re_alignment_logs | Harvest Cybertronmoon

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Harvest Cybertronmoon

WHO: Raf & OPEN!
WHERE: Alpha Trion's quadrant; near one of the lakes
WHEN nowish?
WHAT: So there's this farm that's been being set up and maybe you could come visit it if you wanted. Just don't step on any of the plants.
WARNINGS: None?

It wasn't so much the transport that was hard; with so many Cybertronians around, as well as Ashitaka's friend, Yakul, it was a matter of moments to move Raf's prototype over to a place where there was more readily available water, as well as less...heated terrain.

Literally.

The real work was converting the Cybertronian rock and metal in to something that could support plant life - but with some ingenuity, a lot of scrounging in the Junk Pile, and a lot of teamwork - there was an actual field now, maybe not the biggest the universe had ever seen, but it was a field nonetheless. There were various plants taking hold in the ground - not all of them Earth in origin, but they'd showed signs of being edible by organics - and a small plot or two of just grass.

It may be starting small, but it was a start. And while none of this was Raf's specialty, he'd tried to do what he could, having a vested interest in more...palatable meals, especially if they were going to be here for a long while.

((OOC; Feel free to handwave/assume your character's been helping out with it in one way or another - as long as it isn't "AND THEN THEY CREATED HUGE TRACTS OF ARABLE LAND". This is ICly a huge group project, so if you think it makes sense for them to have contributed in some way, go for it!

Also, as a completely open log - please feel free to tag in to others' threads, too! :D))

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He's doffed the cloak in favor of something a bit simpler. In this case, he managed to find some farm clothes he found suitable, stuff someone from Earth would recognize as typical of the 1920s: simple shirt, slacks, suspenders, and a hat. He's been doing very little walking in the Corridors, after all (better to keep his true nature... well, if not hidden, then at least not staggeringly obvious).

Given that he lives in Trion's place, he's helped quite a lot. Much of what Luxord has done is gather, catalog, and organize various sprouts and seeds for planting, and then gather books on agriculture. Using that, he compiled a few documents as a guide for people to use.

Really, it was more something he'd have expected Zexion to do, but, well, the Schemer wasn't here, was he?

"Do you think the Rift will see fit to gift us with some livestock?" he wondered aloud as he leaned on the hoe he'd been using to aerate some dirt closer to the water. "Or will we be all vegetarian now?"

"It better, Naga needs some real meat!" Korra said with a grin as she arrived on her polarbeardog's back.

"Hey there, need some help there?" And Korra gestured to the dirt and water Luxord was working with.

"I could use it, yes," he said. "If it doesn't trouble you too much."

"Not a problem at all--just direct me exactly on what you want me to do; I don't want to mess up what've you got going on so far."

"Well," he says. "I've already aerated and planted these rows, so if you could gently water them? Enough to get the soil wet, but not to make it into mud, yes?"

Korra nodded. "Gotcha."

Leaving Naga to sniff at Luxord, Korra began to bend the water so that it gently poured in an arc, closing eying how damp the earth got.

"Does your..." he gave Naga a look over. "Polar-bear dog?"

That's what it looked like, anyway.

"Does she bite?"

"Yep, Naga's a polarbeardog--a very friendly polarbeardog. You can pet her, if you want."

Leviathan never really ventured into this quadrant before, but she was trying to make a point to explore as much of the area around the Temples as she could. So imagine her surprise when she wandered across what looked to be the beginning of a small farm by a lake.

She walked along the perimeter of the growing plants, trying to identify what they were before looking around to see if there was anyone around.

"Hello~?"

Kneeling down by one of the plants, Raf didn't hear the approach of another until he heard the voice. He looked up, noting its vague familiarity...

"Over here!"

Leviathan looked up, smiling when she recognizes the voice, "Raf, right?"

She carefully made her way over to him, making sure she doesn't accidentally squash anything, "Who set this up?"

"Yeah!" And she was easily recognizable, herself. "And you're Leviathan?"

Memorable name.

"...a group of us. Ashitaka was a lot of help, after I managed a small garden, and he was able to help turn it in to...well, this."

He made a gesture out at the farm-in-progress.

"That's me!"

Leviathan looked around, an impressed look on her face, "This is pretty good. I wasn't even aware there were any plant seeds here."

"Most of what we've gotten was from that time a whole building landed here. Well...half of one." It was enough, at least. "The rest of it...well, I'm starting to think you can find anything here if you look hard enough, you know?"

With the exception of animals. Though what would they *feed* them?

It's taken time, but Ashitaka has been able to effectively move his very healthy leek garden to the new location with everyone's help. It's been an adjustment to these large metal warriors, the Cybertronians, but Ashitaka has accepted them easily enough. He doesn't need to know how they work; they seem like machines, but they also seem very alive, like him.

That cannot be disputed.

From here, Ashitaka continues to nurture what they have. His next project is, hopefully, a rice field.

