Description: You wake up, startled by some noise. It's coming from just beyond your safe little shelter-- what do you do? This is mostly RP prompt.
Goals:
If you choose to explore the sound, you find that it is one of the escaped tarantulas, and it hat has managed to knock over a display of cardboard onto itself. One of its legs has been crushed already. It is an ugly thing, as big as your hand and covered in hair, but it is a creature trying to struggle and survive, just as you.
It's late, and through the roof the moonlight weakly shines, illuminating it almost mournfully. You could leave it to die. You could put it out of its misery. Or you could let it free, to roam. There's no point in keeping it: there's no way to trap food for it, and it is an apocalypse.
If you choose to save it, know that it will perish within 12 IC hours of natural causes, no matter what you do.
What do you do?
First time doing this quest? Please write a minimum of 200 words for 1 Arcade Token.
Repeating? Minimum word count jumps up to 400 in order to claim your 1 Arcade Token.
Feeling wordy? Go above and beyond the bare minimum for additional tokens! You need to meet this word count while doing the quest, so no going back to pad your quest to claim tokens! These token bonuses do not stack, so you can't write 100 words to claim 1 token, then add 300 words to claim 2 more tokens.
500 words = 2 Arcade Tokens. 600 words = 3 Arcade Tokens. 700 words = 4 Arcade Tokens. 800 words = 5 Arcade Tokens.
Whistle While You Work: Feel free to have this moral dilemma with your friends!
Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 6:33 pm
A sound pulled her up out of deep sleep. It was rare that Granny got good sleep anymore. One, she was old, but lately she was running from infected and trying not to die. It really wore an old woman out. Even now just basic survival was difficult. Dealing with bandits and other things in the night. That and dealing with barricades, fortifying her store.
Earlier in one of the stores, she had managed to find a cane. She didn't need it to walk but it's nice slick, shiny exterior would do as a make shift weapon. it wasn't heavy or sturdy but it was better than nothing she figured. And right now it laid next to her bed. She grabbed it and pulled herself out of bed.
Getting up from the ground was difficult but she hadn't managed to pull an actual bed into her room yet. Barricades were more important. But tomorrow. Right now she regretted it because it took her extra time to get up.
"Alright! Who is out there?!" she called loudly, demanding to be answered. She didn't want to walk into an infected. She grabbed a flash light and shown it around. "Who it there? I heard you!" she carefully drifted out of her little store with the cane in hand.
The flashlight priced the darkness. Where had the sound come from. It had sounded like it was from her barricade, but she didn't hear any other noses. had someone walked by and tipped it over? No she heard something moving. Slowly she approached.
OOC
Character's name: Gracie "Granny" Smith Character's faction: Mall Character's journal link:Link Character's survival stats: link BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MY CHARACTER And older women with greying dark hair. It was dyed but the roots are clearly greying. She likes to keep it stylish with a pair of funky sunglasses and a boa.
Dazs had found it near impossible to sleep. His nose bothered him something fierce and he still was afraid the bandits would come back. Was this how humans were - did they just turn against each other so easily? He had tried tuning his radio, hoping to jury-rig it to pick up some sort of radio station. Music would have been a boon at this point, something to take his mind off of things. But all Dazs received was static. He had tried painting, but found his hands shook, body betraying the disorganization of his thoughts. If everyone only lived together, and pooled their own resources...
It was his restless thoughts that drive him out of his bed and into the mall. He stuck close to the storefronts, wary of any more bandits lurking. A small noise caught his ear, like some small, skittering thing. He moved closer to it, eyes scanning the barricades warily. Dazs' attention was so focused that when Granny spoke, he nearly jumped a foot in the air.
"I-I'm out here! Don't hit me! There's... something else!" Dazs looked around wildly for a hiding place and, finding none, awaited his surely gruesome fate at the hands of the person who had called out.
phantompanther13
OOC
Character's name: Haagendazs St. Pierre Character's faction: Mall Character's journal link:Here Character's survival stats: #86 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MY CHARACTER 15 year old boy. [x]
Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 7:23 pm
Granny Smith shown her light on him. "Who is that? Drew Dawson? What are you doing up? Patrol? Good you can help me come investigate." assigning the mission. Granny walked over to the barricade where the sound came from.
The flashlight swept over the things until something moving was caught in the beam. "Over here it looks like." Granny walked over. "Oh it's a spider! A huge one! I think it's the size of a dinner plate." Granny bent down and squinted at it.
Dazs' pupils contracted wildly as he was momentarily blinded. "Hey! Don't shine tha- ...wait, my name isn't Drew! It's Dazs, old lady, okay." Despite her uttering butchering of his name and the flashlight shined in his eyes, he followed her anyway. He had nothing better to do, really, except return to his couch and not-sleep some more. Sleeping was difficult when he was both keyed-up and in pain. Dazs adjusted his mall-rat headband (a cheap thing: two donuts on a headband. Not real donuts, of course, but fake plastic ones - one even had a bite out of it!), and shoved his hands in his pockets. Sighing, he followed her, warily looking around for the source of the noise. What if it was an infected? Or worse - a bandit?
