Cold, the air and water flowing

[kahl_175]

WHO: Kahl-175 and you!
WHEN: Throughout December, mostly early in the month.
WHERE: The Inn and its surroundings.
WHAT: Kahl goes fishing, improvises some tableware, enjoys the snow, does some Cyborg Things™, and helps get people inside before curfew.
WARNINGS: None so far!


A. Fishing [[A relaxing pastime. Or is it?]]

Kahl's a little confused by the stick with a string on it, but he gets the idea. You put little bits of food on the hook, and that stabs the fish instead of Kahl stabbing them with a spear, right? It makes sense, but it's new to him.

So is fishing with ice. When he got deployed somewhere cold, it was cold. No liquid water anywhere. The idea of standing on a lake is weird, but it seems to be working so far.

Maybe. He hasn't seen any fish yet.

[[Either join Kahl in peaceful fishing adventures, or perhaps the ice starts making unpleasant noises under his weight. It might be about to give way...]]


B. Soup [[A primer on table manners in the Grineer Army.]]

Kahl caught fish! He'd been tempted to gut them and cook them out by the lake, but instead he brought them back to the kitchen. That would help pay for staying here.

And give him a chance to be proud of the fish.

It's not long before he's distracted by what's going on in the rest of the kitchen, though. "That smell good," he points to a large pot over a low fire. "Can eat?"

He gets the go-ahead. "Kahl thank," he unbuckles his helmet, running a hand over his bald head. That was a mistake. His prosthetics are cold.

All the more reason to have soup. It'll warm up the helmet before he puts it back on.

He ladles some soup into the helmet, grabbing a spoon on his way out of the kitchen and finding a seat somewhere near a fire to warm up.

He smiles to whoever else is nearby, gesturing with his makeshift bowl. "Good food here. You have enough?"


C. Snow [[See, snow!]]

The last time Kahl saw snow was in the army. But he hadn't really looked at it. You looked for stuff hiding in the snow. You looked for tracks that told you someone had walked through it. The snow itself was just there.

But now Kahl's thinking more about snow. How white it is until stuff gets in it, the crunching noises it makes in some places, and the way his feet sink into it when he walks.

Right now, he's just sitting outside the inn, looking at the snow. Picking up handfuls of it, trying to bring it up to his eye without breathing on it, so he can get a better look at what snow really is, before it turns into water.

There's a lot of stuff he missed in the army.


D. Maintenance [[Character deconstruction.]]

Snow is good. Ice, Kahl's less convinced about. And sand is bad. Sand got spread around on the ice, and then it gets into his ankle joints. He can feel the little grinding crunch of the grains. His hands are getting beat up too. One of his fingers hasn't been moving right since Eidris.

There's no spare parts here, so he'll just have to fix the ones he's got. He sits down in one of the big open rooms, taking out an equipment case built into his armor, laying out all the little tools on a table.

There's a quiet whirring noise from his right leg. He holds it steady and twists, his knee coming straight out of its socket. It sounded a bit loud, though. Maybe something up at the plug needed cleaning. That would be a pain.

Ankle first, though. He puts his detached lower leg on the table, leaning in to inspect the joints. Not bad. Not great, though. He'll disassemble it.

Bits of leg start piling up on the table in neat little rows, all metal and military-grade polymer. He doesn't know the names for all the parts, but he knows what they all do, and what they should look like. And they're going to be keeping him busy for a while.


E. Curfew [[Quick! An excuse for CR!]]

Curfew is easy for Kahl. Now that he's figured out how long the day cycles are here, he set a timer in his augments. No guesswork required, he knows exactly how much time they've got until the doors slam shut.

Which is why he's gesturing urgently to someone still outside. "Curfew, fifteen seconds! Ghosts coming. Get in!"


F. Wildcard! [[Got another idea? Hit me up on the planning post/CR meme, at CellarSpider#9984, or at PaleAntiquarian! If we've already discussed something, feel free to do your own TL!

And as a bonus for reading this far: the music from the title/cut text, We All Lift Together! I cannot be held liable if it gets stuck in your head for the next decade.]]

Comments

maintenance

[techmaturgy]

Viktor is not necessarily a fan of the cold, but he's finding it to be something of a relief after their stay in Serthica. If they have to earn their keep, he's more than content to do it by tinkering. The good news is that there's no shortage of things to fix, and as soon as he makes his talent known in that department, the locals task him with creating various devices.

