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bakerstreet2018-12-27 11:08 am
marlowe_tops) wrote in bakerstreet2018-12-27 11:08 am
Entry tags:
Homesteading
The (Possibly Post-Apocalyptic) Homesteading Meme
The apocalypse is over, you’ve reached the new world, the colony ship has landed, the bunker has opened, your inheritance has been bequeathed. Wherever you came from, whatever horrors you’ve survived, you’re here now. You’ve made it, and this is going to be your new home. Finally, you’ve found a little patch of land that wasn’t destroyed, or you saved up enough pennies to buy a farm, or you found the perfect fortress to keep back the monstrous hordes outside.
1. We’ve Earned This - Maybe you fought for it, maybe you’re the only surviving humans, maybe you just saved your pennies from your soul-crushing desk job. Either way, you earned this new life, and your own piece of land. Now it’s time to make it a home.
2. Robinson Crusoe - No part of this was planned. But here you are, washed up on this foreign island or distant planet, and you have no choice but to survive. There’s no way to send a message, and no one’s coming to save you. You’re just going to have to use whatever you can salvage from the wreck to make this barren place into a livable home.
3. Hermits Do It Alone - Ever dreamed about just running away from it all? Now’s your chance. You’ve purchased a piece of land somewhere so far remote that you don’t have neighbors anywhere within miles. This is what you want. And yet… you’re not entirely alone. Maybe someone has shown up on your doorstep needing shelter, maybe you just got a new neighbor, or maybe you brought them along (willing or not).
4. Manifest Destiny - Welcome to the new world. Your colony ship has arrived, and whether you’re coming from another planet or just across the sea, this land is yours now. It’s your destiny. You might have to fight the natives for it, or maybe you’ve found somewhere so unappealing or undiscovered that you’ll only be fighting against the elements—and whatever strange new foreign infections reside here.
5. Manifest Zombies - Maybe your manifest destiny (and the zombies or monsters chasing you) has led you to an established settlement. They have safety and food, but they’re not willing to let you in. You’re going to have to prove your worth to them, or you’re going to have to take it.
6. Louisiana Purchase - Expand! Settle! Homestead! Your home country or planet has just made some valuable new territory acquisitions. They’re unoccupied, rich with resources, and going cheap. Pack your trowel and buy plenty of seeds, you’re going homesteading.
7. You, Me, and this Bunker - The apocalypse has come, but you were ready for it! You’ve got your bunker, your water filtration system, your underground crops, and a room full of unwatched DVDs. Get ready to play a whole lot of two-player games of cards, because the two of you are stuck in your new home until the half-life of the nuclear disaster above ticks down to manageable levels. So, probably not within your lifetime.
8. I Think We’re Alone Now - You had your bunker, and you survived. Maybe it’s been only a few months, or maybe you were born inside that bunker, a descendant of the original survivors. It’s safe to emerge at last, into the ruins of what was once our modern society. No one’s alive out there, unless you can find another survivor like yourself. But you can probably find a nice farm somewhere, raid some abandoned grocery stores, and plant some crops.
tl;dr - Farming, housemaking, homesteading. Possibly after the apocalypse or on a new planet. Or just because you want a farm.
Lord Henry “Monty” Montague, Viscount of Disley | A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue
Raven Reyes | The 100
Theo Crain | Haunting of Hill House
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bunker!
as always, there's only static, and his tired voice echoes louder through the cave's broad expanse. he hasn't shaved in a week.]
This is Batman, does anybody read. It's day ninety-seven, 3:41 in the afternoon. If you can hear me, there's food and shelter available at Wayne Manor in Gotham City...
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Coast City. Metropolis. Star City. Still nothing. [He sits back and tents his fingers across his mouth, as though she hadn't been there to hear the radio silence for herself.] From anybody.
I'm going to have to go out there.
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And do what?
