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The Big Applesauce Moderators ([personal profile] applesaucemod) wrote in [community profile] applesaucedream2015-07-31 06:16 pm

We Are Awakened With The Axe [Open to All]

 photo zombie dream party_zpsbb0hfksu.jpg


The city has been abandoned.

Its infrastructure has been slowly deteriorating for quite some time, now. Traffic has long since ground to a permanent halt, taxis and trucks rusting by the curbs or abandoned mid-intersection. Most of the ground-floor windows have been shattered. Electricity is spotty, if it can be found at all. The eerie silence is broken only by the wind, the calls of crows, or the gentle collapse of some structure or other. And, of course, the occasional screams.

The city has been abandoned, but it is not empty.

What caused the various outbreaks hardly matters. Viral infection, fungal infection, some new or ancient bacterium suddenly released into the general populace - who knows? What does matter is that the city has become home to thousands if zombies, some slow, some fast, some mindless, some retaining a savage kind of intelligence. And they are all so, so hungry.

There are weapons to be found or improvised, and places to hide if you're lucky enough to come across someplace well-fortified and otherwise empty. Others have clearly had the same idea, leaving hastily constructed barricades in some places. You might even take those as a blessing, if the conspicuous absence of the original builders doesn't bother you. They're probably living on a nice farm somewhere.

One thing is certain: if you don't want to succumb to whatever plagues have ravaged this place, you will have to fight for your survival.

[OOC: usual dream party rules apply; all are welcome to participate, and characters can remember or forget at the players' discretion. Also, usual zombie rules apply: if you get bitten, you'll be turned into the sort of zombie that bit you. Whether your characters deal with comically dim shamblers or the terrifying sprinty variety is up to you.

Finally, let's just go ahead and say tw: violence and gore for the post as a whole, because it's gonna get messy, folks.]
full_metal: (thousand yard stare)

[personal profile] full_metal 2015-08-01 01:17 am (UTC)(link)
First Avenue is a wreck, just like every other street, but at least this stretch of it is quiet. Rita was able to ensure that much before her spare battery gave out, forcing her to abandon her suit on the sidewalk. It stands there like a piece of modern art in front of a caved-in shop and the remains of a canvas banner, shredded in such a way that it now just reads DANGER. Hilarious.

She can see it clearly from where she's holed up, in a second-story flat across the way. All she has now is her side-arm and a few grenades. Enough to take out more of the enemy. Enough to take herself out, too, if she has to. What are the odds of her getting out of this alive?

When have the odds ever concerned her?

For now, she watches the street below. It's littered with bodies that lie where she dropped them, most no longer moving, one or two still twitching or groping in automatic reflex. Immobile enough to not be worth a bullet.

She was so close to making it to the bridge. God damn it.
etherthief: (whatever this feel is it's very intense)

[personal profile] etherthief 2015-08-01 01:41 am (UTC)(link)
Iman cannot stop moving.

Will not stop.

Her arm is covered now in blood and toxins. She has a protective etheric layer flickering around her, shielding her from breathing whatever this is, whatever's in the air, the water, their blood. She has to keep going.

She has to find Greta.

Another of the creatures writhes up out of what appeared to be a pile of corpses, latching onto her and struggling to bite. She turns sharply, angrily, and kicks it hard enough to dislodge it, then plunges her arm through it, yanking back out, the two motions punctuated with a teeth-gritted angry snarl of "Fuck, you!"

She is getting very tired of this.

"Greta!" she yells, raw and hopeless, across the destitute landscape. It's stupid to draw such attention to herself but she doesn't care. She needs to find Greta. She needs to. "Greta!"
full_metal: (sergeant smugface)

[personal profile] full_metal 2015-08-01 02:01 am (UTC)(link)
... What in the hell is this.

Rita leans over to get a better look at the woman charging up the street. Small, exposed, one arm a metallic scaffold that could have come from the same factory that churned out her suit - except for the fact that there's no living arm beneath it. It's just a rough, twisted latticework that culminates in a heavy gauntlet.

A gauntlet that she savagely drives straight through one of the corpses Rita hadn't quite finished off.

Okay. This is worth investigating.

