Instructions for--- wait, no. This is Radio Free Hot Zone! [envy]

[one_drafted_man]

Grif and his group have finally escaped zombies and rust monsters and whatever else, and made provisions for rest and food. (PINpointing back to the forest, clearing out some traps and killing some bears for fresh meat may or may not have been involved.) Ordinarily, that would mean that, it being the next day, they would move on to get through the

Comments

[one_drafted_man]

«Hm. Well, looks like we've got some nice green fields and forests, nature all around. Guess that fits in with the rainbow theory. Seven colors, seven days... Seven. Lucky seven, some say. Spooky seven, sometimes. Sevens show up all the time, back home. Let's see, what other kinds of sevens are there that might be relevant...»

As he continues to look around, he starts listing things off, stream of consciousness fashion, just to keep the silence at bay. Others may feel free to butt in, either with other possibilities or possibly even the right answer.

[bishie_beastboy]

Right now, a distraction like thinking of various seven-things is just what Changeling could use. He really hates zombies, as was made eminently clear in the yellow town, so he's still wound up from all of that. (There couldn't possibly be any other reason why he's feeling uncomfortable and twitchy, though the harsh interior of the decontamination room certainly doesn't help matters.)

"Seven bones in most mammals' necks." ... Thank you, Changeling, that was... morbidly enlightening. "And... hm. Seven wonders of the world, though that's pretty Earth-centric."

[one_drafted_man]

«Hm. Interesting anatomy fact. Didn't know that one. Seven Wonders might be interesting, and Mr. Purple's suit looked 21st century Earth enough for it, but I'm not sure it fits what we've seen so far. Guess we'll see when a giant pyramid or something shows up.»

[honoringblood]

Ash is elsewhere in the same level with Sam, but pipes in. More conversation is good!

"Seven virtues and seven levels to Mount Celestia... er, Heaven.
As far as we know, nothing'll attack unless you shoot first. I wouldn't look too close at the animals, either. And I'd suggest avoiding the town, everyone is being controlled by something."

[one_drafted_man]

«...Okay, so we've got it narrowed down to the Seven Deadly Sins. Goes with the bugs that make you angry, the food that makes you eat more, the town full of stuff that makes you want to take...

«For that matter, this place is really nice. I mean, suspiciously nice, like a holo postcard from New Harvest or something. If if weren't for being warned by the hazmat suits and the fact that everything around here's a big ol' fucking trap, it'd maybe be tempting to take my helmet off and feel the breeze through my hair.»

WARNING: Unknown biological agent detected. Vacuum/NBC protocols confirmed in effect.

«Oh. And there's why that'd be a bad idea. I'm picking up something weird. ARGUS is looking it over... spores... fungal in nature... superficial resemblance to... Oh, shit. The Flood. Well, not actually the Flood, but like I said, similarities. Most of you won't know what I'm talking about, but let's just say it was a galaxy-threatening alien infection. This shit, meanwhile, is in everything. Birds, trees, grass, woodland animals. And the

[jmlevitt]

Static. Fuzz and noise. A voice. Remember the DEVICE? The BAD device that takes you away from here? Jeff remembers. But Jeff remembers there is GOOD and BAD. The talking is good. Jeff can make the talking work.

«I know the voice...» he says dreamily into the DEVICE. «I know the voice...the voice from the other life. CRUNCHY outer shell. CHEWY center. I remember...I remember...»

[one_drafted_man]

Well. That's... interesting. And disturbing. Well, what the hell.

«Uh... Hey, Jeff. That's right, this is Grif. Glad you could call in to Radio Free Hot Zone.» He runs a quick signal trace, which appears to point to somewhere fairly nearby, over a hill. «Did you get infected with the fungus, Jeff?»

Oh, man. It's never good when you're friends get the infection. Or the headcrabs. Or whatever the zombification scheme of the day is. Grif takes a moment to quietly stop and facepalm before moving on.

[jmlevitt]

«Grif...Griff...Grif is the name,» he says, almost to himself. «Tricky things, names. Tricky words. Ugly words. Infection. Invasion. Sick. WRONG.» He breaks off suddenly, leaving the channel open as he hums to himself.

He remembers himself a minute later. «So happy here...happy and quiet. Happy people...happy wife...happy animals...happy birds and flowers and trees...happy take off the helmet...CRACK the SHELL...show us the JUICY MEAT INSIDE...you'll see...you'll see...»

