Quote from Jeanette on Apr 16^th, 2017, 9:45pm:

 
Note: I'll stick my head out on this one...
Memories are probably the last thing these people would want. They have been kidnapped, about to be sold into slavery if it were not for the actions of Fernando and Hondo, those of their families who tried to fight were killed, those who tried to escape were killed, property destroyed, crops burned, valuables and vehicles stolen or destroyed, those who survived are left with little to recover and nothing to work with. IN short, they have noting to go home too, not even a home. They decided that it would better to start a new life elsewhere with what little they got.
 
With Ruth and the girls, as farm girls, they can do almost any job out there needed, including some basic mechanical work to repair their camper and they are not shy for hunting, fishing and killing animals for survival. But they are still girls (Ruth and Joanna being the oldest as just barely over 20). That does not mean that they are lesser than men, but lets face it, they are weaker in strength compared to Fernando or Hondo. And they got needs to tend too (their monthly cycle interfering with some things in life. You can't be a happy camper dealing with menstrual cramps for a week straight). But that is not an issue, just a distraction.
 
Maribelle knows little to nothing of hunting, fishing, or anything else. She had servants bring her food, drink and things as she played dressed up with her life sized Teri-Doll and then went out to down and she what she could do to vey for political favors and power for sexual favors with Teri being the one that was "#$@!ed over in the deal." In short, Maribelle is not making any deals unless she knows she is going to profit from it. And from what she seen of her home, better to sell what she has now and take the money and run. She may own 20,000 acres but the crops were burnt an no farming equipment or farm hands to make it into a profitable business.
 
This Purge, as Hondo (the character) would like to blame himself, is not his fault. Key hint - Ruth, Joanna and the other girls were already victims of a purge and were kidnapped to be sold as sex slaves. All our actions may have did is accelerate it, but we are the ones that ended it. But this "Purging" is an absolute resolution of taking, raping burning, killing and destroying to put a community in fear of it can happen to them. Thus there is little remaining behind if a family or families were purged by the Slavers. And those who survived a Purging would rather want to forget what happened than remember what they had afterwards.
 
Out of Maribelle's family of brothers, and cousins, and their connection relations to the family (uncles, aunts, father, mother, etc.), and those she grew up with humans and wessens who served the family, She and Teri (and Karl) are the only ones that remains. Ruth, Joanna, their younger sisters and 2 toddler nephews are the only ones that remain out of a large extended family of 2 farms, though not as big as Maribelle's plantation, it provided food and money for the family; they are the only ones that remains. Especially the boys, who Fernando found in a smashed up box trailer in a ditch and their parents in their van shot up and killed, how are they going to grow up with that trauma? At least for them they have a set of loving cousins that will raise them to be good men. But do you really want them to remember what they had and remember what happened to them? That will traumatize them even further.
 
As nice as the deal may sound, it is not a good one because such memories will open up wounds of what has happened to them. If Jeanette needs a vehicle for what ever reason, that's not a problem. There are hundreds of vehicles out there in various conditions along the highways that can be recycled, and she can even buy a recycled former slaver's truck like Karl's SUV or Ruth's camper from town if so needed. But if she or the spirits what to preserve memories, it is best that it be left alone, in my humble opinion.
 

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RPG:
 
"If it was not taken, it was set on fire." Maribelle tells them before asking, "Why do you want another ride?"

Note: The only issue or problem I have is a semi deliberate one I created. The Box Trailer Camper Karl has on his SUV is smaller than a Dub Box Trailer everyone else is towing. But it has a private bathroom, while everyone else has a semi private bathroom and shower. Only Ruth’s Box Truck Camper and Hondo’s Camper have private bathrooms. The problem is with Maribelle; she’s going to try to take over the trailer from Karl as he is in condition to argue back. And Karl’s Box Trailer Camper was meant to separate the sexes; which with the introduction of Maribelle creates a situation that it no longer does.  
 
