Check exactly how much more secure this room is, while explaining that monsters can break through glass. And not just flimsy inner-door glass, outer-window glass that should by all means be break-retardant double-glazing.

So check for windows, check for large vents, and if the room is good, shut the lights and hide to avoid drawing attention. If not... explain why it isn't like she's five.

Either the security team has already handled the situation or they failed, because if they were Handling it, present tense, we'd be hearing a lot more gunfire, shouting, etc. Unless this place is huge and pretty soundproof.

Either way, tell her you're going to find out if your mom is here, then find the code to the door and leave. And if the security team sucked at securing the place, that's her best option too.

Check on monitor, tell supposed adult that holing up could be suicide if the situation gets worse or you’re plain unlucky. You didn’t want to scare her, but there was a monster the size of you that you only managed to shake because your waiting area had multiple points of egress.

A hefty lead pipe would actually have been rather helpful back then...

>>965606
You should point out the fact that security already failed you when they thought they put you in a safe place. Had you not fought back with a desperately improvised weapon, you'd probably be dead.

Security is not up to snuff, and they are not a magical omnipresence that can save you at the last second. Your reliance on potentially incompetent forces is significantly more dangerous than being an active participant in your own safety. Take the weapon as a backup, or you might die, Alma. The worst possible thing you can do right now is get cornered in this room by a swarm of the damn things.

tell her you're moving around not because you find it fun but because last time you were told to stay still you figured you'd get a nap in only to have that ruined when one of those bug things that was twice as tall as you and had sword hands about half as long as you are tall broke into the room. After that you tried to leave only to find the building is locked down. Now you figure your best bet is to find one of the solder guys you ran into earlier and hope that they can let you out or at least stick next to someone with an actual weapon as your pretty sure that if mister sword hands comes by again he could probably force his way in here... hence why you want to find someone with a gun.

On the topic of security ask if she's blocked all the air vents in here because the potato looking things can use those to move around.

>>965676
This, basically.

Look around for entry points - vents and windows - as you talk. Scavenge. Don't venture far, people like her tend to die the moment you stop watching them.

>>965614
Bold of you to assume there are only 24 hours in a day.

Keimi 2020/05/08(Fri)07:16 No. 965764 ID: ca2950
File 158894739454.png - (200.18KB , 904x694 , lab35.png )

Getting caught in a closed in area without any proper way of defending ourselves will be a huge problem.
I'm going to keep moving and maybe find some place that's actually safe or a way to get out of here. Figuring out what's going on would be nice, too.

I slink back out to the office floor and check if there's a response to my message.

"Remain in position until situation resolution."

Sounds like that Lieutenant guy. I saw how well that plan worked out last time. Moving around carefully and squashing the little hoppers whenever it's convenient will help prevent getting swarmed. I just wish people would leave guns lying around, loaded. It would be really helpful right now.

>sit on her face to calm her down
>tell her she can either see your perspective on the situation, or see her asshole because you're going to sit on her face until she sees reason
>I'm not against below the waist negotiations

Wait, wut? Nevermind.

> bold of you to assume there are only 24 hours in a day
There's obviously 30 hours in a day.

"Is that you, Shaw? Are you the only one they sent? Staying didn't work. There's a big one."

ok so let's do a quick run down on how fucked the building currently is. Offices seem to be fairly safe but does kinda leave you venerable if things do decide they want to come say hi. The classrooms (I'm guessing that's where you came from) currently have mister swords for hands over that way so probably safe to say that part of the building is pretty much fucked. Labs might be worse but at least to our knowledge that's also the only spot in the building where we could find people with guns who can shoot the monsters so not all bad. Also your mom might be there. So what's left of the building then? Is there somewhere that would let us view the building's security cameras so we can figure where all the scary shit is... does this place even have cameras? I haven't really seen any but then again it's not like I've been looking.

>There's obviously 30 hours in a day.
Your planet is wierd.

>>965767
Yeah, pretty much. Tell him that these monsters are actively trying to find people, staying in one place is just asking to meet them with your pants down.

tell him that the place you stayed at earlier got invaded by a giant monster and you moved to a break room with someone named Alma

speaking of Alma, please tell me you at least left a knife for her to use despite her protesting against using one.