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[ he stops before he finishes. 'alive,' he wants to say, but would the hope of that be selfish if there was a good chance it wasn't true? he knows a little something about losing people, after all... ]
Asra | The Arcana
Dutch van der Linde | Red Dead Redemption 2
10K | Z Nation
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Cassandra doesn't make as good of a first impression, threatening the leader at knifepoint. When Tommy finally gets her to calm down they're taken to one of the empty little farm houses that's left. All through their first couple of days there, Cassandra can't shake her suspicion about sticking around. Tommy goes and works the fields with some of the other men to make sure they're able to eat. She repays him by locking the bedroom door and making him sleep on the couch. After a few days, he manages to coax her into leaving her knife hidden and going out to help him work. Paranoid that something will go wrong, she keeps to his side and doesn't speak to anyone.
It isn't until they've been around for nearly two weeks that Cassandra finally speaks. Tommy's given her the space she needs, has been there for her until she's ready to come to terms with their current situation. He promises this isn't permanent, it's just as long as they need to get back on their feet and leave strong. She won't ever admit it out loud but she realizes that he's right, they need this. They need to be here.
It's late one night when he comes plodding back into the tiny farmhouse after keeping guard. He's covered in blood and while it's not unusual to see on either of them, this time it's alarming. Maybe it's the fact that she's freshly bathed and is clean for once. Maybe it's her foolish hope that this place might actually be safe. Whatever the case, she stands up as he enters the house and looks at him with concern. Her feet are moving before she realizes it, and in a rare unguarded moment she wraps her arms around him in a hug. He's her friend, of course she's glad that he's back safely.]
You promised you'd be careful.
[Her voice is soft and almost a croak thanks to her bout of silence. She clears her throat, frowning as she pulls out of the hug. He gets a light hit to his arm for making her worry.]
What happened?
[ooc: I hope you don't mind a Cassandra! We can play it pre-end of s1 or a total AU where everyone lives and things are great. Your choice!]
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[Like Cassandra, when their group of several becomes a group of two, 10K isn't overly concerned about their odds. They'll manage. Out of everyone, she might just be the most wily and cutthroat survivor among them, able and willing to hold her own just as well as he can. They don't need to be taken care of--but they take care of each other. They make a good team that way.
It helps that after all this time they know each other well enough to work well together. He's not at all surprised she's as skittish as a feral cat around the new people--nor does he fault her leaving him to deal on both of their behalves, even if socializing isn't much more his strong suit than hers. Her wariness had been well-earned before Murphy came along. And after...
Well, after the things Murphy had made her do, after what he'd done to her, 10K wouldn't blame her if she didn't trust anyone ever again with a healed bite on her cheek that permanently brands her as different.
He doesn't mind that her mistrust encompasses him at times, either. It's her way. It's what she needs to get by. He gets it.
And claiming the couch just means he can keep watch out the window, anyway.
But then there are other moments--moments like these where she blindsides him with closeness and contact and he can't help but be furiously grateful she was too strong for Murphy to grind down completely.]
You're going to get dirty all over again.
[He sounds amused when both the cheek she'd brushed against him and the hand she'd struck him with come away smeared with the pinkish remnants of his latest tally. 10K, for his part, sports an unbothered smile as he slips his rifle from his shoulder and leans it against the wall.]
I found a Z hiding in a hay bale--or he found me. I wasn't expecting that. [Only 10K could give such an explanation in a tone one generally reserves for an exciting afternoon at the waterpark.] He must have been stuck in there a while, he was ripe.
Thale | Nightflyers
riku | kingdom hearts | ota
John Hancock | Fallout 4
Scarecrow | Batman Arkham Knight | ota
Anders | Dragon Age | OTA
Prince Lotor (Small) | Voltron | OTA
jill valentine | resident evil | ota
Jamie Fraser | Outlander
joel | the last of us
Arthur Morgan | RDR2
Alex Benedetto | GANGSTA. | ota
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[ Alex isn’t even sure where the Handymen had found this group of rough and tumble strangers, but she isn’t really one to protest anything. Even the fact that they are now a permanent fixture in her life no matter how wary she is of this new development. From snippets of conversation she gathered from eavesdropping they are acquaintances of business partners who dealt with information brokers and mercenaries, or some other convoluted method of introduction. They came from somewhere with a similar situation; unjust systems, violence and oppression. A hellish landscape of living. So, it was decided that the safest method of escape was together. To a very remote and secret location. Very few people would be willing to follow such a dangerous group, if they were even able to find them. And in the end her desire to be safe outweighed her nervousness and doubt. She introduced herself with pleasant and friendly smiles, trying her best to be optimistic.
