riverviewlogs | [closed] mission: carnivorous harvest

who: hana song, genji shimada, x'rhun tia, shigeru miyata, keith, shiro
what: the carnivorous harvest mission
when: sept. 15-18
where: the jungle; outside of the abandoned city walls
warnings: none foreseen; will update as necessary

TRAVELING, CAMPING

[ It’s early in the morning when the team sets out from the Perimeter Guard’s base of operations; they have a long ways to go to reach the jungle, which lays beyond the outerwall that surrounds the abandoned city. The Guard has equipped them with supplies for traveling, including camping gear, containers for collecting the Lababerries in, and of course the information they need to reach their destination within the jungle.

Passing through the abandoned city before reaching the outer wall is quicker than the traveling they will do outside of the wall; while the abandoned city is grown over, there were still paths that were relatively clear for the party to travel along – there won’t be much of that out in the jungle. That does not, however, preclude any sudden appearance of the monsters that may have broken through the outer perimeter of the city.

Traveling concludes during when night falls, which puts the team just within the confines of the city: it would be easier for them to take on what may lie beyond the fence once they’ve rested for a night. They camp out around what would have been an old house on some small plot of farmland at the very outskirts of what would have been settled before the Quarantine was compromised. At the very least, it provides some solid shelter in the event of a freak weather event, but vines and other vegetation have overtaken it to the point that it was really barely a shell of its former structure. The area around it is open and well-suited for setting up tents and a fire and everything else.

Members of the team, of course, take turns keeping watch through the night.

The plan would be to find a suitable campsite for the following evening within the jungle but away from the area where the Lababerry plants grow; it wouldn’t be wise to camp near carnivorous plants, after all, although there’s nothing to say that there aren’t other dangers lurking within the jungle. After examining the search area and locating the plants, they would harvest the fruits and then journey back, likely making this a four-day trip in total. ]

SURVEYING THE SITE

[ After about half of a day’s travel into the jungle from the outer perimeter, they reach an area that had been marked down as habitat for the Lababerry-growing, carnivorous plants. The party will have to make camp at least some distance away come nightfall lest they be eaten in their sleep, but in the meantime they can get to work by surveying the habitat area and pinpointing the locations of the plants; both for data collection purposes and to make it easier for the seasonal harvest that will take place once the plants are once-again dormant because, in an environment as rapidly-growing as the forests outside of the Quarantine, things are constantly changing.

The Lababerry plants grow on a shrub that enjoys the shade and dampness of the jungle’s understory. At first glance, it is almost indistinguishable from most other plants growing beneath the large trees, but closer inspection would reveal the Lababerries themselves growing in clusters directly along the shrub’s stems. But closer inspection would get your hand and/or face possibly bitten off by the leaves also growing on the stems. They appear to be completely unsuspecting until someone gets too close, at which point the leaves split and reveal toothy openings much like a venus flytrap’s that can elongate and extend from the stem almost like a vine, and snapping at its prey much like a snapping turtle. So, good luck fighting off the plants while making sure the berries stay in tact (which probably means less fire and explosions, more hacking and slashing). The goal, for now, would merely be to observe the plants’ behavior and come up with a good strategy for harvesting later.

Oh, and making sure the party doesn’t get attacked by any of the other monsters dwelling in the jungle. ]

HARVEST

[ After a day of surveying and clearing the area of any outside threads, it’s time to harvest! If the team has prepared sufficiently the previous day, this should be the easiest part of the mission! Hopefully. Barring, again, any angry monsters coming through.

Using the information they gathered on the plants and coming up with a good way to extract the fruits, the team will have to fight the plants without completely destroying them to leave enough crops for the next harvest season and collect them in the containers provided by the Guard before making their journey back toward the inhabited area of the city. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Shiro had been sitting around the campfire as well. He was silent, watching into the distance as though he could see into the darkness around their camp. He knew fully well what this world had as dangers and anything could come into their camp at night. He was comforted by the fact Black had taken up a position of guarding their camp. A robot lion that didn't need to sleep would be there all night.

