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StefanPWinc β Axe
Published: 2014-01-19 22:49:49 +0000 UTC; Views: 629; Favourites: 10; Downloads: 3
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Description
Alex has plenty of work to do, and that includes chopping up wood for the winter....
Or... maybe one of the chickens has gotten sick, and maw says it's time to put her out of her misery...
Or maybe Alex is a mad serial killer >:3
You decide
*Hint, Alex is not a serial killer... atleast not of humans 
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Comments: 103
Alex: *blushes* that's aweful kind of you to say, but i'm not that smart... plus I dunno what I wanna be anyway... maybe I'll be like min and go to a farm animal vet college though? or maybe I'll get into an engineering place... or a place to do Biology or Geology or something... or maybe I'll just take some farmin' courses and stay to help out on the family farm... I don't got a clue
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Piper: Same here. Business law is my first choice of a major, but it might change at any moment.
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Alex: Got a second choice?
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Piper: I was thinking about a musical degree when I was fourteen, and before that, a vet.
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Alex: Huh... so... why buisness law? that sounds kinda borin'
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Piper: Well, my dad's a politician, and since I don't want to be seen as the daughter of Paul Stromwell, law is the next best thing.
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Alex: *shrugs* fair enough... if I ever get sued by Monsanto I'll call yah! ^^
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Piper: Mon-who-now?
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Alex: It's a company that makes all these genetically modified seeds and pesticides and such... sometimes try and sue farmers when their plants get blown over and infest their farms... do y'all have that back there?
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Piper: Well, we have MechaCorp, which is pretty much the same thing on a larger scale- in addition to GMOs, they produce electronics, apps, and the occasional must-buy toy of Christmas.
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Alex: ... Oh... I see... do they own like a monopoly on everything?
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Piper: Well, most things. They're actually a relatively small business compared to juggernauts like Itex and SkyNet.
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Alex: Skynet... that sounds familiar for some reason... *shrugs* I know there's a lawyer somewhere in town... maybe I can ask if he can come along....
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Piper: Doesn't he only have a Wisconsin bar license? He'd need a Virginia one to go against one of them.
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Alex: >_> I dunno
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Piper: I really don't know either...
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Or, maybe the mad serial killer is in the woods, and Alex is ready to defend herselfβ¦
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Alex: They tell stories of the hatchet man... who finds kids and lures him to his cabin... and then cooks them up and eats them!... I don't believe those stories course but uh... you can never be too safe....
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[just so we don't get the various RP-streams crossed, let's say this one is Future-Alex and Morta, say, aged 9, while Morta is back on the planet for a couple of weeks; to set the scene, Morta's hair is dyed black, and she's dressed in semi-goth style; if you've been reading the book, that should place whenabouts on her timeline this is 
Morta: *grabs a heavy stick from the ground, brandishes it* Let's go find 'im!
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Alex: I bet he doesn't even exist!
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Morta: *quizzically* 'ow d'you know?
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Alex: There are plenty of silly stories like that... it's probably not true... *gets a sly smile* PROBABLY
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Morta: Don't you think we have a duty to investigate β¦ ya know β¦ JUST IN CASE
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Alex: fair enough, even if it is a myth, which it TOTALLY IS, we can still have fun ^^
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Morta: Well, if he WAS real, yanno, COUNTERFACKCHULLY, I bet 'e'd live out in Gdnofk Woods outside a' town. I got a neighbour I bet'd lend us 'is quad bike
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"Heck yah... as long as I can drive :3 "
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"Wellll β¦ you can go first - but I wanna turn too!"
