Oregon Trail Revitalized Part 4 - RPLOG
From Flexible Survival
Participants
Date
7/1/2023
Log
(Erika) The sun gradually sets over Lost Creek Lake, blanketing the surroundings in a gradually-increasing blanket of darkness. Most are huddled around a small building present in a parking lot. The lot itself is rather small, and leads down into a ramp that plunges into the lake, as well as connects to a latticework of piers containing many small boats. Some of the boats are clearly sunk into the water, but many are still afloat. To the east of the parking lot lies a fairly wooded campground, with many yurts, all in varying states of disarray. There is clear indication that the yurts will need repairs to be usable. At the moment, Luard is standing atop the building, and inside restlessly shuffles what Fenris discovered is an otter feral. Fenris offered up a tin of sardines, which was accepted. And a soft voice rang out from the building, asking "T-talk... Why?" in an unpracticed feminine tone.
(Anbessa) Anbessa had been momentarily quite tense and worried about perhaps another ambush, but as the otter within actually speaks up, the bunny perks his ears in surprise and glances about between the group. He opens his mouth, seemingly to say something, but after a second or so he shuts his mouth tight and bites his lip before he just watches, lightening up his posture and stance as he stands nearby. While he has been trying to act as an additional guard for the group and all, but after that almost bit of banditry that had occured along the way, it seems like there is a lot more talking to be done around here than guarding... Though of course at the moment, this is Fenris' ballpark, so the bunny just stands there, keeping an eye on the building warily. While they seem more scared than angry... Maybe this can also be resolved peacefully.
(Fenris) Fenris sits calmly on the ground in front of the the door to the building, a good few feet between him and his offering of canned sardines. The big, burly tanuki thinks about the question before answering. "We want to talk because we do not want to fight," he says calmly, with an easy little smile on his round face, "Is this your place? Is this your home? We are looking for a new home, but we do not want to take someone else's home." He speaks slowly and gently, keeping things simple.
(Luard) Luard takes the time to look up from his vantage point, gazing around at the sight of the marina, to all the small ships either sunk in or floating atop the water. It was a nice sight, but he makes sure to stay focused on the objective, looking around for sights of anything interesting, threatening or unexpected, half-listening still to what was going on down below, and to be ready to spring down to aid Fenris if he had to. He had expected things to be more tense, but so far it seemed diplomacy was working well, but you could never be too sure. Fear could very quickly break out into anger.
(Arimia) Making her way on the path indicated upon her arrival at Crater Lake, Arimia pauses upon reaching the small campground, waiting just within the tree-line. She glances around, taking in what familiar faces she can see, before slipping out of the trees and pausing once she's out in the open, head turning to take in what can be seen from where she is, gaze assessing. While she does one of her hands slips into a neatly concealed pocket on her dress and pulls out a battered cigarette case.
(Junes) Junes had been scanning the area towards the woods and lake but hearing the negotiations working out eased them a bit, still crouched and ready just in case but considerably more lax... until the next time they see the trees a familiar figure is standing as they use those white tails and hands to wave and point down carefully, trying to avoid the feral inside from seeing
(Lorethan) Lorethan was in kemo form for this, wearing his normal gear that had armor built into it.. In this condition though, he looked a lot more lost than he was. His ears tuned into what movement he could hear as he carefully walked past the trees, and out into the open. His eyes scanned the area and found himself coming out near Arimia. He pursed his lips as he took in the site of the area.
(Syntax) Syntax is just riding into the area now on her scorpion defense bot lovingly named Captcha! While the strangely harmless spider girl lounges on the scorpion robot's back, she isn't exactly alone with it. The scorpion appears to have numerous orbs clinging to it that are, presumably, flying drones. There's also a human sized mantis shaped bot walking alongside them, but as menacing as this should be, the small party of robots and spider just don't seem to be too concerning. They go towards the parking lot. Presumably to park.
(Forkbomb) The tanuki cyberninja narrows her eyes at the situation, letting out a long sigh. She contemplates telling Fenris to talk to the ottermorph about checking to see if she knows about any new interesting data, but didn't really know how to squeeze that in. She instead makes her way back over to Chessly, and folding her arms. "Well, that was embarassing for me. You want to head out and look somewhere else?"