But it was neither of those things. Something that looked suspiciously (entirely) like a tarantula lay partly crushed by a falling board. Spiders had also made his skin crawl and this was no exception, especially considering its huge size.
"Ugh, gross." He prodded the free, twitching leg with his sneakered toe, watching it jump and attempt to skitter. Shivering, he hugged his arms around himself. "Just... kill it or something. It's giving me the willies, old woman." He'd kill it himself but that would involve stepped on the beam and feeling (and hearing) the disgusting crunch of its exoskeleton.
Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 8:10 pm
"Oh right Dazzle." Granny nodded. She looked down at it. "It's probably going to die anyways. I don't want that thing crawling in my bed." It was large and gross. And being broken like that, it was going to die anyways.
It reminded her of the time her kids found a snake in the yard. They wanted to bring it inside, and put it in a cage. She had firmly said no. And then her youngest had "accidentally" let it loose in the house. Her girl of course did not like that one bit. she had stayed up all night wailing over it because she hear a sound in her room. It wasn't until Gracie had pulled her into bed with her that she finally quieted down.
The next day the cat had got it. her youngest had cried over it. but it was missing a leg or two. Gracie of course had just scooped the thing up and threw it along with the cat into the yard. "It's the way of life. Injured things die in the wild.... I guess we really are in the wild now. To bad I don't have a cat."
Then she had let the cat take care of things, but now she... she would have to kill this one she supposed. She walked over and took her cane smashing it a few times.
"It's not Dazzle, it's Dazs," he said emphatically He paused, and looked around furtively before continuing. The mall was still, dark, and quiet. Nothing stirred in the recesses; maybe his secret would be safe. "As in Haagendazs - are you partially deaf?" She could be, she was old, and yeah, sure she looked cool, but still. Dazs didn't give just anyone his full name - he didn't want it used against him. Even his brother didn't really call him Haagendazs much, and that suited Dazs just fine. He had no idea what his mother had been thinking.
"Injured things die in the wild.... I guess this counts as wild?" His hand hovered near his own broken nose. "Doesn't it depend on how injured?" Dazs didn't really want to die, not yet. It felt like an inescapable fate, however, and he was frightened. There were things he wanted to do, pictures he wanted to paint. He wanted to see his mom again. He watched, blank-faced, as Granny took her cane and proceeded to beat the s**t out of the dying spider. Eventually, he thought, they might be reduced to that - to killing the weaker members of their group, the injured, the failing, just so the rest could survive. It was not a comfortable thought.
"You know, someone told me that the pet shop had a lot of animals in it that got released. Maybe you can find a cat. A stray - take it in, feed it, make it a pet. People shouldn't be alone." He toed the remains of the spider again. "Do you miss how it used to be?"
[hit 700 words]
phantompanther13
Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2015 9:49 pm
"No I'm not deaf. My memory just fogs up sometimes. Haagendazs? How am I going to remember that? I'm just going to call you Dazzle it's easier and suites you a lot better." she stared at him flash light pausing on his chest.
"I'd say that lost of a leg is pretty injured. and I agree we are in a pretty wild place right now. I'd almost take the woods over this hell hole we have ourselves in." she nodded and straightened herself up. The woods had simpler things, like bears and wolves, things you could shoot and kill and they would stay dead.
Not here. Here was more like some crazy video game, hard core mode.
"I wouldn't mind a pet, if I had something to feed it. But honestly, no I don't miss it too much. I have kids and grand kids, but they never visited. they are off in the wide world, some of them are here. they are possibly gone already. My others are out of town, and might be alive. I could never have prepared them for this... hopefully they are fine." she sigh thinking about her kids and how they would never of survived. Even if Charles was alive, there would have been little he could do in today's situation. "But I'm old and reaching the end of my live. If I survive all it will be is an interesting story that no one will believe. If I die though, at least I die trying." she gave Dazs a grin. "But you, you need to keep trying. If it comes down to me or you, leave me behind kid. You have a full live ahead of you. Maybe at least make sure I have a decent marmoreal. You don't need to bury me but if your survive a nice headstone will do." her eyes soften. "I get more visitors these days than before. But don't go telling people I'm sentimental or anything got it?"
She couldn't ask to be buried if she died, not if she turned into one of those things. But at least a nice head stone would do. She hadn't really planned her funeral before but now she was wanting more than what they had. "Keep trying and you'll have as good of a chance as any of us. Just don't get dead kid." she nudged his shoulder, trying to be encouraging.
"That doesn't suit me! I'm not even covered in glitter," he grumbled, crossing his arms. He personally thought the woods would be more dangerous - the infected would maybe free roam out there, no one would be protected by walls, nothing. And there was all that nature out there. Definitely a scary place.
"You're not gonna die, granny, maybe. But yeah, I think I like myself not-dead, too. You know, my mom's out there, I think. She's always been kinda spacey, but I hope she makes it." He was really, really worried about his mom, but he tried not to show Giuseppe too much. In a situation like this, he had to be strong.
He shuffled around on his feet. "I gotta get going - back to my place. Don't adopt any weird spiders, okay?" And he was off, feet tapping lightly through the mall. He didn't feel like getting sentimental when sentiment could kill you.
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