I don't like the drugs but the drugs like me

Started by PeyotePal, September 05, 2018, 04:17:48 AM

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PeyotePal

Early in my latest manifestation I received a request to rescue a young(ish) man who happened to be the hubby of one of my fave new colonists, Midori (A seemingly bland hard working type  who had immediately adopted a strange tribal head-dress the moment it was gifted). Given that the rendevous was fairly close, I had a couple of decent guns, and my slightly creepy desire to please Midori, I launched a good ol' fashun caravan with two good shooters and a pile o' rice.

The confrontation took place in a Temperate Swamp environment, staggeringly beautiful with (new?) autumn colours. I instructed my caravan duo to stay a fair way back, get behind some boulders, and pray. Unfortunately the captors turned out to be fairly advanced with dodgy-but-all-too-deadly machine pistols, and a lengthy shoot-out ensued across a fast-flowing stream deep in the kaleidescopic fall swamp.

One dead terrier later (not a fave), and a sneaky destruction of the gun turret (fortunately knocked out by an eclipse), and Midori and MJ (Pirate) were reunited in a stressful yet oddly cold reunion. It was at this stage I checked my rescuees stats....a Pirate, a serious gun, a real charmer socially, and hopelessly addicted to Psychite AND Alcohol. GREAT.
Now it's probably time to mention that not only was the Rhino Valley Union (hey, it was the first time I'd seen rhinos in the game, made sense....had also sworn off hunting them for luck) host to MJ-Pirates WIFE, but also his old man, ALSO A TOTAL SUBSTANCE NUT WITH SERIOUS DIALYSIS REQUIREMENTS (where is that in the medical suite btw?), and the second MJ gets home he launches into a serious abuse fest at the old man before collapsing into a heap, and being dragged off to  my currently-lacking-medical-facilities bed. The Dad, (Mac), a seriously useful and humble team member is wandering around in a depressive stupor, Midori may or may not be thinking she wished the men in the family had all burned up in the atmosphere on entry, and as God I'm wondering about my large plantations of Hops and Psychite.....
For a few days Mac and MJ are the perfect colonists, moods are off the charts, getting on great with everyone. working hard, Midori is thrilled to have the hubby back, a sense of hope and prosperity fills the camp. Then the Flake runs out. And the beer runs out. And Mj is all about digging up corpses.

For day after day father and son alternate between zombielike uselessness and frantic confrontation, not a moment passes between crises, not to mention the lack of skills being contributed. I'm seriously considering banishing them.....then I think about It again, and realise that is NEVER AN OPTION.

As time progresses MJ becomes a vegetable, Mac in a constant swing between hyper-vigilance and lalaland. Life goes on, but boy could the colony use them, It's tough out here. A bad winter passes with MJ nothing but statue, eyes staring straight ahead.....

And then comes MY dilemma. I finally have beer brewing. I also have plenty of Psychite and the ability to craft tea, although I refuse to refine the -freebase' version! So what can you do? Well, as is so often the case in this Ying/Yang (broader) universe the answer is a middle path, an attempts to mitigate extremes by somehow navigating one's ship between the shallow waters in order to reach.....?

Anyhoo I decide that the tea form of Psychite is ok, no flake and no booze. After an eternity MJ rejoins the land of the living, and for a while all seems fairly ok. Then the worst happens.

A Raid occurs, a big one. It's a group of truly despicable pirates with monikers like 'Torturer', but I'm so
busy organising the close defences ans setting the mortar targets that I forget that Midori is all alone at the North-Eastern perimeter hacking into compacted Steel. By the time they start fleeing after a truly brutal engagement It's too late to realise Midori has been knocked out, and is being dragged out of our lives by some bloodthirsty bitch with a mohawk (Although, to be fair.....). I try everything, forming am impromptu caravan in a desperate attempt to follow the gang to the next tile (not sure if that's even posible)

Yes, our hero MJ, a truly generous chap who, despite his flaws, is truly doing his best to make it, has just had his young wife lost to him a second time, on this occasion by a group of bloodthirsty maniacs with a penchant for wake-Up and dodgy machine pistols. It would be enough for anyone to break....

At first he's strangely ok, carrying on as If nothing's happened. Then the dazes start, slow at first, then almost constant. He's a broken man. He refuses to drink at first, but the psychite harms one, then two kidneys, and the inevitable beer binges follow, although short-lived. His father Mac is no use, and more and more frequently the pair clash, hurling insults, getting into punchups, each seeing in each other a mirror image of self-loathing.

A long time passes. For most of the colonists life goes on. Research is completed. Puppies are born and trained. Faulty wiring causes explosions and finally, a miracle. The Pirates will return Midori for a paltry sum of silver. I almost weep in relief. The deal is done, and Midori returns!

But is it just me or is something a little different? MJ and Midori still share a bed, but the catharsis that such a return should have instigated simply hasn't occured. Midori mines as far away as possible, MJ binges more and more frequently. And then a party is thrown, and MJ and Pope become lovers. Midori's opinion of her husband plummets, and I assign them to separate rooms.
After the miracle of Midori's return I feel bereft. Would things have been better If we'd left MJ to die in no-mans land.? Would it have been a kindness ultimately? Or is the idea of life without complications simply not an idea about life? And what am I going to do about all this kidney damage?