Day 217 (Open)

[freedom_engineer]

Who: Colin, Rosethorn,anyone else who wants to drop by
Open: Closed to Rosethorn, Open like a door afterwards
When: 217, all morning
Where: Colin's workshop
What: Colin's at his workshop for anyone who needs to talk to him
Format: Prose to start, but will match
Warnings: There be Colin here

As he had been doing ever since the plague had been resolved, Colin was busy at work on some project of some sort. He'd been in a very poor mood for quite some time, and had been mostly keeping to himself. The movies nights that he'd set up had been a good distraction, and there would be another one this evening, but that was at least ten hours away.

In another couple of hours, he'd set out with someone for another salvage run. Until then, he works with his head down. Someone might be able to catch him by surprise, if they remember he's got a proximity sensor...

Comments

[gianthobo]

AZ has been in the metal shop area, working on something with hammers and the welding tools. It's some sort of sculpture - an equine shape on its hind legs, bits of metal forming a mane. Finally, he seems satisfied with his work, and he picks it up carefully, heading over to Colin.

"Colin?" Hopefully he's not interrupting something.

[freedom_engineer]

"AZ," Colin says, glancing up and back briefly. "How's the project going?"

Even if AZ is interrupting, it's not something Colin's likely to bring up. He isn't working on a pressing project, or anything that needs all of his attention. If he was, he would have shut the doors to the workshop.

[gianthobo]

"Good. I'd rather have sculpted the mane out of actual flames rather than metal, but I don't want to waste fuel."

He sets it down nearby, crouching a bit so he's not looking down at Colin. "What are you working on?"

[freedom_engineer]

Colin glances to AZ's sculpture, and he grins. "I bet that would have looked majestic," he offers. "Maybe Zuko could offer you advice on flames for that thing? Or one of our magically talented sorts?"

At AZ's question, Colin returns his gaze to his work. "Trying to make an altimeter that will function with the Skyway as a reference point for sea level. It's more complicated than I would have imagined it to be," he says quietly. "You don't need to crouch, you know? There's room in here for you. Make yourself comfortable."

[gianthobo]

"Maybe. I'll ask around."

He slides to the ground carefully, looking up at Colin. "I don't really like looking down at people that much. ... Anything I can do to help?"

[earthandpine]

Rosethorn doesn't even try to sneak up on Colin. His proximity sensor probably catches her easily. And just in case it didn't, she calls out, "Colin," as she enters. Rosethorn doesn't wait for the answer before walking toward him.

She hasn't been a social butterfly lately either. Rosethorn has been kicking herself for not being better prepared, and her recovery has been slow. She thinks she could probably use a friend, though.

[freedom_engineer]

"Rosethorn," Colin replies, setting down his tools and smiling. She is one of a handful of people that he'll actually pause his work for. "How are you feeling today?"

[earthandpine]

"Tired," Rosethorn admits. She wouldn't, were most anyone else asking. "I got out of breath weeding. I think it's improving, though not quickly enough for my taste."

Truth be told, Rosethorn is just thankful she can have a conversation. Her slur hasn't worsened, and she didn't have to relearn speech. No stroke, no brain damage. The fever never had a chance to get bad enough for that. And she's alive, no thanks to her own research given she was in quarantine rather than a lab. "What are you working on?"

[freedom_engineer]

"If you'd like, I can give you an oxygen infusion?" he offers. "Some of dad's dances have some useful tricks to them if you know how to do them."

He gets up then, and moves to grab a stool for her to sit on. "Please, sit," he says. "There's no need to over-exert yourself while you're still on the mend. And as for my work... I'm working on sensor equipment for the aircraft we brought back from the Observatory. I want to make sure it's got everything it needs to fly safely."

He'll stay standing for now. If she decides to take him up on his offer for oxygen, he'll need to be on his feet.

[earthandpine]

"How does it work?" she asks, mostly out of professional curiosity. "I'll take you up on the offer, but we've nothing like that at home."

Rosethorn complies, settling herself onto the stool. The looking after her without babying her, she doesn't mind. Not when it comes from a friend. "The way the land functions here is so strange." What with the ground shifting ahead of Rosethorn, and the sudden new awareness or loss of awareness of countless plant lives surrounding her. "Do oddities extend to the sky and require special instruments, or is the air rather ordinary?"

[metainstability]

Alright, so 'eighteen hours' and 'two days later' aren't quite the same thing, but in his defense, the Meta hasn't really been paying attention to the passing of time. Day, night, it doesn't mean much when all one does is scavenge from the Skyway.

