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Post by acathala on Feb 7, 2020 20:46:00 GMT -5
"Okay. Thank you and cheerio." The gang thing would probably complicate things. Tom takes the costume with him. He hopes he doesn't have to wear it. The way he's feeling, a girl guide could take him down.
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 8, 2020 0:16:11 GMT -5
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 8, 2020 1:06:08 GMT -5
OLD TOWN NOON, OVERCAST, COOLTOM watches the broadcast play on the ceiling of the bus. It changes and transforms as it plays to allow for other ads and videos of cats to share the same place, although it mutes all of the other videos. Upon finishing, the obnoxious noise pollution from the other videos returns and he is all too glad to exit the bus when it comes to a stop. He remembers a time when videos were restricted to a defined rectangular screen, but now they are more like old internet websites, reshaping and populating as much of the screen area as possible to allow for the maximum amount of content in the available space. So addicted to information people have become that they now watch multiple videos at the same time. Stepping off the brightly lit bus is like walking into a quiet forest. Well, relatively speaking. The old city is no less noisy or busy, but it hails from a time when twelve storey brick buildings were impressive enough and twenty storey condos were hastily built safety hazards. They're nothing like the impossibly shaped triangular skyscrapers and floating zig-zagging buildings that fill the skyline today. No, they are just regular buildings, but buildings not spared from modern amenities and conveniences. Like a Frankenstein-esque project of technology and architecture, numerous bulky apparatuses poke out from nearly every roof and wall, and wires criss-cross above Tom's head from seemingly every direction. It seems every technology, including the self cleaning kitchen sink, had been installed in every one of these buildings. It's a wonder they don't tip over or collapse from all of the junk poking into their hides. Tom glances at the paper bag containing his suit. He could question the locals in the area without it, or he could find a safe spot to equip it. His eyes catch a passing drone car, self-driving cars that were little more than four wheels in a frame. Of course, if he were to wonder the streets too often in his suit, the drones would start recording him. But first, Leslie. Detective Holhardty had said the woman had been spotted helping the poor in the Trench, whatever that is.
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Post by acathala on Feb 8, 2020 6:14:27 GMT -5
Tom decides on no suit for now. It may spook the girl if she hears a ninja is looking for her. He starts asking around the locals for the location of the trench.
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 8, 2020 6:47:44 GMT -5
Despite Tom's lack of communication skills, he manages to get many people talking.
"A trench?" replies a large, loud woman. "Like a war trench? Honey, do I look like a war re-enactor to you?"
"Sorry, don't know about no trench," says an elderly man raking leaves. "You sure you don't mean the old flood channel? Used to be useful back in the day during the spring floods, but not so much now what with the robots manning the levees."
"A trench? Yeah, I heard of it," replies a girl who should be in school. "It's like this big, dark tunnel that used to be filled with water. It's down by the river. Pretty hard to get into it, though."
"I did hear stories of people living in the old flood channels," says a woman wearing trendy clothes. "Shame the drones don't flush them all out."
"Oh, yeah! I've heard of it!" replies a young man in need of a hair cut. "You can get some incredible Flash down there. Just look for the guy wearing the funny green hat. He'll hook you up."
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Post by acathala on Feb 8, 2020 7:39:48 GMT -5
Well it looked like the flood channel was the way to go. Tom gets directions then heads there.
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 8, 2020 13:36:47 GMT -5
Tom heads over to the flood channel. He doesn't have far to go. He doesn't look for a place to climb down. He just jumps down. After he does, he notices an alcove with a storm expulsion grate. It's enough to stay out of sight long enough to change into his suit. Change?
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Post by acathala on Feb 8, 2020 18:17:56 GMT -5
Tom will put the costume on now. He doesn't know this place, or who's down here.
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 8, 2020 22:12:21 GMT -5
Tom disappears into the alcove...
...and the White Dragon emerges.
He continues along the channel until he spots a homeless person walking towards a bridge. He follows this person. When the person ducks into a tunnel beneath the bridge and disappears, Tom cautiously approaches the suspicious area. He watches it for awhile until another homeless person emerges from the same spot. After a bit of study, he realizes there is another tunnel beneath the bridge, but it is placed in such a way as to be very difficult to spot from a distance. With no other way he can see to enter this tunnel, he ducks inside and enters the Trench.
