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

[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."