What's up Chicken Little (Midpoint mingle)

[midpointmods]

PLAYERS: Everyone!
LOCATION: Midpoint, and the Lucky Break for a precious few
GOAL: Wind down and gear up for next round
WARNINGS: None
OTHER: Have fun!

Ten people wake up in the morning to find notes on their bedside tables, coffee tables in the suite, next to their bathroom basin, or even on their pillow next to their face. One wakes up in a cool jail cell with sand, dust, and the distant whistle of a steam engine for her alarm.

For Soldat and Jo, the note reads: Round 86 begins in three days. Your briefing will be delivered tomorrow morning by Nicholas St. North. Be prepared.

Taako, Hajime, and Yoda, get a similar one: Round 86 begins in three days. Your briefing will be delivered tomorrow evening by Nicholas St. North. Be prepared.

For the rest - Fuwa, Inara, Sara, Irene, and Misty, the note reads: Round 87 begins in three days. Please pick up your final teammate and your briefing from The Lucky Break.

North has no information for anyone just yet, but for half the players active this round, there’s nothing to do but loaf around town waiting, and trying to casually suss out who might be on their team and who they have to fight, until the next day when they get their instructions. This has happened before, older players will assure them: if there’s no new players, sometimes they don’t make you trek all the way out to the jails for your briefings.

For the other half of the active players, there’s a new teammate and information to pick up. Who wants to make the trek and crowd into the small jail to free them?

And of course, there’s the expected couple days of chatter as every player, active or not, crowds into the saloon to see who’s getting sent out this month and who isn’t. North has plenty of food for everyone, as usual; there’s a series of shows playing all day at the theater (which turns out to be the Adam West Batman); and everything makes merry the best they can, up to the time people have to leave to get to work entertaining the masses. Good times, right?

Comments

[ragingwolf]

Fuwa's voice carries ahead of him, as he folds the file and tucks it into his jacket on his way down the stairs. "The good news is, we've got an easy mission this round," he calls out. "No one to kill, funnily enough, just herding cattle."

He steps into the cell area, and the first thing he spots is the familiar weapon and Progrise keys sitting on the shelves next to the exit - and stops, and stares at them. No way...

[vigilanteclub]

"I thought you were staying upstairs," Sara says over her shoulder to Fuwa, a hint of exasperation in her voice - not least because he's bringing up potentially killing people before there's even been a chance to brief their newest co-captive on the basics.

After a half-second's mental calculus, she still unlocks the cell, pulling the door open and stepping back to give the other woman room to exit. "Wish I could say we're setting you free, but as my teammate might have implied, all three of us have been conscripted."

[resignedcheetah]

Her eyes widen at the voice, and she brushes past Sara - while still keeping a sense on where she is in the room - to move towards where it came from. "Fuwa?" She raises her voice, repositioning herself so she can take a look. "Fuwa, you're here as well?" But no Naki in sight or hearing - though that's not surprising.

[ragingwolf]

Oh god, it really is her. He just stares with blank shock at her for a few seconds. "Yaiba..."

Before his face wrinkles into a snarl, and he spits out, "I'm sure she'll do fine. She's been working for a right bastard with no complaint for ages now."

[resignedcheetah]

Her hands curl into fists, and she practically throws the rock she's been keeping hidden at the ground. A gross chill goes up her spine, and her voice waves as she tries to keep from shouting.

"Did you forget that you're not the only one with a chip? You weren't the only one he gave migraines to any time you stepped near the line." ... Admittedly, she should have crossed the line long before she did, but... "It's not as if he'll ever work with me again. I'm surprised you didn't take pictures of me punching him."

[vigilanteclub]

"Ohboy," Sara mutters under her breath, and turns so both of them are in her field of vision.

Turns, but doesn't intercede, just leans up against the bars of the empty cell, crossing her arms over her chest. Whatever this is - and she winces a little, brow furrowing slightly in concern at the mention of a chip - better to let them have it out now, while there isn't danger to be distracted from, or something that requires cooperation.

If it turns violent, or if it gets truly ugly, she'll step in - but for now, she's willing to be a fly on the wall until they remember there's an audience.

[ragingwolf]

Fuwa snorts, loud and derisive. "If you ever stood up to that smug asshole I'd have held him down for you. But apparently it's never going to happen."

He steps back, lifting an arm to pointedly rap his knuckles on the shelf where her meager belongings are being kept. "Besides, I'm pretty sure I said I'm never going to listen to a word you say." Not until she sorts out what the hell she wants for herself.

[resignedcheetah]

She glances over at her things and shifts in that direction, careful to see if he moves to grab them first. "Do you think I would go outside without a suit and my company pin if I still worked for him?"

Yelling isn't going to help anything. Yua lets out a slow breath, refusing to let the anger rise any further. "... I told you. I don't have a dream. But I do have my beliefs and my pride as an engineer. I didn't go into this field to create technology to kill. There's no point in technology if it doesn't help people. It..."

She swallows hard - it really is dry here. And this is painful to say anyway, but he's clearly going to be an ass about it. "You... were right. Both of you. All of you." Izu and Aruto included. She steps over and grabs her Shotriser and Progrise keys, holding the barrel of the 'gun' downwards, away from everyone in the room. "I didn't work on these to do with them what... he wanted me to do. ... And it's not like he didn't send people after me, anyway." Shit. She can feel her eyes starting to mist, her chest hurting again from the sting of being thrown in trash by someone and the anger over her own weakness. She bows her head a bit, her ponytail flopping over her shoulder.

[ragingwolf]

Fuwa doesn't step aside when she draws near, but he doesn't move to react either. He just stands there watching her, arms folded and an absolute brick of stubbornness.