Rita shoves aside the thin curtain between herself and the empty air and levers herself halfway out the window. One hand grips the windowsill, the other curls around the ladder of a neighboring fire escape. She doesn't bother speaking; the other woman is screaming enough for the both of them. Instead, she raises her eyebrows, then gives the ladder a pointed downward shove until the bottom rung is low enough to grab.
etherthief: (shocked and appalled | noooo)

[personal profile] etherthief 2015-08-01 03:03 am (UTC)(link)
The piercing clang snaps her attention over, hand raised defensively, but it's not one of them, it's - is that-?

"Greta?!" She staggers slightly and then hauls ass over and up the fire escape. As she comes up she takes in the boot, the combat trousers and the body armor, all this gear. Is that really her?

She clambers up and rights herself, panting softly, looking up at her unmistakable face, her expression strange and foreign. Cold. Distant.

"Greta?" she says again, her voice trembling a little. How long has it been, how much has this changed her? She lifts her organic hand, reaching out to touch her.
full_metal: (totally down with shooting you)

[personal profile] full_metal 2015-08-01 03:15 am (UTC)(link)
There's that name again, close enough to her own to be a bit jarring. More than a bit, when accompanied by the way the woman's looking at her. Rita steps back to admit her, recovering her side-arm as she goes.

Then, in a smooth, practiced motion, she swings it up to point right between the woman's eyes.

"Have you been bitten?" she asks tersely. It's not immediately apparent; she's covered in blood, and her behavior doesn't scream 'stable.' This could be early stages.
etherthief: (intrigue | defiance | whoa now)

[personal profile] etherthief 2015-08-01 04:01 am (UTC)(link)
She manages to limit her reaction to a flinch and a startled blink before narrowing her eyes slightly. This isn't Greta. Somehow. It can't be.

"No, I have not," she says, and lifts her other hand to gently push the gun down. "I have protective shielding, generated by this." She wiggles her fingers. "Who are you?"
full_metal: (almost gentle)

[personal profile] full_metal 2015-08-01 04:36 am (UTC)(link)
A muscle in her jaw twitches when the woman pushes her gun down, but she withdraws, holstering the weapon. It was too measured a reaction for a plague victim, for all that was still arguably insane. (And really, who is she to judge?)

There are worse allies to have than the kind of woman who punches the enemy to actual death with a mechanical arm - one that can also, apparently, generate 'protective shielding.' What kind of tech is she working with? She eyes the arm, then lifts her gaze back to the other woman's face.

"Rita Vrataski." She's guessing her name won't be recognized, this time. What a goddamn treat. "You?"
etherthief: (intrigue | curiosity)

[personal profile] etherthief 2015-08-01 04:55 am (UTC)(link)
'Rita' is so close to 'Greta', but she's just not the same person at all. Iman regards her uneasily for a moment before answering, "Iman Asadi. I'm looking for a woman who looks exactly you."

Blunt, but to the point.

She steps around Rita gingerly and wanders into her proverbial lair, just to have a look around. "So I won't be staying."
full_metal: (Default)

[personal profile] full_metal 2015-08-01 05:09 am (UTC)(link)
"Greta," she says, faintly skeptical in a who-honestly-names-their-kid-that-anymore kind of way. Her apparent resemblance to the other woman isn't too hard to believe, given Asadi's initial reaction to her, but it still seems... weird. As if today wasn't weird enough.

She watches Asadi explore the flat, though there isn't much to see. There's a thick layer of dust over almost everything, save the furniture she moved to barricade the door, and the patterns of disturbance make it clear enough that she's spent most of her time hovering by the window. Waiting. For nothing in particular, which might make this the best shot at making some progress that she's going to get.

"What else can that do?" she asks with a pointed nod towards the mechanical prosthetic.
etherthief: (major side-eye reporting for duty)

[personal profile] etherthief 2015-08-01 05:20 am (UTC)(link)
"Yep." Iman follows the obvious steps to the window, looking out from Rita's vantage point. At the question she looks down at her arm. "Pretty much anything," she says. "I use it to generate energy fields, disruptions, alter the state of matter around me. I have to conserve that energy where I can. It also makes a pretty damn good bludgeon. That only runs out when I do."

