In time, the factory had become too small, so Alessa had been forced to make adjustments. It hadn't been easy, but then she'd had a lot of time to figure out how she could stretch her space and make it bigger without setting off Stacy in the first place. In effect, all she needed was more to add: an abandoned lot, some overgrown vines, enough walking space to make the ash rain that descended before going father into the mists that had the place. She was halfway finished, but for now she could revel in the place she had created: it was Silent Hill all right, dark and deep and, if one was only a simple human, a labyrinth of secret places to get lost in. Normally one could not see Alessa: she was usually at the heart of this place, and getting there required skill, magic and patience as well as a strong constitution. The imagery alone would be enough to scare others away, and Alessa had a lifetime of fragile human experiences and fear to know what would cause them to turn away.

Right now, Alessa was at the outskirts in the place she'd created to be the Silent Hill playground: it was identical to the City playground except the slide was warped, the see-saw wood cracked and splintered, the monkey bars a death trap. That was for show, of course: it was always the swings that were unaffected, and Alessa's favorite part of any playground. She swung, seemingly idle, but there was nothing idle about her thoughts.

She was alone here. There was no one from her world, and every day was a reminder of how different and alienated she was from, everyone else's experiences. Even those she wished to entertain her time with seemed to exist on a different wavelength, she could feel the distance. It hadn't mattered before: she'd known her purpose, Silent Hill was her domain and the people who dwelled within were her ultimate goal. When they had perished, when Alessa and the girl Sharon became whole, she should have perished along with them, or at least moved on. But she was brought here, on a ship where she could relate to no one. Even assisting in the defeat of their enemies did not make her trusted, even to those who had their own demonic aura too: the vampire actually spurned her as of he himself were not an abomination! Ordinarily she would have reminded him he too shared the fate of the spurned, but a vampire that did not feed, or kept himself back, could still be trusted, it seemed. But her very being was a fright to those on the ship, and if not that, she was nothing more than a passing ghost.

She sighed, and felt the darkness wash over her, heard the growlings of the beasts in the factory in her head. They could hold back being fed, and would as long as she wished: they existed for her benefit, waiting for a time to be unleashed again as they were against the King. This was their purpose, as such when she worked for the will of the true Alessa.

She swung a little faster, feeling agitated. Nothing felt real to her now. It was as if she were in a sort of limbo, and it was maddening.

Nightmares Shadow Link could deal with well enough. He could deal with bad dreams and even the usual injuries from them. Normal, plain injuries weren't too much of a hassle for him to deal with. But now...

Now the dreams were getting close to memories. The memory of when he died. Only worse. Short bursts of light and taunts and ultimately a slow and torturous death. One he had awakened from before the final moments, but he could still feel it.

And it was obvious on his person. His skin was darker, not like a tan, but actually a dark gray, just before pure black of the shadows. The blue of his eyes had faded, getting closer to that pure whiteness his eyes had when he acted completely as a shadow. His hair was black, his clothes were all completely black. Even his actual shape was affected, his teeth more fangs and fingers like claws.

All signs of him looking more like what he really was then what he had tried to copy. More of a shadow than a Hylian human. He had been awake for hours, waiting for the sun to 'set' in the City before leaving. He couldn't stay there. Even with the black out curtains, if anyone came into his room, brought more light...

Even the dim lighting of the corridors hurt. No, he needed complete darkness. He needed complete darkness and a way to stay awake until he fully recovered. He dared not to face the dreams again. He dared not even turn into a real shadow and move along them. He didn't trust himself to be strong enough to reform himself afterwards if he did THAT. So he was forced to stumble through the corridors, heading for the sensoriums. It seemed the best place. Ask Stacy to make his world, his REAL world. The Shadow World and do...do SOMETHING to just stay awake.

Of course, the task entrusted to our beloved heroes of the Meatcrew won't be easily accomplished. They're being watched. Small, robotic Arctic foxes, a product of Macrohard, studies the crew as they come through the portal. They watch the set up; they see them go into the realm of the Holiday Spirit, and leave in their flying cars to spread joy in the world. The portal is left open--this is their chance to strike.

This joy, this happiness, this plan? Unacceptable. These creatures are the surveillance for Macrohard. The crew's plan is out, and this corporation is not pleased. The crew's efforts are threatening Macrohard's dominance of the season, but the most effective tactic isn't fighting the crew--oh no. What they'll do instead is go after the Holiday Spirit itself. There is no other option: the threat must be eliminated, once and for all.

