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

[coolerthansora]

[The crashing logs do make a certain amount of noise, which is what Roxas decides to investigate.]

...is everybody getting weird plants now?

[The donut trees, Skyla with her meat orchard plans, and now this. It's like a trend or something.]

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

I hope not. The donut trees are bad enough. The only reason I bought this is because it's cheaper than an entire forest.

[coolerthansora]

I dunno that donut trees are that much weirder...

What're you gonna do with all the logs?

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

[The moment of silence that follows that question is probably enough of an answer, but Rob continues afterwards.]

I kinda bought it for everyone to use for whatever they want so people don't need to spend shards on wooden things. I hadn't planned on making anything myself, but I guess I should try and think of something.

[coolerthansora]

Some of us- might need some lessons on building stuff first.

[Roxas gives a sheepish grin, reminded of when Calem tried building a skate park.]

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

They won't be from me. It's been around ten years since I did any woodworking. I've got no idea how much I remember.

[More than he thinks, actually.

And it's at that moment that the tree regrows. There's less than a second in which Roxas might be able to glimpse the actual growth process, but if he blinks it will seem instantaneous. The tree is now a perfect duplicate of its original self.]

[coolerthansora]

[No, Roxas misses that but he does look over and do a double-take at how fast that happened.]

Woah.

Well- it looks like you've got plenty of wood to- practice with, if you wanted.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

After his initial excitement at the cubic oak tree having been created exactly as he'd requested it (in all its logic-defying glory), Rob's logical and practical side re-asserted itself. The Bastion now had an endless supply of wood, true, but Roxas had brought up a good point; there might not be anyone here who actually knew anything about woodworking, and Rob himself wasn't sure what to do with the lumber now that he had it. Then he remembered speaking with Colin when he'd first arrived, and Colin telling him to come to him in his workshop if he needed anything built. Rob had no intention of asking Colin to make him anything, but he had no other ideas on who to ask about woodworking tools and suggestions on what to make. He'd taken a shop class in high school and watched his father before that, so he might be able to remember enough to make something himself. At the very least, it would be a different way to try and avoid the crushing boredom that constantly threatened to rear its head here in the absence of books, the internet, and video games.

Despite having spoken with Colin before and being given no reason to be uncomfortable with him, he still felt a bit awkward as he knocked at the workshop door, a part of him worried that he might be imposing on Colin.

[freedom_engineer]

Fortunately, Colin isn't all that picky about who's allowed in his workshop, even with his mood in such a poor state as it is right now. He's seated at one of the workbenches, busily constructing some sort of projector, when Rob knocks. After a moment, Colin looks up.

"Come on in," he says.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Rob opens the door and sees Colin at work.

"Hi, um, I'm, uh, I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

[freedom_engineer]

"Nothing terribly important, just working on a holo-projector," Colin says. "Not difficult work, just a little focused. What's up?"

Colin sets his tools down and gives Rob a curious look.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

An eyebrow goes up at "holo-projector" and it's fairly obvious that he's curious about it, but he moves on to answer Colin's question first.

"I, uh, I just had the Monument make an endless supply of lumber and I realized I didn't know if there were any woodworkers here, or even if there were woodworking tools around. You've got this workshop here, so I was wondering if you had stuff for wood or just metal, and if you knew if there's anyone here who knows how to do woodworking and would want to know about the lumber supply."

[freedom_engineer]

Colin eyes his reaction to his words, and he smirks slightly. There will be time enough for that later. He's got a valid question, and one that he actually doesn't know much of what to do with.

"Carpentry, carpentry," Colin says to himself, putting his hand under his chin. He extends his index finger and starts to tap it against his cheek. "That's actually a good question, there isn't much use for carpentry in space. Your best bet would likely be to talk to Stewart, Georges, or Mirielle. They strike me as the ones who would have the best run-down on skills here. I know practically nothing about carpentry on a basic level."

He turns and looks around his workshop appraisingly. "Most of my equipment is set up to use for metalworking," he says. "But I can probably build you the tools you'd need pretty easily. Carpentry tools aren't that different from other tools, just geared for wood rather than metal."

[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.

[notachickenhawk]

It's a tree. It's a tree that is incredibly wrong and this needs to be addressed. Tobias wheels around, uncertain if he should land on it, and settles for landing on one of the square logs.

<What's wrong with that tree?>

Choose your answer wisely, Rob.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

It's perfectly safe to land on, so long as you don't apply any force to it with the intent to cause damage. Then it will fall over.

Rob starts at the sudden voice in his head and looks around for a moment before noticing the bird, remembering that the dolphin had mentioned that he was normally a bird, and that was a thought that Rob had never expected to think. He shakes his head slightly before answering.

"It's supposed to look like this."

[notachickenhawk]

<Why?>

It just seems weird. Then again maybe there's square trees on other planets. He has no clue.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"Cuz it's a partial copy of the trees in a video game called Minecraft, where everything's cubes like that. That and square logs leave less waste when you turn them into planks."

[notachickenhawk]

<Most games are pretty blocky. But that's kind of neat. I guess.>

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"Here you use the blocks to build stuff. It's kinda like Legos. It's pretty fun."

And here he is talking about something that doesn't exist anymore. Rob personally isn't convinced that everyone's worlds have been destroyed though, so talking about Minecraft only reminds him how bored he is without his computer and the internet rather than provoke despair.

"But, uh, actually you're reminding me of something. I'm guessing you eat as a bird a lot?"