thequietmods: (Default)
The Quiet Mods ([personal profile] thequietmods) wrote in [community profile] thequietyear2022-02-01 08:46 pm

GAME OPEN

The storm ends at some point during the night and with it comes a restful, almost enforced sleep. There's still a chill in the air when the morning comes, but it's being chased away by the warm spring sun. There's even birds singing, of all things, as if the view outside the cave wasn't quite idyllic enough. Almost too idyllic, some might say, but being paranoid never got anyone anywhere, right?

Immediately outside the cave is a broad valley. Not as green as it could be, much of the grass is brown, but there's a few tufts of proper, lush vegetation poking through. Immediately outside of the cave is a large stone head, almost Olmec-like in design, with an oddly contented smile. A sign leaning up against it declares that it's 'open for business'. Nearby, tossed carelessly onto the ground, are a few tools. Shovels, axes, saws, and the like. Rusty and dinged up, but serviceable.

Off a ways is a large forest. Opposite of it is a river, and the grass is definitely greener on the other side. And, a few dozen feet outside of the cave, are the Blank Men. Tall, pure white, smooth, and the instant the new residents lay eyes on them, they know what they're for. How they know, no one can say. They just do. Whether that makes them trustworthy, that's up in the air.

Far off in the distance, there's a massive lake that the water runs off into.

The sky's blue, the air is clean, and there's a whole year before Winter comes. The world is theirs to make of it as they will. How will they start?
mad_larkin: (Default)

[personal profile] mad_larkin 2022-02-09 02:05 am (UTC)(link)
Larkin takes his food and nods his thanks, digging in. Bruno's more right than he thinks. "They're about the adventures she has, fighting Chaos and rooting out heresy. The plots got pretty repetitious by the end. There were big fight scenes and she's always have one bit where she lopped some guy's head off."
withtherats: (?)

[personal profile] withtherats 2022-02-09 02:25 am (UTC)(link)
"Wow, much more violent than my telenovelas," Bruno comments thoughtfully. "At least, most of them, anyway." He thinks he vaguely remembers the idea of action adventure stories like these battle nun movies. There were always explosions and lots of chasing people.

He doesn't want to get too distracted before they get to work though, so he busies himself with eating rather than offer further commentary.
jinzhong: (Default)

[personal profile] jinzhong 2022-02-09 03:54 am (UTC)(link)
"Thanks," Jackie says when Tenten hands him the okonomiyaki. He's hungry despite himself - of course you're hungry, lan yeung, you literally-- - no, he doesn't want to finish that thought.

"Sounds cool," he says to Larkin about the movies. He tries not to think about the decapitation bit. Too real right now. "I like watching kung fu stuff, you know, like with Bruce Lee." Can't beat the master.
mad_larkin: (Default)

[personal profile] mad_larkin 2022-02-09 07:48 pm (UTC)(link)
"Bruce Lee?" he asks, "Who's that?" Pretty much all the movies and media in general in the Imperium are propaganda of one kind or another, so there's not a lot of widely known actors. Maybe he's from a different planet, one that Larkin doesn't know about.
withtherats: (it is what it is)

[personal profile] withtherats 2022-02-10 03:02 am (UTC)(link)
"A popular character?" Bruno offers, half-suggestion half-question. He really doesn't have experience with actors as being an important part of media - he'd mostly watched his stories in the form of rats on a little stage with tiny face-cut-out scene-settings and a lot of imagination. (The ones that he actually saw rather than created himself had all been in visions, and he's very unclear on how the stories 'occurred' - he had assumed they were all set on some sort of tiny stage, but then Jackie said it was actually pictures moving around, which made much more sense...)
Edited 2022-02-10 03:02 (UTC)
71lines: (Default)

[personal profile] 71lines 2022-02-10 12:46 pm (UTC)(link)
"I know a Rock Lee..." she trails off doubtfully, trying to remember if she'd met a Bruce in the Lee clan.

This isn't her best breakfast, she thinks, but that doesn't matter too much as she wolfs it down. The dirty implements go into the pot. "I'll wash these in the river, then get started on work. Take your time." She means it, it's not sarcasm. Some of them don't look quite used to this kind of food.
mad_larkin: (Default)

[personal profile] mad_larkin 2022-02-10 08:45 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm fairly sure we don't have overlapping cultures," Larkin says, "unless you're all from the Imperium and you haven't been letting on?"