It's a miracle that he even remembers where to go, and there's still a bit of apprehension in his footsteps as he makes his way to the workshop, not even bothering to worry about any sort of pleasantries. They're a bit difficult when one can only snarl, anyways.

[freedom_engineer]

"I was wondering where you'd gotten off to," Colin says on Meta's approach, turning his head to look back at him. "Was starting to worry you'd gotten lost on the Skyway. But no matter, it gave my time to work out the program a little more."

He sets down his work, and focuses his attention on the Meta. His eye sets to scanning Meta's armor once again, and Colin stands from his seat. "If you want to come over here, we can see about getting you set up properly. You won't even need to doff the armor, if your I/O ports still work."

[metainstability]

A noncommittal grunt is the only offering he can give, raising a brow at the implication of ever managing to get himself lost. So far, besides the heights, he hadn't seen anything that would have posed any sort of threat to his wellbeing. Perhaps it's a bit too much hubris on his part, but he'll stick to that sentiment until proven otherwise.

He nods, lumbering over, taking a small inkling of care to avoid anything that looks too breakable. The assurance that he wouldn't have to be separated from his armor is enough to at least placate his nerves about everything for the time being, though he's still come armed. Better safe than sorry.

[freedom_engineer]

"Why do I get the feeling that you're going to have words for everyone once I give you your speech?" Colin asks, somewhat amused at the grunts. It's not hard to miss the intent behind them. "Anyway. I'm going to load a program into your armor now. Assuming the neural connections are still good, it will take a few minutes to load, and from there, we can start trouble-shooting."

He smirks slightly. "Just remember, it's going to be tapped into your language center, but you're still going to control it with your thoughts. So, depending on how long your throat's been damaged, you may have to remind yourself not to say things out loud that you've been thinking all this time."

Even as he speaks, Meta's HUD will likely be alerting him to an external program being uploaded to the suit. How Meta is likely to react, Colin has no idea, but there's a reason he warned him ahead of time.

[metainstability]

Perhaps because he’s had words for everyone for quite a while now, it’s just difficult to portray his point without communication or any discernable facial cues. Still, the comment brings a snort of laughter, along with a somewhat rude hand gesture; at least the intent is amicable.

It helps mask some of his trepidation as well. The moment his HUD pops up an alert, he’s gritting his teeth, breathing deep to quell the sudden rush of nerves.

There isn’t a sense of intrusion like he’s expecting; there’s no new presence in his mind, no computer program burning pathways through his brain, but there’s a hint of something, a ghost of a feeling that pales in comparison to what he’s been through in the past. Psychosomatic, more than likely, but it’s almost comforting, in a way. After existing for so many years as a horrible conglomeration of flesh and AI, and the abrupt silence after their destruction, there’s something familiar about the idea of being melded to his tech in such a way again.

A heavy twitch runs through his body, fingers clenching and unclenching as seconds, minutes, tick by. Notifications flash along his HUD, sparks crackle from the power unit cobbled to his back, and there’s a low hiss of static from the speaker by his shoulder that manages to coalesce into a single, semi-intelligible word.

“motherfucker.”

[findsrisks]

Nanaki had been keeping mostly to herself lately. Between the troubles with the sickness (being a normal kid with no medical skills is not so helpful when dealing with contagious things) and the constant visions of horrible death that had plagued her any time she looked in a reflective surface, she really didn't want to talk to anyone for a while. But with everyone recovering and nobody dying, things were getting a little better.

Well, for the most part. While most of her troubles had been caused by the quarantine, a couple still lingered. And who better to talk to about it than one of the few people who had believed her before?

So Nanaki will go over to Colin's workshop to go looking for him. Knocking on the door probably wouldn't get his attention, since the workshop is big and sometimes noisy, so she just walks in to go look for him on her own. Maybe tripping a few sensors will get his attention.

[freedom_engineer]

True to expectation, Colin is busily at work in the cockpit of the aircraft they'd retrieved from the Observatory. The work isn't exactly the loudest it could be, but it is punctuated with occasional spits of curses as the paneling on the vehicle seemed to be resisting his efforts, whatever those may be.

When Nanaki comes near, Colin sticks his head up from where he's at work, and he smiles down at her. "Hey, Prophet-girl, what's up?" he asks. "Haven't seen you around much lately."

[findsrisks]

"Well, there WAS a quarantine and all," Nanaki says, saying it like it's the obvious answer here. Which it is, to her, because she has enough common sense to not break quarantine.

