revivalproject | March Catch-All

Entry tags:

March Catch-All | Network/Action

WHO: Dustin, Barrys, various people
WHERE: Network, Sh'Ka, Temba, all over the place
WHAT: Dustin discovers some stuff and complains about it. Also, he's building things again.
WHEN: Through the first half of March
WARNINGS: Dustin. Will add as needed.

1. Network | Video/Text | OTA

[It's nearly impossible for Dustin to think of a situation where broadcasting his location, live, over an Agrii-monitored network, could possibly be a good idea. Nearly impossible. But this planet is always full of surprises.]

[This is one of them. The camera cuts on to show Sh'Ka's iconic palace - or where it should be, based on the unusually large patch of short grass growing here amidst the massive trees. What remains instead is a giant pile of rubble. The camera pans around it for about thirty seconds, in complete silence, to show the scale of the destruction before shutting off.]

[Captioning it, in Dustin's characteristic pithiness: ]

What the fuck happened here?

2. Sh'Ka | Closed for Barrys

The Palace had been an incidental observation on his way to a greater project - something that Dustin has had in the works since last fall, actually, and was forced to put on hold when the winter's snows kept him isolated to Temba. Barry intel.

The 'hive' of Barrys he's been focusing on seems to be an especially active one that lives in the walls of Sh'Ka's Agriculture Building, and Dustin is pleased to note that the colony's drones are still alive and stomping around after Agra-10's deep freeze. His offerings today are perhaps lackluster compared to the ones he's left in the past, but unfortunately he has to make due with the small winter and early spring berries he's scavenged on the way here, with a handful of dried summer fruits to supplement. The small pile is left next to a trail Dustin has observed the workers frequently using.

Then there's nothing else to do but sit back several feet away, crouched in the shade of a young fruit tree, and wait.

3a. Workshopping | Closed to Donatello

The lack of snow and warming temperatures mean that Dustin isn't nearly so restricted in where he goes and what he gets done, but that hardly means he's avoiding his typical haunts. If anything, his workshop requires special attention right now; his telescope motor needs to be finished and installed when the nights are still cool and clear, while still avoiding patches of ice or snowmelt mud that could hinder its transport. That window is rapidly approaching and won't stay open for long.

It's one of those days of harried work, when he's spent hours fiddling with the code on his tablet, napped, snacked, then coded a bit more, losing track of what time of day it is save the little streaks of daylight streaming in through the boarded-up windows of his shop, when Dustin gets a single knock on his door. He straightens abruptly from his shrimp-like hunch over his communicator and waits.

Three seconds later, there are two more knocks.

Ah. Dustin hops out of the chair behind his workbench - what used to be a checkout counter - and strides to the door. "I hear you," he announces, loud enough to carry through the thick masonry walls. "Gimmie a sec to unlock the door."

A few extra manual locks have been added since midwinter. There's a series of at least five clicks, scrapes, and pops, then the door cracks open and Dustin peeks around to make sure it's Donatello on the other side.

3b. Demolition | Closed to Link

Finally, finally, the motor is complete. That just leaves the part Dustin had been dreading the most: Getting this fucking massive thing installed back in the stadium light he took it from. Getting it out and into his shop last year had been a production in itself, which is a lot of the reason why he'd been anxious about repeating the process in reverse. At least then he didn't have to worry about breaking it in transport last time - the thing already didn't work. But now it's got all kinds of delicate bits on it for precision lens movement and rotation, and Dustin's spent a lot of time on the initial calibrations while pairing it to the tracking program he wrote on his tablet.

He could have moved it again on his own, yes. Though the more he thinks about that process now, the more he's thankful for Link's offer to help instead.

Link will get that call in the early morning, about an hour before dawn, in the form of a picture of Temba's map sent to his personal inbox. The intersection between buildings Orange 8 and 9 has been circled in bright red. This, rather than his workshop proper, is where Dustin waits for Link to meet him, leaned against the rubble of Orange 8's walls and shivering against the lingering evening chill.

3c. Construction | Amphitheater | OTA

Once he and Link have extricated the motor from his workshop, rolled it to the Amphitheater, and reset it in the modified spotlight housing he left behind last fall, that just leaves getting the newly-minted telescope working again. Dustin spends the next week more or less living here to get this done. A decent chunk of that time is spent just cleaning up the old observation room he stayed in last year, and scrubbing the rust and debris off of the spotlight after three months of neglect.