She turns to size Rita up. "You got any bullets in that thing?" She nods toward the holstered sidearm.
full_metal: (no time for your shit)

[personal profile] full_metal 2015-08-01 05:46 am (UTC)(link)
That sounds... like bullshit, frankly. She's spent enough time with Dr. Carter to recognize science-based chatter that goes well above her paygrade, but this isn't just technical, it's impossible. 'Alter the state of matter'? Seriously?

"Wouldn't be carrying it otherwise," she deadpans, resting her hands on her hips. "But my real weapon is out there." She inclines her head towards the window, then lets her gaze fall back to Asadi's arm. "Can that thing seriously generate energy?" Like, say... recharge a battery?
etherthief: (oh damn check this shit out)

[personal profile] etherthief 2015-08-01 06:47 pm (UTC)(link)
"What," Iman peers out the window for a moment until her eyes fall on what looks like a metal suit, "that?" She turns back to assess Rita, which is weird, looking at her is weird, she's so... different, but so hot. This is the worst.

"Yes, it can. You want me to give it a jump?" She wastes no time stepping past Rita and hefting herself back onto the fire escape. "Honestly it looks like it'd just slow you down, but if that's what you got, then I'll see what I can do." She's nice like that. Looks like wherever Rita's from they're miles behind Iman's universe on prosthetic and robotic technologies, but what else is new.
full_metal: (almost gentle)

[personal profile] full_metal 2015-08-01 07:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Rita follows her out, her gaze hardening a little at Asadi's dismissive assessment of the suit. No point in correcting her; if she really can boost the batteries, she'll see what it can do soon enough. If not, Rita's no worse off than she was before Asadi showed up.

"Batteries are dead," she explains, stepping lightly down onto the pavement. "Primary and spare." A press of a button drops the spare out of its slot and into her palm, and she passes it over with a slightly arched eyebrow.
etherthief: (doin science to a thing)

[personal profile] etherthief 2015-08-01 07:08 pm (UTC)(link)
And it runs on batteries. How immensely impractical. Iman frowns, folding her arms as she gives the thing a once-over.

"This might take a lot out of me," she says. "It'll recharge - no batteries here, it comes out of me, just - I can't exactly stop for a breather, here." Well, maybe they can trade off. She reaches out to take the battery. "Here goes nothing."

She reaches into the battery's inner workings - like riding a bike, even if it feels strangely unfamiliar, like she hasn't done it in a while - and tells it to wake up.

"And you should be good for another..." she slips it back into its slot, "however long these things last."
full_metal: congrats (tiny wee smile)

[personal profile] full_metal 2015-08-01 07:30 pm (UTC)(link)
The suit whirrs back into ready mode, and Rita actually smiles. Her ammo might be limited - and already on the low side - but as long as the suit itself is functioning... hell, she can do plenty of damage just with her sword, not to mention the punishing edges of the suit itself.

She gives Asadi a reassessing once-over - looks like she's found her new best friend - and then unholsters her sidearm, offering it to the other woman. If she's draining herself just to power the suit, it's probably the least Rita can do. "Here. This might help tide you over for a bit."

Once Asadi's relieved her of the gun, Rita steps into the suit, shifting her weight as it settles around her with a series of hydraulic hisses. God, that is just... so much better. She takes an experimental step or two, making sure everything feels as it should. Whatever weird trick Asadi did with the battery, the suit can't seem to tell the difference. She rolls her shoulders, then stoops to retrieve her sword.

"We should leave the island," she says, shifting back around to face Asadi. "But I'm guessing you're not going anywhere without my doppelgänger."
Edited 2015-08-01 19:30 (UTC)
etherthief: (this is not going well | dude no)

[personal profile] etherthief 2015-08-02 01:11 am (UTC)(link)
"Correct," she says, taking the sidearm with a grateful nod and trying very hard not to think about how good she looks like this. This is a total stranger who happens to look exactly like the woman she loves, no big deal, right? This body just looks really good covered in scrapes and grime and robot suit. Not that Greta would look good like that, that would be awful. Oh dear god get a hold of yourself.

