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wildestlogs2021-10-01 09:11 pm
wildestmods) wrote in wildestlogs2021-10-01 09:11 pm
TEST DRIVE ※ 1
TEST DRIVE #1
These woods are lovely, dark, and deep, but being lost in them is pretty alarming to most people. Perhaps it's lucky you're hearing what sounds like... a party?
If you follow the sounds through thinning trees, a brick-paved road rises from the ground ahead. Keep going, and you'll find yourself approaching a bustling festival. Small, jaunty, colorful buildings line a way bedecked with flags, banners, and (of course) ever-present vendors.
Good morrow! Dost thou carest for a turkey leg? Some funnel cake? Modestly priced costume jewelry? Come right this way, dear visitor! The faire is here!
First, however, the faeries would like a moment of your time. At one of the entry gates, a spritely, brightly-dressed faerie tells you, "Tickets are long-since sold out, but joy is one currency we accept. So as long as you plan to enjoy yourselves, you may enter with a day pass. However, please read the sign. By entering, it means you agree to the terms."
The faerie points to a large wooden sign with words painted on it. The sign says something to the effect that the summer faeries are not responsible for anything that happens at the faire, and by entering you're agreeing to exempt them from indemnifying you for not offering the same magical protections they offer proper ticket holders in the unlikely event of surprise and disaster, etc etc.
Fortunately, it's actually not that different from a standard legal agreement for some kind of dangerous activity like go-cart racing. Of course faeries would be careful about any legal disclaimers for events.
USEFUL LINKS
A FAIRE SHAKE
A renaissance faire is in full swing in the woods today, or so it would seem. But no one here is just playing a part: these outsize personalities, bright costumes, and pseudo-Elizabethan voices are perfectly real.
It's the only place you can go for food and appropriate clothing. Also there's magic at your feet, drawing you towards others bound by the Quest magic, making it so all paths seem to lead to the Faire. Even if you don't want to enter, it feels like you have to, like there's something important to find.
a) The Faerie Toll
Some of the faeries are lighthearted and cheerful, with round and heart shaped faces and brightly colored clothes. These summer faeries are willing to part with some faerie coin in exchange for certain actions. Anyone that watches others take them up on their deals can see that the actions are indeed harmless, and there is no catch. Apparently happiness and frivolity really can be exchanged with the faeries here. Ways to earn a small bit of coin: physical comedy, agreeing to a round in the dunk tank (yes they have one), telling the faeries a good joke (but it really has to be a good one, by faerie standards), letting oneself getting pied in the face, and pieing someone you're with in the face, among other things. Silly dances are also in high demand, especially ones with actual rules vs. ones that are made up on the spot, with a clear preference for moves like tiktok dances, the macarena, or the Hustle.
Some of the faeries are lighthearted and cheerful, with round and heart shaped faces and brightly colored clothes. These summer faeries are willing to part with some faerie coin in exchange for certain actions. Anyone that watches others take them up on their deals can see that the actions are indeed harmless, and there is no catch. Apparently happiness and frivolity really can be exchanged with the faeries here. Ways to earn a small bit of coin: physical comedy, agreeing to a round in the dunk tank (yes they have one), telling the faeries a good joke (but it really has to be a good one, by faerie standards), letting oneself getting pied in the face, and pieing someone you're with in the face, among other things. Silly dances are also in high demand, especially ones with actual rules vs. ones that are made up on the spot, with a clear preference for moves like tiktok dances, the macarena, or the Hustle.
b) New and In Stock
You tried to steal from the faeries instead of paying their toll, or have otherwise misbehaved. The faeries like your moxie, though. They'll let you keep what you took (if you took something), but first you're gonna have to do some time in the stocks.
Will anyone take mercy on you and bust you loose? Does anyone have a tomato? Perhaps you meet someone else while they're suffering a similar punishment in the other stocks across from you. If you didn't actually steal, maybe you got framed. Or you're in the stocks with your "partner in crime" who you were falsely accused of being affiliated.
Fortunately, you won't be in there overly long. Even if you can't escape and no one busts you out, the faeries aren't particularly cruel and the absolute worst you'll get thrown your way by the crowd is a fruit.
