Big City Living (Midpoint Mingle)

[midpointmods]

The town of Midpoint: called thus because it is at the exact center of the game arena, a busy little Western town full of strange people, many of whom don’t look remotely human, because this is where all the players gather and live. Midpoint Saloon: called thus because it is the only bar in Midpoint. It’s also the biggest building in town, four stories high, dotted with windows, painted a jaunty yellow and decorated with red and green flowers in all the window boxes.

This is where your veteran teammate points you. Or just stomps off to and hopes you follow.

Downstairs is a bar and tavern, Old West style, right down to the upright piano in one corner and a raucous crowd of locals - largely locals, but with a healthy smattering of unusual or downright alien faces that clearly indicate the presence of other Players - eating, drinking, gambling, and getting into trouble. There’s a broad, bearded man behind the bar, waving cheerfully at you as you enter.

The rest of the night and the next day is yours to do with what you see fit. Explore the town, take a long nap in your new room, try to get to know people... everyone is here for the next twenty-four hours before travel to the mission site, so it’s a good chance to scope out the competition, at the very least.

Comments

[unofficial_ambassador]

That doesn't actually make Inara feel much more secure considering that her first mission is a kidnapping. They'll probably have to kill guards.

There's a more pressing question right now, however. "Does that happen often? Turning on each other?"

[ragingwolf]

"Depends on the person." He nods his head across the room, at the broad, long-haired figure of the sniper. "When someone he knew turned up in a game, he killed his entire team to stop them from attacking her."

[unofficial_ambassador]

"I see." Inara finds that she's not as surprised by that revelation as perhaps she should be. No wonder he’d been so dismissive when she'd assumed he would be concerned about the effect of her behaviour on his reputation here. "That can't have made him many friends."

[ragingwolf]

"He didn't have many to begin with. He's an efficient killer, doesn't talk to anyone, doesn't bother coming down and socialising. He's stand-offish and doesn't give a shit."

Fuwa, you don't sound biased at all.

"There aren't many rules here, but killing your own team is pretty much taboo. When he actually did it, a lot of people lost what little respect they had left."

[unofficial_ambassador]

"He's down here right now, " Inara says, not so much as a defence as a statement of fact. He probably truly doesn't sit down here very much. Her initial rapid-fire questions had shut him down pretty quickly and it's noisy down here. "Is this where people usually spend their evenings?" Yes, they're all here today, but a number of them are new and can't go anywhere else yet.

"Not fighting your own team, is that a rule enforced from above, or a player-created one?" She could see that going either way with the sort of people who might watch something like this for fun.

[ragingwolf]

"Ever since Misty came along, he's started showing up." He glances around, a casual gesture, but his gaze is pointed towards a young blonde woman near the sniper. "Everyone congregates here - it's where all the food and beds are. Unless they're off at the Bullion, there's a brothel up there," he adds, by way of explanation.

"The no in-fighting is more of a rule we made ourselves. We get points for winning a round, but we get less if we're idiots about stuff like that. It's in everyone's best interests to work together."

[unofficial_ambassador]

Inara has met Misty but flicks her gaze toward the woman anyway to show that she's paying attention. "I see." An expression she can't quite control passes across her face as he finishes his description, but she assumes it will probably be read more as disapproval than regret over a dear friend who was murdered for trying to run a brothel in a frontier town like this one.

"Ah. Maximizing your resources, that's smart. I'd wondered whether people who were watching this just wanted to see blood." She knows the whims of the wealthy better than she'd usually care to admit and that wouldn't surprise her.

[ragingwolf]

"Blood's part of it," he admits. "I don't doubt the damn crowds went wild when they watched the sniper fuck us up."

Ooh, us. That's new.

"But I always got the impression they want drama. We're entertainment to them, that's all. But points mean things to us - it's how we buy things, for ourselves or each other. I've been trying to save up for a weapon I had before I got here."

[unofficial_ambassador]

Yes, that 'us' does clarify a few things. Inara doesn't point it out, but it makes her watch Fuwa with new eyes.

"Ah, so the drama of the thing that time, with the pre-existing relationship, might have garnered them more points, but it would get boring to them and taper off if people just did things like that all the time?"

She's heard about the things that people can buy with points but in a pretty vague way. "I understand that it's possible if you find the right vendor to buy products that are... anachronistic to the setting."

