text; un: brickfuckingmaster

[giraffic]

sorry to interrupt the celebrating the snow or whatever you do but if this place can bring creatures from our homes here you guys should probably know to look out for infected

long story short, infected are like zombies except the cordyceps fungus is a mushroom growing in your brain and they're technically still alive. don't think about it too hard.

its spread through spores, bites, and scratches if there's blood or saliva or something in it. when infected die naturally, they attach to stuff and release spores. do not breathe in the fucking spores. you WILL get infected and you WILL turn within 2 days. wear a mask.

there's 4 stages.

[ just to be helpful, each stage comes with a little drawing done by Ellie herself. she's not half bad but i am, so please refer to the wiki page, cw for body horror. ]


stage 1 -> runner, newly infected. fast, aggressive, strong. get the jump on them when they are quiet. can be killed like any non-infected, strangled, shot, etc. you might hear them crying or mumbling when they're not trying to murder you. it's creepy as fuck but you can't help them.

stage 2 -> stalker. the fungus starts growing out of them but they can still see, they'll hide and ambush when your guard is down. they can attach to walls and pretend to be dead just to fuck your shit up when you turn your back. they work with the other infected too.

stage 3 -> clicker. you can't miss them, the mushrooms are bursting out of their skull. clickers suck ass. they're blind, but that just means they're hearing if stupidly good. distract with bricks, bottles, any other object that will make noise, then sneak past. the best chance to kill one is a gunshot to the head twice, or a shiv to the neck.

stage 4 -> bloater. covered in plates of cordyceps. infected a long time, huge, deadly, throw acidic spore-filled sacks. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. seriously. they take like 5 molotov and a million nail bombs and bullets to kill. just fucking run. these fuckers WILL pull your head right off your body by the time you get a single plate off of them. i don't give a shit how strong or magic you are, they WILL fuck you up and it'll be your own fault.

i haven't seen any so far, but just one can bring down everything. if you see one, tell me.

as FEDRA likes to say, inaction costs lives.


[ the more you know ]

Comments

[abandonware]

Oh.

[???]

I don't go back in time.

[Pod floats up beside A2, and decides to clarify because their charge has no social skills.]

Unit A2 is a combat android, specializing in close-range swordsmanship and other melee offensive strategy.

[giraffic]

Two robots?! Holy fuck. You're only supposed to exist in books and movies and shit. This is fucking amazing. Can you transform your arm into a sword?

[abandonware]

Why the hell would I be able to do that...

A2-

[She gives Pod a look like, "what?" and then remembers she is probably talking to a human child.]

No. It'd be inefficient. I can wield one-handed and two-handed blades, spears, and combat bracers. In combat, I have to be able to switch between them quickly. It depends on what I'm trying to kill.

[After a moment:] Pod's long-range backup. Ballistics.

[giraffic]

Sweet.

[ she's a little starry eyed, don't mind her. ]

You're so cool.

[abandonware]

Cool? [She sighs, propping her head up on her hand.] Huh. [A nonchalant shrug.] You haven't even seen me do anything yet.

[...]

You can ask Pod.

Affirmative. This Pod is in possession of Unit A2's archived combat recordings.

[giraffic]

[ without missing a beat: ]

Uh, well, then you should obviously show them to me.

i'm not describing all her action movie backflips forgive me

[abandonware]

[She huffs.

But then:]

Pod. Go ahead.

Understood.

[The video begins to play. When it finishes, A2 pipes up, dryly amused.]

So? Can I take down your mushroom monsters?

that's valid lmao

[giraffic]

Holy shit. Yes. Now I wanna watch you do it. Think you could take out a whole planet of 'em?

[abandonware]

[Another world stuck in dismal conflict. She considers her answer.]

Might take a while.

[Flesh and bone was much easier to cleave through than metal. The thought of these creatures being humans once occurs to her, but she looks over the images and decides they are too far removed from her conception of "human." And so far from machine or android that it was not worth considering. But to be conscripted into a new army is an troubling idea.]

