revivalproject | [OPEN] Life's Like A Tower Defense Game

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[OPEN] Life's Like A Tower Defense Game

WHO: Reeve, York, Open
WHERE: Temba Hangar, First Breath Hold
WHAT: Fortifications, Repairs, And Magical Defense against Plants
WHEN: During August Event
WARNINGS: None Yet
NOTE: As First Breath is uncrewed and accessible to all, Reeve's using it as secure work space.

I. Barriers To Defend The People | Temba Hangar Entrance

By the end of the second night Reeve had definitely come to the conclusion that this place, even with the ships, wasn't fully safe. Those damn creatures had come and come again on the second night. And all Reeve could think about was make this place safer. Sure, he'd gone to explore some with Felwinter, but in the end, he understood that at the moment, this was one of the best places for gathering they had. The ships had food, they had something to drink, they had secure places to sleep. Sure, others had gone, but this seemed like a logical place to keep secure, especially if they needed the ships to get around. And so he'd done what seemed logical.

At least he'd gathered his other materia. Because it meant that Reeve had managed, with the help of a friendly and very large blue woman, to not only see a few trees down, but back to the hangar. And from here, Reeve had work to do.

"Alright," he said, taking his fire materia into hand. Could he do the fine control here that he sometimes had back home? Time to check. "Just burn the bark off, then find about getting this securely placed."

It was so much work. But hey, he didn't think people would begrudge it.

II. Fixing Up The Needful | Hold of the First Breath

Perhaps they were secure here at the hangar, but that didn't mean there weren't things that needed done. Like looking over this metal rod that he'd collected from the Greenhouse. Reeve sits on the floor of the First Breath, and continues his inspection of the thing. Truth was he wanted to be familiar with it, even if he couldn't use it. Repairs were important given these things were so good at taking down the plants here, and he wanted to be sure he could repair anything that needed it. And given he hadn't wanted to bother any of his shipmates if they were properly using their ship, well, working here was a courtesy.

There was some advantages of the ships that weren't in use after all.

"I cannae understand why yah keep fiddlin'," Mini said as he watched Reeve work.

"Because in an emergency, these things could be our only protection. I want to know they'll work. Which means figuring out how they DO work."

III. Just A Spell Away | Outside Hangar

Morning. Reeve yawns as he moves out through the barrier, a mug from his ship with a more liquid serving of the chocolate protein gel (listen he needed a drink). The morning has come, more has grown, and that means some upkeep. Reeve sighs and pulls a pair of materia out of his pocket with his free hand. Then, after a careful look, he throws a pair of ice spells to the edges of the road, freezing plants solid. Then he nods and throws a fire spell between them, to burn away some of what is there. Though his eyes remained on it, Reeve clearly intent on using more ice to deal with any burning.

"Damn plants. We could seriously use some garden sheers."

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After experiencing glownies (seriously that shouldn't be scientifically possible), York had been keeping to the ship. The growth was a risk he wasn't willing to entirely take to get to his factory right now, with no replacement parts made. After wandering around for a bit to see what others were up to.

Except Dustin. And Radley. For now, anyways.

Instead he finds Mini and Reeve, with the latter bent over something to work on with the cat remarking on it. He plops down next to Mini, leaning over to look at what the human was working on. A soft little pat to the top of Mini's head. "Reeve, Mini," is all he says in greeting for now.

He focuses on what Reeve's got in his hands. "What's that? Looks like a weapon of some kind."

Of course Glownies could be possible. They were possible. They existed. Was this really so weird York? Reeve should really tell you about Bombs.

Still, York's there, and Reeve is intrigued of course, to find the android had come onto the otherwise abandoned ship. Well, perhaps it was one that York came to often, for all he knew. Mini, meanwhile, took the pat, his tail not even flicking in agitation. He was feline-like enough to actually appreciate it really.

"They were found in the greenhouse. I think they were what Ga Re was talking about. But I can't get it to function."