Another situation is the introduction of Marvin, La La and Li Li. Under the best of circumstances, they should get a vehicle with a camper. Key word is “Should.” But with Karl temporarily unfit to drive (dizziness from the concussion he is recovering from He would not be able to drive in a straight line) and other situations going on, there are not enough drivers to the number of vehicles at present. So this is not the best of situations. With their own vehicle/camper, they can have a place to sleep and take care of their private needs. But for now, the girls can sleep with Maribelle and Teri, and Marvin and Karl can temporarily sleep in Fernando’s Dub Box Camper for the time being. Marvin is going to have to drive Karl’s SUV for him for now.
 
A person like Maribelle’s father would have restored old cars handed down from owner to owner, like a ’69 Corvette Stingray. Or a ’66 1/2 Ford Mustang (first year for them). Great muscle cars for their days with over 500hp on a stock engine but to get that much power then meant spending a lot a fuel, as they would average less than 10 miles to the gallon. Between towing a camper and going across the distance, you can see the needle go from “F” to “E” on their 10 gallon tanks (a VW Bug or Bus of that vintage would get about 25 to 30 mpg). Making it worst is they can be very pick as to what fuel you put in; they require high octane fuels, which is harder and more expensive to get.
 
These are situations I am going to have to figure out in the next several posts.
 
Note II: as we leave this town to get to others, do know that not everyone signed or agrees with the treaty Fernando created. Fight Town would be one such town. Reason being, there is too much money to be made in forcing others into situation of slave entertainment (Fighting, Sex, etc.). There is an underworld within the Fight Town community that is making sure this continues to be no matter what. Is it a necessary evil? It depends on how deep this evil is rooted. And as it is said through the generations, “Money s the root of all evil” Such things should be allowable if there are those willing to partake in it. Prize fighters for one, fight to prove they are the top fighters out there. There are many out there that do this, but how many begin is as a slave or kidnapped person thrown into the ring and see how long they last.
 
Another situation in Fight Town, which the girls  have to watch out for, which is still tied to slavery, is ”Ala Kachuu” – kidnapping of a young woman or girl to be put through a forced marriage and eventual rape. It does not matter the age of the woman (Mid Teens to Middle Aged Adult) or her marital status with anyone else, if she looks like something that someone paid to get, then she is a target for kidnapping and forced marriage and eventual rape to “consummate” that marriage. Sometimes the female is known to the male (targeted “Ala Kachuu”), other times it is a random female (random “Ala Kachuu”). But in Fight Town, the females of the group should not ever go out alone, not even in broad day light.
 
http://www.dw.com/en/kyrgyzstan-kidnapped-into-marriage/av-38103937
http://www.dw.com/en/bride-kidnapping-in-kyrgyzstan/av-38248755
 
The situation is, though the treaty is spreading far and wide, there are those that will not agree to it nor sign it. Slavia by agreement of the treaty has stopped such practices, but there will be others to fill in the void that Slavia’s absence is leaving. Naturally, this is for much later and future posts.
 
BTW – Roasted Locusts is a nice touch. Not many would know that insects are a part of various diets like in South East Asia, China, Korea and Japan. Even in the Middle East and Africa insects are eaten as a snack or a meal. It depends on how they are ‘cooked.’
 
A Bone to throw at you as a writer, is Maribelle’s stash of vintage wines. Of course a bottle or two would be for Mavis but the rest would be an income producer for Maribelle if she does not end up drinking into her profits. If she can remotely run the farm from Charlton, then she can have more money coming from selling wine. This is a case of her not thinking as she was not taught to think that far in advance like her father does. All she thinks about is for the here and now and does not plan for the future like her father did. Problems here carrying all those bottles of wine. There might be a couple of barrels of wine that also survived.
 
The vault they hid in (There would be another shelf of wine bottles on the right not shown here, the room wider and all three walls would be full of wine bottles, and the door would be camouflaged. The shelves would be more like the second pic.):



 
The main wine room would be with aisles of shelves for bottles up to 10 years vintage for rapid market and on the walls the barrels for mass selling like these. One or two barrels could have survived but their size would make it difficult without another vehicle to tow them. The bottles alone would a problem to take town to town and sold on the market. These are things Maribelle is used to having others do for her, not she doing it herself. But these were things her father was in charge of.
 

