Test Drive

[travelagency]

Test Drive This is a test drive for The Last Resort. You can use one of the handy prompts or make up your own. Prompts Prompt #1 After Harry Mudd's recent visit during the market, he sold some non-native plants. So far, most people have been responsible pet/plant owners. However one man has not; the butcher's plant has turned into a monster, and is prone to lunging at people. But because it is still technically contained, it's decided that it shouldn't be destroyed. Maybe your character is with security and has to come in and evaluate the plant's safe living area. Or your character is asked by the butcher to toss it some snacks while he's out running errands (with the warning not to get your hand too close). In any case, enjoy a little green pain in the butt. Prompt #2 Blackstaff Resort is grateful for all the help that's been offered from the imports and whether or not your character is living there, Jeffers has decided that they recieve a piece of very nice alien furniture. The only problem is it's disassembled. And alien. And the instructions appear to be translated into gibberish, with explanations like, "Right left to the hole peg". Sometimes it's the thought that counts. But it feels very soft, and it could possibly be comfortable if it was put together correctly. Prompt #3 The lake is usually a great place to fish, and a wonderful place for fowl to gather. Only recently, the birds have become few and far between. Eye-witnesses claim to have seen something lurking under the water. There are squids in oceans and lakes, but whatever this tendrilled monster is, it's nothing like those. Blackstaff Security is offering a hefty bounty for the hostile and invasive creature's removal. The Black Sun will pay more for it. The townspeople just want it gone. Whatever your character chooses to do, this is a good chance to do someone a favor. Prompt #4 Choose your own adventure (first network or log posts can later be used as game canon once related apps are approved). Please help tag out if you're currently in the game and help introduce people to the game. If you have definitive preferences in play style (action or prose), please mention it in your posts. Navigation

Comments

Prompt 1 - Action preferred

[domesheriff]

[Linda is still new to the security patrol, and she has a feeling that's exactly why they've given her the job of evaluating the "safe living area" of some sort of "unusual" plant. it sounds like a simple enough job, really, and she's hoping it won't take too long]

[except that unfortunately she's having the worst time finding this shop she's supposed to be visiting, and currently she's wandering downtown, stopping occasionally to look perplexedly at a scrap of paper with directions that she's carrying]

Re: Prompt 1 - Action preferred

[most_feared]

[Kay would usually be at the office, but he's been discussing efforts with the resort to extend a smaller force field- not a dome, around the village's fence so people will be safer at night. The skeletons might not be great shots but when they do hit they do some damage.]

[He's distracted with these very mundane, prosaic and utilitarian thoughts when he sees Linda looking a little... aimless.]

Having a problem there? [He stops and shoves his hands in his uniform coat pockets since, well, it's getting colder.]

[domesheriff]

[she is definitely not expecting to run into the security chief while struggling with one of her first assignments, and she doesn't see him coming either, so Linda looks very startled as she looks up at Kay] Oh! No. [she quickly shakes her head] Just...having some trouble finding this shop. Think you could point me in the right direction--sir? [she holds the paper out to him, hoping this isn't making too bad of a impression. for someone who has lived and worked in the same small town her entire life, handling a new place is difficult]

[most_feared]

[Kay's good points are that his voice has a pleasant sort of accent to it. That sort of folksy midwest with a touch of rural Massachusetts, from having been raised there.]

[But his big problem is he sort of has that perpetual "disappointed father" look chiseled onto that leathery old face. And he takes the paper and looks at it.]

[Then he turns it upside down.]

It's that way. Sorta takes you into a bad neck of town, though. If you get catcalled by anything with big ears and a fat head, don't punch 'em. No matter how much you want to. They'll probably try to sue us.

You sound nervous. [As if pointing it out is going to make her less nervous.]

[domesheriff]

[she nods, taking the paper back, a little embarrassed but doing her best to hide it] Thanks. I'll be careful.

[but pointing out her nerves just gets him a worried look, though she attempts a nonchalant shrug] New job, new city. It's...a lot to get used to. [not wanting him to think that she can't handle the assignment, she adds:] But this sounds straightforward.

