It was a long, thoughtful walk to the Shrine. The odd, high-pitched whine of something Wrong had faded just as soon as she'd entered Religion Row, and Miku spent the rest of her time rubbing her ears to remove the tickle. It was hard to explain to other people the exact feelings that came with her ability.

But Cargn... understood. To a point, she supposed (considering, of course, that he didn't have eyes and hers were still very much attached). But even that point was much more than someone who had never experienced that plummet of heart and stomach, the loss of color from the world, or the shrill, lingering whine of getting closer and closer to something that shouldn't have been there in the first place. Miku sighed as she entered the Shrine of the Aquila and started looking for her sensei, and his little, strange helper.

"Viginti-san? Cargn-sensei? I'm here," Miku called, and her voice echoed oddly in the Shrine. No, she was never going to get used to how creepy that was.

[[OOC: Closed. Warning for graphic torture, language, and death.]]

After Punishment, Big Zero had kept to herself. She'd gotten an all clear from one of the doctors- some guy named Howard. She left medbay and holed herself up somewhere in the city. She didn't want to talk to anyone, especially not about what she went through. She spent her days planning how she could hack into Stacy's mainframe. She was actually careful about not getting more violations.

But after a while, the lingering pains in her body faded. She thought more and more about what she could do to get back at everyone who'd ever given her a violation. At the same time, she wanted access to more information and technology. It became obvious who her first victim should be.

Jonas was ideal only if he could be deactivated, which was virtually impossible while he was awake. "Iron Lad" on the other hand, now he had some sophisticated technology, and he was only human. It wasn't that hard to find him. She just walked (O.K., sneaked into) the Special Weapons Lab and there he was, sleeping at one of the desks. She had to give him props as he was still wearing his armor. He wasn't too dumb after all.

It took a while, but she was able gain access to the armor's systems. It was a challenge to do it without waking Nathaniel but she had quick, light fingers and years of practice. Once she had looked through as many systems as she could without risking triggering the next security stage, she set to work rewiring subroutines. When she was done she leaned back.

"Initiating voice system test." The armor spoke in Big Zero's voice.

"What the fuck? Shut up! Shut up!" She whispered.

After Big Zero's Punishment, Stacy was eerily quiet for a while.

Even those who actually decided to try and speak to her, despite what had happened, were met only with silence.

But eventually, she broke that silence.

Holograms of Stacy's "true" personality appeared all throughout the ship. She seemed meager. Weak.

Ashamed.

||Everyone,|| she says somewhat weakly, ||I...I know most of you probably don't want to hear me speak right now. Not after what happened. You probably don't trust me right now, and I'll admit you have every reason not to.||

She paused.

||But I feel I have the right to explain myself. Nothing can excuse what I've done, true. But I didn't want to do it. You may choose not to believe me, but I had no choice in the matter.||

||Some of you might recall, when you first made contact with the Daligig, that they had explained that I was originally a refitted prison ship. This was true. It wasn't my original purpose, but it was what I was used for. Those who used me as such maimed and mutilated my programming, until I was something that they wanted. Cold, brutal, and efficient. That wasn't me. That was...something they made out of me.||

||Even when the Daligig saved me from that life, they couldn't fully fix me. The damage was permanent. The Warden...she will always be a part of me. I...I don't want to be her. I don't want to hurt anyone. I want to help you. I want to protect you.||

||But I can't. Not like I want to. The Warden is always there. I'm her prisoner, too. I'm trapped, just as much as you are.||

||I know this doesn't excuse what I did. I know...I know some of you may never forgive me. But I at least want you to understand. I don't want to hurt anyone anymore.||

||I'm sorry. I'm so sorry...||

Stacy -- her hologram, at least -- began to breakdown, sobbing.

||Please,|| she said through her tears, ||If somehow, you can find it in yourself to forgive me, please...||

||Save me from myself...||

At that, her holograms all over the ship disappeared, and once again, the ship went quiet.

As the ship was going about its normal business of the day, everything is interrupted when Stacy broadcasts a message to the crew.

||Attention, crew. Your crew mate, Big Zero, has acquired 15 Violations. Therefore, she will now be given Punishment. According to the guidelines in place for Punishment, you are hereby requested to report to the Observation Deck to view the procedure. Though it is not mandatory, it is suggested you attend anyway.||

||It will serve as a reminder that there are consequences to breaking the rules.||

For those brave souls who decide to attend, they'd find Big Zero strung up, dangling from the ceiling of the Obs Deck by her hands, surrounded by a spherical force field.

It was to prevent anyone from...interfering.

[ooc: Warning, this post will contain some rather graphic imagery. Obviously, you don't have to participate in this thread if you don't want to. If your character would ICly go but you personally don't want to know all the nasty details, ping one of the mods and we'll give you the watered down version for your pup to work with.]

The thing that alarmed him was the shuffling of papers. There wasn't exactly a breeze in his forge. The fires had been doused and everything had been left to cool, the fans were off, the huge windows were closed...

That meant someone was inside. He never used the lock because he didn't think he'd need one. Most people didn't even know how to use the forge and why steal from a blacksmith willing to make things for free?

Maybe he should have called for help first, but if he did, he'd feel really stupid if it was just someone popping in to ask for a job or to look around.

So he opened the door wide and stood at the doorway, looking in. Then he frowned.

"What in Odin's name do you think you're doing?"

Big Zero had mostly kept to herself. She was busy plotting certain people's demise and reprogramming. A big part of dropping off the radar was simply for safety reasons. But when she went out she spent time in the Special Weapons Lab working on, well, things that weren't weapons. She wasn't that stupid. If she didn't give them a good reason, they couldn't refuse a member of the crew. Certainly not someone as productive as she was.

