( 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

[inhumanity]

[Christopher doesn't take a moment to make his decision.] If that's what you want!

But Monica, I can't let you wander around here alone. It just wouldn't be right. If you do want to go to the clinic before going to see Master Huey, you ought to stay while I'm healed so that I can bring you to him after.

[maskmaker]

I'll travel through these. It's quiet -- I don't think any of them have entered the vents yet.

[She motions for him to start moving. The vents are large enough he won't have to crawl on his broken arm.]

... I want you to get your arm healed and stay where you are, Christopher.

[inhumanity]

[Well. He can't really argue, can he? He does as he is told.] In that case, I suppose I owe you my thanks in return.

[He is very careful with his arm as he moves. He knows how much damage his body can take, and he has plenty of room yet. But there is no reason to pointlessly put more strain on himself than necessary.]

Even so, I'd like to ask my partner to look after you when you leave me. It would make her very happy.

[maskmaker]

[She closes the vent before she follows. If those monsters have intelligence, it'd be better to leave as little clues as possible.]

... Your partner.

Erika?

[inhumanity]

That's right. With Master Huey's kind permission, Erika is my partner while I'm here. [The musical quality of his voice is more pronounced now, humming through his words like lullabies.] With how she feels about you, protecting you and keeping you safe would be happiness for her.

[maskmaker]

["Master" Huey. So he'll listen to Huey, won't he? She doesn't understand why. What is their relationship? But she turns to him, glaring at him coldly.]

I will not allow you to send Erika out there regardless of whether I go or not. She'll stay with you, and you're to rest.

I am taking you back to her.

[inhumanity]

[Christopher chuckles and holds up his hands in surrender. Yes, even though it strains the injured arm.]

If that's the happiness you want for her, who am I to argue? It will be as you wish.

[maskmaker]

[She glares at him more before turning away.]

... She'll be sad if you got hurt, Christopher. I don't want to see that look on her face.

[inhumanity]

[Gentle, always, Christopher doesn't stop smiling. He, too, does not want Erika to be sad.]

How moving. This must be the touching union between women they call a Boston marriage. [Nope.] In the name of such a union, what can I do but comply?

[Monica wants to keep Christopher unharmed so that Erika is happy. But Monica doesn't know the truth: for months now, Christopher has watched Erika break, day by day. And he knows her fractures are reflections of his own.

What Christopher doesn't answer is this: Erika has not been happy since Huey arrived.]

[maskmaker]

I don't know what Boston is. Think whatever you want.

[She hasn't seen Erika in weeks. She definitely doesn't know this.]

Why did you do it? For me.

[inhumanity]

[Christopher shrugs. At least when he waves it off, he uses the uninjured hand.] Felt like it.

[maskmaker]

[She narrows her eyes at him, frowning, then looks away to scoot forward, listening -- there's the sound of monsters and screaming and fighting here, some silence there in the distance, and then, after a few minutes the sound of people talking. She moves toward the nearest spot of light to look down at the room below.]

We're here.

[inhumanity]

[He peers closely.] My, don't they look busy? It's almost like walking into a party. No, wait. I like the party outside better.

[He glances back over at Monica.] Erika would be sad to see you hurt as well, you know.

[maskmaker]

... Then I won't let her see me until I heal if I get hurt. [She smiles at him, and maybe it's the realest smile she's ever shown him.

She would like not to make Erika sad. But she cannot leave Huey. She'd like to be with Erika, to let her know she is safe, to apologize for letting Chris get hurt, to know that Erika is safe.

But she does not know where Huey is and she has to find him.]

I have to go.

[inhumanity]

[Ah, that smile. Christopher looks down, smiling too.]

Go forward like the nightingale. Let your inviolable voice call out, and all fall before it in anguish of sympathy. Your pain is not only your own, Philomel.

[maskmaker]

I know, Christopher.

Even if I know, I can't stop. I want to live for him, even if I can't live with him.

But... I think it makes me happy. That I can be Erika's friend, and she will be sad for me. I will be, too. So protect her for me, and [she pauses there, raising her mask and fiddling with the string, retying it, replacing it back on her face; her voice goes low again] from me, too.

[inhumanity]

[Monica Campanella seems to go away, and he thinks he could come to pity her.]

Don't worry. Bodies are almost as easy to protect as they are to break. [He waves at her and turns away.

Anyone can wear the mask they want to, but she goes straight to becoming it.]

[maskmaker]

Good.

[She doesn't smile behind the mask. Instead, she shifts her weight and swings her foot down to kick the vent open, catching it before it could fall on anybody and moving aside for Christopher.]

Thank you. Now, let's go.