Play date: December 28, 2012
Game date: March 30, EY218
Location: Vishnu system, Labrys City on the planet of Kali
Previous events: Goo!
Trapped on the third floor of the research centre with an unknown amount of black ooze, a badly injured Volkova, and a temporarily unconscious axe manic, things look grim indeed. Jillian tries to get a grip on the situation by asking if Rosham Bo, the trussed Vishnan, works here, and indeed she does. She's not one of the research team, but a janitor and general handywoman. Rosham worked here yesterday but so did the rest of the people on the floor and no one else feels murderous or at least is willing to admit to such leanings.
Feeling exposed with only a bra and bandage above her waist Jillian asks for and receives a lab coat. Volkova cobbles together a makeshift cane from some metal lab stands and everyone heads to Helga's office, dragging Rosham along. Once there Volkova takes a seat on a rolling chair and takes her mind off her pain by amusing herself scooting about using her good leg until Sylvia snaps at her for being annoying. It's quite crowded in the office: in addition to Helga, Jillian, Sylvia, Rosham, and Volkova there are two interns, Ye Pak and Nonhlana Hlangnani.
The quick plan is for Helga to keep in touch with the outside world with her telephone. The two interns will work on finding a way to destroy the slime. Jillian and Sylvia will look for more slime. Volkova will rest in the office and keep an eye on Rosham.
Everyone splits up and Jillian and Sylvia decide to head to the kitchen-cum-break room. It's at the end of the corridor far from the labs, making it a good place to start a search, and has a lot of possible food for the ooze, which worries everyone. It's a short trip down the hallway but it's enough time for Jillian to come to the conclusion that Sylvia's a bitch.
The kitchen seems fine at first. Jillian opens the first overhead cabinet and is momentarily distracted by a box of her favourite breakfast cereal from her time in Aiscapo. Why don't they every eat cereal on the Steel Hummingbird? It would make a nice break from Bishop's stew. Is this Ye Pak's box of cereal? She takes the box and doesn't notice the slime stretching towards her until it's almost too late, but when she realizes her danger she reflexively shoves the slime back into the cabinet with the box and slams the door shut.
If the slime is at both ends of the floor this could be bad indeed. Jillian and Sylvia hurry back to Helga's office, not quite at the midpoint of the hallway. Helga's found that no one on the other floors has seen anything suspicious. She has people searching for more of the stuff in the area under the dome that it was found in. There is also a medical team waiting to take care of Rosham and Volkova once the situation inside has been dealt with. The suspended ceiling on this floor is a concern and a possible way for the slime to get about; Jillian stands on Helga's desk and cautiously lifts a panel to peer inside but can't see anything that shouldn't be there.
Perhaps the interns have found something about the slime. Jillian and Sylvia go to check on them; on the way Sylvia begins to atonally hum. Continuously. More seriously, the interns aren't doing much research and are verbally sniping instead. In particular, Ye is claiming that Nonhlana is sabotaging her work. The only fact they've come up with so far is that the slime seems to be acellular. Bizarre. Nonhlana is moved to another lab to continue research and her location kept secret from Ye.
When Jillian and Sylvia get back to the office Sylvia revives Rosham, who seems to be in a truly bad state after her beating. Rosham is no longer murderous and doesn't seem to remember what happened to her but is kept tied up just in case. Everyone notices Sylvia's humming but she refuses to admit that it's her doing. Even when Helga gets a wire recorder from her secretary's office and records her Sylvia insists that it's Volkova who's doing the humming.
After a while Jillian and Sylvia go to check on the interns and also the seal on the incubator that the original goo escaped from to see if that gives them any clues. Nonhlana is affected now; where before she was confident and even more than a little cocky she's now a confused and insecure mess. She hasn't made any progress and -- worse -- Sylvia's eyes are now oddly bulging. Jillian brings her back to Helga's office and leaves her there, taking Helga along to check in on Ye.
Worried that the slime might be eating anything organic, Jillian checks in on the library next door to Helga's office. The books in there haven't been molested and looking down the hallway it doesn't look like anything's oozing out of the kitchen either. Satisfied for the moment they check in on Ye, who is still suspicious of everyone else but has made progress now that she's on her own. There doesn't seem to be any magic bullet to stop the stuff but fire and acid in large quantities destroy the stuff -- anything energetic or reactive enough seems to do the trick. Helga stays to follow up on this line of research, keeping away from Ye.
On the way back to the office to consult with Volkova on some way to burn -- thermally or chemically -- the ooze Jillian realizes that she's been feeling a mental twinge every time she's passed a certain point in the hallway. The creeping insanity seems to be triggered when anyone comes close to one of the blobs, she reasons. This can also potentially help to work out where they're hiding!