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Alex: Ok! ^^ Let's go! *grabs Morta's hand and runs with her over to the neighbor who has several 4 wheelers
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*The girls find Morta's neighbour, Kemal, in his garage - one among many garages in a row behind the long terrace in which Morta and her Dad have their timeshared flat. The neighbourhood is an old one, from the time of the first human terraformers to settle on Fowgts 4, and was once quite upscale - but the wealthier residents moved to the artificial islands in the Okshp Sound a generation ago, and the big houses got subdivided into low-rent apartments. There are numerous quadbikes in Kemal's garage, some whole, others in various states of disassembly, and one which Kemal is in the process of removing the gearbox from. On the back wall, there is a new-looking cubic-metre fabricator. The air in the garage is cold, and sharp with oil and cigarette smoke. Kemal is a tall, crop-haired, angular eighteen year-old, wearing an oil-grimed overall, steel-toed workboots, and a single chunky silver chain around his neck. On hearing someone approaching, he quickly stubs out his cigarette and flicks it under a workbench - then looks visibly relieved on seeing Morta and Alex*
Morta: Hey, K-man! Wow, this lot's new!
Kemal: *in Turkish, automatically translated by Morta and Alex's translation engines* Yeah, my mum said if I was going to spend my time mucking around with quads instead of staying in school, I should make a business out of it! If the repairs keep up, Mum and Dad are going to be my sponsors on a business loan, so I can get proper premises and a license for the fab! I'm even prototyping my own designs!Β
Morta: *fistbumping with Kemal* Dude! That rocks! Alex, this is my gettin'-suspended-from-school-an'-doin'-dares buddy, Kemal - Kemal, this is my brawlin'-an'-huntin'-frogs buddy, Alex!
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Alex's eyes light up with excitement upon seeing Kemal's garage. the sharp smell of oil smells good to her, though she's not a fan of the cigarette smell, she glances around at the gearbox and all the tools, and then focuses her attention on Kemal, who on first impression she finds really cool, and she sets herself in the mindset that she wants to befriend him and do mechanics with him... she always meant to get more into that... She grins up at him, trying not to be shy, and says "Hi Kemal!... your workshop is really cool! nice to meet you!" And she wipes her dirty hand off on her overalls and holds it out to him
((Alex: Can I do dares too? I'm really darin'! ))
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Kemal shakes Alex's hand, then startles back on sight of the axe on Alex's shoulder.
Kemal: Morta: We're gonna hunt murderers in Gdnofk woods! π: 0 β©: 1
Alex: Mind if we borrow a 4 wheeler.... If you wanted compensation I'd be happy to help out in your garage sometime... Or uh *scratches her side* just for fun *gives him a hopeful smile* you can come too if you want!
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Kemal: *rolls eyes*
Morta: Aww, come on K - we promise not to get bits of murderer on 'em!
Kemal: *regarding Alex skeptically* *to Morta* What's your friend like? Would she be any good in the garage?
Morta: *unhesitatingly* Oh hell yeah. Alex is strong, an' smart, an' 'andy with a weldin' rig, an' not scared of 'ard work or gettin' dirty. She's in top set for engineerin' too! Trust me, dude, *nudges Kemal with an elbow* she's the girl for the job!
Kemal: Well β¦ *sighs* β¦ I do have a couple of prototypes that need testing. *pulls out a pair of quads from the back of the garage; one blue, with a pair of large exhaust pipes; one orange, with a large set of cooling blades at the rear; both maybe a little large for the girls, but not so much as to put them off* You can take them out if you don't mind running diagnostics and telemetry. I gotta get this thing *indicating the dismantled gearbox* back together before dinner, but β¦ *to Alex* if you wanna help out in the garage, talk to me when you get back, OK?
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Alex: thanks! I'd love too! I'll help out with whatever yah like! And thanks for the wheelers! *hops onto the blue one, setting the axe in a closed compartment, salutes back at Kemal and then grinning, speeds out of his garage* "last one to the forest is a rotten hag-frog egg!"
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Morta: *speeds out of the garage afterΒ Alex; over a voice-channel* Seeya K! I promise we'll give ya good data!
*Morta catches up with Alex pretty quickly, but Alex keeps jumping ahead whenever they have to corner sharply or stop. It's clear that the two prototypes are quite different designs. Morta's is faster on a straight path, with a much more powerful engine, but it's also quite a bit heavier. It has 4-wheel steering, and the body-core is articulated to lean into the turns with Morta, to compensate for the extra weight. Alex's has two-wheel steering, and lacks the extra articulations, but is still is the more manoeuvrable of the two. The other notable difference is the noise; Morta's is virtually silent, while Alex's lets out a buzzing roar that crescendos with every acceleration*
Morta: *coming up beside Alex, shouting over the engine noise* Woah, yours is crazy loud! I wonder wot the reaction mass is?
