Survivalist Plot: The Envy of Eden

[meat_mooks]

Day One

Stacy calls Cedric Diggory, Diana Ladris, Guru Clef, Howard Bassem, Karis Needleteeth, The Master and Maxine Hunkel to the deck.

Planet Designation: Eden
Status: Terrestrial, H-class.
Non-sentient life: Sparse levels of flora, no natural fauna
Semi-Sentient Life: None
Sentient Life: Small human colonies created to mine Eden's limited precious elements. As of last Eden 'year', population 300. Settlers do not typically make permanent stays.
Water: 75.6% of the planet's surface.
Climate: Dry and moderate during the day. At nights temperatures drop to below 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Infrequent rains, risks of flash floods.
Landscape: Desert and sedimentary rock mountains. Most water is retrieved by wells or from cargo ships. Sparse vegetation.
Air: Type I (breathable)
Sky: Grey
Warnings: Electrical storms may interfere with omnicomm function.
Mission: Investigate source of distress signal picked up on Stacy's sensors.

For the most part the trip down to the atmosphere goes uneventfully, even if it is a little cramped in the shuttle, but as soon as they get within a few thousand feet of the ground things start to go wrong. Communication with Stacy cuts off; Stacy herself is cut off mid-sentence while warning the crew to use iodine in any tap water they find. The omnicomms go similarly blank. The shuttle lurches through the sky and tilts sideways. One of the engines blows. The automatic seatbelts unlock. A section of the shuttle's roof rips off, letting in thin, hardly-breathable air.

More terrifying still, the superpowered members of this crew may have time to notice that they no longer have their abilities.

About thirty feet above the ground the shuttle tips into a barrel roll, the autopilot fritzing out as it tries to right things, and the crew goes tumbling out and scatters amongst the town moments before the shuttle crashes into a far cliffside.

[OOC: Tag into your designated subthreads! In a little, once we've established what's going on a bit more, while I'll put up a thread for them all to reconvene. I will be NPCing monsters in these threads, so please drop me a line if you want the monsters to do anything specific or if I'm being slow on a tag.]

Comments

[windwitch]

Maxine's expression wavers a little more when she sees the hint of annoyance in the man's face, and a hint more again at the sarcastic response.

"Well, I guess this isn't really a good situation, but there's nothing serious, right? Like, if you're not hurt and we can find the others we should be able to at least figure out what happened..."

God, she's not felt this still and stifled since-- well, the last time she'd lost her abilities this totally. She didn't like it. She tried not to think about it.

"Where do you think this is?" she asked instead, looking up and around. A church-- so the society couldn't be that alien to her own, right? But-- "What could that be?" On the ground, some kind of grease.

[meat_mooks]

From inside the church, somewhere behind the doors, is the whimpering sound of a scared child.

[syncopath]

"Goodness, but you're full of questions, aren't you?" Coming from the Master's mouth, it definitely does not sound like a compliment.

The grease, actually, is troubling-- though the Master isn't sure whether it's due to external forces or a property of the substance itself that makes him difficult to work out what it is. Or where it might have come from. He stares at it for entirely too long before giving up and clambering to his feet with a dismissive grunt. The Doctor would taste it, taste anything presented, really. But the Master has his limits.

He hears the child and a small line appears between his eyebrows. In most situations the Master would pay a crying child no mind; they whimper and whine all the time. But something isn't quite right here. He swivels his head toward the church and stares at the door as if he expects something to come bounding out toward them. But he makes no attempt to move or investigate further.

[windwitch]

"Um, I guess so," Maxine says, but her voice makes it clear that she's disheartened by the commentary. "I guess I'm just a little nervous, you know? It's hard to keep my mouth shut when I am and I probably shouldn't have even said that..."

But it isn't like she could say much more, because as she gets closer to investigate, she notices what he had already heard: a frightened kid. She exchanges a look with him briefly, but he's staying back and he seems-- distrustful, maybe. Maxine takes a tentative step forward and calls out softly, "Is someone there?" She can't just leave a kid alone, can she?

[meat_mooks]

Out of the ajar door, a person emerges, a dark-haired human girl who can't be more than eleven or twelve years old. She's dressed in stained clothing and her hair has clearly gone unwashed for many days. She walks as much with her hands against the door as her leg, as the other foot is injured and looks like it has a nasty infection; coagulated blood runs up a cut from her heel to the front of her knee, and the skin beneath it is red and shiny. She looks dazed, as if she can't quite focus her eyes on the two of them, and her cheeks are flushed.

