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Shimmer, Glimmer, & Gleam - A Quest of Loss & Gain

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10ebbor10 said:
I like post-apocalyptic worldbuilding, and this is a fun and weird world to poke at.
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My friend, I say this as gently as I can: I'm noticing a bit of a pattern when you're encountering things that are being handled as immediate problems, short-term solutions, messes. You may recall, for instance, that right now there's a lot of fuel in Salt Bay City not being used, and more than zero tractors on sales floors that could be taken outside. Isoldt is not intending on building a long-term economy on horses. She is intending on getting access to horses, labor, and an alliance so more can be done, but if people starve right now, they won't get the white room math solutions later. Much like how in the long term different power plants will need to be built if they intend on keeping electricity as part of their society, but right now the nuclear plant is functioning. I appreciate the desire for optimal solutions but they can't be conjured with the wave of a hand, aye?
 
Morrowlark said:
My friend, I say this as gently as I can: I'm noticing a bit of a pattern when you're encountering things that are being handled as immediate problems, short-term solutions, messes. You may recall, for instance, that right now there's a lot of fuel in Salt Bay City not being used, and more than zero tractors on sales floors that could be taken outside. Isoldt is not intending on building a long-term economy on horses. She is intending on getting access to horses, labor, and an alliance so more can be done, but if people starve right now, they won't get the white room math solutions later. Much like how in the long term different power plants will need to be built if they intend on keeping electricity as part of their society, but right now the nuclear plant is functioning. I appreciate the desire for optimal solutions but they can't be conjured with the wave of a hand, aye?
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I mean, if we're looking at short term solutions, we do actually know that

1) We have boats, they were mentioned in the prison arc
2) We have literally captured a harbor, which should have some operational vessels
3) This was an active river used in a river port, so the riverships that used to move stuff should all still be there.

Meanwhile, blasting your way through the haunted suburbs requires an expenditure of thousands upon thousands of rounds of irreplaceable artillery, after which you need to expend tens of thousands of man hours restoring the roads (because you can't carry wagons across debris and broken cars). Creating a road isn't some short term deal, it's a massive infrastructure project. Not to mention the ongoing costs of dealing with securing whatever monsters resided in these suburbs, or the risk that the fire just drives them out, rather than killing them.

Using boats to move food is both the better long term, and the better short term solution.
 
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i could tell you of the dream of the ocean, mother and murderer of all things. the dream of the deep, which even now we are subject to. in a world like this? i would not risk the ocean if you put a gun to my head.
 
10ebbor10 said:
I mean, if we're looking at short term solutions, we do actually know that

1) We have boats, they were mentioned in the prison riot
2) We have literally captured a harbor, which should have some operational vessels
3) This was an active river used in a river port, so the riverships that used to move stuff should all still be there.

Meanwhile, blasting your way through the haunted suburbs requires an expenditure of thousands upon thousands of rounds of irreplaceable artillery, after which you need to expend tens of thousands of man hours restoring the roads (because you can't carry wagons across debris and broken cars). Creating a road isn't some short term deal, it's a massive infrastructure project.

Using boats to move food is both the better long term, and the better short term solution.
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Except the rivers wouldn't be near the farms, because its Salt Water. Place is called Salt Bay City, the Farmland just outside the city limits is going to be WELL AWAY from salt heavy soil and water. At least, any rivers that they'd be using likely aren't as near to the literal body of Salt Water the city is named after
 
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Katarina Winters said:
Except the rivers wouldn't be near the farms, because its Salt Water. Place is called Salt Bay City, the Farmland just outside the city limits is going to be WELL AWAY from salt heavy soil and water
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Rivers tend to flow downhill.

Salt water intrusion on the scale you require here would require some truly bizarre geology and hydrography, or an agricultural fuck-up of unprecedented proportions.

Edit : Like, I'm kinda baffled you're making this argument? You can see, everywhere, IRL, that the farms are near rivers. In some cases, parts of the sea or rivers were even reclaimed to make more farmland, the polders being big examples of that. For all of history, river deltas have been incredibly rich places of agriculture. It is likely that these places where the ones where agriculture was first invented. So, the idea that for dozens upon dozens of kilometers inland, farms would stay many kilometers away from the river, it's just absurd?