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RPG:
 
“Eating insects are for those who are poor and desperate.” Maribelle says, forgetting the situation that she herself is in. “Maybe you can talk to Ruth and Joanna and see if they have anything left over from their farm.”

Note:
I’m sure Hondo can say nice things about the F-150 with L-6 4.9L (300) engine. For me it’s a descent engine for its size and power. Hondo’s truck is a Ford as well as I can tell but I think its Diesel. The F-150 and F-250 can be either Gas or Diesel. But that’s not the issue. Its size is. Is it single cab, double cab, short bed, regular bed or extended bed? And is the bed being used or is it removed and replaced with something else? As trucks go, Fords tend to be the most flexible in what you can do with it, followed by Dodge and then Chevy/GM. Look at Hondo’s camper, based on a modified (I think) F-250 Double Cab (making it a triple cab) with extended bed removed for the camper. It’s about 3/4 the size of a school bus.

 
Thus its size will determine what will be used for. And whether or not it will be towing a camper or supply trailer (Val’s Bronco tows a supply trailer and Hondo’s tows a modified camper trailer to house their motor cycles and other things in it).
 
Mavis may be an issue, as if all things go well on this leg of the trip, it may be Sunrise when they hit town. The issue is not the distance though that was covered in a previous post of it being about 75 (if I am correct), but the condition of the highway making a long trip slow. Unless she is protected from the sunlight, there might be an issue. Let’s see how it is handled.
 
Note II:
The sleeping arrangement can be an issue as the possibility of males and females mixing can happen. The female wessens are Sex Kittens (or Sex Puppies, the terms are interchangeable), and though what happens with adults is on them, we have children in the camp. Last thing we need is for them to catch a “free sex show” going on. And the people in Jason’s Tractor are also sexually active individuals as well. Plus whatever is left with male/female character connections that are there are held to their owners. This is why I’m separating the males from the females. There are possibilities with male X male and female X female (or any combination thereof) sexual activity going on but again, I leave that to the character owners to keep things in check. I hope I can trust those in the RPG to keep things clean, and if anything does happen, it happens “behind closed doors.”
 
This is not about the sexual act itself, or of the characters doing this but of respect, self-respect and modesty. If characters fall in love or have a crush, that is part of the story. Likewise, characters are going to get hurt and even killed, that is part of the story.
 
Remember – Maribelle is walking in a cloud of denial at this point. Thus her answer will be the wrong one unless somebody tells her of the possibility of what can be done with her things. A 30 year old bottle of wine could go for hundreds of dollars, but she is not aware of that. A 15 year old bottle of wine could go for $25 to $50, again, she does not know this. As for her clothing, why? They are things she only wore once and probably will never wear again, though she does not know that she could sell them to Mrs. Clean for a healthy sum. All she thinks is they are only good for dressing up her “Teri-doll.”
 
If Moro gets a truck, to tow Maribelle’s things she would need a large modified camper trailer behind it to haul it all. Would that be worth it? I do not think so. It is best to limit her with what she has and only that.
 
BTW - Maribelle can drive but Fernando does not trust her and would only let her drive if it is a last resort.
 

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RPG:
 
“There is no room in the camper for all my things to be in it. And what am I going to do with 130 bottles of wine? You going to drink it with me?” Maribelle explains.

Quote from Jeanette on Apr 17^th, 2017, 4:16pm:

 
I should have paid more attention to this, especially where it is bolded.
 
