|
|
Post by aardvarklord on Oct 8, 2015 23:40:28 GMT -5
Gavin had no idea what the woman said in response to his laughter, but he was happy to hear her giggling at his antics. Still, he had a job to take care of and he was eager to get the builder doing its job. Eager to get into something that wasn't getting tossed around on the waves like a cork. The work of the fabricator was background noise for him; it was something he had seen a thousand times before and, assuming he survived this ordeal, would see another thousand times over. However, he had a bigger problem to figure out: how to handle the fact that everything around here was underwater. The computer already had ideas for an underwater habitat (probably from the original colonization plan), but he couldn't just make an airlock; the degree of machinery that would require as opposed to the metals and equipment he had access to were wildly out of proportion. Sure, he could make one in time, but with the Aurora's situational stability not entirely assured, he didn't exactly want to stay in the pod long enough to try that. However, there was a thought that had crept into his mind with the pod, specifically when he was underwater and she had helped him out. If he could get an air bubble underwater and keep it there, then he could then build an area which he could flood but still keep an air bubble above it, then he could just swim in and out without worry. Would probably make a good place for Fairah or any other friendly locals to lounge in, assuming she or they wanted to stick around and needed water to survive. He'd need to make a pretty decent foundation to offset the extra weight and find a location that he could build such a thing over (without any hostile wildlife mucking it up), but it was doable.
At about that moment he heard Fairah's voice behind him and looked over to see her pointing at what he was looking at, namely at what he was dubbing the 'living room' of the habitat. While her words were lost, there was only so oblivious someone could be. Smiling, he brought up a diagram of his pod, pointing to the screen then to the pod around them, "Home." He then brought up the drawing of the circular 'living room' and put it to scale with the pod and said simply, "Big home." Then, seeing that the builder was done, he picked it up and pointed between it and the drawing on the screen, "This builds home." Looking at the material around him, he knew he'd probably need some more quartz and DEFINITELY more titanium, but those were easily gathered judging from what he'd seen, and he had enough copper and silver to last him a while. Ooooh... the waters were warm around here; he'd have to invest in an air conditioning, unless he wanted to fry inside. As it was the pod was uncomfortably warm. Still, that was just one more little nuisance to deal with, and not a life-threatening one at that. He looked back to his friend with a grateful smile and, with some gestures between them and the picture of their new project, offered her, "My home and your home?" She had risked her neck for him and saved him a couple times already; she'd earned her place as a friend. If she wanted a safe place to stay, she was welcome to it.
|
|
Jackie
Child
Professional lazy grump.
Posts: 248 Likes: 23 
|
Post by Jackie on Oct 11, 2015 19:00:28 GMT -5
(Sorry for the shortness!)
Ferah watched curiously as the picture on the screen changed, and she was able to recognize it fairly quickly as the pod they were currently standing in, when he made the image from before appear on the crystal square once more, she was able to deduce that Gahven was planning to make a larger place that he could live in. Twas a good idea in the girl's opinion, the cramped space they were in now didn't leave much to the imagination and since the man couldn't breath underwater, caves wouldn't be of much use to him. The pink native frequently slept in caves, while scant few of them were very spacious, they seemed to dwarf his small home. Ferah smiled and nodded her head in understanding as she heard him repeat a single word a couple of times as he pointed at the crystal square, not needing an interpretation to know what he was getting at. "New home!" She'd exclaim, though of course he wouldn't recognize the words spoken in her language. When Gahven asked a question of some sort, Ferah's smile faded, and she'd regard him with a curious look, her head slightly tilted. The girl obviously didn't understand what he was getting at, just that he was talking of home again.