The Trench is a tributary channel into the main flood channel, or perhaps an older one that existed beneath the current channel? Whatever it is, it's a dark tunnel made up of square, concrete walls. Graffiti covers the wall, and a strong smell of dampness and mold reaches Tom's nose. The only source of light is thin sun rays filtering through holes in the ceiling.
Tom occasionally passes homeless people walking by or hunkered down in some alcove. They never acknowledge him. Eventually the smell of roasting meat fills the air. Tom rounds a curve in the tunnel and discovers a community of homeless people gathered in the brightest part of the Trench. Large grates set in the ceiling are the main source of light with barrel fires being the second. Overturned shopping carts and boxes are the main forms of shelter, but there are also shelters built from piles of rotten clothes and the husks of broken robots. A rotted out car serves as a shelter for one person, and a forgotten dumpster another. All of the people gathered in the Trench wandered aimlessly, seemingly in a haze. No one paid any attention to Tom.
"Hey! You!" a voice calls. "You looking to get fucked up?"
Tom turns to discover a little fat man wearing a bright green baseball cap, although there is no team logo on the cap. The man's clothes may be dirty and worn, but his face is clean. He sat on a blanket at the perimeter of the little community.
"I've got the best shit around," he calls. "New customers get their first hit free."
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Post by acathala on Feb 8, 2020 22:27:54 GMT -5
"No." Tom keeps on going. He hates drugs, and would never let them inside the temple of his body.
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 9, 2020 0:55:48 GMT -5
Okay, so what does he do?
TIP OF THE PAGE: If the lights begin to flicker, and fog begins to roll in suddenly, HIDE! If she sees you, she will kill you.
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Post by acathala on Feb 9, 2020 5:43:50 GMT -5
He asks around for Leslie. OoC A healer named Leslie. Where did I see that before?
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 9, 2020 6:28:04 GMT -5
(It's been bugging me, too. I know I've seen it before)
Tom asks around, but he has much worse luck with this crowd.
"Huh? Leslie? Who is Leslie? Is she a cop?" a confused man asks. "I don't know Leslie! Get on out of here, you troublemaker! Wait, who is Leslie? Do I know a Leslie?"
"Oh, wow! You look so weird!" a dirty woman says. She laughs a little too hard. "You going to fly? Fly! Jump into the sky!" She laughs so hard she tips over.
"Never heard of her," another rough looking man says gruffly. "Probably not what she calls herself. Nobody who comes down here wants anyone else to know about it. You say she is some kind of doctor? Sometimes we get doctors down here, but they expect us to go to the shelters. They don't realize it's safer down here. Damn corporate owned pigs...because most of the city is privately owned, they cast us out when they find us. Call it trespassing. Shelters just round us up."
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Post by acathala on Feb 9, 2020 18:46:51 GMT -5
Tom changes tack and starts asking around for a healer. OoC It's driving me batty trying to think who it is.
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 9, 2020 21:11:02 GMT -5
Tom's change in strategy proves fruitful:
"Yah! Yah!" an elderly man with no teeth says. "Some tie' back woman come here and fix my toe! Toe was goin' all black. She touch eet' and it all better! Say it some cream but I know whad' I saw!"
"There is this one doctor that used to come down here pretty often," a runaway teenaged girl says. She still wears clean clothes and has a phone at her side. "I haven't seen her for a while, but a lot of people really liked her. But then some guys, or something, grabbed her? I don't know the story. They just say she stopped coming around so often after that. You know, that is around the time the Leprechaun showed up," she gestures to the man wearing the green baseball cap.
"Well, I dunno about no healer, but there was this one girl that used to help us. Shame the gangs got her," says the dirtiest man Tom has met yet. "I hear she is still around, though. Usually helping animals at a shelter up the street."
"The monster got her," one dirty old woman says curtly. "Snatched her away. Snatch, snatch...the monster took her away..."
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Post by acathala on Feb 11, 2020 19:23:13 GMT -5
Tom doesn't have to think hard why Leslie doesn't come here anymore. The dealer probably worked for a gang, the gang probably saw Leslie as bad for business, and lent hard on her. He'll try the shelter where she's supposed to be working now.