In this town, “Jerry” of “Jerry’s Camping & Trailer Shop” handles trailers of various sizes. There are two sized Dub Boxes based on the VW Bus body (7/8th and 1/2 the size of the VW Bus). Then there is Karl’s Camper which is a bit bigger the size of the smaller Dub Box (or 2/3rds of the large Dub Box). And then there are the tiny Tear Drop trailers – their roofs pop up for more room inside but no bathroom and the kitchen is outside. Karl was expecting this when Fernando got him the trailer. The there are larger trailers up to 30ft or the size of a school bus, and everything in between. Thing is, they are all rolling wrecks which he and his crews take and fix up in a couple of hours. They do the cleaning, painting, reupholstering plumbing, electrical up to the buyer’s specs. Everything they got they found and recycled. In the case of Ruth and Joanna, they took the Box Panel truck and turned it into a camper as per Fernando’s specs. Electrical can be fuel generator, solar panel, wind turbine or just battery that recharges when the vehicle is in motion. It takes between 2 to 3 hours to get a trailer from trash to near new livable condition, and are cheap. The Campers Fernando and Hondo got averaged about $250 each; including the materials and work done to fix them up. Why so low though? That I have not figured out. Considering they recycled everything, they just got junk lying about. Fixing and selling them lighten up their inventory and gets their crews to work. In this town, anyone who needed a trailer already has one. So most of their time they spend on fixing what is already out there and not selling those that they got. From the group, Jerry was able to sell 6 camper trailers thus far, with 5 being Dub Boxes. If Jeanette/Moro buys one, it would #7.
 
See posts:
http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1428938728/1607#1607
http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1428938728/1600#1600
http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1428938728/679#679  (reminded me that the Dub Boxes have a pop-up roof and a “thin floor” for somebody light weight to sleep up there.)
 
Dub Box General:
http://www.blessthisstuff.com/stuff/vehicles/misc/dub-box-camper-trailer/
 
Small Dub Box
https://dub-box-usa.com/dinky-dub-camper/  (USA)
http://dub-box.com/index.php/dub-box-range/shortie  (Europe)
 
Large Dub Box
https://dub-box-usa.com/adventure-camper/  (USA)
http://dub-box.com/index.php/dub-box-range/classic-standard-dub-box  (Europe)
 
Karl’s Camper:
http://casitatraveltrailers.com/patriot-deluxe-13/
 
Largest truck towable trailer (though this might be overkill.)
https://winnebagoind.com/product-classes/fifth-wheel
 
Something a bit more realistic on the large size)
https://winnebagoind.com/products/toy-haulers/2017/spyder/overview
 
 
(Just had a massive power surge hit the building. Everything seems fine but lost this part of the file. This is a retyping of the lost text.)
 
The truck (Ford F-150) can be found at various areas in towns as there are many Mechanics. Karl’s SUV was a former slaver’s vehicle that was fixed up through General Jastrey. Jerry or Tom (of Tom’s Fire Arms) may have fixed it or somebody else did, but it was fixed up as a favor for Fernando. But there vehicles up for sale and can be fixed up at the various garages in town. These garages would have parts to sell like tires, hoses and belts, and they can fix up the interiors with new upholstery. Just got find a garage and be friendly with them, changes are they know Fernando and Hondo by name. But such repairs are an hour or more to do, though several people will work the vehicle all at once at the same time.

Note answers:  damn, y'all are playing my song! Ford trucks.... what don't I know about them, well I don't know everything about them but I know a shit ton about them. Hondos camper truck is assault a modified f650. Damn things SUV pickup on a small semi chassis. Now the fords with the 300 I6s ... I have personally owned several. I have owned most types except the large 550 and 650 but have worked on and driven them. Future dream trucks. Anyway, I have two currently. Can type bed etc do matter., as well as year. We talking fuel inject or carb? If carb has it been souped up or is it stock? Also what tranny? Year again Mary furs on that. If you want to pull a trailer you are iiokibg. At the wrong rig. The I6 is a nigh indestructible engine but you pull a trailer with it and your fuel mileage will suck! It has the low end take off torque but not the ponies. The 300 i6 and the 302 v8 are twins. They are compirible engines. The i6 has low end torque that the 302 never could get close too but the long stroke limits its rpms, which is where a lot of your horse power is derived. The 303 has high rpm capabilities and can grasp at horse power that the i6 can only dream of but it will never have the starting line torque of the i6. All that being said try pulling a loaded trailer with either and you will kill the fuel mileage as they are under powered for this task. I will post some suggestions in a bit but I hafta go for a few here.
 
Hondo