Day 241 | Open

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Who: Rob, Anyone
Open: Open
When: 241
Where: Near the donut bush and the cubic oak tree, then heading over to Colin's workshop.
What: The Bastion now has a cart to move big stuff around with. Along with sandpaper plants/"gritleaf" but shush those aren't important right now.
Format: Will match
Warnings: None yet

Rob hasn't made a big deal about the project he's been working on for the past ten days. Actually, he hasn't made any kind of deal about it, and there are maybe three people in the Bastion who he's mentioned it to, aside from anyone who might've wandered by in the meantime and seen him at work. But now he's finally finished it: a two-wheeled cart that a person (or some sort of draft animal if someone knows how to rig up a harness system) can use to move heavy or bulky items around with. With the exception of nails and a few fittings, the cart is entirely made of wood from the cubic oak tree. What? It's not very impressive for ten days of work? You try turning logs into planks with only a handsaw and see how long it takes you. (Rob's note to self: make a lumber mill at some point.)

Entirely unrelated are the foot-tall plants with rough undersides to their leaves that popped up on Day 238 in a fair-sized clump near the cubic oak tree and in singles here and there around the rest of the Bastion, leaves from which Rob's been using as sandpaper.

But the cart's done now, and after a final sanding of the handles to remove a rough spot he missed, he hefts half a square log from the cubic oak tree onto the cart and takes it for a partially-loaded test pull. He has no idea how this is supposed to feel, but it seems like it's working all right, so he'll call it a success for now. He heads over to Colin's workshop with it, pausing midway to mop the sweat from his brow and toss his sodden tank top on the cart. Ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes on... pasty white flesh, tan lines from the tank top, and a slight gut. ...Okay never mind.

In any case, he'll be knocking on Colin's door once he arrives, and he can be accosted at any point along his journey.

[For reference, let's say the cart looks something like this.]

Comments

[daughterofursa]

"Looks like you found something to make." And judging by the lack of nails sticking every which way, he did a better job of it than Zuko would have, even if it did take him ten days. She's not one to think less of the work for how long it took.

"...you're not planning on pulling it everywhere yourself, are you?" Okay, she might be judging him a little for that. She's not much interested in shirtless men to begin with, and frankly she'd rather Rob put his back on.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

The building process itself went fairly quickly. It was all the cutting that took forever. And he'll never look better without a shirt if he wears one all the time, Zuko.

"I better not be. Whoever needs to use it can pull it. I'm not gonna be a mule."

Rob may not be the most confident person ever, but even he has some pride.

[daughterofursa]

He doesn't have to start stripping when he gets sweaty.

She's just going to assume a mule is like a horse. "If we had a harness, the ostrich horses could pull it."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

He doesn't enjoy wearing wet clothes. And to preemptively answer that question: while he can logically justify it to himself as being okay he's not comfortable with the idea.

"I wasn't sure if they could pull things with their body structure, but regardless, I don't know how I'd make one that'd be safe for it to wear even if we had the materials."

[daughterofursa]

What question.

"It was mostly soldiers who rode them. Besides that, I usually saw them pulling carts and carriages. I have an idea of what it should look like, but... I don't know how to make a harness."

[freedom_engineer]

When Rob arrives, the doors of Colin's workshop are wide open. This isn't new, the doors are usually kept open during the day. If Rob wants to stick his head in, he'll see Colin laying his head down on a work bench, his eyes closed. That doesn't stop him from speaking though.

"I'm here, come on in," he says, making no move to get up.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"...If this is a bad time or anything..."

[freedom_engineer]

"Hardly," Colin says, cracking his non-cybernetic eye open and turning his head to look at Rob. "Just working on programming a couple of things. What's up?"

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Rob blinks, wondering if Colin's just gotten stuck on a problem and is thinking about it, because that looked more like sleeping than programming. But Colin doesn't seem to mind the intrusion, so...

"Come see."

As he retreats out of sight behind the doorframe, there's an instant where he's grinning like a kid about to show their parent some cool thing they found.

[freedom_engineer]

Colin tilts his head curiously, and he stands from his workbench. "Got something interesting, huh?" he asks.

He follows Rob out of the workshop to survey the work he wants to show off.

[chosenbylife]

You know what was great after a day meandering about looking for interesting things on the Skyway? A donut from the donut tree. Calem had long since gotten over how strange the trees were, and they were honestly the easiest to obtain snack in all of Bastion. His favorite were the jelly filled ones, whereas Gogoat was partial to the coconut ones. And since Gogoat was his fearless steed who leaped about the Skyway like it was nothing, he certainly deserved a treat.

Unfortunately Gogoat was a little distracted. He snorted and scraped the ground with his hoof. For you see there was one thing Gogoat enjoyed even more then then coconut donuts. And that was destroying things that were newly made.

"Gogoat, no!" he tugged on the pokemon's horn in alarm. Gogoat was clearly disappointed but he knew there was a time and place to smash things and this wasn't it.