>>965606

I must ask: is absolute territory a part of the dress code?

>>965775
Not really? I mean, even in our own solar system, days are vastly different lengths depending on the planet or moon. Jupiter has a day just shy of 10 hours for instance, and on the other end Venus has a day that lasts 2802 hours.

>>965767
Lets reply with something along these lines, although maybe leaving out the name and giving some specific units of measurement. I am making some assumptions that could be incorrect, but if a chef knife is generally 20cm, that would mean you are about 160ish, and your friend around 180ish, give or take 5. That would mean the monster thing is about as tall or maybe a bit taller than our companion, with 30ish cm beak, and 45ish cm blades for arms, along with enough strength to break through what was likely breach and radiation-proof, double layered glass (if not stronger). (used a combination of the knife, our sleeves, and the window where the thing broke through, to find those measurements. Actual measurements may vary.)

>>965767
I'm against calling the guy out by name; it's equally likely that this is the force's policy. Just say "That didn't work last time. Big fucker broke the window open about three seconds after I was left alone. Can we please get to a more secure place at least."

>>965764
warn them about the mantis that can break glass, at least. They may reconsider how safe you are in there.

Sitting around twiddling our fingers isn't safe. There's a giant mantis thing out for our blood right now!

Keimi 2020/05/09(Sat)18:51 No. 966030 ID: ca2950
File 158907549794.png - (150.28KB , 959x624 , lab36.png )

I tell Alma that whoever is on the other end is telling us to sit tight, but I'm going to keep trying to find Lieutenant Shaw, because he has a gun and might know what's going on. If anything, he can take us somewhere safe where everyone can explain things and we can play board games until soldiers with flamethrowers purge all the problems and I can go home with a large pile of government hush money.

I also mention that I have no interest in staying in a cramped room with nothing but a press board table and a few uncomfortable plastic chairs to shove between myself and that big blade monster, if it shows up again.
She doesn't really seem okay with the fact that there are other, bigger monsters roaming around. I am a little worried about how loud and panicky she is. On the bright side, she'll definitely attract everything to herself in a pinch, leaving me clear to make a break for it.

I also typed in a quick message saying I was going to look for the armed soldier that was with me, since monsters broke into my secure location.

Time to get back on course. Alma is mid-breakdown. I guess I'll find out if she wants to go to when I start walking out.

>you are about 160ish, and your friend around 180ish

Ha. I wish. I'm 143cm, so she's probably about 160 to 170, roughly.
Dad was unable to overcome the power of Mom's shortness in the battle of genetics.
But I get to be adorable, so I will accept the trade off of needing a stepladder for everything.

Omg woman, pinched her ass and tell her to shut up, she is going to get you killed.

>>966030
Tell her if she screams one more time you're leaving her behind.
Then get going and hope she follows.

Tell Alma to get her act together, there's no need to scream or shout when nothing is about to attack her.

Someone your senior should inspire you, not discourage you, gosh.

give her a few pats on the back or something to calm her down. Ask if she wants to stay here or not. Also if she's staying ask what the number you'd need to call to call this office? I mean maybe check to see if the phones are still working but I know buildings like this usually have all their phones designed to only call other phones in the building unless you press a certain number first but if the phones are still working we could use them to make sure this area is still safe if thing get to hairy up ahead and we're forced to turn back.

There's a discussion thread here https://talehole.com/kusaba/questdis/res/132627.html for questions that aren't related to the immediate in-quest situation.
Or you can post questions in ITQ that will be less likely to be answered, but might have pictures and stuff.

As sorry as I feel for Alma - and the fact that she probably started this crisis mentally worn by feeling ill suited for her job and was apparently on some serious overtime - she currently has the mental fortitude of a ten-year-old on a day trip and the survival instincts of a serial killer movie extra. Bringing her with us will bring us a ton of trouble.

... but if we leave her here to die, we'll feel bad about it later. Friggin' empathy.