If you push, the faeries might also let you out if someone else agrees to be responsible for your good behavior. This could, naturally, lead to both of you doing more time together.
You tried to steal from the faeries instead of paying their toll, or have otherwise misbehaved. The faeries like your moxie, though. They'll let you keep what you took (if you took something), but first you're gonna have to do some time in the stocks.
Will anyone take mercy on you and bust you loose? Does anyone have a tomato? Perhaps you meet someone else while they're suffering a similar punishment in the other stocks across from you. If you didn't actually steal, maybe you got framed. Or you're in the stocks with your "partner in crime" who you were falsely accused of being affiliated.
Fortunately, you won't be in there overly long. Even if you can't escape and no one busts you out, the faeries aren't particularly cruel and the absolute worst you'll get thrown your way by the crowd is a fruit.
If you push, the faeries might also let you out if someone else agrees to be responsible for your good behavior. This could, naturally, lead to both of you doing more time together.
c) I'm Just Here For the Turkey Leg
Wandering lost in the woods is hungry work. Maybe you know better than to eat food offered by faeries, but the humans of the faire should be safe enough, right? Where else are you going to find a whole turkey leg, a funnel cake, or a cold beer around here? The lines can get pretty long though, and sometimes orders get mixed up, or someone swipes what was yours! Maybe they bump into you and spill food down your front. Or perhaps you see someone with no money and decide to offer to share.
Some of the food seems out of this world or is clearly made for a more alien palate (not always in an appetizing way). Most of the food has big enough portions if you're not the only one eating
Wandering lost in the woods is hungry work. Maybe you know better than to eat food offered by faeries, but the humans of the faire should be safe enough, right? Where else are you going to find a whole turkey leg, a funnel cake, or a cold beer around here? The lines can get pretty long though, and sometimes orders get mixed up, or someone swipes what was yours! Maybe they bump into you and spill food down your front. Or perhaps you see someone with no money and decide to offer to share.
Some of the food seems out of this world or is clearly made for a more alien palate (not always in an appetizing way). Most of the food has big enough portions if you're not the only one eating
d) Surely, You Joust
Whether you're just watching, betting on the outcome, or have convinced someone to armor you up and put you on a horse, the jousting tournament is a major event! Will anyone be able to unseat the intimidating Black Knight? Have you started a rivalry with a competitor you just met in a line twenty minutes ago? Are you helping another member of the squad by pumping them up for their match? Or are you just over here to see how many horses you can pet without anyone noticing?
Even those not interested in the competition might want to give it a whirl. There are different rewards for unseating certain levels of competitors like food supplies, flasks of boozeahol, small bags of silver or gold, and weapons of moderate quality, like swords, knives, or bows.
For those that don't own their own armor and lances, some light armor and lances are on loan but the armor is all dinged up and the lances are easily broken, putting someone using them at a disadvantage.
Whether you're just watching, betting on the outcome, or have convinced someone to armor you up and put you on a horse, the jousting tournament is a major event! Will anyone be able to unseat the intimidating Black Knight? Have you started a rivalry with a competitor you just met in a line twenty minutes ago? Are you helping another member of the squad by pumping them up for their match? Or are you just over here to see how many horses you can pet without anyone noticing?
Even those not interested in the competition might want to give it a whirl. There are different rewards for unseating certain levels of competitors like food supplies, flasks of boozeahol, small bags of silver or gold, and weapons of moderate quality, like swords, knives, or bows.
For those that don't own their own armor and lances, some light armor and lances are on loan but the armor is all dinged up and the lances are easily broken, putting someone using them at a disadvantage.
e) Everyone's a Comedian
You (and maybe your threadmate) are being teased by a pair of funnymen doing a bit, be they jesters, Punch and Judy style puppets, or a pair of washing well wenches. The audience is delighted, but are you? What are you both going to do?
