robowest | [ WEEK ONE

ARRIVAL

It's a surprisingly quiet ride. The passenger cart is nothing more than wood and a bit of cotton to cushion the seats but for some reason, even as the train hurtles along down the track, the cart remains silent. It only starts filling with noise when the passengers begin to stir.

There isn't any indication on how you got here. No grogginess, no injuries -- in fact, those who arrive with injuries might find them healed up completely (of course there are others who won't be so lucky) -- but in one blink and the next, you are here, on this train. Maybe you're even sitting next to a friend. Maybe a stranger.

Won't be any time to talk either, the train suddenly slowing down with enough of a jerk to throw its passengers back into their seats. A few seconds later, it comes to a complete stop and with a whistle, the doors open and a voice calls from outside. It's male, with a slight mechanical twang behind it and anyone who looks out the window towards the station can just about spot the portly man out on the platform.

"You might as well come on out, folks. You won't be getting any answers on the train."

Once everyone is out on the platform, the man stands before them taking an assessing look at each person. There is something very off about him, though he looks human enough -- but his eyes are too white, his skin too dry, and his hair is doesn't shine quite right. He is dressed in a flannel shirt, suspenders, and jeans, a cowboy hat atop his head and a badge pinned to his shirt that reads "Sheriff". After a moment, he gives a gruff nod and speaks again.

"Howdy. Real happy to see all of you. Explanations will come... Sunday morning, yeah. Give y'all a bit of time to meet each other. Settle in. Keys are on the table over there, hat and pistol in your room. Don't, er... Don't shoot each other right away but if you do, my office is over there. Go get some dinner, sun's about to set. Wouldn't want any coyote trouble."

And that seems to be... it. The Sheriff tips his hat and turns to head to the building with the large "Sheriff" sign on the front. There is a table nearby, keys neatly laid out for everyone with nametags attached to each one. An owl hoots in the distance and a breeze passes through the group. It's quiet again.

Welcome to game start! Characters will find their items in their hotel rooms and anyone who goes to visit the Sheriff after he leaves will find the station empty. On top of that, rulebooks will not be available to find until later. The Sheriff might be forcing it a little but it seems like the intent here really is to get everyone to interact with each other. If there are any questions, PM or hit up the plurk at

robowest!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I guess you could call it that. [Said without even a slight hint of irony. He's very serious about his feelings, thank you.] We were together before we woke up on the train, so whoever brought us here had to be looking for both of us.

Would that have something to do with you two being able to see monsters, maybe? [ Well. Percy had known, but who knows if his girlfriend is the same? ]

[He thinks about what he and Annabeth discussed shortly after getting off of the train and he nods.]

Annabeth's like me. She's just been doing it longer. We met at our training camp when we were twelve...it's our job to fight monsters and a couple of other things. [Do the bidding for the gods, go on quests, stop former mentors from taking over the world, try to stop an earth goddess from resetting the world. You know. Normal kid stuff.]

[ Yep, sounds about par for the course for her kids, too. ]

And a couple of other things... so fighting monsters doesn't count as enough, huh?

You'd think, but sometimes they need us to run other errands for them, too. [Vague, vague, vague.] We kind of spend our time training to be heroes. Comes with the territory.

So something like field studies.

That's good! You're young and spry, might as well put that energy to use.

Is that what you do for your students? You send them to do quests and stuff? [Are you just a lady Chiron, is that what's happening here, Sara?]

I'd send them to different areas of the country to expand their horizons and teach them about the varying mindsets of all kinds of people. That included doing tasks in those areas, yeah.

[ But they learned!! ]

Did they always come back? [...sorry for the mildly morbid question, but you know. Gotta ask.]

Well, yeah. They're my students. I went back and forth to check on them, too.

Sometimes some of our guys don't come back. It's always dangerous to accept a quest where we're from.

And your... training camp head doesn't even bother to check on you?

[ ... Wow. She's tough love, but at least she looks after them. ]

Sometimes he can't interfere. [There were plenty of quests that Chiron couldn't do anything for them.] It's usually someone else sending us out on quests. Chiron just trains us and helps us prepare for whatever comes next.

So he kind of drills survival skills into you and throws you out into the world, huh? That's one way to do it.

[ It's not like that's anything new to her. ]

It's something like that. Usually we get an assignment and we accept it and then we go out on our own. Sometimes the people even Chiron's working for intervene, too, so that he can't. [This is the most vague way of saying all of this without going into "the gods sometimes force our hands."]

But I don't think any of them are behind this either.

I can think of a few assholes who'd have fun with something like this, but I'm also pretty sure they have their hands full.

What's the likelihood of them working together with whoever's behind all of this though...? [Just a thought.]

Not very high. They'd be targeting more specific people than just me, and this doesn't seem like an experiment that would help them at all.

There goes that idea then. [A huff. Mrs. O'Leary lets out an echoing huff shortly after.] I'm still hoping tomorrow's news will be that this was all just a mistake and the sheriff puts us on another train, but until then it's back to asking around. [So he's up on his feet, taking another drink of the cider but not quite finishing it.]

Thanks, Sara.

[ WEEK ONE – ARRIVAL ]

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