Also while we're listening to our draconic instincts, I'm thinking we may want to kidnap this princess at some point. Can anyone think how to convince Ali to pack a go bag?
Well, if you're listening to your draconic instincts
fully, you don't
really need to convince her, do you? After all, dragons are not known for asking politely. But maybe you can be better than your instincts.
Look out the window to see if we can find our way to and from the streets via the window.
You remember that there is no convenient ledge outside the window, so you can't just go out the window and walk to the streets. However you could jump out the window and glide to a lower level of the main tower. Then when it's time to go home you need to climb to a higher level and jump from there to glide to the window.
But it's not as simple as it sounds. You'd need to explore to find a way to climb to the higher levels and reach a good jumping point. And if you want to make a stealthy entrance you should also practice landing a bit, so that you can do that instead of crashing.
We're seriously beat up. Maybe our keepers can help with that. Say "Ow". Stagger a little to get the point across.
While Ali is petting you, she touches one of the bruised portions of your skin. You growl and recoil from her touch. She looks at you with worry and confusion.
"What's wrong boy?" she asks.
You lie down and expose the injured part while looking first at it and then at her.
"Ouch." you explain.
She leans in closer to inspect the injured part.
"Oh. This looks like it hurts. Poor thing."
She continues examining your body, gently touching it with her hands, pausing whenever she comes across an injury, saying kind and reassuring things. Finally she holds your head in her hands, moving it around, her green eyes looking into your own. But they are not calm, reassuring eyes. As she looks at your head her eyes fill with more and more worry.
She says something you don't understand and then she goes to talk to Mom. They have an argument about you. You can't understand what it's about. You think Ali is asking Mom to unlock something, not the door. And Mom is saying no and some other things. It's not a very intense argument, Ali gives up pretty quickly.
+1 to rest and educational holovid. Maybe we should get Ali to teach us how credits work.
It looks like Ali has the same idea, since without much prompting she continues using the holovision to teach you about numbers after her parents leave the house. Now that you know the basics it's much easier to understand more advanced topics, like how numbers written together form larger numbers or how numbers can be added or subtracted. Ali is really happy, rewarding you with petting and hugging whenever you get something right (making sure to avoid the injured parts of your body). But she also seems more determined today, more stern, more insistent that you get everything right.
After the numbers lesson she brings out a small container and empties its contents on the floor. A few small colorful credit chips clatter to the floor. She picks up a light pink one and inserts it into a slot on the side of the container. A small display shows the number 1. She repeats the number. Then she inserts a cyan chip. The display shows 2. Then she inserts both pink and cyan chips together. The display shows 3. The grey chip shows 5. The red chip shows 10. Then she goes and brings one of your blue chips and inserts it into the slot. The display shows 20. Then she inserts the single blue chip she has, but instead of showing 20 the display shows a red 0. "Counterfeit", "false", "worthless" she explains.
You spend some time doing numbers exercises similar to the ones you were doing before, but this time using credit chips. She combines 2 cyan and a pink, you "trade" a grey. She gives you a red one, you trade two greys. She gives you her "counterfeit" blue one. You try to trade her two greys and a red one, but she says "no" firmly.
You look at her "counterfeit" blue one and your two blue ones side by side. Hers looks slightly different than yours, the circuit lines on it having sightly different spacing and thickness. Still, the difference is subtle, you're not sure you could tell them apart without closely examining them.
She gives you your blue one. You trade her two greys and a red one. She gives you the counterfeit blue. You say "no". You think you're getting the hang of this. You can tell she has 27 credits. You can tell that when you trade you should take an equal amount of credits. You can tell that you should not accept counterfeit credits.
When Ali is satisfied that you know enough about credits, she gathers her credits puts them back in the container and hides said container under the other corner of the mattress. She then takes one of Mom's shopping bags, her datapad and your credits and calls you to her. She puts your credits in front of you. Then she uses her datapad to show you an image of a white box with a red cross on it.
"Medpac." she says.
"For ouch." she adds.
She then gives you the datapad and takes your credits from you.
"Trade 40 credits for medpack." she explains.
"Up." she says and points towards the ceiling.
"Room 5 0 9. Eiwhyl's Clinic."
She pushes some buttons on the datapad, each press adding a symbol to the screen.
"Show Eiwhyl." she says, tapping the datapad's screen.
She then puts the datapad and the credits in the shopping bag and places the bag under her desk.
"Here. Okay?"
Age: a few weeks (hatchling)
Size: about the size of a large dog
Status: Dizzy, Hearing Impaired, Satiated
Health: internal injuries, bruises
Weapons: claws and teeth
Armor: soft scales
Abilities:
- Glide: You can glide in order to survive falls and quickly move great distances, though your wings are too weak to allow you true flight. However you can use favorable winds and updrafts to increase your glide time.
- Rudimentary Human Language: You are able to understand human language to a very basic degree. You won't understand everything though and there will likely be misunderstandings. You can also attempt to speak, but you can only form simple, short sentences and it's very hard for others to understand you.
- 2 blue credit chips (under Ali's desk, in a shopping bag)
- Ali's Apartment (Lair): A tiny 2 bedroom apartment. The little human Ali lives there with Dad/Jobal and Mom/Ania.
- Ali's Apartment Tower: Apartments arranged in a circle. Clean, bright, mostly locked doors, few hiding places. Little traffic during the night.
- Streets: Dirty streets, parked hovercars, shops, building entrances, street vendors, little traffic during the night.
- Maintenance Tunnels: Interconnected tunnels, small and large, going low and high. Connect various streets and buildings. Wires and pipes. Dark, dirty, with old machines constantly rumbling. Scavenger-vermin and hunters-of-vermin.
- Garbage Pit: A large room with mountains of garbage half-submerged in a sea of sludge. More garbage frequently arrives from holes in the ceiling. A monster lurks here, may pull prey underwater.
- Hydroponic Pool A room with a large pool filled with plants. A ceiling full of bright lamps. A spherical gardener-droid takes care of the plants. An armored security droid used to patrol this area. Other rooms are unexplored.
Poll
1 (6.7%)
Author
Topic: Surviving in an Alien World [Suggestion Game] (Read 106751 times)