"D-don't go in there." She flails a hand back at the church. Her voice is thin and raspy, barely audible. "Do you have water?"

She seems to be asking Maxine more than the Master, either because she suspects a kinder soul or because Maxine was the one who asked the question.

[syncopath]

Well, the Master was expecting something a bit more sinister than a little girl. Maybe. But still he remains where he is, looking on her with more disgust than pity. As if she might infect him with her helplessness.

"Why not?" he asks, ignoring her request for water entirely and getting on to the more important questions.

"What's in there?"

[windwitch]

"Not with me," Maxine replies quietly, looking over the girl and biting her lip. "Do you have any?" she asks the man quickly, hoping that-- by some off chance-- he does, since he hadn't said. But it doesn't take long for her to be distracted.

Stepping forward quickly to the little girl, she reaches out with a hesitant hand. "Are you okay? What happened? Are you alone? And why shouldn't we go in there? We can handle things you know, so if you were attacked by something we could help and get you away from here I think."

[meat_mooks]

It's a lot of questions at once. The little girl looks confused. And then her eyes fill with tears. "The monsters got them. Please, I'm thirsty and it hurts to talk."

She reaches out and grabs Maxine's hand, with a glare to the Master to show that she realizes he's not going to help her any. "I just want water so bad."

[syncopath]

The Master rolls his eyes. Monsters. Every child thinks it's seen a monster at one point or another. The Doctor would be having a field day with this, but he's already bored.

Maxine has already made more promises than he's willing to keep, so he wanders off toward the church entrance, wanting to see for himself.

"I'll leave you to the babysitting, then," he remarks dryly over his shoulder.

[meat_mooks]

The stench should hit the Master before the sight does. The inside of the church is littered with corpses, as if people were assembling for mass and suddenly put into a thresher. There are even body parts hanging from the sconces on the wall.

[windwitch]

"Oh sweetie, I'm sorry," Maxine says, squeezing the little hand that took hers before she kneels down and hugs the girl. "It's okay, you're safe now. We'll get you to the rest of the group and we'll find you some water."

She looks up at the Master, without letting go of the girl. Quietly, she asks, "Is there anyone else okay in there? We have to help them."

[meat_mooks]

For her part, the girl clings to Maxine, glad to have finally found someone to hold onto. She rests all her weight on Maxine's shoulder, trying to keep it off her injured leg.

Apologies; apparently I cannot track this specific thread >:/

[syncopath]

He's stopped at the top of the steps, staring into the church as if in a trance. Now, the Master may be a murderer-- he may have even perpetuated a genocide or two in his day. And he may have no love lost on humans and their like. But he has even less of an attraction to seeing what's inside them, hundredfold. Or what happens when they're left to rot. It may be funny, perhaps even glorious, to see them put in their place-- but that smell.

And then there's the desire to put as much distance between himself and whatever did that. As quickly as possible.

He puts a hand over his nose and turns away in disgust, trotting back down the stairs. Still, his voice is far more casual than what might call for the situation.

"They're long beyond help, I'm afraid." They need to move, now, but first the Master rounds on the girl, staring at her with hard, cold eyes.

"What did this? Why were you spared?"

[meat_mooks]

"I told you. Monsters."

The girl groans a bit and huddles closer to Maxine. She smells a bit like the inside of the church herself, although the more pressing stench is the stink of infection wafting from her wound. A close examination shows she's hurting in other ways - her lips are chapped and the skin around her face is tight, reddish and shiny. Her eyes are gummed up in the corners. Her breathing is phlegmatic. She looks up at the Master with wide, honest eyes, as if completely unaware of how little he cares for her life.

"I hid under a pew."

[windwitch]

Maxine's eyes flick up to the Master briefly, from the little girl, concerned. Because he may be being callous and cold, but it's a valid question. She's smart enough to know that that's something to be careful about.

But she also doubts that a child so small and hurt and scared could be a cause for concern. So she wants to believe the story about hiding and being lucky-- and she does. She knows it happens.

"Come on, let's get out of here," Maxine says instead. "We'll find you some place safe."