Loren had spent a long, long time in GLaDOS. And when she was back, as far as she could tell, nothing had really changed. Her fiance was gone. So was her son. She knew they were alive but she still missed them.

She grabbed her baseball bat and retrieved the baseballs she'd bought during Shore Leave, found a nice spot in the City, and started hitting them. It was one way to get the stress out. And it worked even better if she imagined the baseballs were the Ohm.

Once Domalai made sure the crew was fully informed of what was expected of them in the upcoming rituals, he showed them over to where the Rituals of Judgement and Joining would be performed.

As they neared the gate that led into the city of Orongo, they could see many other people milling about, waiting for their turn to undergo the rituals themselves. The crew, of course, being a special case, are moved to the front of the line. Thankfully, everyone seems to be in a good enough mood that no one puts up a fuss about it.

The first area they were brought to had a simple stone circle, around which were three smaller circles. Two Moai priests were waiting there as they approached, and Domalai moved over to join them before speaking up.

[ooc: wait for subthreads to go up]

[ooc2: Ready! Tag away!]

Iniss stared at the slop, willing it to turn into something marginally palatable.

The slop remained inert and gray.

< I don't think it's going to magically morph into a cheese burger, Iniss. You may as well eat it before it gets all cold and congealed and starts tasting worse. >

< I can stand the taste, it's the texture that's soul crushing. It's like someone put old tires and used gym socks in a blender and decided to serve it for lunch. >

< I think I'm just glad you get to be the one that actually has to chew it. Yeerks are useful for something after all. >

< You know I could give you control, I'd even give the appearance of being charitable. >

< Give the appearance of being charitable, in reality being sadistic. I bet Dani would be proud. >

Iniss huffed, taking a bite of the food and forcing himself to swallow it without tasting it. His host couldn't help but rub that in, could he? Useless brat.

Who knows why the ship was doing this. Maybe it was some kind of social experiment. Maybe Stacy was feeling festive and somewhere, out there, it was Halloween. Maybe the players just wanted to have Halloween fun. No one would ever know, would they.

In any case, what better place for a Halloween dance than a graveyard? In an area in the center, clear of headstones, there was a dance floor, and there were seats and tables with skeletal frames. Somehow grisly carved torches and jack-o-lanterns of varying sizes and shapes, cast enough eerie light to light up the place, despite the fact it was night. There were places to bob for apples, popcorn balls on strings strung up for people to try to eat for games involving that. The food tables will full of Halloweeny snacks and candy.

Far off, there was a haunted house, decrepit and foreboding. It seemed people could look into it if they dared sent down the dark trail to where it was. [ooc: Haunted house post link forthcoming].

Creepy--but danceable music was playing, from nowhere.

Perhaps most notable was the fact that the moment someone entered the Sensorium, they would find themselves in a costume. Sometimes these costumes would be what the character themselves would choose, but sometimes they'd be dressed as something strange, embarrassing, or just something they wouldn't even recognize. Leaving and coming back wouldn't fix the problem, in most cases. The costumes wouldn't change, and if they did, it wasn't guaranteed that they'd change to something better.

Whatever the case, party hard, Meatship. Somebody's got to teach the Vikings, draconians, aliens, and other sundry people to Thriller dance.

Despite how long they'd been on the ship, there had been five individuals who, for whatever reason, had not been kidnapped by GLaDoS. That had all changed several days ago when they were taken at different times and forced to run mazes.

Now, for whatever reasons, they were each spat out back onto the meatship.

[[OOC: Go tag the subthread of whoever you want your characters to run into. That way there's no flood of posts.]]

By this point, the Ohm had spread all across the planet.

Destruction spread throughout the cities of Zokez II. There were evacuees that still needed to escape. People that needed saving.

It was time for the crew to do what they did best.

[ooc: Sub-plots! Check here before tagging.]

Out of all the things he didn't expect to find here, a basketball court was up there. But there one was, outdoors, along with courts and fields for several dozen other games. So, of course, he decided to get in a few games.

On the court, Julian was in his element. If anyone ever wanted to know how he got so arrogant to begin with, it all started here. He didn't use his powers for most of the games he played, because 1) it was unfair and 2) he didn't need them to win anyway. The few games in which he could use his powers, he couldn't help but show off. It was like watching a live action version of NBA Jam. He's on fire!

