thebastion | Day 177

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Day 177 | Open

Who: Colin Starfury, anybody curious about what he's up to
What: He's testing a couple of inventions at the training ground
When: Day 177
Where: The Training Hall
Format: Action, Prose, Whatever you like
Open: Open
Warnings: Rated C, for Colin

After doing his morning chores and getting breakfast, Colin retreats to his workshop as he usually does. But today he's not staying there. In no time at all, he's dragging a cart loaded down with equipment out of the vehicle bay. The most conspicuous piece of gear is unquestionably the large turret that he's got strapped down in the cart.

He pulls the cart to the training hall with ease, and once he's there, he starts taking the time to set the turret up at the shooting range. It's going to take a bit of time for that, the piece was clearly not meant to be transported so quickly. Once that's done, it isn't hard to imagine that there's going to be a fair amount of shooting.

If anyone's curious what the Bastion's tactless engineer's up to, you've got plenty of opportunities to ask before the shooting starts.

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Well, someone's curious. Someone who's perched on the roof of the training hall, looking down at what Colin is doing.

<What's that for?>

Sorry about the sudden telepathy, Colin.

Nathaniel had been scarce ever since the second Mancer Observatory trip, since he had been working on A Thing that he was planning to reveal in another week or so. But he did have to go to get supplies every now and then, and when he saw Colin with all that crap, he was instantly suspicious. Colin was an engineer, and Nathaniel knew how engineers worked.

So he followed Colin, and once he arrived at the training hall, he finally said, "What are you doing?"

Colin looks around, not at all startled by the telepathy. His society was full of them, so it struck him as no different than someone calling his name. When he spotted the bird atop the training hall, he cocked his head slightly, and he smiled.

"The Bastion is woefully underprotected," Colin said, gesturing to the contents of his cart. "I've been working on changing that."

"Nathan," Colin said, nodding to him. "Paar brought me a disabled turret a couple of weeks ago. I've been concerned about how exposed we are, so I wanted to see if I couldn't fix something up."

He gestures to the turret. "It's not my most elegant of work, I admit, but it should be able to do the job if we ever need it," he says. "Assuming it makes it through the tests I'm about to put it through."

<It seems pretty safe to me. I mean... there's a giant dragon here.>

Even with all the alien technology he'd seen, a giant dragon was still kind of a useful deterrent.

"Paar can't be everywhere at once, though," Colin said, smirking. "And believe me, if security relies on the assumption that people won't attack a giant dragon, you'll find yourself in trouble far more often than you'd like."

He's not offended, far from it. If anything, he's amused.

"I like having backup options," he adds.

<I guess that's a good point.>

He paused, and flew down to perch on one of the shooting range's fenceposts. <I was going to say something about how well you're taking the talking bird thing, but then again, giant dragon.>

"Where I'm from, you wouldn't even make the morning news," Colin told him, giving him a smug grin. "Between familiars, shape-shifters, telepaths, mages, and my own particular brand of weirdness, it takes a lot to surprise me."

He gives the bird a nod, just the same. "I haven't seen you around before, I assume you've arrived in the past couple of days?" he asked.

<... Considering where I'm from has a secret war going on with brain-infesting slugs, shapeshifters, immortal robot dogs, beings that can bend time and space, and a bunch of other weirdness I shouldn't really be surprised. But yeah. About four days ago.> He turned his head to preen his feathers, fussing with them while he spoke.

<Not to mention my own weirdness... though honestly being stuck as a bird is a lot better than some of the other things I could have been stuck as.>

"Stuck as a bird on top of all that, huh?" Colin asks. "Sounds like there's a story behind that one, if you wanna tell it. Anyway, I'm Colin, one of the engineers around here. You wanna join me inside while I set this up?"

Zulf has actually been meaning to talk with Colin for some time. There simply hasn't been any chance to for him, however, considering the new places which seem to be springing up throughout the Skyway. It's kept both him and Zayna quite busy, even without him going to any of the locations personally. Yet today seems to be the day where he has some time to himself... And coincidentally it's when he sees Colin lugging about something that looks highly dangerous.

For some, that might be a bit of a deterrent in bringing up an event that was apparently very heated, but Zulf tries not to think about it much. Besides, he doesn't think he'll end up shot.

While Colin is busy setting up the turret, Zulf steps in with a slight frown on his face. "Colin, are you busy?"

"Nothing's demanding all of my attention," Colin said, crouched beside the turret and working to reconnect all the vital parts. "What's up, Zulf?"

The fact that he's loaded down with tools, with cables and wires strewn all about, and boxes of ammunition stacked beside him seem completely unimportant to him at present. He knows what he's doing here, this is just routine stuff.

<Kind of a long story. Basically... uh. Five human kids given the power to change into animals to fight those brain-infesting slugs I mentioned before. There's a time limit, though. I went over the limit.>

He ruffles his feathers a little, and tilts his head. <I'm Tobias. And sure.>

"Ouch, phenomenal cosmic power with a use-by date," Colin comments, shaking his head. "Yeah, I can see how that would be a bad thing. Technology, or magic, if you don't mind my asking?"

