( OPEN ) GAME START.

[monstermasher]

▶ WHO: Everyone.
▶ DATE: July 9th, 2015 (Day 1)
▶ WARNINGS: Blood, violence, general zombie horror.
▶ SUMMARY: You've met with a bad... however that line goes. Welcome to Earth.

GOOD MORNING!

---

Please try and ignore whatever it is that you just heard. It should only last for up to a minute... maybe.

It... it is morning, right?

There are no windows.

There's a light, but it's barely considered one. The compound runs on a solar generator, but that doesn't mean it has a lot of power. The light seems to be hanging from the ceiling, swinging precariously. That's when you might actually start to wake up, sit up, find the things that are familiar to you... and then some of the things that aren't. It'd be wise to explore the small room you're in before leaving through the steel door, but there's nobody around to tell you that.

Outside is a tightly knit compound, just as dark and metallic as the room. The hallway you're in houses dozens more doors identical to yours, and if you're unlucky there may be more people poking their heads out through them, just like you. There's a dull glowing sign that reads MEDICAL BAY but not all of you remember being hurt. Some of you may be just fine, apart from the memory of the sound you heard when waking up.

The Medical Bay is stocked with enough medicine to last a couple of months. There's almost everything that can be found in a hospital. Somebody was thinking ahead.

Outside of the Medical Bay are more doors, some are even locked—many aren't. There are living quarters, a food storage, a kitchen, some laboratories; even a room full of computers and nothing else, all with a screen asking for a password. There's only two doors out of the compound, a vehicle bay with what appear to be a few military jeeps and trucks, and the front doors. It's on the inside of the front doors that something is painted in bright red, flecked with what smell like blood:

DO NOT GO OUTSIDE WITHOUT A GUN AND WATER.
GUNSHOTS ATTRACT THEM.
HOLLOWS IS 1.3 MILES NORTH OF HERE.
GOOD LUCK.

And on the outside of the doors, if you choose to open them:

THE WORLD ENDED JULY 3RD, 2015.

Now... how long ago was that? And where is this place? Luckily for you, Hollows is a small town that can be raided. It hasn't been too long since the apocalypse—surely you'll be able to find something there. Batteries, food, weapons, maybe some people—and what you're guaranteed to find. Them, whatever that means.

Outside of the compound there's a fence with a single gate. Nothing can get past this unless you let them in for tea, so be careful. There's a shooting range and a large shed full of weapons and ammo, enough to last two months if you're careful. Guns, knives, anything that would be used by the military and police is hidden away in the shed. There are even a few hunting bows with arrows.

If you climb up the ladder to the top of the wall, there's enough room to walk along the top. There's definitely something moving in the distance, something you should definitely be worrying about. Maybe it's time to get a good look with a sniper rifle...?

Oh.

It's gone.

Maybe it was just a trick of the light. Regardless, it's impossible for everyone to stay in the compound forever. There are nefarious things at work! The choices are to go to Hollows, stick around, or go somewhere else. Really, the world is almost a blank slate. Maybe more of a used slate, but still yours to explore.

When the night comes, you should be hiding. The screamers, the ragers, whatever the hell they are, are running full tilt through the streets and across the landscape, running through anything in their way, ripping apart anything alive. If you don't make any noise, they won't notice you. Especially since they're stuck listening to each other. But if you get noticed by one, it won't be long until a horde forms... you might be able to outrun one for awhile, but they don't seem to let up on their breakneck pace. Maybe someone should have told you how to kill them.

OOC NOTES.

---

There will be zombies in Hollows. Whether you meet them on the way there is up to you. Apart from the undead and the animals (maybe somebody should let those poor creatures out of their houses) the town is completely deserted. In fact, the closest thing you can find to a human are the bodies of those who died without being bitten, and there's even few of those. You can find anything you'd find in a normal town here, and are free to loot and raid the houses and stores—the cops won't be coming, after all. The power is OFF apart from what you can find that is solar powered or still has a charge. If you're lucky and find another town while exploring the first few weeks, you might find an area that still has power—thank hydroelectricity.

Just keep in mind travel time... and travel expenses.

