Boys and girls of every age, Wouldn't you like to see something strange

[exsithstential]

WHO: Imports
WHERE: Helix Station, Maurtia Falls
WHEN: Evening of 10/16
WHAT: Swear-In Ceremony, with a bonus Haunted House!
WARNINGS: Violence and other spoopy stuff.





The Festival


An orange moon slowly burns into life as the sun begins the last few moment's of it's descent, washing the sky in beautiful splashes of fading twilight hues. The white walls the Helix Station glow in the warm autumn light as throngs of costumed children and their families parade through the large front gate and into the festively decorated courtyard within.

Laughter and squeals of anticipation and delight ring out from the gaggle of children in a never ending chorus as their attentions dance between the kitsch decorations of gremlins and skeletons, to the ImPort Heroes in attendance. But at least the parents and guardians seem to be doing a good job of keeping the beaming or bashful kids from bothering ImPorts too much as you make your way into the facility. Though do be prepared for an autograph request or three. Unlike some of the previous Swear-Ins, this is no media circus. While there may be a reporter or two in the crowd, asking for a few quick shots with imports and their adoring fans, this gathering is for you and your new rosy cheeked best friends. Just a bit of seasonal fun and the added benefit of helping a local children's hospital by contributing to their charity.

STALLS

Colorfully decorated stalls line the exterior of the courtyard, offering the attendees a wide variety of activities, entertainment, and gifts. While most of the stalls are managed by groups or individual imports contributing with their time and goodwill (mostly), several also offer refreshments and snacks manned by droids or volunteers from the hospital staff or children's family.

A few honorable mentions of ImPort run stalls:

-Hazel and the Doctor's Face Paintings
-Kanaya and Helena's Fangtastic Bobbing for Apples
-Manolo and Sabriel's Performance Cake Walk
-Stan's Photo Booth of Terror (And extortion)
-Lucifer's Mystic Magic Mirror of Mystery
-Fraiser and Kowalski's Totally Scary Puppy Petting Zoo

And of course there's also a stall with informative pamphlets and a chipper Government representative ready to register any willing imports and talk about the benefits inherent to doing so.

There are also plenty of open stalls if you want to add to festivities!

HAUNTED HOUSE

Just inside the main building, the lobby area and adjacent rooms open into the main area of the Haunted House. Despite the spooky imagery and haunting ambiance, this floor is rather tame. There may be a few motion sensor activated skeletons that pop up and startling the careless, but otherwise it's all kid friendly.

This however is NOT the case with the upper floors. Which prohibit native participation completely. If that doesn't chill your blood then the fact that you have to stop by a booth near the elevator to "check in" and received a warning that only those that are seeking a true test of terror should enter, might.

However the droid representative will NOT offer any additional information to imports, save that all participants will be given thirty minutes to escape before "time is up". They will NOT be telling anyone that:

-Immediately upon exiting the elevator, you will find yourself seeped in power dampening fog, leaving you de-powered.
-That the upper floors are inhabited by wandering animatronics with monstrous appearances that are programmed to hunt the imports trying to find their way out.
-As the thiry minutes tick by, the animatronics will become faster and hunt the imports with more tenacity and ever increasing perception. Early in the hunt it's possible to hide or avoid most animatronics. This becomes less effective as time goes by.
-Any imports that are unable to escape the animatronics will NOT be hurt. When an import is captured they will be hauled to a secret exit which ends in a shoot that deposits the character outside, near Stan's Photo booth. (Who might just have a series of photos depicting your character in various compromising states of terror.) However the participating imports will be unaware of the lack of danger they are in until this happens. Which means you might even see some imports being hauled off kicking and screaming into the darkness.

Imports that manage to evade the animatronics long enough to find their way out of the maze of corridors and rooms will find themselves in the haunted house lobby, where they will be presented with a plush version of one of the monsters that had been hunting them. Not so scary now, huh?

Attack on Helix Station

Just after midnight as the festivities hit full swing, several masked men slip over the wall and into the facility. While mostly concealed, to any ImPorts sharp enough to notice them, it quickly becomes apparent that these men are armed to the teeth and full of bad intentions. Moving with precision, skill before any import can alert the others, the gunmen take up positions to cause as much damage as possible. However as they ready their weapons an alarm blares through out the facility. In that brief moment of confusion the gunmen hesitate. And in the span of that hesitation, several security droids suddenly march out into the facility through side doors hefting snub nosed weapons cradled in their arms.

An electric blue flash suddenly illuminates the courtyard as a blast from one of the droid's stun weapons strikes one of the gunmen, who crumples.

