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[Fniff]

You had a dream.
It was bad.

The bed is a sleeping bag under a desk. There is sunlight, filtered blue by the witch’s jelly in the air outside.
In your cabin you take stock.

Your base is CONSTRUCTION CABIN in 2ND BLIND QUARTER. During the first blowout, some people heard a thunderclap that turned them blind. Others heard nothing. The O2 tanks hiss like snakes.

You strap on your gasmask, heading outside. The crane groans as you hang off it, and scope out the horizon.
It is quiet times like this that you consider your situation.

You are A WOMAN WITH RED HAIR AND DARK-RIMMED EYES. This much is certain.
Nobody has called you by your real name in a long time. Stalkers such as you are better known by their nicknames. Let me know if you have one.
You need to get to ZENDA-9. The WISHGRANTER is there. You are nowhere near ZENDA-9. Its main tower is smaller than your fingernail at this distance.

To get to Zenda-9, you will need a better GASMASK. Your own is shitty and does not permit long excursions, for the jelly will rot out the filters.

You'll need ARTIFACTS, too. Humans have not adapted to life in this place, and will need the products to modify themselves into something more SUITABLE.

You could also sell these artifacts for RATIONS. You have enough for now, but if you had leftovers you could recruit friends and allies.

You will also want to something better than a shitty knife as a weapon.

Keeping this in mind, you see three locations that will suit your purposes.

CAR GRAVEYARD
When the second blowout began, the world government began burying the new vehicles in a desperate bid to halt the destruction. This graveyard is all that remains of their efforts.
Likely loot: shitty artifacts, no weapons, no rations, shitty gasmasks
Likely danger: Anomalies

IRON BOG
Bullile trappers roam the gorse for eager flesh. Their meat lockers buried in the bogholes yield a decent meal if you forget where it came from.
Likely loot: No artifacts, shitty weapons, shitty rations, no gasmasks
Likely danger: Mutants

FUZZ TOWER
A radio tower covered in burning fuzz. A Victopian helicopter tried gathering some for collection. Perhaps there's something good in the wreckage, but beware of survivors.
Likely loot: No artifacts, no weapons, shitty rations, shitty gasmasks
Likely danger: Humans

Where would you like to go?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Base: Construction Cabin
Inventory:
Shitty Gasmask
Shitty Knife

[HugeNerdAndProudOfIt]

Go to the car graveyard. We have sufficient food, and more gas masks will improve the area we can reach, and the only place that offers weapons doesn't have anything other than rations and weapons

[Fniff]

You proceed to the car graveyard.

Long rows of cars rust bumper-to-bumper. Their chromed hulls and SHINING BLUE LICENSE PLATES bring to mind a bright future that has passed by.

You notice a suspicious lack of organic matter in the area. Your suspicion is confirmed when a CORPSE BALL flies through the air a dozen yards away. It is an anomaly that sucks in organic matter like a black hole, creating a sphere of skeletons of men and animals alike.

There are a few stalkers on the outer rim, wearing gasmasks. There is SOMEONE ALIVE in there,screaming their heads off. They must have been snatched recently: the fate of most trapped in a corpse ball is STARVATION.

You could stand on a car bonnet under the path of the corpse ball and SNATCH a gasmask off them, but you are not CONFIDENT you could do that without getting sucked in.

What will you do?

[Doomblade187]

Perform the grab, but take great care to make sure we have a good anchor- get as stable a position as possible.

[HugeNerdAndProudOfIt]

Perform the grab, but take great care to make sure we have a good anchor- get as stable a position as possible.

+1

[Harry Baldman]

Listen, it's not shitty gasmasks we're here for, let's look for something actually valuable instead.

EDIT: Wait, can't the people in the corpse ball just eat each other? I guess that's the reason for the 'most' part.

[Fniff]

You tie a section of steel chain, left over from the TRANSPORT HELICOPTERS, around your ankles. Standing on the bonnet of a personnel car, the corpse ball approaching, you hold out your hands and GRAB.

The chain goes taut in seconds, the car lifting slightly into the air. Your stomach's pit gravitates towards the ball as you hold on with one hand, then start ripping out bones as you sort through the ball for decent stuff. The screaming irritates you.

