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brethrencourt2017-04-29 11:17 am
pyracy) wrote in brethrencourt2017-04-29 11:17 am
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TEST DRIVE 001b
Try on those ridiculous clothes, sample the catering, and run through your lines. It's time for the Long 18th Test Drive.
ARRIVAL: Characters come to in a dark, tropical forest in a huddle. There are the sounds of strange birds, animals, and insects all around, some of them perhaps worryingly close. With a closer inspection, arrivals realize they're on an incline: Going up will prove fruitless, no matter who they are. The ground there starts to grow rocky the further they climb, and they may find themselves slipping back down to their arrival point, even if they're expert mountain climbers. The ground sloping downward will eventually level out leading toward light, music, and noise. But for the moment, they're simply a group of lost people (or monsters/bipedal animals/robots/etc) with no idea where they are or how they got here. Now's probably a good time to ask, "Who the hell are you? Where am I?" Time to use the buddy system.
TORTUGA: There's a town off the coast of Hispaniola that never sleeps, and that town is Tortuga. It's swapped hands more times than anyone can count, but for now, the French have it. And they do like the extra money the pirates that frequent it bring in; they like it so much that they imported over 1600 prostitutes from Europe to keep them happy. So you might as well relax while you're here, as much as you can with random gunshots and fist fights, anyway. Drop in for a drink at the Faithful Bride, check out the wares for sale (provided to you tax-free thanks to piracy) near the dock front. Visit the warehouse where those ill-gotten goods are stored and distributed. Maybe you're looking for work on a ship? The captains can usually be found - frazzled and busy - in the taverns and at the shipwrights and everywhere in between (just look for the hats), and if they're in a good mood, they might be willing. But the key point of Tortuga is this: Have fun. Some examples might include: A barfight! Wandering into a brothel (maybe by mistake)! Getting duped into joining a crew! There's no end of trouble to get into.
MIRROR POST: When they arrived, every person found, in a pocket or a bag or tucked away somewhere on their person, a little compact mirror. It's nothing fancy: Square, with hinges and a latch that keep it closed, the outer casing carved from seashell, the inner mirror a little spotted with age. But if it's played around with enough, it quickly becomes apparent it works as a communication device. Here you have access to all of the marked folks, no matter how far and wide they might spread. Need to have a heart to heart with a buddy in Singapore? Want to send out a general ad to everyone at large? Looking for answers to questions? This is the quickest way to get all of that.
CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE: The world is open, and it's full of pearls that are just waiting for you to take them. Maybe you want to have some quiet time to scrub clean in a bathhouse in Singapore. Perhaps you're visiting the fabled pirate city of Libertalia in Madagascar. Maybe you've found yourself lost in Mayan ruins or stranded on an island. Or you were shipwrecked in a hurricane. Or you've decided to relocate to Port Royal or one of the American colonies for a quieter sort of life. Either way, this is your story, might as well make it a good one.
courier six | fallout: new vegas
bare ankles AND bare calves? elle, you scoundrel.
[When you come from a post-apocalyptic wasteland with heavy 50's themes baked in, you tend to dress the part. We're talking a run down flower-print dress, with a knee-length bell-shaped skirt, covered in grime and stains, paired with sturdy boots that have desert sand caked into the seams. Oh, sure, there's a Pip-Boy on her arm, too, and a heavy-looking leather backpack strapped to her shoulders. And a hat! The hat is important, a black fedora with a wide brim, and it keeps the tropical sun out of her blue eyes just as well as it did the desert sun.
But while this outfit works out for New Vegas, it, uh. It doesn't so much the 18th century.
Elle hasn't thought anything of it at first. There aren't actually as many odd looks being sent her way compared to what the other people who arrived with her seem to be getting. She doesn't feel like she blends in, necessarily, but... Maybe it's that she doesn't stand out as much as some of the others? Maybe?
... ex...cept that now that she's getting closer to one of the more populated buildings (which she doesn't realize is a brothel), she's starting to get more stares. Except... for the fact that those stares aren't really... hostile? Or uninviting?
... quite the opposite, actually. Because now there's a guy coming up to her, filthy in a way she isn't used to, given the tropic humid heat. The strong smell of alcohol wafting off of him is more familiar, though.
It takes her a second to realize that she has no idea what this man is saying to her. None of these words are ones she recognizes, like, at all. But what she does pick up on is the lascivious look he's giving her.]
What? [she squawks.] Uh... No. Sorry, I don't... I'm, uh, not interested.
[He doesn't seem to understand her, either. Because he's laughing with drunken merriment and throwing his arm around her shoulder anyway. This is Elle's face of regret and unhappiness as a new wave of Drunky Smell hits her.
Um. Ew.]
2. tortuga - market.
what's this? ooooh, wait, no, what's THAT?
