revivalproject | Convince yourself that this heaven isn’t hell, but

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Convince yourself that this heaven isn’t hell, but

WHO: Kaz and a few people (one OTA prompt)
WHERE: All over Temba
WHAT: Catch-all for July
WHEN: July
WARNINGS: None anticipated, but TBD

Temba Restoration Cooordination (for Reeve)

Kaz had already been doing research on what electricity could do here since it definitely seemed to be capable of a lot more in Temba than it was in Ketterdam. So first he had paid a visit to the beachside caves. He had taken a mag light flashlight (a definite improvement over a Bone Light) and spent most of the morning attempting to make energy crystals from the material there. He'd given it a good 8 or 9 tries but only came up with about 3 usable crystals. They weren't great by any stretch of the imagination and were lumpy blobs to look at. But they would have to do for the moment. Rolling some cloth around them, Kaz had left the caves again.

Upon talking to 'Reeve Tuesti', Kaz had found out as much about the man as he could. It wasn't much but Kaz had discovered where Reeve often was found and that it was likely that he would be able to explain more of the logistics of how Temba technology worked than Kaz already knew, hence why Kaz had come bearing gifts. The front room was already covered in architectural maps, hand-drawn maps of the city, and schematics for things Kaz couldn't guess at. Staying seemingly polite, Kaz gave his best 'harmless cripple' smile and knocked the end of his cane three times on the open doorway's door jamb.

Old Mcdonald's farm - or maybe old Cobb's farm?(OTA)

Kaz had not been here before, but believe it or not, he actually did know a thing or two about farming. At the moment he had his cane hooked over the crook of one arm and leaned against the fence that created the glownies' paddock. He'd had a possible thought about weaving cloth from their wool as Lark had said, but based on just looking at them, he didn't think that would work now, or at least that cloth would be no cooler than what he had to wear now. Kaz was suffering in the summer heat and was down to his long-sleeved dress shirt, pants, and fitted black leather gloves. His usual pocket watch was attached to a button on his shirt with the actual watch in his pants pocket. Moonshade had mentioned the possibility of using spider silk, but Kaz had no idea when, or even if that was going to turn out to be possible.

The Forge (for Tony)

Kaz and Tony had talked before and were both listed as 'crew' on the Bloodsport so they were at least somewhat familiar with each other. Well, at least familiar enough to know each other's names. So it's with his signature staccato sound of footsteps and cane that Kaz walked towards the altered factory. Though this would certainly not be the first time he had been to the forge, he had no reason for stealth so he didn't bother to hide. This would, however, be the first time he had a specific reason to talk to Tony alone.

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The place had undergone some seasonal changes, but still wasn't particularly welcoming. The D.A.T.A. unit typically perched above the door apparently enjoyed some upgrades since Tony started overhauling the cameras spread across the city after the storm had surged them; this one still tracked any movement outside of the forge, but also retracted into its multi-legged mount to manoeuvre itself down over the doorframe, where it hung and dropped the heavy orb of its watchful eye again to turn its gaze inward, considering the fire and Tony sauntering toward it with a knot of rope in his hands. Focused on working the knots loose, he had to stop abruptly with a jerk of his head back away from D.A.T.A. where they had almost collided, pursing his lips in irritation to be so interrupted while the camera whirred thoughtfully. "Do you mind?" Tony had to prompt before it retracted again to let him pass out into the sunlight. He didn't get much further, the camera swivelling in its base just over his head then to peer down at Tony, then follow his gaze out to Kaz's approach. Tony raised his eyebrows with some surprise and glanced up and down the dusty road like he expected to see someone Kaz was likely to be meeting in Tony's barren corner of the city. Maybe he had made friends with Moonshade.

No, Kaz wasn't much for making friends and Moonshade wasn't too keen on Kaz after he called her wolf a dog. Instead, he just came closer and only stopped when he was directly in front of the doorway with an eye on the D.A.T.A. unit. But he seemed to dismiss it just as quickly as he was seemingly dismissing the knotted rope in Tony's hands already. He wasn't much for small talk, either. Or greetings for that matter.