|
|
|
|
Post by aardvarklord on Oct 12, 2015 0:29:06 GMT -5
Gavin was all too happy to see the girl get across the point that it was supposed to be a place for them to stay, at least judging by the acknowledging smile and the enthusiastic statement of her own words, which he assumed had something to do with homes. Her confusion when he went to explain that she was welcome to stay in it was a little disappointing, but he was plenty patient. They were working across language barriers, of course there would be plenty of place for error. Still, he had an idea, so after scratching his chin trying to figure out how to explain it visually, started sketching. It wasn't anything special, he just drew a quick stick figure on the screen inside the habitat and said, "Gavin," pointing from himself to the stick figure. Then he put a simple bed icon, just a horizontal line and two stumps coming off of it and turned to her saying, "Bed," and demonstrating the meaning by laying his his head sideways on his hands and mimicking a quick snoozing. With that he pointed to the bed and said, "Bed for Gavin," and then drew a second bed and a stick figure of her, adding a squiggly tail to get across the point with a few gestures and saying "Fairah," before saying to her with a smile and some gestures, "Bed for Fairah... if Fairah wants." He really wanted her to understand that she was more than welcome to stick around him; this was going to be a lonely wait otherwise. And she really did seem a friendly, sweet-hearted creature.
|
|
Jackie
Child
Professional lazy grump.
Posts: 248 Likes: 23
|
Post by Jackie on Oct 16, 2015 12:12:08 GMT -5
Ferah continued to look at Gahven curiously as he again turned his attention to the crystal square, using his finger to draw upon, something in itself she found to be extremely intriguing. Fortunately she was able to get over her amazement enough to look past the act itself, focusing instead of what the man was drawing. The girl immediately recognized the stick figure as a crude depiction of a person, and when Gahven spoke his own name as he pointed to it, she understood it was supposed to represent him. What he drew next perplexed the pink creature however, a simple line with two smaller lines poking out of the bottom of it. Ferah had no concept of what a 'bed' was, her sleeping spots of choice tended to be smooth rocks and sand. Of course the girl was able to piece together that whatever it was, it involved sleeping, thanks to Gahven's little gesture. She'd continue watching him doodle on the crystal square, drawing another figure with what looked like a tail, saying her name as he pointed at it to confirm it was meant to be her. When her friend went on to draw a second set of lines, Ferah was able to piece together what he was trying to say, or what she thought he was trying to say anyways. He wants me to... stay with him? The idea took the pink creature off guard to say the least, sure she enjoyed being around him, a feeling he seemed to share, but Ferah hadn't expected him to become that comfortable with her presence that quickly. Ferah knew that if it were her in his place, she'd have been a bit more suspicious of a new place and the things that inhabited it, and likely would have wanted to sleep somewhere safe by herself. Despite all this, not only did she not mind the idea of living in his home with him, she found herself excited about the prospect, and actually wanted to do it. After living alone for so long, Ferah was practically willing to stay with any friendly creature, regardless of how alien it was, plus she was insanely curious as to what all else he could do with all of his magicky things. So, with a warm smile, Ferah nodded her head in understanding, happy to accept his offer of a place to stay.
|
|
|
|
Post by aardvarklord on Oct 18, 2015 16:45:19 GMT -5
Truth be told, Gavin didn't know why he was so trusting of the alien; it probably had more to do with the fact that she was the only person who had ever helped him out of the kindness of their heart than him being a necessarily trusting person. Sure, there was the possibility that the alien had her own ulterior motive, but he couldn't think of it. Beyond that though, he was more offering her an offer of shelter in what seemed a dangerous world in exchange for helping him survive until rescue came. It was still a trade in all reality, though whether she recognized that was a mystery. Regardless, he was truly enthused by the fact that she seemed to be excited with the idea, at least as near as he could tell, and couldn't help his own smile from growing at her response. It was decided then, they would be staying together, at least as long as she was comfortable. He didn't want to force her into anything, but the company was welcome and, again, the help in surviving was more than welcome.
