Shoryu

After humans

Indigo Ventreyas

Naturally, it wasn't quite as easy as 'just going down there'...

Predicting dirty breathing conditions, it wasn't all that hard to just grab a fashionable purple scarf and wrap it around my muzzle, something the other's did as well... The 'problem' in my mind was these enormous freaking eyes I had now that were going to be freaking dust magnets and no human eye protection was going to protect them properly. There wasn't really much choice but to go anyway.

It 'was' a pretty easy ride to start, though I did my damndest not to let the various bodies scattered around get to me, the stairwell was only dusty at the half-way point, though it got thicker with every inch down we went... Then I foolishly thought 'Oh it's just stairs, I don't even need my eyes for this!'

And promptly stepped off of an unseen collapse in the stairwell's third floor level... I vaguely registered the other's shouts, but I was much more interested in my own potential eminent demise. Some instinct kicked in and my wings beat themselves against the dust, but it was to little effect with such a short fall and only served to rile up the dust before I crashed onto piled of uncomfortable and thankfully not 'sharp' stone below.

Of course I 'did' get to experience the predictable agony of big vulnerable eyes getting dust in them and had to keep my eyes tightly shut to try and wash it out.

After a few moments I registered the other shouts from above and called back "I'm Alright! Just some bruising! And I got dust in my fucking eyes!... It freaking burns!... But the fall's not too bad." I couldn't see too much past this point, I'd effectively gotten myself blinded, if temporarily, minutes into trying to escape my own house... Freaking pathetic.

I heard them climbing down, which oddly enough I pictured Vein using his obscenely long arms to hang down and lower them one by one like some kind of giant dog monkey... "Heh..." After a few moments of making sure I wasn't just ignorant of something stuck in me I heard Pinks talking.

"Well, the stair's have collapsed it seems, we're going to have to move through the second floor."
"This is unfortunate, they weren't like this when we checked earlier. Here's hoping it was only structural failure catching up... and not 'something' causing it."
"Well there's a scary thought. I'm not particularly interested in getting into a fight while I'm still unsteady on four legs."
"Mmmmhmhm, I could give you some experience with those legs of yours if you-"

I cut in suddenly, albeit with a slight laugh/cough "Ladies! We've got more important matters, Like our breathing getting harder the longer we're in the dust. We need to reach the shaft and use that to get down there instead"

I vaguely picked up on the buzzy voice of the rookie "Wow... I don't need to breath... and my eyes are protected naturally... cool..." I chose not to address this as I would be very biasedly angry at the moment.

Rather quickly we picked out way into the second floor... I still couldn't see much, my eyes were a deep blur of tears washing the pain away but also keeping further dust from reaching my eyes, for now. I still didn't like needing to be led along by my... hoof, wing, whatever! I didn't have much choice again.

There was a collective groan of annoyance that was quickly explained "Some of the emergency shutters are closed, but obviously not enough to keep the dust controlled. We'll-" He was suddenly cut off by an incredibly loud *KLANG!* from somewhere that made everyone noticeably jump, and it continued happening, coupled with the sound of tearing metal "Well! That's not good, 'something' is tearing through one of the outer shutters from the sound of it, we need to go around, quickly!"

Naturally, we did... though quickly was a matter of opinion, for me it meant a stumbling fast-walk that I had to be caught from falling out of several times, but general sounds of relief told me that other obstacles didn't prevent us from getting to the shaft... to clarify, that's kindof an emergency hole straight through the building for emergency downward travel.. yes, kind of like the bat-case entrance with the pole.

There was a pause and a bit of chatter, but the sound of something grinding as it was pulled open told me we'd at least found it... Within moments we were sliding down the poll one by one, even in my blinded state I could at 'least' hold a pole.

And then we were in the basement! and once the emergency door was manually shut to keep the dust out we were about as safe as we could possibly be... for now. I knew, eventually something was going to get damaged, or just be turned off, and we'd end up without power down here as well, but for now we had safety, I had time to really work on cleaning my eyes out, we could get the fabricator up and running and... and... I had a lot of time to do nothing but think and I didn't want to right now... So instead

"Hey rookie... What's yer name?"

