Day 273-277 | OPEN | Your Pokemans, let you show me them!

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Who: Rob, anyone
Open: Open
When: Day 273-277
Where: Anywhere
What: Various things Rob's doing over these five days.
Format: Will match
Warnings: Nerdy. Gross. Smelly.

[A - Day 275 and on]

Okay it's not a Pokédex per se, but when Rob got the Monument to make him one of Colin's datapads he made a few modifications, one of which was adding the data and functions of the various Pokédexes in the Bastion. Of course the seen/caught counts are at zero, a detail which needs to be remedied.

So do you have a Pokémon with you? Or six? Or a house full? Rob's going to approach you, still wearing his rabbit-skull necklace, holding a green and black datapad in his hand.

"Hey, um, can I see your Pokémon for a sec?"

[B - The whole time]

The Disciple had set aside the hide, brain, and tendons from the mammoth she had killed, and Paar had some mammoth hides sitting around as well, so it was about time that someone did something with them. Rob, having already tanned the hide of the rabbit he'd killed (and used it to make the cord of the necklace he's still wearing), has decided to see if he can't tan mammoth hide as well. Paar's stack has gone rock-hard and/or started rotting since nothing's been done to preserve them, and while there are still uses for them Rob's not prioritizing them. That leaves the hide of the Disciple's kill.

Brain-tanning is a labor-intensive process that takes several days, made even longer by the sheer size and weight of a mammoth hide. The steps are roughly as follows:

1) Soak the hide to clean and soften it. For this stage Rob's just putting it in the river and weighing it down with rocks for a bit.

2) Scrape the inner side of the hide to remove every last scrap of flesh and fat. Rob has immediately given up on keeping the hide in one piece for this and has cut it into more manageable pieces, which he's stretching on wooden frames to make scraping easier and get a good end result.

3) Let the hide dry taut on the stretcher.

4) Soak the hide in a mild acid to loosen the hair. ...Urine. It's a tub of urine. Rob's not any happier about this than anyone else will be when they learn this. Ignorance is bliss.

5) Rinse the hide, soak it again, and then wring it out until it's just damp dry. Wet mammoth hide is heavy. Rob has cobbled together a wooden stand to hold one end while he twists the hide, but any offered help here would be appreciated.

6) Boil the brain in water and mash it into a fine slurry, then rub thoroughly into both sides of the hide. Yes this is gross.

7) Roll the hide into a bundle, cover, and let sit for at least 24 hours. This would be break time normally, but there's so much hide to deal with that he still has stuff to do while he's waiting.

8) More scraping to remove the hair and any leftover bits of flesh and fat on both sides, while periodically removing the hide from the frame to stretch in all directions. He's rigged up a way to do this on his own, but assistance would be useful here too.

9) Loosely sew the hide into a cone using the tendons as thread and suspend over a fire made of rotten or green wood until the smoke color comes through to the outside, then turn inside-out and repeat.

10) Collapse in exhaustion. Congratulations, the hide is now leather!

As might be inferred from the above, this process is smelly, sweaty, and time-consuming. Rob will set himself up near the edge of the Bastion by the river to try and keep from tormenting everyone with this process, frequently referring to his datapad once he has it and letting it play nature documentaries or something to listen to while he's working. He's not going to ask anyone for help with this, but any offers of assistance will be appreciated.

[C - Somewhen]

Remember those hides that Paar had? Well before anything can be done with them they need to be softened by being soaked in water. The easiest way to do this is by leaving them in the river. The problem is that a bunch of them have kind of hardened together into a mammoth-hide boulder of sorts. So here Rob is, unable to lift it onto a cart and thus trying to roll it towards the river. Progress is slow. Help is appreciated.

[D - Day 275 and on]

For the times when Rob makes his appearances at the Distillery for meals, he has his pad next to him while he's eating and scrolling through documents, occasionally switching over to a notepad program and scrawling something down. A glance at what he's reading will reveal different things at different times, but pictures include such things as various Pokémon, trees, and gears.

And of course, throughout all this he's still going on a couple Skyway runs with Colin and morning swordfighting classes with Zuko. "Keeping busy" is perhaps a bit of an understatement right now.

Comments

[Day 275]

[gianthobo]

[Well, Eevee seems excited about Rob's presence, at least. She and AZ are walking back towards the daycare, and she yips excitedly and runs up to him. Pettings! Give pettings now, please.]

I think she says 'yes'.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

[Rob hasn't exactly sought out any of the Pokémon trainers before now despite his curiosity about how real-life Pokémon compare to their fictional counterparts. Mainly this is because of the whole "fictional" thing, which is a lot harder to ignore when dealing with actual people and not just animals. But he's determined to both fill up his "Seen" count and not let on that he's played a certain game series, so here goes nothing.

He's quite willing to give Eevee pettings; Eevee may not be among his top six Pokémon but they're still adorable. Less so when they evolve, but at least Leafeon is a good-looking option for them after several generations of boring dross. He makes sure to crouch in a way that doesn't result in a rabbit skull hitting her in the face and commences petting, soon switching to experimental behind-the-ear scritches as he holds up the pad with his free hand and taps the icon with his thumb.]