After finishing some final details, mainly reprogramming the builder slightly to allow him to keep the one chamber partially flooded and making sure he had enough materials to get the water-air converter up and running, he turned to her and was opening his mouth to ask her something before realizing he wouldn't be able to get it across clear enough. They needed a spot to build their new home, and he didn't know how easy it would be to find a place where he could manage the whole 'hanging something off the side' trick. Eventually he decided to just call her name and bring up a diagram of the whole thing from the side and drew on around it to show what he hoped she realized was the sea floor (which he colored tan), and added some blue to show outside the structure and inside the 'airlock' would be flooded. Hopefully, she understood, but he was more than willing to explain visually as much as she needed to. He wanted to get started as soon as possible, as gathering up chunks of the Aurora would take time, but he knew that they first needed a location to put down a base.
|
|
Jackie
Child
Professional lazy grump.
Posts: 248 Likes: 23
|
Post by Jackie on Oct 25, 2015 15:19:48 GMT -5
Ferah's ears perked up when Gahven opened his mouth to say something to her, then promptly went back to their normal position when he abruptly closed it again, electing to use the crystal square to communicate with her once more instead. At first the pink creature couldn't make any sense of what he was drawing, but as her friend started adding color and finer details to the doodles he was making around the intricate drawing, she'd quickly figure out what he was getting at. It was the seafloor, he was intending to put his new home underwater. This made Ferah visibly surprised, she'd just outright assumed that his new home would float on the surface, as his tiny temporary one did. Of course she didn't understand that if Gahven did such a thing then he wouldn't have been able to make it very big, else it wouldn't be structurally sound. It made sense though, on the surface, whatever Gahven built would be at the mercy of the many storms and squalls that blew in from time to time, and she knew from experience that the waves generated in these storms could be extremely large.
At first the girl just believed Gahven was merely informing her of his plan, but it quickly became clear he was wanting her assistance with some matter or other. Ferah was quite clearly confused by the whole affair, not understanding what Gahven required of her. After a few more minutes of his visual explanations on the crystal square however, it clicked in her mind what he was asking of her. Her friend needed an adequate place to make his home, it was only logical that he'd ask her for help in finding a suitable place to set it up, she'd been living here for awhile already and he was a complete stranger here. The problem was that Ferah didn't exactly know just how big Gahven's new home was going to be, so subsequently she wasn't sure exactly how big an open area she needed to look for. In the end, the girl came to realize they'd just have to do it the hard way, she'd show him a few flat areas of varying sizes and he could decided what would work and what wouldn't. "I understand, we'll leave when you're ready." Ferah went on to say. Talking may have been pointless since they couldn't understand each other, but honestly she didn't really care, it just felt good to have someone else around that could hear her voice, and to hear another voice herself. Gahven likely would have understood what she was getting at anyways, as she'd point to his metal cylinder as she spoke before going to the hatch in the floor and opening it up, at which point she'd jump in feet first.
|
|
|
|
Post by aardvarklord on Oct 27, 2015 8:00:29 GMT -5
He wasn't surprised that Fairah was a little confused that his new home would be under the waves, what with this current one floating and all. But that was something he could explain when they had the room and time to sit down and talk. He had a feeling she had more than a few questions, and he got the feeling that he would have to teach her how to use a PDA in order to get any functional conversation out of her until one of them spoke the other's language, but that was something they could take care of in a bit. Gavin wasn't particularly surprised that it was a little harder to get his location idea across for her, since it was the sort of thing that was a bit of a complex idea to convey without words. Still, her eventual understanding was something he was more than happy to see and, once she considered the idea and gestured to his airtank, he was more than happy to start getting his equipment ready. As he was strapping his tank on, however, another voice spoke up, that of the computer. "Caution! Readings from the Aurora suggest erratic fluctuations in the primary dark matter containment field. A breach of the main drive chamber may cause a cascading quantum flux detonation."
