[backdated to the beginning of the event, I had a big paper due so I couldn't do this right off the bat, sob.]

Claire was trying to catch up on things she'd missed while stuck in GLaDOS's mazes when the ship went dark. It didn't even take her as long as it took SHODAN to cackle about domination over the speakers for her to be up and moving around her office. She always kept a flashlight in the top drawer of her desk, just in case. Never know when you're going to need a flashlight, and since the wiring in the school was probably extremely old it was a good idea on its own.

( Is that the way you like it? )

It felt good to finally do something productive, even if the project Steve had been spending all his time on wasn't exactly useful. Not for the ship at large, anyway... though he did know somebody who would appreciate it.

So when he finally finished tinkering and messing around with it, he wasted no time in hunting Claire down and dragging her to Engineering to get a look at it.

"It's really not all that great. I didn't do very much to it, but-- but I still hope you'll think it's cool," he murmured, as he pushed open the doors to the Engineering department and headed towards his tiny corner of the work area. "Just promise you won't laugh at it, okay?"

The Bleed looked a lot the same whether you were looking at it upside down or right side up. Good to know.

Steve was sitting on one of the chairs in the obs deck... slouching, really, a typical teenage slouch, his head tilted off to the side and his hair hanging in his face as he stared out the window. He was fighting off the end of one of his dizzy spells, the ones that always hit about an hour after his weekly treatments in medbay. He looked a little more pale than usual, and a close inspection would notice the greenish veins trailing up his left arm towards his tattoo, but the spell was finally passing and he'd be back on his feet in a little bit.

He already knew from past experience that there was little point in trying to exert himself until it was over... otherwise they might find him unconscious in the middle of the mess hall again. That had stirred up a few conspiracies about what was really in the food, and was really more trouble than it was worth. He didn't want to freak out Kaylee, either, particularly when she'd been so nice in helping get him situated in the Engineering department.

Yes... for once, Steve didn't have a whole lot to be cynical about.

Hell, it might even be safe to make some small talk with him.

So, the hostages had been rescued successfully and were recovering. The crew members affected by the clock were back to their proper age.

Sherry was back to her proper age. Something which was both a great relief and tremendously heartbreaking at the same time. He was glad she was back to being his little linefacer, but getting a chance to see her when she was so small, during all the years of her life that he hadn't been a part of.

At least he took plenty of pictures.

Though, while a couple of problems were solved, there were still plenty more to deal with. The map; whether or not the GIA set them up at NiSaris; the Ohm; replacing repodded personnel... Though he was taking a break from that now. Or was trying to, at least. Not an easy thing to do with a ton of stuff weighing on his mind.

To help clear his mind, he went down to the City (which reminded him, at some point, he needed suggest to the Council that they actually give the City a name), and at the moment was hanging upside down from a tall fence doing one sit up after another. He wasn't out of shape, still barely having an ounce of fat on him, and by no means rusty, but the rescue mission had made him realize he had been out of the field and behind a desk for too long. Being some distant, hands off executive wasn't his style. And whatever was about to come their way next, he'd need to be at his best to help.

Smaller didn't necessarily mean Sherry was less of a handful. Somewhere during the time it took her to shrink from four to somewhere around two, she'd gotten more curious and - inexplicably -louder. She was quick, too, on those fat little legs of hers, as she ran from Interesting Thing, to More Interesting Thing.

Naturally, anything she found went straight to her mouth, and then immediately subjected to a chorus of "Ew! Ewwwwww!" Claire's dog was a "cat", no matter how many times Sherry was corrected otherwise. And the poor alien pup itself was subjected to Sherry climbing on its back and clinging to it like pony until she was either plucked off or fell off.

Still, there were some good things about this. Sherry was sweeter, more amiable, liked being spoken to and enjoyed being tossed high in the air. Over. And over. And over. Which is why the little tot was addressing her mother with the biggest, sweetest pair of blue eyes meant to be totally convincing.

"Mama! Up!" Her chubby little hands grasped for the hem of Claire's shirt, falling short. "Up!"

