Time to Make the Donuts

[sockhopsolly]

THE ON-DUTY MEME



We're all used to playing our characters in special circumstances--sharing a bath, AUed into a robot, in the rain, lost in the ball pit (well that's one way to get your extra hour)...but how often do we get to actually play our characters doing their day jobs?

This meme is for just that.

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Write a starter about your character going about their day at work, wherever that may be.

If your character is a doctor, write them checking in on a patient, or having a meal in the hospital cafeteria. If they're a lawyer, write them at court. If they're a professional ghost-hunter? Yeah, that'd be a pretty neat starter too!

Be sure to include some sort of hook that allows other characters to join in the action, even if your character works alone. Maybe they brought their pile of research out to a cafe? Maybe they need help with something?

2. Respond to other characters' starters. Please tag out if you put a starter up. I know I can't enforce this, but no meme goes anywhere if people don't engage.

3. Thread. Have a good day at work, or perhaps an awful day at work.

Comments

[mammothcheese]

[Get away? No, no, she's staying right here.]

Guards? Guards! There's someone invisible here! Spell or potion, he's obviously a thief--or worse!

[Even as she speaks, she's moving toward the space where she perceives that off-ness that means he's there--once she can feel him, she'll have a chance in a fight. Maybe.]

[megazero_to_superhero]

[Oh crud. David should have expected that this would-be assassin wouldn't stop at using him in a game of bowling-for-drunkards ... and trying to get to her stealthily meant he wasn't quick enough to close the distance before she called for the guards. Portal Corp isn't going to like hearing this after-action report, that's for sure.

Welp. If she's going to up the ante, then so will he. He's not dropping the active camouflage yet, but he is engaging his suit's flight system to charge her at full-speed. He's going to try and tackle her, try and get her into an alley or back street away from the crowd.

That flight system makes his presence considerably more obvious, though, given the plumes of blue-glowing plasma that suddenly spurt out of the armor's back and boot-mounted thrusters. She'll be able to see it coming and get out of the way if she's nimble enough.]

[mammothcheese]

[She's a wood elf; nimble is what they do. Though her chosen method for getting out of his way is just to duck low below the level of those flames, hitting the deck.]

Mage! [Though she's sure at this point, she doesn't need to point out that the person SHOOTING FLAMES is a mage of some kind.]

[megazero_to_superhero]

[That ducking his flying bum rush is impressive in its own right—just the sort of thing you'd expect to see out of an action movie. When David has time to think back on this encounter later, he's gonna give her points for style.

For now, though, he's trying to slow down before he crashes into a building, instead coasting down the alley he'd intended to use as a means to get this assassin away from the festivities. The only silver lining in this screwup is that she's mistaken him for a mage. Maybe. If this escalates any more and he's forced to actually fight somebody, he's got no idea how they'll react to someone of Technology origin.

And judging from the commotion he's hearing ... yeah, it sounds like she's got the local law enforcement riled up. Great. Well—he can't resist the call to play hero knowing now that he got in the way of an assassination attempt. It would be easy to fly away from the city and hopefully give enough time for the heat to die down, but now ...

David hovers up behind a building and then cuts the flight system as soon as he reaches the roof, clambering on top of it. In an attempt to help him keep tabs on that assassin and what the local guards might be doing, he gets down on one knee, unclips the targeting drone from his belt, and activates it.

Problem is—the drone doesn't have the same active camouflage his armor does. So if people know where to look, they'll see something metal, the size and shape of a round of cheese, hovering in a lazy circle around one of the buildings.]

[mammothcheese]

[If she is an assassin, her stopping to tell the guards exactly what they saw is an odd choice of action. She doesn't seem to be in a hurry to go back to whatever she was doing, sheathing her dagger.

If David's paying attention, many of the townspeople are armed, with daggers or more. Men carry swords openly in the street; this is a barbaric sort of world compared to his. Even children spar with wooden swords when not trying to wheedle more candy from the locals. Most of the people are human; pale men and women built to withstand this land's characteristic cold, faces painted or tattooed, hair worn long on men and women, with intricate braids.

It makes the elf in blue-dyed leather armor stand out. Certainly she isn't the only elf in town, no. But they're noticeably rarer.]

[megazero_to_superhero]

[David's watching those events unfold from his vantage point on the rooftop. Given his initial assumption, he's still thinking that the woman's using this encounter as a means to focus attention onto him. If she's got the city guards running around trying to find a supposedly-cloaked mage, they'll not be paying attention when she slips her dagger between someone's ribs, right? It makes sense to him at least ...

