Bradward Boimler (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
boldboimler) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
anaplasia2025-03-17 05:39 pm
boldboimler) wrote in anaplasia2025-03-17 05:39 pm
Entry tags:
roll call
[The man that's on screen doesn't look as uncomfortable as he could be. After all, the showers in the Cerritos are communal. But he sure is feeling vulnerable chilling here in only a sheet, in an area where only a short time ago there were monsters.]
[Every so often he arches his back slightly in discomfort at the itching, crawling sensation there. (This is worse than the Borg parts. Worse than even the implants on his face.)]
Okay, we should probably do a role call? Who's still here? What's your name?
Also, what skills do you have that could be useful here? We need to figure out what we need to survive. Delegate tasks. The supplies around here definitely seem to be thin on the ground. They're not going to last forever.
We should also probably share intel about anything useful we find as we look around. Or anything the AI shares with us.
[Every so often he arches his back slightly in discomfort at the itching, crawling sensation there. (This is worse than the Borg parts. Worse than even the implants on his face.)]
Okay, we should probably do a role call? Who's still here? What's your name?
Also, what skills do you have that could be useful here? We need to figure out what we need to survive. Delegate tasks. The supplies around here definitely seem to be thin on the ground. They're not going to last forever.
We should also probably share intel about anything useful we find as we look around. Or anything the AI shares with us.
video
[It's the decrepit surroundings that put him into a weird place where he doesn't reach out to others first. These aren't his others. This isn't his crew. And the last time he was in some decrepit rotting husk of a ship (is this a ship?) he had to...]
[...]
[He tries not to think about the time shard. But he does have to do the same thing: survive. So he gets right to work, with the energy of someone that thinks a murderous alien might turn around a corner at any time.]
[This is why, while slightly late to the discussion - fur mussed and sticking in every direction because he let the goo evaporate rather than washing it off - he's clothed, armed, and picking the meat off a slice of "pizza" to eat. The clothes are just a simple poncho made from a piece of colorful cloth with a hole clawed in the top for his head, with a belt of jagged ripped cloth for a belt. The holster is far too big for him, thrown over his shoulder like a bandolier.]
[But one thing is clear: the kid clearly doesn't waste time.]
Still not dead. Name's Little Cato. I'm good at hand to hand, hacking, and piloting. And I'm a crazy good shot. I'm so-so [he makes a 50/50 gesture with the paw that had been picking at his food] at bladed weapons, engineering, and ship maintenance.
I also know how to sew if we can get our hands on a sewing kit. It'd probably be good to have clothes that can't glitch out.
[He doesn't want to sew, since he's mostly used it in captivity or while trapped somewhere, but it's useful.]
And I'm good at making stuff grow in places where it's hard to. Like. For food. Hydroponics.
[He looks cranky at the the thought. Ugh ugh ugh why are some of his survival skills from that time possibly the most useful here?]
Since this food sucks and this place is ass.
no subject
like seeds or whole plants or what
[He's familiar with the concept of hydroponics – that was the go-to back before they landed on Vertumna, after all – but Dys never really helped out in there so his understanding is unfortunately limited.]
no subject
I can work off seeds. Cuttings. Pretty much anything that can take root.
Once you get past that part, the hardest part is the equipment.
[It'd taken maintenance. Cannibalizing parts of his section of the Crimson Light to keep the systems going and build new ones when the ship's original hydroponics broke down. It hadn't been meant to last decades and decades without replacement.]
We'd need substrate. Net pots or something like them. Even if we go without racks and positive-flow and use a deep water system, we'd need tanks.
But we may have to do it. This place is wrecked. There's nobody around - except for hostile aliens, I guess. We have no idea how long we'll be stuck here - the longer we have to scavenge, the farther we'll have to go to find stuff. [He hadn't seen a whole lot of food while running around.] And I bet there's plenty of other stuff that'll try to kill us before we figure out a way out of here.
It takes time to set up. We should probably prioritize it as a backup in case we get stuck here so something's growing before we really need it.
no subject
i'm better at scavenging plants than salvaging parts but i'll grab anything that looks maybe useful.
[It might be all he can manage, after all. This place doesn't seem big on nature.]
no subject
They have to have hydroponics or gardens somewhere. Even if there are no live cuttings maybe some seeds survived.
no subject
like even if it's old and rotten the seed part of any vegetation is probably still good right
that's how things grow in the wild after all
no subject
Hydroponics is something we should start right away. Do you want to take a look around the safe area and scout out a good location and supplies? Any specialized equipment is probably long broken, but there's plenty of salvage to make do with.
How good are you at hacking to repair programs that have already been damaged?
no subject
I can take a look around. I was kind of just speedrunning some basic supplies. I like to be prepared.
[Guns and clothes came first, so he could comfortably fight.]
I did notice there was a big room with tiered seating [the nonfunctional media room] that might be a good setup, though. Since it has the tiers, that's kind of already ideal for racks and tubs either built into the chairs, or on the floors if we can rip them out.