You (and maybe your threadmate) are being teased by a pair of funnymen doing a bit, be they jesters, Punch and Judy style puppets, or a pair of washing well wenches. The audience is delighted, but are you? What are you both going to do?
f) Wares, If You Have Coin
You're here! You have some gold! Time to get yourself some "period appropriate" (for varying values of both words) gear. Have you found a shopping buddy? What if you resell some goods you just picked up at a slight markup? Are you suspicious of the quality of a vendor's goods? Maybe this item over here is the last of its kind, and you and this stranger want it!
You're here! You have some gold! Time to get yourself some "period appropriate" (for varying values of both words) gear. Have you found a shopping buddy? What if you resell some goods you just picked up at a slight markup? Are you suspicious of the quality of a vendor's goods? Maybe this item over here is the last of its kind, and you and this stranger want it!
g) Stop! Thief!
Someone picked your pocket or snatched something out of your hands! It might even be your thread partner. Do you give chase? If your threadmate isn't the thief, are they helping you chase the thief down or getting in your way?
Someone picked your pocket or snatched something out of your hands! It might even be your thread partner. Do you give chase? If your threadmate isn't the thief, are they helping you chase the thief down or getting in your way?
h) Archery Range
Are you taking the chance to start learning a new skill on the practice targets? If it's any incentive, several fair maidens and handsome young fellows are hanging about, flirting with the best shots. If you're already good, you might be competing in the archery competition for a prize! The targets are close enough you can make conversation with the person one target over.
Are you taking the chance to start learning a new skill on the practice targets? If it's any incentive, several fair maidens and handsome young fellows are hanging about, flirting with the best shots. If you're already good, you might be competing in the archery competition for a prize! The targets are close enough you can make conversation with the person one target over.
i) Fortune Told
A stubborn young blonde woman in a long purple robe with a pointed hat - one that looks more than a little bit witchy - is determined to read your fortune for you. Loudly. Whether you like it or not. She has to demonstrate her skills to drum up business, you see! Now please hold your hand still, she just needs to get a good look at your fate line...
(Note: Players will have to npc the fortuneteller says in their thread and can go absolutely wildly wrong. However, sometimes the fortuneteller suddenly gets more intense and guesses a few things closer to the truth...)
A stubborn young blonde woman in a long purple robe with a pointed hat - one that looks more than a little bit witchy - is determined to read your fortune for you. Loudly. Whether you like it or not. She has to demonstrate her skills to drum up business, you see! Now please hold your hand still, she just needs to get a good look at your fate line...
(Note: Players will have to npc the fortuneteller says in their thread and can go absolutely wildly wrong. However, sometimes the fortuneteller suddenly gets more intense and guesses a few things closer to the truth...)
j) Out of Water
You draw attention to yourself with your behavior, or by how strange your manner of dress is (according to the faire folk, anyway.) Perhaps you have a still-functioning small electronic like a smartphone that's unlike anything they've ever seen. People are starting to give you the stink eye or ask you invasive questions. Will your threadmate help you out?
You draw attention to yourself with your behavior, or by how strange your manner of dress is (according to the faire folk, anyway.) Perhaps you have a still-functioning small electronic like a smartphone that's unlike anything they've ever seen. People are starting to give you the stink eye or ask you invasive questions. Will your threadmate help you out?
k) Bargaining With the Fae
There are some faeries here that are different from the sunny, cheerful summer faeries running the fair. These are the winter faeries, more ethereal and elegant, more immaculately dressed in finery that's a little too fancy for the event. Despite their beauty - or maybe because of it - these faeries are...colder. Many of them are busying themselves with maintaining magical lanterns around the edges of the faire. If asked, they tell your character they're handling security and to bug off.
But some of them maintain stands in shadier-looking areas of the faire. They're willing to offer more in exchange for greater payment. Warm, durable clothing to cut through the slight chill that comes at evening and night time. Swords made of much stronger metals than can be found elsewhere, of better make, with edges that take forever to dull. Bows with strings that rarely ever break.
Their deals are definitely backhanded though. For payment, they might say something like "we could really use your view on something, just a half hour of your time" and instead of having you participate in conversation where your insight is welcome, you lose your ability to see for a half hour.
