July Character Building Challenge 2020

Your characters are spending the day at an amusement park. What do they do?

The Old World 🌎 , as far as most people are concerned, is uninhabitable. But just above the surface is LeBey, a colony made up of the ones left behind. The colony creates a grid over the planet. If one wanted to get to the surface, they would have to pass through LeBey. Any usable piece of Earth was taken and protected by the people of LeBey. Like any other colony, there are nice parts... but any normal person definitely wouldn't want to stray out of the parks. The residents are known for being openly against the IPA. CSP doesn't regulate LeBey. They have their own forms of law enforcement.

I only ever come to LeBey to restock on herbs and seeds, but ultimately they seem to be peaceful and kind people to me. One can find all forms of entertainment in the parks. Old World ferris wheels and rollercoasters, fortune tellers with Old World "magic", and of course there is plenty of new tech. Submersive Tanks are all the rage. Once submerged a thin layer of oxygen forms around the body. Then microscopic nanobots suspend your body in a form of stasis and take your mind to all sorts of places -- Old World amusement parks, other planets, other solar systems, on a romantic adventure across the galaxy. People spend hours in those tanks. Technology creeping into my body... into my mind, doesn't really sit right with me.

Once we dock, our crew splits up. Some of us heading to the park entrance and others to the pods that lead outside of the parks. There's always a small crowd heading toward the pods -- park workers heading home or those that seek a different kind of entertainment. Less family friendly games, clubs, and trysts can be found outside of the parks.

I head to the usual stall inside the park, where a gray haired woman wearing a name tag that says "Sally" greets me with a smile.

"Cyn! What can I do ya for today?"

I smile back at her. I know her name isn't Sally, but park employees are strictly forbidden from telling guests their real names. I assume this is a rule created in paranoia.

"Hey, Sally," I start, "how have you been?"

"Oh, you know, just tired. The city's been restless at night the past couple months. You've been out terraforming a while."

"Definitely feels like forever. I'm all out of stock," I tell her.

She frowns at me.

"I only have some dogwood saplings left, sweetheart. Your brother was by here about a week ago and wiped me out."

I grimace. Of course he was -- brat.

"He specifically told me to leave these dogwoods for you."

I take a closer look at them, they seem like normal saplings. Most trees that have been engineered have a maker's mark near the base. My brother hated this and almost never left our family mark on anything.

"I'll take them." Dogwood trees natural healing properties amplified were more useful on most planets than any other plant. If Sebastian engineered them, who knows what they can do. I'd have to inspect them properly once I was back in the lab on Sky Garden.

I trade her a few notes for the saplings, which I carefully place in my sack.

"Do you know if anyone else has herbs and fruits?"

"Not in the parks, sweetheart," she says this and the wisdom of her age gleams through her eyes. She's waiting to see if I dare continue where this conversation is leading. Normally I wouldn't. But we do need more supplies, not just for the next 3 planets being terraformed, but for Sky Garden. Food, medicine, basic ointments and remedies for the whole crew comes from my Sky Garden pod. I used a lot of our own crops on the last planet. Ordinarily, if I couldn't find it on LeBey, I'd wait until we docked at the Squares. Something tells me the crew wouldn't want to wait half a week to eat.

"Could you draw me a map," I ask as I move to hand her my C-Pad.

"Of course, I'd hate to see you lost outside of the parks," she says as she pulls out a sheet of paper from inside her stall. Paper in itself is a rare sight. This particular sheet of paper has a map and directions already on it. A sheet of paper with my brother's chicken scrawl all over it. Scribbled hastily across the top of the page says, T-A-K-E---M-A-R-K-H-A-M.

HAH!

Will would kill me, I think immediately.

But I shouldn't go alone. I thank Sally and head off to find Markham. I spot him coming off a large capsule that spins several times, disconnects mid air and drops into the water below. A large magnetic crane picks the capsule back up and places it back on the launching platform. You couldn't pay me to ride that.

"MARKHAM!" I call out to him.

He's laughing and holding a girl's hand. She's unfamiliar to me, someone he probably just met vacationing with her family. But of course, once his eyes lock with mine his smile disappears. He taps his communicator against hers and without a word lets go of her hand and stomps towards me. He's still just a kid I remind myself. With how much he contributes on our ship it's easy to forget.

"I need to go into the resident town to get some supplies," I tell him. His smile returns. He is strictly forbidden by Captain Will to leave the parks.

"Whatever you say, Cyn, you're the boss."

We both give each other a knowing look. We both know I'm not the boss and if the boss found out I took her son out of the parks, she'd ground us both for a week on whatever newly terraformed planet had the most work for us.

-------

The resident area is dark with neon lights. During the day the grime and dirt stands out much more. At night it feels almost like a dance club. Most of the places were dance clubs. Following the map, we find ourselves walking down a barely lit street.

"It looks like this is the place," I say, turning the map sideways. I look up to see Markham eyeing me. He clearly doesn't think I'm right.

He holds out a hand and I give him the map. "No offense. You may be a genius. But you have no sense of direction," he says.

"One time. We got lost one time."

"On the way to the Squares! We practically live at the Squares! How can you get lost going someplace you've been going to your entire life?"

"Alright, alright. Just go ahead and check the map," I retort, but all the while praying to whatever being runs this galaxy for this to be the one time I'm not lost.

"This is it." He points at a door behind us.

I was definitely not going to tell him that I was taking us to the other door across the street. I was close enough. That's all he needed to know.

"Of course it is. Who's the adult here?"

"I don't see any? Maybe there's one inside," he says as he runs pass me to get inside before I can knock him over the head. Little cousins are just like little brothers -- brats.

We walk inside an empty room. There is a counter with a woman standing perfectly still behind it. Too still. I register that it's an android just as she begins to speak.

"LeBey Identification, please."

We place our visitor badges on the counter as she scans them.

"Cyn... Sebastian's sister! I am Draiya. I have been waiting for your arrival. Please tell me which dock number your pod ... Sky Garden ... is located."

"13?" I respond.

Her eyelids blink three times.

"Is that an answer or a question?" the droid asks in confusion.

"An answer," Markham says.

"Thank you, sir."

Markham never questions the weird situations Sebastian puts us in. I on the other hand never stop questioning the strange things my brother gets himself, and us, into.

"Your items will be delivered to your ship," Draiya informs us. "Here is your itemized receipt." It's always nice to get a receipt when you aren't the one picking up the bill. I mull over it to see what my brother is giving me. Most of the plants on the list have been engineered already, but a third of the list has not. On the back of the receipt my brother drew out the genetic molecules of the dogwood saplings. Engineered. On the corner of the back of the receipt is a drawing of a minstrel, with X's for eyes. Our symbol for poison.

If Will found out I was bringing poisonous trees onto the ship, she'd detach my pod mid route and let me float around until someone found me. So I quickly tuck the receipt into my sack before Markham can take a look at it.

"Let's get back to the ship," I say to him.

"Sure thing. Thanks Draiya," he says to the droid as he holds open the door for me to walk through.

I think of the poisonous dogwoods in my sack the whole way back to the ship. "Little brothers," I mumble with a tone of annoyance. Upon arriving at the ship we see all of the fruits, medicinal herbs and roots, saplings and seed packets being loaded onto the ship.

"Little brothers!" Markham says excitedly. "Ya'll are lucky to have us."