Like are you just disagreeing reflexively to disagree?
 
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[x] Nattie & Sasha (begin Arc 4: Empire of Joy)

Not that I'm not perfectly happy to hang out at camp with Orchid and the rest, but this is also interesting to me, so I might as well give it a little push.
 
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Communal Effort & Omake Bounty Board New
  • Informational
    • What is Communal Effort?

    It's a resource, sorta like Gifts. When your PoV character is working alongside their community, or if the community faces a decision point or emergency, you can spend out of your limited pool of Communal Effort to have something prepared for the situation, or develop something in response to this. That might be that someone on hand develops a Gift (as with Jill discovering she can make prosthetics), that the faceless masses of People I Haven't Named Yet happens to contain someone with expertise, someone gets an idea, or the like. It is, intentionally, a somewhat nebulous narrative resource; a small deus ex machina on demand.

    As of the time of this writing, you have 4 points of Communal Effort. At the current development and training of your community, you will receive one (1) at the start of the next Threshold; this can be increased as the community develops, problems get solved, and opportunities get unlocked.

    But I am also offering a limited bounty for some fan writing on the topic as well. I am requesting omakes at 1,000 words or more, mostly because I am a cruel and unmerciful lich, from the list of the following prompts. Please note which prompt you're after in your post! Doubling up on the same prompt won't give more points; however, if I feel like I can canonize the story, it's, well, canon. If you get me sustainable salt production in your fiction, the community has salt now, f'rinstance. With me? Alright. Here's our prompts.

    Omake Prompts
    Acclimation: A former Inmate works on being amongst those Outside again, in whatever way you deem fit. Perhaps they can help others struggling worse than they are.

    The Little Things: It's amazing what you take for granted until it's gone, isn't it? Some things are hard to simply loot in the city, such as wood, or have an inherently limited shelf life, such as a great deal of cold medicines, modern tobacco products, prophylactics, or fucking clothing. Who's trying to slow the bleeding, or even solve some of these problems? How?

    Memorial: Countless people died in that storm, almost certainly to include people that the community knew and loved. It can't be avoided forever. Who will break the unspoken taboo against thinking too hard about this and insist on a service for the fallen?

    Road Crews: Ah, labor. The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems. One of those problems is that the roads are full of cars, only some of which might be, well, movable, either due to damage, lack of fuel, or lack of keys. Tell us about the work on the road crews making walkable corridors through the dead traffic.

    The Apocalypse Is Kinda Horny: Love or at least poor life choices are in the air. People are tense and stressed, and it's starting to settle in that this is life now. Who's looking for love? What obstacles complicate it?

    There may be more of these, or alternate bounties, available later.

    Questions helpful to these prompts may be answered. No promises.
     
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    • Is calling dibs on an omake prompt allowed? Because I have some vague ideas percolating in my brain, but I'm not the fastest writer on Earth, and I don't want to get 90% done only for someone else to finish first and leave me high and dry.
     
    Im gonna go Diamond and Thomas because that arc name is intresting

    [x] Diamond & Thomas Bright (begin Arc 4: Risk All Or Save None)
     
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    RiverLibrarian said:
    Is calling dibs on an omake prompt allowed? Because I have some vague ideas percolating in my brain, but I'm not the fastest writer on Earth, and I don't want to get 90% done only for someone else to finish first and leave me high and dry.
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    As a statement of intent sure but I don't think I can, in good conscience, let folks reserve prompts exclusively.
     
    [x] Captain Isoldt & Hannah (begin Arc 4: First Contact)

    I am excited about all of these, but I wanted farm time when it was offered in ages past, and I want it now. Isoldt better touch a cow, or she will be hearing from me.
     