(Euoia) Euoia decides that her presence isn't necessary for negotiations. She decides to scout around. Tempted to take to the skies for a better view of the area, the anime babe stretches out her wings briefly before looking around for another place to explore. The busted yurts seem like they could house something. Euoia advances slowly with her wings folded around her. Granted, they might be useless or they might have a clue to who occupied them. She kept her scouting device trained on the yurts to try to prevent being surprised.
(Chessly) Chessly had been on the fringes of the crew looking for any scrap he could get his hands on, but ever since the expedition has gotten here his eyes had been glaring at the cluster of boats. As the negotiations continued between Fenris and the feral the cat-boy impatiently shifts his weight from one foot to the other, it's after Forkbomb approaches him his patients breaks. "Yeah come along I'm heading over to the docks! I've been really itching to see what's over there!" Waving at the ninja tanuki to come along the cat heads off and lightly jogs towards the cluster of boats in his brown coveralls over to the docks, his tail whipping from side to side excitedly at the thought at finally getting a chance to use his expertise. He's moving slow enough for folks to catch up if they want to come along. His for now goal for now is finding a boat that'll be easy to fix.
(Erika) The munching of sardines continues, until the tin is empty. From within, a brown eye peers out at Fenris. "Why talk? Could not talk, and not fight. Could do nothing." comes the response, that eye not leaving the tanuki. "Home... Yes. Mine... You find other home." the voice adds on, the otter within sitting still for the time being. Erika glances over at the folks beginning to come out of the woodworks, or rather, just the woods. Because this area is surrounded in a forest of pine trees. She stands up fully and holds a paw out, with her palm outwards, implying a level of caution is needed. And with her paw held up, she starts to approach them, speaking quietly. She appears to be a fairly standard husky girl, though she's dressed in outlaw cowgirl clothes, complete with a black cowgirl hat. "Hey, you guys are the backup, right? We've got a delicate situation, so don't approach too close to the building. I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but too much noise will cause problems. If you want something to do, you can go check out the marina down the ramp, or examine the yurts. Just leave the parking lot alone for now."
(Anbessa) With a bit of tension as people start appearing out of the woods, Anbessa freezes for a moment in surprise before it seems to be a buncha different people in general... Certainly a growing ragtag band of misfits going on now, though with the anthro bunny standing there scratching his head as things start going on a tad willy nilly, the bunny frowns just a tad. Well, this can only go so well. But with the otter speaking back to Fenris, the bunny peers over and hums a bit as he as his free paw on his hip while he takes it all in. With some going towards the Marina though, and another towards the yurts, the bunny scratches behind his head as he takes a few steps away from the building after looking towards the otters. Seems the bunny is starting to dismiss the otters as otherwise harmless locals. He just glances around figuring out what to do, mainly keeping an eye out for if anything else pops out to him, or if anything ends up happening.
(Fenris) Fenris nods and smiles. "Okay," he says, then points to the boathouse and the other buildings. "What about all of these?" he asks, "May we make homes in those buildings? We will try not to bother you, and if you maybe WANT to talk another time, we can." He nods to where the sardine can she accepted was. "And we will be glad to share what we have with our neighbors."
(Luard) Luard notices movement in the trees, looking out in case of an attack, but relaxes slightly before he can call out to Erika when he sees the husky girl move over and seemingly address them. Confident that they're backup and that she can handle them, Luard refocuses on Fenris' conversation with the otter, and on the surrounding area still, anticipating more surprises. The large winged husky frowns slightly when the otter seems intent on them moving on, and considers flying down to join Fenris to try and help convince the local that they mean no harm and could even help the otter, but recalls that he's not the 'friendliest' looking person here despite being a dog, given his size and carrying weapons openly. Chuckling to himself at the tanuki's diplomacy, he sees Chessly and some others moving towards the boats and, after thinking for a moment, flies down next to Anbessa and speaks with him quietly. "Looks like we're all clear. Couldn't see anything up there except the new arrivals. If you and Erika have things covered here, I'll go with them down to the boats and make sure none of them get into any trouble."
(Arimia) Arimia glances over when the husky speaks up, idly thumbing open her cigarette case. She plucks a thin cigarette from it, followed by a battered matchbook. A match is plucked from the book, then struck, and her cigarette is lit. The match is then shaken until it's extinguished, though rather than toss it on the ground she tucks it back into the matchbook, which is soon returned to the case it was pulled from. The serpentine woman turns and says, with a faint metallic twang to her voice, "I will investigate the yurts, then." Fitting action to word she starts to make her way toward the yurts.