You have creative freedom over everything else. The world is open. The only stationary places are landmarks and cities—if you want to go to Texas and talk to the poor astronauts stranded up in space, it's there. (Might be a long trip, though...)

If your character can figure it out by geography before getting to Hollows, the compound is located a few hours from the west coast, in California.

The way to kill a zombie is blunt force to the head. The head doesn't need to be removed, but significant damage needs to be done to it. This does not include the throat—it needs to be a headshot.

There's also a glaring hint. The computers in the compound, asking for a password. It is impossible to hack at this time. There will be more on this later!

Finally, if your character is exploring outside of the compound (or extensively inside of it) there's a comment here for linking me the thread. You can also PM me! I'll be ducking in with what your character may or may not have found, via a response to the actual RP thread.

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS please direct them here!

Comments

wanda maximoff | mcu | ota

[allages]

[ she finds a puzzle about worms next to the bed in which she wakes up. one of the pieces is bloody, but wanda pays it little attention because she's also found a newspaper clipping with a picture of her brother and herself. she doesn't remember the picture being taken, but that does not matter. pietro is alive in it, and he isn't anymore.

( later, she'll find that someone's written THE WORLD ENDED JULY 3RD, 2015. on a wall, and it'll make her lips twist into a bitter smile, because her world ended the moment her brother died — )

there is someone else around, and wanda turns onto them. there is nothing scared in her voice or in her body language. there is anger, and there is confidence. ] Tell me everything that you know about where I am. [ a beat, and her eyes narrow. ] I'll know if you're lying.

[ her brother is dead, but someone still took her from where she'd been and brought her here, and she has no memory of it. maybe she shouldn't have trusted the avengers — but no. tony stark is not to blame for this, no matter what else his crimes. ]

[prepper]

[ pepper is slightly taken aback by the tone in which she's spoken to, but she supposes that she's not the only person here who has questions and is less than pleased by the circumstances. you work in a company like stark industries long enough, you get kind of used to the emotions that people fling at you. the young woman seems familiar, oddly enough, but right now, pepper can't quite place her. it's lost somewhere amongst hazes of unclear news footage and general chaos, and too many thoughts about what this place might be. she shrugs, her brow furrowing a little. ]

I'm as clueless as you are. [ she glances down at her chest, the acronym emblazoned across her found t-shirt. ] Guess this makes me look like I might know something, but I just found it on my bed.

[ how would she know if pepper was lying, anyway? no one's that perceptive, surely. pepper might be a great liar, for all this girl knows. except, of course, pepper is an atrocious liar, but still. ]

[allages]

[ that pepper is taken aback by her tone does not bother wanda very much; she did not approach pepper to make a friend, she approached pepper to receive answers — but when pepper says that she's as clueless as wanda is, the statement rings true. it's enough to make wanda deflate a little, some of the aggressiveness bleeding out of the set of her shoulders and her jaw to make space for worry and hopelessness. ]

So you woke up here as well without knowing how you arrived?

[prepper]

[ that's better; if wanda isn't here to make friends, totally fine by pepper, but she's not one to bend very easily to others. she'd rather this be a purposeful, calm exchange of what they know — or don't know, as the case is more likely to be. a sense of helplessness, though, pepper can relate to. ]

Exactly. That seems to generally be the case, so far. [ she offers a thin smile. ] Information's pretty thin on the ground, from people here or otherwise.

[allages]

[ wanda would prefer anger to hopelessness or worry — at least anger is easier, but anger can be dangerous, too. ultron had used pietro's and her anger against the avengers, employed it for his own goal that hadn't aligned with theirs. anger might be easier, but it's dangerous, and right now, it's difficult to hold on to when everything she has is telling her that this woman is telling the truth. she doesn't know anything more than wanda herself knows.

she doesn't smile back, but she takes a step out of pepper's personal space again. it's a concession, if not quite an apology. ]

Great.

[ so - ] Have you talked to a lot of people?

[sigillum]

[There's nothing in Ollie's expression or body language that says threat; she can fight if she has to, and has killed plenty of people in her life, but she'd rather... not. Especially not another woman.

