farsickooc | test drive meme #2

SCENARIOS

01. Settling In

It's been a couple of days since you have arrived and once the fatigue from that multiversal travel has been fixed there is a town that you should probably get acquainted with. At least well enough that you don't get lost every time you venture away from the inn where you are likely staying for the time being.

Down the narrow streets to the south where most newcomers first enter Gazin, the tradespeople have set up their shops. Armourers, blacksmiths, bowyers and carpenters can all be found there, as well a few shady types who cannot pass up the advantage of ripping off an unsuspecting person.

Heading east, one can find the two apothecary shops, a bakery, a herbarium, seamstress and shoemaker. There is also a medical clinic set up and is equipped to care for anything up to moderate injuries.

The northern part of town is the district that most people tend to avoid. It's smelly and dark and trouble lurks in every corner. It's hard not to get an uneasiness that feels like someone is watching you. If asked, most civilians will explain why it is called The Devil's Mouth.

In the west district, it is bright and cheerful and generally happy. Music and celebration seem to happen twice daily, every day of the week with Saturday being the loudest. During that day, the marketplace comes to life with vendors selling their fresh food or wares. In the evening, there's typically a firework show and maybe a drunken fistfight or two that ends with more drinking and some laughter. Sometimes, but not often, trouble from the northern district trickles into the west. Those slow festivities but not for long.

02. Exploring

You have heard people talk about the places beyond Gazin and now you find yourself itching to get out and see them. Be it Vasari Forest or Roselake, you and your trusty legs (or horse) plan to be gone for a week or more. One must always be cautious of the dangers while travelling, however. Bandits and rogue soldiers often cannot pass up the chance to take what isn't theirs. There are also creatures and monsters hiding in wait to curiously check you out or worse, hunt you for their next human-shaped meal.

But, that's all part of the adventure! Take someone along with you and maybe some weapons, too. Make sure one is made of silver.

03. Quest

The Druid known as Bhalris has contracted you to head into the Oren Mountains to find and pass a message along to the dwarf known as Brazmas Steelbelly. What Bhalris doesn't exactly explain is where Brazmas can be found, only giving approximate directions to a certain landmark where a series of clues will be revealed that start an interesting, though perhaps frustrating adventure.

Pay attention to the white raven and other animals along the way. They may be there to help with your journey. How do you tell them apart from the other wildlife that may or may not be dangerous? You can't.

Good luck!

04. Celebration

Impromptu parties are quite the norm in Gazin and it doesn't matter what the occasion is or who it is for. There's music, plenty of drink, dancing and good times to be had.

Let loose and have some fun!

05. Wild Card!

Want something else? Feel free to choose your own adventure or mix and match to create something completely different!

NAVIGATION

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Annie doesn't reply at first, just goes, "Mmhm," as acknowledgement. She's been thinking about the issue, too, but not in depth. Not while on the ground, on her own. She gets too lost in her own head to do that somewhere new and strange and dangerous.

The pause between his statement and when she opens her mouth is too long, but that's okay. It's Finnick. He knows how to wait for her.

"More District than Capitol. If you had to judge. They ain't scared, but there's no fakeness going on. No one's aware of camera locations, either." Which both District and Capitol always, always are.

"It's. Weird."

"They're used to working," he says, nodding his agreement to her assessment though he's not sure if she can really see him well from her perch above him. It's another thing that sets them apart from the Capitol. Not that nobody there has a job, but hard work, manual work like fishing and mining and farming is for the districts.

She's right about the cameras, and he makes a soft "mhm," of acknowledgment, in echo of hers.

"They don't talk like people in Panem either."

Everyone with any sense in Panem is always careful what they say where anyone else can hear it. You can't criticize the Capitol where they could hear it. You can't question the Games.

He can't even hold his girlfriend's hand for fear.

She can see him. Not easily, but she's positioned herself so that if she glances down, she can catch most gestures. And it would work, her watching him. Two strangers in this strange land who know each other. She wants to reach out and take his hand, it should be safe enough here after... everything. But that would also hinder movement, and she's too keyed up for that.

"No. They don't."

Then, a little frustrated, "Do you think they're up to anything?"

Are they all playing a game against the newcomers. Do they have a plot. Sinister intentions.

Finnick's always been better at reading people than she has.

He doesn't answer immediately. He's still too uneasy to go for long without scanning the scene below him, for all most people don't bother to look above their heads and people here don't show the wariness of tributes always looking for the next source of danger. Down and to the left, across, up and to the right, then again in reverse.

No immediate sign of danger, beyond the immediacy of how strange it all is.

While he's studying them, he lifts his hand again, using peripheral vision to reach for her foot and bump a loose fist against the side of her boot.

"Not that I can see," he says with a single shake of his head. His hand drops back down to rest on his own branch. "Could be things going on that I can't read, but."

He shrugs. "There's a feeling I don't get from them. I know how it feels when someone wants to use me."

Edited 2021-02-15 13:59 (UTC)

And Annie trusts that. It's not that she can't also read people - she can, she does, and they both use it. But her mind can be a vicious thing, conjuring threats and mockery where there's none around. If he says there isn't a threat, she's more inclined to trust his assessment than hers.

At least, for people they meet face to face. She's still better at patterns. But they haven't been here enough for that.

It's making her itch.

"I can't...I can't work out what's going on," she admits. Frustrated.

It should feel more like a threat.

Just days ago, he'd been in the arena. He'd let Mags give herself up to protect Peeta and Katniss. Then he'd wished himself home with Annie and instead had found himself, somehow, here. Here with a gash in his leg and a tracker in his arm and without his allies. But, somehow, with Annie, and without any attempts from any of the other people he's seen here to either kill him or seduce him.

"I can't either."

And he hates that. It crawls under his skin like the fear when he's meeting a new patron for the first time. Not knowing is dangerous. But the fear of not understanding isn't the same as a feeling of being threatened by the people around him.

"I hate not understanding."

"I know." It's said quietly. Probably she didn't need to say anything, either. But she does know. She knows that creeping tension of ignorance, how it can constrict your chest and your mind. They don't have enough data.

They always had enough in Panem.

Carefully, casually, Annie swings her boot to gently tap his shoulder. Just enough to get his attention without startling him like a wary cat out of the tree.

"Should we ask? The, um. The other ones. Like us."

The other strangers.

In Panem, they knew what their situation was. It sometimes changed, like when their lives were thrown into uncertainty by the announcement that the Quarter Quell would feature the victors: them or their friends. But they'd known. They were always in danger. Their relationship was a secret, on pain of punishment. Finnick was available for sale or gift, on pain of punishment. Annie was too crazy to face the media, on pain of being dragged back into mentoring and the annual season of the Games in the Capitol. None of it was what they wanted, or what they'd have chosen if they weren't victors, if Snow didn't have the power of life or death over Annie's family, over Mags, over Annie herself. But they'd known what it was.

Here, they don't know which, if any, of those proscriptions are listed. Except that Mags is dead, and there's one less person for Finnick to try to protect.

At the tap on his shoulder, he leans sideways enough that he can cast a glance back up at her. His brow knits in thought and he sits with the question a moment before he answers.

He doesn't know if he can trust them either, but they at least don't have the same connection to this place. If there is anything hidden going on, they might not have the same need to play along that people actually from here would feel.

"Think that's a good idea. Not from here, they might not be loyal to this place if things are going on."

test drive meme #2

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