He'll be a smidge embarrassed if/when he finds out she had somewhat less criminal intentions. For now, though, as he more carefully examines the somewhat-disrupted festival he does take note that she's not the only person packing steel. It's not quite enough to assuage him of his suspicions. Curious that she chose such a striking getup compared to other townsfolk, though. Then again—if invisibility powers are a thing here, maybe she was using it herself before bumping into him?

Continuing his surveillance, David exhales a puff out of his cigar in irritation over how well and truly things got out of hand on this mission. Which—along with that targeting drone—might give away his hiding spot to the keen observer.]

[mammothcheese]

[It's the drone she notices first, slowly following its path with her gaze before she decides to get a closer look. She sidles around to the back of a shop, climbing first onto a barrel and then onto the building itself, looking for any clues about what's going on. If she'd brought her bow to the festival, she'd be lining up a shot at the drone, but she didn't think it was necessary for this.]

What in the name of Yffre's balls is going on?

[megazero_to_superhero]

[Balls is right. He overhears that after losing sight of Thiirien for the few moments it takes for her to get on top of that shop's rooftop. Shifting his weight (and causing more tells of his presence from the way the thatching rustles under his armor, not to mention any built-up snow breaking off and sliding down the slope) he turns to look in her direction.

He can't tell if she's trying to lead the guards his way, or ... what. Though, maybe he can turn that to his advantage, and get her away from the festival and whoever might have been her intended target.

So he tries to carefully stand up and back off toward the other side of the rooftop, so that the targeting drone will do the same as it continues its lazy orbit around him. Though, that's going to cause more rustling from the thatched rooftop as he does ...]

[mammothcheese]

Stop right there!

[She definitely notices the rustling sounds as he stands, turning in his direction. This time, she doesn't go for the knife. Something is very wrong here--no spell or potion can hold invisibility on a person for so long.]

What are you doing here, disrupting the festival?

[megazero_to_superhero]

[Welp. The game's afoot once more, it seems. Inwardly, David wants to fume at her for saying he disrupted the festival when she'd shoved him into the crowd earlier—but even if he wanted to have an honest talk with her, the guards are probably taking note of what's going on and will be closing in soon.

Maybe he should "pull" her away from the center of town a bit more? In that case—he activates the flight systems on his suit again. The blue glow from the plasma jets deliberately make him easier to spot to Thiirien, though he still hasn't dropped his active camouflage.]

Ya want answers? You'll hafta catch me!

[And with that, he begins hovering backwards off of the roof top—over to an adjacent roof, one closer to city limits. He's deliberately flying slow enough that Thiirien can keep up.]

[mammothcheese]

[Running around on rooftops? Well, lucky for David, he's decided to play cat-and-mouse with a member of the Thieves Guild who's used to burglaries and has no fear of heights. She gives chase as expected, making the jump to the next building over, only disturbing the thatching a little--if she remembers later, she'll be back to fix it up again.]

[megazero_to_superhero]

[Perfect! Now that she's in pursuit, David intends to keep her focused on following him from building to building, toward the edge of town. Her speed and agility took him by surprise initially, but he adapts quickly, trying his best to stay just out of Thiirien's reach but not so far away as to lose her interest.

Hopefully he'll be able to get her to follow some place where there aren't guards in sight or in earshot, as he wouldn't want her calling down more of them. Though, there's always the possibility she's got a trick up her sleeve he hasn't anticipated.]

last tag before bed, I'll be back in the morning.

[mammothcheese]

[It does occur to her she's being drawn further from the center of the town. Were she a Destruction mage of any repute, she'd consider bringing that to bear, but all she knows in that school is a single minor fire spell, mostly good for lighting campfires. And thatching. Right, not using that now.

She digs deep into her reserves of stamina for one valiant leap, trying to grab onto the man she can't see.]

Righto! I've gotta hit the sack too. I'll tag back later today!

[megazero_to_superhero]

—Whoa!

[Speaking of surprises, that leap totally catches him off guard. Enough, in fact, that grabbing onto him like that causes the both of them to fall onto the roof of the building over which he'd just passed. Thankfully, it's not a significant drop—maybe a foot at most.

Still, with her grabbing onto his armor like that, she's in a good position to pin him to the thatching now. Recognizing this, David cuts the power to his flight system—they ought to be far enough away from the festival and, hopefully, any guards. He'd rather not be kept under "citizen's arrest" while she waits for them to come and get him.]