Abandoned ships usually didn't have anyone on them, and they were good to hide away from people, if only for a little bit. Sometimes he hid in here, other times it was his bunk in the Bishop.

There's a little hint of a smile at Mini's lack of agitation, but for whatever it's worth, York doesn't remark on it. Time to focus on the device being studied. "A bunch of shit here in the city didn't work at some point, right? Like, a sort of 'doesn't work because of disuse' kind of thing? Maybe it's the same thing with this. We'll probably have take to carefully take it apart to see if anything has come undone inside of it."

Carefully he reaches out to take it from Reeve to try and get a better look. He doesn't have scanning like Dustin did, so yeah. Probably have to take it apart. "Maybe we could take it apart from the power source and see if we can trace to the problem from there?"

Lerith is just outside of the barrier, some sprigs of the plants around him. Early mornings were nothing for him, since waking up early was a harder habit to break than his suspicions of people. His pockets have more of the greenery peeking out of them, where the elf plans to study them later.

There's a motion to the side and Lerith almost startles before realizing it's just Reeve. He raises his hand in greeting, then gets up to walk over. And then actually startles with the unexpected magic. But he trusts Reeve, since the man had removed his collar and helped him a little with his own magic.

[A blade of any kind would help,] the elf responds, having gotten back into the habit of signing after hanging around Dustin and Tommy for awhile on the other planet. Then the communicator comes out. 'Too bad there aren't any blades. Swords would be useful.'

Signing. Reeve... looks at it for a moment and feels bad that he hasn't learned it. He needs to buckle down and study. Damn, it had slipped his mind. Granted, most things did. The communicator was a relief though.

"Indeed they would. My friend Cloud had a massive one that would quite well tear through this."

Lerith had been meaning to start classes for it, but the Agrii apparently had other ideas to fill the elf's time. Annoying, but thank goodness for the communicators at least. Better than nothing he supposed.

Though the name gets a tilt of the head and a confused look. 'You are friends with a cloud? Do you live in a city in the sky?' He's heard of all sorts of weird things since coming to this city, but making friends with clouds was a new one on him.

"A man named Cloud. And... Well, once. Sort of. But not really. It's more of a term we used for Midgar."

Which wasn't, actually, in the sky. What a mistake. He wished he hadn't done all that he had done.

"IT's not quite the same," Reeve said. "I was involved in some of the repowering of a place."

By which he meant but wouldn't claim credit for leading that project.

"Could be more like the ships too. Can't use it without the right datapoint. I don't know. It's a lot to figure out. I've gotten the thing open though."

He does show the almost invisible panel he had discovered and worked open.

"They seem to run on Crystal Rods."

Oh his name was Cloud. Lerith isn't going to judge someone he's never met and their name at least because most people don't get to choose it. Hell, Lerith wasn't even entirely certain if the name he had was his name, but that's neither here nor there at the moment.

'Midgar is your... home? Is it a country or a city?' He didn't really ask questions about where Reeve was from. 'The Iron Bull would be helpful as well. I thought of maybe trying to burn the plants away, but I'm scared I'd start a fire I can't control.'

"What datapoints are available that this might fall under category-wise?" Security? Agriculture? Those were the only two that he could think of. But even then, either of those expertise would need someone to fix their things so Engineers would probably need a basic understanding of how the object worked...

York leans over to look at the device with the nearly-invisible panel open. "I wish I had scanners like my brother does. Be helpful right about now to figure this out. I can do internal scans but that's not useful." The android's face scrunches up a little at the thought, but smooths over as he focuses again.

"Do we have more of these? Would it be terrible if, while we worked on this, accidentally fubar'd it?"

"Engineering has gotten me far enough to get this open and study it. I do believe it's working well too. I think I could fix it. I just can't turn it on!"

So, when York lists datapoints, Reeve tries to nod. So yes, it's possible that one of those will do it.

"Yes, there are more. Perhaps even more in Sh'Ka. I do not know. But yes, I think we can work on this one safely."