    My spells have failed.
    Scheduled vote count started by Morrowlark on Jan 17, 2025 at 3:59 PM, finished with 38 posts and 15 votes.
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    Where The Heart Is: Begin New
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    • You are, once again, Orchid, and a great deal of your life is going to be spent in meetings huddled around maps, it seems. Nattie has some pins in this one, which displays Salt Bay and its environs, and you try to pay attention. You are...not okay, exactly, after the executions yesterday and the arrival of the strange kitten person who has pitched a whole-ass tent near the kitchens, but of all the people you've killed you were most at peace with those ones. They didn't suffer; one clean thrust with a glass spike to the base of the skull, instant death. Nothing worse than a sharp pinch.

    "So," Nattie says at last. "Here in a couple days the joint squad will make an exploratory attack into Harrow Park, figure out if that operation is even viable. That's Brian and Sasha, with me on the phones and binoculars as best I can. Doctor Heller will be our eye in the sky, ish, but she's busy with..." another pin, "...the spiders attempting a rescue here at the gentleman's club. That shit ends poorly, mark my words, but you overruled me."

    "Correct," you sigh. "...I'm not gonna tell them to leave people for dead. My um. Honor guard will go with them, so there's that, but..."

    "But it leaves our own defenses under-staffed," Nattie finishes, grimly. "We'll have to pull the pickets back, post snipers on the rooftops, and fucking pray. The doctors are prepared to receive wounded but it's gonna be a bitch. And then there's the bad news."

    "Oh boy," Jill says with mock enthusiasm. "I love bad news. What's the bad news?"

    "The bad news is we can't just sit around with our straps in our hands waiting and worrying. There's shit to do." Nattie wets her lips, makes a little thoughtful hrmming sound. She taps a pin towards the edge of the metro area. "Captain took some mortars and firebombs out this way, looking to burn her way through the suburbs. Should be minimal damage to the roadways, but minimal isn't none - the kinda fire she's looking to start will warp the asphalt, for starters. So we need to get the construction equipment fueled, up and running, and ready, and we need to clear the roads. Thankfully we've got plenty of warm bodies. Unfortunately a bunch of them are currently fucking useless."

    "The party people," you surmise. "...No wait, you called them something else..."

    "Rich kids," Jill and Nattie say at the same time. They share a high five without even looking at each other; somehow, you understand, this is related to their odd vitriol towards one another. Garnet seems to be of the opinion that they should 'just fuck already' and you're not...entirely...sure how you feel about that. Nattie continues: "Yeah. The rich kids. They're not doing anything useful around here aside from being hands that can hold tools, badly. Honestly we kinda dropped the ball on them but they're an easy ball to drop since they're so fucking stupid."

    You and Jill give her identical long looks. Nattie throws her hands in the air and mutters swear words under her breath.

    Hrm...

    Choose 2
    [ ] Try to motivate these 'rich kids' yourself
    [ ] Rope Andrea and the old people into helping motivate the rich kids
    [ ] Maybe an incentive could be created? Preferential access to the private rooms where the porn is kept communally for a starter
    [ ] Sound out the Inmates too. There's an easy framing here: someone in that fucking prison knows how to hotwire a car, and that's faster than pushing.

    * * * *

    "Hey," Jill says a while later, catching up with you just after your dinner. She nudges you with her elbow, and you just kinda look at her. Looking at Jill is increasingly one of your favorite things. "...So I might have some advice. and I need you to not make it weird."

    "I make everything weird," you protest, in confusion. "...Or everyone else does...

    "It's you," Jill says with a laugh. "Have you...tried anything, with someone else?" When you mutely shake your head, wondering where this is going, Jill gives you a soft smile that makes your heart flutter in its glass prison. "Okay. So here's my advice: take Andrea up on it. Or at least sound her out."

    ...

    ......

    DOT DOT DOT DOT DOT DOT DOT DOT DOT

    "What?" Jill asks, incredulous.

    You gesture in every direction. "Did you and Sasha switch bodies???"

