[OOC] The Dust

[Syben]

*beats chest* You DARE CHALLENGR THE TRUE KING OF WESTER- kidding. I though I would explain my reasoning incase anyone had a constructive argument, I aplogize if it came off as a challenge. And yes, always willing to help.

[Firecracker_]

*beats chest* You DARE CHALLENGR THE TRUE KING OF WESTER- kidding. I though I would explain my reasoning incase anyone had a constructive argument, I aplogize if it came off as a challenge. And yes, always willing to help.

@Aeonumbra

this made me giggle like a little girl

[Darcs]

P.S Evelina Quinn's character sheet is under revision. It (for some weird reason) doesn't happen often, but I suddenly had a pang of inferiority and I'm now re-writing just about everything. She'll stay the same character, but it should (hopefully) be of higher quality (I blame Darcs :P).

@kapuchu

*smug grin*

[kapuchu]

P.S Evelina Quinn's character sheet is under revision. It (for some weird reason) doesn't happen often, but I suddenly had a pang of inferiority and I'm now re-writing just about everything. She'll stay the same character, but it should (hopefully) be of higher quality (I blame Darcs :P).

@kapuchu

*smug grin*

@Darcs

Don't get cocky now :p It'll get to your head ;)

[kapuchu]

*beats chest* You DARE CHALLENGR THE TRUE KING OF WESTER- kidding. I though I would explain my reasoning incase anyone had a constructive argument, I aplogize if it came off as a challenge. And yes, always willing to help.

@Aeonumbra

You do come off as a little testy when someone questions a part of your RP. It's only a little, but it's there. Enough to know that you're proud of what you've created, at least. Also, after over an hour! I finally found the perfect picture! Will PM it to you, Aeon, if you were willing to help me change the eyes and such :)

[Prophecy]

I too am feeling inferior after all these great posts, I promise I'll be at the top of my game from now on. Honestly, I fall into the trap of doing what others are doing. If someone writes a lot I will try to write the same amount etc. you'll motce that my first IC was a very similar length to the two before it when I'm sure I could've written far more... I'll work on it, I promise...

Also: [list-] [*-] [/list-] (remove the dashes)

@Callthecops

And thank you good sir.

[Unraveller]

Hey there, I'm sorry but it is looking like I must back out. I just haven't enough time in the day because of my work schedule. Again, forgive me for wasting time.

[Darcs]

I too am feeling inferior after all these great posts, I promise I'll be at the top of my game from now on. Honestly, I fall into the trap of doing what others are doing. If someone writes a lot I will try to write the same amount etc. you'll motce that my first IC was a very similar length to the two before it when I'm sure I could've written far more... I'll work on it, I promise...

@Prophecy

Length>quality I thought your post was really good bruh

[Callthecops]

And thank you good sir.

@Prophecy

I aim to please. Everyone's writing has been great so far, and I've enjoyed reading all your posts! Looking forward to working with you all. Speaking of which, if anyone wants to collab, I'm going to be around tonight and probably during the day tomorrow.

[Syben]

Hey there, I'm sorry but it is looking like I must back out. I just haven't enough time in the day because of my work schedule. Again, forgive me for wasting time.

@Unraveller

No worries Raveller, I appreciate the notice. Enjoy life and its endeavors, maybe we'll cross paths again someday.

[Prophecy]

Length>quality I thought your post was really good bruh

@Darcs

[uncontrollable blushing] You're too kind

[Callthecops]

I've thrown in a little addendum to my backstory detailing Bento's wanderings and arrival in Russell City after his escape from slavery six months ago.

[Syben]

Alright, I'll get to reading it a bit later

[Firecracker_]

Alrighty, I've posted, and since Unraveller is no longer with us, I guess that means the cycle is through!

[Syben]

So the cycle begins again anew. Yay :3 Updating time to afternoon! Awright I'm probably going to rewrite my first post. It still bothers me that I wasn't 100% when I did it. And I wrote it half asleep. Literally, I dozed off twice. -Edit Just finished the read. I wonder what you're brewing up Fire, heh. -Edit Re-did my intro post. Fully awake and not ill this time. Much more pleased. Will most likely advance the IC tomorrow.

[Darcs]

Actually, I think that our little Bloody Sleeve girl has the most expensive dress :P

World runs on trade and barter, no currency system but bullets are widely accepted, high grade being worth more.

