Winchester/Fairfield Expedition - The Town of Fairfield

[winfield]

[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

((ooc: No sections this time. Comment freely and make your own! There will be a section by the mods soon~ Sections updated!))

Comments

[vesania]

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.

[encryptedlock]

[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.

[vesania]

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.

[encryptedlock]

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.

[vesania]

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

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

[encryptedlock]

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.

[vesania]

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.

[encryptedlock]

[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?

[vesania]

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.

[encryptedlock]

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.]

[vesania]

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.

[encryptedlock]

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.

[vesania]

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 :|]

[encryptedlock]

[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.

[vesania]

It's a possibility, and we've been nowhere near it, since.

[encryptedlock]

I don't blame you. Not one bit.

[vesania]

We'd just rather avoid going too near the castles altogether. I know I can't trust them any more, no matter what they tell you otherwise.

[encryptedlock]

I understand, especially if yours set that virus on you deliberately. I mean, mine's kind of an asshole too, but it never did anything quite like that.

[vesania]

Maybe Paradisa wants to keep you all at least marginally content. After all, the last set of people it had left, it makes sense it would want to try and make you stay, save losing any more people.

[encryptedlock]

Now there's a thought. Do you have any idea why the last group of people left?

[vesania]

Whenever I've tried to ask hem about it, they've been very hedgy about it. They're really not trustworthy of anyone outside of their immediate group, so getting any information from them is tricky at best.

I don't think anything catastrophic happened, not like Draconis. But perhaps they learned something about this place the rest of us don't know yet.

[encryptedlock]

Now that would make sense--the learning something, I mean. They were talking about the Allegory of the Cave, if you remember that from your philosophy class. [Because you have to take one of those to be a doctor, right? York wouldn't have known jack about it if it wasn't for having an AI in his head.

But it sounds like whatever this ~great secret~ is, Brewer and his friends don't know. Which is a little disappointing, but really not all the surprising.]

The part about how they really don't trust anyone, though. I thought that was just us castle-bound people. You too?

[vesania]

I understand the concept. And yes, it would make sense, these castles are living beings, steeped in more mystery than any of us really understand. It would well be that finding something out about them is irreversible. Much like the person leaving the cave.

They're not fans of us, after all, we escaped a place full of disease. Maybe they're worried we still have it, and can spread it to them.

[encryptedlock]

See, while on the one hand I can see why they'd think that--but the whole idea of the allegory is that we can't live in the cave our whole lives. Knowledge frees us, not enslaves us. Right now all they're doing is using that knowledge as a power against the rest of us, and it's damn annoying.

[And he snorts a little.] Yeah, well, did you know Reno was the first person who told us to go to Lastlook? Which led us straight to the virus, of course. Kind of a dick move if you ask me.

[vesania]

When really, we're all in the same boat and should be helping each other. I doubt any of us will solve this place's riddles if we're fighting amongst ourselves.

...She did that? [He sounds surprised] But... I was certain she knew about it. I never expected her to do anything like that. She was always one of the more decent ones out there.