"From what I hear, you would be the one to see in order to ask for something made in Temba."

He was suffering in the summer heat and was down to just a long sleeve dress shirt, pants, and fitted black gloves. Kaz also had no idea what Tony might want in trade for making something but they would get to that later.

The approach didn't get any less baffling as Kaz got closer, Tony's eyebrows eventually running out of room to creep up any higher so they had to drop down into a confused knit instead as he blindly worked at his knots until they were standing face to face and Tony had to acknowledge that he had company with a tense nod. At least they seemed to be in agreement that trying to make this a friendly affair was going to be awkward.

"I hope that's not all," Tony replied, and gave a tilt of his head to indicate the worn path that would take them around the building as a tacit acceptance to at least hear Kaz out. There was a workbench out there in the circle of dead grass where the erstwhile speeder had been built, and something of a breeze that would be more bearable than suffocating inside the forge with the permanent fire roaring. Tony was already sweating in his tank top and sweatpants; he suspected shirtsleeves were torturous enough. "What I can do with my hands is only one of the many interesting things about me."

Awkward indeed. Kaz was approaching this as purely transactional but he wasn't entirely sure what Tony's first statement meant or if this was just a quirk about the way Tony talked all the time. And Kaz had no intention of going inside at all. The beach alone had been bad enough but being near an actual crucible might make him pass out just from sheer heat exhaustion. He did walk toward the outdoor workbench as he spoke.

"There is a transportation station, though the transport itself seems to be broken beyond repair. So as I'm sure you are aware, there are more cities than Temba alone."

Kaz paused when he did reach the workbench and leaned on his cane.

"I've already asked Lark if she would be able to make fabric that was bulletproof like the grisha do where I'm from but she didn't even know what a bullet was."

Kaz shrugged.

"If I have to go on foot and alone I will, but I intend to explore more of the rest of this planet. But since getting bulletproof cloth is out I would need a lightweight way of shielding at least my arms and chest since I have no idea what I may encounter. And since you are the one to see for building things, I came here to speak to you."

The transport station was a lofty start and for a moment, Tony was slightly worried that he was going to have to make a train and start laying tracks. That was at least a few months out on his schedule. So he was looking dubious as he lifted himself up onto the workbench to sit where he could continue to tug at his ropes and consider Kaz narrowly. The bulletproof thing was something of a diversion, but Tony was already starting to nod, getting the sense of the scope of the problem with appreciation before he was muttering an interruption, "And I don't know what a grisha is." Bullet, though, was very familiar, he knew how to work with that.

"Listen, here's the thing--" he started once Kaz had got his whole production out, one hand escaping its work to spread a cautioning palm toward Kaz as Tony considered how best to convince the kid. It hadn't been easy so far, they had a more agree-to-disagree rapport, which Tony was not thrilled about. "You're far from the only one who wants to get out there and find out if we're alone or whatever, I understand the impulse, very logical, it's on the table. What we do know you'll encounter, though, is one of those storms, and, so far, we have no idea how to protect against them. You get caught on your own out there in one of those, at best, you're lost, you'll have no idea how to get back here, that thing will scramble your brains." That wasn't a no, Kaz had definitely come to the right place to be outfitted for such a venture, and with his gesturing hand Tony took up the gauntlet he had been working on from the bench to display out of Kaz's reach, something like this?, but Tony didn't quite agree with the premise.

"But that's just it, there's always something. There's always a reason not to go or something else that seems to be more important. Though, let me be clear not dying is more important, but whatever is causing whatever is making the 'not dying' part an issue keeps the population of Temba in Temba. I don't want to go exploring by myself, nor do I want to be hit with one of the storms you're talking about. But I highly doubt we'll find a way to stop them here in Temba. So that means we'll have to try to find where they are coming from out there."

