Tracking: Urban v. Wilderness; Thursday, Period Three [ 10/07 ].

[colourfulscents.livejournal.com]

The class would find a note on the door telling them to head into town and meet at the Trooper Station, because it would just be foolish of Angua to not use that particular resource to her advantage. It also may have suggested that they'd do well to explore more of those routes on the way there, but, if they felt so inclined to just walk and be boring, they could, but she'd wonder why.



Once inside the station, they wouldn't find Angua until they ventured back into the cells, the ones that, if it wasn't for Ralph's daily machinations, would be overwhelming Angua with dust right now. "Morning, everyone," she met met them with a smile, moving back and gesturing them all to file in. "Come on in, there's plenty of space even for a group as big as this one. Hopefully, this is the first and only time I'll see any of you in here, and the first and only time you yourself are in here, unless you're in my position, but, even then, I'd be a little questionable.

"Since next week is the big trip and I assume many of you will be going to the mountains, you'll have enough wilderness exposure there. So today is strictly urban, but what we're talking about today can easily be translated. We're focusing on the little things, because the little things are what's going to matter in figuring out what you're tracking and where they're going. It's important to really know your environment so that the moment one of those little things is different, you know it, and you know something is wrong, and you know something needs to happen. You have to utilize every one of your senses. How has the smell changed, the taste, the sight, the feel? Depending on where you are, it's can be easier or harder. But you have to be aware. Our first week showed that you're all very good at being aware of things and acting accordingly, so today's exercise will probably be easy, but it'll hopefully be interesting as well.



"We've got escapees. Somehow, Ralph probably fell asleep on his watch during the only time we've had prisoners and they've slipped out from their cells. I'd like you each to pair up, enter a cell, and start looking around. Start smelling around. Start feeling around, and see if you can come up with how the prisoner escaped. Bonus points if you can manage to discern where they might be headed. I'll be here if you have any questions or want to run any ideas by me."

[[ OCD on the way is up! ]]

[[ Previous Classes ]]

Comments

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[momslilassassin]

"Don't suppose someone snuck in as another Stormtrooper and convinced Ralph there was a prisoner transfer?" Ben asked.

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[weetuskenraider]

"Disguising as a Stormtrooper to sneak in and break someone out of a cell?" Tahiri asked, mischief dancing in her eyes despite her attempt at a disbelieving tone. "Who'd ever do something crazy like that?"

Oh, don't think she hadn't heard the story a million times.

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[momslilassassin]

"A crazy person," Ben agreed, nodding. "Possibly a Wookiee, too."

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[weetuskenraider]

"I think it takes two crazy people and possibly a Wookiee to pull that off," Tahiri remarked, still acting as if she didn't think it was possible. "That is, if it were a cell on something like, say, a Death Star. One person might be able to manage it here, provided they're still crazy enough to dress up as a Stormtrooper."

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[momslilassassin]

"They should be sure to check on the Stormtrooper height requirements first," Ben said thoughtfully.

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri snorted, inelegantly, and moved over to inspect the hinges of the door and the way the bars were fixed. "And not jump down garbage chutes . . ."

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[momslilassassin]

"I can't believe that people need to be reminded not to jump into garbage chutes," Ben said, shaking his head sadly. "Force only knows what kind of creatures might live in there..."

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[weetuskenraider]

To say nothing of getting knocked out and thrown down a garbage chute in stun cuffs, Ben.

"Especially in Fandom," Tahiri added, Very Very Serious indeed. "Where not only could they have tentacles, but they could spit miniature psychedelic tortoises at you."

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[momslilassassin]

Well if certain Tahiris hadn't been all Darksidey McBadtouch, maybe she wouldn't have deserved it.

"Or make you sing nothing but opera for a week," he added.

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[weetuskenraider]

"It's hard to take this seriously when I'm suddenly imagining your dad and Leia and Han getting gremlin-bitten in the trash compactor," she told him under her breath, shooting a playful glare his way.

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[momslilassassin]

Ben grinned back at her. "I've always thought that story needed a little more excitement."

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri snickered and gave the bars of the cell an experimental tug. Nope, that wasn't a possibility.

"That's because it suffers a lot after about the four thousandth retelling."

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[momslilassassin]

"Yeah, as a bedtime story, it lacked a certain element of surprise," he said. "If they were Jedi, I'd wonder if they just put poor Ralph to sleep and slipped his keys off of him. Think other people could do that too?"

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri considered that for a moment, then nodded. "I'm sure most of the magic users could pull it off, and I don't doubt there are technological . . . or," she added quickly, "biochemical means to accomplish the same thing."

Just to be tactful, she slipped into a telepathic sending to continue. And I don't get the sense poor Ralph is the brightest bulb in the kit.

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[momslilassassin]

Yeah, I've gotten that feeling too, he replied, pacing the cell and feeling a little claustrophobic.

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[weetuskenraider]

"Not your favorite place to be?" guessed Tahiri. She spotted a smudge of something on the floor just inside the doorway and knelt to investigate; it looked like strawberry jelly, and smelled like it too.

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[momslilassassin]

"Not in my top ten, no," Ben admitted, crouching next to her. "I'll give you five credits to taste that," he teased.

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[weetuskenraider]

Tahiri grunted the Tusken equivalent of 'bitch, please.' "Ten if you do."

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[momslilassassin]

"I ate ice cream on top of pizza already this week," Ben replied (and voluntarily, it must be admitted), "so it's your turn to eat something weird."

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[weetuskenraider]

"Define weird," requested the girl whose concept of normal cuisine now included both the dodgy things Tuskens scrounged up in the desert and the exceedingly gross things the Yuuzhan Vong occasionally ate directly from the living organisms that secreted them. "But whatever it is, I'm not eating it off the floor of a prison cell."

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[momslilassassin]

"And here I thought you had a sense of adventure," he teased.

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[weetuskenraider]

"I have plenty of a sense of adventure, thank you," Tahiri retorted. "It's what usually lands me in situations where I have to eat things off the ground."

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[momslilassassin]

"Point," Ben conceded. "What do you think the jam signifies?"

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[weetuskenraider]

"That someone had a doughnut at some point," Tahiri guessed, with a you're the one with detective training, not me look. "Which could be nothing, or indicate that at some point fairly recently -- since it's still sticky -- someone dropped one right as they were entering or exiting the cell."

Re: Investigate the Cell -- Tracking, 10/07.

[momslilassassin]

"I'm not sure if the doughnut could've been drugged, maybe?" Ben asked, "but that would mean who ever got arrested was planning on being in here and escaping."