Reeve's own name was a concept too, an ironic one. So he wasn't prone to judging people for their names. His own was strange enough.

"It was my creation, and my home for a time. It was a city that controlled a country, much of the world actually."

Bull. Reeve frowns. He's lost the man twice.

"I've been trying to avoid fire when I don't have the energy to throw down ice to prep the area, and then to douse it if I need."

Sh'Ka. He hadn't been there yet. Maybe he could travel some time if they could get the damn greenery under control. He stares at the device, wishing again that he could scan it. He tries to think of different manners of energy that could be used to activate the crystals within. "Maybe there's a different trigger than an toggle of some sort. Maybe kinetic energy via swinging it?"

He sits back and thinks hard. "That would keep people from accidentally bumping and cutting themselves. Maybe not from attacking each other. Maybe solar powered? If they're used to cut down foliage, being solar powered would make it easier it for using outdoors..."

“Or there is some other, more esoteric answer,” he says with a sigh. He does close up the thing, rises, and moves a few paces away from York before attempting to swing it. Nothing happens except for the swinging of course.

“It’s not solar powered. It’s crystal rod powered,” Reeve reminded the young man. That wasn’t what was going on. “And there are parts of the Sh’Ka greenhouse that are rather dark. I would hope this would work there too.”

Lerith had no idea if there was a meaning behind his name, or if it was even his actual given name from his family. It was one of those things he wondered about at night when he couldn't sleep. If he had a family still out there or if they were deceased. Maybe they were slaves somewhere in Tevinter. With the amount of elf slaves in the country, it was a high chance they were there.

'So it is the capital? Like Minrathous is the capital of Tevinter in Thedas. And you made it? Cities are big, that is impressive.' Lerith does look impressed for certain. If Midgar was anything like the cities he knew, anyways, it was going to be a feat!

'Do we have something we can grab to douse the fire if I try to use my fire but it gets out of control?'

“I was instrumental on a good deal of the design, and helped manage the teams which did the direct building.”

Midgar had been his child. He didn’t mourn its passing.

“Ice magic. I have that.”

Right, crystal rod powered. He figured that maybe movement was what activated the crystal, thus activating the the rod fully but he supposed kinetic energy wasn't a factory. Damn. "I figured maybe an outside energy source would charge the crystal to help it function.

He tries to think again, eyes looking over it. "Obviously something is wrong with it on the inside, but you said you can't really get it apart. Maybe we don't have the right tools to get it open? Surely if they put this shit together, they had to be able to take it apart again to fix it. Maybe if we can figure this out, we can figure out the greenhouses then. It seems like some of the tech in the city is based off of similar structures... Or maybe that's just how it seems from a scan."

York reaches for the rod, fingers flexing in a 'gimmie' motion so he can look at it.

Ice magic. Lerith had seen it being used sometimes in Haven, but hadn't experienced it himself personally. Maybe that was for the better, since he got so cold so damn easily. At least with his magic the mute would be able to keep warm easier, especially in the winter. And when he couldn't, he still had his blankets and space heater.

'Wow, that still sounds impressive.' Whether Reeve mourned his city or not, it was still a feat to successfully create something of such a magnitude to Lerith. The yellow eyes look to the plants creeping slowly towards them. 'I promise to try to not hurt you, if you wish to back me up with your magic?'

He points towards the closest plant to send out a little flame. Well, less a flame and a spark of a flashpoint spell that bursts out and lets the sparks set the plants on fire. A small fire.

For now.

"The crystal is fully charged," Reeve said, shaking his head. And yet he can't figure this out. "No, everything I can tell from this says it is fully functional. It's just that I cannot turn it on."

Which made him very annoyed. While he preferred guns to other things, he knew he couldn't use those here. He'd heard it want poorly if you tried without the Security point. "It's like trying to pilot the ships without Piloting. I just can't do it."

Which is a bad comparison because they, as Engineers, could trigger the auto-pilot.