[Yeah, so, Elle learns her lesson and changes her clothes pretty fast. It's much, much safer to be wearing jeans and her Courier Duster. She still doesn't fit in, but at least when people look at her, it's got nothing to do with... uh... yeah.
Which means she's a lot more comfortable milling around in the crowds closer to the docks. The reason why there are so many people in this area becomes quickly obvious -- It's a market. And it's just full of all kinds of things that Elle has never seen before. It really doesn't take her long before she starts flitting excitedly from stall to stall, eyes bright and eager. Look at those fish! Look at these fruit!
Most importantly... Look at this beautiful bird. Holy shit? It's so pretty? Elle hovers by the cage, cooing at a parrot like an idiot. The person who's trying to sell the bird is looking more and more irritated the longer she stands there without buying it, but she doesn't seem to notice. Instead, when she looks up, she spots someone who stands out, just like her. She eagerly reaches out for their arm without thinking.]
Hey! Hey, check this out, isn't it pretty?
3. tortuga - beach.
when i look at the water, and hear the waves lapping against the shore... it's almost like i can hear another voice.
[It's so weird. Night has fallen, and the town's lights are bright and the people are noisy, and there's still so much to learn about this place. So much she can't wrap her head around.
... but here she is, standing on the beach by herself. As humid as the evening is, it's cold here, right on the edge of the water. The Survivalist's coat isn't enough to keep the chill off. She should probably go back to the town, where it's a bit warmer. Instead...]
Why do I know this? [she asks the salty air, staring out at the sea like maybe it'll answer her.
She doesn't. She's never seen the ocean before. She's never been on a tropical island before. So why... Why is there this feeling in her chest that's a little bit like home?]
1.
An hour later and his circumstances are as mysterious as ever, but he has found a moment of certainty in the sight of a filthy blackguard accosting a young woman. As a gentleman, the action he must take is clear.
He pulls the man's arm off of the girl and inserts himself between them, aggressively looming.]
The lady isn't interested. Go back to the pig pen you came from.
[He reaches for the hilt of his sword, to rest his hand on it in implicit threat...but his sword isn't there.
Well.
That unfortunately complicates things.]
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Elle stays close to her rescuer, eyes still wide with surprise. This all happened pretty fast... She doesn't know who's more lucky that he intervened, her or the drunk guy. She wouldn't have wanted to hurt him, but...
... speaking of hurt, is this -- Is that -- ]
Oh my god, are you okay? [That's -- That's a lot of blood. That's... a lot of blood. Elle is fumbling for the pocket on her pack where she keeps her quick-access stimpaks even before she gets an answer.]
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It isn't my blood. [Not true, but it seems the easiest way to assuage the girl's concerns.]
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... against his stomach?
Elle's brow furrows, and her eyes flick up to his face. If he'd lost that much blood, he'd probably be dead. He doesn't look especially pale or anything...]
... okay. [She lowers her hand. She bites her lower lip.] And... um. Thank you. I don't know if he understood what I was saying...
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He holds out a bent arm for the girl to take.]
Allow me to escort you to your destination, miss. Tortuga is no place for an unaccompanied woman of virtue. [Although her clothes don't look virtuous at all, but Norrington has travelled sufficiently far and wide to know that people from foreign lands have very different ideas about appropriate dress.]
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... she's definitely never been called a "woman of virtue" before. She has no idea what to make of that.
She starts to reach out to take his arm, but then hesitates before making contact.] I, um... I wasn't really going anywhere in particular. Just trying to get to know the place, really.
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Believe me when I say that there is nothing in Tortuga worth knowing. Nothing and no one.
[And he spent enough time here, drunk, to know.]
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If you're seeking the supernatural, abandon your search now. It will bring you only misery if you find it.
[Bitterness you say? Why yes!]
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Blllllllink.
Elle tilts her head. And, before she can entirely catch herself, she asks,] Define "supernatural."
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It's a broad category and far more common in these waters than I once thought. And if you know what's good for you, you'll stay well clear.
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Huh.
Uhhhh. I mean... That's not the kind of thing I'm looking for. I hope not, anyway. So I'm not gonna really... try to seek that out? Not on purpose, anyway.
[Actually, there's a pretty good chance that that's exactly what she's going to have to track down. It's not that she doesn't believe in... supernatural stuff, exactly. The Ghost of She happened, and everything. And she does hope that Joshua's god is real. But... She just also knows that, a lot of the time, when people have superstitions about stuff like this, that there's something else going on. And that level of "we don't know how to explain this other than magic" probably means that whatever brought her here is under that umbrella.]
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[He can't protect every hapless person whose wanderings cross preternatural foes. He's only one man and he can't be everywhere. He doesn't have the kind of reach that commanding an armada gives one, and even when he did command and armada he wasn't able to protect Elizabeth. Fortunately, she proved quite capable of protecting herself without him.]