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 11, 2020 21:05:21 GMT -5
Will he visit the shelter in his suit?
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Post by acathala on Feb 11, 2020 22:10:36 GMT -5
(Normal clothes.)
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 12, 2020 0:47:17 GMT -5
Tom leaves the Trench, changes out of his clothes in a dark space, then returns to the flood channel. He climbs out and heads onto the street. With the help of a local public computer, just inside a bus stop shelter, Tom identifies a trio of nearby animal shelters. Only one strikes him as being "up the street" from the Trench, just a couple blocks to the north. In short order, he finds himself entering the animal shelter which is set within a squat little metal building at the end of an alley, although a myriad of signage keeps the place from feeling isolated. After passing a few signs encouraging him to get his pets spade and immunized, he enters the shelter.
"Hello!" exclaims a cheery looking girl wearing glasses and a shirt covered in fur. "Are you looking to adopt?"
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Post by acathala on Feb 12, 2020 22:13:29 GMT -5
"Possibly." Tom said. "What animals do you have?"
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 13, 2020 0:16:32 GMT -5
"Dogs and cats, mostly, but we have the odd bird and rabbit. The new animal controls are doing a good job keeping strays under control. We no longer have to euthanize the animals," the woman says brightly.
Of course not. Drones euthanize any animal lacking a tracking chip on sight, even wild animals classified as pests like pigeons. Tom read a lot of New Millenia's newspapers before arriving. It's how he spotted the city's problems.
"Now, if you'll present your Millenia ID, we can talk about adoption," the woman continues.
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Post by acathala on Feb 13, 2020 7:35:56 GMT -5
(Does he have one?)
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 13, 2020 15:48:33 GMT -5
Ref. sheet is on the first page.
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Post by acathala on Feb 14, 2020 21:41:45 GMT -5
"I'd like to at least see the animals before I start paperwork. At the very least I plan to make a donation. You do good work." Tom said nicely and honestly. He wishes places like these weren't necessary but they were. A sad indictment of society.
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 15, 2020 0:23:24 GMT -5
"Of course!" the girl replies brightly. "Why go through the trouble if you don't find anything you like?"
Tom is led to the area where animals is held. As he passes the first of the kennels, with dogs barking away at him, Tom spots a woman working in a side room. She has a cat on a stainless steel table.
A younger, rather short black woman with a round face and long hair.
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Post by acathala on Feb 15, 2020 17:08:55 GMT -5
"Oh the poor cat! I hope there's nothing seriously wrong with the poor thing!" Tom said to Mrs helpful.
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 15, 2020 22:39:08 GMT -5
The black woman gives Tom an odd look, then puts her back to him.
"Yes, yes! That's our, um, groomer," the girl from the reception desks. She tries to lead Tom away. "Come this way to see the animals up for adoption."
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Post by acathala on Feb 16, 2020 19:51:54 GMT -5
"Oh that is good." Tom cuts in after the assurance the cat is actually okay. Before Mrs helpful gets a chance to say anything else, Tom gets closer to the cat, taking a deeper look. "I like cats. You really have to earn their trust, unlike dogs who are shallow. Though I imagine most creatures here are distrusting. Not their fault, the world hasn't treated them well. Much like the poor people at the trench." Tom steps away. "Well sorry for the inconvenience ma'am." He goes with the other to look atcanimals.
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Post by TG Barighm on Feb 17, 2020 3:05:00 GMT -5
Tom says his piece, then he joins the other woman at examining the animals.
But Tom obviously doesn't choose a pet. He couldn't even if he wanted to, so he just gives an excuse, then exits the shelter. As he exits the building and heads to the mouth of the street, he hears the door of the shelter opening again behind him.
"What do you want?" a woman's voice calls after him.
Tom stops and turns to see the groomer standing behind him, now wearing a worn jacket.
"I got your clever little message," the woman says. She looks around warily. "Are you with a gang?"
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Post by acathala on Feb 17, 2020 4:57:50 GMT -5
"No. The opposite in fact. Why don't you go to the trench anymore, Miss Neal? Does it have something to do with the guy who looks like St Patrick pissed on him?"
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