So when Wanda addresses her with that anger, Ollie holds her hands up in a gesture of surrender, but she can't answer that question.

At least not out loud, which is why she gestures to her lips before shaking her head, then mouths I can't talk.

Her life is hard.]

[allages]

[ there is nothing in the other woman's body language that says threat, but there is something in her mind that tells wanda that she could be one if she chose to be. maybe wanda should count herself lucky that she isn't choosing to be one right now.

her jaw clenches for a moment, unclenches, clenches again. reading minds, really reading them in a way that conveys more than ideas and pictures, in a way that conveys thought is difficult and takes a lot of concentration.

still, if this woman cannot talk - ] Think it, then.

[ there are ways around an obstacle like that, at least for wanda. ]

[sigillum]

[Witches that work with minds are a rare thing, there are none in Ollie's coven, but she remembers the mental backlash when one died in the facility and she-- doesn't think about that.

Instead, she focuses on how she woke up, the wire around her leg and the fear, how she fled, scared, and how she has no idea what this place is.

She figures feelings and images will explain things more easily than words could.]

[allages]

[ the woman — ollie — thinks about a coven and about witches and for a moment, wanda almost focuses on that. whatever ollie thinks about her doesn't matter; what matters is finding information, what matters is learning what she can about where she is.

ollie knows no more than wanda, and that's as frustrating as it is worrisome. no one seems to have any real information, and wanda knows this much: keeping people in the dark is a way of keeping people scared and small.

but given that ollie has no information to offer about this place, wanda allows herself a moment to ask - ] Witches?

[ maybe she's like one, but she knows where her powers come from, and it's science rather than witchcraft. ]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[kleptos]

[ peter's still got an actual magneto plush toy in his hands when he finds wanda, even though it's absolutely useless for anything but maybe having someone to cling to at night like some scared little kid. which he doesn't plan on doing. and he waves it around vaguely when he speaks, seemingly unable to keep still despite the severity of the situation the both of them have found themselves in.

and, well, he's always found it hard to concentrate. it's probably unsurprising that he knows just as much as she does - which is to say, absolutely nothing. ]

Dunno. I just woke up here with this dumb toy and had a look around and saw those signs and that was it. I don't know anything else than that. Seems weird that they would say the world has ended though, seems alright to me, though I haven't been anywhere else but here, so who even knows? [ he only pauses briefly between some words to catch his breath, though seems pretty happy to talk almost too quickly about something he knows nothing about. ]

Was I lying? How can you even tell? Are you psychic?

[allages]

[ the first thing about him wanda notices once she takes a closer look, one that goes beyond identifying that there is someone near her who might have information, is that he's holding a plush toy; she doesn't recognise who or what of. the second thing is that his mind works incredibly fast — as fast as her brother's, and she doesn't think she could keep up at all if not for the familiarity with pietro's mind.

his hair has a similar colour, too, and the reminder of her brother comes with the sharp sting of loss.

at least he sounds differently when he talks, and looks different aside from the hair. still, the similarities are there and they're enough to make her ignore his question entirely. ] Who are you?

[kleptos]

[ well, that's just not cool - he has questions. mostly about whether or not she really is psychic and can tell if he's lying about anything, which would be really cool and something he would love to have himself (or just the ability to lie really well, which he already mostly has). but he supposes that they can wait for a better time.

or just until he's told her who he is. that definitely works, too. ]

Peter. Maximoff, if you want a last name as well. [ he looks at her, kind of intensely, then. ] Was I lying just then? Can you actually tell? It's really important that I know, because that can decide a few things about what I do.

[ mostly about whether or not he can steal things from her at any point, but you know. details. ]

[allages]

[ maximoff —

wanda recoils, shoulders hunching as if to deflect a blow, but the pain she's feeling is entirely emotional and defensive posture cannot protect her from it. he isn't lying, but - ]

How is that your name.

[ it's a stupid question and she knows that it is the moment that it leaves her mouth, but then she doesn't expect a serious answer; it's more an expression of her disbelief than anything else.

he isn't her brother, but there are elements of pietro that she recognises: not just the name, but the speed and the intent - but her brother is dead and this one is called peter, not pietro.

wanda forces herself upright again. ] I don't understand.