She walks over to where Colin is working, looking over the aircraft Colin had found. It's not quite what Nanaki would have expected from something that could fly- it looked more like a boat than a plane- but if everyone was saying it could fly, then she wasn't going to doubt them. They know better than her about mechanical things, after all.

"I thought I should check on you, you've been hiding away a lot. Probably working, I figured, but I wanted to check."

[freedom_engineer]

"Over a week ago," Colin tells her in amusement. "I don't think I even saw you for movie night, you missed a heck of a show."

Her observation on the craft is oddly accurate, and the source of much of Colin's frustration. He knows how it should work, mostly, but it's missing a lot of the instruments that it needs before Colin will be comfortable flying it. It can get people where they're going quickly, but Colin would rather that it also get them there in one piece...

"Oh? I appreciate it, but I'm doing okay," Colin says. "Morale's taken a bit of a hit after that damn plague, and I've had to re-assess some projects, but all things considered, I'm doing okay."

[findsrisks]

"Well, it's better to be certain," Nanaki says in response, "You don't want to mess around with getting sick when there's almost no doctors left."

She still presses the issue, though, because she thinks Colin might be working too hard. Maybe.

"As long as you're remembering to eat and sleep, then things should get better slowly. I think everyone's still recovering, and it'll take time."

Unless something really awesome happens. That would boost morale a lot.

[doctor_dragoon]

Yukio had spent a good amount of his time since the dropping of the quarantine with his nose buried in one of Colin's datapads, trying to sooth his perpetual state of worry with knowledge that he hoped he would never have to use. Understanding text on the screen was a long shot from dealing with the real thing, of course

But Colin had been scarce. Even during the movie nights, something about him seemed a bit off. Yukio wouldn't really feel right prying about something like that, but the main purpose of his visit isn't as a social call it's okay to peek in on the other man, right? Right.

"Good morning, Colin-san."

He'd left Oshawott behind today, probably in Rin or Bon's care. The little Pokemon usually followed Yukio everywhere, but the young doctor didn't think bringing him to Colin's workshop would be wise. There were too many things for a curious Pokemon to get into

[freedom_engineer]

Be glad that a hard light holo-simulator uses more power than they've got, Yukio, or Colin would be testing you.

And Colin does appreciate that Pokemon have been kept out of his workshop. He loves animals, but around this equipment, it's a recipe for disaster.

"Yukio, hello!" Colin says, looking out from under the aircraft. Yukio was one of the few people that Colin actually felt comfortable seeing without having to modify his behavior right now. "How are you doing? The homework going okay?"

[doctor_dragoon]

He wouldn't be against using the simulator if they could. It's better than preforming your very first surgery on someone whose survival depends on you not screwing up. No take backs.

Yukio glances around the workshop before stepping up to have a better look at Colin's current project.

"As okay as something like this can go, I suppose. I can't say I ever pictured medical school like this." His mental image had always been of a more classic sort of higher education. Late nights in a small dorm room, massive lecture halls, and eventual residency at a hospital where he would work his ass off before opening his own practice... Except none of that would've happened at home while he remained a part of the Order, and now any world that might've given him a degree is gone.

"... What are you building?"

[freedom_engineer]

If you REALLY want training, Colin will come up with something. Don't think he can't do it, he'll take it as a challenge.

Colin's workshop is meticulously organized, and for as chaotic a mind as Colin seems to be, everything definitely has its place here. There is very little left out and about, only what Colin needs for his work. And as for his work, it's reminiscent of a boat, but it's definitely not built for water.

"Don't worry too much about that," Colin tells him, giving him a smile. "It's a little rough, but very little will teach you better than the School of Hard Knocks. We'll just try and make sure you don't have to do any invasive surgeries without a little bit of practice ahead of time."

He slides out from under the ship on a dolly, and he grins. "Airship," Colin says. "I need some faster travel options than what we've got. Sadly, this isn't going to be much of a transport vessel, but it should be able to get one or two people where they need to go when it's done."

[doctor_dragoon]

Yuki's learning very quickly not to challenge Colin unless he wants pretty immediate results.

"Hopefully I won't have to do any surgeries at all."

Unlikely considering their circumstances, but a guy can hope. Hope that Haruka's condition remained stable, hope that no one manages to get seriously injured on the Skyway, hope that nothing worse than their plague experience decides to come along.

And people wonder why Yukio worries so much. He leans over a bit, briefly inspecting the craft, but not touching. Put a gun in his hands and he can do some pretty crazy stuff, but he doesn't take chances with things beyond his realm of knowledge, especially when it's something that Colin's obviously put a lot of work into.

"Something like this would've been useful when Haruka-san and his friend arrived."