And then chaos erupts.

Seeing them as the clear and present danger the gunmen focus their fire on the advancing security bots, but as several defense turrets pop out from concealed slots in the walls, their position quickly becomes untenable. While strong in numbers, the gunmen scatter into groups through out the facility to take cover. A few of them drop smoke grenades to cover their escape, but the blinding cloud is short lived. As contaminates are detected in the air, several purifiers cleverly disguised within the decorations will activate, drawing in the smoke and laying the terrorists' movements bare.


As the gloom recedes, Revan stalks forward out of the smoke, a sheathed katana clenched in one hand
and his expression blazing as he marches towards the nearest group of soldiers.

"WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!" his voice booms strangely loud, carrying over the entire courtyard with the force and command power of someone used to leading warriors into battle. "IMPORTS!" With a fluid motion he withdraws the sword and tosses the scabbard aside.

Little did these bastards know that they were ready. With a small army of Imports, comprised of RISE and volunteer security forces, at his back Revan gave a flourish of his blade before dashing forward.

"TO ARMS!"

[ooc: More info as well as plotting posts can be found here!]

Comments

[instars]

[The head rolls and she goes for it, taking it in both hands, and looks it over. Her fingers aren't as dexterous, she can't slide them between any of the gears - her powers really do give her a lot of advantages - but she can feel the weight of it, she can feel how everything fits together.]

They're animatronics.

They're machines.

[lifeatsteak]

[Edgar doesn't know how not to collaborate. He doesn't know how to be alone. He nods, expression serious, if confident.]

You tell me where to hit. [He raises his axe with one hand, and reaches for her wrist with the other. They're going to make it through this, because he has no intention of giving up.]

[instars]

[She finds this agreeable, something that she can understand. She reaches for him still, her hand in his shirt, holding it loosely. It's for a purpose - she can't get lost. If she loses him, she won't have a way out.]

They're not like people. They won't stop because you hit them in the head or the heart.

[lifeatsteak]

Figured on the head thing... [It ends up looking a little like the cover of some barbarian romance novel, with a girl hanging off his shirt while he swings an axe, but Edgar has no idea. His conception of romance is unformed enough as it is, and there's nothing sexy about a fight. To him, he has to get her them both threw it alive. For now, they're two pieces of a working whole.]

[There are questions, like what are they fighting, and why can't she walk, but they're for later.]

[Another animatronic wheels toward them.]

Tell us where to hit, then?

[instars]

Joints, always go for the joints.

[It's not like she thinks this is romantic, either. In one hand, after all, she has the head of an animatronic.]

If you can take out their mobility, you'll find them easy to dispose of.

[lifeatsteak]

Legs, then. [Which means he'll need more mobility to compensate. Which means-] Shite. [He turns around, and through the low lighting gives her a kind of half-smiling shrug. She's soon to find it's his way of apologizing in advance.]

[He grabs her and hefts her onto his back in a forced piggyback. She can't be too heavy, can she?] Hold the fuck on, alright?

[instars]

[She seems a little surprised, but she does manage to crawl and hold on without impeding his arm movements. She really doesn't weigh much - it's like her bones aren't quite solid.

(The mist can do a lot but it can't force a perfect human shape out of her, can it?)]

Tell me what you need me to do to keep going.

[Meaning she'll do her utmost to not be any kind of burden.]

[lifeatsteak]

[The oncoming animatronic swerves toward them, and Edgar ducks low with a brutal vitality that could only be learned from experience. He's done this before. He's done it before recently.]

[The lack of blood and hunger is almost refreshing. It's so much warmer. This is just some child's game.]

[Quick as he can, Edgar takes out its knees, and bashes in its head and arms. He turns his head to whisper back, unknowingly giving her a few huffs of his own sour breath,] Always wanted eyes in the back of my head.

[She's smart. She'll keep up. He trudges forward.]

[instars]

[Normally she would think that he smells delicious, but it's like having a cold, a strange lack of being able to smell anything. Even the bad breath would smell overwhelmingly human, smell like dinner.

She needs to feed, she thinks. Without her powers, can she eat something solid?

That's what's taking up half of her thoughts - a steak, or a sandwich, or tofu, help her, that's what she liked before the change. The other half of her is watching, feeling blind but refusing to stop.]

Turn around, it'll be on your left side, aim for the middle joint, that will take it apart.

[She's smart.

She keeps up.]