"Figure out the greenhouses?"

"It was beautiful," he said, "and horrible. But yes, I will back you up."

Still, he was intrigued to see what Lerith could do now that he was free. That said, he was shocked when it suddenly happened. Even his own magic took a bit more charge than that, and he could usually taste it in the air.

"Apparently however my magic works, it doesn't let me feel it charge up in you."

York tries to think for a long moment. Probably no manual sitting around that they could just read, either. Or- "Is there a manual or something that maybe someone with the communications datapoint could read for us?"

He raises a brow at the piloting comparison. "Uh, is that true? Because I piloted the Bishop when we were told to go to the other planet. I wasn't great at it but nobody died, so I'm counting it as a win. Maybe upset a person or two but they'll get over it."

York shrugs. "If we can figure out how to turn the power on here, maybe it'll give a clue on turning the power on for the greenhouses. A random thought, don't pay it too much attention."

Lerith feels the urge to ask how such a city could be horrible, but doesn't. Tevinter falls in the same category he supposes. The city was beautiful with its architecture, but metaphorical blood ran through the cobblestones and cracks of the foundations. A city built on forbidden magic on the backs of slaves. Of elves.

The flashpoint spell burnt quick and hot from him, and the flames crept over the plants as they caught the greenery. There was no taste of the Fade from him, since he didn't use a lot of his mana (pool was too small anyways), and his base was fire. If it were electricity, one would be able to to taste the crackle on their tongue. Lerith knew that from personal experience in the villa.

'I only do the small spells. They don't scare me as bad. Can control them a little easier. If I tried bigger fire magic, I don't know if I could do it. Or control it.'

Yellow eyes look to Reeve's hands. 'How does your magic work?'

"It is through the mastery of the small spells that the understanding and control of the higher comes," Reeve assures the young elf as he carefully watches the fire. He keeps his ice materia in hand, just in case, but his free hand delves into his pocket to fish out one of his other materia. Lightning, he had decided, would be for the best.

This he tosses toward Lerith.

"I channel magic through these."

"Sadly, there was not," he sighs, shaking his head. Because how could they ever be so lucky as to get a simple answer to their problems? It was just never going to happen.

Still, he offers the young man a nod.

"Yes, it's true. Any piloting you would have done would have been heavily controlled and influenced by the auto-pilot. We aren't pilots, and so the whole system suffers with them relying only on us. Our pilots are important. Hell, for some reason they even seem to know the ships better."

Sure, Reeve did what he could to maintain his own ship, but there were things he knew he couldn't get at easily without a Pilot.

"Whatever tech they use to put the knowledge in our heads reacts to things, and things react to them as well. So it's possible we can't turn the power on with these devices. As for the greenhouses, I don't believe they have any more functions that need restored."

They had power, they had water. What more could they need?

"Unless... do you think they have auto-harvesting and care subroutines? Intriguing."

"You would think it'd be the opposite with the piloting and engineering stuff for the ships. We should know better given the datapoint, and the just fly better than us. Either way, it was a rough ride for The Bishop and I almost feel sorry for my crew."

There's a small smirk there of amusement because he actually did feel sorry for them, even if it was out of his control. He did try to fly the stupid ship as best he could, and even brought back an extra passenger which he didn't think was possible.

York holds up a finger to point. "You know, that part weirds me the fuck out. Like, I can see my brain easy enough to deposit new information into, if you're given administrator powers within my system, but human brains? Well, I guess here it would be better to classify it as 'organic brains' since not everyone here, is human I think. I didn't think you could transfer data like that into the brain like that."

He shifts, watching Reeve with the device they were working on between them. "When you touched the data point and received all of that information, did it hurt? Or was it just... overwhelming? I think that's the correct term for what how I could describe it for me. Like trying to run too many programs at once. Or trying and failing to get my system to do overclocking."

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[OPEN] Life's Like A Tower Defense Game

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jfc i'm so sorry this took so long

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