I actually heard what I took for a 'surprised buzz' that got a tiny chuckle out of me " Uh, w-well... I, don't really have one... I was... one of the Corporate slaves you rescued, I never had a name. Everyone just called me Brown Thirty Two."

Oh... huh, interesting "Oh... well, I'm quit glad you've survived at least, heh... could call you Brownie, but sounds like more of a nick-name... maybe we should give you a normal name to use... like Buzz, heheh... Orrr... Shit, I've always been terrible with names, that's why I call people by colors a lot... s'easier."

I heard a little buggy chuckle come out of him "It's alright, Thirty Two will do for now... i'll... try to think of something else later, but we've got more important things to worry about right now don't we?"

I let out rather an exasperated sigh... but nodded "True, unfortunately... It's going to take me a while yet for these tears to finish cleaning my eyes so... oh! I know what I can do, I'll send a message!" I could imagine several raised eyebrows in reaction "Hush, the city's going to hell. As amazing as we are, we're going to need some help, now get the factory working and start looking around for whatever's still working... and before anyone says it, yes, I know 'everyone' will be able to get the message, I'm prepared for that."

I waved a hand or hoof or something to try and blindly shoo them off to get busy while I was doing that... Luckily I could interact with my holo-comms blind just fine, and it seemed security on the network was in turmoil anyway, leaving it quite easy to hijack a very special signal this close to the core. Not many had the authority to make a broad-band transmission that would travel the chain of individual nodes to every device in the city, I certainly didn't, but with the security already over-worked from the catastrophe it was child's play to hijack it... and by 'every device' I meant it, Televisions in street shops, person comms, vehicle radios... god this was a bad idea, but I had no other way to quickly and efficiently reach out to other survivors.

<<To all who get this message... You can call me Indie, that's all you need to know for now. I'm not actually corporate, I just hijacked the emergency broadcast network is all. I'm sending this to tell you all... The Towers are 'Down'. Yes, that's right, The Corporate Towers have fallen, over the west side if I had to guess, I got to witness the fall myself. Ho! I tell you, It's a sight that'll stick with me for the rest of my life... however long that may actually be.

On that note, Survival... I'm sure many of you are more than willing to do it on your own, but, capable or not, I'm sure some are more than willing to work with others to ensure mutual survival... Lets be honest, in a scenario like this, the loner will eventually find something he can't handle and get waxed. So I got a proposal for all of you. If you're interested in mutual survival efforts, then I know a place that we can hole up in long enough for the dust to clear... of course I'm not going to specify where on air, you'll have to meet me in person to get that information. on the western edge of the East slums, precisely in the center, under the edge of the party district, is the more mundane looking noodle shop you ever did see... Meet me there within a 24 hours, I 'may' wait up to a day longer if the shop is fully intact and breathable.

Now, if you're anything like me, then you've experienced the recent catastrophe's effects on our bodies, and have likely been transformed into some other form of not very human creature as a result. I hope you'll all keep that in mind when showing up, don't panic immediately because someone else looks dangerous, but I won't tell you to be passive either, I'll be on the lookout for idiots who think this'll make a nice trap for a bunch of suckers too!

Either way, we 'need' cooperation, now more than ever, because right now the 'air' itself is inhospitable to us, and there are likely other survivors who've lost their minds and are no less of a threat...

Anyway! You'll recognize me easily enough, I'm that freaky bat horse thing that'll be hanging around there, with all the purple on him... I'll set this message to repeat... oohhh, say, a couple dozen times, just incase you're not around to catch it right 'now'.>>

After humans

Extra apologies! As it appears I'd been 'wrong' about it being fixed >x< ... I'm reminded of that one hurricane more decade ago that knocked out the power for a month, not exactly 'that' bad as it was only the internet that misbehaved for me this long, but still, bit of a draught in a big part of my life for a while.

I really hope everyone's still around, or if the exorbitant delay caused anyone to lose interest they'll let me know @x@ Just want to let it be known I am still invested in this despite the delay myself!