[lifeatsteak]

[She keeps up, and doesn't weigh too much, or sag off him and throw his balance. Not everyone is a fighter, or a thinker, or a talker, but you've got to do what you can. She can think, he can fight. He'll take note of it for later.]

[For now, he does as she says, and takes the creature out. They're almost to the end of the room.]

[There are others, Edgar sees, being dragged off by the creatures, but there's nothing he can do with a dependent literally on his back. He'd have tried to save them, otherwise, but he can't risk them all for someone he doesn't know.]

If one of 'em starts to grab you, don't let go of me. I'll handle it. [And probably get choked in the process, but hey, he's been through worse.]

[instars]

[That's oddly touching, for someone who isn't ever touched. It actually makes her look at him askance, although he can't see it.

Her only emotional tie is her brother and she wants to keep it that way, but she won't let go because it's self preservation.]

Do you have a knife? A blade? Any other weapon on you?

[She can help if he does.]

[lifeatsteak]

Um- fuck. [Edgar reaches into his jacket, and pulls out something small and greasy and old. It feels well-used and homemade. It's a shiv, one he's had with him for years. The blade is short, and it's clearly made of some kind of long-rusted metal, but it's better than nothing. He passes it to her in the darkness.]

Don't use it unless you got to. Better to just hold on; I've a longer reach.

[instars]

[She holds on, and nods, and tucks herself in a way that makes it as unobtrusive that she's riding on his back as possible; that means that the animatronic head has to go, but that doesn't matter. Her other hands has the knife.

She'll keep it close anyway.]

Did you know this would happen? If we came inside?

[lifeatsteak]

Huh? Nah. Figured something, but not this bad.

[He's just always at least lightly armed, because he assumes everyone else is, too.]

[He trudges forward, slow and cautious. He'd rush if she wasn't on his back, but when you think for more than yourself, you think slowly. Curtis taught him that.]

[instars]

This is very annoying.

[That's understating it, that's for certain. But she may not understand close connection, but she understands reciprocity pretty well. There's going to be a tiny brown recluse that's going to hang out with Edgar all the time once they get out of here.]

Why won't you leave me? I don't even think you like me.

[A conversation carried on between the destruction of animatronic monsters.]

[lifeatsteak]

[Edgar ducks behind a pillar, trying to avoid the gaze of another animatronic. He whispers back,] What, you wanna die?

[The answer, to him, is so obvious it's not worth giving. No one wants to die.]

[instars]

I have a very strong urge to not die.

[Just saying. But still-]

[lifeatsteak]

Then you're fucking welcome.

[Edgar sees the animatronic has passed, and slips by. They're almost at the exit.]

[instars]

[She doesn't reply - in fact, she's very eerie when it comes to quiet - and looks back. There's nothing coming after them now.]

I think we're out of the worst of it.

[lifeatsteak]

Hold on tight. [Edgar grabs her legs, grabs his axe, and rushes forward. Sprinting is hard enough when you're wearing a backpack; it's no easier with a person clinging to you. Edgar's balance isn't great, and compensating for her weight is no easy task. Luckily, it's a short one.]

[They're on the other side, and it's quiet, now, properly so. Edgar's left blinking in the light of the... lobby?]

The fuck's this? [He forgets to put Saya down.]

[instars]

[She blinks, suddenly, a bit overwhelmed by the sudden return of heightened senses, but it doesn't take her long to adjust. She steps down then, tests her weight.

She's misplaced her shoes and that's annoying, but she's not going back in there when-

-one of the attendants comes by with two plushes of the first animatronic Edgar killed. And her shoes. Do these belong to you?, he asks, and she takes them with a muted thank you.]

Well.

Wasn't that fun.

[She takes the plushie, too.]

There, this one is yours.

[lifeatsteak]

Great waste of time, more like.

[Still, he takes the plushie. He knows what that is, what a novelty. Edgar reaches out his hand, palm up.] I'll have my knife back.

[instars]

[She hands his knife back, then.]

Thank you for carrying me.

[And she takes a moment, just a brief pause.]

Sex or cars?

[lifeatsteak]

[Edgar isn't the most unflappable person on the face of the earth. It's hard, though not impossible, to be more audacious than him. More importantly, though, he doesn't know this place so well, or what counts as 'normal' anymore. So he stares at his plushie and asks,]

You wanna repeat that? [What did she just ask for, because he's not giving her either.]

[instars]

[She puts on her shoes, and it's a strange motion, because it's graceful but odd at the same time, like humans shouldn't move the way Saya does.

And she smiles just a little.]

No, nevermind.

[She stands up straight.]

I'll see you soon, I'm sure.