"But more to the point," she says, "we can't leave the island. No one leaves the island."

She about-faces, scanning the area for any immediate danger. Rita cleaned this place out pretty good. "We find Greta and then find a place to hole up for as long as we can." And that's the end of that.
full_metal: (off to wreck shit)

[personal profile] full_metal 2015-08-02 01:28 am (UTC)(link)
Either she's missing something, or Asadi's got an even grimmer general outlook than she does. It's hard to say which is more likely. But there's not much point in arguing right now. They find this 'Greta' person - that's step one no matter how the final plan shakes out - and then they can decide what to do next. The thought of holing up again gnaws at her, but if push comes to shove, she might be able to convince Asadi to give her gear one last boost before striking back out on her own.

"Right," she says, hefting the sword up onto her shoulder. Even with the living population drastically reduced as it is, it's not going to be easy to locate one specific person in all of Manhattan. And that's assuming - perhaps too charitably - that Greta hasn't already joined the horde. "Well, you know her best. Where would she go?"

That might be too charitable, too. Asadi's initial charge up the street had been purposeful, but not especially well-reasoned. Rita's not joining her on a directionless slog of unmitigated desperation. They pick a target, then they head out.
etherthief: (i'm doING THINGS)

[personal profile] etherthief 2015-08-02 06:39 am (UTC)(link)
Iman chews her lip, hating the question as much as she knows it's necessary. She's already scouted out Greta's building and neighborhood, which was a fucking bust. The city was still pretty new to her.

"She's not exactly from this time period," she says. "I mean, she's from like, fucking medieval ages. This isn't comfortable territory for her."

She realizes how unlikely this makes it sound that she's even still alive.

But she refuses to consider that outcome. No matter how unscientific, how inadvisable, how selfish - she just can't. This is the only reason she's still working so damn hard and that doesn't make her proud but it's what it is.

"I think the park is the only viable option," she says finally. "But she wouldn't just be wandering, she'll be hiding somewhere, trying to stay safe. Not sure where that could be."

She sets off toward the park anyway. It's a start. It's a direction. That's all she needs.
full_metal: (super suit)

[personal profile] full_metal 2015-08-02 03:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh. The new best friend is clinically insane. That's good to know.

Rita doesn't follow for a few moments. Instead, she considers whether the odds of finding Greta alive would be any higher if she was or wasn't imaginary. If Asadi's actually telling the truth about where (or when) Greta comes from, Rita can't imagine she would have lasted that long. Even in the park, where there's less good cover to counterbalance the smaller population density.

Then again, if Greta's origins were a bit more believable, would that really make this less of a wild goose chase?

Probably not.

She shifts to look back over her shoulder. The Queensboro Bridge is close.

The park isn't that much farther.

God. Fine. She'll get Asadi to the park; she owes her more than a sidearm for the battery.

There's a quiet sigh, and then rhythmic whirring as she sets off after Asadi. "So," she says once she's caught up, "what makes you so certain she's still alive?" It's not a nice question, but this isn't a nice situation. One of them has to be practical.
etherthief: (excuse the fuck outta you)

[personal profile] etherthief 2015-08-02 05:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, we're already doing that, are we. Lovely. Iman frowns tightly and weighs the pros and cons of just not answering.

"I'm not," she says at last. "Thank you."

She could offer more explanation but she won't, 'cause seriously? Fuck that. This woman might be Greta's extremely hot doppelganger but she is no Greta Baker.
full_metal: (off to wreck shit)

oh boy violence and gore

[personal profile] full_metal 2015-08-02 06:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Rita lapses into a silence that is only somewhat satisfied and definitely doesn't qualify as 'companionable.' But silence is better than talking for plenty of reasons, and at least now she knows Asadi's head isn't entirely in the sand.

They make it to Park without incident, but the avenue is too wide and unobstructed for them to escape the notice of a ragged cluster of zombies a few blocks away. "Company," Rita says with a nod. And they're runners, too - that's just perfect.