These effects are unpleasant but usually temporary, lasting no longer than a half hour or so - but it's not like they'll tell you that. And if you try to go back to the stall afterwards to confront them, they'll have mysteriously disappeared. You'll at least get to keep whatever your bought and it will be of good quality, but the joke is definitely on you.
There are some faeries here that are different from the sunny, cheerful summer faeries running the fair. These are the winter faeries, more ethereal and elegant, more immaculately dressed in finery that's a little too fancy for the event. Despite their beauty - or maybe because of it - these faeries are...colder. Many of them are busying themselves with maintaining magical lanterns around the edges of the faire. If asked, they tell your character they're handling security and to bug off.
But some of them maintain stands in shadier-looking areas of the faire. They're willing to offer more in exchange for greater payment. Warm, durable clothing to cut through the slight chill that comes at evening and night time. Swords made of much stronger metals than can be found elsewhere, of better make, with edges that take forever to dull. Bows with strings that rarely ever break.
Their deals are definitely backhanded though. For payment, they might say something like "we could really use your view on something, just a half hour of your time" and instead of having you participate in conversation where your insight is welcome, you lose your ability to see for a half hour.
These effects are unpleasant but usually temporary, lasting no longer than a half hour or so - but it's not like they'll tell you that. And if you try to go back to the stall afterwards to confront them, they'll have mysteriously disappeared. You'll at least get to keep whatever your bought and it will be of good quality, but the joke is definitely on you.
l) Wild Card!
You can make up anything your character might reasonably see at a normal Renaissance Faire, or place an encounter in the woods nearby! Go wild!
You can make up anything your character might reasonably see at a normal Renaissance Faire, or place an encounter in the woods nearby! Go wild!
❧ This counts as a plot and is part of game canon! This means that new players aren't the only ones that can make top-levels. Current characters can be thrown in like it's any other plot or event. The default for threads is that they're game canon if all characters involved are apped in or already in game, but prospective players may opt out and consider a thread non-canon if they're not happy with it.
❧ Feel free to play around with powers. If your character has powers from canon you want to play around with, go for it. If you'd like to test out possibilities for game powers, also go for it. Feel free to change it up from thread to thread if you need to. If you want to keep a thread as canon this can be handwaved as the magic making characters' powers shift a few times before settling.
❧ Potential players may use test drive threads as their log samples. However, at least one post in their thread must fit the requirements for apps, and in quality and length (200 words). If you do plan on using a thread as a sample, please make sure the writing throughout your threads is a good example of your writing skills and has some solid examples of the character's voice.
❧ Players can count TDMs towards AC, with the same AC rules as any other threads.
❧ The game is invite-only. Players without invites are allowed to tdm since some of them may know someone in game to ask for one, and since some people enjoy TDMs just for fun in games they don't plan to app into. But an invite is required during the apping process.
❧ The game is at a starting cap at 30 players. Right now the current number of invitees is likely to not exceed the game's 30 slots, but if we go a few over they will still be allowed to app during this first round. Future apps will be rolling apps and will have a wait queue if the cap has been exceeded.
❧ Invites at game start are limited to current and former players of the mods' previous game Piper90 (
piper90), former players of the first incarnation of Wilderlands (wilderlands, and people friended to the main mod's plurk. If any of those individuals want to invite someone outside those pools in the first app round, they can request it when the mods make a headcount of potential appers. If the game will be under (or only slightly over) 30 players to start, some extra players may also be invited, but the mods want to limit it to exceed the player cap too much. ❧ The first game round will be apps only, no reserves. Apps open: 10/15/21. Game start: 11/01/21
Re: Spencer Hastings | Pretty Little Liars
[He looks down at it balefully, then up at her. He frowns.]
You made me drop my croissant.
no subject
First time with this thing. Sorry.
[Her eyes trail down from the jock-looking boy to the food on the ground, which, unfortunately, seems to have absorbed the mud like a sponge. A factoid bubbles up in Spencer's brain, like they often do, and rather than admit it's nothing but useless trivia, Spencer decides to read into the paranoia-inducing presence of the pastry.]
Croissants weren't invented until the 20th century.