Luckily, Macrohard happens to have access to the most technologically advanced weaponry available. The most dangerous mercenaries are on their payroll. Troops of mecha nutcrackers, cybernetic polar bears, and candy cane-wielding arctic ninjas are on route to the North Pole to finish up the job.

[OOC: These are small teams, so try to keep Infiltration Team in one thread, and try to do a LOT of group threads in the others.]

Shadow Link was sitting on a rock outcropping in a volcano's mouth. There was lava far below, but there was a lot of rock formations around that it was safe enough to walk. The temperature was down from what it would be in reality, but it was still rather warm.

He was in the shadows, watching a scene down among the steam. Not smoke, steam. It was created from a massive amount of ice the had been sent into the lava.

"I don't care," he said to himself.

And among a bridge of rock stood five figures. Four together, one a little bit away from them.

"I don't care."

The steam would clear enough occasionally that the figures could be seen. Oddly enough, it all appeared to be the same boy, but in different colored clothes. Except for the one separate, with different coloring as well.

"I don't care."

And there was yelling from the separate boy. The one who looked like him. The one who was him. Yelling at the purple clothed boy standing in front of the other three about betrayal for his dreams. Then the cold words from the purple boy who said that he could never give up the hero in him. That he wasn't as evil as Shadow Link who was evil enough to turn on his owners.

"I don't care."

And then the Shadow Link in the scene leaped at the other four boys and then was hit by a blast of light from the four swords, vanishing completely in the light.

"I don't care."

And then the scene would repeat.

What Shadow Link was trying to do was convince himself he didn't care. When he had been away from his world, he didn't care enough to want to go back. However, hearing that those from his world might also be dead...it started to get to him. Which was stupid. Why should he care that his owner might have died? That Zelda might have died?

He didn't care. He wouldn't care. And he'd relive all the reasons for why it was stupid over and over again until that insane idea left his head.

Slobo stood back with Superbike and surveyed his work. On a street in the city, he had rigged a PA system with speakers from Outsider's Plaza. Static would probably be unhappy with that, but it's worth it. On either end of the street a red line is drawn in spray-paint. Everything was set, now he made the call and waited.

 Slobo had been puttering around the ship for an hour, thinking and looking. He quickly found that if you looked hard enough, between W&P and the City itself, you could find anything. In the end, he was standing outside a Courtyard by Marriott hotel about a click outside of "Escherville" with spraypaint and a very large block of stone. At first he had thought about the Vatican, but it was too wrecked from the zombie fight. Plus, this place had an indoor pool. He spraypainted a large message on the wall next to the door, red with black outline.

The Vatican had a lot of ground to cover. Normally covered in expansive gardens (just empty plots on the ship) and comprised of a multitude of buildings, holing up there meant holing up in simply a part of the Vatican. The group was therefore in St. Peter's Basilica, which had had most of its entrances sealed off. Now they had to work on small windows and a few other entrances left neglected, but overall, it was a very defensible position. There were no exits other than the ones leading to the sacristy and treasury--which was their main avenue of escape, and heavily guarded. The prisoners were being kept in this area, and guarded by the rear guards, as leaving them in the prison was deemed too dangerous for their safety. As bad as they'd been with the Yeerk conflict, they were crew, and no one wanted them to die.

The courtyard was a chokepoint. Gunners could sit on the roofs of the buildings running alongside the courtyard to strafe St. Peter's square from the sides.

The various chapels and vestibules along the sides made excellent areas for food, medical, and weapons supplies to be gathered, and most were clustered in the middle of the basilica. The Medical area was in the Chapel of the Column, the main weapons and ammo caches, and Food storage areas were in the two Transepts, respectively, to the sides of the Papal altar. Pews all in the main areas had been converted to sleeping areas, right in the center of the whole place.

There was still work to be done, before the other group could leave. Last minute barricades, blocking more windows, moving the last of the medical supplies, inventorying the food, and so on. Then it would be time to hunker down.

So push up your sleeves and lend someone else a hand, folks.

[ooc: Read instructions for these threads here!]

Jaime Reyes voice sounds over the comm-rings--all of them--and it sounds very urgent.