Kaz made a vague gesture with one gloved hand that encompassed the whole of Agra-10.

"I'll need to find a way to definitively tell where Temba is on these maps."

Kaz indicated his smartphone and since everyone had them, they had become the lowest common denominator.

"Which won't be much if these storms scramble brains but I haven't finished sorting navigation out yet."

Kaz nodded at the offered glove, though he was thinking something more lightweight, maybe something he could wear under his clothes. That idea was born of Kaz's paranoia and wanting to stay underestimated for as long as possible.

Tony nodded slowly, having considered that deliberate stunting before himself, but had never quite found a way to give it traction. It found some in someone else recognizing it, but that didn't get them much closer to solving it as a problem, either. "As long as 'on foot and alone' isn't really on the table..." Tony was willing to concede, dropping the gauntlet back onto the bench.

"What's going to get us out there and mapping the place is a unified front. People have already gone off wandering on their own and don't have anything to show for it, and we're lucky they came back. No one of us is going to be able to take something like that on by ourselves, and we've all got strengths to play to. I can make you the kind of equipment that's going to let you manage the terrain, but it's Cayde that makes maps, and those guys in the diner that can make sure the city doesn't burn to the ground in the meantime--even the people who aren't taking a walk, they have to be part of the plan." With a deep breath, Tony dropped his distracting rope as well to invite Kaz with a gesture to walk Tony through it, then. "What's your vision, how do you take a hit?"

"As I said, I don't want to go alone and on foot but if that's what I have to do then I will."

Kaz was still leaning on his cane for the moment and he suspected Tony was asking him two different questions that while linked, were still separate things.

"Then it will need to be more than one or two that go wandering off by themselves. I would need many of the people stuck here in Temba to go at the same time and divided into groups of three. We'll need to send back the maps made with these 'smartphone' devices at least once a day, maybe twice, so they can get hand-drawn back here and we stop having to rely on devices for mapping at all. I am aware not all can draw maps, but if I'm right then we will be stuck here in Temba trying not to die soon. So I need to be relentless in urging everyone to go as soon as possible."

Kaz gave Tony his measurements for across the shoulders and the length of his arms from the seam around his shoulder to the seam at his wrist.

"How I take a hit is dependent on the hit, though. What I'm asking for is a way to protect at the very minimum my internal organs."

Kaz shrugged.

"I first asked for bulletproof cloth from Lark, but she couldn't help me. So I came here next, but I don't have any better ideas than bulletproof cloth."

Edited (wayward word) 2021-07-10 21:01 (UTC)

There were enough details there that Tony didn't love to make him squint dubiously and leave him frowning at Kaz after he laid out this half baked plan, but at least it wasn't going to end with him dying alone in the alien woods. His distrust of the communicators was likely influenced by their unfamiliarity, so Tony was going to have to let that one simmer, not entirely opposed to having backups, but he wasn't about to start relying on paper himself. It was Kaz's strange conviction that had Tony asking, "How is that different than what's been happening this whole time? Stuck here and trying not to die. I don't see what's changed to switch gears here." Maybe it had something to do with Kaz's sudden intolerance of the sleeping arrangements when they were stuck on the ships, and Tony watched the kid with a cold, narrow scrutiny as he asked, "Are you trying to get away from someone?" If one of the few people in their limited community was spooking the others, trying to dance around it was only going to leave the whole city brittle.

There was quite a bit Kaz purposely left out and a few things he hadn't figured out yet so he wasn't going to touch on them. As far as Kaz's aversion to other people, that was something he had always had, but there were more people on the ships as time went on which was making it far more uncomfortable sleeping around them. Right now Kaz snorted at the idea.

"Here in Temba there is no one that I'm making an extra effort to avoid. As for what's changed? The fact that whoever or whatever is holding us all captive found a way to mess with our memories en masse. If they can pull us across space and time they would also be able to change our memories, maybe radically so, and Billy just showed them how to do it."