Eevee, the Evolution Pokémon. A rare Pokémon that adapts to harsh environments by taking on different evolutionary forms. Thanks to its unstable genetic makeup, this special Pokémon conceals many different possible evolutions.

[His goal with Eevee has been completed, but he's not so heartless as to stop scritches so soon.]

She's pretty cute.

[gianthobo]

[A Pokedex? Interesting. That's useful...]

She is, and she knows it.

[Yay! She rolls over, presenting her belly. You may continue with the pettings. You have been accepted, Rob.]

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

[Rob smiles.]

I can tell.

[Pettings of belly it is.]

Is she your only Pokémon? I'm trying to get all of the species in the Bastion registered on this.

[A small waggle of the pad. In terms of Pokédexes it's closest to Calem's, but only by virtue of it being a tablet with a screen between two sections of casing, in this case colored in green and black. It's much more reminiscent of one of Colin's datapads.]

[gianthobo]

No, she's not. Let's see... another one should be around here somewhere...

[He whistles, high and then low, and the answering cry of Flo~ette! comes as Floette floats over. She twirls her flower, and floats over to them.]

She'll likely look different from what your Pokedex pulls up. The flower she has is extinct in our world. I had the Monument grow some more here, though.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

[That Floette. Rob blinks a few times and wipes some dust out of his eyes with a knuckle of his pad-holding hand while continuing to pet Eevee.]

So that's where that flower came from. I didn't think it was possible for a flower to be that black. Not much of a flower person myself, but [He smiles at Floette, though there's an inexplicable touch of sadness to the smile.] they're really neat.

[Help this is getting too emotional. He brings up the pad for a scan and a distraction.]

Floette, the Single Bloom Pokémon. It flutters around fields of flowers and cares for flowers that are starting to wilt. When the flowers of a well-tended flower bed bloom, it appears and celebrates with an elegant dance. It draws out the power of flowers to battle.

[Indeed, the image displayed is of a Floette with a red flower. Rob takes a momentary break from petting Eevee to tap some buttons, switching the default image for the Floette entry to be of Eternal Flower Floette.]

It's not really a Pokédex, it's one of Colin's pads, but when I had the Monument make me one I had it add the functions and data of all the different Pokédexes in the Bastion to it. It seemed like it'd be useful to have a copy of that information. Registering all the species in the Bastion'll give me a list of which ones to read about first.

[gianthobo]

I used to garden a lot when I was younger. My mother was a grass-type specialist. Though Floette isn't a grass type, she knew a lot about them, too.

[Floette frowns a little bit at Rob's hair, and floats over to try to push it back in place.]

... Floette likes taking care of people, too. But that's useful. I have a few others, but Eevee and Floette don't like being in a Pokeball.

C - because why struggle when you have ridiculously strong androids nearby

[canismetallusfamiliaris]

It takes a moment for Erek to figure out exactly what it is Rob's trying to transport. Fortunately, he isn't squeamish about dead things, just about violence.

"I can get that for you," Erek offers. Unless Rob is enjoying struggling, he should take Erek up on the offer. Of course, Erek has his human hologram in place, so whether Rob knows Erek's true strength depends on how closely he's been paying attention to Erek or mentions of him.

why indeed

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

The answer is "not at all"; he's generally quiet and unobtrusive enough that it's entirely possible that most of the people who haven't threaded with him don't even know he exists, and while he may recognize Erek as being someone he's seen around, he doesn't have enough interaction with most of the Bastion to have much if any information on other people beyond what he's personally witnessed.

He looks up sweatily when Erek speaks and shifts over to make space for Erek to join him in pushing.

"It's really heavy. But another person pushing would definitely help."

Granted Rob isn't nearly as strong as he looks, but even if he was it would still be a tiring job for him.

[canismetallusfamiliaris]

"I can manage," Erek promises, grinning. It's nice to be able to help to the full extent of his abilities. On Earth, where disguise was a necessity rather than a preference, he carefully gauged his actions, never exceeding a human's capacity for strength.

Here, his identity and abilities may be approaching common knowledge faster than he's entirely prepared for. He hesitates only briefly before helping that process along, admitting to Rob, "I'm not really human, and I'm a lot stronger than I look right now."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"You aren't?" Rob asks with mild surprise and curiosity. "What are you then?"

[canismetallusfamiliaris]

"Android," Erek says, letting his hologram fall away for a moment. He lets Rob get a look at his actual body before reverting to Erek King, his current human alias. He's been playing human since before the construction of the pyramids in Egypt. It almost seems strange now, having to express himself without facial expressions to people who aren't other Chee.

