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westwhere2021-06-14 05:51 pm
sergeant_slick) wrote in westwhere2021-06-14 05:51 pm
Living in the night
WHO: Slick and whoever, plus Eleven!
WHEN: 12th until the night before the siege event on the 16th, day and night
WHERE: Around the farm
WHAT: Preparing defenses as previously planned here and being a bit of a nuisance.
WARNINGS: None yet!
Don't follow the voices at night, he'd been told. Alright. He hadn't quite understood what was going to happen, though, nearly jumped out of his skin when something started begging to be let in.
Alright. That's what the voices sound like. Why was inside safe, then? It felt wrong to just sit there, trusting that nothing's gonna come crawling through a window. Hells, Archeval said this place already came under attack. He's not just gonna sit around and wait for that to happen again. He needs to get armed, and this place needs to be turned into a proper redoubt.
1. Daylight- Gearing up
Wood's a terrible material for defenses. It's soft, flammable, and instantly turns to shrapnel if it encounters anything with a blast radius. But it's what he's got to work with, so he'll just have to suck it up.
So he spends his day in the farmhouse's woodshed, chopping and sawing things into shape. It's a bit of a struggle at first, getting the feel of the tools this place has got. But soon enough, he's making passable lengths of lumber, wooden wedges, and posts.
There's only the occasional outburst of swearing.
2. Daylight- Setting up a roadblock
Partway through the day, he hauls the wood and some of the tools into the closest common room, bleary-eyed. He was up most of the night.
Better not to get caught flat-footed if things got bad--he's not trying to sleep during the night again. He was bone tired after all that'd happened to him in the past week anyway. If he tried to stay up for a watch tonight, he'd probably doze off. There was an easy fix to that, though, while there was still some daylight left.
He sits down in a corner somewhere and falls asleep, propped up against the sack he's stuffed his armor into. Is he in the way of something? Maybe. Is it comfortable? Definitely not. But it's sleep, and that's the important part.
Catch him early enough, and he might be shiftable. Wait too long though, and he might be hard to rouse, muttering something unintelligible and angry in his sleep.
3. After Sunset- Putting it all together
Once night falls, he's awake and working again. This farmhouse is falling apart. Sure, you can bar the doors and windows, but what's the point? If this place is going to hold up against an attack for even a minute, it needs reinforcement.
Beyond that, there's only so many nails to hang the boards with, so he's fashioning a load of treenails to split the difference. And he needs to prep the doorways inside the house, so they can be barred from either side, and make barricades that can be moved into place after that. All skills that got stuffed into his head during training, and bits of it had come in handy a couple of times in the field.
Is it probably going to annoy people that there's hammering and sawing through the night? Yes. Does he care? Nope. This needs to be done. And anyway, it drowns out the voices.
WHEN: 12th until the night before the siege event on the 16th, day and night
WHERE: Around the farm
WHAT: Preparing defenses as previously planned here and being a bit of a nuisance.
WARNINGS: None yet!
Don't follow the voices at night, he'd been told. Alright. He hadn't quite understood what was going to happen, though, nearly jumped out of his skin when something started begging to be let in.
Alright. That's what the voices sound like. Why was inside safe, then? It felt wrong to just sit there, trusting that nothing's gonna come crawling through a window. Hells, Archeval said this place already came under attack. He's not just gonna sit around and wait for that to happen again. He needs to get armed, and this place needs to be turned into a proper redoubt.
1. Daylight- Gearing up
Wood's a terrible material for defenses. It's soft, flammable, and instantly turns to shrapnel if it encounters anything with a blast radius. But it's what he's got to work with, so he'll just have to suck it up.
So he spends his day in the farmhouse's woodshed, chopping and sawing things into shape. It's a bit of a struggle at first, getting the feel of the tools this place has got. But soon enough, he's making passable lengths of lumber, wooden wedges, and posts.
There's only the occasional outburst of swearing.
