paradisabeyond | Winchester/Fairfield Expedition

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!winchester/fairfield

Winchester/Fairfield Expedition - The Town of Fairfield

[You saw the towns some time ago, but it still took a good couple hours of treading past the farmland around it before you actually reached it. They have a distinctly "old western" type of feel to them, with their dusty, unpaved dirt roads and the collection of buildings-- most of them obviously wooden-- sitting side-by-side along either side of the road.

More observant residents may notice that the nearer they come to the town, the more people that look up and notice, and subsequently hurry off or head inside. And even if you didn't notice it as you closed in, it sure becomes apparent once you step under the archway of the town; there's no one around. The tumbleweed that rolls by almost seems to be mocking the residents.

Another thing that becomes apparent is the state of the town. Besides having gone eerily quiet, some of the buildings have been wrecked. There are gouges in the wood, where it hasn't been punched through or torn apart. Rails are broken, and a few of them even have damaged or missing doors.

Are they too late?]

DR. BREWER | HEATH | RECONSTRUCTION

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I don't see why not. Dolphins and bats use it, right? Shouldn't be that hard to make it analog. [Good, another project to work on.]

All right, good. And I know at least one of the farms has a storm cellar - would be a good bolthole if there's anyone particularly vulnerable in your group. Unless you have somewhere else fortified, that is.

[He remembers that one because they'd hidden from the tornado there - and it had re-entered into the Insolitus.]

Then all the luck to you, if you can manage it.

You've been here before? [That surprises him]

Thanks.

[He nods.] Couple years ago, yeah. Had a regular working farm going on for a little while. Met Reno Browne out here, you know her?

We've met, a few times. Her group are pretty elusive. Unless they want to be found, they don't get found. Nice to know this place can function as a farm. We could really use it as a place to settle.

You know, that's not a bad idea at all, if we can get these aliens taken care of. We might even be able to trade some seed grain and livestock for future trading rights, if you want. That sort of thing's pretty easy to get. Or we could buy it, I suppose. Do you guys use Caisos?

We could certainly live with that, you're helping us more than enough to deserve it.

We do, though we rarely get near any towns to use them.

That's easy enough, then. I bet I know at least a few people who'd be willing to be traveling merchants, at least until you're self-sufficient here.

That would be fantastic, at least it's not that long of a journey, either. We'd have people who'd be more than happy to make the journey form here, too.

Sounds like a plan to me. We can probably hash out the specifics once we deal with the aliens, yeah?

[It would actually be really nice to have a non-hostile group of First Gens around. Ones who also weren't assholes. And if they could work out radio communication, they wouldn't even be bound to the journals to talk to them.]

Which reminds me. That radio you used, is it still in working condition?

Sounds like a plan.

[Someone who doesn't hate them for once, hooray]

We haven't been able to get it going yet. We don't even know what powered it in the first place. We took a long shot with it.

[York crosses his arms and stands with his feet set apart, a thinking pose for him.]

You know, there are some pretty primitive radios that don't need any kind of power to receive, aside from the radio waves itself. Crystal radios. And we have shortwave radios--that's what most people heard the broadcast on--which I bet we could power with the little crystals.

[He holds up Delta's Tamagotchi, which is clearly hardwired to a set of the small crystals he'd received from Flora.] I bet if you had something like this, it would be enough to power one of those radios enough to broadcast regularly.

It could be that, I mean, something had to have powered it, all the way out here.

[Brewer laughs] Jesus christ is that a Tamagotchi? I haven't seen one since I was home, some of my patients had them.

[Focus on the matter at hand, Gene] That could really work.

[York beams a grin at him. Finally, someone who recognizes it!]

It is, yeah! See, one of my best friends is an AI, but he doesn't like being left out when we all run off here. So this is a compromise. A bit cramped for him, but he can still hang around with us.

[Delta's figure on the screen waves in greeting.]

Anyway, yeah. You could set a broadcast antenna on the clock tower for better range, connect it to something like this. Voila - a link to civilization.

Huh, can't say I know much about AIs, but that's something special right there. [He'll wave back, albeit a touch awkwardly]

That would be amazing, if you could do it.

Well, living out here all the time, I can't say you'd get much opportunity.

[And he nods, looking pleased with the idea.] It could be done, pretty easy if you have the right kind of diagram.

We're a little out of touch, I'll admit.

I'm sure between all of us we could work something out.

Oh yeah, definitely. And we have access to a huge library, not to mention a couple of databases like from Delta here, once he's back at full power. [He pats the Tamagotchi fondly.]

If we don't mind a little manual labor, it could go up in no time.

That's wonderful, our library was lost with the castle. Some of the...infected set fire to it.

I know my people are well used to it, it's what we've known for a while.

[He winces a bit at that. The knowledge of a thousand worlds, just set aflame? Information is the most valuable currency there is, to him, and the idea that even infected people would do something like that is awful to contemplate.] I'm sure we can at least smuggle a few books out, if you guys want any reading material here.

Yeah, makes sense. If you don't mind my asking, about how many of you are there? Were you all from Draconis?

I know I'd appreciate it, I've missed reading a lot. There are others who were real bookworms too, back in the castle.

[He nods over to the buildings, where everyone is still hiding, though some are cautiously peering out of their windows, now] There's around thirty of us in total, all from Draconis, we're the ones who managed to get out when the infection overrun everything. It's a small number, the castle was at it's peak when it fell, there were a good three hundred of us living there at the time.

Any particular requests? Besides the practical stuff, I mean.

[And York glances over there unobtrusively. He can understand being shy, especially if the other groups these guys had met were, well, assholes like the rest of the First Gens York knew.]

We usually hover around that number, too. A little less than that right now, I think, but it does vary. [The three hundred, he means. Although that does bring up a good point.]

So...while you're out here in the Dead Zone, people don't just vanish at random like they do in the castle? Or did your castle have a more, uh, violent way of dealing with it? [Since it sounds like such a nice place and all.]

If you have anything by Dickens or Welles, I'd love it. I can ask around, see what everyone else would like.

No one in our group has gone home since we left the castle. I'm sure sure if that happens to everyone, or if it's just Draconis. [He frowns, trying to find a good way to word thigs] Each castle... feeds differently. From what we've learned of Libet and Paradisa, the basics are the same. It takes people in from other worlds, takes something precious from them, and occasionally transports them to an event, but that's where the similarities seem to end.

I'm sure I can find something.

[York thinks on that for a bit, nodding slowly as Brewer talks.]

So it might be because you're out here, or it might be because your castle's crazy or dead. We'll have to keep an eye on that.

Exactly. It could be any number of reasons. None of us have felt the pull of the castle for a while, either. It could be that it's dead, or it could be that it's forgotten we even exist.

[Or it could still be digesting :|]

[Well, there's a pleasant thought. Luckily it's not one that occurs to York.]

Or maybe you're too far away? It is across an ocean.

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