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Alex: Gasoline maybe? *giggles* if there's a murderer in here he'll hear us coming from miles away!
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Morta: Bloody hope it's not hydrocarbons! That's wot did for Earth! *rounding a corner, out of the residential streets, across the flowering meadow the locals still call "the old motorway", onto the final stretch of straight path before Gdnofk Woods; she twists the grip and accelerates ahead of Alex* HAhaaaaa!
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Alex: Hey! get back here! *cranks the throttle up to max and chases after her*
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Morta: LOLNOPE! *maxes out her own accelerator and zooms ahead; on a straight path, Morta's quad is just faster; once under the canopy, she turns off the path and rides up the side of a small rise, then comes to a halt at the top, to let Alex catch up*Β
*Gdnofk woods, as the name suggests, predates the general settlement treaty, and this is reflected in the mixture of dendroid species - both native and Terran; The natives are fernlike, with red-brown leaves, and trunks and branches reinforced by ridged, twisted helices of a calciferous snailshell-like material; The imports from earth are birches, rowans, sycamores, and giant 'accelerated oaks' that seem rather too straight for their size. The terrain is rugged, with lots low ridges of rock, like the one Morta stopped on, revealing differentially weathered strata of sedimentary rock, which ancient plate-tectonic forces flipped from horizontal to vertical*
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Alex's rumbles up next to hers, and she smiled and admires the surroundings "Ain't it beutiful?" she said happily "So... if you were an axe murderer... were would you be hidin'... there are caves underground around here right? maybe we'll find him in onenna those?
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Morta took in a deep breath of fresh air and grinned broadly. "Yeah!" she said "and, yeah, there are caves, but I betcha, if there is an axe-murderer, he'd use a cave-entrance much deeper into the forest - otherwise, someone might notice someone wuz livin' in it. I reckon we gotta go in further!"
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Alex: Sounds good... looks like we might be in the forest for a while... Β we might need to camp over night... you ain't scared of sleeping in the forest at night, are yah?
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Morta: Hehe - not even with axe murderers in! Double sleepover gambit?
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Alex: Yep! ^^ C'mon then, we gotta find a good spot deep in the woods to camp... do you got any thing on yah to scan for caves? you know my mom only let's me have real basic tech and implants.
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Heh. I'm not allowed implants either, 'cept for an immune chip. I got wearables and wot I can stuff in my pockets. Other'n downloadin' a map, I don't think I can sense caves from here, but if we find one, I can probably find echo-imaging software to get an idea of how deep it goes. *opens a 3d map of the island in a shared AR channel, adds geologic data layers* ... more limestone over to the north-east, there - I betcha that's where the best caves'll be.
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Alex: Sounds good... wanna lead the way? if we go at 30 kilometers per hour it should take us only an hour or so to get deep enough where we can set up camp
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Morta: Sure! *opens a private Augmented Reality channel, shares it with Alex, and creates a trail of blue sparkles to follow behind her, so Alex can follow easily even if she's out of line of sight, then twists the accelerator and tears down the other end of the ridge, deeper into the woods*
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*An hour later, they are deep inside the woods and away from any human settlement, they find an entrance to one of the caves in part due to the bio-lumiencent slime that rings the gradient and uses the wind blowing out of the cave for energy*
I reckon this one's as good as any to start lookin' for an axe murderer... or just have a ton of fun exploring and getting filthy!... will these be safe out here? *hops off her four wheeler*
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Morta: Sure they will!
*pauses*
Hey, this cave has quite a breeze - I reckon it must come out somewhere else. *slips a torch out of one of her cargo pockets* Wanna find out where?
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Alex: *pulls a little headlamp from her bib pocket* you know it! Β *flicks on the intelligent light, gets down on her knees and starts crawling inside, poking the slime curiously, it seems to have some sort of gills or fan structure*
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