Gavin frowned at that news, eyes turning in the direction of the Aurora as he tried to crunch the numbers in his head. They looked far enough away to be clear of the blast, though he was grateful that this wasn't an area where trees might fall over on them in that regard. He sure wouldn't want to be in the pod when it happened though. Hopefully it wouldn't happen; if the Aurora went critical, there was no way he'd be able to get in there and make a call for help, not to mention the radiation leakage. If it went critical, he would be stranded here and would have to just hope that someone investigated. It would no doubt be obvious to Fairah that he wasn't pleased by the computer's words, and if she figured out what it involved he also wouldn't be shocked, but he let it go for now. Nothing they could do about it except make something that could withstand the blast from under the waves. All the more reason to make it underwater rather than floating.
With his gear gathered, he and Fairah plunged into the water once more and began the hunt for a location suitable for their home structure. Initially they had an issue with size, as she kept thinking that it was just marginally bigger than the pod. Not an unexpected problem, but it was something to work on. Ah, the curses of working with a pre-math culture. No worries. Actually, it gave him time to consider another problem: getting further away from the Aurora. There was absolutely no way to explain why it was dangerous for her to be near it, especially not in the water, but he decided to passively start heading in directions away from the ship; though she seemed to do that already. He couldn't know that the area near the Aurora had a threat other than radiation lurking around. Soon they came to an area that looked pretty good, if rather uneven, so he kept looking around it, trying to find a nice spot for the house... unfortunately when he looked at the holes in the rocks (trying to find structural weaknesses), he spotted another of those black plant-fish combos, which promptly flared at him and he got out of the way. However, now was a good chance to ask what they were, so he backed up and gestured to her to come look and gestured to try and figure out what it did, flaring his hands out like the petals of the plant then shrugging in an attempt to convey confusion.
Regardless of response, they moved on to one more area like that one, but this one, when they finally arrived, didn't seem to have any crashes, thankfully. He checked around it, and while there were some holes in the rocks, they didn't seem structurally unsound or infested with the deadly critters, and it had a nice little drop off which would allow for the entryway. Nice view of the glowing lights from the kelp forest too. He then brushed around in the sand, trying to figure out how deep it was as compared to the rock. The answer: not very. He immediately smiled (or at least as much as he could considering the breathing apparatus) and turned to Fairah with a thumbs-up. With that done, he popped up to the surface to check where they were in relation to the pod, then went back under and pulled out the builder. He knew that he couldn't get it done with what they had, but he could get the foundation started, and that was enough. Once more gesturing for Fairah to stand back a little bit, he activated the builder. Once more the bright blue lights flowed from the machine as it started slowly setting down the pillars of the foundation, great titanium struts to hold up the home. It took a little time for it to build those and he had to load more titanium into them, but it did the job admirably, and before long they had eight titanium pillars sticking out of the stone like the trunks of great trees. Once they were built, he swam down to check how sturdy they were, pushing on them experimentally before nodding his approval.
|
|
Jackie
Child
Professional lazy grump.
Posts: 248 Likes: 23
|
Post by Jackie on Jan 4, 2016 18:12:12 GMT -5
As she began to swim with him, Ferah found herself wondering what the disembodied voice in Gahven's little pod had been saying, whatever it was she could tell it didn't sit well with her friend. He hadn't seemed concerned about it however, so it gave Ferah no cause to really worry, boy if she only knew what it really meant...