[ it doesn't change anything whether she does or not, though, does it? ] You are not lying, and I can actually tell.

[expeditiously]

[Pietro's been outside, has also seen the message about the end of the world and the state that it's now in. They must've failed, even if there's more left than he expected.

Even so, he still searches hard for his sister, believing with all his heart that she's survived the end. She must have, because Pietro doesn't feel that heart breaking, not the way hers did for him. She's alive, and eventually he finds her.]

You think I would lie to you, little sister? [He smirks as he steps from the shadow and the rubble, but what he feels is nearly weak with relief to have found her.] If so, it really must be the end of the world.

[allages]

[ it cannot be pietro. pietro is dead and the end of the world surely did not bring back the dead. if it had, it would not be the end of the world but a new beginning. ( later, she will come to realise just how ironic that thought really is, but right now, she believes it. )

her brother is dead, and she wishes the truth of that did not resonate, that she didn't know it with certainty. her brother is dead, and she wants to believe so badly that he isn't; she wants to believe it isn't true and that means that she cannot believe the figure in front of her at all. maybe it is grief and maybe it is stress, maybe someone else got into her head the way she manipulated the avengers.

it doesn't matter.

what matters is this: her brother is dead, and so this person cannot truly be her brother, no matter how badly she believes it. she cannot believe it, because she wants to. ]

My brother is dead. [ that is spat out, grief making her voice sharp and her tone bitter, her shoulders drawn up tight and tense.

but -

but he sounds like pietro and he smirks like pietro and he feels like pietro when she pushes her mind past the barriers of his, and she almost wavers. she wants him to be alive, she wants her brother back.

she doesn't know what is true anymore.

weaker, her tone much less aggressive and more questioning, she adds - ] I felt you die.

[ i saw your body she doesn't say, or i wanted to die with you or i buried you. ]

[expeditiously]

[So he did not recover. Pietro thinks he must've already known that, already knew that when he hit the dirt, the next step for him was to be buried underneath it. Maybe this is the age of miracles that Baron von Strucker talked about. A result of Hydra's longing or time travel or the sheer longing of the true miracle, his sister. Whatever it is, the fact remains that her brother was dead, but he's here now.

Her grief hurts him more than any bullets. Pietro continues closer until he can lift his hand, brushing the backs of his fingers against her tear-streaked cheek. See? That is her brother's touch too.]

I took some good advice. [The smile comes back to his lips, gentler this time.] I walked it off.

[allages]

[ he does not recover and she felt her brother die; she's seen his corpse and it hurts. it still hurts, like she imagines a gaping wound in her chest would hurt. it's as she'd told ultron: she knows what it is like to feel her heart ripped out, what it is like to die. she experienced both the moment pietro died — and yet, he's here. the man in front of her is undeniably her brother and undeniably alive and it isn't until he touches her cheek that she realises that she's crying.

he says i walked it off and wanda laughs. if it's a little wet, a little too close to a sob, there is no one but pietro around to tell. ]

How is this possible?

[ but she doesn't wait for an answer to move forward, to reach her arms around his middle and hug him, holding him. with her head to his chest, she can feel his heartbeat as truly as she can feel his mind. ]

WHY DO YOU PLAY ALL THE AWESOME PEOPLE, TONA???

[shuckit]

[ thomas hadn’t heard her, before rounding the corner, and is given all of a couple seconds of warring over fight or flight before she’s whipping around, making demands. what sticks with him, though, is the last thing she says - i’ll know if you’re lying. there’s no apprehension coming from the teenager (in dirty clothes, covered in soot and drying blood), only narrowing eyes. ]

It’s a big building. [ said in the flattest tone that ever graced this earth, and, after a beat, followed up with a helpful observation. ] And it smells like klunk.

