retellers | WEEK 1: CYOA (Alex, Blanca, Shiro, Sora)

[ i'm exhausted. ]

I think can see more tubes in here, but the lights aren't on. There were way more than just those ones near the observation room...

[ she will give the door a cursory rattle but without something to maybe give her more crowbarrish-oomph, she's not going to break her back trying to break the door. ]

[please stop, his head...he turns away shortly after and covers his nose as he keeps walking. unfortunately unless his shitty shield can break the crates, there's nothing. but also they're hazardous so maybe not. can he tell what the logo is?]

There might be poisons or something in the vent. [just. casually. but when alex gets to a room he will follow.]

Think these ones are dead, too? [...to confirm is it that tubes are closed or are they locked in now. either way, hm.]

[ The logo seems to be some sort of diamond shape. There was writing on it, but it's illegible now. The test tubes inside the door don't look opened or damaged in any way. Sora and Alex can either try their luck with door number 2, or go to the suspended walkway. There is no railing to get them to the contraption. That sounds like some kind of workplace violation, but probably so is your workers getting murdered, so eh.

They could also go back the way they came, of course. The door there is still open. The sweetly, cloying smell follows them now, slowly filling the air. ]

...

Is... that what happens when we turn the vents off?

[ oh she doesn't like that. she uncovers her nose long enough to take in the smell, and then press her hand over it again. ]

What did you do to turn it off? We might need to get it back on again. It might stop something coming through the vents and also... stop the poison from getting stronger here? If that's what it is. [ i've got an alien isolation live stream on in the background right now actually. haha. terrible. ]

And then.... maybe check the other doors?

I think so. I just hit one of the buttons on the console...we can go back and turn it on again. If that'd help? But if we're just wasting time backtracking it's better to go forward.

...check the second door. I'll go back and turn the console back on, but watch for the alien. Scream really, really loud if you see anything.

[...what's the likelihood of them even being able to step back out of the room to go do that?]

[ Sora can absolutely go back to press more buttons! Unfortunately, no matter how many or which combination he tries, the ventilation system does not power back on. At this point, both Sora and Alex might start to feel a little like their heads are full of cotton... but I'm sure it's fine.

The second door, much like the first, won't open currently. But the emergency light seems to work in this one. There's an operating table in the middle with restraints on each end, surgical tools prepped next to it, and a monitor in the back. It's hard to tell through the window, but it looks like the operating table is dirty with ... something.

Hey did the roar sound a little closer? Haha anyway. ]

[ alex shakes her head slightly to try and get rid of that cotton-like feeling, and ... well. if they can't get in, they might as well move on to door three, right?

right.

or that's the plan and what she starts to do, when she hears the noise and immediately spins to motion wildly at sora. hopefully he knows what her panicked hand motions mean, but when he's close enough she'll immediately tell him: ]

Again. It sounded louder this time.

...

We should pick up the pace.

[i can't believe he ruined shit by touching stuff he shouldn't have. he also shakes his own head, and now that the roaring is closer he can barely pick up on it. ope. time to go. he's dashing back toward her and sticking close with his fake shield, nodding in agreement. he does peer through the door to tree and see if he can get an idea of what kind of dirt/blood/goo is on the table.]

Check the third room. I'll grab the fourth. We're running out of time.

[so. what happens between door number three and four?]

[ The doors still do not open! Looking into door number 3 almost looks like... a small and cramped bedroom? At least, from the window itself, Alex can see there's a bed, a couch and a rug.

Sora might be deaf, but even he might realize the roar is even louder when he gets near the fourth chamber. There's a loud and sudden banging noise against the door once he gets close enough as well.

There's still the walkway... ]

[ a bedroom...? how weird.

she'd love to look more but apparently they have a friend about to visit, and that banging is enough to immediately draw her attention. ]

Sora--

[ they really have to go. or find somewhere to go. oh no. she makes a beckoning motion with her arm. zia is right, there's still the walkway... and it's sort of the only place left to go. ]

[he can definitely hear it and there's a yell as whatever's inside lunges at the door. he wanted to get a better look and he tries to see inside, but alex is getting his attention.]

We gotta go. [he knows. that's bad! so let's...go to the walkway which is absolutely their only option.]

[ First of all, they have to walk rather carefully through that walkway. This would've been easier earlier, perhaps, because whatever they've been inhaling seems to have affected their balance now. It's a little like they've had too much to drink. Looking down, there does not seem to be a visible bottom to the pit...

But they get to the contraption fine. It's separated into four sections, each of them labeled with a number 1-4. There's one of those large power switches with a handle in each section. All of them, currently, are pointing down. The power is off. ]

[ alex will crawl if she has to, it's fine. ]

Are these the doors...? Um. One was test tubes, two was... a surgeon's room? Three looked like a little bedroom, and ... four was...

