt; she bows to a blow and it puts her back to Miranda's precious sanctuary, warm through her clothes ] me. I'll carry you.

[Quickly, now!]

[timehalt]

Lenalee! Please be care--eh? But--but I--[LENALEE, ARE YOU SURE?]

[anklets]

[ deadly, dearest ] On three, Miranda!

[timehalt]

Ah? Already?

[ WHY CAN'T THINGS HAPPEN WITH ENOUGH TIME TO PREPARE. THREE WEEKS SHOULD DO IT. ]

[anklets]

[It's all she can hold out for, for these creatures are not Akuma and do not wither beneath her heel. She feels something scrape her above the knee. Something hot, even after she's cleared them all to a wriggling mass on the floor.]

Three--!

[timehalt]

Now? [ YOU SAID ON THREE. ]

[anklets]

Now, Miranda!

[timehalt]

Okay!

[ Lord, the trust she has in you when she deactivates her Innocence in a flare of light and dissolving sparks. The effort distracts the necromorphs for half a second, but they surge forth only seconds after. ]

[anklets]

[If she needed any more than just the one, she wouldn't have chosen this. Scooping Miranda up does not go as gently as she'd honestly prefer, but let's be honest, here: even the jangle of thin arms and- well, thin everything is kinder than the gnashing, rotting things below, and she'd rather they gnaw on her heels than Miranda's.

You don't get airsick, do you, Miranda?]

[timehalt]

[ Not during heroic rescues, darling. Miranda clutches tight to whatever she can, trying to be as tiny as possible, and also not mortified this has to happen. God, let her not be the reason Lenalee trips up. ]

I'm--I'm not too heavy, am I?

[anklets]

[Lighter than Allen, and that's an issue she'll need to review with utmost seriousness later, hand-in-hand with the persistent application of Thanksgiving dinner.]

N-No!

[Adrenaline is an amazing thing, and with necromorphs carpeting the hall behind, it's in no short supply.]

[timehalt]

[ Lenalee, you're too kind. Miranda wants to help, in any way she can, so she fumbles for her Innocence, trying not to jostle Lenalee too much. ]

Give me--a, a second and I can--

[ She touches her Innocence and pulls. Time Reverse activates in a flood of tiny clocks, healing wounds and giving back whatever energy Lenalee's used up in the past few hours. Miranda can't concentrate enough to give more than that, but every little bit helps, right? ]

[anklets]

[Sucks the colour back into her cheeks, and it's something else completely, still, to be placed under Time Record's effect, not pulling poison from the wounds but pulling the wounds themselves. The tight lines bracketing her mouth relax, a fleeting half-smile.]

Gently, Miranda.

[It's a little much, to watch Miranda whittle herself like this.]

[timehalt]

[ Sssh, just let her do this. For both of their sakes. ]

It's fine, it's fine. I can at least do this.

[anklets]

Just. Gently.

[Anything in the world for that smile to surface from beneath the blanket of happier circumstances. She does not let the woman from her guard until the housing doors have sealed behind them.

Miranda is set on her feet.

And stared at, expectantly.]

[timehalt]

[ She think's she's doing quite well; not too exhausted, maybe a little sleepy, but certainly good enough to keeping going--that is, until being set on her feet makes her brow furrow and her body sway. Maybe give her a moment. She'll be fine in a second, she's sure of it. ]

...Lenalee? What's wrong?

[anklets]

Miranda, [ delicately, ] how long did you say you were out there for?

[timehalt]

In that corner? Ah, only four or five hours.

[anklets]

[Let's face it, this is necessary dismay:] Miranda.

[timehalt]

[ Oh no! Is--is Lenalee angry? But--but she didn't mean to make her angry! ]

I'm--I'm sorry. I just--I didn't know what to do and I couldn't--they kept chasing me and I was--I was really scared and I couldn't think of--I'm sorry! I'm really very sorry!

[anklets]

Miranda...

[She makes up for her earlier bonejangling with the most caring hands coming now to grasp for Miranda's.]

It's alright! I'm not angry. [ brow furrowing ] I just- wish we had our golems here, these tablets are useless.

[timehalt]

I'm sorry.

[ Everything really is her fault, isn't it. ]

I lost mine weeks ago.