Off to the side, by the water, Ashitaka kneels down and retrieves some water in a bowl. He sips a bit before he places the bowl down, letting his elk companion drink.

Ashitaka smiles faintly to him.

Then it happens.

There's a burning in his chest. He winces and clutches, curling into himself.

It'll pass, it'll pass. It always does.

Yakul grunts and nips at his shoulder in concern.

"It's fine," he murmurs.

Luxord had actually been walking over to greet Ashitaka (it seemed the polite thing to do) but stopped when the boy doubled over.

"Are you quite alright?"

There's a moment of silence as the pain passes. The mark must be spreading.

How much longer will it be until it kills him?

Ashitaka lets out a soft breath. "Mm, fine. I think I had something to eat I shouldn't have," he says softly. "Sorry, Luxord."

He wasn't sure he believed the boy, but he knew better than to press.

"Happens to the best of us, I suppose. The junkyard really is a rather hit and miss place to gather food from."

Ashitaka gives a bit of a helpless smile. "So it seems like. I'm hoping I won't have to scrape through there for something to eat again with all of the work we've been doing."

He nods once. "Thank you for your concern, though."

For someone like Four, leaving the safety of the temple was a huge step, but it was one that needed to be done. It frustrated him how much his own fearful nature was keeping him from going out and exploring this new giant world. Staying in his room away from others was nice and safe, but it was starting to limit how much he was able to learn on his own. The network was fine but... he liked hands-on experience sometimes.

He wasn't about to venture off into the world unprepared of course, he was only seven inches tall after all. Stitchpunks are very inventive little beings, so it wasn't too difficult for Four to gather up some string attached to a fishing hook, a scalpel typically used for art but would serve as a weapon for him, and a tiny bag that slung over his shoulders that had a few odd items inside.

Imagine his surprise and delight when he came across a farm of all things hours after he started out. Four knew that farms meant plantlife, and that was something Four hadn't seen yet! Living humans yes, those were wonderful, but plants were something else altogether. The only problem was that there were people here already, and Four wasn't sure he wanted to be seen just yet. Meeting people face to face made him nervous, despite his inner longing to get to know more people in general.

He really wanted to see those fields...

Someone hanging around the fields may just spot a seven-inch tall doll-thing either digging around in the dirt or playing around in the grass. Yes he knows you worked hard on these but he really wants to have a look...

Is that--

"Food?" Food for Naga, anyway. Really fresh. Alive.

The polarbeardog barked, and bounded for the rustling in the grass.

Imagine Four's alarm when the ground suddenly started shaking as the large dog bounded towards him. Danger! Freezing in the spot, he crouched down into the grass and frantically hoped that whatever that was won't find him.

Really, he should have expected this...

Korra recognized that small figure.

"Woah, girl--!"

But Naga was in mid-jump.

Korra quickly bent the little guy up and away in a protective tower of dirt.

Naga skidded to a halt, and began to sniff and paw at the earth tower.

"Uh, Four, right?" Korra called up to the small figure.

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa.

The giant dog Four could have handled, he was holding a knife after all, but the earth moving on its own? That he was completely unprepared for. He didn't even hear Korra talk to him, instead he curled up in a terrified ball and covered his head with his hands.

Was the earth going to eat him? He had no way of knowing until it happened.

Korra had helped Raf start the farm with her earthbending and waterbending, manipulating both earth and water into formations better for vegetation growth. Even Naga had helped her manipulate the earth, the polarbeardog digging, and stopping at Korra's command.

But Naga was currently napping and sunning herself while Korra was using her bending to make water from the river rain over the plants.

Miko watched from a safe distance, trying to see if she could catch something special about what Korra was doing to get the water to move like that. "Man, I wish I could even just do that, it would totally help me actually help with this part. But at least you can do it, good to make sure nothing goes thirsty."

"I don't know much about gardening, but I'm sure you can help too, Miko," Korra tried to reassure the girl over her shoulder while she kept waterbending.

Naga got up, yawned, stretched, then padded over to Miko, sniffing at her.

She looks up at Naga, reaching out to pet it. It looked like both a dog and a polar bear, but was friendly as far as Miko had seen.

"I tried weeding... I was good at pulling stuff out of the ground, just not only weeds. Don't know anything, really, about gardening so it's hard to do it for me. But at least I have no problems hunting the junk pile for seeds and stuff." She didn't mind admitting the truth about this, put her in a city and she could deal with anything, but gardening or on a farm, and she was a fish out of water.

"What kind of seeds did you find?" Korra was struck by the sudden desire for grapes--grapes would be nice. Seeds for grapes would be divine.

"A few different things, plenty of peas and beans, a few different fruit seeds, but those are going to take time to grow based off what the packages say... some apple, grapes and pears."

She sighs slightly, cause really she is realizing just how much she misses fresh fruit.

