Day 230 | Open | Got Wood?

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Who: Rob, anyone and everyone
Open: Open
When: Day 230, morning (backdated)
Where: Near the donut bush
What: Rob's created an endless supply of lumber.
Format: Any
Warnings: None

With the immediate threat to the Bastion's survival dealt with for the time being, Rob's finally gotten around to spending his shards. The result? An oak tree made of perfect 1-foot cubes. The trunk is 15 feet tall without a single branch and is surrounded by cubes of leaves starting at 6 feet above the ground, which all grow from a complex web of thin twigs without a branch in sight.

He circles around the tree at first with a grin on his face, then stops, focuses for a moment, and gives it a kick. Nothing happens, but his grin still gets bigger. A series of punches, tackles, and other strikes follow, but the tree barely quivers. Then he stops and flicks the trunk with one finger. Instantly the tree is severed at its base and topples over, the twigs in its crown cracking as they hit the ground. When the trunk itself hits the ground with a large crash, every twig snaps at once and the entire leaf mass drops to the ground leaving a square log lying on the ground in a mound of oak leaves. And a single bright red apple, which Rob picks up and bites into with a look of satisfaction on his face.

Oddly enough, despite there being only one stump there are other logs lying on the ground nearby.

Comments

[daughterofursa]

Zuko is up later in the morning than usual, and initially follows the sounds because she thinks Toph might be practicing her earthbending. A square tree toppling over is not what she expected to find, but that really should be par for the course here.

"...what are you doing?" She might still be a little too sleepy to come up with any compelling reason to have a square tree, much less punch it.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"Uh..." Oh look it's the person Rob's been avoiding because after their conversation he came away with the idea that she hates him.

"Checking that the Monument make this tree exactly as I asked?"

[daughterofursa]

If it helps, Zuko certainly doesn't look like she hates him. Mostly she just looks confused.

"Why did you ask for square trees?"

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

The real answer? Because he was partially copying the ones in Minecraft.

The answer he's giving her?

"Less waste when you turn it into planks."

[daughterofursa]

"Oh." That does make some kind of sense. "So you're building something then."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"Ehh, it was more so everyone would be able to make wooden things without having to use shards, but I should prolly come up with something to make."

He planned out everything perfectly, except for how he personally would use it. Whoops.

[daughterofursa]

"Well, it helps. We shouldn't be asking the Bastion to create so many things for us if we're trying to conserve power."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

He nods.

"That and there are other things to use shards for. No sense using them for things you can make yourself." He frowns slightly. "I don't like making something as ridiculous as this, but making an entire forest's gonna take a lot of shards and'll take longer to regrow, so this'll have to do for now."

[daughterofursa]

"A forest would feel more... balanced. But maybe that's something we need to do more naturally. There are places on the Skyway with trees, I bet we could plant some here."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"We could, but we'd still need to add more land to have enough space for a reasonably-sized forest anyways, and at that point we might as well just have the Monument create the forest at the same time. Land adds up surprisingly quickly though; you're talking millions of shards to get a square mile, and something like a mountain is just preposterous. It'd have to be a really long-term project no matter how it was done. Finding a way to get a discount'd be ideal, maybe finding a way for the Monument to move an existing forest here instead of creating it from scratch. I'd still like to figure out how to get more varied terrain here either way; everything's just so flat here."

[daughterofursa]

Zuko frowns, not so much in disagreement because she likes a mountain as much as the next person, but just because of their options for getting one.

"I don't know how much is possible, but I think we need to find ways of doing more without relying on the Monument."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Rob isn't sure how to interpret that frown, but nods and responds regardless.

"I agree. Both to avoid spending shards on simple things and not being utterly reliant on the Monument providing power in case we have to shut everything off again."

[daughterofursa]

Frowning is basically Zuko's default expression, so it doesn't generally mean a whole lot.

She nods. "At least we've got building materials covered. Assuming any of us know how to make use of them..." Zuko certainly doesn't.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"I'm gonna need to ask Colin if he knows of any woodworkers here. And tools. It's been around ten years since I've done any woodworking, so who knows how much I remember. I wouldn't trust myself to build a safe structure at this point. Hopefully there's someone who knows what they're doing here."

[daughterofursa]

"I'd be up for learning, but as it stands I'm... not so good with a hammer."

Also wood is pretty flammable. She's definitely burned down more buildings than she's helped build.

You saw nothing

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"I'd offer to teach, but I'll hold off until I'm confident I know what I'm doing."

With him that will likely be never, but ask again later anyways.

[daughterofursa]

"You don't have to be a master to teach a few things." Yeah, she has her suspicions about when he'll be confident enough.

"Speaking of which, I heard you might be interested in learning to ride."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"Ride?"

He looks confused; the topic change between carpentry and birdmanship was completely unexpected and he doesn't remember what would've prompted him to express such an interest, or to whom.

[daughterofursa]

"The ostrich horses. Red said you talked about it but you thought I wouldn't want to teach you.

"Frankly, he said you could use some help with a sword, too."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"He did, eh?"

His voice is flat. While he always assumes that people talk about him behind his back, having it confirmed is a bit painful to hear. They obviously discussed in detail exactly how he sucks.

[daughterofursa]

She's definitely not quoting word-for-word. This is just what Zuko got out of the conversation.

"Yeah. Unless you're some kind of prodigy, you're going to need a teacher if you just started using one."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"I'm not gonna claim prodigy status, but people probably have better things to do with their time than humor my whims."

[daughterofursa]

"It's not humoring a whim. You're a member of this community, and no one wants to see you go missing or turn up dead because no one taught you to defend yourself."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

A moment passes where he just stares silently at her. Did she not only express concern for his well-being, but say that he's not an outsider to the group? His hands go deeper into his pockets and he hunches over slightly, sounding a bit quieter and awkward when he speaks again.

"It's not like I need to go out on the Skyway. That's the whim. And it'd take longer than you think to teach me something like that."

[daughterofursa]

Zuko has aggressively claimed the entire Bastion as people she needs to look out for. Her own nation is gone, after all.

"I can be patient." This is not a face of patience so much as stubbornness, but they're basically the same thing, right?