[one_drafted_man]

«...Picking up some kind of traffic on a usually empty section of the spectrum. Armor's having difficulty making heads or tales of it, though there's certainly some patterns to the signal. Maybe if I can trace it to a source... Oh. Oh, wow. It's not one source. It's everything around here. Everything that's alive and infected with that fungus is somehow transmitting -- and receiving -- some kind of signal to everything else. Some kind of group mind? Now that's just fucking creepy.»

Grif pauses in his movements for a moment, head tilted in thought. «Which reminds me, vaguely. Back on the first night, at the party, I started picking up an alert about an unknown bio-agent. It only lasted about as long as Mr. Purple was on stage. Anyone experience anything odd 'round that time? Gimme a call, and don't be shy, now.»

[secondisthebest]

"Completely agreed on the creepy point." Grif might recognize the voice of Dark Knight Junior if he's seen Batman around before, but it's disguised enough from Terry's to keep people off guard.

"Out of curiosity, does being suddenly whisked here against our will count as odd, or are we just calling that run of the mill these days?"

[one_drafted_man]

Disguised, but not having met Dark Knight Junior, that means that he has no idea who he's talking to, so Grif chucks it through the spectrum analyzer to see if he's maybe missing someone he should know. He's a little puzzled when he sees what it coughs up -- he only talked to the kid a couple of days ago, he should recognize his voice -- but decides to run with it.

«No, I'm getting pretty used to that at this point Te---» And then the caller ID comes up, and there's a few moments of indistinct noises of startlement and fear. He gets his rampant and mysterious phobia under control enough to continue, though, teeth gritted until he can get past the name that the kid obviously chooses to use for himself, «Uh, Batman. Anyway, kidnapping's not exactly a bio-agent-y sort of thing, at least not on its own, and I know it can't be the only factor in our being nabbed.»

Grif may not have seen Terry's suit, but Terry's seen Grif's, so it should probably be obvious why he knows the pheremonesunknown bio-agent isn't the only thing that got them

[secondisthebest]

"Couldn't move." Batman says shortly. The implications of that first syllable are keeping him quiet.

[one_drafted_man]

«Well, I've crested a hill, and I can see that town that Ash mentioned below. Looking down on it with the scope, I can see what he meant. People are totally moving around like puppets or zombies or something. That weird signal seems to be just as strong down there as in the woodsy areas, so I guess they're all up in it, too. ...What the hell?! I can see some of those metal-eating monster things from Greedytown, and someone apparently bunched up a mess of broken-down cars for them to munch on peacefully. Oh, well. Guess that keeps 'em from coming after me, this time, but that is just so fucking w---weird.» He avoids saying "wrong," if only because he knows Jeff may still be listening.

Or maybe not... As he refocuses the scope on a different area in town, Grif's head rocks back for a moment in surprise. An image is sent out for those whose PINpoints can receive it. «Well, okay, there's Jeff, after all... and Soze? They seem to be pretty... domestic, out there, which, y'know, I'm not even gonna get into. There's the wife Jeff mentioned

[one_drafted_man]

«Uh oh. Something seems to be going on down there. Flavius just lit up into a shining yellow beacon. If he's getting himself all up in the Eldritch, I think that's a cue for me to be moving on, in a big wide arc around them.»

The sound of a bell's ring, sharp and clear, rings out from the town, up the hill, and through Grif's audio pickups to the PINpoint transmission. «Okay, yeah, folks are swarming on Flavius, so whatever's up with bell ringing is definitely a signal to move---»

WARNING: Seismological disturbance detected. And, indeed, there is a furious rumbling, shaking up the town and stretching up even to where Grif was watching. The ground gives way, and...

«SonofaBITCH what the fuck giant red worm running Running RUNNING!»

Swearing continues, at a lower volume, amid the sound of mild panting as Grif keeps running.

[azoth_heiress]

Still listening in, and best genius greatest question ever incoming. "...Is everything all right?"

[one_drafted_man]

The answer comes in amid crackles and pops in the transmission from midstream PINpoint hopping, and the huffing and puffing of breathing on the run. «Not... so much... Town in revolt... fungus people... swarming on Flavius... giant fucking red worm... Just trying to... get to the other... side of town.... without being a target. More later.»

[truebornbanacek]

"Fuck. Fuck. Do you trust those suits or whatever? If you think they're safe enough for a limited amount of time I can try and draw the worm off with some SRMs. That should keep it delayed." Caleb has been conspicuously silent during this; in truth he's been napping on and off, having had little luck sleeping back in Wrath.