There's a whole planet full of these? What happened?

[giraffic]

[ It's almost become a game, finding a new way to describe the end of the world. Not funny, of course, but she'd never imagined she'd be describing it so much. ]

Nature said fuck you, decided this mind control fungus should be able to infect humans instead of just bugs. I guess you could take food all around the world so everyone ate the same thing? And so the spores got into the food and the whole world got sick at the same time.

Except no one knew what it was back then. So they just thought people were sick and needed help. Then everyone started biting each other and spread it. We call it Outbreak Day.

[abandonware]

[A2's half-turned away, one leg hanging lazily off the edge of the heavy, gnarled branch of an old tree. There's still snow on some of the branches below her. It doesn't seem like she's listening, but she is — her gaze tips down. She sighs, short and through her teeth.]

That's rough. [A vast understatement, but there's a subdued and careful sympathy in her tone. Understanding too - the sort that someone traumatized has in response to hearing someone else's trauma. No one ever wanted to dwell on it. No one wanted pity.]

Shitty deal. A self-replicating army that spreads disease. [A bit awkwardly:] What... planet? Everyone's from all over the place here.

[giraffic]

[ it's not the expected horror that she's gotten again and again, and that takes her by surprise, though it doesn't show on her face. horror and concern had become familiar looks, and it always makes her gut twist in a weird way. ]

Earth. Outbreak Day was September 26th, 2013. It's been 20 years.

[abandonware]

Hm. ... Earth again. That's ancient history for me.

[2013 is so far back from her reckoning that she can't even imagine it.] My rollout year was 11941. But wars are still wars.

[...]

This place, it's weird, huh? I bet everyone's nosy.

[giraffic]

Eh, adults are nosy no matter what you're doin'. They're not trying to shoot me, so it's whatever.

[ and because, yes, she is going to ask this to every person she can find reason to: ]

So you're in the future-future. Did humans finally make it back to the moon? Have you ever been?

[abandonware]

[A snort, at this.]

Plenty of nosy kids, too.

[It's a joke, albeit a very dry one. But then she closes off a little at the question, her expression flattening into careful blankness again.]

I've never been. All the combat was on Earth.

[She had delivered the many atrocities of her world, some by her own hand, to others with unnerving bluntness. But this particular topic — that of humanity — she shies away from, changes the subject.]

The planet's tidelocked. I've only ever seen the moon a few times. One side of the world's always day. The other is the Kingdom of Night. Fighting is worse there.

[giraffic]

[ she doesn't push, letting A2 distract her with lore. ]

What are they fighting about? Seems kinda fucked up to make you do it for 'em.

[abandonware]

We were supposed to liberate the Earth from machines. Once the fighting was over, the humans could come back.

[giraffic]

Why can't they do it themselves?

[abandonware]

They were overrun and had to escape. That was the official correspondence we received.

[giraffic]

...Seems to be a theme here.

[ did the world just want to end? that one guy, the one from Moscow had shared a similar story. the Earth overrun by monsters, humans driven into hiding... ]

[abandonware]

Yeah. [She'd noticed this as well, and it made her uneasy.] Wonder if it's part of the machine's programming. The selection may not be randomized.

[giraffic]

Or the world really, really wants to end. It's not so bad here, though. Compared to, y'know?

[ she'd been so psyched at the amount of food and lack of infected when she'd arrived, she hadn't been able to shut up about it. ]

Could be a lot worse.

[abandonware]

Mm. Maybe.

[She finds this entire simulation concept to be deeply unsettling.]

Do you like it here?

[giraffic]

Yeah. Compared to back home, it's pretty good here. Don't get me wrong, the crimes? Bullshit. But there's no infected here. There's food everywhere, and there's not always someone or something trying to kill me.

[ she huffs. ]

But I gotta get back home either way. Important shit to do.

[abandonware]

So there's no exception to this crime thing. Not even kids.

[That is bullshit.]

You wouldn't wanna just stay here? It seems safe for now.