Ross is sitting in his shack, listening to a modified radio set in case there have been any recent reports of the feds and/or circus clowns doing suspicious shit. The whole back wall is obscured by pot plants. There's 3 knocks on the door to the shack. Ross grumbles and goes to the door. He looks through the peephole,
“who is it? girl scouts? you have the wrong house.”
There's a girl outside, smiling wide and staring right at the peephole. "No, just a solicitor!"
He thinks for a second. “Mormons or the IRS?”
"Neither! A LARP group!" She's still smiling, her voice enthusiastic. “
The hell is LARP? Did Stacey send you? I thought it was her week with the kids.”
"Live Action Roleplay! Stacey will receive an egg on her porch in two years and four months."
“Promise?”
"Trust me."
Ross narrows his eyes but starts to unlock all sixteen locks on his door, except the sliding chain lock. “Okay kiddo, what is this?” She hands him a pamphlet. It's a blinding hot pink accompanied by white boxes with blue binary text. Various graphics show people doing various things. Ross really doesn’t like the clashing colors due to his ocular condition. “Listen kid, why don’t you just tell me? This shit makes my eyes burn”
"We meet up every few nights to solve puzzles and uncover mysteries set up by a few game masters! Doesn't that sound fun?" She tilts her head, her smile widening slightly.
He considers that for a second “I solve mysteries all the time, actually. Want to see my corkboards?”
"Sure!!!" She smiles, tilting her head to the other direction. Ross unlocks the chain lock and motions her in.
“Ignore the alligator out back. He’s not mine but they’re highly illegal to feed.” he gestures to a red-lit room filled with those conspiracy theory boards. The most prominent one is about cheese. Lucille walks in, taking everything in. She notes the alligator, could be useful.
"Cheese..?"
“Yeah. Big dairy wants to turn you straight. I don’t like companies puttin questionable shit in our bodies,” he says, lighting a cigarette.
"Makes sense!" She nods, smiling still
“Course it does. Why do you think I live in a shack, isolated from the rest of society?” A wave of ennui flashes over his face. Ross has been at this a long time. Like two years. Anyways, whatever emotions he just felt, he’s back to being ornery. “So this larp… thing,” he says, “what about it?”
"It's about a cult (fictional) hidden in the town of Meridian and you and your peers must uncover the mysteries surrounding it!"
“Only if you pay for gas,” he says. There are several cans of gasoline in the room he’s designated as his bunker, but he doesn’t want to admit that he locked himself out. “Meridian’s a bit out of my way.”
"Sure!" She pulls ten $20 bills from her pocket and hands them to Ross. "Should cover at least a few weeks!"
Ross puts the money to a light, creases one, and then licks it. “Alright, I’m in”
"Awesome! There's a discord link on the back of the pamphlet, please join it to know when meetings are!"
Ross still can’t read the pamphlet so he gives Lucille an index card and a pen he stole from the reception desk when he went to court for theft in high school, “Write it down.”
Lucille takes it and does so, handing it back.
Ross nods. “one more thing”
"What's up?"
“I don’t think I got your name.”
"Lucy! Yours?"
“Rosencrantz Guildenstern Fisher. My friends call me Ross. You can call me Guil.”
"Alright! I'll be seeing you around, then, Guil!"
Ross nods, “same to you kiddo.” Ross takes a look at the discord link and goes to his computer to enter it. In doing so, he knocks over a can containing, among other things, the key to his bunker. He picks up the key and unlocks the bunker, then locks it back up. He decides to keep the money anyways.