Either way, he dominated most of the afternoon, winning five of seven games, and trash talking the whole way. He also shamelessly took advantage of the opportunity to walk around with his shirt of, preening for the ladies and working on his tan.

Right now he was taking a break, though, trying to decide if he wanted to play some more, or head off for something else.

Hydroponics was peaceful. There weren't that many people in it, and most people were willing to ignore you if you curled up in a corner with a book- well, data pad, and he almost missed the solid weight of paper and ink in his hands - and kept your head down.

And right now, Iniss wanted nothing more than to stay out of the way and avoid all of the humans and assorted alien lifeforms that had decided they were going to hunt him down for Jake.

His host was quiet, on the edge of dozing. Bored by his reading choice and content, for once. He'd sent Jake a message, and he knew Jake had to have received it.

It was a small thing, something very few other people would think much of. Telling your younger sibling you love them? Most teenagers would die first. But Tom hadn't been able to say so much as 'Hi' to his little brother in three years. It felt...nice. Comfortable. He felt almost happy. As close to happy as he'd gotten in years, even with the near miss of freedom.

And so he dozed and Iniss read and they ignored each other completely.

It could almost be said to be peaceful, if living with an alien slug in your head could ever be said to be peaceful.

His hands itched. So did the backs of his ankles. And his head hurt.

It was rather annoying to not be able to scratch the itch. The headache was more troubling. It was going to get worse, but for the moment it was just an ache behind his eyes, aggravating more for the reminder than the actual physical pain.

He was helpless.

He let his head lull forward, resting his chin on his chest and testing the bindings on his hands. They were solid, and it didn't give in the least. They didn't even have the decency to scratch the damned itch.

He was hungry, and that would get worse as well. He had a feeling the current small portions of food would continue until he starved. He would get the added pleasure of his host's hunger making his own worse.

< They're going to kill you. > Tom's voice was soft, invasive, and annoying.

< That should make you happy. You're getting everything you wanted, aren't you Tommy-boy? >

The host was silent, considering.

Iniss kept his head down, soon, perhaps, one of his jailers would decide to lecture him, and who knew what might happen then?

If he pretended to be asleep, maybe they would just leave him alone.

((Occ: Give me what day you're on when you tag in, and we'll just do it sorta day by day? I guess? Maybe? Suggestions?)

After Loren had Stacy return her memory of her universe's destruction, Loren wandered about the halls briefly, then returned back to the sensorium. She conjured up the baseball diamond from home but in her mind's eye she could see the Ohm descending on the field and-

She changed the environment so nothing was showing, it was just the way it was when she came there except for the baseballs she had at her feet. She hefted her bat up, picked up one of the baseballs, threw it into the air, and hit it. She then did the same with another ball. And again. And again.

There was something comforting in the repetition but it did little to soothe her. The thoughts she tried to avoid kept coming back to her, the images.

They were going to get them. Whatever it took, those things were going to pay. Right now she needed to just... relax. Let her thoughts fall away and let her body take over.

Sometime during the regular comings and goings aboard the meatship, an announcement rings out across all portions of the ship.

||Attention crew,|| Stacy's voice says, ||As significant interest has been shown for it, and enough time has passed since the Nightmare King incident to prevent unnecessary mental issues, the procedure to unlock the memories of the destruction of your homeworlds is now available to all crew members. If you are interested, please proceed to any empty sensorium and I will begin the process.||

A slight pause, then...

||If you have a history of mental issues, please use extra consideration when deciding on whether or not to take the procedure. That is all.||

Should anyone decide to take her up on her offer and head to the sensoriums, they'd find a clean, clinical-looking white room with a dentist-style chair (sans scary drills, of course) in the middle.

||Please, take a seat.||

[OOC:Instructions.]

Loren had been on the meatship for a long time and there were still some places she hadn't been to. Take Engineering, for example. Which was why she was down here for a visit, just a look around really.

And if she happened to see anyone, well she was always up for making new friends. Provided they weren't Yeerks.

Marco stared at the gloop of the day.

The gloop stared back.

Man, the food here completely sucked. He was beginning to feel like he was turning into Ax, and the next time he saw a cinnamon bun he'd turn into a raging maniac that would attack anything and everything that got in between him and the bun, all the while screaming, "BUNZAH! BUUUNZAH!"