Since poking her with your monster-tranq knife and stowing her into a cupboard is probably a bad idea, just tell her that she can either follow you - quietly - or stay here and blubber, attracting the attention of goodness knows what.

Tell a little white lie for the sake of both of your survival. Tell her the creatures are ultra sensitive to sound.

This is an office, there must be loose papers around. Crumple one up and stuff it in her gaping mouth before some giant spider-caterpillar hybrid falls into there. Inform her of that likely alternative if she takes issue with your conduct. Then hold her hand and pull her along behind you, I can't see her resisting.

>>966086
>just tell her that she can either follow you - quietly - or stay here and blubber, attracting the attention of goodness knows what.

Pretty much this. Once we show these things can be killed relatively easily, she should calm own some. Hopefully.

Keimi 2020/05/10(Sun)10:51 No. 966144 ID: ca2950
File 158913311804.png - (107.39KB , 1024x768 , lab37.png )

I try to quiet her down, but right out in the hall is the sound of fleshy scuttling coming toward us.

I am not responsible for this and I will be super upset if I die. These things seem to be slowly increasing in population. Why couldn't this happen somewhere people just leave guns lying around?

"Alma if we don't get going right now I am going to trip you."

>>966144
Stompy stompy, stabby stabby.

Lead by doing. Stay calm, show her there's nothing to fear EXCEPT MAYBE YOU IF SHE DOESN'T GET WITH THE FUCKING PROGRAM

>>966145
"Alma if we don't get going right now I am going to strip you."

>>966144
I really want to find out where the fuck these things are coming from so at least we can plan things out, instead of just continuously trying to wait out the moment while they potentially reach numbers to overwhelm us. I think even though this woman seems kind of useless in response to danger, it isn't really reasonable to just let someone die if we can do something about it (of course with us surviving in the process).

Because these things jump and others have long reach I think you could really do with affixing your sharp things to long objects (I mean you removed a table leg before, so I don't see why you couldn't again), that might also calm Alma down knowing that she has that degree of protection. Also having long stabby/slicey weapons instead of blunt force weapons will really increase their longevity.

So with your knowledge of the building from being a student and Alma's knowledge from doing office work, you can probably navigate fairly easily, and change course to avoid danger etc. We *still* have no idea if this is an internal or external problem, so we need to investigate the lab to clear up that issue (but carefully/stealthily, you may need to crawl though the ventilation to investigate because if it is the former then it may be completely overrun. Of course you may well still need to defend yourself if you did go through the vents, but at least the smaller space limits the number of possible assailants at any one time).

>>966161
This

>>966144
This is a bad tactical situation. You won the last battle easily, because you had the element of surprise and there were only two. Now there are three and they know where you are.

Personally I would suggest putting the table up against the open doorway so they can't see you as easily, and wait for them to jump/climb over it so you can stab them. Or your new companion can stomp them.
Oh, tell her you can just heal her if she gets hurt.

>>966144
roll for intimidation
reveal your dangerous club and look as menacingly as possible
In fact, if you can generate the katakana for Menacing in mid-air behind you, there's no better time for that exact, very specific skill

>>966144
You really like guns, do you?

These things are multiplying or they were already here, both things are bad.

We need to avoid them or get rid of them. but with miss panic attack is going to be troublesome.

Should we use her as bait and shank those things from behind?

Keimi 2020/05/11(Mon)10:09 No. 966211 ID: ca2950
File 158921696410.png - (168.99KB , 766x768 , lab38.png )

>should we use her as bait and shank those things from behind?

Better her than me. I tell her to cover me and she actually manages to take one out with an arca shot.
I can't actually get a good hit on any of them and have to dodge these things trying to stab me. I do finally manage to shank the thing with one of their own horns and yellowy blood stuff oozes out onto the floor.
Alma finishes off the last one and we're safe again, for the moment.

"See? I told you they weren't a big deal," I tell her, trying to hide that my heart is pounding out of my chest from almost getting stabbed twice in rapid succession.

She like she might be a little less panicky, but also seems a little more winded than she should be. She's probably not used to late night fights to the death with monsters.
That went way smoother than I expected. I don't even need to patch anything up.

