A plot problem - help!

[Mirannan]

I may have asked this before, but here goes:

For reasons I won't go into but integral to the plot, my main character has found herself dropped into a generic English seaside town knowing spoken but not written English; also, she has no papers whatsoever and no history of any sort. Apparent age is early 20s, although she is older (a heck of a lot older!) than that. She also doesn't have any local money but does have some extremely valuable gems (with no provenance) and some gold coins - also nothing like any Earthly ones, even the most obscure.

Any ideas for how she might find somewhere to stay, get hold of some local money and set up a believable ID without attracting the attention of the authorities? I'm not asking for a real-world workable solution, obviously. Does the Day of the Jackal method still work, for example?

 

[AnyaKimlin]

The natural suggestion would be the local gangster/mob.

 

[Dan Jones]

Prostitution? Or is it not that sort of book?

 

[Brian G Turner]

get hold of some local money

Go along the seafront, selling the gems/coins as tourist souvenirs.

 

[Hex]

She meets someone who she gets on with, who offers her a place to crash. In the morning (or a few mornings later) she confides a little in them, they look up what to do on the internet and together they end up visiting the shadier part of town and buying fake documents/ her new friend happens to know someone local whose relative has died, but it hasn't yet been registered, and they persuade/ threaten/con the relative into parting with the relevant documents.

She meets someone who finds her attractive and invites her back, and then she makes it clear he's going to sleep on the sofa. He argues and she throws him out of his own flat...

Money should be fairly straightforward. She can sell one of the gems somewhere dodgy -- she wouldn't get what it's worth, but she'd get something.

 

[Dan Jones]

And that is why Hex is a great writer.

Or has a very dodgy past. Definitely one of the two.

 

[jastius]

What about "day of the condor" or "blast from the past" or "where the heart is"?
Same premise.

She wouldn't need a place to stay unless it got very cold or inclimate. Pouring rain or so on. She could hole up In an abandoned building or park.. Under a big pine with branches to the ground.
Some stores are open all night. Diners.. Drugstores.. Library.. If she needed information.. First place to go.. She could hide in the stacks after closing. The staff never check.. Easy to get locked into a store too..
A restaurant might give her a meal for working.. Or they dump old stuff in the trash, the same with stores.
A hobo could give her pointers. Or a street kid.
Homeless shelter or church..
If she has an instrument she could busk.. If she is by a store she can get the coins from bringing back the carts.. The same with an airport.

Fountain in mall with change in it?

Fortune telling? With weird tarot cards or rune stones?
Sketching or drawing people.
Abbey?

 

[Ray McCarthy]

The gems and coins are easier to sell if you pretend they are fake ... if you have enough it doesn't matter. Unless you are really good, people will think real ones are fake or stolen if you have no providence. Selling as trinkets to tourists is a good idea.
Check bins for thrown out bills to have an address verified by a bill for anything official. You'll need that for the faked birth cert (they are easy to fake in an Internet cafe that has a colour laser printer)
Here you then can get a PRSI number (UK National Insurance number) by taking bill and birth cert to tax office and explaining you just arrived (from UK if in Ireland, From Ireland if in UK) and starting a business selling paste jewellery and fake coins to make jewelry. Then they will issue you a number and you are real.
Stay in crowds.
Visting an all night supermarket might be a good idea, but security will get suspicious if you are not shopping. You can only spin that out to an hour max.

 

[Mirannan]

Thanks for the suggestions. Two more things I haven't mentioned are huge degree of anachronism (centuries, in fact) against her and the fact that she is very handy indeed in hand-to-hand. Security for someone not too fussy comes to mind...

 

[Dan Jones]

Is she from the future or past?

And why are you still awake?