He's eaten similar food to this, but not quite the same. The cabbage is a comforting familiarity, at least.
withtherats: (it is what it is)

[personal profile] withtherats 2022-02-10 11:23 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm from Colombia," Bruno provides. He's never heard of anywhere called 'the Imperium' but he'd never been much for studying world geography, so. Probably just someplace far away he hasn't heard of before.
mad_larkin: (Default)

[personal profile] mad_larkin 2022-02-13 03:55 am (UTC)(link)
"Never heard of it," Larkin says, getting up, "Where should we start?"
withtherats: (it is what it is)

[personal profile] withtherats 2022-02-13 07:00 am (UTC)(link)
Bruno eats another bite of his food and looks over the landscape, thinking. After sizing up their surroundings again and swallowing, he responds. "Temporary shelter first. Permanent structures take a while, even with many hands." He gives the Blank Men a doubtful look. He's still not sure about them, even if they really have no other choice. "I guess we'll need materials from the forest?" He looks to Larkin for confirmation as he finishes eating. He's never built a survival/camping sort of structure, so he figures Larkin's their building expert for now.
Edited 2022-02-13 07:01 (UTC)
mad_larkin: (Default)

[personal profile] mad_larkin 2022-02-13 02:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Larkin nods. "We can use fallen branches, probably, but having axes means we can cut down small trees to make the structure. It'll be sturdier that way."

He hasn't had to build his own shelter in a while, but he remembers how. He'd built on his own for at least three decades, before he'd joined the Guard. He'd just been a poacher, back then, living off what he caught and keeping ahead of the local police.
71lines: (013)

[personal profile] 71lines 2022-02-13 08:58 pm (UTC)(link)
"Personally, I'd kill for some bamboo, but it doesn't look like the right kind of forest for that," she says, standing.

While she has axes and such, they're more meant for combat and don't share the same edge geometry as the tools available here. Using them on trees would ruin them. So, for now, they'd be relying on Larkin's experience as a woodsman.

She sets off for the river. This wouldn't take long, at least, and then she'd be able to help the others with the temporary shelter.
mad_larkin: (Default)

[personal profile] mad_larkin 2022-02-14 01:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Larkin takes one of the axes and heads for the trees, swinging it experimentally. "If anyone wants to start gathering fallen branches, that'd be good. It should be easy, too."
withtherats: (it is what it is)

[personal profile] withtherats 2022-02-15 03:01 am (UTC)(link)
Bruno looks at another ax thoughtfully for a moment, then decides against it. "I'll gather fallen wood." He smiles encouragingly at Jackie and motions for him to come with them, before standing and following Larkin's lead. If Jackie needs to rest a bit he won't hold it against the guy though - seems like he'd had a tough day before waking up here!
jinzhong: (Are you pondering... // monkeysbananas)

[personal profile] jinzhong 2022-02-15 03:04 am (UTC)(link)
Jackie nods and stands up, ready to follow Bruno. 'A tough day' is putting it mildly. "Yeah, I'll...yeah, I can do that. Chop stuff up, too, if ya need." He feels uniquely useless and small, but he's not going to let that stop him. He's felt that way his whole life, and he never let it stop him before.

(Look where it got him.)

"Thanks for breakfast," he says to Tenten with a shaky smile.
mad_larkin: (Default)

[personal profile] mad_larkin 2022-02-16 01:14 am (UTC)(link)
"If you chop up the trees after I've cut them down, it'll go faster." Larkin holds out an axe to Jackie. "But you can gather stuff too. I'll take a bit to chop the first one down." He's a bit rusty, after all, and the trees he can chop down aren't the skinniest.
jinzhong: (Default)

[personal profile] jinzhong 2022-02-17 03:54 am (UTC)(link)
"I'll gather with Bruno first, then chop," Jackie says, and nods. He takes the axe, perhaps more gingerly than one might expect from someone who's admitted to being a criminal. He's not so hot on big, bladed implements right now.

"What about them?" he says, gesturing to the spooky blank guys. "They're freaking me out for sure."
withtherats: (um...)

[personal profile] withtherats 2022-02-17 04:08 am (UTC)(link)
Bruno eyes the Blank Men warily again. While he's still hesitant about them, it's probably not very time-efficient to just ignore them for as long as possible. "They could certainly help with carrying heavier lumber... I suppose this could also be a good chance to see how good they are at their jobs. See how closely they need to be watched or instructed."
mad_larkin: (Default)

[personal profile] mad_larkin 2022-02-17 10:26 pm (UTC)(link)
"Once I get some logs cut, I'll..." he takes a deep breath, "I'll ask them to carry them to the building site. Hopefully they'll just do that." And not attack them or steal their souls or something.
71lines: (004)

[personal profile] 71lines 2022-02-18 12:32 am (UTC)(link)
Tenten hasn't forgotten anyone! She's still just busy scrubbing away down at the river. Almost done, though, and then she can join the group.

Scrubby scrubby scrubby.
mad_larkin: (Default)

[personal profile] mad_larkin 2022-02-19 06:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Larkin starts in on a small but sturdy tree. It's straight and tall enough for his purpose and, most helpfully, the branches don't start until halfway up the trunk. That's fewer he'll have to chop off.

A few sturdy blows and it falls, leaving him to chop it into pieces.
withtherats: (?)

[personal profile] withtherats 2022-02-20 01:01 am (UTC)(link)
While Larkin deals with that, Bruno explores the nearby area in search of branches. He checks the ones he finds, making sure they're still sturdy enough to build with. ...The ones that aren't would probably serve well as firewood, though.

Perhaps he should make two collections of branches, 'building material' and 'fuel'...