Grab a corpse, if a bigger one comes we might be able to get it to eat the easy meal of the corpse instead of us.

Good. Keep moving. take one mitute, then keep searching for the soldier.

Tel her to not overuse whatever abilities your race has, it will exhaust her.

Don't speak, you can't hide your panic through words. Just throw a thumbs-up, a vertical finger to your lips, and then keep moving with your back to her so she can't see your face.

catch breath and then start to move forward carefully. Would kinda suck if you ran into an ambush set up by the spuds.

>>966211
>more winded
I think it is just the lighting, but she looks like she was hit in the back earlier but hid it with her coat; the back of which seems to be soaked in blood.

>>966261
Most likely the lighting, but it is important to check especially since we can heal.

Tell her to strip because you might have seen an injury she is trying to hide that you can patch up.

>>966211
She may have been injured when she first learned about these things and had to heal herself, like you did. She might have been hurt badly.

Or maybe she's just really bad at using arca shots and she's exhausted.

.. can You do arca shots?

Give her a friendly lick as a compliment

Next time you'll need to step it up so she has to use less stamina, considering how useful she is. Taking turns on that'll probably keep you both going for longer. At least until you find the guard, then he can be bait.

Go slow until she's caught her breath.

She's probably infected. She'll look great as a scropper.

Keimi 2020/05/14(Thu)22:20 No. 966695 ID: ca2950
File 158952002504.png - (282.59KB , 1024x768 , lab39.png )

I wait a minute for Alma to catch her breath and we keep moving, finally reaching the doors to the lab area.

There's red around here that's definitely not the lighting and there's more things squeezing out from inside. I think we found our source.

The door is ajar enough for them to fit through, which makes me worry whether there's a bunch more of those larger, stabby things that just haven't bothered to squeeze out.

>She may have been injured
Alma is fine and not bleeding or anything.

>can you do Arca shots
I sure can not. I wish I could right about now, though.

>>966695
Hmm, okay, how about you two start killing those things, and once there's none left on this side of the gate you can try to get the door closed.

Well, it seems this is a problem that'll require more than a stabby stick and a cute kitty companion. Clear these few and see if the door works. If not, might have to heave something nearby to block it.

How many more bolts does your partner have in her? Because if she can clear out two of those things and gang up on the last one you should be fine.

As for the room, might not hurt to peek inside and see what you can see but it might be smarter to just start closing the door to keep more of those things getting out. Or worse some of the bigger things from getting out.

Squish them carefully this time. And do not scream.

This has a lot of potential to go wrong and we have no real reason to push it.

Activate Nope Protocols (go somewhere else, preferably quietly)

Don't take any unnecessary risks but try to merk this batch of shitty scrotums and see if you can close the door. In the likely event you can't at least try to blockade the opening, or make it noisy when they come through

Judging by the door position I'd assume there was originally some kind of obstruction and it subsequently lost power (though interesting that the keypad is still powered). I guess I'd check to see if the keypad does anything if you can get rid of the creatures fast/long enough to try.

If the door doesn't work I'd look around to see if there might be anything big like a vending machine that you can try to push in front of it. Considering the fact that the keypad still has power and the presence of those scythe hand creatures, I'd imagine actual cabling has been damaged so the door itself may not be closable right now.

Also unless there's a security room with CCTV that you can access, I'm still for investigating via the ventilation system.

Lure this batch around a corner and gank them. If the corridor refills then you wouldn't have had time to close the door anyway.

>>966695
what's the point of airlocks if you don't keep them closed!?

I really hope that your mom wasn't in there.

I think you have to retreat. Quikly.

See if Alma can't get a few more shoots out. If you can take these three out and no more appear at the door, try and take a quick little peek.

Keimi 2020/05/22(Fri)12:51 No. 967511 ID: ca2950
File 159017711229.png - (259.95KB , 795x768 , lab40.png )

Alma hits one of the hopper things and it explodes into some goo, but it doesn't collapse.
The one hiding in the crack of the door responds by spraying a fluid out of a weird face tube.

'Ah! It burns!'

