[It had all happened so fast - the fire, the falling, the alarms and panic. The patterns and formations that were no longer drills, the fear. Oh god, the fear. The taste of it so bitter and real it had left Logan paralysed in the a corner for the longest time. Silent and afraid as blurred faces swarmed around her. As they watched and waited. There were bits of piece of time missing, of things blanked out from her memory. How long had they been on lockdown? Who had she been with? How long until it was safe to move? How did she end up in the church? It was like she has experienced what everyone was now calling “the Inferno” in a dream-like state.
At some point they had been cleared to go back outside. To see what damaged had been done, how much of what they had rebuilt had survived.
It wasn’t until after Logan had gone through her check up and was half way back to her room that the panic set in. Someone had found her on the shower floor, the water long past cold, manically laughing and crying at the same time. Someone had sedated her and covered her up. Two days later she had woken up in the infirmary and wasn’t allowed to leave until this morning. She wasn’t sure how long it was since that first day, all Logan knew was that she wanted out of the infirmary and out into the fresh air. She made her way outside finding the first sunny spot to sit on, turning her face to the sky to feel the breeze on her face. To clear her mind. To finally breathe.]
PDD reads: Good morning Colony 22 citizens. We’d like to take this time to thank and commend all of you for your tenacity and courage throughout the events of yesterday. To those of you who have welcomed new members into your houses, thank you, and we trust that you will continue to be supportive and courteous to your fellow citizens during this time of need.
The damage has been thoroughly surveyed, and confirmed to be isolated to the top two floors of the Brink tower only. But in order to repair the dorms and return the quarters to what they once were, a new Resources chore will be added into the rotation, which will be introduced when the next Calcard is released. All personnel will receive proper instruction before their first rotation into this chore, and if anyone has any questions or concerns, they should be directed to your corresponding Heads of Houses.
We have seen much worse, here at the Colony, but we are confident in our strength and our ability to come together to rebuild what we have lost. We have done this and more before, and we look to the future with hope and pride.
How is the sleeping situation happening with the relocation of the brink dorms? Are the brink people sleeping on like make-shift beds on the floors of the designated new dorms or is there some bed sharing going on
Oh no, no bed sharing (you naughty thing you :P). Just spare bunks & beds etc. With the fluctuation of members coming and going, the Colony would literally have moved Brink people into anywhere where there was room. So if a room had a spare bed, they’d fill it!
[Everything had happened so fast Adrian was almost sure it was a dream - no - a nightmare. A nightmare she had had over and over agin over the last four years since Demolition Day, a nightmare that had often woken her from her slumber short of breath, sweat soaked, her face and pillow tear stained because the fear of fire and ash and the world around her literally falling when the only thing that truly mattered her been ripped from her arms only hours before. But this time, for the first time in so long, it was not a dream, it was every living beings worst fear come true.
Adrian couldn’t remember much, she was hunting, they were out with an Elite who had...had lead them through a safety drill. But...it was not a drill. Not this time. Dirt, ash, hear, fire. No way of knowing what was happening, of how bad the damage would be. If they would even survive? The entire time she did not talk, she did not speak, if she looked at anyone she didn’t see them. Not really. She had become numb. Maybe it was penance, God’s way of punishing those - including her - who probably should have died the first time for all the crimes they had committed.
Somehow she had survived.
Somehow she was now standing in the Colony again, people passing about, like busy ant workers. Lines and patterns of workers, moving debris, cleaning up, making pathways walkable again, making the colony inhabitable again. Yet all she could do was stare at the place where the Brink dorms once were fully intact not that long ago and feel a rising sense of panic. It was gone. All gone. Last time she had a few minutes to grab one or two items of Erika’s and her sisters to keep with her. She had carried them with her for four years. Now there was hardly a chance in hell anything could be salvaged. The tiny corner she had come to call home had been obliterated. What few clothes she owned to cover her back, the bedding she had sewn together herself with materials traded and bartered for from both allotted supplied and the hub. The purple flower she had pressed between two books to preserve. All gone.
She did not even know if the people she knew where ok? What happened to Andreya and Natalie? Where was Boone? Was he ok? Was anyone going to be ok?]
Quick Q about J.R's new infection: Would the infirmary be able to tell what infection he has even if he's only showing the very early generic signs of infection? So, will he know straight away he's got Telepathy or just that he's infected? And would he be re-branded with red ink straight away? Cheers m'dears.
Oooh that’s a great question!
No, I don’t think they’d know what infection he has. They’d only know he’s infected, and would have to wait to see the results over time. But he would be rebranded as soon as the lab Researchers confirmed it via blood tests etc etc. However, since no one is really expecting people to become infected now, if you want you can assume he gets tested by nurses first to see if it’s something else and maybe it takes a while. But that part’s up to you!
If the world really was ending, some people would go out with a bang - and others with a whimper. Right now, it seemed like Ethan Kerr would find his way amongst the latter group. The rush back to the colony, and by extension, the church, had been mostly mechanical on Ethan’s part. He could hardly remember any details of the actual details, having been focused on the jacket of the person in front of him. Dark grey, of some kind of faux-leather, maybe, with a hastily-applied patch that was already wearing at the edges. Ethan hadn’t dared looked up or down from it, keeping his eyes on the constant so that he wouldn’t be left behind.
He hadn’t, of course. Looking around at the other inhabitants of the cathedral, he recognized faces, and the names came to him as if he were looking at entries on a computer. Ethan swallowed and gripped the strap of his pack so tightly his knuckles turned white. He was searching for Corbin, but the other boy wasn’t anywhere that Ethan could see. Ethan glanced at his PDD, but no new message had been received, and his stomach fell.