Either way, There 'Will' be a post in before today is over, if I have to stay up half the bloody Night to get it done >8D

also, I am considering setting up a Discord channel that we can keep contact a little more smoothly than forum OOC posting would do, but I'd like to ask what people think about that before I go doing it, and I'm sure now and then there'll be someone who doesn't want to break out a chat client for a forum RP XD

@Vrrak

@Fecund Verdure

@Foster

@DracoLunaris

@SyrianHamster

@FallenTrinity

@Rune_Alchemist

@Silver Carrot

@Davinel

After humans

Ohai!

@Foster

oh double hi :D

Also, it 'seems' as if everything has stabilized again, so i'm going to be diving back into getting the next post out, sorry it was so delayed everyone @x@

After humans

Ugh... that tornado the other day that fucked up... 'something' in town that killed the internet for a day, seems to have left my internet horribly unreliable for a while >.< I'm going to try to get one in today, but I can't promise my internet won't dump on me again.

After humans

I'm going to wait a bit longer for a third person to post, then I'll go ahead put in another of mine... this one will include that opportunity I was talking about, and I think after that i'll be hoping to speed up just a little at least :D

After humans

Oh, that's quite understandable.

I'll write up a character in a few days then and then ummm, wait I suppose.

Best wishes, of course!

@Davinel

coolness, i'll keep an eye out for it :D

<Snipped quote by Shoryu>

I'm not dead yet!

But if I am, I'm that pile of mush that got shot in the first post.

@Foster

Oh god, is it coming back to life?! D:

After humans

Now...how to proceed from here so that people start meeting up...

@Silver Carrot

I'll be working on that in my next post >3>... or, at least, an option for it ;3

Heeeey, I just looked at this and I really like the setting.

Is it still open for applicants?

@Davinel

Mmmm, 'sortof'. We've got enough people so far, but you can still apply if you'd like, and if someone doesn't actually post for an exorbitant amount of time[not counting the one who warned us he'd be away a long while for RL reasons.], you could probably hop in.

After humans

[Now, I won't be doing these environmental posts 'everytime' for 'everyone', partly because that's a big piece of what took me so long this time and i don't want to over-do it and delay everyone again D: so just when something really comes to mind that would be interesting to spice it up with :D do let me know if you think I go 'too far' though.]

For Fiirnmir

@SyrianHamster

No human or beast would indeed notice the falling star plummeting towards the city... Alas, it might well be folly to underestimate the power of technology.

Devastated as the city... as 'every' city was for that matter, There was still the matter of anti-meteor defenses designed to protect the exorbitantly large targets that are the massive cities of the Corporate empire... Granted, just about every satellite they normally used for extra-atmosphere targeting was currently plummeting towards the cities below, and with nearly all systems going haywire in the wake of the catastrophe they would not receive authorization to vaporize those satellite before they crashed.

The same could not be said for the foreign object plummeting through the atmosphere, glowing like a small sign, and casting off foreign energy readings the likes of which triggered detection systems across most of the hemisphere... they'd never be able to tell 'what' it was, but even the simplest sensors could tell it was foreign.

As such, being the only foreign object in the sky that didn't fit the parameters for 'don't vaporize on sight', Every still functional Orbital and atmospheric defense system in New ark and it's nearest neighbor's opened fire on him, though a few of these would be snuffed out even in the following seconds, and the vast majority were already destroyed or shut down, This still amounted to countless thousands of smaller bolts of energy and magnetically propelled supersonic rounds filling the sky around him, and considerably less countless but vastly more powerful sweeping beams of energy normally meant to cleave larger meteors into smaller pieces for the little guns.

For Roxanne

@DracoLunaris

It was actually considerably more manageable to navigate the roads of the slums than it was to attempt such nearer to the center, though it was still absolutely littered with discarded vehicles of various kinds that either died or were simply abandoned... That said, there would be a few instances where some vehicle from the inner districts, or some flying machine, had been flung into the slums... Some were even still coming down in-fact, rebounding off of roof-tops, hitting the street directly and causing the occasional blast of fire and shrapnel, though it was a testament to their durability that only 'some' exploded on impact... Once in a good while something bigger would crash into one of the buildings along the ring, bringing down most of the structure on it as well.