At four different points throughout the ship is one of those sights that is more regular than any would probably like. Suddenly, GLaDOS drops a handful of women who had been shuffled off for tests back out, deeming them capable of being among the others, again.

Claire Redfield stood up after being expelled and quickly spun around, kicking the wall in frustration.

"Should've blown up your goddamn AI core when I had the chance!" she screamed at the wall. She spun away and stalked off down the hall before Stacy could issue any warnings for her attempting to damage the walls, and she was irritated enough that she might just try to claw her way back in to break the AI for good.


Scarlet Levy had a somewhat less violent response to the tests, because as uncomfortable as it had been, she understood and accepted it was something that was apparently needed. She straightened herself out, and started back towards Contagion. She wasn't sure how much work she'd missed, but she needed to get on it.


Yve Cousland was mostly just confused, and annoyed that she didn't have any cake, and with that in mind, started back towards the castle.


Zoë Shepard stood and checked herself over after the experiment, frowning a little. Unbeknownst to her her time was a little messed with at the moment, and the tests just made everything else all the more confusing. With a bit of a careful surveying of the area, she started back towards the Hangar.


[ooc: herp derp, i'm back. feel free to tag any of my ladies, just let me know who you're tagging and where you've caught up with them! ♥]

Once those who decided to go along on the mission were gathered on the Obs Deck and had time to go over the mission briefing, the detachment procedures began.

As with the missions before, the doors to the Obs Deck closed before it detached itself from Stacy, tethered by a massive umbilical cord. Those who had been on missions before would find the experience familiar if still somewhat unpleasant, but for those of whom this was their first mission, the sudden lack of gravity and lurching feeling as they entered the atmosphere would come as a surprise.

Thankfully though, the ride was quickly over as they landed safely on the planet below, the gravitational dampeners of the Obs Deck gently dropping the crew members back on their feet. One of the walls opened up, forming a ramp to the ground below. There was a sudden, slight gust of air as the door opened as the thick air rushed in. Even so, the air felt quite warm and refreshing.

Looking outside, the crew would see the bright yellow sun looming overhead, quite close in comparison to the sun on most planets. A handful of small, silver clouds dotted the blueish purple sky.

Ahead of them stood a rather impressive looking plateau, surrounded by a tall, ornate stone wall which was covered in tribal markings. Directly ahead was a large gate through the wall, with several small stone buildings in front of it. Beyond the gates, a larger settlement could be seen. Surrounding the plateau and covering the surrounding region were numerous strange, blue and purplish trees and plants.

[ooc: hold up until subthreads are set up]

[ooc2: ready! feel free to tag!]

Claire hadn't been up to much lately, and while that wasn't entirely a bad thing, it was a little dull. Still, it gave her time to get ahead on lesson plans, and work on training Boon to behave himself a little better.

At the moment she's sitting in the lounge, trying to get some work done, but as the dog (not so much a puppy anymore, though he still wasn't quite full-grown) kept on sneaking up and making off with her data pad, it wasn't easy. Anyone walking into the area would likely observe Claire standing with one finger pointed sharply at the floor next to her as she attempted to get the dog to comply.

"Boon! Come back here with that!"

Somewhere on Stacy, a fleshy wall opened and ejected four people. Sherry turned and kicked the wall as it closed.

“I hope this isn’t another stupid test,” she grumbled and pushed her hair from her eyes.

“I don’t think it is, that... thing did thank us,” Namira patted the little girl’s shoulder. “So, I imagine that our testing is over, for the moment.”

[Not a moment too soon.] Nehaalista signed as she stalked off towards where she hoped the Hub was.

“I’ll take Sherry-chan back to her parents,” Miku offered. “I imagine they’re worried.” Especially if they only just realized their child had been missing for two weeks or so. Namira nodded and Sherry frowned. “With her permission, of course.” She looked back at the little girl, who seemed a bit annoyed that she was being talked over (so to speak, as she was nearly the same height as the petite Japanese girl).