[ the banging and rattling noises. ]

I'm gonna flip 3, it seemed like a pretty... normal looking room?

Edited 2020-10-07 19:13 (UTC)

[he's walking very slowly, and he's close to just pirouetting off of the walkway but manages to stay upright as he reaches the machine and stares at the switches.]

Must be. I think we should open the surgeon's room. There're tools in there we can use. And the third room might have some hints about what's going on. [is the monster still throwing a fit? sora's hand reaches for two.]

...we flip them on the count of three. Ready? One...two...three. [and they will flip switches 2 and 3.]

[ The banging has stopped, now that they're away, the roars more of a growl now.

It's a little like turning on a large generator, really. It rattles off a loud noise as it powers up, and the lights in both room 2 and 3 turn on completely. The doors themselves are also lit up now. Whatever mechanism wasn't working to get them to open, it looks like it was here. What a complicated set up to turn on some doors.

Two of the containers that were suspended above the walkway open once the contraption is turned on. Whatever was in it falls down to the walkway with a gross, wet noise. There's a kind of... slime? pouring from it. Nothing is moving in there, so it's easy to tell that whatever it is, viscous liquid or not, it's vaguely humanoid in shape. Both of them. ]

[ ... alex lets out a surprised sound when whatever was inside those containers just... drops, almost looking a little guilty. are they, uh... moving or are they just very.

not moving?

because if they're alive she's gonna scoot away.

also because ty wants this to be gross, they're both getting splattered up the leggies with some humanoid goop. delicious. ]

...

We need to get to those rooms. Um... the keycard. We need to try and find that keycard, don't we?

[ can she make it over the walkway? is she gonna get grabbed at? if she can she's keeping low down, even if she has to wriggle through goop. ]

[...their leggies...gross...sora's pants don't cover his ankles and part of his calves so there's a very soft "ew" as he tries to flick some goop from his legs. he's taking a closer look at the figures from a short distance, trying to see what he can spot about them before he nods and begins to backtrack with alex.]

Go to room three. I'll grab weapons for us in room two. Check everywhere for a keycard.

[...how far are they going to get across the walkway back to the rooms without the humanoids moving?]

[ Neither of them are going to get grabbed, although... once again, both subjects will stare at them with unseeing eyes. These don't seem too badly mutated, but there are still growths on their backs. And... they might not make any move towards either of them, but they're very much breathing.

So that's fun.

They make it all the way across, and both rooms open for their respective people. For Sora in room number 2... The operating room is not too dissimilar from the one on the ship. There's both blood and that purple goo left on the operating table itself, but the surgical tools are much cleaner and... at the very least, somewhat more humane. It's a series of empty syringes of varying lengths, a scalpel, and a bone saw that needs to be plugged into a wall to work. Outside of what else they could see from the window, there's also a machine with screen display for vitals which is currently connected to nothing, an on top of the overhead light there's a bendable lamp with wheels in the corner, clearly meant to be used for the bed. It's otherwise rather bare, which makes sense for an operating room. There is, however, a door to the side that leads to a short hallway that seemingly leads to the first room.

Meanwhile, Alex will have a time searching. There's a double bed in the corner of the room, a small bathroom tucked behind the entrance, a sofa opposite the bed, a surprisingly nice and clean rug on the floor, a bolted down table with a small TV on it, and a mural on one of the walls. ]

[ "fun".

well.

let's think about room 3 and not the breathing humanoids lying on the walkway. ceiling check is always the first thing and a look at the mural to see if there's anything interesting immediately apparent, but once that's done she's going to check the double bed -- pulling back the duvet, feeling the undersheets and the pillows in case there's anything in there.

the sofa will get the same treatment - cushions off, and patting down, looking under it to see if anything has been dropped. and the nice clean rug will get moved to check under that as well, and she'll look under the table.

out of curiosity, does the tv have a built in dvd player? ]

[there's a ceiling check from him, too, before he immediately pockets the scalpel and the syringe. can he pull the bone saw off the wall at all, like can he pick it up and carry it with him? he's also going to check if he can see under the operating table itself. he'll check out old the blood and goo is and flick the lamp on and off to see if that does anything before noticing the door.

...can he open the door? he's going to open the door to go explore really quick. he now has a few weapons, a makeshift shield, and the DVD. good job sora.]

[ There's a vent on the ceiling for both Sora and Alex! Considering what they know about the ventilation system, that probably does not feel great. And, in general, their thoughts might be starting to get scattered, speaking of the ventilation system. That's cool and fine.