@Aeonumbra

also, I find this a bit hard to believe. It's been over 300 years, and I think that at least some sort of currency should have risen up in at least the first 100 years, with the last 200 being the time it took for it to get widespread and something everybody used. Not talking the kind of paper money that we use IRL, but perhaps just coins made out of some metal, say, I dunno, tin? Brass? I'm okay with sticking to just bartering, but I do think that a currency system would've been at least attempted during those 300 years. P.S Evelina Quinn's character sheet is under revision. It (for some weird reason) doesn't happen often, but I suddenly had a pang of inferiority and I'm now re-writing just about everything. She'll stay the same character, but it should (hopefully) be of higher quality (I blame Darcs :P).

@kapuchu

@The P.S:: My first IC post wasn't exactly top notch either, sick with two different ear infections in the same ear and half asleep. XD As for the currency sir. You doubt me. Think about it. After the apocalypse you have a pocket full of funny colored paper with dead people's faces on it, and maybe some semi-precious metal coins. Who cares? What use is that after society has collapsed, the government is gone, and you're faced with lawless marauders. The most important things, besides basic survival and food, are going to be Ammunition and Gasoline, or fuel. Followed by infrastructural things such as flowing water, electricity, an establishment of order. So really there are a handful of things that would be considered valuable for trade, your funny colored money isn't one of it.

• Ammunition and Arms
• Gasoline / Fuel
• Cigarettes
• Spices
• Antibiotics & Medicine
• Food
• Skills and Knowledge

Despite the fact that you'd have to find someone willing to make the money.. and what would you pay them with? How would you get everyone to agree? What would you backup an established currency that you could oh say, print? How would you establish an effective protocol to prevent inflation? How would you assure there would be no homemade currency in an apocalyptic world? 300 years and the only things as an established trade medium are useful things. How absurd :P Now bullets, everybody needs those, the best part is, you make em, you shoot em, and the demand remains. Perhaps it was attempted, but really, what's the point? You have a faction of people who keep to themselves, a faction that are just a step higher than mindless savages, a faction that is more focused on their bindings of honor and tradition, a faction that values only knowledge and progress, and then the only faction wholly obsessed with establishing a trade empire. Respective order: Edenites, Forsaken, Aqueous, Gaens, Motum Diversum. So I ask you again sir, when I could safely give you something you want, for something I want; rather than give you something, for a meaningless medium, and perhaps be unable to get what I want, meaning I demand more of this currency, meaning inflation; What's the point?

@Aeonumbra

Hmm... Yeah. I doubt you. A teeny tiny bit :P But look on the bright side! It forces you to think a little ^^ Sorry if that sounds insulting, btw, not meant as such. But still, me asking this made you write that response. It made you write down why currency is not a thing. But even then, I just find it... strange, I guess you could say, that 300 years have passed with nothing but simple trade and bartering. It makes getting some things easier, t'is true, but it also makes other things more difficult. Not really possible to measure "wealth" if you can't measure it in a number. At the very least it's much more difficult to do so. Also: Trying to find a picture that looks like my character. Do you have any idea how difficult that is? :/ <.< Stupid Internet not having what I'm looking for.

@kapuchu

I already think most things through, you just need to ask the right questions xD. Trade and barter is not simple, it's an art. Each sides have their downfalls, I however, have provided a perfectly reasonable, realistic argument for my side, and I have yet to be convinced otherwise haha. Wealth can be measured in innumerable ways, most commonly it's just how we perceive it. If I have no need for perfume, then that would not be valuable to me, which in turn would not lead the salesperson to aggregate wealth from me. However, if I am in need of a firearm, then the gunsmith would be quite wealthy as I perceive him against my needs to his. He needs very little from me, yet I need much from him. This creates a contrast of supply and demand. I must have something the gunsmith wants, and obtain something from nothing I must be useful, to be useful I must have a skill, to have a skill I must learn. By learning a skill, applying the skill, I can now become the gunsmith. I can be useful to society as a whole, I do not weigh down the market with non-skill endeavors like cure-all tonics and miracle herbs. By paying a set price for a "cure-all" one without use could be of considerable wealth, however, in comparison to what I need, versus what I am willing to give up, versus what he wants, creates a situation for haggling. In the end, using barter instead of a medium creates a complex dynamic of goods exchange, which is quite efficient and functional. People who are useful, survive. People who are not, do not. It's that simple, but the practise itself is a living, evolving thing. I see little point to a set medium in a world such as this.