Unconvinced, Tony continued to study Kaz a beat longer, trying to figure him out. Usually, it would take an easy attempt to rile him up and see what leaked out, but as Tony was still inclined to believe that these conversations were stemming from someone else getting under his skin despite what he said, that might have the effect of just isolating Kaz further.

Still staring with his head cocked, Tony mumbled, "Sure," not about to argue that their captors being able to mess with their heads wasn't alarming. "That's not new, though. That room we all woke up in, some've us have been down there before and spent some time in each other's memories. There's something about that that really gets them off. You can see it in the storms, too--they pull shit out of our heads, make it personal." And Tony hadn't figured out how to armor against that yet, so he finally looked away with a frown, considering his bench with his fingers drumming restlessly against it. "I'll see what I can do," he said with a vague flick of his hand toward his tools. It might not be what Kaz was expecting, but Tony did like a surprise.

It took an awful lot to get under Kaz's skin and the only way that really worked was if one of the four (and only 2 in Temba) actually made him feel any kind of contentment, affection, or calmness. Beyond that, there wasn't much emotional breadth for what Kaz felt; most variations of irritation, anger, and once it had been rage. Consider all you like, Tony. Vengeance had a way of burning from the inside out. And whatever was left of Kaz, it had been long enough in that darkness to have brought something back with him.

"I know that memories have been made manifest. But making new memories and sometimes whole other lives, with families, jobs, and a past to go with them out of whole cloth? That's new. The ability to make memories manifest makes me all the more eager to get everything moving as fast as possible."

That was Billy, but Tony didn't exactly want to turn Kaz's attention on the kid, and couldn't say that he was wrong about their captors learning something from the magic anyway. At the very least, they must have known how much it rattled Kaz by now, and that couldn't be good. "Just don't go doing it on your own," Tony said, nodding slowly for Kaz to agree to his face, whether he actually meant it or not. "We'll work this out. We're on the same team."

Kaz was well aware it had been Billy but it had to have been a learning experience for whoever was doing the torturing too.

"The idea is to go in teams, so it will be in a team."

And Kaz did actually mean it funny enough. The comment about being on the same team might have made Kaz laugh at any other time, but because he wanted something from Tony he kept his expression neutral.

There's a rota of sorts when it comes to the actual chores, but Ezra tries to swing by the paddock just about every day regardless.

Today he's faintly suprised to see Kaz hanging out along the fence.

"Hey, Kaz," Ezra greets him. "Something on your mind?"

Kaz sighed and turned away from the fence.

"I was thinking about the string the wool could make, and just by looking at them I can see the cloth it would make would be too thick for warm weather."

He grimaced.

"Maybe a plant fiber would be better."

Kaz shrugged irritably now.

"But that would mean exploring the forest more."

"Moonshade working on silk," Ezra offers. "That should be a little better, right?"

What does he know, though. He's certainly never worn silk.

"I was thinking we should be doing more exploring, anyway. Carefully, but-"

Kaz didn't comment but he had his doubts about spider silk.

"I think most people in Temba have at least thought about it. Problem is that something keeps happening that takes all attention; spider attack, being compelled to the ships and taken to a whole different planet, Billy's reality. I'm starting to think that we're bing kept in Temba on purpose."

"Oh, I've suspected that for a while, too," Ezra replies, with a shrug.

"I say we keep making plans and being stubborn about it."

"I would agree."

Kaz considered a moment.

"Before the mass memory altering by Billy, were there times before it where memories were altered in Temba?"

"I don't...think so? At least not exactly. Tommy mentioned something that he called Calibration, where people saw each others memories, but that was long before I got here."

Kaz's cane would have sunken into the grassy ground, so he kept his arm crooked so the crow's head hung on it instead and his limp was more pronounced as he stepped away from the fence surrounding the glownie paddock.

"And it was done by the species acting as our captors torturing Billy."

Kaz's lips thinned to a straight line.