Sora goes first because that's quicker: why the bone saw. It wouldn't even work. Fortunately for both of us, whatever power is connecting the saw is a little more complicated than a simple electric socket and goes straight into the wall, so unless Sora feels like ripping that apart, no saw for him. There's nothing under the operating table that wouldn't have been immediately visible for him to see because that is how operating tables work. There goo and blood are both dry on the table, though now that he's looking closer, he'll see what looks like a human tooth stuck in the dry goo. Ewww. The lamp turns on and off, but that's about all it does.

The door to room number one opens! It's still very dark in there since the power is off, but the liquid in the test tube glows enough for Sora to look. And look he probably will, since if he looks closer to those pods, he'll recognize the faces in two of them. Especially considering one of them is sort of his own! Because that's definitely Riku and Roxas's face staring emptily back at him, suspended in that mysterious glowing liquid.

Alex will find a child's small plush underneath one of the pillows on the bed. It's well worn and missing an eye, but it's there. The mural itself seems to have been done by a child as well, with the drawings more simplistic at the bottom of the wall... and getting more intricate near the top. It's the only burst of color that isn't horrible possibly alien goo in this place. There's nothing of big interest, but since she's paying attention, she'll realize the mural is covering the door to a small passageway... potentially leading to chamber 4.

There's nothing in the couch, but there's a few used crayons hidden underneath the rug. That's dangerous. Someone could eat shit on that. While she's looking under both couch and bed, though, she'll find a silver bracelet with odd circle indentations. A child's drawing is next to it. If she pulls both out, the child's drawing depicts someone wearing the bracelet with some kind of circle around them deflecting an attack. It reads "nicked it!!!".

The TV does, in fact, have a DVD player. ]

[ well the plush is now coming with her. it's fine, she has pockets now. the mural is not getting touched because there's something that is growling and occasionally roaring in chamber 4 and alex likes not being mauled.

the drawing and the bracelet are also coming with her because finder's keepers. also is the tv displaying anything or is it just waiting for her to run into chamber 2 as fast as her little drugged legs can carry her, get the dvd from sora and run back to pop the dvd in and try to play it?

because she's gonna get started on that, running over to chamber 2 to find sora ]

I found a dvd player-- and some other things, like a bracelet and a plush doll? I--

[ oh hello. those look a lot more like people than the others did. ]

[he could have used it as a bludgeoning tool? gosh. but pretty much nothing matters because he's having trouble stringing together sentences. it takes a moment for him to even hear her because he's busy staring between the two tubes.]

Huh? Oh. [oh. he turns to face her, and for a moment he looks like he isn't sure what to say.] ...we shouldn't split up. But that DVD might be important.

[...but he turns to head that way, still keeping his head turned to watch the tubes.] ...let's see what's on it. But we have to come back. Promise me.

[if they manage to get back to the other room though, he'll pull out the DVD to try and play it.]

[ They get back to the other room fine, although Alex will recognize some people of her own in the other tubes, in similar positions. Warrick and Nic, specifically.

But I'm sure the dvd is more important so off they go!

The TV wasn't turned on or playing anything, and they put in the DVD with no difficulty. The TV is small and old, but... it might be whatever they've been inhaling continuing to take effect, but it almost feels like they're seeing what's on it personally.

There's a man in a lab coat taking up most of their field of vision. His face is obscured, though his words are crystal clear. "A disappointment. None of the subjects brought to me this time who have been injected have survived the serum intact. Mutations, irreparable neurotrauma, death... Even you. I had high hopes for you. No matter. The numbers should be high enough for the—"

The DVD didn't look damaged, but it skips here. This time, the scene depicts a young child in the bedroom they're in, drawing the mural. For Sora, this will look oddly like a younger Kairi, while Alex will see a child version of her brother. The child turns and looks grimly into the camera. They hold a finger up to their mouth, and the sound of screams and a bone saw from the room next door can be heard. They reach into their pocket and bring out what looks like an elevator keycard before pointing towards the ceiling.

The DVD skips again, and this time, it keeps flashing.

Something is killing people. It's a giant rampaging mutated monster with large claws and fangs. No, wait, it's a person? No, it's-- an alien spreading goo all over--

The DVD stops, abruptly, and the TV shows only static now. ]

[ NO her EMOTIONAL SUPPORT HITMEN

... but yes, the dvd is important. let's react to seeing that. ]

--Emilio?

[ and then she's looking up at the ceiling -- is there anything up there that might indicate where the keycard is, if that's where it is? is it in the vent? how do they get the poison vent open, help ]

I... Sora, did you find any injections in that room? Didn't the note say something about a fifth subject needing further injections?

[ can she climb on the sofa and try and reach the ceiling vent if that's what she needs to be aiming for here? she has a whole 4cm on sora she can make it count. ]

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