[ that being the glader word for ‘shit’, and while he knows the typical word that ought to be there, thomas hasn’t actually ever used it in all of what he can remember of his life (sums up to a handful of months). thomas is a glader, he’ll talk like a glader, everyone else can deal.

but it’s not a lie. if wanda goes digging in his mind to verify that, she’ll be hearing an incredibly loud chant of: GET OUT, GET OUT, GET THE HELL OUT.

so, he’s had some experience with telepathy, and with people mind controlling him. and he’s really, really, really not fond of it. ]

because????

[allages]

[ digging in the minds of those around her is a defense mechanism and right now, she's relying on it as much as she is on all her other senses. there are too many people around and none that she knows; she has no recollection of coming here — of course she's digging in his mind.

and she doesn't recoil from the litany of GET OUT, but it's a close thing. her surprise shows: eyes widening, her lips parting before she presses them into a thin line again. not even thor had been able to keep her out, and this is unpleasant, but not necessarily an obstacle. ]

You don't know.

[ it's not a question, but it is a test of sorts. his answers are too flat, his mind too guarded for her to trust that he really doesn't know, that he isn't hiding something. ]

[shuckit]

[ he'd known how to use it before - how to project to Teresa, but that was it. Just Teresa and Aris, and, he supposes, Rachel, though he doesn't really remember much about her. if this girl can actually do something like him, he has no idea, and no means to really pick up on it.

a few vague flashes of each of them will pass through his mind - teresa's voice, mostly, and a dark room with thomas's hands over his ears, trying to concentrate on speaking without speaking. eventually, the GET OUT chant dies down some. ]

Nah, I dropped myself in here 'cause it seemed so homey.

[ derisive sarcasm, but he shakes his head after, stating more plainly - ]

I don't know.

[allages]

No one here knows. [ that is what strikes her as odd most of all. if someone has brought them here, if someone somehow had the power and ability to do that, shouldn't there be people here monitoring them? shouldn't an attack be coming?

sooner or later, every man reveals himself — but no one can reveal what they don't know, and no one here knows anything. ]

[soapboxed]

[He's back inside from his sight seeing of the compound, bow and a sleeve of arrows slung around his shoulder, and mind whirling with ideas when he's interrupted from his thoughts when he's confronted by the girl. His lips twist up at her demeanor. Strong, confident, angry, and if he's able to appreciate anything, it's anger.]

I don't really see any point in lying. Lying is self serving bullshit encouraged by the society we're all knee deep in. Pretend you're well off by buying designer clothes, lie about being fucking happy in your run of the mill white collar job- [But he stops mid-rant and smirks] lying didn't get them anywhere, did it?

But to answer your question, I don't know where the fuck we're at, except that we're in a building. A building with other people who don't know where they fuck they're at.

[allages]

[ the man has a bow and arrows slung around his shoulder and for a moment, wanda is reminded of clint barton and his words — it's my job and you're an avenger and fighting against all odds, doing what's right because it's the right thing to do.

barton was never appreciative of her anger, and he wouldn't talk about designer clothes and wanda doesn't miss him the way she misses her brother, but she'd feel better if he was here. there's no point wallowing in that, though. ]

Helpful. [ that's with a twist to her mouth, not a smile. talking about designer clothes does not get them anywhere, and he doesn't know anything. it's frustrating and it's worrisome and wanda doesn't deflate only because his body language is too aggressive ( perhaps strong is a better word, she's not sure ) for her to show weakness. ]

What ideas do you have? [ because she'd interrupted a train of thought, because he might have at least seen more than she has. ]

[strongas]

[ There's a lot less confidence in Cindy's body language, stumbling back as she does when addressed. ]

Uh. You're outside a really creepy building, somewhere that definitely isn't New York City.

[ Which is where Cindy was. Where she ought to still be. Except she's not, and-- ] Wait, does that sign say "the world ended July 3rd 2015"? [ What the hell? ]

[allages]

[ that information is not helpful, and wanda already knows. she's seen new york city now, in person rather than on a small tv screen. this isn't new york city and it isn't sokovia; no one seems to know where it is.

but cindy isn't lying. she really doesn't know more. it's enough to make some of the aggressiveness bleed out of wanda, the set of her shoulders easing fractionally. ]

It does.