“I can find my way on my own, but fine.” Sherry crossed her arms. “Can we get going? I don’t want GLaDOS to change her mind.”

“Absolutely. I have a mabari to find, myself. Goodbye, you two. I’m sure we’ll see one another soon.” Namira smiled and hurried off to care for Hakkar.

“Alright, Sherry-chan. I think it’s... this way,” Miku put her hand on Sherry’s shoulder and led her down the hallway.

((ooc note: If you want to interact with anyone, just put their name in the subject line. Miku and Sherry are available together (before Sherry is delivered back to her parents) and apart (after Sherry’s been delivered), just let me know. :3))

Come to think of it, Chris wasn't even sure that a workout in the sensoriums even counted as a workout.

Sure, his muscles had the burn of exhaustion coming on and he was sweating, but the heavy bag he was punching was just an illusion created by the ship. And so were his workout clothes and gloves. And so were the weights back there, and the trees outside the window, and so was this gym. Though it looked just like the one at the B.S.A.A. North America HQ, down to the emblem on the wall and the agents' lockers down the hall. And sure enough, C. REDFIELD's locker had a few sets of clothes, a few packs of cigarettes, an ancient can of V8 from a long-ago lunch meeting, a bag of Jolly Ranchers and taped to the door, a picture of Chris and Claire.

It was kind of creepy when you thought about it.

Still, it was the attempt to not think about things that brought Chris into the sensoriums today. Things seemed to have settled down (temporarily... always, always temporarily) but there was still an uneasy feeling in his gut and he couldn't help but feel worried. So just like always, he retreated to the solace of physical activity to clear his mind. It was an old habit of Chris', and one that went a long way towards explaining his current physical stature.

He was sitting on a bench having a rest and a drink of water at the moment. Except the water wasn't real either, was it...

Man. That was really creepy.

After everything had been sorted out with Steve, there had been a small matter of Claire's injuries. Which turned out to not be so small, when the possibility that she could be infected since she'd been burned by Steve's blood cropped up. So she'd been cleaned up, patched up, poked, and then stuck in a bubble in Contagion for observation.

She hated being down here, but it was an entirely different experience when you were stuck on the other side of the bubble. At least it gave her a lot of time to think about what had happened, and quietly guilt herself about all the people injured and the few that had been potentially infected, like her.

Not to say that she wouldn't talk to anyone else, were they to show up and talk to her.

[ooc: obvs open to anyone who got locked up in contagion too, or visitors, or if people want to visit other lab rats detainees and ignore claire, that's cool too, just leave a note so i know what's up :Db]

The streets of Religion Row were stained with bloody scorch marks, leading in a gruesome trail through the maze of temples and shrines. The stains seemed to lessen the further the trail was followed, and the last splotch of blood led to the steps of the Vatican.

The door of St. Peter's Cathedral had been knocked open and inside, the cavernous chapel seemed empty. This place still showed signs of the last battle here, the struggle against many of Veronica's relatives and the innocent people they had infected.

Deep within the chapel, he lurked.

His heavy footsteps were obvious, but the echo made it impossible to tell where he was. Heavy breathing, edged by growls, was audible from the somewhere in the darkness.

He heard them approaching, and he waited.

[ooc: PLOT POST IS HERE! Read it!]

He stalked through the hallways like a shadow, moving too quickly for anyone to keep a bead on him for long. There almost seemed to be a purpose in his movement as he made his way through the dark corridors of the ship, though it was impossible to tell where he was headed. Perhaps the young man whose body had been hijacked was exerting some kind of control, or perhaps Veronica was doing the driving.

Whatever the case, the Tyrant made his way to the City.

He emerged from the tunnels and into the wide open space, at last free of the cramped hallway. He took a few steps into the streets and sniffed the air, smelling human blood. He roared, a horrible and twisted noise, then headed into the streets.

She demanded they all bow to her. They were little more than prey for the Queen in the grand scale of things. These thoughts rang hollow in a primal mind, though, but he knew what he had to do.