@Aeonumbra

So I was thinking about this. In terms of the Castalia Family wealth, they've got hotels, brothels, clubs, casinos, bootlegging stills and a bunch of weapons and drugs to their name, so I mean-- that's wealth, but that's all not something people get paid in, you know? Not all of it. Motum Diversum is advanced-- they have trade and government and regular jobs and apartments and shit-- everyone does trade with them, there would need to be some common currency that you could then trade for other goods that you could also barter with. Economically speaking, today's money comes solely from the loss of a gold standard and banks passing out a fiat currency for convenience. I think people, after the Fall WOULD switch to a completely barter based economic system, with guns and bullets being the most important things. Bullets have this inherent power to them. Someone with a lot of bullets offers protection, they can take what they want, they'd resemble gold from the old world-- people who crawled out of the bunkers, used to a fiat currency, would be looking for that as they bartered-- that's something I think is important. Because proto-governments, even ones with raw natural resources to exchange, and like two or three banks if ANY, thrive off of an economy, and economy that consumers contribute too. How long is a dam worker going to accept water as payment? I think everyone, while still bartering, would naturally shift to also using some medium for convenience. That medium would be bullets-- Old World bullets mostly. They'd be like gold, there would be a precedent for using them, their ancestors used them, they have an inherent value, they look pretty. Really pretty Old World bullets, for guns that didn't even exist or work anymore would be the most valuable, polished, giant sniper rifle bullets would be like hundred dollar bills, and it would go down in order of decreasing scarcity until you got to the pennies that are Dust made junk rounds. I don't know, I still see barter being a thing, but I just don't see a guy walking into a bar and plopping down a liter of gas and asking for a beer-- or like, people paying admission to a club with some food. Then again, maybe this is just the Fallout fan in me missing muh caps.

[Syben]

That is a solid arguement Darcs, but even the standards a a tad different between bottle caps and bullets. Bottle caps are just shiny baubles, with no real use, as also played out in one of the fallout games (3, or new vegas, I forget) they could be manufactured. It would be pretty bad if that 3 bottle cap beer went up to 120 bottle caps because some douche face was making as many as he could every need. Bullets on the other hand, aren't technically a trade medium like dollars, cents, rupees, or bottle caps. They are a useful item, as you stated. A useful item that can be spent, or becomes destroyed upon use, thus creating demand for more without the excessive stockpiling. This is still technically just barter. I may not have made it apparent the bullets are the widely used "bottle cap" system. But I did say it.

World runs on trade and barter, no currency system but bullets are widely accepted, high grade being worth more.

@Aeonumbra

I do agree with you however that the rarity of the bullet does determine its worth. Dirty > High grade > Laser / Plasma > Heavy / Special. One may not have the gun to use the very expensive ammo with, but it's the prospect that one 'could' have the gun, or just spend it, in which case the before mentioned prospect still comes into play. Bottle caps existed with no other purpose than a trade medium, and its rarity was supposed to maintain its value. Bullets have more purpose than just trade, but their wide availability and usefulness, eg: high demand, makes them the "money" for this world, without actually calling it that. But for the most part, we agree with each other. I just don't see them as a trade medium, rather they are an item with a usefulness compared to that of water or air. What's the point of breathing all that free, irradiated air, if a mutant dog chews your legs off. I see them as a barter item with their value weighed against their usefulness and demand, technically maintaining a steady economy with bullet trade.

[Darcs]

Yeah, I think I'm just arguing linguistics... Also I wanted a solid identifier for wealth so that the Castalias can have a room filled with gold bullets that they do Scrooge McDuck dives into to literally bathe in their excess.

[Syben]

Solid Identifier established. I'd like to buy golden, 9mm hollow points with the tip constructed of either ruby or emerald.

[Callthecops]

Holy typos! I just reread my post and I don't know how you all restrained yourselves from tracking me down, busting into my dorm room, and beating the crap out of me... I'll try to fix those up for whatever good that does. And like Aeon, next time I post I hopefully won't be coughing up a lung. Also, though I'm certain there are plenty of people who would (rightfully) blame the Motum Diversum for the attack on the Forsaken caravan, the operation was not officially sanctioned, and was carried out with bandit gear. So I don't think it would necessarily be overly common knowledge/undisputed fact that they pulled the attack. Especially in light of the fact that the story would have likely been swept together with the small slave uprising that occurred in the area in the following months, leading most to believe that the slaves were somehow responsible for the attack.