Rita doesn't wait to meet them. She charges forward, the suit elongating her stride, and swings her sword in a vicious arc, cleaving the frontrunner in half. No resets, no fuck-ups, no option but to get the job done. She rounds on another, using her own momentum to send the blade straight through the putrified remains of its abdomen, severing its spine. It still claws at her blindly; she lifts a fist to its head and spares a short burst of gunfire at point-blank range, shredding its skull into an unrecognizable, pulpy mess. Still gotta conserve ammo.

But hey, the suit's working. And this is vastly preferable to sitting in some random flat.
etherthief: (playing with fire)

more gore and weird shit, gun violence, etc

[personal profile] etherthief 2015-08-02 06:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Iman raises her arm, ready to fire a blast, but then Rita just takes off. Holy shit, she can move in that thing. She must be strong as all hell. Iman ends up slowing and stopping completely, just watching as Rita rains down hell on the horde. That sword. Her fucking gymnastic grace.

"Fuck me," she announces to no one before recovering herself and charging forward. As if she's gonna let Rita have all the fun.

She slams her arm through a creature that's coming up behind Rita, swings and knocks another down with it, and then fires an unforgiving pulse of rippling energy, the pressure alternately crushing and ripping them apart. That was a big one, all right. With that and the battery recharge she's gonna need to wait a bit. Which is fine, cause she can sure as fuck still punch.

She draws the sidearm too, and gets several clean headshots in a row.

All right, playing field leveled. Now she can just break some faces.

She does not think about how cathartic this is.
full_metal: (super suit)

and so, dear reader, they continued to slaughter the undead

[personal profile] full_metal 2015-08-02 07:15 pm (UTC)(link)
After dealing with mimics, there's almost no contest. Close-range combat is their only option and the only time they pose a real threat, their movements are comparatively slow and predictable as hell. This feels less like real combat and more like an unnecessarily messy training exercise as Rita methodically slices her way through the horde, no longer bothering with guns or grenades because she doesn't need to. The sword is enough.

It helps that she has back-up. Asadi does some more weird science with her arm, causing two of them to crumple like a pair of beer cans, then lapses into neatly executed headshots and a hell of a lot of punching. Shit, imagine what she could do if she had a suit.

Most of the zombies have been downed, but there's one more straggler approaching. Rita charges forward and cuts it down, planting a boot in its face as she skids down the pavement, leaving a wet smear behind her.

Okay. That was fun.

She walks back to Asadi, breathing heavily but in better spirits than she was before. "Okay?" she asks, looking her over for obvious wounds.
etherthief: (fascination | close)

[personal profile] etherthief 2015-08-02 09:02 pm (UTC)(link)
"For all intents and purposes," says Iman, looking up at her with a small, sharp grin. "That was pretty badass."

She straightens up and wipes herself off, more or less. "All right then. Shall we?"

The journey to the park is slightly less fraught, a miraculously clear shot. The park itself is a mostly flat fucking surface crawling with scattered clusters of undead. The procession is slow and stubborn, lit with scattered slicing and punching.

"Look," she's snapping after an uncertain amount of exploration. "If you want to try getting off this rock you are welcome, I'm just saying, and it's not cynicism, it's not going to-"

She cuts herself off as her eyes drift over the horizon and land on - is that a castle?

"Okay," she says, and points to it. "That's where we're going. Happy?"
full_metal: (off to wreck shit)

[personal profile] full_metal 2015-08-02 09:16 pm (UTC)(link)
"Thrilled," Rita deadpans as a shambler reels out of a neighboring shrub. She dispatches it absently with the flat of her sword. The park had been a more manageable search area than 'the entire island,' but it's still pretty goddamn huge. A more specific target is a welcome change. The fact that it's a castle is... yeah, probably fitting. If Greta really is from some medieval era - or just a little too into that kind of thing - sure, that's probably where she'd go. It looks fortified, at least from here, so they might even find her alive.

The castle itself isn't very big, which becomes more apparent the closer they draw to it. Most of the windows appear to have been smashed, though many have been hastily recovered with wood and formica. There's something flying from one of the tower windows, though - a mostly-white scrap of cloth, twisting in the intermittent breeze like a flag of surrender. Rita squints at it, and the thinner ties streaming off the main square of fabric. "Is that an apron?"

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tw character death, EMOTIONS

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