 

[jastius]

Bakery or any traditional occupation she knows will get her work.. And the charity stuff would be about the same.. She could dive into a clothing donation bin for clothes from now, keep her stuff in a shopping bag.
They don't really look under the dirt for age..
A train station or bus depot.. People stay there and there are lockers..
And store security won't bother her if she seems harmless. People used to hang about the supermarket I worked at for four hours or so.. Plop their kids In front of the televisions in the book corner, raid the sample stall repeatedly, you can get enough for a couple of meals of tidbits from them... And they sit or stand looking at the magazines pretending to shop.. Sipping the free coffee.
We never bothered them because for a lot of the mums this was their only break in the day, and maybe all week..
In fact one of the older ladies working at the store would usually show up with the basket of balloons and lollipops and cookies for the kids.
But people would stand in aisles quietly flipping through magazines or books and we would leave them be, basically. They eventually bought something or left. But then this country has terrible weather at times. We don't force anyone out in it. Even if it means delaying the store close.

If she is quite young or young looking she might fade into a group of school kids.. Hospitals and universities are basically open around the clock.
She could sleep in the bathroom or the library..
School cafeteria has food..
Latin or Italian knowledge?

 

[Mirannan]

Is she from the future or past?

And why are you still awake?

From the past, and I couldn't sleep. There are good reasons for the latter - all boringly medical.

Jastius - You gave me an idea. One advantage this character has is the "gift of tongues" (it does make sense in context, honest!) so translation work might be an option. At least slightly later on.

Initial conspicuousness is a problem. Starts out wearing a full suit of chainmail...

 

[Ray McCarthy]

s. People used to hang about the supermarket I worked at for four hours or so.. Plop their kids In front of the televisions in the book corner, raid the sample stall repeatedly, you can get enough for a couple of meals of tidbits from them... And they sit or stand looking at the magazines pretending to shop.. Sipping the free coffee.

Where is this consumer heaven?
During day time you can lurk in the Supermarket (or any part of the Mall). A 24 hr bus / train station is better, at 2am etc you certainly can't lurk in the supermarket here.

Starts out wearing a full suit of chainmail...

Tells anyone curious it's publicity for a play.

She hasn't got a French accent? Upset at all with the attempt to burn her?

 

[tinkerdan]

You could actually use this in an easy though possibly trope ridden manner:

Thanks for the suggestions. Two more things I haven't mentioned are huge degree of anachronism (centuries, in fact) against her and the fact that she is very handy indeed in hand-to-hand. Security for someone not too fussy comes to mind...

She could encounter two people in an alley. One appears to be mugging the other (this could go any way you want it to; the most important part is that she saves someones life.) She drives the assailant away and perhaps asks if the 'victim' is alright and then tries to walk away. The person she's saved won''t have any part of letting her off that easy and starts asking questions while trying to establish how they can pay her back.

This could lead to the eventual discovery that this person deals in things a bit shady.

Also you could use the linguistic part easily if the assailant speaks a different language than the victim and eventually she asks the victim about something that the assailant had said in their language as they ran off. This something might be a expletive having to do with the type of person the victim is and leads to the reveal of their darker side when they finally decide not to lie to this person who saved their life.

 

[jastius]

Mirannan, are you getting enough potassium and magnesium?
Magnesium can ease pain and cramping and potassium aids sleep. Q10 for heart health.
For the clothes .. I know its trite, but what about a clothes line? Or as she is at the sea side, someones out bathing and left their togs on the beach. She takes the pile. Leaving a coin.
And if it is warm, cyclists are always tossing off their shirts and you find them on the roadside.

And chainmail is over a linen sheath of some sort usually. If she doffs the armor her undertunic would be more then acceptable gear.

A locker room of a gym?

 

[Mirannan]

You could actually use this in an easy though possibly trope ridden manner:



She could encounter two people in an alley. One appears to be mugging the other (this could go any way you want it to; the most important part is that she saves someones life.) She drives the assailant away and perhaps asks if the 'victim' is alright and then tries to walk away. The person she's saved won''t have any part of letting her off that easy and starts asking questions while trying to establish how they can pay her back.

This could lead to the eventual discovery that this person deals in things a bit shady.

Also you could use the linguistic part easily if the assailant speaks a different language than the victim and eventually she asks the victim about something that the assailant had said in their language as they ran off. This something might be a expletive having to do with the type of person the victim is and leads to the reveal of their darker side when they finally decide not to lie to this person who saved their life.