This is bad. Our offensive abilities are bad to start with and now we don't even get to keep the ranged advantage.

'Are you alright?'
Alma staggers back and we hurry out of range.
'I don't know. It stings.'

>what's the point of airlocks if you don't keep them closed!?
I think that's part of the problem here, yes.

>I really hope that your mom wasn't in there
If she's working late tonight, she's in the area where they keep all the firepower. They don't stick the rifles in the janitor's closet for the gradeschoolers to play with.

I don't know if we should keep fighting or run until we can deal with this in a better way. Everything was kind of going alright until now.

Well if you already backed off a bit, might as well cut your losses and hoof it out of there to find some water and/or medical supplies to wash off the goo on Alma.

>>967511
Welp. Without the range advantage this is not a good fight. You're gonna want to come back with guns.
Let's head to the offices. Stop by a bathroom first to wash off that acid.

Withdraw and treat Alma's wound.

there's only 3 of them! press the advantage!

>>967520
I know what you're after, and I will support it :B

Yikes! I certainly hope that is a synthetic uniform, because if it does that to organic matter... Retreat and get her washed off with all available haste.

Yeah, retreat and heal. Stay away from this area until you get shields and guns.

Preferably a flamethrower.

ok so now we need something to use as a shield for future engagement since they now can hit at range and we really can't. Although looking closer now spit-y has his spikes horizontally alined while the jumpers have their spikes alined vertically.

oh yeah, try to fall back and see if you can't lure the hopers away from the spitter and just ambush them around a corner like you did to those other 2 earlier. then find something to use as a shield to get close enough to the spitter to crush the damn thing.

>>967511
withdraw and fix her if you can. if her arm falls of she's gonna get real annoying.

Yell at her to rip off the right sleeve, retreat and mop off the liquid - better the liquid melt cloth than seep into fur and skin.

Rush forward and punt or avoid the un-wounded bug - the bigger big is stuck, and it just spewed its load, so you have a perfect opportunity to come in from the side and stab what is effectively an immobilized foe in its head.

>>967511
retreat for now and treat her injuries. it'll be 2 on 1 until you do and they've got range.

Reiterating the "this is pointless, go somewhere else," just adding in to find wherever they'd have a first aid kit, and maybe see if you can get that goo off in the meantime. preferably without touching it.

Probably best to make a tactical retreat. We need to find some guns to shoot these things with or get something that goop isn't going to burn through and use it as a shield.

Just to be clear: Are these disturbingly-shaped creatures with clothing-destruction spray and temporary-incapacitation venom? And they were making these underneath a school? What exactly has your mother been trying to make down here?

>>967664
It's a research base so large that it has unintentionally become a small research city over a few decades. Details are in one of the early posts.

Keimi's 'campus' is a variety of rooms squeezed in-between different lab complexes.

And now also bug monster hell.

>>967511
Don't wash the acid off. It could get washed onto one of you. Without knowing what it is made of, we can't neutralize it and will have to take drastic action. Cut off her shirt sleeve, and then cut off the skin that was exposed to the stuff. A good centimeter in should do, and only use the knife. This is going to hurt a lot, but since you can heal injuries, this is the best way to prevent any long term effects. Simply healing the burn damage without removing the skin will only heal the injury, meaning the acid will just burn right through the healed skin again.

Keimi 2020/06/02(Tue)13:26 No. 968795 ID: ca2950
File 159112959365.png - (213.13KB , 848x631 , lab41.png )

We manage to escape the creatures and return to the break room to get Alma cleaned off as quickly as possible. Her breathing and heart rate are elevated and she seems a little distressed, but she doesn't seem to be dying or anything.

"Are you feeling alright?" I ask her.

"I think so. It feels a bit achy. Hot... cold... numb... tired," she says, starting to trail off.
The spitting one probably has a similar venom to the spiky one that knocked me out, but Alma has about twice my body mass, so hopefully she'll be able to shrug it off.

Now I'm down a convenient ranged attack and someone to watch my back until she recovers.
What can I even do now? The monsters are actually dangerous and I don't want to die of walking meat sack invasion.