"Then they will have been trying to come up with a way to change our memories since. Which means we've been on a clock. There has to be something we're missing if they haven't messed with our minds yet. I think we'll have to go sooner rather than later and the Network is too compromised to be used to organize."

And Kaz was not friendly enough with anyone to try to talk to them face to face...but Ezra was. Dark eyes focusing on Ezra suddenly.

"You can get birds to communicate for you, right?"

"That's a more thought out long term strategy on the part of the Atroma, or whoever, than I'd considered," Ezra admits. And he's not sure Kaz isn't seeing connections that aren't there, but he isn't going to dismiss the conclusion entirely out of hand, either.

"I can ask most animals that aren't outright hostile to do a lot of things. It's all...showing them my feelings and intent and sometimes images. I think some of the local birds would be happy to carry messages, as a one time thing, or even occasionally, if we give them something in return."

"It would be a one-time thing, and if they could carry a message from you to all the people that were affected by Billy's reality and ask them to meet at the amphitheater then we don't have to use the Network at all."

When it came to torturing people for science, Kaz had the fatalistic opinion that if there's a worst-case scenario already, that was the one to plan for because that was usually the correct one.

"We need to get people together and start sorting out what teams of people are going and in which direction now. I'm thinking teams of, say, three and each heading in a separate direction. We'll have to keep sending maps back and ask a cartographer to hand draw them so they won't be lost if something happens to the 'smartphone' devices we've been using. Things keep happening so often, and now there's a possibility that we'll end up with scrambled memories again soon."

Kaz visibly shudders. The scrambling memories part had shaken him deeply.

"I definitely think we should start keeping more written records. Probably multiple copies."

Still, he frowns. "And I agree we should start planning sooner rather than later. Why only the people affected by Billy's world?" Which is, admittedly, most of the Tembarians. Still, Ezra doesn't see any reason to shut anyone out.

"Because they will be the ones most invested, and ones less likely to underestimate what this planet can do and thus get themselves hurt."

And while Kaz didn't trust anybody, he certainly didn't have any level of trust for people newer to Temba.

"Not saying you're wrong, but what you're talking about is too many of us involved to really be kept secret long from the people who actually live here. And in the meantime, not involving them is...potentially resources left on the table," he reasons.

Ezra's perspective is different. Operational security that can give them an edge over their captors is great, but it has to be balanced against the fragile trust of the community as a whole.

"Secrecy isn't going to be an option after a certain point, yes. But I'm thinking of it more like a head start before they catch us. And that if I'm right, then something else will happen at any time now to slow us down. Because whatever happens, regardless of who gets hurt or has to slow down, the only way dividing into teams and making our own maps of Agra-10 will work is if we're relentless. But first to get that head start we're going to have to move as soon as we can."

Kaz shrugged.

"Not saying you're wrong about resources left on the table, but we need to go soon and the people that experienced Billy's city won't need that explained to them."

Ezra closes his eyes very briefly. "This planet is so weird. I should have some hint, a general sense of possibilities, considering these sorts of options. Not an answer, but maybe a direction to turn logic and intuition."

He's holding himself open to the Force, listening.

But nothing. He sighs.

"Ok. Helping call a meeting off network, for that edge. Sure. I'm down. How far realistically do you think we get though? If we're wrong about how quickly there's likely to be interference. Food. Unknown terrain. We have two pack animals, last I checked."

"It will be difficult, maybe more than difficult, but we need to say that at least we tried. I can't say how far we'd get either because I've got no idea what's outside the city. Half the idea will be to move quickly, though so let's say food and water for at least 3 weeks and no matter what people will have to turn back after 10 days, that's about the only way we can count on at least not dying of thirst before we get back to Temba. Pack animals to be ridden only since we'll have to travel light. We'll see what we could do about using them to carry their own feed and water too."

Kaz considered a moment.

"Vehicles that don't need an animal to pull them would be best, but I'm not clear on how many of those we might have around."