Which is fine. He'd rather be busy than not, but in his quest to devise an automatic salter, he finds himself scrounging around the inn for parts. These...are not the parts that he's looking for, but he stares anyway.

"Do you--" Viktor seems to realize this might be rude just a moment too late, but he presses onward, because he is nothing if not committal. Also, the sight of new, unfamiliar technology practically begs him to get involved, no matter how personal it might be to the guy currently dismantling his own leg. "Need any help with that?"

[kahl_175]

Kahl looks up from cracking open the servo casings under the armor, old injuries making his friendly smile droop on one side. "Kahl okay."

He doesn't know this man's name, but he's definitely one of the group. Someone else getting a rest, after the city. He holds up part of his leg. "Boots get dirty in Eidris. Joints not work so good. Kahl fix."

But that wasn't the only reason why he'd been approached, that was easy enough to see. "Brown-hair Man want to look?"

[techmaturgy]

Viktor is not entirely convinced, but he also knows it’s not his place to assume what Kahl does and doesn’t know about his own body. If he needs the assistance of an engineer, he’ll certainly ask for it—as it stands, this seems like fairly rudimentary upkeep.

Still, he itches to get a closer look, simply because he’s never seen anything like it before. His own curiosity gets the better of him, and when invited he takes a step closer.

“I. Yes. If you’re willing.” And isn’t just offering out of politeness or some sense of obligation. “It’s an impressive build. Did you design it yourself?”

[kahl_175]

"Mmhmm. Here," Kahl can do better than just show. He reaches down to unhook his remaining boot, pulling it off and holding it out to the man. All the mechanisms are hidden under the armor plate, but the attachment point has little yellow glowing lights in it, which flicker in complex patterns before settling to a stand-by mode. "Careful, it heavy."

The question's flattering. "Ha! No, these normal for Grineer. Most come out with bad hands and feet. Curl up and hurt real bad." He vaguely remembers it, but his got taken off before he ever left the cloning tube. Memories in there all blended together. "Cut off bad parts, put in neural sensors," He points to his stumps, where a matching set of yellow lights flicker as he shifts in his seat. "Then, put on gloves and boots."

They work just like hands and feet should, most of the time. Which is good. With how hard life can be, they take a lot of punishment. "Kahl just clean and fix parts." He can improvise, though. You don't always have replacements or tools, and so you need to be creative. That's where most Grineer learn to make new things.

And Kahl definitely learned. "Kahl make that, though." He points to a chunky device sitting on the table. It would normally latch onto his wrist, but he's taken it off while things are quiet here. "That Veilbreaker. Fires shock, get in close. Then break bad machines. No kill." He's proud of it. It hasn't seen much use here, but it's a good tool. It's helped free lots of brothers.

"Brown-hair man make things too?"

[techmaturgy]

Well, that’s not exactly what Viktor expected to happen, though he supposes he should be grateful to be offered such a close, unimpeded look. He knows enough not to ask how any of this happened, so he focuses on everything else, instead. The way it works. His fingers hover over the casing, wondering if he should dare to examine further.

“Neural integration?”

He seems a little wide-eyed. Certainly Viktor can understand the sentiment behind removing bad, faulty parts and replacing them with something better, but humans (and whatever Kahl seems to be) are not machines. Such doctrine would be immediately condemned in Piltover for those reasons, though Viktor would not be so swift to do so—then again, he’s used to seeing the real, humanitarian value of things the elite so easily dismiss.

“Viktor.” Forgive him for being slightly distracted. “I. Yes. I make things. I’m an inventor.”

[kahl_175]

"Mmhmm. Kahl not know much how that work. Not researcher. But it work good."

"Viktor," he repeats, trying to get the sound right. "Good to have here. This planet try to break everything. Need people who make things too." Like his brother Chipper, back home.

And if Viktor knows how to make things, he can be trusted to take them apart too. "Open here," Kahl picks up the disassembled knee joint from his other leg, pointing to a maintenance access cover. "Press on button in there. Take knee off, then can get into leg."

He goes back to his maintenance, cleaning the grime from bits of knee. "Where Viktor from?"

[techmaturgy]

"And fix things," he offers, following Kahl's instructions and not putting his hands anywhere until he's given permission. As soon as it's offered, however, he dives right in, pressing the button as he's told and reaching for something he can use to start cleaning it out. With the two of them working, it should go faster.

"A place not so different from where we just left, actually. If that makes sense."