Also there were already sun lamps in that one room with the cushy chairs. [The light therapy room.]
no subject
We should test if the theater room can run the sun lamps before removing them all from that room. Do you think you can remove one without damaging it, or should we ask around for people with a delicate touch? I'd also prefer to remove the chairs and use them elsewhere. Comfort seems hard to come by, we shouldn't waste what's available.
no subject
[He keeps pondering over what they'd need.]
Oh yeah, I forgot to answer your question about the hacking.
[He'd gotten into the weeds thinking about the hydroponics stuff.]
Depends on the program. Stuff like doors and cameras and all that - I can do that in seconds. More complex programs, sure, with enough time. Some narrow AI, too.
[He thinks about what programs she might be thinking of.]
Anything complex enough to be sentient or near-sentient is way over my head, though.
no subject
[She gives a small nod, acknowledging that he guessed right.]
I'm asking about sentient. Ishtar, to be exact. She told me that her core memory was damaged, and I saw signs that her programming was altered in ways that changed her behavior. As if there's another program acting on her. I want to help her get that fixed, if we can.
text
But I'd also be careful talking about it. She might be listening and who knows what kind of self-protective algorithms she has and what might trigger them.
text
But I don't think she has any automatic self-protective algorithms. I already asked her about the possibility of repairing her core memory, and while she didn't have any useful information, she didn't object to it or change her demeanor.
no subject
This might be a...strange thing to say, but I take it you aren't immortal like the cats back home?
[As for the rest of it...]
Even with a sewing kid, fabric beyond these sheets may be hard to come by around here. It looks like this place has been allowed to rot for some time and I doubt much cloth survived. Plus, I was never able to pull off the distressed look and color coordination would be a nightmare. This many summers would be hard to supply...
[No, he's totally serious. Fashion is paramount to Inkfish in a way few can comprehend.]
no subject
[Far enough back they'd evolved to sentience and had a whole civilization rise (and fall).]
[He squints.]
Also the immortality is - I think they weren't immortal back home? But also I only know about Earth stuff because my dad is human. That's how I know cats are a thing at all.
As for all the clothes stuff, there's at least a little cloth, I have no idea what summer has to do with it, and who cares how it looks? It's just to not be naked.
[Ventrexians are nothing if not pragmatic and utilitarian.]
no subject
Oh, OK. The cats I know must have become immortal right before the great floods then.
[He blinks. He looks as if Cato just questioned why they would need food or oxygen. He gets a couple false starts.]
It's...summer or winter means...it's about how you accentuate your body's color... Sorry, what do you mean "who cares how it looks?" That's the most important part of clothing, how Fresh it is.
[The translator is definitely not going to pick up any of the nuances of "Fresh." Outer expression of the battler's soul might have worked. Display of your fighting skill would have also done in a pinch. But no. "Fresh."]
no subject
The most important part of clothing is protecting you from the elements.
[Even modesty is secondary to survival.]
Also holding stuff you need.
no subject
[It's a statement.]
That sort of functionality is for uniforms. You can't tell much about someone from just a uniform. Clothes are where all the Freshness is.
[There's that word again. Agent 8 is really not sure where the misunderstanding lies here. Maybe it's in how Ventrexians rank their gear, it might be a totally different system.]
no subject
Okay, things or elements of things that someone wears on themselves that are important, ranked: one, weapons; two, pockets; three, practicality for the elements and/or protective qualities. Very last place: freshness.
Who wears down jackets in summer? Why?
[He has worn heavy jackets (not down, but a similar synthetic). Yes. Sure. Certainly.]
[On ice planets where they belong.]
no subject
No wonder he's struggling.]
Because...they want to show everyone that they can take the heat?
[OK, OK, maybe that's a start?]
Wearing something like that makes a statement about who you are. You wear it to show how unbothered you are by being uncomfortable. Or you wear shorts and a thin jersey to show you're so good you don't need armor. Or...you wear a mask so your opponent can't look you in the eye. That's Freshness. That's what's important.
no subject
[There are types of cool that can be reached by being so cool you don't even care how you look. There is no impression meant to be granted. You just are. You could lean against a wall in a burlap sack and just project. (But without the burlap sack being a choice.) Like the way Cato leans back slightly, with an arm casually draped over a crate.]
The mask thing I get, though. My spacesuit has a mask and sometimes I pop it just when I'm shooting at people. That can be extra intimidating. But the people you're shooting at getting a certain impression is pretty tactical.
no subject
Right, exactly, that's what I'm saying. It's all tactical, not just masks but everything you wear. Why would you not care how you look to others? Sight is the most important sense, at least to us Octolings. You can't just disregard it. Why would you want to? Your opponents can see you, nothing else about the environment can.
[If Cato can judge these things by video, he can see that Eight is pacing a little bit. He has his hand resting on his chin in thought. He thought everyone knew this stuff, he never thought he'd have to explain it.]
Not trying to look Fresh would be like...I don't know, building a road without speed limit signs. Or...trying to ship glass without putting fragile stickers on the box. Or storing hazardous material without labeling what it is and how to handle it. It just doesn't make sense.