Suck the poison out of her.

fuck the poison out of her

Don't you have healing science? Or is that on cooldown. Either way you're clearly unequipped to deal with the headcrabs alone right now so you should search for like a stick and duct tape or something to make a spear with your knife

What can we do to heal her? There should be a first aid kit around here.

We need to avoid more monsters, at least try to avoid confronting them directly. Like we've been doing. Look somewhere else that place is a nono. Unles you can make a flamethrower.

>>968795
Find a position you can fortify and fortify it. Make sure it has two exits though.

>>968795
You could use the computer to send a message about the location of the breach in the quarantine, mention the sacks, spitters and scythe-hands in detail.

And stuff your friend in a cupboard to sleep it off while you keep an eye out for scythe-hands and sack-monsters.

fall back to previous safe position and try to figure out a plan B

>>968795
We need to stop her from passing out. Can you give her your magic healies? Any med kits? Coffee? Cold water?
And if you can't keep her awake at least try take her somewhere safe.

>>968798
It just might work!

>>968797
>>968798
This and find a venom pump. Or another kind of pump.

>>968802
This. We need to see if this is going to get better or worse

>>968795 Lewd. I have nothing productive to say.

See if you can find some random shrubs lying around hidden in completely incongruous places that you can mix into a poultice. Just be certain not to use any plants that you recognise, only creepy alien ones can be miracle cures. Do you have any bubble-wrap that you could spread around the floor to hear if any critters are approaching?

She said she was cold. Give her your coat. It might not fit her well, but its better than nothing. Make sure that all that clothing dissolving fluid is cleaned off of her first though, it'll suck if your coat got damaged.

>>968801
>>968843
>>968799
If its an acid, we need to neutralize it, which we are doing. Until then, healing won't work cuz it will just keep eating away at her. If we can find a chemical storage, we could wipe a base on the affected area. Otherwise using an emergency shower would work. If neither option is viable (or it is just too late and the acid has already done as much damage as it will do), we should work on healing the wound. Remove any dead flesh and then heal the rest (may want to tourniquet her arm with some cloth before you do this though). Affected area seems to be the entire right upper arm and shoulder, and the upper right side of her chest.

As for the poison aspect, I doubt we can really do anything about that. This is a lab and labs generally are not equipped to deal with poisons or venoms. Healing probably won't work since it isn't an injury per se. Best we can do is hole up and keep her safe and treated. She seems like she is probably also going into shock so you should treat her for that once you are in a better spot. Lay her on her back, elevate her feet, and keep her warm.

>>968943
you're not supposed to try to neutralize acid. you're supposed to wash it with as much water as you have on hand.

there's still some purple on her tiddy, wipe there thoroughly

>>968946
I think you are right. It is ingestion that you sometimes try to neutralize.

To the emergency shower!

Suckle delicious envenomed wolfmilk to gain superpowers.
We don't know it won't work!

>>968943
A shower? Yeah, that would work... We need to do something about her clothes tho.

I wouldn't rule out the idea about a first aid kit tho, might not help now, but in the future could be handy.

>>968953
>To the emergency shower!
Wouldn’t the emergency shower for chemical spills be located in the lab? The same place all of those monsters are coming from right now.

I don’t think we’re going to get past them to get to the shower.

>>968999
>the lab
Even grade schools have more than one lab room. There will be more lab rooms with more showers that aren't infested.

Chapter 1 End Keimi 2020/06/16(Tue)18:34 No. 969896 ID: ca2950
File 159235765882.png - (181.70KB , 1024x768 , lab42.png )

Welp, I guess I'm just going to hunker down and try to wait this out, at least for a while to let Alma recover. Somebody must be aware of the situation, so hopefully we'll get rescued and won't have to fight a bunch of awful monsters. Here's hoping.

>suck the poison out
>fuck the poison out
>wipe tiddy

I don't think anyone is in the mood to get weirdly horny for no reason right now. I know I'm not. I just want to sleep. I want to wake up in my bed and have all this be a bad dream.
That would be nice.

This is why you need to be a wolfmilk powered superhero(ine).