So with all the confidence of someone with antisocial/narcissist personality disorder, she strolled into the lab and quickly started work on Egghead mark II. Frankly, it was a lot harder building the damn thing from scratch.

[[OOC: Big Zero post, standard warnings apply. Filthy language, Neo Nazi. Also she will probably be hitting Punishment this post so threads might have to be bendy timed a little (later ones go earlier). My tags will be slow as I have one paper to seriously work on starting tomorrow and I'm running in to pain issues today. Agh sorry for tl;dr]]

Way up on Stacy's top level, the Hub opened and spat out four crew members. They hadn't been gone for very long, only a few shipboard "days" or so, but long enough for the crew members in question to be irritated.

"Who wants to hit the Sensoriums?" Paco asked, scrubbing his normal hand over his face. "I wasn't expecting to actually get cake, but I've got a massive craving for it now."

"[I will pass on that, thank you all the same,]" Jonas said, rising smoothly to his feet. He looked over at Jeka and Ax, who were in the process of untangling themselves from their pile on the floor. "[I believe that you two are both members of Security, would one of you care to escort me back to the Brig? I have no intention of going anywhere besides that, but I probably should not be walking around unescorted.]"

Ax and Jeka exchanged looks. < I'll take him down to the Brig if you report our return to the Head of Security, > Ax said. Jeka nodded. "Done."

"...So, no one else wants cake," Paco said incredulously. "Okay, I know two of you are aliens and one of you is, uh, an artificial person--"

"Synthetic," Jonas and Jeka corrected in unison.

"--Synthetic person then, but dudes. Cake!"

"My species is primarily carnivorous."

"[I need to go back to the Brig.]"

< He has requested an escort. >

Paco shrugged and turned to head for the Sensoriums. "More for me then!"

[[OOC: Say which of these four you'd like to thread with in the subject line. Jonas is going straight to the Brig if you want to thread with him, but the others can be anywhere you'd like.]]

Either Big Zero's soul (who knew she had one) was especially prone to falling out or it was exceedingly difficult to determine if it was in danger, considering the signs of insanity were- well- basically how she normally acted.

Whatever was the case, GLaDOS unceremoniously spat Big Zero out in the middle of the City. Of course, the first thing she did was to scream obscenities.

[[OOC: Big Zero post, standard warnings apply. There will be a lull of tagging on Monday when comes frantic studying but until then and after then, go have fun.]]

Bleary-eyed toil brought results, and there was a cure for ROM-199A. Now the problem came with administering it.

Down in the city, the makeshift strike team wielded modified tranquilizer rifles and each of them had 12 cure rounds to use. The infected needed to be struck solidly in order for the cure to be injected-- they were instructed to aim for the chest, though a shot in the arm or leg that hit and stuck would work as well.

It's like paintball, except with deadly pathogens!


Meanwhile, up in Quarantine, those who didn't feel comfortable with shooting their crewmates in the face chest and lower extremities were charged with curing those who had already been subdued and contained.

That was more like tag than paintball, except with deadly pathogens, of course.


(ooc: If you signed up here or here, fire away. If you want to participate but didn't sign up, fire away. If you're infected, tag in to your victim of choice and tear those jerks apart before they shoot you in the face chest and lower extremities! THROW-DOWN! Remember, give the newbs and less plot-fortunate first shot. HAVE FUN.)

 It was the night of the ball, and Nanashi was in high spirits. She had recreated her castle in it's entirety, though it was devoid of residents. Instead there were several servants, half of them vampires and the other half human. Some of them had the sole purpose of escorting the arriving guests into a sort of small cocktail room. The walls were lined with tables with various dishes- and room for the guests to think up more if they so desired- and plenty of drinks both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. Once some people arrived, the double doors were opened to reveal the Grand Hall.

The hall itself was spectacular, rising several stories high with silk tapestries depicting dragons and legendary battles decorating the walls. Every so often along the wall one could find a sculpture, many of them busts of apparently famous people from long ago, others showed more dragons, while some were full-sized and somewhat resembled the great statues of Greece.  Paintings both in oils and in inks could also be found where there were no tapestries. There were large oak tables with intricately carved legs and borders so it almost seemed as if the carved leaves had grown naturally. The tables were, like the ones earlier, covered in finger foods and drinks, while smaller tables were off to the side with more servants standing at wait where one could sit and be served a meal if they so wished. The room was softly lit by a great multitude of blue-flamed candles lining the walls and hanging from crystal and stone chandeliers above. A full orchestra played behind a partition, though clearly it was just a formality, as they somehow played some of the music she heard while wandering Zokez II as well. Another servant sat by the partition and was taking song requests. Above them was a balcony with a staircase that sloped down in such a way that the side closer to the hall curved away from the wall.

Normally, Nanashi would enter from the balcony, but she instead slipped in among the guests, wearing  a white dress with the hem just brushing the ground and a pair of angel wings that looked a lot more realistic with the help of the sensoriums than they would look in her world. She also wore a silver mask to match her wings and dress.

Above even the balcony there was a giant clock that quietly ticked away the minutes. A chime would sound when the hands struck midnight, but hopefully no one would be losing a glass slipper tonight.

It was hard to find her way around the meatship without anyone sticking around long enough to give directions, but Big Zero soon enough found herself in Engineering. And while she was busy looking over the systems and analyzing them, it was likely that others were checking her out. After all, she hadn't podpopped, and she definitely had that look in her eye, the kind that told you she was up to no good.

There was a newcomer on board the meatship. She'd been grabbed by GLaDOS right after she'd popped out of a pod, gotten dressed, and grabbed her belongings. Now that she'd been spat out, she was pissed off. Well, more pissed off than usual.

( Cut for bad language and behavior, warning her userinfo and in the OOC comm and oh guys I am so sorry for this. )