2. Daylight- Setting up a roadblock
Partway through the day, he hauls the wood and some of the tools into the closest common room, bleary-eyed. He was up most of the night.
Better not to get caught flat-footed if things got bad--he's not trying to sleep during the night again. He was bone tired after all that'd happened to him in the past week anyway. If he tried to stay up for a watch tonight, he'd probably doze off. There was an easy fix to that, though, while there was still some daylight left.
He sits down in a corner somewhere and falls asleep, propped up against the sack he's stuffed his armor into. Is he in the way of something? Maybe. Is it comfortable? Definitely not. But it's sleep, and that's the important part.
Catch him early enough, and he might be shiftable. Wait too long though, and he might be hard to rouse, muttering something unintelligible and angry in his sleep.
3. After Sunset- Putting it all together
Once night falls, he's awake and working again. This farmhouse is falling apart. Sure, you can bar the doors and windows, but what's the point? If this place is going to hold up against an attack for even a minute, it needs reinforcement.
Beyond that, there's only so many nails to hang the boards with, so he's fashioning a load of treenails to split the difference. And he needs to prep the doorways inside the house, so they can be barred from either side, and make barricades that can be moved into place after that. All skills that got stuffed into his head during training, and bits of it had come in handy a couple of times in the field.
Is it probably going to annoy people that there's hammering and sawing through the night? Yes. Does he care? Nope. This needs to be done. And anyway, it drowns out the voices.
For Eleven
He made one more attempt after sunset, wandering through the farmstead, poking his head in doorways. Where the hells is this guy? Was Archeval lying to him? If this was some sort of trick--
Oh wait, there he is. "Hey! You're Eleven, right? Been looking for you."
no subject
"Hello," he offered after a moment, "Sorry, can I help you?"
no subject
"My name's Slick. Archeval mentioned you've been stepping up to make the weapons around here."
no subject
"Yes, I have forged a few weapons for a handful of individuals here. That's probably why you've had trouble finding me, if you've been looking. The forges are in Sa-Hareth. I only just returned from the Citadel an hour past."
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"I'm a soldier. Been wanting to pitch in on defense here, but I got disarmed before I got dumped here." Among other things. It'd been a bad week. "I'm trained for knives rather than swords, but I've been getting up to speed with Archeval and Hendrik." Another good name to drop, he was fairly sure.
"Don't know how much metal we've got, but if there's anything for a blade, I'd appreciate it." It wouldn't come close to replacing a good blaster rifle, but at least it'd be something.
no subject
But of course, he'd guessed the purpose of Slick seeking him out, and Eleven took a few moments to consider the request. He had ill metal to spare given his unexpected back-to-back commissions, though he'd hate to refuse and leave the man wholly unarmed. Metal enough for a knife shouldn't cost a great deal. That he held some sort of understanding with both Hendrik and Archeval swayed him.
"Knives," he repeated, because that wasn't wildly specific. "What kind of blade and how long?"
no subject
"Blade we got issued was about 17 by 3 centimeters, single edge, this sort of shape," he traced the outline in the air. "The ones we had were serrated on the back half. Multi-purpose sort of thing." Which weren't all that useful against droids, but droids weren't all they had to deal with out there.
"It was meant as a last resort, but we were trained with them. If we're stuck on a planet without blasters, I'd feel a lot better with a proper knife."
no subject
"I can manage that." If he wasn't worried about the potential need for coin later, he'd likely make him a pair of them, but with limited funds and a lack of extra material, he couldn't afford to be so generous. "I'd just finished my most recent request today, so if all goes well, I may be able to get it to you by tomorrow evening."
no subject
Speaking of 'Eleven', though. "If you don't mind my asking... Eleven's not a name I've heard on anybody but a clone. Is that normal where you're from?" Because with clones, you got numbers for names all over the place, mostly when some poor bugger couldn't think of a better one. The whole army was full of Niners and Fives and Sevs.
no subject
"It's an unusual name," he acknowledged, fidgeting a bit with his buckles. "I can't imagine why my birthparents chose it. I've taken to the assumption that it must have meant something different in the kingdom they were from. Much of the region I was raised in held names related to minerals or gems, so perhaps Dundrasil had something like that."