Then, testing. Hours upon hours of testing. Some of this Dustin can do during the day, where he calibrates the motor and lenses by sighting in distant objects at the edges of Temba, but a lot of it has to wait for nightfall. Then he can start combining his mental star maps with his makeshift tracking software to have the telescope follow stars across the sky. This is a more passive process, where he sits back, takes measurements of the telescope's current position, checks the sighting scope and compares it to the observation piece, sometimes makes adjustments to one or both, then breaks to scarf down some dried Baconroom and wait for another thirty minutes in silence. It might seem like tedious work, but the entire time Dustin is practically vibrating with excitement, even if someone unexpected shows up in his workspace. Eight Agra-10 months of planning and naked-eye observation are finally paying off.

5. Spores | Various Locations | OTA

Dustin's final task for spring is one that happens between all the rest, generally when he's going from one location to another. The shortest path is always the preferred one, of course, but this month he's been going out of his way to take odd routes, circling areas that people don't frequent often, where he spots new plant growth starting to sprout with the warming temperatures. And where he goes, Dustin carries a jar with a sieved lid, filled with a powdery, partially aerosolized red substance. He pauses periodically to tap the jar over these islands of greenery, makes sure that a fine mist coats wherever he stops, and then, apparently satisfied with his work, continues on his way.

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There's definitely no shame in Gladio. He loves these jokes.

"Really?" Gladio says, rolling his eyes. Damn why he got to be like this? "Try me, unless you're going back to dustin' all you see."

It's impossible for Dustin's expression to get any flatter, but his eye does twitch a little.

"You're not taking this seriously."

"I mean, hard to take something seriously when it's not explained to me at all."

So actually use your words this time dude

"That's not--ugh," Dustin groans in exasperation, letting his face fall into his free hand. He takes a single, sharp breath. Continuing to argue never does him any favors with Gladio - why even try?

So, he doesn't. Dustin looks up with a tired glare. "It's an artificial substitute for the spores the Funfronds use to help acclimate foreign plant species," he explains in monotone. "Not doing this leads to excessive mutations during storm events, most of them harmful."

Huh, that's interesting.

"So the purpose is to ensure minimal negative mutations that lead to behavior they deem dangerous. Sort of like sunscreen for a plant, though instead of cancer you're avoiding things that try to eat us."

Gladio takes that explanation way better than Dustin had been anticipating. He looks only briefly surprised, blinking several times, but manages to reorient himself and go with it after a couple seconds of baffled silence. Having someone actually understand him is definitely preferable to the alternative, after all.

"...Kind of," he says. "The 'less dangerous' part of that equation is more for our sakes rather than the Funfronds - they see the mutations as a sort of rejection, which is why they want to stop them from happening. The end result benefits both parties."

Yeah yeah, big beefy guy can't be smart. Been there, done that, actually have a t-shirt about it back home. Or had. He has no clue how the manor, and thus the clothes, would be faring.

"Sounds reasonable," Gladio said with a nod. "Wish we'd had stuff like that for daemons back home. Good work."

Dustin looks briefly confused, like he's going to ask for clarification, but stops himself short with a flush of his face as his eyes lock on the ground. He remembers Gladio's monster from the storm last fall...faintly. Thanks to his lack of powers, details are annoyingly sparse, even in retrospect. Admitting as much makes him suddenly very self-conscious.

So, he doesn't. "...Yeah, whatever," Dustin mumbles instead, shuffling his feet. Having Gladio lay on the praise isn't much better, but it's a preferable alternative to where this conversation could go. "I'm just doing what has to be done."

"You need help?"

Gladio roamed pretty far, perhaps he could be of use in getting to places Dustin was less likely to go.

Dustin glances up so he can properly arc an eyebrow at Gladio.

"I mean...it's not that hard," he shrugs, then quickly amends, "--the distribution, anyway. I can do it myself."

"This is a lot of territory," Gladio points out, thinking. Then he smirks.

"Suppose there's no chance we could rig a deployment method to one or more of the ships, and just do fly over dustings?"

"Hmm..." Dustin ducks his chin and scratches at it pensively. "I don't think it would be terribly complicated to set up, but I would have to account for quantity wasted on non-essential locations and up my production by--"

Then it hits him. Dustin cuts himself off with a blink, then gives Gladio a sharp glare of betrayal.

"--Man, fuck off," he whines with a shake of his head, abruptly starting into a walk to brush past Gladio. "Wasting my time with shitty-ass puns. I'm out of here, I've got work to do."

Hilariously enough, that one wasn't even meant to be a pun. That's why Gladio follows.

"Not making a joke. That's what they're called back home, when you do that to fertilize or spread pesticides. A crop duster. It would make this work easier, wouldn't it? If production can meet the needs. And then we could do it in Sh'Ka too if they needed it."

Dustin's shoulders bristle as he lets out a growl of annoyance.

