ViewScream: avante en garde

[idolpro]

The bulkhead seals behind you; there is a brief warning buzzer before THEMiS’s A.I. pleasantly informs you that you have been “quarantined for your protection.”

A specialized room is arrayed before you, and you suddenly find you are aware of not only of the game’s rules, but also of a limited collection of specialized knowledge suitable to your team’s Role.

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ROLE: WEAPONS

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Available solutions:

1. Phase-Shifted Tachyon Missiles
2. Antimatter Blast Cannon
3. Force-Shield Generator

To your right are a series of lockers containing changes of clothes to more Role-appropriate ones—though they still contain just enough elements to match your unit aesthetic. You may use these if you wish (if so, they will not disappear after the game ends). To your left, there is what appears to be a comms station. It seems you’ll be using this to contact the other units.

It quickly becomes apparent, in fact, that you will very much need their help—

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Quick Links: How to Play | Rules | Bridge | List of Roles

Comments

PROBLEMS

[idolpro]

Psionics
There’s something at the corner of your eye—no, the other corner—no, it’s writhing beneath your skin—

Wait. It’s none of those things. All of this is just in your mind; there’s a creeping paranoia that borders on madness. Then you notice it: the broken canister in the corner of the room, its contents already dispersed. Whatever was in there is clearly beginning to work its way through your brain. The effects are easy enough to ignore, now that you realize what’s going on… but they’re only going to get worse.

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Engineering
There’s an alarm klaxon like a tornado siren that extends for about twenty-five seconds than you wish it would have.

Once you can finally uncover your ears, you see the flashing alert:

PROTON CORE IN CRISIS MODE
IMMINENT REPAIR REQUIRED TO PREVENT MELTDOWN

Better find someone who can get you those repairs...

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Helm
Over at your communications hub, there’s a flashing red light: obviously some kind of warning signal. Checking the monitors triggers a pop-up message, read aloud in the pleasantly neutral voice of what must be THEMiS’s A.I.

“External sensors offline. Temperature regulation and collision maintenance systems compromised.”

Well, that doesn’t sound good.

“Do you wish to jettison this sector to preserve station integrity?”

A countdown appears on the pop-up. Okay, so that’s really not good.

DISCUSSION

[idolpro]

[unbr8kable]

[stares at the broken canister, then the still flashing lights of the alarms. Then down to the blisters and dark, overly detailed marks still on her arm from the last game (sure they're moving, sure the eyes and limbs and shape are really--) before laughing--looking to the others.]

...If we just blow up the ship, that'll take care of everything, right?

[dienamite]

[ He can't stop glancing over his shoulder or scratching uneasily at his arm. This is the worst problem and

wait ]

That's gonna kill us too.

[gigadevilbreaker]

[More irritably than normal, voice a little shaky,]

Are you trying to fuck us all over?

[emptymind]

Even if we die, will this stop? The noise. The poison.

[ the noise stopped a while ago ]

[calmthefoxdown]

Then we'll be ultra dead.

[composeur]

Wahahaha! Going out in a blaze of glory, our twisted and broken bodies floating into the vast nothingness of space~ that sounds pretty cool actually!

But just lying down and dying without doing anything isn't very interesting. Hey, you know the moon vampires right?

Re: DISCUSSION

[emptymind]

[ covering her ears ]

Ara ara ara ara...

Re: DISCUSSION

[softlyfalling]

Ah, so we need to contact... pep or Heart Soldier, alcheME or BARiTONES, and then Taisho or future is now... I, I'm having trouble concentrating.

Re: DISCUSSION

[emptymind]

Heart Soldier Senshi, Baritones, and... Taisho Roman Revolution.

Re: DISCUSSION

[gigadevilbreaker]

Heart Soldier seems to be trying to organize. Might as well let'em know our problems, r-right?

[calmthefoxdown]

[ Rubbing at his ears, he sure was missing from the pre-game mingle but he's here now, looking at the everything going on. ]

We... should we concentrate on one thing at a time or split up to work on each one?

[softlyfalling]

It's a lot, ah... let's split it up, I think. There's... so many incoming calls.

