ic Down on the Farm [IC]

[Dr Archeville]

2024 March 15, 9:00am

Halfway to Medford, New Jersey (about 20 miles NNW of Freedom City)

~60^o, gentle breezes (~10 mph), cloudy

 

Field trips!  Hands-on learning, a vital part to any well-rounded education!  And this was the most classic form of that time-honored tradition: a trip to a working farm!  With beef and dairy cows, hogs and chickens, and numerous orchards covering its 250+ acres, Medford Farms had been serving the lower half of the state for over two centuries, and was always eager to welcome curious students.

 

And these students were curious indeed, coming from a most curious school.  As the Claremont Academy van pulled off Highway 40 and started down a side road (to avoid a construction crew), the four students within -- Owain "Copper Knight" Celliwig, Jonah "Jotunn" Janse, Ryan "Sever" Jacobs, and Michael "Golden Star" Adon -- were busy with their own thoughts.

 

 

[Poncho]

Michael had dressed down for a field trip. Which meant he was still wearing a nice button down plaid shirt and some work jeans. He still had his backpack with him, reading through a current study guide he'd put together for history class. He'd recently gotten really into The Communion, for very obvious reasons, so he was going over their history.

 

But as the bus trundled on he paused and got up. 

 

"Alright! I know this is the first time we've gotten together as a group really, though we have that party at Midnight Hour later, but I decided to make some commemorative buttons for us!"

 

He held out three buttons, one for each of the other boys; a deep blue background divided into fourths with a black X, with the first letter of each one of the guy's name in one of the fourths; R,O,J,M.

 

"I hope you like them."

[Avenger Assembled]

Owain smiled at Michael and clapped him on the arm. "Michael! Thank you!" he said, taking the button and immediately pinning it to his blue flannel shirt. "An auspicious token of what will surely be a fine day." He sat back on his bench, peering thoughtfully out the window as they approached the farm, his mind going back to places not so distant from this one. 

 

"Tis remarkable, is it not?" he declared cheerfully. "In this age of city and machine, these people earn their keep by selling visits to their farmstead! It reminds me of the zoo." And hadn't that been a conversation, when he and Neko had first toured this one. "Perhaps we'll have a chance at riding horses while we're there. 'Zounds, it's been ages since I got my hands on good horseflesh..." He added speculatively.

[Thunder King]

Ryan took the button. "Thanks."
 

Michael was...intense. A good guy, and one that Ryan enjoyed the company of, but he was a lot. Not in a bad way, but Ryan sometimes worried about him. Worried if he was doing too much, being too much.

 

Still, he took the button and put it on the light jacket he wore. He was not dressed for a farm. Plain t-shirt, light jacket, jeans. He did have on his pair of boots, though, they weren't farming boots. They were a pair of military boots someone had donated to the orphanage last year.

 

At the time, nobody had big enough feet to wear them, but Ryan grew into them. They had been brand new at the time, but were growing worn.

 

Luckily, Ryan knew he had enough money to buy a new pair when he needed them.

 

He was actually eager to visit the farm. He liked the idea of visiting a farm, seeing how things were done. He was as much a city boy as anyone else, but he was quite curious. Plus, he did think animals were cool.

Edited March 26 by Thunder King

[Dr Archeville]

GM Post

 

The teen's conversations were interrupted by a frantic "What's that?!" yelled out by the van driver.

 

As the van pulled to a stop in the middle of the dirt road, the teens could see an old pickup truck, its red paint faded from decades of use, horn blaring constantly.  It sat sideways on the road, blocking any traffic from movig either way along the route, but was still running.  Inside, a figure sat slumped over the wheel, laid across the wheel and setting the horn off.

 

"You kids stay here," the van's driver, Mr. Murtagh, called back as he undid his seat belt, "I'm gonna go check this out."  In a moment, he was out the door and walking briskly up to the truck.  "Hey, mister!," the teens could hear him clal out, "are you okay?  Mister?"

 

[Poncho]

Michael frowned as Mr. Murtagh got out of the bus, but he wasn't going to argue. Instead he made his way to the front to watch from the window as the man called out.

 

"...Don't you think it would be better for one of us to go out with him?" he half-asked no one, half asked the others as he leaned over the dividing seatback to watch the interaction curiously. "If it's a damage tire or something one of us could probably help lift the car or something, right?" He didn't really make a move himself at that exact moment; he was too respectful to do anything like that, and while he was always a very nosy person, he was also trying to be more thoughtful these days. Enough dangerous adventures with Lawrence had made him realize the benefit of slowing down, at least for a moment, to examine the situation.

 

So instead he looked at the others to see what they felt like the goal should be here.