Wednesday, May 23, 2012

A game!



Stolen from hapax



So, here I am in my office at home, and a shimmering time-space vortex has suddenly appeared -- as they do -- to engulf me and send me I know not whence. 

I have only one minute to grab what I can before being transported into... a vaguely medieval Europe-ish fantasy land?  A twenty-fourth century starship?  An arid wasteland of lurking horrors?  What to pack?



Ok. One minute. I'm in my office. To my right is my briefcase which contains some pens, some course handouts that didn't need to be handed out, a memory card, and a deck of playing cards. I'll dump the handouts, but pens are useful, playing cards will keep me from getting bored (and might help me pay my way, if the people I meet are [appalling bad] gamblers). Also, it's a WWII airplane spotter deck - that could be useful, right? If the future, the memory card could be useful? Probably not, but it doesn't take up much space.


Into the bag, I'll toss the camera in front of me - if nothing else, it will help me prove where I've been when (if) I get back. 


The desk is (as usual) a mess, so finding anything useful quickly will be difficult. There's a paper opener and a novelty baseball bat - defense? Maybe?


There's a jug of juice behind me (the toddler likes to move things around in the house) - that will be useful for drinking, plus it's re-fillable. 


The easily grabbable books in this room are shockingly not useful, unless I get transported to some sort of role-playing convention, or a science fair. Poor planning on my part - I really should have a full collection of Foxfire books close to hand in case of emergencies like this. Also - a medkit of some sort. I do have a wide selection of CDs available - I'll grab a couple of those. They're shiny, so they might be worth something, depending on where I end up. 


Almost out of time. I've got a roll of duct tape and a role of library tape, several rolls of ribbon, and some scissors. I've got tea bags - organic, catnip tea bags. Oh! The multi-tool (Leeloo Dallas, Multitool!) is in that box! Also, some sparkly costume jewelry. And a solar charger, but none of the wires which would make it at all useful, so I'll leave that. I've got pictures of most of my family in my wallet, I've got my cell phone (who knows - Dr. Who can make cell phones work across time and space, I could get lucky). At least I'm wearing real clothes, not my pjs. I have shoes, and (my wife's tie dyed) socks. If I'm going somewhere cold, I'm going to freeze to death.


I think it's clear that, given this circumstance, I'm screwed - but, really, could you do any better? How about you?  Look around you right now (no fair running to the kitchen or the garage or the Mad Lair of Secret Villainy if you're not already there) and tell me what you would pack! Toss a link into the comments. 

Followers