All that said, an experience driver should be able to manage the gauntlet... on a clear day at least... suffice to say the reduced sight distance would make it more difficult at higher speeds... we'll just have to hope our gal can keep her luck in-tact.

@Silver Carrot

For Eilidh

There really wasn't much to say about the outside there, given that one's sight would barely breach 20 feet with all that dust... which one might also note made it rather a challenge to breath out here... On top of that were the still present sounds of roaring fires, occasional explosions, and the frequent instances of various creature noises just barely audible over the endless static of dust and debris clattering every bloody second. Things were out there and quite possibly difficult to see.

@Rune_Alchemist

For Silana

... much the same as the above applies actually, though being in the slums things are a bit tighter spaces and there's more debris being blown down from the upper districts... Then again, most of that may only have been a hindrance for those little followers she left behind... lucky girl.

Indigo Ventreyas

As it so happened, learning to walk on four legs... well, three legs and an arm, wasn't as difficult as i'd expected it to be. Don't get me wrong, it was still agonizing and I'm quite certain I still got a dozen or so good deep bruises in, and of course Big Pink had recorded the whole thing 'for posterity'.

BUT! I managed to re-learn walking in about half an hour!... keyword, walking, as in very slow patterned motions that kept me moving forward at an unacceptably slow pace, but still far above laying there like a new-born or, I shudder to think, needing to be 'carried'... Even if Vein would be more than willing to carry me... that's my butler by the way.

Speaking of him, I was actually just starting to prance around the room, which I had identified to be the 6th story roof level living room now decorated with several other dead body guards in a variety of examples of mind cracking body horror demonstrations.

Anyway! That was about the time that said Butler arrived, when I was excitedly prancing about celebrating my relearned mobility, of course with a previously mentioned rookie still in tow. "Oohhh, Indie! So good to see you're already up and prancing about like you're usual adorable self!" There was a mixed hint of teasing and sarcasm in his tone that normally would have irritated me, but right now it put me at ease... one more familiar thing that wasn't exploding or something. "I'm sure you've been told that we're in something a situation... well, really, everywhere is... would you like a proper report sir?"

I had stopped the moment I heard his voice, mid-step, catching myself balanced on three limbs and staring... It seemed that now it was 4 for 4 on evidence that we 'all' got turned into something else.

Vein had become some kind of... dog... thing? I could only really identify it as something canine, Tall, lithe, probably flexible. He looked a little 'collie'-esque, in that his fur was very thick and the colors and patterns fit, he still fit his old preference for looking kind of fabulous... The rest? not so much. He had excessively large fangs that I could recognize even against the white of his muzzle, disproportionate gorilla like arms, at least compared to the rest of him, which really meant they were just extra long with extra thick fingers and claws. His legs were disproportionately small to a mild degree, and rather than a fluffy adorable tail there was a long serpentine length of fur behind him with a, shit you not, a 'mace' on the end of it of it, or some growth that resembled one, with spikes and everything. Otherwise he was still done up in one of his 'fabulous' suits, if considerably too tall for it... he was the tallest one here by a considerable margin.

The rookie was a different matter... or, ironically, 'similar' matter... In that he was now stuck as a quadruped too, except 'this' one was some kind of insect thing, though I may or may not have been paranoid in seeing structural similarities between myself, pink, and the rookie. Those seemingly smooth 'solid' purple eyes were odd, with just a little bright spot in them to suggest where he was looking, but they didn't detract from his disturbed and freaked out rookie expression. Oddly, other parts of him matched the color of his eyes, if darker, wing, shell, crest/mane whatever you'd call a membrane thing that replaces hair... even the bits of muscle I could see through the joints of the shell that covered the rest of him... I suppose I got off lucky with 'bat horse thing'.