« Everyone on the ship, listen up! This is Jaime Reyes, your local 'Blowing this pop stand' coordinator and escape facilitation engineer. I need everyone on the ship to come to the City, in front of the Precinct, immediately. Grab people who don't have their comm rings with them--and tell them to grab their comm rings, people who are sleeping, whoever you find, and try to make sure everyone on the ship knows to come. This is very important. This is "getting the heck out of here" important. »

When they arrive, they arrive to find the Command Staff waiting, and a tiny, tiny young man standing on stone ledge from a fountain, waiting for them.

Here goes nothing.

Shadow Link had heard about the sensorium. To say the least, it sounded interesting. An illusion that became a reality? He knew there were things that could appear an illusion that hurt, but in the end, the thing was truly 'real.' And illusions could be used to hurt and mess with people. But having a physical presence? That was knew.

So he had decided to try it out. Of course, the setting wouldn't be bright. Actually, since he was in control, he had for something that might be nice. Namely, a forest at night. Even as a shadow, he did still feel a bit of joy in nature. Not so much he wouldn't have willingly destroyed it before for his goals, but...

Well, he was still questioning what his goals were, so why not embrace that joy a bit more? And it certainly felt like a real night sky, with a light breeze and everything. He looked around and sighed.

He walked further into the sensorium, quickly climbing up a tree and resting on a branch and for the first time since he actually arrived on the ship, he relaxed. What harm could letting his guard down for a little while in his own illusion could do him anyway?

Shadow Link was already making a list. City: Avoid at all costs. Sunlight was a painful, painful thing and yet another place that nearly blinded him. Media Library: Only when it was nearly empty. He could take the lighting, but his powers were far too depleted there. He checked the Med Bay just to know where it was and really, he was only going there for emergencies for others because going there with it's 'good lighting' would just be dumping salt on whatever injuries he had.

He was pondering getting to know a doctor. Find one that was trust worthy because there was no way in hell he was gonna tell them all that lovely little weakness of his.

He decided maybe the lockers would be a good place to waste time. Not so annoyingly bright and he might find some useful stuff. He even some a hat in a few he looked in, so he at least deemed it fine to make his own hat again. He still had to decide whether he wanted attention by getting rid of the plantsuit, but maybe if he found that clothing WAS somewhere in those lockers. Of course, he still had more of the ship to explore. He just had to be careful of entering rooms so he didn't get blinded again. Having that happen twice was enough and he really didn't like hurting his eyes.

So he kept wondering the halls, pondering if he should check out this 'engineering.' Supposedly it had something to do with all the weird....things here. Like the device they gave out at the meeting. He was still trying to figure out how a box let people talk to people.

Another day, another podpop. The crew and command crew has gathered on Obs Deck to greet the newbs, but right now the atmosphere is tense. People are taking turns on rotations to alternately hunt for Sam--who'd been kept in prison during the trial to present his assassinating the Yeerk-- and guard said parasite so it can have a fair trial. The Jury is in recess, for the moment, but will be deciding the Yeerk's fate very soon. A bunch of new people thrown into the mix is tremendous complication.

Meanwhile, the newbies are waking up to a strange, new world, one unlike anything they may have ever seen before. In the Obs Deck, the light of stars--and parallel universes--streaks past in a sleek, transcendent sheet of multi-colored lights in the large, eye-like windows. (They're inside the eyes, looking out, it seems). The statue in the center of the room, going up the domed ceiling is intimidating--and seems to be looking at them.

The tension is palpable, though a few individuals are trying to cut through it with friendliness for the benefit of the scared and bewildered new people now waking up from their gooey slumber.

[ooc: Newbie Helpers List | Instructions: Post your character with one post establishing them as being podpopped. If you would like to play out them talking to the AI, please send an email to the mods making the request--we do this only by request. Then move onto the big Newbie Meeting. Once your character has gotten the rundown from the old crew, you may start posting entrance posts and freely tagging.]


||Pod Release Protocols Initating|| Stacy's familiar voice sounds out to all the podmates through the ship.

In the Pod Caverns, there are the sounds of: Pop. Pop pop pop. Poppuhpoppoppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiiiissssss.

There is condensation and mist spraying out from cracks in the pods, as the people inside slide out onto the floors, covered in slime.

--

( There was nothing... )