They would all die.

[OOC: FURIOUS MUNCEST ALERT. This log is the precursor to THE STEVENING, which starts tomorrow! More details will be up later this evening.]

Veronica was getting worse, slowly tightening its grip on Steve's body to the point where he was only coherent half the time. He still felt like he was fighting through a hazy fog, and clear thoughts were hard to come by. The fever was rolling off him in waves of heat and he looked like hell, pale and sweating and clearly sick.

There was one hope, a treatment the Science staff had come up with. It wasn't a cure, but if it worked, it would effectively neutralize the virus to the point where it wouldn't be a concern anymore. It had been tested. It had been simulated. It had been run on a virtual him a hundred times and each time, it turned out.

That was, understandably, not enough to make him feel comfortable with the idea.

From the moment he laid down and they strapped his wrists down (for safety) he was shaking like a leaf... though that also might have been the fever kicking itself up again. He closed his eyes and tried not to listen to Luis shuffling around and preparing in the background.

What's the worst that could happen? he kept reminding himself. I die?

Like I've never done that before.

I've been waiting for you all this time.

Why do you fight when you know you can't win?

Come play with me, Mister 267. And through you, I'll finally become queen...

Alexia's laughter was still echoing in his ears when he'd woken up, shaking and sweating. He'd tried to go about his business as usual but it was hard to concentrate past the fire burning through his veins, throbbing with pain. He'd told Miku he would go to the medical bay if his symptoms remained or got any worse.

Is that why he was standing here in the hallway? He couldn't quite remember. It sounded like someone was blasting radio static in his head, and it was hard to separate his thoughts from the static.

This is not good, he managed to reason, but it got lost in more of that obnoxious, childish giggling. "God, will you shut up already?"

Steve let out a heavy breath and reached up to brush his hair out of his face, stuck to his forehead with sweat. He was going to be fine. This was just a bad fever, nothing to be concerned about.

"Steve..." He felt a gentle hand on his back and he immediately spun around to find the voice it belonged to, though there was nobody there. He backed up against the wall, his eyes wide with some emotion even he couldn't discern.

"Steve... why won't you look at me?"

How was it coming from behind him? He turned to look at the wall, reached out and touched it, and there she was.

"I've missed you so much, Steve...""

There was the hand on his back again.

"Mom...?"

Sherry's legs hurt. A kind of dull, irritating, throbbing ache that made her want to do a lot of nothing. She watched Boon jump around spastically in her room from her seat at the base of her bed. Every once in a while, the alien dog would run up with a toy of some sort (his current favorite toy was a wad of knotted rags from some of the clothing Sherry'd grown out of), she would throw it, and the dog would try to eat her book.

At least Boon was nothing if not predictable. "No..! Boon! No! Books aren't snacks!" Sherry held the book over her head, the dog licked her face eagerly, "Get the toy! The toy! Not my---auuugh! That's my face! What've you been eating, your breath is horrib---ewww!"

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.)

Thank god for pants.

Chris had a look around the room where his sister had been sleeping for the past year, getting the feeling he'd never quite get used to the whole "alien organs" motif this place had going for it. It seemed nice enough, though, and he was curious to know who all the things on one side of the room belonged to.

"So, I guess it'd be an understatement to say I missed a lot," he said, giving Boon a belly rub on the bed next to him.

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers. After the revelation that their worlds are gone, many of them are even more eager to see people they knew from home.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicoms and comm rings. New crew-mates might see a tall man in green armor and snake girl among their number. There are also several authoritative-looking figures ready to introduce themselves.

There's a lot to tell the new people. It's going to be a lot to take in.

[ooc: Only new characters and Command Staff can start new threads for introductions, to limit the number of threads. Everyone else, just tag in and have your guys greet the newbies.]

It was night on the ship - or at least as close to night as the ship ever got.

But while most of the crew slept, something had been released from within the ship. Something invisible, something undetectable, and something very, very dangerous.

If you passed through parts of the City, you might start to feel a little sick...