You uncover a Victopian conscript wearing a crappy gasmask painted like a pink pig. Next to his foot is the source of the screaming, a blond man buried up to his chest in the ball. On his neck is a Starlace artifact plugged into his neck. You grab for it: gasmasks are gasmasks, but artifacts is a gift.
Unfortunately, he grabs back.

"I need help, you son of a bitch!" he yells, holding onto your wrist.

The weaker links of the chain snap.

You do not have much time.

Grab the gasmask, grab the man, or grab both? (warning: last could result in injury)

[Funk]

Stab him
"Mine! You die! Mine!"
And take the Starlace artifact.

We should take the nick name Stiletto.

[Fniff]

Your BLADE enters his EYE. He croaks as you rip the starlace out of him, the glowing circles bound by an invisible string popping out of the wound one at a time. The last to exit makes a "PEK" sound before the chain snaps.

You sink into the ball, staring into the eyes of the man you murdered as a SPIRAL of blood emanates from his wound. You groan with effort as you push yourself away from the center of gravity, reach out, grab the open door of a half-buried TRUCK.
A moment of weightlessness,
Transitioning to earth,
Then ripped from the ball in a shower of BONES and BLOOD.

The STARLACE is in your hands.
You have lost your NAMESAKE to THE CORPSE BALL.

The trek back to the CONSTRUCTION CABIN makes your arm ache.
Daylight remains. Sleep is soon. What to do?
You could install the STARLACE in order to stretch your humanity to breaking point. This will result in MUTATIONS.
You could also consider CRAFTING a replacement weapon. I will tell you what you NEED.
If you have alternatives, SHARE.

Spoiler: STILETTO (click to show/hide)

Base: Construction Cabin
Inventory:
Shitty Gasmask
Starlace

[HugeNerdAndProudOfIt]

Try to craft a new knife.

[Doomblade187]

New knife. What can we get from installing the starlace?

[Funk]

New knife. What can we get from installing the starlace?

+1
Humanity is for the weak.

[Fniff]

You examine the starlace, tapping the individual circles and watching as they SHRINK and EXPAND. Judging by the pattern (and you're no expert), these abilities will be SUPERNATURAL in nature. The strangest gifts of the VISITORS are these artifacts: BODY and MIND artifacts obey the laws of physics, whle PSYCHIC artifacts seem to operate within an unknown electrical field. However, SUPERNATURAL artifacts defy all rules.
All HUMAN rules, anyway.
As for what you will get, it is a crapshoot. Could be great, could be bad. All you know is that with only four circles, you're unlikely to get anything beyond ONE mutation.

As for the knife, right away you have the blade from a table saw, through which you stick a marker pen. This is even worse than your previous knife, which is saying something.
If your problem is the blade, you could try SLIGO DIMA's place, down by the red river. He and his family are infamous for their overindulgence in MAMA'S RAZOR artifacts, resulting in a porcupine-like appearance to those Bullile SAVAGES. Be warned though, you'll have to pay for their spines: in blood, artifacts, or something else.
If you don't like the handle, you could try the LUMBER MILL. There's sure to be an axe handle or something around there. Mind the JOLLY GHOST, though, he's been flinging logs around like a tantruming child these past two weeks. You're not sure what has him so keyed up: perhaps if you could calm him down, like SHOTTY did with his scientific instruments, you could reap the rewards of a lumber mill relatively UNTOUCHED.

Whichever of these you settle for, the day is done and you need to sleep.
Again, you dream.
This is not the first time you've killed.
What has changed since the first?

[Doomblade187]

You no longer feel uncomfortable when their blood sprays and they die. It was the most disconcerting thing when you first killed. You have to remind yourself to wash your hands of blood these days. This world is a harsh place, and by jove, you are going to make it out of this hole.

[Funk]

You no longer feel uncomfortable when their blood sprays and they die. It was the most disconcerting thing when you first killed. You have to remind yourself to wash your hands of blood these days. This world is a harsh place, and by jove, you are going to make it out of this hole.

+1
LUMBER MILL