thebastion | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: Colin Starfury, any meddling kids
Open: Open as the plains
When: Day 267, late morning and early afternoon.
Where: The Farmland
What: Doing another survey for more development
Format: Anything, can match
Warnings: Colin IS a warning

As far as plans went, this wasn't how Colin had wanted to spend this week. There were a lot of things that needed doing even before the plight of the Ura reared its head. But Colin was an engineer, and he knew well that the universe had plans of its own and it really didn't care one little bit of the plans of individual people.

The day before this had been spent doing research, and helping Rob build his new cart. That had taken a fair amount of time on its own, but it was work that needed to be done if they wanted to set up a supply line. Now that the transportation was done, it was time to set up the facilities that would give them the supplies down the line.

So here he was, setting out more stakes and flags, taking more measurements, and generally making it apparent that SOMETHING is going to be going up in this area soon. And if the layout of the flags and stakes are any indication, it's going to be something BIG.

Anyone care to bother the engineer at work?

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"If necessary," Colin says, a serene smile standing completely out of place with the current subject matter. "As I said. I like being ready for ANYTHING. Did they mention that I got eaten at that prison? I had a plan for that."

"And probably saying something about Dad rolling over in his grave..."

Because really, Shiro probably would be just as upset if not more so if he were alive to hear something like this.

Good job, Rin. Good job.

"Your pop would probably be mad at first, and then he'd probably be happy for you," he says, smiling at her. "Parents are protective of their kids, and then, they're protective of their grandkids."

He nods to her. "Long as you love Bon, I don't see any reason why anyone should be mad," he says.

"I prefer to have plans to avoid getting eaten at all--except in the sexy way--but I can understand how your smug grin might broadcast 'eat me' to a lot of things."

"I've been told I have a very assaultable face," Colin replies, laughing. "But most things think that if they eat you, you're done. They forget that their soft insides aren't covered by armor, and that if they swallow something whole, nasty things can happen."

"Many people are done once they've been eaten. I understand the school's principal was swallowed by our snake mayor, and no one ever saw him walking around again. Of course, I think the entire school was blown up shortly afterwards, so that probably didn't help him to survive."

Ryu wanders over to where Colin is, now that he's back from his daily walk on the Skyway. He contemplates picking up a flag, but figures that's not a good idea when Colin looks so intent on his work.

"Hey, Colin! What're you working on?"

"Ryu, hey," Colin says, smiling. "Getting ready to make more facilities. Those new farms I was talking about at the meeting."

He's very glad Ryu didn't touch the flags. Replacing it wouldn't have been hard, but it might have thrown off his calculations.

"Oh! Can I help?"

He's not really sure how he can help, but sure.

"Not much you can do here, sadly," Colin says, giving him a smile just the same. "Just wish I could make this building a little bigger. It's going to be nice, but nowhere near as big as it could be..."

"Why not? Do you not have enough shards?"

He's seen people use shards before, but he hasn't done it himself.

Edited 2015-01-23 07:51 (UTC)

"Not enough for everything I need, sadly," Colin says, shaking his head. "Too much to buy, too few shards."

"I can help with that!" He grins brightly. "I've got... a lot. I haven't bought anything since I got here..."

Colin glances at Ryu, his expression full of consideration. "If you're willing to spend 800, or even 1,600, we could get a LOT more food than we've got right now," he says. "It's a huge cost, though. I can only really afford 800 of my own right now, because I'm going to be spending a lot more on other things..."

"I'm pretty sure I've got a lot more than that! I don't really need much." He thinks for a moment, before nodding. "Yeah, I definitely have that much. I was thinking about asking the monument to make some more fish in the river, but this is more important."

"New species aren't terribly expensive," Colin says, smiling. "Just ask Paar about that. He introduced the mammoths, after all. He can probably tell you all about introducing new things."

He looks out over the area, mentally changing his blue prints to match the new space. "If you're serious about it, I can start making the changes immediately," Colin tells him. "Just want one last confirmation before I go changing my survey. Sorry, it's the old axiom, measure twice but cut once."

"No problem. And I figure that the more shards we have the better, right? It might take some time to carry them all to the Monument, though. I've just been piling them up in my room."

"I can give you a hand on that, and on counting them in the first place," Colin says, giving Ryu a nod. "Thank you. It's definitely going to help us out here."

"No problem. Just let me know when you're ready and we can go get them."

He's quiet for a moment before speaking up again. "How do these farms work? Not like regular farms, so...?" And no advanced science words, please, Colin. Or as few as possible.

"Lots of science," Colin replies, laughing quietly. "Basically, rather than soil, they feed the plants special meals to ensure they grow their best. No ground needed."

"Oh. That's really cool. I've never seen anything like that in my world. I guess my world's stuff must look kind of dumb compared to the stuff from your world."

"Just older," Colin replies, giving Ryu a warm, understanding smile. "We've had a lot of time to develop new stuff. Couldn't get there without older methods that people from your world are still honing. Everything has its time and its place."

He doesn't think poorly of undeveloped societies. Every race has to start somewhere, and it takes a long time for any race to hit the warp age.

"Yeah. And I'm starting to think about something. I mean, if - when - we manage to fix everything."

He picks his words slowly and carefully.

"Maybe... maybe my world doesn't need gods anymore. I mean... if I'm supposed to be the Dragon of the Future... doesn't that mean I get to pick? If I'm strong enough... I want to get the Endless to leave. ... Relying on us isn't going to help anyone."

Colin looks at Ryu, his expression growing serious. "For everything that I feel the gods don't do right, there's plenty of things that they do," he says gently. "Mere mortals will always want to believe in something greater. Gods, heroes, things they can aspire towards."

He smiles slightly. "I can't change your course, but I can make you think," he tells Ryu. "A good god, looking out for his or her people, is a wonderful thing. Some people won't appreciate it, some people will. But there will always be people who want to believe in something greater. Never forget that."

"... I know. But I feel like... if the Endless are around, then people will just try to use us for war. The Empire tried, and they ended up messing up the summonings really badly. We're not even from the same world."

He crouches in the dirt, drawing patterns in it. What if things go wrong again? There's too much danger...

"Besides... it's not like we can do much anymore, I think. If the war can end, if I can bring peace... then maybe it'll stick. I don't... want people to get hurt anymore. Look at this world - people hating each other so much that they'd do anything to hurt each other. If you take away the biggest weapons... doesn't that mean they can't hurt each other as much anymore?"

Maybe it's a simple way to look at it. Maybe it's childish. But if they could stop fighting, if they could just sit and stop hating, then maybe things would be okay.

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