Arright, arright—

[And just like that, he drops the active camouflage, his suit of armor reverting to its normal "olive drab" with gold trim color scheme. Revealing not only just how short he is (at least for human males) but also that huge rifle holstered to his thigh armor. It's almost as big as he is.]

—Ya got me.

[But he's not reaching for it. Not yet anyway.]

[mammothcheese]

[The armor, she can understand. It's heavy armor, even if it's of a variety she hasn't seen before. The rifle, though? That's completely unfamiliar to her. This is a world where crossbows are the hot new tech; firearms are unknown.

(Oddly, the drone's not as unfamiliar. The Dwemer, the dwarves of this world, had created automata that adventurers still ran into in the ruins of their cities.)]

I did. Now explain yourself.

Sorry about the wait! Main computer's undergoing a memory check.

[megazero_to_superhero]

[David takes a second to think on how to respond to the elf that's got him pinned down. Answer directly and honestly, or play coy?]

Got you away from yer target, dinnit?

[He grins. Yeah, he'll lead with coy. Gives him time on how to explain the real reason he's here in Dawnstar.]

No problem!

[mammothcheese]

In a crowd like this, they're all marks. The drunker they are, the easier to separate from their purses. But at least I'm not skulking around cloaked in some sort of camouflage spell, mm?

[She hasn't let him go yet, though it's casual at this point, holding on like counting coup, not holding on like trying to completely restrict movement.]

[megazero_to_superhero]

[And there it is, the moment where David realizes this wild goose chase stems from something a little less dire than an assassination. It's plain to see on his face, obscured though half of it is from that visor on his helm.]

Wait—you're tellin' me you weren't about to shank somebody?

[Not that he's going to feel bad about having prevented a robbery, but it's a little harder to justify that as the reason why his recon mission went pear-shaped, compared to stopping a murder.]

[mammothcheese]

Other than you? No, no I wasn't. [She sighs heavily.] Hircine give me strength, did you take me for a member of the Dark Brotherhood? In this outfit? Killing isn't worth the pay, when I already have other work that's more lucrative.

[megazero_to_superhero]

[There's a subtle look of confusion on David's face at the mention of the Dark Brotherhood. Definitely not a name he'd know from Primal Earth. Maybe some small-time villain supergroup goes by that name, but the doesn't think it very likely there'd be anyone from Primal Earth operating out here, aside from himself.]

Yeah, well, wouldn't be da first time somebody dresses like dat when tryin' ta be stealthy.

[Subtly referring to himself, there, given how his armor normally looks without active camouflage. Though really, there's enough nominally-stealthy heroes (and villains) with the same sort of fashion sense to start a support group.]

[mammothcheese]

Right, now that you know what I'm doing here, you might as well start talking.

[She presses him down with her body a little. That said, she's an pretty light elf, this isn't a solid threat.]

[megazero_to_superhero]

[It helps that David's not looking for a fight, especially now that he knows he's dealing with a thief and not an assassin. Otherwise, well—that power armor lets him throw a stiff swing if needs to, albeit nothing like what a Scrapper or a Tanker can do.

However, he's not supposed to be making a scene, and there's been quite a scene made already ... so he's willing to oblige Thiirien and not resist her pressing down on his body. That might change if the city guard shows up, though.]

I'm tryin' ta protect my home from somebody who might take yours as a shortcut.

[He can't ... really think of a better way to put it that might be easily understood.]

[mammothcheese]

[See, the idea of different realms isn't entirely foreign to anyone in Skyrim who reads. Between the Daedric Princes and their realms of Oblivion and some really esoteric lore about geography and time (and that's before we get into discussing KINMUNE), people sometimes just come into this world from places that aren't this world. It happens.

That isn't to say Thiirien has a perfect understanding, but she takes that answer seriously, at least, and isn't too confused about the core concept of him coming from elsewhere.]

And where is your home, exactly?

[megazero_to_superhero]

[Well—if she's going to press, he'll start being more forthright about it and see how far he gets. Portal Corp knows almost nothing about this dimension, so he's about to find out how much the locals understand about alternate realities.]

Nowhere near here, dat's fer sure. I'm from another place entirely.

[mammothcheese]

Right, I'd gotten that--your armor's definitely not local. Nor is that...instrument? Weapon?

[A gesture at his rifle, and then a curious look.]

It'd make an odd club, so I assume it's meant to be more than that. Enchanted, perhaps? No, it doesn't have the gleam of magicka on it. So what is it?