Colin grins, and beckons for him to come along. If he wants to land on the cart, Colin certainly won't complain.

Tobias flutters over, perching carefully. He doesn't want to damage any of the equipment. He turns to give Colin a look that would be a grin if he had the ability to make his face express it. He 'sounds' amused, though. <Technology, actually. Most people would probably guess magic, but it's technology. More advanced than what my world is capable of, though. We ended up finding an alien just before he was killed. He's the one who gave us that power. His brother ended up joining us later.>

He goes quiet for a few moments, hunkering down. <It wasn't an accident, us being there. I'm sure of it. There's a - a god-like being that's probably behind that. But apparently he can't interfere with stopping the invasion directly.>

"A god, you say?" Colin asks, cocking his head. "Yeah, that sounds about right, actually. I can think of plenty of gods who'd do something like that. So... the lock into this body. Was it hard-coded into the technology, do you know? Or was it just a failing in the device?"

He's not at all surprised that the answer was technological, and he's very curious about it. Especially if it's something he may be able to work with later on down the line.

He resumes pulling the cart to the firing area of the shooting range, surveying the area as he walks. He's got a lot of measuring to do for this test.

<It's part of the device, I think. I'm pretty sure it's not actually dependent on the device - it just grants the ability. I have no idea about the details of that part. The time limit is two of our hours. I don't know if Andalite hours are any different.>

"If you've still got the device on you, I can take a look at it later. I doubt I can do anything to fix the problem as is, but somewhere down the line, I might be able to rig something up," Colin said. "Technology just needs an understanding mind and a skilled set of manipulators in order to dance to any tune."

Of course he's going to continue working while he's talking. Of course. Still, as long as he doesn't hurt himself and can properly multitask... and since it's Colin, of course he can... Zulf just goes ahead. "I was speaking to Zayna and she said that you were rude and insulted the Pantheon in a talk with her. I thought I would come hear your side of the story."

"I've got that whole conversation recorded," Colin said without looking up from his work. "If you can gimme a few days, I can make a playback device so you can hear it in the exact words, rather than having to trust someone's word over another's."

He smirks slightly, and gestures for a tool he's set off to the side. "Can you hand me that?" he asks. "Anyway, I've got the tact of drunken faerie, we both know this. But for the record, before I said anything about the Gods, she struck me, and pointedly refused to go talk to you when I was asking her to check up on you. I said that I had no idea about Ura culture, and wasn't sure about how to approach you. She took offense to that statement, and went on to claim that nobody could know what the Ura had been through. Given that we've all lost a universe, and given that she knows nothing about the wars I've seen, I may have gotten saucy there. Gimme a sec, I'll queue up my response and quote it if you'd prefer."

"Ah, then there's nothing to worry about!" Colin replies.

He's a little disappointed that he won't get to look at a new toy, but that's only a passing fancy. "I can certainly see the appeal of it. So long as you're not uncomfortable with it," he adds.

"I know you think of yourself as being from a culture that is vastly technologically superior to most of the others here and have no qualms with regularly flaunting it on a day by day basis, Colin. However, if I wanted you to make a recording device, I would have asked. Talking works fine for most other people." Zulf sighs, shoulders rising up and falling with the movement. He doesn't want to be biased in this whole affair, he really doesn't. Still, when it comes to Colin, well, he can understand why someone would want to hit him.

It's something of a miracle that he hasn't been struck more, actually. But that's besides the point.

He goes to retrieve the appropriate tool, still speaking as he hands it to Colin. "From the way she told it, she struck you after the statements about the Gods. She also mentioned that you were very pushy and insistent on having her go see me. Of course, from the sound of things, it sounds as though things may have heated up enough that memories may have perhaps gotten turned around. She didn't mention you inquiring about Ura culture, only that you were incredibly rude towards her when she didn't go along with you." And he's not going to say who's particularly turned around here.

"Why you went to her instead of some of the others, I haven't the faintest."

"Not a recorder, a playback device," Colin corrected him, taking the tool with gratitude. "I've already got the recorder. And I'm recording pretty much everything for the inevitable debriefing."

He smirked slightly then, and shook his head. "She struck me after I told her I wasn't interested in measuring who's got the bigger dick," he explained matter-of-factly. "I went to her because she's a soldier, and because YOU have a nasty case of post traumatic stress disorder. I don't know Ura culture, I don't know how something like that is even approached. For all I know, there's a stigma to it and I pressed all of her buttons in one fell swoop. The point is, I went to her because I thought she could understand what you were feeling and address it in a manner you would be comfortable with. If Zahi had answered the door, I'd have talked to him instead. Either of them would have fulfilled the objective I had in mind."

[Ippo had been out enjoying the morning air for once when he spotted Colin hauling a large cart full of things that looked like he pillaged them off a battlefield. Curious, the young man made his way over and walked along side Colin as he gave the cart a once over, raising his eyebrow slightly as he tried to figure out what the mechanic was up to.]

What's all this for? Are you planning on making a robot or something?

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