"I've lived on Earth for awhile. My holograms and force fields are good enough to live out normal human lifespans with no one the wiser. Colin can see through them, but I think he's the only Bastion resident who can."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Rob's eyes widen as the hologram vanishes. Science fiction has long since left him with the subconscious assumption that "android" means "a machine that looks like a human in a metal suit" or possibly "a machine that has all the core traits of human appearance in some form". A bipedal dog was not even remotely what he was expecting to see, and it pretty much overrides his curiosity about how Erek functions it's so unexpected.

"I'm... I'm guessing you weren't built by humans then, eh?"

D for Distillery, day 276

[scary_music]

Ibuki enters the distillery, also apparently having acquired her own datapad recently. One of the obvious differences (besides the black paint job with artful splashes of pink and blue on the shell) from the base model is the upgraded sound system; obvious because it's currently blaring out death metal.

She doesn't notice Rob yet, the musician is clearly here to just grab a snack while she bobs her head to the beat of the music.

D for Decibels too, as in too many of them, Ibuki

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Rob can tune out quite a bit when he's focused on something, but there's a limit. He's not at all surprised to look up and see that it's Ibuki making that racket.

"Could you turn that down a bit?"

With how quiet he is and how loud the music is, it's entirely possible that Ibuki won't even hear him.

D for Disaster

[scary_music]

As an unfortunate addition, the music launched into a really invigorating portion right as Rob spoke, and Ibuki couldn't help but sing along as she continued looking through the available food.

Even with her superior sense of hearing, all she could make out from Rob was a vague... something? She decided to ignore it since, well, if it was somebody that would want to turn down her music, surely they'd say so with a much louder voice... right?

D for Diablos Ex Machina

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"Could you turn that down a bit?"

Slightly louder this time, but the added noise on Ibuki's end probably doesn't help make him easier to hear.

D for - okay I'm done

[scary_music]

Only slightly louder is definitely not enough to get Ibuki's attention.

She's still rocking out, but now munching on a donut while looking for something else to snack on.

D for Don't give up yet this is still going downhill!

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

It seems that he'll need to go louder. Oh well, it's Ibuki, he doesn't care too much if she misinterprets what's about to happen. He takes a breath.

"Could you turn that down a bit?"

It might surprise her to learn that Rob can actually put some volume into his voice. The slight problem is that when he does raise his voice he sounds like he's enraged and is seconds away from tearing someone's throat out with his bare hands. This would normally be bad enough, but he's also annoyed with having to repeat himself multiple times and it shows on his face, turning this from a case of his tone not matching his facial expression and causing confusion to a case of his tone inadvertently matching his facial expression and causing an even worse misunderstanding. Add to that the fact that he looks capable of doing something like that even if he isn't and one can understand part of why he's usually so quiet.

Day 277

[treasureling]

Malak is numb with shock and exhaustion. He hasn't slept. He thinks of his daughters without pause, the fact that they're gone, that they might be gone forever. He's cried, freely, but now he's gone into a state of emotional nothingness, and he forces himself out of the rooms he might now call home and goes walking.

The smell of the tanning attracts him, before he realizes it. It's something familiar, anyway, and for a long moment he stands and watches.

"You've never done this before, have you?" he asks, finally.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Rob starts when Malak speaks up, his attention focused on working instead of his surroundings. He looks up and over at him and blinks. He's not sure if Malak is new or just someone he hasn't met yet due to his general introversion.

"I, uh, I've tanned a rabbit hide but this is a lot bigger. Why, am I doing something wrong?"

He looks concerned about that, because overall he's pretty far along in this process and he'd prefer not to have wasted all this work. He hasn't screwed anything up, following the directions as carefully as he is, but his motions are clearly unpracticed and not as fast and efficient as those of someone with more than one rabbit hide under their belt.

[treasureling]

"Not wrong." Malak steps over. His movements aren't fast; it's like he doesn't want to startle himself out of whatever he isn't feeling. He crouches.

"Grip this way," he says, demonstrating with his hand. It'll seem awkward, but his hand won't tire as fast. "Scrape away from you, like this, more lightly." That's at least how he was taught to do it, near the end of a tanning process.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Rob's brow furrows slightly as he watches the motion and tries to imitate it. It doesn't match what he instinctively wants to do, but it isn't stressing his hand the same way, so maybe it's better? He has to focus a bit more on the motions as he goes back to scraping to make sure he doesn't instinctively go back to how he was doing it before.

"You a leatherworker, I guess?"

[treasureling]

"No, but I've done it before."

He settles down, taking this to be an invitation for a conversation. And even if it isn't, Malak wants the distraction.

"I'm a blacksmith."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"I know how to make a few things but I'm... not really anything." A self-depreciating laugh. "Stewart, he's the blacksmith here, taught me now to make nails and wheel rims and a couple other things. I've taught myself a little woodworking and built the two carts we have, and now I'm trying to do something with these mammoth hides." He shrugs slightly. "At least I'm not completely useless here. You should talk to Stewart if you haven't already though. He seemed to like being able to talk about blacksmithing with me, so he'll probably like it even more if he can talk to someone who understands everything he's saying."