[ragingwolf]

"I don't know how many points it got him," he says flatly. "But it definitely got him punished by the higher-ups for intentionally tanking a round. Good ratings or not, they're not gonna let someone set an example like that."

He shrugs, and rummages in his pockets for a moment. "Some of us were anachronistic when we got here." He pulls out a weird-ass blue hand-gun and slides it onto the table. "I'm from the year 2020, and this is some of the latest technology we have. There's Humagears here too." He pauses for a moment. "Sorry, androids. They're called something else back in my world."

[unofficial_ambassador]

"Yes, I'd imagine that they'd want to nip the idea of throwing rounds or some kind of strike in the bud." This is definitely making sense of some of the things that she'd been told earlier in the day, as ugly as the picture it paints might be.

2020. If she hadn't been living in Poseidon before this, Inara might not have believed it. That gun does look enough like a Lassiter to convince her that it's genuine to the era. She's momentarily glad that some of the more piratical elements of the crew back home hadn't made this trip - something like that in mint condition would fetch an absurd price on the black market.

"Androids?" is the question she ends up asking. Companions have always had a bit of a fraught relationship with robot people for obvious reasons, and her interactions with androids on Verdana hadn't particularly improved her opinion, between the ship’s creepy AI and that neurotic gold plated robot of Luke’s. "Aside from that one?" She nods toward Daylight.

[ragingwolf]

He looks back, less subtly, to where she's pointing, and does a slight double-take. It's not that he didn't notice it before, he just thought it was armour, not a whole-ass person.

"...no, actually." He turns and picks his gun up again before a certain raccoon can get to it. "They look perfectly human - no indication whatsoever that they might be otherwise. But sometimes if you're watching, you see the same face on a few different people. Or ones who die during rounds spark instead of bleed."

He leans back in his seat and folds his arms. "There's one running that store, as well."

[unofficial_ambassador]

He's still doing better than Inara, who had assumed until Soldat had told her there was a second player in the jail that Daylight was a pile of garbage. (Though to be fair, he had been unconscious at the time)

"Oh. Among the citizenry here, then. Not players like us?" It makes sense. People sent here to potentially die would certainly be less obedient than a robot.

[ragingwolf]

"Right. Some of them are real humans, some are androids, but you wouldn't be able to tell any of them apart. They're too well made."

He shrugs one shoulder. "All of us players are considered something else. Since we're the only ones who have anything to do with the jails."

[unofficial_ambassador]

"I take it the jails aren't generally used in the traditional sense." No one is going to get dumped in there for being too rowdy at the bar, or stealing a horse.

[ragingwolf]

"They're more like home base," he says, lilting his head back as he says it. "When we first arrive, when we die, and when we get back from being punished, we get dumped in whatever cell belongs to the next mission."

[unofficial_ambassador]

"And that's how people knew where to find us today." Inara had seen the instruction note that had sent Soldat their way. "How do you know which jail someone winds up in if they die?"

[ragingwolf]

"We don't." It's a simple response, blunt as hell. "We don't even know if they're going to come back until someone else gets sent there to collect 'em."

[unofficial_ambassador]

"Ah." She probably should have expected that they'd do this in the least efficient way possible. "And they're locked in there like we were?"

It would certainly be easier if they could at least get into the main area on their own, but if they're coming back with clothes on she can't complain too much. Waking up naked on a space ship gets old faster than you'd think.

[ragingwolf]

"Yeah. No breaking out of those cells, either, even if you have special powers."

[unofficial_ambassador]

"So if whoever gets the note doesn't like you, you're in trouble." The game makers must know who doesn't get along if they want to stir up drama.

[ragingwolf]

"It pays to be smart about it," he comments. And lifts a hand to tap lightly the serious shiner he's got going on one cheek. "One newbie tried to start a fight with me. So, not off to a great start, team-wise."

[unofficial_ambassador]

"I thought about starting a fight too, " Inara admits. Probably it's lucky for her that he hadn't unlocked the door until she had calmed down. "Usually the person with the keys to your cell isn't an ally."

[ragingwolf]

"Until you know for sure they're your opponent this round, everyone here is your ally." He says it with such blasé confidence that it's almost believable. "And even if they're not, they will be eventually. You don't have to like it, but that's how it is."

[unofficial_ambassador]

"Is that so?" Because that certainly isn't what it sounded like earlier. On the other hand, it must be or living in this town with people you have to kill sometimes would be impossible. "I'll keep that in mind."