Re: DISCUSSION

[composeur]

[ if you want him he'll be losing his stupid little mind up on one of the windows that opens out to the THE GREAT EXPANSE OF SPACE

the sheer awesomeness of just. being here. combined with the constant beeping and hallucinations-- well that last part's not much different from usual, but he's kind of sensory overloaded right now. ]

Re: DISCUSSION

[gigadevilbreaker]

[Griffin's not going too great already. He's taken his prosthetic off and his voice is shaky. Is this room getting warmer? It could be the fever, but... brainworms]

Can we... can we please fix the worms in my brain? Gold or, or someone...

Re: DISCUSSION

[emptymind]

We should contact Baritones. I'll do it.

Re: DISCUSSION

[emptymind]

I have promised our missiles to Wild City, and Baritones will be sending us a cerebellar shield. Commodore, one of our solutions will be sent to future is now, yes?

We have one left. Should we respond to Heart Soldier Senshi for our helm, or should we speak again to Baritones or Alcheme to guarantee a result for... that?

[ waves at the cannister ]

Re: DISCUSSION

[softlyfalling]

I... tried to talk to Heart Soldier, but it sounds like they have a lot of requests for assistance based on what I hear others asking for... we may need to talk to Pep, about the helm issue.

ZRAEL?

[gigadevilbreaker]

Looks like Zrael still needs guns. If our helm problems are goin' through pep, you think we can spare'em a part?

Hey guys

[gigadevilbreaker]

It's all sorted, right? So it's just time to let the dice fall.

[Griffin gives a mock salute. He's still burning up, but he looks significantly less fucked than he did an hour ago. Even tries to muster a smirk.]

Safe landings, assholes.

TURN-IN

[idolpro]

[unbr8kable]

Wild City gets the Phase-Shifted Tachyon Missiles--as the Xenobiology lab should have reinforced plating on the walls anyway, and they're used to dealing with whatever creatures are found on the journey, they can probably handle shooting the bugs as they come. The phase shift keeps the bugs from being able to just vibrate through the blasts.

Similarly ★zrael gets the Antimatter Blast Cannon, which shouldn't cause too much structural integrity to the reinforced walls of Xenobiology labs, but should cause plenty of damage to the matter-based carapaces (and also innards) of the infestation.

Future is Now receives the Force-Shield Generator--by adding it to the engineering console, they can seal the portion with the bugs away, and perhaps vent the warp core to irradiate them--at any rate, the insects will be trapped and can be vented to space, beamed out, or irradiated with sound, plasma, or even the pre-meltdown proton core.

TECH RECEIVED

[errours]

Your fellow idols/very real space professionals have come to your aid, or at least tried to!

You receive the following Real Space Technology:

Problem type: Psionics
Tech received: Telekinetic Probe
Description provided: THEY PROBE THEIR MINDS AND CAN OVERCOME HALLUCINATIONS
Result: FAILURE

Tech received: Remote Cerebellar Shield
Description provided: The shield becomes one of the ship's main functions; once a button is hit, it will dispatch a small necklace that pulses against the brain stem to defend against paranoia and agitation.
Result: FAILURE

Problem type: Engineering
Tech received: Antimatter Crystallization Matrix
Description provided: The crystallization properties of the antimatter matrix should stabilize the core and crystallize the agitated antimatter variables of it.
Result: Success

Problem type: Helm
Tech received: Navigation Wave Console
Description provided: fix it's sensors and allow it to navigate all station sectors safely through any course.
Result: Success

RESULT: THIS IS GOING TO HURT

[errours]

But in the end, there’s still that one last problem…

---

You’ve all been holding it off so long—the maddening certainty that the shadows in the crumbling room are reaching out to claw at you. But you can’t ignore it now—or ignore the realization that the shadows are already seeping out of your teammates too: flooding and contorting inside them, pouring from their eyes and mouths, leaking out the ends of their fingers.

You’ve got to put a stop to it, even if the rest of them are already lost, even if you have to tear off one another’s skin to get the shadows out—!

Your hands and teeth are desperate, crude tools for the task, but how can you let that stop you? They all need your help so much.

...And then there’s a pleasant chime from THEMiS’s systems, and your bulkhead door unseals, flooding the room with fresh, uncontaminated air. Finally you can see one another clearly, and the places on your bodies where your flesh hangs off in strips.