In the office Jillian reveals her conclusion while she and Volkova work on how to jury rig some containers of acid, which the research centre has a fair amount of. Volkova hobbles off to put together as many tanks as she can while Jillian calls the Steel Hummingbird: maybe Bishop, with his connection to the Dreamscape, can come up with some ideas. Malcolm picks up the phone -- awkward! -- and Jillian is soon calling the Resplendent Dragon, where Bishop is hanging out, to explain the situation and ask him if he has any clue about what to do. He'll have to meditate on this and asks her to call the Hummingbird in an hour. She's then passed to Xao, to whom she says goodbye and now that she's convinced she'll die she professes her love for him. He's saddened and infuriated in equal parts by their conversation.
Volkova braces her mind when passing through the "danger zone" and in a lab finds enough glassware and nonreactive tubing for four "acidthrowers" and enough concentrated acid for two loads each. She wraps them up with lots of Parafilm and tape to prevent breakage and commences to fill them with acid and use the air supply to increase the pressure in the tanks for more range. By this time Jillian's called Bishop back. The best he's been able to Dream up is that physical force won't work and that it seems very hungry; perhaps they can lure it with food.
Jillian takes Helga and Ye to check on Volkova's progress. On the way they, too, brace themselves, and passing by where ooze seems to be Jillian comes to the further strange conclusion that getting close to the ooze is dangerous but staying near it isn't; it's crossing a threshold that does it. When the four are united they put on several layers of clothing for physical protection -- Jillian makes questionable choices here -- and load the tanks onto a lab cart.
They make quick work of the first two blobs that were found and quickly work out a procedure: Volkova opens up the cabinet door and the others squirt acid onto the blobs until they stop moving. Interestingly, the blob that had moved onto Volkova's blood hadn't devoured it. They reload the tanks and head all the way down to the kitchen to take on the larger blob there.
In the kitchen they use the same procedure but when Volkova pulls open the cabinet door where Jillian saw the blob previously it's not there: it's at the other end of the row of overhead cabinets and it lunges out at Volkova! Taken by surprise she finds herself quickly engulfed by an amount of ooze that would largely fill up a bathtub. Trying to pull free does't work and so she basically holds her breath and covers up while the other three blast it with acid, managing to avoid Volkova. The blob is soon done for and Volkova's managed to tough out the constriction without getting much more hurt. Where her typical layer of oils is less thick it looks like she's got a bad sunburn -- the ooze isn't safe to touch.
At this point Helga's feeling the effects of being so close to the ooze and is physically twitchy. Not willing to let that risk them all with the strong acid they're spraying Jillian sends Helga back to the office. It will just be her, Volkova, and Ye against what is probably the largest of the blobs, in the storage area where there are all sorts of things for it to eat.
As they head down the short corridor towards the store room Jillian realizes that she's felt a few twinges; there are likely several blobs in the rooms that they've just passed through! She gets Volkova to face back the way they've come to deal with them and can't help but to caress Ye's ass and start hitting on Volkova: the mental effects have started to get to her as well. Everyone agrees in various ways that this is not the time to discuss sharing beds but Jillian can't help it. They're both so luscious!
Jillian focuses enough to open the storage room's door and leap back -- blobs first, sex later -- and an enormous mass of black ooze the size of a cow surges through the door at the same time that two very small ones come from under the doors back down the hallway. This coincides with the strongest mental attack yet and Ye starts to scream like someone taken with gun lust as the humans fire at the various masses of ooze.
The large blob is tough and strong but not especially good at striking moving targets, smashing the door to the room where Nonhlana was working right off its hinges when it misses Jillian. Volkova has difficulty hitting the small bits of ooze in the hallway and when Jillian is smashed against the wall by the major blob she turns her attention to the larger enemy. Jillian's stunned by the pain; she's pretty sure that a couple of her ribs have gone and the chemicals on the surface of the ooze have reacted with her poor choice of protective clothing: her outfit briefly goes up in a burst of flame and fuses agonizingly to her skin!
It's a frantic fight and all three containers are emptied but the largest of the oozes is eventually reduced to inanimate chemicals. The smaller blobs are still active but too small to do much damage, or at least so everyone thinks until one gets a lucky hit in and suddenly Jillian's left arm is crippled! Everyone staggers through the open doorway into the room where Nonhlana was working, hoping to find something there to use against the blobs. The small oozes aren't very fast and everyone has time to look for something. Volkova grabs a bunsen burner and uses it like an impromptu blowtorch while Ye grabs a flask of acid that Nonhlana had left out. Jillian climbs up onto a table to get away from the blobs and, thinking about how the world is filled with nothing but pain and beautiful women, collapses. Ye won't stop shouting.
Using teamwork, Ye and Volkova manage to burn the two blobs into cinders without getting more damaged themselves. Once they've determined that she's alive Volkova and Ye carefully get Jillian onto the lab cart and slowly wheel her back to the office. They relay their experiences to Helga, who calls the teams waiting outside. Now that they have means of destroying the ooze and seem to have destroyed most if not all of the larger blobs on the floor the lockdown can be lifted and the injured relayed to the hospital.
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Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 17)
Jillian's Bedpost Notch Count: Just you wait!
Malcolm's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 1)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 3)