(Junes) Junes was content to just listen if things go well with the otter but seeing the arriving group had junes reconsider heading up to see what's happening but stood firm to keeping an eye on the trees while of course watching the arrivals and the very faint glowing of a cigarette in the far distance, thinking quietly aloud "i wonder how easy it'll be to get around as such a large group?"
(Lorethan) Lorethan nodded as he listened. He then began to walk the area, taking care not to get too close to anything that might be a home.. his gun strapped to his back, dagger at his side. He was making his way, albeit slowly, towards Junes. He was just taking a bit of extra time as to avoid any strange situations
(Syntax) Syntax nods and says, "I'm going to get some eyes over the campground. My security drones should be able to cover a lot more good there than looking at a bunch of boats." Her Irish accent shines through, though she's clearly nervous to be so far from home. "Just page me if you need me!" With a small motion, she directs her bots to move out towards the camping grounds!
(Forkbomb) Forkbomb scoffs, brushing her coat off as she makes her way beside Chessly and whoever else decided to come with down to the Mariana. "Please keep an eye out for data that I might be able to add to my collection." Her face furls into a mask of frustration. "And also, pants. I'm thinking that may be a good idea to grab since its colder than I thought it would be, and not having pants is making certain tactical duties difficult."
(Euoia) Euoia keeps her devices focused on the area around the yurts. She wasn't paying attention to the new arrivals, but was glad when Erika noticed and addressed them. She took time to mark their pings on her device to friendly and continued to the first dilapidated yurt. The Anime Babe takes a few moments to register the area before poking at, in, and around the yurt. "Lets see, what secrets do you hold..."
(Chessly) Chessly snickers at forkbomb's comment. "Where we're going you're going to need a huge fur coat too, and yeah I'll keep my eye out for any precious data." As the cat glances back at the crowd of boats his eyes flash in a moment of inspiration. "Hey fork you think we'll have to slap all these boats together and make one huge big boat to carry us all across here. It'll be like our own Ship of Theseus" Flashing one of his catlike fangs with a smile the cat-boy paws at his pack as if something were there and sighs. "Crap! I didn't bring any equipment with me, if you don't mind Fork, you'll have to lend me some of your tools." As he notices Luard following along with them the cat waves at the big husky excitedly. "Hehe! If you're coming along you better be lugging those boats in the water mister!"
(Erika) The otter pauses when Fenris asks him about the marina and the yurts. The otter peeks out of the door a little, glancing towards the yurts. More of her comes into sight, as she peeks around the door. She seems dressed in an old frayed plaid shirt, mostly red in color, straining to contain her decently-large bust. She seems ragged, as ferals tend to, and then she looks back at the tanuki. Her expression seems more surprised, as if something has just now occurred to her. "C-campground! Yes, campground good!" she tells him, glancing back at the yurts again as the robot heads that way. Erika nods at Arimia, watching the used match get put back away. "Thank you for not littering." she says, putting her paws on her wide hips. "I'm Erika, by the way. The one leading this operation." she adds on, sticking to the edge of the parking lot so she can watch each of the sites where the group is splitting up into. Turning back towards Fenris though, she watches the otter start to become more adventurous. "Can't we like... Rehab ferals or something?" she asks in a soft tone, to no one in particular. As one group heads into the campground, it's fairly clear that all the yurts are in need of repair. None are currently usable as intended, and would not provide adequate shelter for those attempting to sleep within. They certainly need plenty of work. By this point, the otter does indeed seem to be warming up to Fenris' sweet talking.
(Anbessa) Listening more and more as the otter begins to get a bit more confidence that they mean no harm, the bunny observes curiously, taking in the sight of her damaged red dress. With her talking, she certainly seems to be more of a half-feral than full on feral, so it seems like they are much more cordial than anything. Maybe a wayward civilian that ended up in this place? Rubbing his chin as he ponders the idea, he certainly seems curious as he continues to peer around. Hm... Well, if the locals are at least docile, even if not entirely trusting... This really could actually work. Smiling a bit as he nods his head, his big floppy ears flapping from the movement. "Perhaps a donation drive later..." He mutters to himself, audible to anyone standing nearby him, humanitarian aid seemingly more of his focus than colonization.