[Further proof that this isn't a real Ren Fair, and is, instead, some big fabricated trap that Spencer's stuck in.]
no subject
I'm not shocked. This place is a giant anachronism stew.
But on the other hand most Ren Faires don't have actual magic, even though magic definitely exists.
[At least in his world. His baseline understanding of reality is that it's normal for a world to be full of different fundamental forces like magic, and people with metapowers.]
My friend and I, we're thinking it's a weird VR thing or alternate universe. I'm starting to lean towards the latter. I've traveled through hypertime before and this has weird interdimensional stuff written all over it.
no subject
[Now her trust in Kon, which already didn't exist, is completely flattened; this is absolutely just a way to try and get in her head, make her doubt her understanding of reality, explain away the holes in this scenario so she doesn't question them. Spencer knows magic. Spencer's won prizes for pulling a rabbit out of a hat and finding people's cards and making roses appear in her palm. It's always just sleight of hand and trick props and a lot of distraction.
But if Kon is an agent of the mastermind pulling all Spencer's strings for the last two years, Spencer doesn't have anything to gain by acting as suspicious as she is.]
How long have you been here, um... [Whoops, she exchanged arrows before names.] I'm Spencer.
[She wouldn't be shocked if he already knows that.]
no subject
[The emphasis makes it clear it's not "Connal" or "Connell." Kon and El sound like a first name and last name - because they are. El is the family name, it's just Kryptonians always tack that onto their first name.]
I got here today. One second I was chillin' and playing fetch with my dog, the next I was waking up in a field.
Did you get the whole tunnel and creepy voices thing, too? I keep running into people that got here the same way. It's like... you can almost tell who just by looking at them. It's weird.
no subject
I've been, um. Really not sleeping well. I was chalking the whole voices and spirit quest thing up to that. [She raises an eyebrow.] Are you clocking those people based on how comfortable they seem to be walking in leather riding boots and sabatons?
[Because that's been how Spencer's been determining how likely it is that any of this is real. If it's faked, someone spent a lot of money hiring actors comfortable in medieval garb for a level of verisimilitude only the most nitpicky history dork would notice.
Spencer is that level of nitpicky history dork.]
no subject
[He leans against a nearby fence.]
But it's more than that. When I was in the woods, I had some weird instinct that I needed to come here.
Which sounds crazy, I know, but...voices, too. Somebody's doing something to our heads. Somehow. [His expression grows troubled.] Not sure how comfortable I am with that or how much to trust it. Wouldn't be the first time someone's tried to mess with me.
no subject
Except he might be a prisoner like her. She squints at him, tries to think of if she knows him from any other context. She told him she hasn't been sleeping well. She didn't tell him that she hasn't been sleeping well because she was kidnapped and someone put her in a room with a buzzer that went off every twenty minutes for days on end.]
How long have you been here? Like, hours? [That seems like a safe thing to ask, a normal thing to ask.] Do you mind telling me what those voices were? Just, you know. In case they were the same for both of us.
[You can drive two people crazy, but you can't make two people's brains barf up the same hallucinations.]
no subject
[He shakes his head.]
And I don't know what they were, just what they said. Something about saving something. And mirrors. And getting lost in the forest? And the Green, which...is a concept back home that has to two with plant life but I don't know much about it or if they're even talking about the same thing.
[He scratches his neck.]
My best friend is here and his theory is it's some kind of super advanced VR thing we're all hooked up to without realizing, Matrix-style. Which begs the question of whether he's actually my best friend or whether my dog is real or whether anyone else besides me is real. But then again, maybe it's multiple people hooked up and interacting with each other - also Matrix-style.
no subject
[Spencer hesitates for a moment, wanting to grab Kon and tell him all the horrible things people have been doing to her and her friends, to tell him to run and get help instead of standing here pontificating about voices, but she tamps down on that urge because you know what? This guy might be right. And he might be the closest thing she has right now to an ally: the dude she nearly shot.
Or he might stab her in the back. He already has friends here, which is a strike against his trustworthiness.]
