Children of the Nuclear State {RP}

"SO YOU RUN TO CATCH UP WITH THE SUN" -- LINKS

Children of the Nuclear State {sign-ups; open!}

Children of the Nuclear State {plot & chat}

Due to a change of quarters, the high risk kids are temporarily housed with the standards.

While the kids are training to take on the rescue at the Red Giant, one of the older high risk girls mysteriously disappears. At the same time, a renowned war prisoner stages a prison escape.

NON-PLAYER-CHARACTERS

Amara Schultz, leader of the Drotik Task Force • Matter manipulation

PLAYER CHARACTERS

1. Charles Sorensen • Standard magnetism

2. Max Thomson • Standard light manipulation

3. Samantha Bridges • Standard super strength

4. Tyne James • Standard telekinesis

5. Selene Deschain • High risk psionic arms

6. Ivy Polson • Standard plant manipulation

7. Kyle Polson • High risk psychometry

8. Marcus Holt • Standard water manipulation

9. Adriel Esben • High risk illusions

10. AJ Fell • High risk precognition

*explored

GIANTS

Red Giant — Ft Worth, Texas; Supermutation sinkhole, possibly the deepest in the world. Named for the red soil that was exposed after the disaster.

Cold Giant — Maple Park, Mississippi; Narrow sinkhole that gets extremely cold for no discernible reason.

First Giant — East Foote, Illinois; The first Giant that appeared and swallowed an entire city.

STANDARDS

Bermuda Standard — Tri City, Oregon; It caved in a whole city of RV parks and is shaped like a triangle. There were few casualties but no victims were found.

Dead Standard — Lancaster, California; Bleak, dry desert sinkhole which radiates heat. It hit a residential suburban neighborhood.

Big Standard — Green Bay, Wisconsin; A very wide sinkhole and the deepest of the standards which hit a large countryside town.

DWARFS

*Drotik Dwarf — Pacific Palisades, California; Drotik’s “local” sinkhole, used to be a wealthy neighborhood.

Hive Dwarf — Burnstone Grove, Michigan; multiple tiny sinkholes in the woods, connecting underground.

Salt Dwarf — Ft Lauderdale, Florida; underwater coastal sinkhole.

“After this, we go for the big one.” Amara Schultz had said it, but everyone else was thinking it too.

“The Red Giant,” echoed several other kids in clumsy unison. Their tone reflected a deep-rooted fear and awe, one which had been nailed into them from the moment they had been abducted by the Soviets. At the edge of the Drotik Dwarf, a small sinkhole located in what was once the Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, they perched precariously on the endless fields of debris. A gaping pit before them yawned invitingly. Anti-radiation suits weighed heavy on their shoulders.

It was time to enter.

The Drotik Dwarf was not unlike other dwarf sinkholes that the task force had encountered. Shattered concrete clashed with slender steel beams in a chaotic disarray, spiraling down into an all-consuming blackness. This was the navigable portion of the sinkhole, layer one. Then, a few hundred meters down, there would be a sheer drop and the sinkhole would become steep and narrow. Dwarf sinkholes never extended beyond five hundred meters deep, but it was a widely-accepted fact that few things could survive past the three hundred meter mark. Rescue teams had already combed the Drotik Dwarf months ago, but the kids weren’t looking for anything living or breathing. This was their final test before taking on the Red Giant. They were tasked with reaching the bottom of the sinkhole and coming back up, all within a span of six hours.

This task would be impossible for normal human beings, but to the kids’ advantage, each was far from normal.

They stepped into the rubble and the clock started ticking.

Charlie's entire being hummed with apprehension and excitement. This was the moment he'd been training for. They had entered fake sinkholes, ones in the desert-- natural ones that hadn't been made by the disastrous war. But a radiation dwarf? It was simultaneously too lucky and unlucky to pass up. The radiation suit dragged him down and he panted, already feeling claustrophobic in the restraining material. His radio was hooked up to the others' in case they got apart, but he certainly hoped that wouldn't happen. They had a few experienced members with them, so he assumed everything would go well.

Happy thoughts, Charlie. His spit was so dry that it felt like swallowing a bundle of tinder-wood. "Are you guys ready?"

He meant to say it softer and more confidently, but the question came out strangely aggressive, in an almost challenging manner. He frowned as his face heated up with embarrassment. When they entered at last, he trailed behind Skippy, searching the wall of rubble for any distinctive shapes. Her sidelong glance at a tuna can did not escape him, and he immediately activated his magnetism, drawing the can toward him slowly until it rested in his palm. Then he chucked as hard as he could, down into the abyss of the sinkhole.

He didn't hear it land.

“I’ll take you up on that one. The real challenge is if anyone can find something alive,” he grinned to Max, stumbling over debris to match her pace.

“Damn, this is gonna get annoying.” He kicked a shard of concrete and sent it flying into the back of AJ’s suit, hitting him squarely on his rear. “I-I didn’t mean...” Shit. AJ Fell was a high risk kid. What was his power again? Charlie wracked his brain, pulling together the cobwebs at the edges of his mind. It didn’t matter. He was only a minute in and he was about to have his ass beat by a high risk kid. He exhaled slowly and trudged onward, trying to pretend nothing happened. It wouldn’t be long before the mutants started showing up, and as if on cue, a flood of vicious, addled rats swarmed over the gravel roof of a house which had sunk into the dirt. “Gross!” he squealed, squinting at the swarm of tiny creatures.

“Who knows? That’s not our job anyway, we’re just here to clean up the mess,” Charlie shrugged to Skippy over the cackling radio. The air seemed to get heavier around them with each step they took, and as rats apprehensively began to approach Charlie, he kicked at them absently, teeth gritted with annoyance. This would be a waste of time. They needed to speed up. “Hey guys, how are we gonna get through this fast? Especially layer two, y’know?” He scowled at the thought of that inky abyss engulfing his friends, but it wouldn’t matter soon. They would keep going down to the bottom whether they liked doing it or not. It took most human rescue teams a day to reach layer two. They would have to do it in an hour to make good time.

A rat squelched under his boot and he grimaced.

{I’m timeskipping to where they enter layer two and Amara is about to get abducted}

“You think so?” Charlie grunted in reply, his lips pursed. Kyle was probably right— they just needed to have a clean run. No stopping, not for anything or for anyone. They had hardly breached the first layer and the sun was high in the sky. He felt the sweat gather on his upper lip and underneath the back of his suit. God, why did California have to be so hot?

——————————————————

After two hours of endless marching through the suburban nightmare, the group had at last reached layer two. There was no defining line between the two, but the air around them seemed to grow heavy with dread. The walls of the pit became steeper and more dangerous as the team clung to the sides, desperate for solid footing. When the darkness completely engulfed them, they knew that things were about to get far more difficult.

Charlie turned on his headlight in the dark, casting it directly into AJ’s eyes. Crap! His panicked thoughts were quickly silenced by the sudden realization that most of the other kids weren’t in his line of sight. AJ. Kyle. Ivy. Skippy. Where were the others? He cast a cursory glance around him, squinting to see any figures who might be present at the frayed edges of the light. He turned on his radio. “Hey, where are you guys?”