064. Down By the Seaside

[samson]

[Dictated somewhat lazily.]

Alright, I haven't mentioned this in awhile and with the like... revolving door policy the castle likes to do, figured I should say something. Name's Brock, I have a little bit of land sort of southwest of the castle, off the main road to the city.

There's a community garden there if you don't feel like wishing for food or paying the townspeople with fake magic money. Which I totally get, by the way; it feels a little, uh... dishonest. Anyway, the garden's there for anybody who wants to use it. Just don't take everything without putting some work in too, alright?

I got a greenhouse too, in case you want to grow something out of season. There's also a smokehouse but I don't want anybody putting weird mystery meat in there so that's sort of off-limits, okay?

That's about all I wanted to say.

[A pause. Apparently he remembered something else, so--]

Oh, uh, if you see a little dude around the garden, that's just Frodo. So don't scare him or anything. He works for me.

[Vereesa.]
Hey. I'm guessing you went with everybody on that expedition, right? You back yet?

Comments

[dog_eat_dog]

[Ah, Tess remembers those old days of gardening, trying to make supplement their ration diet with something that didn't come out of a can. She'd had six big tupperware bins on the balcony of her apartment, full of soil and fertilizer –– contraband, of course –– and trying to grow something, anything that would take the edge off of corned beef and beans in tomato sauce. It hadn't lasted long. It was far more work than the payoff was ever worth.

And now she's just ticked, hearing this.]

Let me get this straight. You live in a luxury magic castle that can feed you the best food on the planet, and you want to dig around in the dirt to grow your own tomatoes?

[samson]

Yeah. The luxury magic castle tries to kill us sometimes, so, you know. I figure the less I depend on it, the better.

[dog_eat_dog]

There's a risk of dying no matter where you are. Ever heard of hurricanes? Disease?

[samson]

Hurricanes and disease don't grant magic wishes.

[mal_addict]

What counts as 'mystery' meat? I feel this is an important question to ask.

[samson]

Like... those weird buffalo or whatever. Or, I don't know, maybe there are actual cannibals here. Mystery meat. I figure what the townspeople eat has gotta be normal, so...

[mal_addict]

Okay, what about meat from other worlds, from creatures you have never seen, but are eaten regularly in that place?

[samson]

That's... where would they get that?

[nukeoleptic]

I'd love to help with the garden. I used to grow a ton of my own food. D'you know how to preserve things, too?

And how's the dog?

[samson]

Oh, hey. What, you mean like canning? Nah, I haven't done anything like that.

[Except for the smokehouse... preserving meat is more important...]

Church? He's great. Thanks for helping me out with him.

Brock 5ever

[sworn]

I did, and I'm back, though I cannot say for how long. A group of residents stayed behind in order to help secure the town for those staying there, and I had interest in helping as well.

That is, unless there are other matters to attend to. [What's up, broseph. Let's do lunch.]

Vereesa 6ever!!!

[samson]

Oh, nah, it's nothing important. I just wanted to know if you wanted to go to the shooting range or something.

7EVER

[sworn]

I'd love to. To be honest, I've done enough traveling this week, and a return trip can certainly wait a few days. It's not as if they will run out of work any time soon.

8EVER!??!?!

[samson]

Great. I'll meet you there, and you can tell me about what it's like. Maybe I could send some supplies with you next time.

[gottaknockhard]

[Brock, your wife... She's distracting him from how much better the cabin would be if nobody knew about it, which makes him forget his reason for speaking in the first place.]

I thought you'd have something new by now.

[samson]

[Brock wasn't just casually listening to that whole thing, no, not at all.]

I'm not sure what else there is to do.

[A pause.]

Well, I guess I could put a second floor up.

[gottaknockhard]

You may need the extra room. [For all the inevitable squatters.]

Dictated

[the_effect_she_has]

[Smokehouse and veggies, hm?]

So ... if I were to say, offer a barter for what I've hunted in exchange for vegetables and to have you smoke some of my meat ...

dictated forever

[samson]

Nah, you don't need to barter. When I say 'community garden' I mean... anybody can take stuff, anybody can grow stuff. So just take whatever you want as long as you put some work in, too.

[The meat though.....] Uh, hunted where? Like I said, I don't want anything weird in there...

Re: dictated forever

[the_effect_she_has]

Oh. Well. I can do that. [Manual labor isn't something that she's adverse to.]

In the woods. Deer, squirrels, pheasant. That sort of thing.

[focusrighthere]

[Awkward. Let's just ignore that huge fight Tess got into with one of this guy's people. Joel thinks it's bizarre too, turning your nose up at all the castle has to offer after he spent all those years just scraping by, but he sees the angle in the distrust there.

He sees it and he's going to pick at it. He's got a little girl to think about, after all.]

So you can get screwed over by wishin'.

[Too good to be true. He knew it.]

Seen anything worse than what you've already named?

[dog_eat_dog]

[In the background, pointedly:]

Joel, if the consequence is just a fucking migraine, it's ridiculous to be scared off.

[focusrighthere]

Who really knows, Tess? What do we really know about this place?

[Snipin' and worryin'.]

[samson]

[Wh...

Buddy, put your girl on a leash or something.....]

Uh... yeah. Not specifically related to wishing, but, uh. I try not to trust magic things that try to kill me and feed off my emotions.

[focusrighthere]

[Not really how it works between us, pal.]

It tried to kill you?

[Jesus.]