The Deadland

(ooc: Im assuming in the family meeting they let Patience in on their real names so they don't have to pretend in the house, but I'll correct if wrong.)

Suzaku didn't sleapt for most the night, his thoughts had been too jumbled, too confused. He instead had sat at the window his gaze drifting between the city and the soul gem he held in his hand. He was still struggling to take in everything Lelouch had told him as well as what had happened but there was nothing he could do now. So he accepted it.

He must have dozed off sometime before dawn though because he woke to the pattering of rain. Looking out the water he blinked in cofusion, instead of grey clouds like he was expecting, the sky was perfectly blue.

He rubbed his eyes and went out into the main apartment, no it was the same here. Raining but from blue sky, he had never seen anything like it before, he tapped lightly on Fletcher's door. "Come a..."

Fletcher wasn't in his bed. Suzkau frowned "Lelouch? Patience?" He went to knock on both their doors.

Radio Post a little later:

[There is a lot of crackling and static, Suzaku fixed his radio as best he could, but it still isn't perfect] H ...anyone... a little boy.... small... blonde hair... Missing... If you see... please ask... Zero

So... how long is it supposed to be until this universe, um, revitalizes itself? Did anyone ever say?

[Over the radio] This is Rivalz. Would everyone that is staying with me please return to our apartment? We have some important things to discuss regarding the recent developments.

((OOC: Tag format can either be in brackets or prose, it doesn't particularly matter. But feel free to just tag in as your characters arriving and chitchatting. I have to run and take another exam but I'll be back and I'll tag in his few main points in a couple separate threads for discussion's sake. Then we can have a round of Monopoly like Katy, Ketsu and I wanted |D Okay? Okay!))

[Patience spent all the time she had away from her kind but unfamiliar housing-mates working on some weaponry of her own after the oh-so-helpful doctor's kind advice, and she's snuck out on the streets now to use it.

If you venture close, you might note that not only does she have someone's borrowed shoulder bag slung and bulging over her shoulder but her hands are stained rusty up to the middle of her forearm, darker half-moons under her fingernails. A fine spatter of blood on her cheek suggests something has happened, but her frown suggests it was nothing satisfying and the howls are drawing steadily closer no matter what she does.]

Lelouch had finished bandaging Suzaku's leg, Suzaku was still a little confused by his reaction, after all he had given Lelouch a lot of information, including the fact he was dead. Did part of him remember that? Was that why he was so calm?

Or was it just because this was Lelouch and would not show Suzaku his real emotions. A knock on the door startled him and he reached for the helmet putting it back on and going to unlock the door.

[radio]
[ if the child handed it to her, it's got to be useful, right? So after a few minutes of fleeing to find somewhere safe, she examines it and - a little doubtfully - presses the button. ]

H-hello? This is Lillet Blan, a student of the Silver Star. Oh, but that might not mean anything... um, I'm a magician, but without crystals I can't-- Oh n- [ aaand it cuts off as she has to relocate ]

What am I meant to do with a Laboratory, out here?

[action]
[ at any point in this weird broadcast, you can come across Lillet running from building to building, trying to find a safe place to draw a Laboratory Rune from the overly large tome she's cradling. And failing. ]

--- radio ---

[ there's a bit of crackle on the channel before a voice, mellifluous and utterly calm, starts broadcasting. monsters everywhere? psh. that's a minor concern compared to other things. ]

It's all a very interesting game. Familiar, too, in a way. Asper the board, we the pawns, and the synergy between each piece will be what brings about the salvation and success of this faltering world.

he pauses for a moment before he chuckles lightly ]

But it makes you wonder: who, exactly, is moving us all?

--- action ---

[ and for those who might be near the department store and happen to chance a peek inside, they might see a man with a pair of bloodstained scissors in his hands and a faint smile on his face. there is the smallest puddle of blood near his feet, in which lies in the corpse of a puppycat. look closely enough, though, and you might notice that a few usually prominent facial features seem to have gone conveniently missing... ]

Uh... Where did that little kid go? He was saying something about a wish and helping this universe?

I was in the middle of something really important. I mean, I'd really like to help! But I need to finish what I was doing back home first. Can I just leave for a little while and then come back after that's done?

Open: [As darkness began to fall the sounds of the monsters faded as the moved away from the centre of the city. Suzaku had no idea why and he worried about it. Why would they just retreat? Was it the darkness? That would be strange, Suzaku had read stories where monsters came out at night and retreated in the day but never the other way round.

He made one more loop of the street, he had a shallow scratch on one of his legs, the bottom of his trousers were ripped a little, there was a deeper scratch on his arm but nothing serious. He was wearing the normal clothes that Lelouch had given him, they were blood stained but most of it wasn't his own. He was still wearing the Zero mask. He pulled the radio out of his pocket.]