After a few moments to take in their image I shook my head, cleared my throat, and sat the hell down. I had a feeling I'd need it. "Yes, go ahead, I've been a bit absorbed in making sure I'm not going to be a useless nugget in whatever comes next."

Vein nodded simply and raised one of those comically large paws to gesture towards the window "I'm sure you saw enough to have a gist of the source of that ocean of dust out there... It is so thick that we rather doubt one can survive without a gasmask this close to the city center. While staying here to let it settle 'could' be an option, neverminding the likely hood of anyone else who may have survived eagerly targeting this place for looking upon seeing it intact, The Second and Third floors have been compromised and are filled with the cloud, albeit thinner than outside, it has filled the lower levels and will slowly be rising higher as it fills up. We still need to get through it in order to reach the micro-factory in the basement levels, and then preferably escape through one of the tunnels that will put us closer to the edge of the market district."

That was rather predictable so far, nothing we couldn't handle with ease, and I knew the house like the back of my... hoof?... well, former hand. I could get through it blind just fine. "There appears to be no connection to the world-net, at all, all methods of attempted to interact with it suggest that the entire system is offline. That said, the chain-web still functions, and still allows for long range communication across the city, if a bit unstable due to, presumably, a great many nodes being demolished and creating voids in the chain, though without specific individuals to communicate with there is little you could do outside of casting a broad-band signal."

Okay, that was a bit less predictable, and more alarming... For the world-net to be entirely down something... well, catastrophic had to happen, and I suppose it did, but I still hadn't expected 'that' to be stopped so completely. "I noticed that you didn't tell me the status of our staff..." That honestly worried me the most.

He actually released a dejected sigh that put me even more on edge knowing it came from 'that' cheery bastard. "That's because there 'is' no more staff to report on. We are it. Our robotic staff have all fallen apart, the rest of our flesh and blood staff are either dead from mutations, from needing to be put down for going feral and attacking us on sight, or fled through the compromised exterior of the building... we 'are' the staff now. Though a system check suggests that the building's many other systems are... 'mostly' still functioning, the elevator is out so we'll need to walk, but if we get to the basement's micro factory we can fabricate some fitting environmental masks for us all and escape in one of your vehicles, provided they still function of course."

Well this was grim... there were a lot of pieces I knew he didn't go into extra detail on, but I could pick them out. Lives were on the line, ours, They were going to follow my orders like always, and that meant their lives were in my... hooves?... god that's weird to think about, But I was going to stand by my more covert reputation of being infinitely more responsible and trust-worthy than any of those damned playboy's who're only interested in themselves. "Right then, we've got no time to waste! Lets hit the stairs and get down there before anyone gets bold enough to break in, then we'll arm up and get ready to move... We'll have to head towards the outer rings, there's a good place I know in the party district we can hole up in until the Dust has settled enough to breath again, provided it hasn't been demolished of course."

After humans

Reserved for Environmental Updates

Current Environmental Status:... Dust... and smoke... everywhere...

No, seriously, The whole city has been blanketed in a thick layer of Dust and smoke, breathing isn't Impossible but it's going to be extremely hard, risky too... A Quality gas-mask or other environmental protection is highly recommended if one wishes to avoid suffering from inhaling dust and smaller bits of glass or metal debris. quality visual range is between 5 and 50 feet so soon after the event depending on how far from ground zero someone is, and if history was ever any indication it's going to be a few days before it settles down to 'clear view' again.

The whole city is kindof sweltering from the massive fires still carrying on in some places, some aerial vehicles are still making the journey back towards the ground, and many bits of debris from larger explosions are still falling from the sky here and there... with the occasional body mixed in.

The World-net has gone Silent, inaccessible, though short range and web-repeating transmissions are still functional, there's no telling how many people can actually respond.

There also appears to be some kind of EMP like effect still at work, though it is noticeably wearing off, the larger and more complex things will take a bit longer to start working again, but smaller electronics appear to be regaining their functionality already.

After humans

I am 'terribly' sorry I failed to get that post in I mentioned -_- I've been kept unfortunately busy the past day or so, but it is thankfully nearly done!