"What would be great would be if a whole fruit tree or what ever would come through with fruit on it that we could plant."

Miko had found early that she was bad at any actual gardening concepts, but she hadn't slouched on helping. Instead she had put her love of rooting around in the junk piles to work, finding as many seeds as she could. Sadly it wasn't a lot, but it was something.

Anything else she thought would help she took care to grab up and haul over. There were a bunch of poles and lines and things for larger plants to climb up by the time the got that big already stocked off to the side of the garden patch.

Currently she was crouched down beside one of the grass patches, running her hand softly through the bright, new grass. It was nice and familiar, even if it gave her a bit of homesickness.

Miko's help had been invaluable. Raf hadn't thought of the poles for climbing, but in hindsight, they should have been obvious. More signs that he was only so cut out for farming, but...

At least he wasn't alone in trying to stumble through this.

"...so do you think it'll be enough?"

And at least he knew someone well enough to confess some of his doubts about the whole thing, to.

"I mean..."

Well.

He shrugged a little, from where he was, a few meters ahead.

Miko stood up and wandered her way over to him, not responding right away.

"So long as we don't suddenly have half of Tokyo dropping in here, I think so. It may be tight for a while, until we get all the food growing well, and figure out what works best where, but it will be something more than canned spagettio's for every meal."

She looked at the area and gave him one of her charming smiles.

"You did a good job starting this Raf."

Well, at least she was honest. Tight with the future of not so much was, at least, hopefully.

"Someone else probably would have, if I didn't," he said with a small shrug. "I just...wish there was an easier way to do all this. You really don't think about where your food comes from all that much, or at least I didn't until I got here."

She tried not to be false about it, but she did have a lot of hope that this would help a ton.

"Maybe, but you got to it first." She said, going to throw an arm over his shoulder in a partial hug. "I don't think I ever really thought of how hard it was to have the food I have. BIG wake up call, huh?"

"Yeah. I guess Mom and Dad'd be happy that I'm trying to have more than junk food, at least." Sugar and salt may have been tasty, but living on that and only that?

Raf had no idea how college students did it.

"Yeah... I'm sure if my parents knew they would be happy about that part too." At least she isn't a huge fan of WacDonald's like so many other girls back home.

What Raf might do for a trip to WacDonald's right now, though...

"I guess we'll have that, at least, to tell them when we get home."

Because saying 'when' is better than 'if', right? Even if he's still...not certain. Far from certain, really...

What Miko wouldn't do for some kind of real meat which was something they were going to have to figure out soon, cause that is important, and prepackaged, processed meat wasn't going to cut it forever.

"Heh, yeah, if they even believe us about this place. My host family will probably think I'm totally nuts."

"Maybe Agent Fowler can help us come up with something." But even that seemed stretching it. Still...

His mom would never forgive him for being away this long. Even if it wasn't really his fault.

Edited 2012-09-18 05:15 (UTC)

"Yeah, I'm sure we will figure out something. Maybe, if these First Forged guys are the ones to get us home, they will be able to at least make the time not seem so long... or something." She gives a small shrug, but smiles at him and squeezes her arm around his shoulders a little, in a pseudo hug.

At the last comment...Raf actually blinks, as if realizing something, looking up at Miko.

"That's right...I mean, just because we left at one point doesn't mean we can't go back at the same, right?"

He knows a bit about dimensional physics, but maybe he'll have to try and learn more, because that's...one of the best ideas he's heard since they've gotten here!

While that isn't exactly what she meant, that makes just as much sense as fake memories to cover up the time they were gone.

"Considering we are on a Cybertron that isn't even the right Cybertron to our Earth, probably way before Earth even existed, I think it's safe to say that we should be able to go right back where we came from."

Makes sense to Miko, but then again running into the middle of a fight between titan robots and looking for robot zombies makes sense to Miko.

Raf certainly took it that way, and it's certainly an optimistic thought. "If it'll keep Mom from freaking out..."

Yeah.

You never want to get Mrs. Esquivel mad at you.

"If they don't offer something to work it out then I will personally go up to Nexus and give him a piece of my mind about it." She put an expression on her face that said clearly that she would, and that she would be very vocal about it.

Really she would probably just go talk to Nexus Prime and explain the problem to him and ask him if there was anything that could be done to work out a fix for it, but she preferred to sound strong for Raf.

As much as Raf was taken aback by that, at first, eyes widening...really, should he have expected anything different from Miko?

"Just be careful, okay?"

Not that Nexus - from what he's seen - strikes him as the type to take that badly (not like some), it's still the fact that with him especially, the size difference is huge.

Miko'd need a megaphone.

"Yeah, I will. I don't think Nexus would really do anything, in fact I probably won't even have to go yell at him, he's pretty cool."

She shrugs with her normal indifference to danger, she's playing it up a little, but she's hoping the familiarity of it will be comforting to Raf.

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Harvest Cybertronmoon

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