"Uh sorry Monsieur," Calem waved his hands quickly, hopefully the man didn't realise how close his cart was to getting destroyed for a moment there, "We were just admiring your... quaint little cart there."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Don't talk to Rob about the donut trees. They're stupid and ridiculous and he's constantly tempted to gorge on donuts whenever he sees one. At least his cubic oak tree has a practical purpose instead of just eying his waistline for expansion.

Equally close to the destruction of his cart was Rob asking Colin to grow some goat meat for a taste comparison.

Rob looks over at Calem's cry and blinks.

"Got up to Gen 6 here, eh?" he mutters. Then he sees Calem and recognition dawns. The previous trainer he'd met had been without clothing in the onsen, so he hadn't made any connections. Now he's remembering some of the people he's seen around here at a distance and coming to some stunning realizations that probably should have happened when he'd first seen that there were Pokémon here. Please excuse him while his brain spins around inside his skull for a bit.

Oh wait Calem said something to him didn't he?

"Yeah, uh, thanks, I, uh, just finished it."

And because it's Calem who might actually care: red high-top skateboard shoes, black socks barely visible, navy blue cargo shorts, forest camo tank top, brown leather belt with buckle showing, brown hair shoved back into a ponytail with a hair elastic, reddish-brown goatee kind of frizzy and all over the place, earlobes pierced with rings, septum pierced with a thick curved barbell, sweaty from physical exertion.

[chosenbylife]

...Gen 6? What on Earth was that supposed to mean? Clearly didn't have anything to do with him either way. And oh yes he's noticed that amazingly hideous belt buckle too! Well, it'd probably look splendid with the right look, however cargo shorts and camo were clearly not it. And oh camo... he could understand the alure of it. He too went through a camo phase. A very BRIEF one, he still had the pants from it... but just... no. He's learned to try and keep his fashion opinions to himself however, and after a quick glance up and down he simple sighs and shakes his head a little.

"Finished?" Calem raised an eyebrow, walking closer to appraise it, Gogoat remaining behind in the shade of the tree, "Surely you must be joking, right?"

He frowned and gave the cart a critical eye, "It's quite dull. Not even a spec of paint! How can you consider something finished when it remains so absent of personality?"

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Perhaps the more coordinated outfit Rob arrived with and never wears here would meet with Calem's approval?

Rob's face clearly shows his lack of amusement with Calem.

"Cuz I'm not in this for the aesthetics, I made this to haul stuff around with."

[chosenbylife]

Well he definitely would have gotten points for matching.

"It's not simply about aesthetics!" he argued, "It may be something to haul stuff around with but it's your thing to haul stuff around with. As a craftsman do you not want people to look at that cart and know unmistakably that it's your work?"

Though yes aesthetics were a big part too. How could anyone think something so plain was finished?

"Perhaps though I've really no room to talk since my one attempt at building something failed quite spectacularly," he grimaced at the memory of his attempt to build a half pipe. It had not gone as well as he had hoped.

[scary_music]

[Rob, hope you don't mind a spazzy rocker jumping up onto your cart as you're pulling it and peering down at you...]

[... if an extra 93 pounds of weight on the cart is too much, you can always ask her to get off]

Greetings, noble cart driver! Where are you plying your fine wares this day?!

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

[The extra 93 pounds suddenly being added is certainly noticed, as is the spazzy rocker speaking to him from above. Rob jumps a bit and stops, turning to look at her.

...He'd intended to respond to her question in a way consistent with the roleplaying she seemed to be doing (or at least he assumes it's roleplay, given her modern fashion sense), but he's drawing a blank on what to say, so this has suddenly turned into Rob staring at her with a vacant and blank expression on his face.]

[scary_music]

...

[Okay, she was a bit disappointed by that reaction. Maybe even 'Get off my cart!' would have been amusing, but... nope, nothing. She's not entirely unused to catching people off guard with her behavior, though]

Yo, I'm Ibuki Mioda! Nice to meet mew.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

...Rob Edwards. ...I'm guessing you're new here?

[scary_music]

Your guess would be correct, Robby! Ibuki only arrived just today.

By the way, you should probably avoid the hospital until the exorcists are done with it.

[aprettyred]

Guess who really doesn't care about various states of undress? This little girl. But she remembers him, from when the bastion tried falling.

The cart is new though.

"... That's a lot bigger than mine." To be fair, hers is one of those little red wagons. Which her firebug usually pulls.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

He remembers her too; there aren't exactly a lot of young children around. He stops and smiles slightly at her.

"A little bit. I just finished it. What'cha think?"

Other than the conversation, his mind's filled with thoughts and analyses of the cart's construction and current performance, along with a general dislike of being sweaty and pleasant surprise at the feeling of air on his bare chest.

[aprettyred]

"You worked hard on it." ... Well, she sort of knows it, with what she's picking up from him.

She walks over to peek into it better. "Does someone need the log?"

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

He nods.

"I've been working on it for the past ten days."

He watches her as she examines the cart and sees the square log, with square growth rings.

"No, I just wanted to see if it moved as well with something in it as it did empty."

[aprettyred]

Square logs. Almost as odd as bubbles over cities and donut trees.

"Because its supposed to."

No she's a bit fascinated by the log. "... It is very square. Did you grow it in a box?"