At the question though he looked over at X'rhun]

Stories about the stars? Yeah. There are a lot of them where we are from. Depends on countries, regions, but there are stories. What about you? Are there stories of the stars where you are from?

But of course. I imagine that no matter where you’re from, it would be difficult not to look up there and spin tales based on what you see.

[ X’rhun may be a creature of the daytime, but there’s just something about the stars that he finds captivating. ]

I spent some time among some people on my home world who have an entire school of healing arts based around the stars. It’s quite fascinating.

I would imagine it is. People from the earliest times have been trying to explain things they couldn't understand with stories. Like why the sun rises and sets every day. The stars are just another thing to explain.

[Shiro paused to look up at the stars. As for the longest time, he didn't recognize any of the constellations around here. It could have given him a clue, but if he couldn't place stars commonly seen from Earth, then there was no guideline]

That must have been interesting. I spent my entire career studying space and the stars. Never thought that would lead to living among them.

[ Likewise, the stars here are alien to X'rhun. He would have loved to point out the constellations the Astrologians had showed him, but on a whole different world, under a whole different sky, they were nowhere to be found. ]

You and Keith come from the same world, do you not? He explained, or attempted to explain, your "space ships" to me. I cannot even begin to fathom what it must be like to fly among the stars.

[Shiro would have done the same thing if he had recognized any constellations. He couldn't even figure out where common stars like Polaris were. That may not have helped, but it would given an idea]

We are from the same world. I pilot the Black Lion- [who grumbles in response to being mentioned] and Keith pilots the Red Lion. It's a different experience. I've spent my entire career doing it, but the first time I did it for real... it was amazing.

[ X’rhun rather likes the Lions, even if he has no idea how they work or how a pair of machines can seem so… alive. They’re a welcome change for the machines of war wielded back home. Besides, having a pair of overgrown cats along on this trip has proven somewhat entertaining, at least to him. ]

What is it like up there?

[They are entertaining. Red seemed to be grumbling about being a pack mule but Black had tolerated it for the most part, perhaps understanding that this was important to his paladin. At least they hadn't discovered chasing their tails or playing with ropes like they were string]

It's amazing. It really is a whole other world. On the Castle of Lions, there's gravity so you could forget you were in space if it weren't for the large windows where you can watch stars and nebulae passing you by. When there's no gravity, there's where the challenge of it comes in.

No... gravity?

[ He tilts his head at Shiro, his expression clearly asking he young man to elaborate.

Guess who comes from fantasy steampunk land and doesn't quite understand the concept of zero g's? ]

[And time for the basic less]

So when you have something you are holding and drop it, the force that pulls it to the ground is gravity. Without gravity, it would float out of your hand. Also if you jumped, there would be nothing to pull you back down to the ground again.

[ All right, he’s familiar with the concept. It was something the Astrologians employed in their magicks, but he still looks perplexed. ]

And you mean to tell me there is… none of that in space? You just float everywhere?

That's right. There's no gravity in space. Everything floats everywhere. We had to learn how to perform everyday tasks when there is no gravity. It makes a lot of things nearly impossible.

So, if one were to be caught outside of a spaceship then…? What, would they simply drift away?

[ That sounds terrifying???? ]

That is the case exactly yes. We have tethers that keep us attached if we have to venture outside. If we went out without them or they broke, we could float away.

Gods, that sounds absolutely terrifying. Fascinating, to be sure, but terrifying all the same.

It can be. The first time I actually did go up, I was concerned. I'm not too worried though anymore. I've been doing it enough. I've never been hurt in space, at least by something I was trained for.

[There was no training for being abducted by an alien race...]

I suppose it wouldn’t be too different from traveling by sea. Falling overboard and becoming lost can be a death sentence on its own, but a seasoned sailor can handle most anything that can happen aboard a ship.

Very similar I'd think. Both can be a hostile environment and both require rules and procedures that are specific to that line of work and have a similar chain of command. So yeah, that works.

At the very least, it is a comparison I understand. We’ve not come even close to mastering the ability to travel through space on my home star.

Everything has a starting point. It may not happen anytime that you can see it, but perhaps it will. Can never tell with these things.

[closed] mission: carnivorous harvest

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