"I know what a crop duster is," he snaps. "I'm not a--"

Abruptly Dustin halts - closes his eyes, and takes a deep, bracing breath through his nose. Temper, he admonishes himself. This isn't a terrible idea and he's being genuine.

His boiling irritation drops to a simmer. "...If production can meet the needs," Dustin continues after a moment, turning to arc an eyebrow at him. "That's the primary difficulty. Most of the chemicals I'm using for this stuff are replicated, and I can't exactly synthesize more - or the finished product - on an industrial scale. I don't have the equipment for that kind of shit."

If they don't have the equipment...

"Can we synthesize the equipment, even piece by piece? I would donate rations to keep from having to fight this world's attempt at a Malboro."

Dustin stiffens up slightly, suddenly looking very uncomfortable. With how limited replicator rations are, the idea of having someone willingly donate theirs is, from his perspective, kind of a Big Deal. Yes, they would go towards a very specific cause, and that cause is the obvious trade for those rations anyway, but the weight of it is...significant. Dustin's not sure he would give up his own uses at the replicator in Gladio's shoes; he's got too many other projects to use them on that he thinks are equally important.

He manages to find his voice again a few seconds later. "Yeah," Dustin murmurs. "Yeah, we could. Easily. Wouldn't have to synthesize all of the parts, just the more complicated electronics and glassware that I can't scavenge. I could draft up the blueprints to feed into it today, even."

"Alright then," Gladio said with a nod of approval. Sounded like this would help them all, and he approved of that. "I've still got two this month, but I can probably give you a larger amount of next month's allotment if you need."

To him this wasn't even all that big of an offer. It was just... Well, it just was.

"...Right." Dustin shakes himself out of his befuddlement, letting his thoughts settle into something more comfortable: Actually planning on how to resolve the plan Gladio has proposed. That's a known quantity with hard numbers, which makes it a lot easier to deal with. "Seven uses of the replicator would be more than enough to set up the equipment and have a decent stash of chemical components to accelerate production. Modifying the ships for distribution, though..."

He frowns, ponders for a moment. The frown turns into a frustrated scowl.

"...Fuck. We'd need someone that can modify those things," Dustin huffs. "They're goddamn inscrutable without a data point. Engineering, maybe?"

Seven huh? Kid's got a plan, and that's not a bad thing.

"Piloting," Gladio corrects. "Our datapoint, it lets us know the ships. Know how to do what we need to with them. Including modifications."

Dustin glances back up sharply.

"It--what? No." He folds his arms, but aside from that initial protest of disbelief, Dustin doesn't voice any other arguments. That's not unreasonable, he realizes. Communications isn't just about understanding other languages - it helps with tablet and network-handling, too. There's no reason to assume that Piloting only contains information about how to fly the ships, given that.

Having sufficiently convinced himself, Dustin continues with a tone of cautious optimism. "That's...something you could do, then? Modify a ship to scatter spores over a wide area?" He doesn't give time for Gladio to answer before rambling on. "--Would you need specifications for the payload containment? Distribution method? Would the ship be able to fly precisely enough for controlled drops, or is that another round of modifications?"

"Yeah, if you came up with the device and built it, I could get it hooked into ship systems," Gladio confirmed. And since he wouldn't be flying between cities he might even have the ability to fly a pattern over Temba to spread the spores.

"We could test the flights. I'd probably need some route planning help."

Dustin nods, slowly at first, then with increasing vigor. "...Yeah. Yeah, that's easily doable," he says, eyes glittering. A small, enthusiastic smile tugs at the corners of his mouth. "I should already have the resources available to make a device for aerial application - would have to modify the design for the specific payload and to work with the ship rather than a purpose-built aircraft, but that's not too complicated."

He holds up a hand, a single finger raised.

"--One month," Dustin insists. "I'll have the distribution device built so you can integrate it. Two months for the actual spores. Routes can wait for after you've installed and verified its functionality."

"If you bring it, I can integrate it," Gladio promised. "Gives me more reason to work this piloting datapoint out."

Because it was nice for ferrying people around, but this was good to get to do.

"Can we verify with something like... I don't know, water?"

Dustin thinks for a moment, then waggles his hand in a 'sort of' gesture.

"Maybe. Ideally we'd have a stand-in substance that shares more of the material properties with the intended payload," he explains. "Density, viscosity...I'll run some numbers. Making sure it can handle a water run before and after might not be bad for cleaning, though. I'll add it to my designs."

"Alright, you do the hard thinking parts. I'll start investigating the best places to integrate it so you can do whatever calculations with that too."

Still, he was trying to help, and he'd give the kid his all on this project.

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quark_assassin - 2023-04-20 02:02 (UTC) - Expand

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