[IC] Lost in Dreams (Stephen)

[ericthered]

The women look up, and don't seem to recognize either language. The mother says something in a language that Stephen doesn't recognize (not even as 'that sounds like french'). She glances around, and looks quite worried at being approached by a naked man.

[Justin_Bedard]

Stephen puts his hands up, palms forward, signifying that he's not a threat.

(Can we speed up the game slightly? I'm slowly losing hold on Stephen's original personality...)

[ericthered]

(I'd love to speed the game up. I can't post more often, but I can possibly give more in each post. This will be a lot easier if you do more in each post, and declare intentions and goals. Expected responses are also a good idea: the 'hello' comment could have been followed up with a response for if she didn't understand the language, or if she asks who he is, or what he wants, or so on. Also, you are allowed to act in the middle of one of my posts, if I describe a sequence)

The woman guestures for him to stay put, and runs off to one of the men, calling out something in the foreign language, and bringing her daughters with her. a name perhaps? 'yarman'?

Yarman looks up from where he is harvesting rice and starts coming over, bringing a sharp harvesting tool with him. He yells some more nonsense at Stephen, something of an indignant question.

[Justin_Bedard]

[During the time the woman goes and gets Yarman]

Stephen, slightly embarrassed from his shameful appearance, takes a headcount of the harvesters and looks at their tools, wondering what else
[After]
Stephen freezes up, as the man approaches.

[ericthered]

There are 7 harvesters, but they are quite spread out amoung those planting the rice, weeding fields, ploughing the fields using those giant amphibian creatures, or moving gates to dry out and flood fields. The harvesters all carry long iron sickles, but the others don't seem to have much that could be used as a weapon, except for the four people with long hoes. The sickles are a single piece of iron with a wooden handle, about 18 inches long.

The man asks a few more unintelligible questions, then starts gesturing for him to get out of there with his hands and yelling something. He isn't getting within 15 feet of Stephen though.

[Justin_Bedard]

Stephen grasps the man's intent and backs off, heading towards the river and passing it.
(Sorry for the slow speed, I was off the forums most of yesterday, and hadn't seen the update.)

Once he's gotten back to dry ground, Stephen heads off from the river, looking for something-anything that he might be able to scavenge off the lands. Once he's looked, he'll try to get back to the river and head down, passing the crew and heading in the opposite direction. He'll also look around while walking down.

[ericthered]

OCC:(You asked if we could go faster. This kind of post is the sort of thing that slows things down, on both our parts. Its fairly obvious that the guy will let him go away, so you should move on to posting what he does next. Yes, he goes over the river and passes it. And what is he looking for? people? unoccupied buildings? food or clothing to steal? getting an overall vision of the lay of the land? someone friendly enough to work with him? This game runs on goals, and on player pro-activity. please describe what he's looking for and what he will do if he doesn't find it.)

[Justin_Bedard]

Once he's gotten back to dry ground, Stephen heads off from the river, looking for something-anything that he might be able to scavenge off the lands. Once he's looked, he'll try to get back to the river and head down, passing the crew and heading in the opposite direction. He'll also look around while walking down.

[ericthered]

Stephen doesn't find too much that is edible. The plants are mostly unfamiliar, even if knew how to tell which ones were edible. There are next to no insects, at least not out in the rain. He does manage to catch a frog, but remembers that most frogs are poisonous, at least on their skin. It also occurs to him that he might be able to catch whatever made the oversized beaver dam, but he doesn't see the creatures while he's out.

The area he's in has a general slope to it, fairly constant. by itself, it isn't much, but the consistency of the level drop is impressive. The Forest is fairly small, and mostly runs along the canal and embankment. rice paddies line its other edge. continuing down the stream (which does indeed empty into the canal), he finds yet another work crew, much the same as the first, and going 200 yards into the forest reveals yet another set of rice paddy fields in various stages of growth, with the familiar farmers and the houses on the far side of the field. This pattern continues for at least two miles, with various villages bordering the forest, and streams dumping into the canal, and work crews cleaning the mud out of the canals. As he gets farther downstream, the embankments do not seem quite as high.

[Justin_Bedard]

Stephen stumbled while he sought out a solution to the sad fact that he was no longer on earth.

Stephen continues downward.

Should he meet anyone, he'll try to avoid them first, and examine them.