[most_feared]

At least it's not the size of New York- that's where I came from before I got here. [He looks around the village, getting his bearings. Then decides he has enough time.] Alright, let me walk you there. I can give you some info as we go.

[domesheriff]

I suppose that's one thing to be grateful for. [realizing what that sounded like, though, she adds:] I mean--no offense, sir. I'm just from a small town.

[she looks a little uncertain what to make of his offer but nods again and starts forward] All right. Info about what?

[most_feared]

This one's not very big. You'll figure it out quick. The resort takes up the biggest chunk of space. The further away from it you get, the more rowdy the folk are.

[He starts to walk in the direction of the butcher's shop.] There are a lot of native animals so people use 'em for food. This shop is one of the places that does.

[domesheriff]

Yeah, I've been getting that impression... [she glances around; she certainly hasn't missed how the quality of the buildings has been changing as she's gotten farther away from the resort. to her, in some ways Quadratus feels like more than one town stuck together]

[she follows his lead] It's what this place sells, isn't it? [curious, she adds:] Is that why we're looking into this...plant? Health and safety concerns because they sell food?

[most_feared]

Nah. It's more a pet owner responsibility thing.

The guy that sold these plants- The name is Harry Mudd. He's not the most responsible guy, but he's been setting himself up legally so that if the people that buy his wares fuck up with 'em then he can't be held liable. He's good at loopholes.

So this guy buys one of Mudd's plants and then doesn't follow the instructions on safe-keeping. This puts people at risk- like havin' a real mean dog you can't control. [He pats his pocket and thinks about pulling out a pack of cigarettes, realizes he hasn't seen her smoke, and chooses not to because he doesn't want to offend her. At least when he smokes he tries to keep it away from non-smokers when he can.]

He's gotta be able to show that he's workin' on it.

[domesheriff]

[at his description of Harry Mudd, she purses her lip, her expression sour. she's seen people like that in Chester's Mill--people with a law-abiding, "good" front and darkness behind it. never anything severe--not in a little place like that. at least, not before the dome, though if Duke's last words were anything to go by, there was more of it going on than she ever found out. but either way, in the poor area of a quarantine zone like this, it's no surprise to hear about people doing the same. she decides to keep an eye out for Harry Mudd, though she imagines a man like Kay is probably doing that already--keeping track of his loopholes. but as his involvement isn't what's being questioned here, she just says:] Yeah...I've seen that type.

Wait. [her eyes narrow a little, confused by his description] What do you mean it's like a dog? Is it...poisonous?

[most_feared]

It's a carnivorous plant. [He says it in a beleaguered way, not at her but at the exasperation of hostile plants being sold as pets and allowed to get out of control.]

It'd be like someone where we're from buying a pet alligator and not exactly taking care of it the way they should.

[domesheriff]

Carnivorous!? [it isn't an unbelieving exclamation--just a shocked one. she shakes her head; she's never gotten used to the dangerous sorts of messes people manage to get themselves into, not even the normal messes that she used to see when the world was sane and she lived in one place and time. and this is on an entirely different level, so she's at least as exasperated at the thought of people selling man-eating plants as Kay is--maybe even moreso because it's just that far out of her realm of expectations] Well, now I see why they want us to look at the environment!

It's not...mobile, is it? [she feels a little foolish even asking the question, but if being in this place has taught her anything, it's to expect the unexpected--and he did just compare it to a dog and an alligator, after all]

[most_feared]

Well, you gotta consider. The beasts and hounds here, they're carnivorous, too. The plant's intelligent enough to respond to its owners and passerbys. So the owner has an obligation to be responsible for it.

Part of the orders of takin' care of it are to not feed it red meat, and I'm bettin' that's one of the things he's been doing. [Just a hunch, and not a far fetched one. It is a butcher's shop, after all.] It's a little mobile. It can't get out of its pot.

[domesheriff]

I...guess you have a point. [it's weird for her to try to think of it like that--mainly because it's a struggle to conceive of a plant as a sentient being. but she's doing her best to use the dog analogy to help her]

So we're, what, making sure the owner doesn't have it anywhere that it's likely to eat his customers?