Since Kaz had seen a tank as the only vehicle that didn't need horses to pull it, he wasn't at all sure there would be anything mechanical available here.

"That's a lot of food and water. A lot of weight," Ezra says, frowning. "But...we can hash that out at a bigger meeting."

"Maybe we can sort out less travel, or less weight if we can figure out things growing wild that's safe to eat or drink beforehand."

Rural settings were not anything Aeon was familiar with in the least, so on the day her explorations brought her to the ranch, she stopped not too far away from Kaz to marvel at the glownies.

She wasn't sure why they were all fenced in like that. It couldn't be very good for them. Her rebellious instinct kicked in and she moved for the gate, one hand already reaching out for the latch to set them all free ...

If it was up to Kaz to stop her, then it wasn't going to happen. He did notice Aeon move for the latch but he was still calmly leaned against the same spot on the wooden fence.

"If you open the gate, somebody's going to have to round them back up and put them inside again."

She paused, looking over at him curiously. "Why are they even in here? Are they being punished?"

Leave it to Aeon to invent the concept of glownie jail.

Kaz shrugged.

"I don't think so. As far as I can tell they're being kept for people to make string out of their wool, and to use their meat for eating."

He's being very matter-of-fact about slaughter.

"Oh."

The concept of slaughter doesn't bother her in the least - she's a spy, after all, with countless amounts of blood on her hands.

"Meat is very rare where I come from ... I've never seen slaughter animals before. Are these what we ate at the beach? They're very good."

"If you mean the meat that Cobb was cooking, then yeah they are."

Kaz was drenched in sweat at the beach (except for when Cayde turned both a red and a blue squirt gun on him) so he hadn't done that much that didn't involve an umbrella. It had been pretty hard not to smell Cobb's grill though.

"An abattoir is a big mess of blood and animal shit. Trust me when I tell you that you're really not missing anything if you don't have them where you're from."

"I do trust you," she said placidly, not really reacting to the details. An animal abbatoir sounded no different from a battlefield, and she'd seen her share of those.

"So you keep them penned in so they're easier to kill. I'll leave them alone. I liked what we ate at the beach."

She paused, then offered him a hand. "My name is Aeon. It's good to meet you."

Kaz glanced at the outstretched hand. It was nothing against Aeon but Kaz very rarely shook anyone's hand, let alone a stranger. He didn't offer his back.

"Kaz Brekker."

She didn't take any offense at it - handshaking was mostly something she'd picked up from other folks here. Instead, she twiddled her fingers at him in a wave.

"Fun name. Is this your ..." She wasn't sure of the right word. "Slaughter field?"

Kaz shook his head in reply.

"No. I think Cobb built it, and it looks like other people do chores for its upkeep. Oh, by the by it's not a good idea to call it a slaughter field to other people. Personally, I think that’s stupid because that's what it is, but a lot of people don't like to be reminded that animals that they eat got slaughtered for that food."

"Cobb ... the man with the grill, on the beach." Aeon smiled. She'd sampled a couple of his things, but spent more time talking with Kyle and being introduced to the joys of cheeseburgers.

"I've found that people here get touchy about a lot of things," she said by way of commisseration. "It's hard to remember them all."

"Yeah, that's him; the old man that keeps taking in more animals.

Kaz smirked to himself on Aeon's comment.

"That's a big reason I don't worry about being polite. There is way too many things people get touchy about, and it can get worse than that since there's this whole other layer of manners that comes from tone of voice.

Kaz made a gesture like he was cutting his hand through an imaginary thread.

"Unless it's for a job, then I don't fool with any of it.

"I like that approach," she smiled. "If people take offense, that's their problem. People like you and I are just saying what we see. Honesty shouldn't be an issue at all."

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Convince yourself that this heaven isn’t hell, but

welcome to the Forge!

Don't do that yet, you might never be rid of him

they both think that poor animal is a dog??? one braincell

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Glownie farm

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technically it would be 3 weeks left in July, so gonna go with that

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One Farm Newbie

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