Only she knows nothing about life off the grid. Showing up in short skirts and stilettos is not ideal and just looking at the plot of windswept land has her feeling defeated.
That feeling only intensified when their group announced that they had to scavenge for materials, and that Alex should stay at the farm to take care of their new homestead while they were away. But she would need some sort of protection - just in case. They agreed that her guardian should be someone capable of taking down intruders with ease. So the one named Heine was chosen to stay. Personally Alex thought it might have been a bit of a mean practical joke, he didn’t seem to like her very much and she wasn’t sure if that was better or worse. He scared her a little. But they were left alone while their friends left to search and they were left to their own devices.
She wasn’t sure what to do or say but they would be on their own for some time.
Finally she drummed up the courage to talk to him, rather than just standing in the same spot starring at where their friends had disappeared into the woods. ]
Um, do you know how to make fire? It’s going to get dark and I thought…
[ She trailed off, unsure now. Painful, painful small talk. But they had to start somewhere. ]
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[In the span of a few weeks he had heard the word 'quaint' more than the sum of his life to that point. The association of quaintness and clean county living was romantic as it was shortsighted, but it had met the requirement of being hard to find and harder to follow them to. The additional occupants were the catch and until proven otherwise held in suspicion.
The others seemed fine with their share of weighted emotional luggage and damn good reason to flee into the country. The reasons shared by the very least seemed reasonable. Still, Heine remained on the side of caution and remained armed as about everyone else did; a strange rehash of frontier life if the humor struct him.
There were things about the plot of land that beckoned called for answers as to its purpose and original owners. A guessing finger could point toward survivalist from some time ago either forgotten or worse. The glance he caught of ammo and weapon stockpiles suggested it, yet the middle man of the exchange for getting this place may have had their hand in other business.
It's nothing to dwell hard on, there were means of electricity with the right hands and tools; though nothing tied them to city lines keeping them well off any grid. Another step in getting the farm up and running to whatever degree a farm ran properly.
Heine's assessment of Alex was quick. A woman out of place with the rest of them and a lean toward quiet. She was not timid as Nill had been, his gaze when caught lingering on either her eyes or hands. It's a distance between them, one persistent as his duty to his watch dog job.]
Much as anyone else. Flint and matchsticks are bound to be somewhere.
[It's a polite dismissal and answer all the same. Yet the question set up others, the need for light to bring home everyone wandering.]
They're not going to get lost if that's what you're thinking. [He added peering out onto the porch and further forest and flatland.]
sorry for the delay! holiday season and all that :(
Of course. [ Just tripping over the word a little. ] Probably in a cabinet or drawer.
[ She had wandered through the kitchen earlier but didn't really remember if there were cabinets. She had been sulking just a bit from being left behind and was then distracted by the large, uncared for fireplace. It was an old style one, made out of rough hewn stone and a grate filthy with soot. She assumed she was expected to clean as she had really nothing else to contribute, and it looked like a full day of work. ]
I was thinking for us. You must be hungry?
[ Not to mention the cold that would set in soon. Offering him a meal is the least she can do. Maybe with the few things they brought, or would be able to find in the neglected vegetable garden around the property would make a suitable enough meal. She fully expects him to brush her off again, but she is always ready with a familiar gesture of goodwill. And also very curious how her cooking will turn out over an open flame. ]
Takashi Shirogane | Voltron | OTA
Raleigh Becket | Pacific Rim
caleb widogast | critical role