Test Drive Meme

[mercenarymayhem]

The city of Gulch is a bustling place, a haven for criminals and rogues, yet a cherished home to its natives. You might be a native, well familiar with typical, day-to-day life here. Or you may be from off-world, here for some opportunity you think you can't get elsewhere.

Or, you may have been dragged here by the dimensional portal known as the Transponser™— an outsider, confused and weary.

What will you do while you are here?

1) New arrivals: Maybe you're a mercenary who just arrived from off world. Or maybe you're a visitor who came through the transporter. Either way, you're new, and it's time to explore.

2) Taking a job: Everyone who comes to Gulch needs to have a means of making income. Maybe you've taken a job as a mercenary. Maybe you become a lowly store clerk. Either way, you need to make contact with customers.

3) Avoiding the plague: The clouds are descending and it's time to find shelter! Make your way through the streets with the others who have found themselves vulnerable.

4) Touring the city: It means a long train ride but you want to see the sights, so you pay for a token and off you go!

5) Wildcard: Whatever you want to play out! Tag around and have fun!

Comments

[searchandrecovery]

Ep (if that's even his real name) is clearly still hiding something, and Wash is still curious. Still, it's not like Wash has a leg to stand on. Washington isn't his real name, and besudes, he's a random stranger in a park. Nothing more.

"Ep, huh? Well, maybe I can help you. What does this guy look like?"

[wanderingmemory]

Oh, it's way too close to his real name.

That gets a slight headtilt. "And you think I want your help?" He's suspicious still.

[searchandrecovery]

"Nah, you probably don't want my help, but if you've been searching for years, then you could use it." After all, that's what he does for a living. Helping people, sort of. Helping then get out of their own bad situations, at least.

[wanderingmemory]

Epsilon shakes his head... But Washington has a point. "I guess so. But what do you want for that kind of help?" There has to be a catch.

[searchandrecovery]

Wash laughs. "If I knew you wanted to hire me, I would've introduced myself as Recovery." Wash spreads his arms out and shrugs, grinning under his helmet. "I wasn't gonna ask for anything, but hey, if you wanna pay me, that's cool. Or you could owe me a favor. Who knows, I might need a message sent someday. A really fucking urgent one."

[wanderingmemory]

Epsilon bristles at that. "As much as I want to find Alpha? I don't need to be your charity case. And I can't afford to do jobs that might follow me home. I have a family there."

[searchandrecovery]

"You're lucky."

As soon as that comment slips out, Wash immediately regrets it. This guy's a total stranger, Wash shouldn't get bitter in front of him. Plus, he's got a family, right? He's got his teammates. But there's still a part of him that wishes he never had to leave, never became a mercenary. A part that just wanted to be normal.

[wanderingmemory]

"I know I am in that much."

[searchandrecovery]

Wash nods. "Good. Lotta people don't realize it."

Wash stares blankly into the greater area of the park, thinking about families, watching the families running to and fro, and feeling the lingering traces of jealousy. He's told himself he's done with that now, that he's got a new life and family, but this conversation with Ep is making him remember. And he doesn't particularly like that.

[wanderingmemory]

At Washington staring like that, Epsilon hesitates. "Seeing as you started asking intrusive questions already, is something wrong?"

[searchandrecovery]

Wash tries to smile, but it comes out closer to a grimace, and he knows it. Fuck. He needs to pull himself together. He came here to take a brief break from the stresses of the job, not to get bitter about a past he can't change.

"Nah, nothing's wrong. Sometimes you just start thinking about things that you'd rather not, you know?"

[wanderingmemory]

"I get your point. And family brought it to mind."

Epsilon is trying not to push things too far though. Stranger and all.

[searchandrecovery]

Wash nods. "Yeah. I, uh, try to think about them as little as possible."

He shifts awkwardly. "Sorry. I shouldn't be putting this shit on you, we just met."

[wanderingmemory]

Epsilon shrugs. "Well, I already had mentioned my own problems having just met you. Alpha... Isn't yours to worry about."

[searchandrecovery]

Wash laughs a little. He still feels like he's put his foot in his mouth, but the awkwardness is subsiding a little. "I'm good at worrying about other people's problems. That's my fucking job."