The monsters are retreating from the central area of the city, what is the situation elsewhere?

A little later, for Lelouch, Fletcher and Patience: Suzaku checked the streets nearby and the whole apartment building for any remaining monsters before heading to the apartment. It seemed the situation was similar over the whole city and the monsters were gone... for now. He reached up to knock on the door realising there was blood on his hand.

Six months of peace, not everything had been perfect but... Suzaku hadn't had to kill since Zero Requiem had been completed. Though he could and should never rid himself of the guilt of all those he had killed before, he hadn't had to kill...

Until today and though they were monsters, monsters that wanted to kill them they still bled and died the same way as humans had. He had lost count of how many he had shot at today... He knocked quietly and rested his head, still wearing the mask, against the door feeling the urge to laugh at the whole situation.

…And to think that just yesterday I had hoped to hear the sounds of animals in the city. Such a desolate place without birdsong, though the howls of animals, while many, haven’t helped. [she tapers off, a little lost in thought before continuing]

For those who haven't met me yet, my name is Ouka. I've been given directions to set up a clinic in Room 112 at the Mercy Street Apartments - [stops abruptly, before sneezing] I’m sorry, for those in need of medical attention. Unfortunately, it’s not in the best of states this morning…all this dust is rather troublesome. But it’s serviceable. Anyone in need of healing is welcome to stop by. I will do my best to treat you.

[the door to room 112 is wide open, with Ouka on her knees on the floor, trying to get at the last piece of dust. feel free to walk by or come in and say hello]

[Action]

[Normally, Mami Tomoe was a very competent, focused fighter. Watching her fight was like watching a deadly dance, all smooth movements and precise shots.

This Mami, however, was barely a shadow of what she once was. Her mind and heart had been a wreck when she woke up in that strange room. The conversation with that strange child - I can grant any wish you want - had only brought up another wave of horrible memories. She was confused, upset, and stuck in the middle of a complete breakdown with nobody there to help her.

So when she appeared in the world proper, and near-immediately found herself face-to-face with a strange hybrid monster that should not have scared her after all she had seen, but was utterly terrifying to her in her current mental state, she did the first thing her horror-stricken mind thought of: run.

So she does. As she does, enough sense comes back to her to fight, defend yourself. So she turns, summons a rifle, and fires. Her hands are shaking too much and the bullet just about grazes the creature, so she discards it and summons another rifle. This shot manages to hit, but only barely. So she summons a third, aims, squeezes the trigger...

Click.

It's empty.]

What...

[Her shock and confusion causes her to hesitate just long enough; the monster, wounded and snarling, pounces.]

[Radio; some time later]

[The voice coming in over the radio is shaky, but a bit less frightened than its owner had been when she first woke up.] This place... I don't understand. I should be dead. How... how am I here?

[OOC: the action is first come, first serve, to keep things from getting confusing! If someone else tagged the action already, feel free to tag the radio post instead.]

[ when Rat can focus again against the lurch and shift of worlds and consciousness, it's the smell that hits him first. The overwhelming stench of rotten flesh and clotted blood, offal and bacteria. And the rust of iron.

When his vision slides back, he recognises the cage for what it is. What he doesn't recognise is the pile of meat that must have been a large animal at some point in the past. He's used to dead things, though, and after he remembers to breathe shallowly and through his mouth, he can occupy himself with working out a way out of the cage some bastard left him in.


An hour or so later, and he's exhausted himself trying to break the lock with alternatively a large rock and a shard of femur. It's only after this resounding failure that he deigns to try the radio. ]

Someone want to tell me why I'm in a fucking cage?

[This is not exactly alien to Patience - waking up in new places certainly is not, and though she loathes it with a passion, having magic worked on her while she was insensate is also not an unfamiliar occurrence. That doesn't mean she's taking it any better, though you wouldn't know it from her demeanor; besides her soft mouth being screwed up into a pout, her temper shows in nothing more than the extreme, clipped precision of her movements as she walks down a street, treading carefully and sticking to the edges of buildings, hearing the noises of chaos dimly from not too far away.

She already tried to pull on the ambient power to aid in scaling a building for hopefully safer high ground; it failed miserably, and now mingled fury, fear and near-painful tension keep her hair prickling on the back of her neck and her vision almost ignored in favour of acute attuning to the currents of the world around her.

She can still feel, at least. Even if she can't use it.

Bringing the radio up to her mouth she keeps her voice low and modulated in case anything dangerous is in close proximity, but clear so as to hopefully minimize the distortion of the device itself.]

Is anyone out there?