    Your friend cuffs you on the upper arm. "Orchid. Listen...I don't...I don't do casual, myself. But I do talk to people and think an' stuff, alright, I ain't just a former lacrosse player here. An'. Like...I dunno. You only get one first time, and I kinda wish mine had been with someone experienced who cares about me." In answer you vaguely gesture at Jill with a confused look on your face. "...Flower, I'd definitely make it weird, alright? I catch feelings like honey catches flies. Just. Think about it. Alright?"

    Uhhh...
    [ ] Fuck it we ball?
    [ ] Nnnnnooooooooooooo

    &

    Choose 1 to work more closely with alongside Kayleigh Wright, your new charge, for the next week
    [ ] The food crews
    [ ] The engineers
    [ ] The divinity students
    [ ] The old people
    [ ] The kids
    [ ] Project Throwback's at-home forces

    Begin Arc 4: Where The Heart Is

    "The saying, "Life is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap."​
    - The Cincinnati Enquirer, February 21st, 1947​
     
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    • Morrowlark said:
    [ ] Try to motivate these 'rich kids' yourself
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    Hmmm.

    Much as I'd like to read this option, Orchid only really knows one way to motivate, and that is leading from the front.
    Which she just promised she wouldn't do. (And you know, the haunted suburbs definitively count as leaving the camp).

    So,

    [X] Rope Andrea and the old people into helping motivate the rich kids
    [X] Sound out the Inmates too. There's an easy framing here: someone in that fucking prison knows how to hotwire a car, and that's faster than pushing.

    Everyone knows that kids like listening to old people complain about them while they're not actually going to be doing the work, but at least the inmates can be trusted operating heavy machinery.
    Now, I'd be surprised if between the fire, the flood of the storm some time ago, the refractions , batteries going dead, gasoline spoiling and so on any of the cars in the suburbs are still drivable, but it can't hurt.

    Morrowlark said:
    Uhhh...
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    Handle it like we did the last thing? Invite others, get a commitee going, do a professional review and take notes.

    [X] The engineers

    I don't think we've seen much of them yet?
     
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    [X] Fuck it we ball?
    [X] Try to motivate these 'rich kids' yourself
    [X] Rope Andrea and the old people into helping motivate the rich kids
     
    [X] Try to motivate these 'rich kids' yourself
    [X] Rope Andrea and the old people into helping motivate the rich kids

    We shouldn't do the sit-backwards-in-a-chair thing, though. They'll think that's cringy.

    [X] Fuck it we ball?

    Finally Orchid figuring out sex/romance!

    [X] The divinity students

    Just curious about them and want to see more of them.
     
    [x] Try to motivate these 'rich kids' yourself
    [x] Rope Andrea and the old people into helping motivate the rich kids

    Orchid to confuse and stubborn its way through their bullshit, Andrea and the Grandparents ready with kind words, sage advice, and a sandle for the truly insufferable one who just doesn't get it.

    [x] Fuck it we ball?

    Let Orchid have fun, let Andrea have fun, and be there to catch it if/when this causes all the emotions!

    [x] The food crews

    I debated the kids, but some focus going to Food is important. The first few Winters after an apocalypse are the roughest. The first one because you have to relearn preservation, everything that goes into that, and just GET enough food for it. The ones immediately after the first because now is when all that preserved food from before, and whatever was scrounged up in year 1, is likely down to the last few jars and cans, meaning its all on whatever can be fished, hunted, and farmed in the aftermath
     
    [X] Fuck it we ball?

    Listen Orchid deserves the best and I think we should take Jill at her word that having her as a first time would be weird.

    [X] Try to motivate these 'rich kids' yourself
    [X] Rope Andrea and the old people into helping motivate the rich kids

    Just seems like a good idea.
     
    Also maybe we shouldn't have Orchid and Kayleigh work with the food crews? Because I'm not sure if having the cannibal around the people cooking the food is a good look for us.
     
    [X] Sound out the Inmates too. There's an easy framing here: someone in that fucking prison knows how to hotwire a car, and that's faster than pushing.
    [X] Rope Andrea and the old people into helping motivate the rich kids

    [X] Fuck it we ball?

    [X] The kids

    listen, working with the kids is good for you. restores the soul. i think kayleigh needs some of that.
     
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