(Luard) Luard looks around at the group splitting off, figuring it would be okay with a group this large, and currently no sign of any hostilities from the otter or the earlier group they'd met. The winged husky makes his way over to Erika after chuckling and waving back at Chessly as he watches the boat group go, standing by the husky girl. "Looks like the area is fairly secure. Either no one else is here or they're being very sneaky and keeping out of the way. Want me to head down to the boats with the others in case they run into trouble?" He asks her, listening to Fenris from a distance. "She sounds reasonable. Yeah, ferals can be rehabed. Just need to be careful how we do it I guess."
(Arimia) The sperentine woman makes her way over to the yurts, first going through and glancing into each of them for signs of recent habitation and paying little attention to the damage or debris. Upon confirming they are empty Arimia starts to examine each yurt further, the mechanical medusa deciding to start her investigation with some that seem to have been used a bit more recently than the others. "Some of these were used as dens," she comments, though if she's talking to the anime being also poking around the yurts or herself is unclear. "Nothing long term, however."
(Junes) Junes watched as surprisingly more than a few familiar people came and one heading over and so with the only one feral otter they figure fenris should be alright and junes got up to greet the familiar fenrir lorethan "hey! didn't realize you would be joining this expedition!" and using a tail to point to the arachnid said "mind if i introduce you to a friend while we catch up to the group, or maybe we could check the campgrounds together but mention to erika first cause these woods are still pretty risky"
(Lorethan) Lorethan licks his right canine fang and nods. Voice still as gentle as ever. "You know I had to come make sure it was safe.. Ive been working on my gear for just the occasion." He looks to where Junes tail is pointing. He does his best smile and thumbs up. "Just point me in a direction and I'll come with." Yeah.. he just woke up and got an alert that one of his guild members was coming to this 'lovely' place and wanted to help out.
(Syntax) Syntax looks around the campground and activates her security drones, the small flying cameras detaching from Captcha and moving about the area. She's not sure what she's looking for, but she's sure at least one of her drones can find something.
(Forkbomb) Boatarino. Boaty McBoatface. Dead Tide. Just Add Skis. All of them might well have been scrap. Forkbomb lets out a long sigh and hung her head. Nothing can be easy. She rubs her hands together and blows on them before returning to Chessly. "Yeah, no." She grumbls, heading into whatever vessel the cat boy wound up heading towards. "The four I checked out were barely floating, and even worse, didn't have pants on them. I might have more luck finding useful stuff on the bottom of the lake with all that ablated off. What about you, did you have any luck?"
(Euoia) Euoia checks through the camp-junk and trash. "Useless... useless... useless..." She shuffles around the camp-site, sifting through the trash. "Other than the ones that were used as dens, there's not much here. None of it looks recent, either. Good eye there." Her gear goes out of low power mode as Euoia switches it back to active scanning. She keeps an eye out away from the parking lot and the yurts to see what else might be near. "I'm gonna try to set up a perimiter around this spot. Oh, nice to meet you, I'm Euoia." She thumbs up to Arimia, but with a large sweatdrop behind her head, visually showing her regret for not sharing her name earlier.
(Chessly) Chessly's eyes go wide as Forkbomb answers the question and He bounces from one foot to the other excitedly. "Oh hell yeah I got lucky, hit the jackpot over here! Look!" Pointing at the boats he lets out a low whistle that comes to a stop as he sees the tampered panel. "Huh? Looks like folks did a bang up job on taking care of these boats. Good on them but a damn shame both of us didn't have a chance to try my our paws at fixing up one of these guys."
(Erika) With the yurts all proving to be largely empty of anything useful, and the more unfortunate boats providing little more than some scrap, the most successful venture thus far has been Fenris' intent to befriend the otter in the building. That seems to be going well, but the rest is a bust. Erika stands at the edge of the parking lot, watching the others take their looks around. Luard's question gets a shrug in response. "You can if you'd like. Actually... You can head to the camp group and figure out what they found, then report back to me. Things seem calm, for now. After they've had their look, I want to regroup with everyone to discuss our next steps based on their results." she tells him, looking up at the big husky. Then she glances over at Anbessa. "Not a bad idea, though I think I already have most of what we need. I'll let you know if we could use more help, in the form of donations." she explains, keeping her eyes on everything from the lot.