So, say we're in the Matrix. Where's the red pill to wake up? Or do you think finding that would be the end goal of our quest?
[A journey into virtual reality to find the way to escape? Why not. Why. Not????]
no subject
[He shrugs.]
Look, my life is weird and even with that, this is a 100% new kind of weirdness.
Either this is some kinda high tech VR thing or an iteration of skipping through the multiverse that's even stranger than the last time I did it.
[Because skipping through the multiverse is such a normal thing for people to do.]
I guess one way to figure that out is ask people who also woke up here what it's like where they come from. If everyone's got a wildly different story about their world back home, maybe it's not a bunch of people from the same world in the Matrix. Maybe it really is some weird dimensional juju.
no subject
[Because, Spencer thinks, if this is something she can intellectually pick apart, it's something she can outsmart. It's something she can get out of. There's something frenzied about her explanation, like an animal in a kennel scratching at the door.]
My story is that I'm a senior at Rosewood High School, and there's nothing weird about my life. [Definitely a lie.] But I guess everyone thinks that their world is normal. We only have our own worlds as a frame of reference, well, and media, I guess.
no subject
And I've personally dimension-jumped before. I was trying to figure out why an alternate universe version of me showed up and died right in front of the Justice League, warning everyone with this ominous warning.
So I used his dimensional travel tech because it was locked to his DNA, and therefore my DNA.
[He briefly pauses, realizing that her world might not be like that.]
Does your world not have those things?
[Maybe getting some context can start right here.]
Because if not? Weird.
[Even the universes he'd bounced around were alternate superhero worlds.]
no subject
[She feels like she should be offended, but, well, she thinks his world is weird too, so one weird turn deserves another.]
Can you prove it? Your world, I mean?
no subject
But my dog still has heatvision, at least.
[He whistles a high pitch whistle and a white dog, who had been excitedly watching the jousting because horses!!!! suddenly turns and comes trotting over.]
[Kon kneels, trying to put his knee more in the grass than the mud, and vigorously pets him with both hands. The dog barks happily and licks his cheek a few times.]
Hey, buddy, this chick here wants proof we've usually got powers.
I need you to do it really carefully, as in don't do it hard enough to burn down any branches or cut down the tree or set anything on fire, but can you do a little heatvision? Right here?
[He taps the trunk of the tree and then, to help the dog understand - because he sometimes needs a little help with longer sentences - he points to his eyes and then to the tree with two fingers, then sits back out of the way.]
[ZAAAACK!]
[The heat can even be felt just slightly where Spencer stands, like someone stoking a fire, and the light from it leaves slight afterimages, a little like looking at an arc welder.]
[The hole - and it is a hole, not just a scorch mark - smokes, the edges still burning red.]
[Kon rewards Krypto with more pets.]
Whosagoodboy? Whosagoodboy?
[Then he stands up and sees a bucket near a large trough of water. He fills it up an splashes the water on the tree, to make sure it doesn't go up in flames. Steam goes up and it sizzles like a campfire being put out.]
no subject
Spencer tries not to think about how the last time she spent any time with a dog, it playfully exhumed a severed arm from her backyard.
Her sleepy mind is drifting to that - God, she hasn't slept in days - when Krypto blasts a teeny hole in the tree. Spencer startles and nearly drops the longbow.]
Whoa! Whoa. [She crouches down and joins Kon in petting Krypto, but mostly so she can get the dog looking at her when Kon goes to douse the hole. No obvious cameras. No obvious mechanics. Could be sleight of hand, but even zoned out, she was looking right at the dog.
She stands up and goes over to Kon. Grabs his arm. Lowers her voice to whisper.]
Superheroes, right? This is my S.O.S. call. I've been kidnapped and I'm-I'm here now, but I was in captivity for- I don't know, weeks, and now I'm here, but I think there might still be people following me. Watching me. Maybe watching you too, anyone else who's "new" here.
no subject
[The hand that goes over her own, where she has it on his arm, is somehow firm enough to possibly be reassuring, and gentle enough she can easily pull away if she's uncomfortable.]
[He angles his head to catch her gaze with very gentle blue eyes.]
