Unwanted Projects

[quark_assassin]

WHO: Dustin and York, also Dustin and YOU
WHERE: York's factory, and the Amphitheater (both in Temba)
WHAT: Dustin has finished a project for York and tries to give it to him. Meanwhile, he's starting a bigger project at the Amphitheater.
WHEN: Throughout September, after the plants stop being so mean
WARNINGS: Enough strong language between Dustin and York for an R rating

1. York's Factory [Closed to York]

The last couple of months have been very productive and informative in some ways, and extremely unproductive and annoying in others. Dustin has it in his nature to focus on the latter. He'd made commitments, dammit. Sure he's come away from it all with more than double the amount of tools and raw materials to work with, plus some excellent knowledge to safely tuck away for later, but that doesn't stop him from feeling irritated at his inability to keep up with his self-imposed deadlines regardless.

The biggest of these - and the one Dustin is looking forward to completing the least - is York's prototype. It's bad enough that he hasn't been able to dedicate a lot of time to its construction lately, and that he's had to guess at the function of some of the parts he remembers the little biocomponent having, particularly in regards to where it interfaces and appears to process Thirium. But all of that pales in comparison to what needs to happen when he finally sorts all of those problems out and feels he has a satisfactory product:

The delivery to York.

He could have just flagged down Celty and had her drop it off for him. Then he could just avoid the angry little android entirely, maybe worked out details and revisions over text or something. Except, part of him worries that York would either ignore or destroy a mysterious package at his door, or maybe even go out of his way to wreck it if Dustin wasn't there to supervise. He might still do that even if he's there, Dustin considers - make some kind of grand gesture about how much he hates him and everything to do with him. At least then he'll know.

Hardly a comforting thought, as Dustin cautiously strides up to the door of York's factory house. He pauses for a few moments to glance around, checking for continued signs of habitation first, then for indicators of increased security second. Once he's satisfied that he's not about to be caught in some kind of anti-Dustin trap, he tucks the cumbersome metal box with York's testing equipment and prototype under one arm and firmly knocks on the side door with his free hand.

2. Amphitheater [OPEN]

Dustin's other main project for this month is a lot less stressful. Considering the sheer scale of his plans, it might not seem that way, but he doesn't expect it to involve a lot of people and, therefore, it should be much easier to deal with.

...Except, maybe it should involve a lot more people. At least, more than just the pitifully scrawny 16-year-old that has taken it upon himself to climb up and into the Amphitheater stadium lights on a regular basis. When he's not clambering around inside of them taking measurements and tentatively investigating their electronic hookups, Dustin can be found clearing out the remaining dead and dying plant life from around them and on the paths leading through the stands to the service entrances, some of which were so clogged at first that he couldn't even walk through them. He takes his working knife to them, hacking at the plants with an aggression that they probably don't deserve.

This is a lot of manual labor, and his workshop is a long walk across the city away, so he can also sometimes be found holed up in one of the stadium boxes taking a nap. He leaves a little nest of blankets and pillows in the one he prefers - as well as a simple fishing line tripwire across the doorway, attached to a suspended stack of metal scraps and a cast-iron pan on the side. They aren't positioned to cause any damage to any intruders, just to fall, make an absolutely apocalyptic amount of noise to alert him that someone's there, and hopefully scare them off before there's an actual confrontation.