(Anbessa) Perking his ears, Anbessa looks over to Erika before he chuckles and smiles, padding over just to give Erika a light shoulder hug before she is released again. "Just say when." He says contently, tail twitching as he soon enough resumes his essentially lookout work. Though while he has been now and again peering at the otter building, and Fenris starting to befriend the otter more and more, the bunny just gives that a simple chuckle of delight. Yep, definitely need to bring supplies for the otters and the others in that building. They look like they need it. Still, all can think of now is just making sure everyone is safe with whatever they are doing, so the bun continues to act as overwatch for the group as a whole as they explore.
(Luard) Luard glances back at Fenris, pleased to see conversation with the otter have gone well, then out to the boat group, hoping they don't break anything or sink unexpectedly. "Yeah, things have been too peaceful in a good and a bad way since we got here. Glad we ran into no trouble and only one mostly friendly feral, but it's concerning that it's only her and no others. Makes you wonder why. And hopefully we can salvage something from this place and get it all setup." At Erika's order, he nods and gives the husky girl a one-armed and one-winged hug, sneakily removing her hat to kiss her head before putting it back on her with a wink. "Sure thing, I'll go see what they can find and report back to you. Just shout if you need my help with something. I'll hear you." The winged husky then makes his way over to the camp group, checking around as well to see if he could spot anything interesting while he approached them.
(Arimia) "Arimia" the robotic reptile replies. Shaking her head slightly, she moves a short way away from the yurts, frowning slightly as she takes a drag from her cigarette. "Nothing of note that I could see. Even the detritus left behind is not of any use. If one were really desperate I suppose they could try and salvage the cloth and stitch it together patchwork. Perhaps do something with the bits of plastic. But nothing that can be immediately done." The serpentine woman casts her gaze about before adding, "I am going to see if I can get an idea as to the local wildlife. Be nice to know if a bear is in the area before it introduces itself."
(Junes) Junes was going to go to erika first but seeing as some were around the campsite anyways headed towards them and looked around for their arachnid friend but on the way saw an open door but further up heard something before seeing syntax and saying "good to see you again! I'd like to introduce you to my guildmate lorethan!" as they took a turn and said back "oh and im going to check something before i try and ask about a plan" before they checked the open rooms cupboard, under the bed and mattress before calling it quits and started to head towards ye other group before seeing luard coming by and waving
(Lorethan) Lorethan put his hands behind his back as he walked with Junes, bowing his head in greetings. "Acting leader of Prime Drive, it is a pleasure to meet you." He spoke to Syntax while keeping his eye on Junes.. He gets the heebie jeebies any time he thinks of what could be out there.
(Syntax) Syntax nods with a grin, her prominent fangs on display. "Nice to meet ye! Well, as it stands, I'm not seeing anything noteworthy out here, but you never know. Don't mind me, just going to keep my eyes on the cameras. Maybe something will pop out to me."
(Syntax) Syntax sighs sadly. "Not sure we'll find much use here. This would be a pretty good location for longer term housing but...as it stands, this is just a reminder of what was."
(Forkbomb) "Chess." Forkbomb couldnnudge help but feel oddly charmed, cocking her hip and resting her hand on her waist, her face smirking that soft, wide-eyed smile of positive incredulity. "You know, there's a sports car out there named the Enzo, that used to be made by these incredibly talented boutique engineers that used to call themselves Ferrari, and they named it after the founder of the company to honor him and that which he built. I used to have a roommate that had a picture of one on their computernude wallpaper whenever they didnnudge have porn on it. And they told me that therenude only one Enzo in the world that is the color white." "I told you that, so I can tell you this. Chess, you are the only person in the world that would be sad that they found a pristine white Ferrari Enzo in a junkyard, because you needed a car, and you wanted to put one together in it's entirety yourself." Forkbomb lets out a soft chuckle. "Check it for loot, I'll stay out here and keep an eye out."
(Euoia) Euoia nods. "Good idea. If this is used as a site for a more permanant site, knowing what local wildlife is here would be very important." The staff she weilded was used to mark out where a good point to start preparing defenses would be. Then she set rocks up and she deep cleaned them with a wave of her hand. Her nanite bubble flickered as she used a form of prestidigitation. Euoia kept scanning the area for neutral and possible hostile movement as a background noise. Her nanite bubble continued to flicker each time she cleaned another group of rocks with magic. With Arimia actively searching, she trusted the mekasnek and was only providing passive info. After this, she starts clearing some of the brush and trash to one spot on the side nearest the parking lot to be scrapped and repurposed.