Interesting you should say that, because the first encounter she runs into (already written) is something very similar to that, although a lot nastier, an attempted rape by three men who are all armed with knives.

Since the character of the rape victim isn't developed (at all!) so far, it wouldn't be at all difficult to have said woman be connected to some rather shady local family. Hmmm... Thanks. I'll run with that, I think. Although the stuff she is carrying isn't hot, it would be very difficult to persuade the cops of that - so the assistance of someone used to dealing in stolen goods wouldn't hurt.

jastius - Thanks for the suggestions, but my mineral intake is OK I think. The major problem that keeps me awake is neuropathy, a combination of the permanent after-effects of neurotoxic chemotherapy drugs a few years ago and recently developed type II diabetes. I'm falling to bits.

 

[tinkerdan]

Yeah I think I sort of recalled something like that::

Interesting you should say that, because the first encounter she runs into (already written) is something very similar to that, although a lot nastier, an attempted rape by three men who are all armed with knives.

::So I stole your Idea and ran with it. At least it was to give it back to you. You might even have recalled that without my help.

 

[jastius]

I still think she should just liberate some clothes from a charity donation box...
If she has the typified cloak on she could probably get away with it appearing like a dress right over the chain mail.
:'(
Mirannan i am very sorry to hear that. Are you taking things like ginsang and ginko biloka to rebuild your nerve damage?
Bilberry supplementation? Sometimes its pretty difficult to get our RDA of minerals without supplementation. I think for the potassium you need something like seven bananas and twenty cups of tea.
You see a lot of people have their sodium calcium levels out of wack and you need enough magnesium and potassium to close the channel or the nerves keep firing. That is why I mentioned it. Diabetes is liver into pancreas and its vitamin d and sugar chemical breakdowns and your citric acid cycle.. Too much insulin or sugar processing can set it off, or a severe illness that targets the liver and depletes its resources. Anyways. There are now nice little insulin helpers in all shapes and forms..

 

[psychotick]

Hi Mirannan,

Sorry to hear about your woes. Type II diabetes shouldn't cause nerve pain, but it's vital to keep on top of it. I assume you've seen a doctor got some glycloside etc and a meter. As for the chemo drugs all I can say is if you're unhappy get further medcal opinions. Often different drugs / therapies work differently for different people. You may have to do some trialing of different approaches / medications.

As for your character, a lot of it's going to depend on how well she understands the 21st century. If she has a working knowledge of life now, the easiest thing for her to do would be to find one of those jewellers that buys gold - there are quite a few around, and they care about the weight not the coin itself. The chain is easy to explain - just think punk rock fashion or its current equivalent - I don't know what that is. Grunge is also gone I understand. (A damned shame since while I hated the music it was a perfect excuse for my lack of fashion sense!)

Accomodation is a little trickier, but my guess would be a seaside town has some batches (remote?) left unattended during the week. That gives her food and shelter for a short space of time. And if she's lucky for a little longer. It may also help with clothing - something to go over the chain. Longer term if she has a little money a caravan park would be an option - though they might want a credit card. Alternatively can she buy a tent and do a little freedom camping?

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Mirannan]

Thanks for the medical advice - the chemo drug damage was done over 10 years ago; fortunately that particular cancer has been deemed cured and I'm not on the stuff any more. And I'm on the appropriate diabetes drugs; managed to get my sugar level down with diet but not far enough.

Character has no knowledge of 21st century, but learns fast having travelled to some rather odd places. I'll probably go with the "victim is Mafia connected" route; it might sound a bit contrived, but I might throw in something to explain the odd coincidences by divine intervention. Yes, that does fit the story. The story involves the Norse gods wanting to do something about their dwindling influence on Earth; it makes sense that they might be able to interfere somewhat in subtle ways.

I'm probably going to include a scene where she ends up in a heavy metal bar rather later, complete with armour. Ought to get some respect...