Someone running by bumped Ethan on the shoulder roughly. The motion almost sent him sprawling, he having been precariously balanced at best before. Something clicked inside his brain, and he was here in the moment, like when he woke up from a particularly bad dream, only to find it wasn’t real.
Except this time it was. The panic, fear, and confusion were palpable, and he suddenly felt like throwing up. Ethan stumbled backwards until his hand steadied his body against a wall, and Ethan bent over as he tried to recover complete control of his body. His stomach rebelled against him, and although he had hardly eaten earlier, he still felt like he was going to vomit.
Think of something besides this, anything.
Ethan closed his eyes and tried to picture his old life - the only where he ran carefree around the cityscape, where he would camp out at comic shops until they finally got fed up with him and kicked him out, the one time someone had actually cared about his fake ID and he had sullenly had to order a soda instead of a beer. He thought about Corbin, his only true friend that time, and about how they had taken care of each other.
Ethan breathed in deeply and flexed his fingers. He couldn’t shut down now, not when Corbin maybe needed his help again. And even if Corbin was beyond his help, Ethan couldn’t stand around and do nothing.
He couldn’t be a burden anymore.
No, he told himself. He wouldn’t be a burden, even if he couldn’t be much help.
Ethan leaned against the wall and tried - no, he did take several deep breaths and just reclaimed his body again. When he opened his eyes and looked out, he was able to survey the scene before him again with a bit of newfound clarity. Instead of hopelessness, he saw...opportunities, he guessed. Opportunities for him to chip away at the despair that he himself was barely holding at bay. He still had his pack from scavenging around his shoulders, and in it was food and water, and the most basic of medical supplies. No, he couldn’t do much, but if he could make this a little easier for someone else, it would be worth it, right?
Ethan steeled his spine and inhaled. It was time to start being somebody.
[The Elite in front leads them along at a fast clip. The second the sky had seemed to tremble, he had nearly salivated: he gets to be a hero.
Nadine stays in the middle of the pack. It’s safest there: danger in front, and danger behind, she will never be the first to go. Her grip is white-knuckled on her gun; though it’s useless against the heavens, but Nadine’s been up against them once before: her plane had fallen from the sky four years ago, and she had crawled from the wreckage nearly whole.
She had said goodbye to Gerard, and she had walked into the woods. She had made new friends, new comrades, new spineless compatriots to look to her for guidance. She was shrewd, and she was ruthless, and she had kept them alive, until she abandoned them to save herself.
She doesn’t want to go back to those days. Highway-robbers, looters, carrion. She has achieved both power and comfort, now, and she’ll defy the heavens if they want to take that from her. She’ll throw anyone to the wolves, leave anyone behind, if it means saving herself.
The undergrowth is thick, they’ve strayed from the trodden path to make the straightest line to the cave that is supposed to be their shelter. If she had been in the Colony, she would be underground by now. She would have clutched her students to her, and she would have been content with all her babies in one place. Now, she imagines their small and terrified faces, but she is too far away to help.
Too far away to do anything but worry about herself.
But the person in front of her stumbles, and she nearly runs into their back. The air seems thick with a vibrating tension, the calm before the storm. They are still one, for now, still together, trying to reach safety and survive. Her pinched-shut lips release as she steps up alongside, but she cannot resolve her features into the gentle concern that is perhaps called for.] Steady, there. Are you alright?
ok you know what.. i'm also having trouble with this starter b/c i have no idea what the lay of the land is like or even what the protocol for hunting would be, because i assume they'd all be separated during hunting so.. since pax is an elite i'm having trouble imagining where they would meet up in case of disaster (i'm probably way over thinking this i have a feeling, but i'm also struggling to keep this starter vague helppp me)
No, you’re not over thinking at all! It’s a great question - we’ve never been super detailed about this area because we haven’t had the need for it before, but I’ll definitely be expanding on these areas in the very near future, thanks to this event and obviously just having the need for clarity for plotting and stuff, so thanks!
So for Hunting, I’d imagine that they’re always an Elite supervising the mission (not necessarily one of the the people listed in the chore rotation, you could also assume it’s an NPC Elite as well). But that Elite would go out with the whole team, take them to a previously determined hunting area (they probably rotate their hunting areas as much as possible to not go back to the same places too frequently etc), and then let them spread out and hunt within a certain radius. It’s not likely they’d let the civilians go SUPER far, but there would be a designated radius of maybe a half mile or something.
Then, as you’ll see I just did in Alex’s starter, I think it would make sense that when they do split up, they pick a check point to meet back at (not specifically for disasters like this, but I mean as a general daily routine) they’d just pick a place for everyone to meet back at within whatever given time period decided, and as well in the case of some kind of emergency where they have to regroup.
BUT in the case of THIS kind of emergency protocol, the place that the hunting group takes refuge is already decided for you! It’s listed that they “take refuge in a cave near the shoreline.”
And the way I see it, there would already be a few previously decided safe zones for any colony members who were outside the colony in the event of an extreme emergency such as this one. So just like the inside the Colony safe zones are pre-determined, so are the exterior ones.Though, I imagine that with the exterior the colony walls ones, (and I kinda just sorta made it canon with Alex’s starter so I’ll be sure to throw up as many updated details in the next few days as I can,) that there would be maybe 4 of them, at least, and during an emergency, it would be up to the Elite to decide which of the predetermined safe zones is the closest and most feasible to get to.
So in this case, it’s listed on the post as being the cave near the shoreline. And in Alex’s case, who’s on scavenging, it’s listed as the basement of an old house, so I went with that in my starter.
I really hope this helps! Let us know if you have anymore questions!