It still didn't make a great deal of sense given the three people he knew from that region didn't have names related to numbers at all, but it was the most likely explanation he could offer. Goddess only knew if Rab would have any insight on that front.
no subject
no subject
Eleven dismissed the line of thought in the wake of an aching sympathy for the man before him. His voice softened.
"I'm sorry," he offered, despite the futility of the phrase. "I hope there's something in this world that can offer you some solace."
no subject
"That's all I really need. I can get used to the rest of it."
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"Fair enough," he said, settling on a faint smile. "And please, feel free to take Hendrik off my hands as often as you'd like."
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"And thanks. Whatever you can spare, I'll make sure it's put to good use."
no subject
"That's all I ask. I appreciate it."
3
It meant he was easy to find at any rate, and that night Lily had tracked him down fortifying one of the doorways in the house, carrying two mugs of tea as her ever-present satchel hung from her shoulder. "When do you sleep?" It was an honest question even though she had raised her eyebrows in feigned skepticism as she asked it.
"Here. You've got to take a break at least for a nice cup of tea." Handing him one of the mugs, Lily turned to inspect his handiwork while she sipped her own tea.
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One of those was for him? Excellent. "Best idea I've heard all day. Thanks," he takes the mug with a smile, giving the steam a careful sniff.
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Her eyes narrowed briefly at him in jest before she had another sip of tea. "How long until you've finished?"
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"But it isn't going to be finished tonight. This place is too big." He gestured to the windows. "I'm not even sure I can cover the whole compound with what we've got. But if I can harden up this side of it, it'll be something." This side of the compound was closest to the forest, and therefore was potentially the more vulnerable to approach.
"If this place gets attacked, we could seal this bit up. Easier to defend, and still has some fallback options if barricades fail."
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"Just point me at what needs doing." The timing of his toiling was probably not the best, at least for the people on the farm trying to get a good night's sleep but she was confident sorting things magically would ease at least some of the noise.
no subject
"First pass tonight is reinforcing the doors and shutters--adding on extra boards cross-wise from the pre-existing stuff, plus a diagonal or two over the top of that if it still needs more." Which made everything about twice as thick and heavy as when it started, but it'd hold better and probably still open and close alright.
"Thing is, we don't have much to hold this stuff in place. I found some nails, but there's only so many of those. That means making wooden pegs," he gestured to a pile of tree nails on a nearby table, surrounded by a halo of wood chips. "Then drilling holes in the boards at the right places and hammering them in."
It'd been a hell of a job for one person to work on, especially when he only theoretically knew what he was doing. "Any part of it you want to help on would be appreciated."
no subject
At least the process of making tree nails looked simple enough, and keeping whatever he meant to board the windows with would be easy enough. Already forming a plan of action Lily's gaze returned to Slick.
"Pick a window. I'll hold the wood to it while you nail?"
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"I'm working on that one right now," he pointed to a set of shutters that was partially reinforced. "Just cut these for it." There were a couple of planks and a growing pile of sawdust nearby.
"I wanted to just board over these things, but this place doesn't have proper lights, right? Just fire and daylight." Candles and lamps and all sorts of burning stuff. It was primitive. "So if we really tried to harden this place up, we'd be running through more resources we don't have, or stumbling around in the dark."
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Following after Slick when he moved on to the business at hand, Lily looked from the planks he'd cut into shape and the window he meant to secure, nodding studiously.
"It's a bit mad, isn't it? The lack of electric light." It had taken some adjustment, but so had everything else about this place.
"Right, so, ready to hammer?" Lily lifted her wand, turning her attention to the wood as she moved it over the cut lumber, making it lift into the air. Carefully she steered it across the room, moving her wand as she guided it up to rest against the window.