And since he was still trying to go over how he'd fool Tom in his head - the Yeerk was smart, he needed to be ready - the gloop seemed even more unappealing. Marco didn't think that was possible. How could the very pinnacle of "unappealing" get even more unappealing?

Little did Marco know that the gloop was about to become the least of his problems.

[[ooc: So a thread with Elfangor and/or Loren and (and possibly Ax and Tobias too?) first, then after that's finished I'll start a new one for Tom, okay?]]

It was a wake up call. Elfangor was no stranger to nightmares, but with the Nightmare King, his worst came back. The ones he'd had almost constantly since the time he left Earth. Losing Loren, over and over again. His son growing up without anyone or suffering the same fate. Aximili never existing. Always losing his family over and over again.

But it was the kick he needed. Nerves or not, he had to do this. He did it once, he could do it again. And there was enough time that Loren would be sure it was because he loved her, right? And not just the memory, or something strange like that. Not that she'd really do that. Maybe.

No, he had to stop thinking like that or he'd just delay again. He was going to do this. He'd have the ring hidden for months already. He was going to do this. He had the plan, he had the sensorium set up, and as far as he knew, Loren had no specific plans.

So he just had to ask her to come with him. He entered their room, relieved to see her there. Good. No time looking for her and letting that anxiety build. < Loren? Could you come with me? > To his credit, he kept mostly calm, but there might be a tinge of nervousness in the thoughtspeak.

It had taken some doing to convince Ax not to immediately hunt down Prince Jake's older brother and bludgeon him unconscious when Tobias told him that he was awake and infested on board. But once Tobias had managed it, Ax insisted that Elfangor be brought into their conspiracy. Not that he doubted Marco's ability to trick the Controller of course, but someone on the Command Staff should know.

He'd sent a locked and encrypted message to Elfangor over the comms, asking him to meet them at the Garibah tree. He trusted that his brother would realize that the matter was important based simply on that.

Ax shifted his weight nervously, his stalk-eyes scanning the area for anything out of the ordinary, though Tobias would probably spot an attack first.

He still was unsure of this place. Unsure of the odd suit he wore, unsure of the breathing walls or the ship itself.

But space, itself, remained unchanged. It had been a few years since he’d stared into the black of deep space. It had been through a Gedd’s unreliable eyes, then, and not nearly as clear.

< Beautiful. > The human muttered, awe drowning out the chaos and the static of his thoughts for the moment.

Perhaps it was. Perhaps the Yeerk only lacked the human understanding of beauty.

His hands were behind his back, an odd stance for a human teenager. Closer to military rest that anything else, eyes drinking up the black.

The universe had shifted, but out there somewhere, his home world likely still existed. Even if it didn’t, even if like Earth it was gone and most of his brothers and sisters cast among the stardust of its powder like the specks of nothing that they were, he had survived.

His lips curled into a smile, slow and much quieter than Tom’s smile, true amusement causing his face to soften.

He had survived.

He, a nothing and a nobody, had survived when Vissers and Sub-Vissers alike had perished like worms on the pavement after a rainstorm.

It was a good day.

People say that war is hell. This looked it.

Buildings and cars and bodies are scattered like broken toys as far as the eye can see, stretching out toward a dirty horizon. Even the clouds seems streaked with mud and blood, and they're taking it out on everyone below with a constant stream of cold, soaking rain.

The sounds of fighting seem to come from all directions, but at this moment, there's no one else in sight.

A breather. The calm before the storm.

[[OOC: This is for everyone who was involved with "The Lurking Fear". Questions go to Milo or Kaylin.]]

Nightmare becomes reality....

_{[roster: Leader - Loren, Dream Girl, Hunter, Red Snout, Renne]}

( Simulation Loading... )

Zombies were probably a common worry on the ship after the whole bridge incident, so a little practice wasting them couldn't be a bad thing. Besides... if the nightmare guy was going to target Steve, there was no doubt about it that he'd conjure up some form of Rockfort Island-- hence the locale. And if zombies and Umbrella monsters became so routine they were like targets at a shooting gallery, then they wouldn't be a problem showing up in his nightmares. Just like the weird sneaky bald kid said. Steve wasn't leaving until he stopped jumping, stop shaking and started expecting the sudden crashes, glass breaking and the scent of rotten flesh and blood.

He wasn't expecting anybody to come in.