You Make the Mob, S01E07: Creative Writing

Oryx

Time to get creative as we round out our zhubeast wrangler!

This is a collaborative effort to create an NPC who will be settled somewhere in Starmourn! See http://forums.starmourn.com/discussion/156/you-make-the-mob-s01e01-pilot for the original thread.

Thus far we have a bookish Amaian scholar whose makes her living as a zhubeast wrangler. She enjoys taking things apart (which she is absolutely terrible at putting back together again, despite her insistence otherwise) and ancient earth memes. But of course she hates zhu meat. Where is she from? Nobody is quite sure... she's incredibly secretive about her past and invents a different, greatly detailed origin story each time she's asked.

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In this thread you have the opportunity to do some writing. Description, attacs, and interactions are the three main things that need to be composed for any NPC, but if you are familiar with the way IRE's denizens work (or even if you're not) and have some ideas beyond these, feel free to chime in!

Description - What do you see when you look at her? What is she wearing? How does she carry herself?

Attacks - Does she rope and hog-tie her opponents? Skewer them with an ancient, rusty sword that she keeps by her side? Scratch them with envenomed daggers? Call her zhubeast herd for dinner and in the process, run over everyone in their path? We'll need several of these.

Interactions - What does she do/say when you say hello? What if you ask her about zhubeast? Maybe she's holding a book, what does she say if you ask what she's reading? What are some of the backgrounds she invents when you ask about herself? She can respond to a variety of topics. And if you can somehow work in ancient earth memes that would be great...

bairloch

say to Scholar "Do you have zhu meat?"

Head buried in the guts of a complicated looking machine, Bookish Scholar's voice is muffled by the layers of complex tech she's attempting to re-assemble.
"Yeah, we've got zhu meat, lousy stuff. How much you need?"

say to Scholar "You know, I'm an Engineer, want me to take a look at that?"

Flinging down her wrench in disgust, Bookish Scholar admits defeat. "I'm sure it'll cost me an arm and a leg..."

say to Scholar "Just some Zhu meat."

Shuddering, as always, at the mention of her chief product and bane of her existence, Bookish Scholar shoves you toward the machine. "Shut up and take my money."

Cen

Alternative response to zhu meat:

The bookish Amaian wrinkles her nose, mouth turned into a look of disgust. "Zhu meat? Now why would anyone really want that?" With a wave of a hand, she dismisses her own question. "Fine, you can have some, but it'll cost ya'."

bairloch

say to Scholar "Can I get some Zhu meat?"

Bookish Scholar says "Sure, but I'm short handed, you gotta catch 'em yourself. Still interested?"

say to Scholar "Yes."

Bookish Scholar leads you out back to a pen filled with Zhu with a large box at one end.

"Pick out your favorite, and drive it into the big box over there." Bookish Scholar explains, clearly not planning to help.

say to Scholar "What's in the box?"

Bookish Scholar says, with a silly grin, "It's a trap!"

bairloch

Dust chokes the air as the two-headed Zhubeasts mill about in their corral. A few hands busy themselves feeding the cattle and cleaning the smaller pens. An Amaian is perched on a fence post, face buried in a book, seemingly oblivious to the controlled chaos around her.

say "Greetings."

Without bothering to look up from the book, the Amaian woman asks "Can I help you, Tenderfoot?"

say "Can I buy a Zhubeast?"

Finally paying attention, the Amaian's head snaps up. "Not sure if serious, or just trolling... Don't you just want some Zhu meat?"

say "I need a Zhubeast."

"Do you even have a place to... Never mind. Not my problem. If you want to haggle over cattle, head into the office over there." The Amaian points toward a ramshackle building with a faded sign that might read "Office".

say "Thank you."

The Amaian has already gone back to her book, ignoring your attempts at politeness.

Homura

"Tutturu~♪ I'd like to take a minute. Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped. My parents said I could be anything, so I became a <job>. I studied for <integer> years under a <race> named Falco, when a couple of guys who were up to no good started making trouble in my neighborhood. They broke into our residence and told me that they had gotten a signal telling them that a <race> named Falcomaster had set up us the bomb! They questioned me at gunpoint, asking me if I knew the way, when Falco burst into the room shouting, 'Objection!' They recognized him and I tried to bluff: 'That ain't Falco!' Yet he had no chance to survive, and took an arrow to the knee. 'Falcomaster is a mad scientist,' they explained, 'we do what we must because we can,' they comforted me, before giving me their zhu meat and telling me that it is dangerous to go alone. I knew that this was not great justice, but there's no sense crying over every mistake. And so, for 40 years I wandered through the desert, looking for the way. It was when I had collapsed, my water containers empty, that I saw a vision! A floating zhubeat came to me in a dream, engulfed in bright light! He played me the song of his people, and urged me to believe in the heart of the cards... When I came to, I saw a set of zhubeast hoofprints leading to an oasis! That oasis and its sacred avocado trees were what saved me. They are the reason I'm standing here today. It was at that moment, when I had found the perfect avocado, that I truly asked myself: 'Where you at??'"
((<name> pauses sadly.))
"Did I really know the way? And when I searched inside myself? That was when I truly found myself! I decided right then and there to open up a zhubeast sanctuary, for the good of all of us. I resolved to never eat zhubeast again, because now I know, somewhere deep down in my heart... You only live once!"

((<name>'s eyes tear up.))

"Maybe you're not the hero we deserve, but you're the one we need."
((<name> smiles brightly at you through her sparkling tears.))

Oryx

For anyone following these posts... I present at last our Amaian wrangler!