"...I don't know what the hell you're talking about," he says, quieter now that she's so close, but not pretending to hide the coldness in his tone. He's not stupid, he just... literally does not remember her ever saying something like this. And he's never seen her cry before.

"You can prove you've changed by not being a damn burden here. There's no ZAIA to make you block my path" - he takes half a step forward as he says it, menacing over the slight woman - "or to stop me from destroying you if you screw this up."

[resignedcheetah]

She blinks back the feeling in her eyes. It's just dusty here, that's all. She's not nearly frustrated-crying, nope. She slots her equipment into place, taking care to keep it in a place that's going to be hidden by her jacket, and tilts her head up again to look him in the eyes.

"Unless you're doing something horrific, I don't intend on it. ... And I don't have a Raidriser anymore, so you'd have far less of an issue with that." She's seen Fuwa when he's pushed to the limit. Lately? Even though she's smart and fast, she's also not willing to bet on a win, even if she were a gambler.

"Now are either of you going to tell me why I was in a jail cell and what you meant by 'conscripted', or did you only come here to threaten me?"

[vigilanteclub]

"Short version? We've all been abducted by a bunch of shadowy assholes who've seen way too many bad Westerns so we can be run through a series of sadistic games," Sara says. She unstraps her canteen from her belt and holds it out, interrupting her own explanation with a, "Here. Water.

"Don't let the set dressing fool you - whoever's responsible for this, they have the tech to yank us all from different times, different planets. As for the jail cell..." She rolls one shoulder in a shrug. "It's a useful psychological tool, and it probably tickles that gold rush fetish."

[ragingwolf]

Ugh, he's going to have to be responsible for her, isn't he. God damnit.

"The sadist games are a series of competitive rounds," he picks up reluctantly where Sara ends. "Normally it's two sets of two teams competing over opposing goals, usually involving murder of some kind - because they also have the technology to bring us back from the dead, apparently." He can address his own interactions with it later. "You got lucky - we don't have an opposing team, which means we don't have to try and kill anyone these coming weeks. We," he says, pulling the file back out and passing it to Sara, "are herding cattle."

[resignedcheetah]

She eyes the canteen for a moment before grabbing it and sipping at some water. She's just going to make herself sick if she downs it all at once. All of what they're saying sounds... insane.

But Fuwa is too blunt to lie.

"From the - and you've seen them do this?" 'Coming back from the dead' is a bold claim for anyone to make. "... You're - no, you're not joking. Herding cattle? Why? And how do they expect people who haven't had any of that kind of experience to do that?"

[vigilanteclub]

Sara flips the file open and scans the all-too-short briefing, eyebrows creeping up towards her hairline as she realizes Fuwa isn't bullshitting. They really are supposed to be herding cattle, with no mention even of rustlers to keep from making off with part of the herd.

Which leaves one massive, glaring question: what's the catch?

"Ever watch a reality show?" she asks. "The point's the same as it is when one of those runs some guy who's spent twenty years in an office chair through an obstacle course that'd be tough for a professional athlete. No one expects us to succeed, they expect to laugh when we fail. The possibility that we might succeed and win some beer money is just the carrot they're using to keep us from sitting down and refusing to move from the starting line."

Having neither experienced it herself nor gotten a firsthand account from anyone else, she'll let Fuwa cover the stick part of that analogy.

[ragingwolf]

Fuwa leans against the wall as the girls say their piece, folding his arms over his chest again.

"And if you want to protest it by sitting out and doing nothing, they'll punish you. Maybe the entire team if they're feeling particularly shitty about it. Everyone calls it 'Bad Jail'," and maybe there's a slight wrinkle of his mouth that could either be a smile or a grimace, "But it's actually some kind of hell. No one remembers much about it except that it hurts enough to make even the hardest people want to play along, for the most part."

[resignedcheetah]

She opens her mouth to respond to Sara, but then Fuwa says that and she shuts her mouth, taking a few deep breaths. That sounds... "So we're their tools. Not just their entertainment. Our chess pieces." Her voice is a bit distant and she swallows another drink of water before handing the canteen back.

She's just going to try to ignore thinking about what Fuwa just said for a minute. "Then... it's a matter of biding our time until we can collect the resources to fight back against whatever they throw at us."

[vigilanteclub]

"Resources, intel," Sara agrees. She takes the canteen and straps it back in place at her hip. "Allies are going to be the real hard part. The teams shift, so an ally one month might be on the opposing side the next. It's a smart move on the part of our captors."

She glances around the dusty cells with a slight grimace.

"And on that note, why don't we blow this joint? I don't know about either of you, but I'm always more comfortable where I can at least pretend the walls don't have ears."

[ragingwolf]

That gets a dry huff out of Fuwa. "Why would they put cameras in here? It ruins the surprise for people if they get to see our info beforehand." But his tone is utterly sardonic, and he steps back to lead the way upstairs and into the achingly hot sun. He's surprisingly fine, in his heavy coat and high boots, but he's not sure how Yua might handle the heat.

...or that other small fact. "I hope you know how to ride a horse, Yaiba."

[resignedcheetah]

Her jacket is a little heavy for this weather, but she can deal with it. The idea of changing sides has her glance at Fuwa. "Out in the open is likely safer, unless they can make the cameras invisible.

A horse? A horse, why wouldn't it be a horse... "I'm a fast learner." And if all else fails, she can probably just transform and run alongside them.

[vigilanteclub]

"I can teach you the basics," Sara says, tone amiable, as though she's not at all perturbed by a cattle drive with at least one direly inexperienced rider - and no one at all who's likely to be experienced with actually driving cattle. "We should have a few days after we get back to town for you to get some practice in."