Okay, first of all, take a deep breath for a second, okay? Trust me, I'm speaking from experience here: when stuff like this happens, where you get whisked away somewhere far for something weird - especially to another dimension - sometimes it has nothing to do with anything happening back home.
Whoever was after you might not be here, because if we're from different universes, this may be entirely unrelated to our own stuff.
[He looks up and around, eyes narrowing, looking for any shady characters that might be watching her.]
That said, if you notice anyone from back home that shows up here that might be behind it, or you see someone that seems sus, or someone starts following you, we've got your back. I've been trained to fight without powers, even if I'm a little rusty. And Krypto does whatever I ask, including going pew pew on command.
[He looks back at her again.]
I don't know if they'd be behind everything, but I believe you. You need backup because someone shady from home is still dogging your step? [He nods at her] We're there.
Now tell me more about what was happening so I know what to look out for. Do you have any suspicions of who was maybe doing it?
no subject
[It's not just the fact that Kon's story about his world is objectively insane. It's just that Spencer's paranoid and she knows it, and she's been paranoid enough for long enough that she's started to own it.
God, does Spencer want to just tell Kon everything - about the text messages, the stalking, the mind games, the pieces of a corpse delivered to her as gifts, the sleep deprivation, the way she woke up yesterday soaked in someone else's blood, the masks, the mannequins, the goddamn car full of bees, the giant dollhouse - but she knows what happens when she tells people.
She gets blamed, she gets arrested, she gets told she's being difficult, she ends up framed for crimes she didn't commit, and in the dollhouse, they all got punished. Four girls forced into playing games where they decided who got water today, Spencer or Hanna? Who got the electric shock, Spencer or Emily? How long do you all think Spencer can go without sleep, girls? Whose blood are you covered in, Spence?
All because they made the fool mistake of telling people they thought they knew who was torturing them.
Trusting Kon would feel like drinking water from a mirage in the desert. Spencer's voice is glum, and she lowers her eyes.]
No. I don't know who was doing it. [She fingers the nock of her bow.] Someone gassed me and my friends and kidnapped us and put us in a giant dollhouse.
[She pauses.]
I know that sounds crazy. I swear it's the truth. [And he seems to believe her.] Look, will you show me how to use a knife? That would make me feel calmer than any number of promises you'll protect me will.
no subject
[He doesn't want her to feel rushed if she's that traumatized.]
And I believe you about the dollhouse thing. Some of the villains back home are whacked.
[Sounds very Gotham villain. The Mad Hatter would possibly pull something like that.]
But killing's not really my thing so I can't train you with a knife. I mostly trained with a bo. Uh, not like the kind of bow you've got, like the big, long stick kind of bo.
[He looks thoughtful. Tim, if he wants to admit he can fight to anyone, is even better with them, so it's a good choice. He might be willing to also teach. With far more skill than Kon.]
Maybe a place here sells them? They sell other kinds of weapons. You want to look around? It may not be a knife but it'll take someone down just as easily as anything else if you know how to use it. And keep them down. When I first started training with one, I kept accidentally "killing" practice robots even when I wasn't using super strength.
And I've still got some gold.
no subject
[He goes with the dollhouse information, and that relaxes her just enough to realize she's relaxing, which tenses her right back up.]
Killing's not my thing either, [she says a little too quickly, not because Spencer's a murderer but because too often people have suspected her of being one. She might be one. She's not sure. She still doesn't know whose blood she woke up drenched in.
Plus, she very well could have murdered someone with her errant arrow. It's really only good fortune that she's not literally a first-degree murderer right now.]
I'd be open to a staff, yeah. I got some gold when I got here, but...don't be surprised, I figured if I used it to pay for anything, it was a trap.
no subject
[He jerks a thumb towards the merchant stalls.]
Why don't you ditch the bow and arrow and we'll look around?
no subject
Her brain whirring around up there is telling her that she should have tons of questions for the first person from another world that she's ever met, and is also scolding herself for her utter inability to come up with questions. She's in a theoretical physicist's wet dream right now and she can't even come up with anything.]
Who are the friends you've already seen here?