Very quickly during their survey swim, Ferah noticed Gahven was taking a particular interest in the many small caves dotting the shallows. The girl found this most curious, as the majority of those caves were either too small for him to fit something as large as his pod (much less something larger) or infested with flowerfish. Speaking of flowerfish... it didn't take long for Gahven to stumble upon another one of the nasty creatures. Upon exiting one particular cave she liked to nap in from time to time, Ferah saw movement out of the corner of her eye a little ways away. When she turned her head in that direction, she'd spy Gahven beckoning her over to him for some reason or other. With a few flicks of her tail, Ferah zipped right over to his side, wondering if he'd found what he was looking for. When he pointed out the flowerfish however, giving her a confused look in the process, she realized he was more than likely curious as to what it was or did. Fortunately Ferah could educate him without any harm coming to him or her. Motioning for him to stay put, the pink creature slowly swam down towards the flowerfish. When it eventually flared open, Ferah slowed down a healthy bit, but didn't outright stop. While his hearing may have not been near as good as hers underwater, Gahven would have definitely been able to hear the flowerfish's whining get higher in pitch the closer she got, while it got lower in pitch when she pulled back. Upon swimming in as close as she had come thus far, Ferah turned around and started wiggling her backside towards it, looking over her shoulder and sticking her tongue out at it in the process. Of course this little silly show of hers was meant to just be humorous for Gahven, as the flowerfish wasn't intelligent enough to know it was being mocked. Either way, she'd apparently gotten close enough to warrant a response, for when the flowerfish reached it's highest pitch, a round fish shot out from it and hurled itself right at her. Ferah had been expecting this however, and she was quick to cease her teasing and whisk herself up and away from the pursuing fish. After giving hopeless chase for the better part of 10 or so meters (and still whining loudly all the way), the fish suddenly exploded. It was a healthy explosion to be sure, not powerful enough to kill outright perhaps, but definitely strong enough to cause a great deal of pain and certainly break Gahven's equipment.
With the threat gone, Ferah began to swim back down to the now empty nest, motioning for her friend to accompany her this time. Assuming Gahven was comfortable enough to do so and did indeed join her, the girl would have led him all the way down to the flared open 'plant'. While it's defense mechanism had been exhausted, it was clear to see that the creature was very much still alive. Gently she reached her hand inside it and took a handful of what looked to be a yellowish powder of some sort that had collected in the bottom of the creature, Ferah pulling a fistful out before letting it slip through her fingers back into it. The powder was absolutely useless to her personally, it tasted awful and she couldn't use it for anything helpful, but she figured it was worth showing to Gahven as he'd already proven he could do amazing things with seemingly mundane items. If he wanted to collect some of the powder, Ferah would have been happy to wait patiently as he did so before swimming back out with him. After a bit more searching, the pair came upon an area that seemed to peak Gahven's interest, and Ferah floated idly by as her pale friend went about doing a bunch of odd things, like digging in the sand and even going up to the surface to look around. Rather than questioning anything though, the girl remained silent and watched him work. Much to her delight, Gahven seemed pleased by what he was finding, and when he produced the thingy he had made earlier and motioned for her to back up a bit, Ferah was all too happy to obey and swim back a little bit.
When he activated the little device in his hand, Ferah was treated to a lightshow much like she'd been in his little pod, albeit on a bigger scale. The sight of those massive metallic roots embedding themselves in the ground was no less mesmerizing than the little things he'd done with the blue beams in the pod, actually this was even more awe-inspiring. When Gahven finished (or rather when he ran out of metal), his spectator clapped her hands excitedly before swimming down to meet him, a smile as wide as could be plastered across her face. The pink girl couldn't resist reaching out and touching the metal roots (so long as Gahven didn't mind), and when her hands made contact, she'd have found them to be as smooth as the outside of his pod had been, perhaps even more so. "Ooooooo!" she exclaimed with a bright smile, her bright eyed gaze shifting Gahven's way when she got her fill.
|
|
|
|
Post by aardvarklord on Jan 8, 2016 14:56:31 GMT -5
Gavin gladly obeyed Fairah's order to stay put as she approached the fish, truly wondering what it was going to do as she approached it. Actually, he was a little worried that she was so willing to go into danger just to show off something, but if she felt that it was safe enough for her to demonstrate, he supposed it was alright. Again he heard that strange gurgling whine and, while it might not have been particularly loud, it still sent a chill down his spine and he found himself looking around a little bit to check if the big shark things were investigating. That said, her goofy little action got a chuckle out of him (whether or not she was able to hear it) and lightened the mood until the fish came out. Then he got to watch with eyes wide as a fish like a fat cyclops piranha came chasing after her squealing the whole while--of course it wasn't very fast but it was still a strange sight. Then, to his amazement, the creature exploded! Like a grenade! Heck, he could feel the shockwave (though it was pretty light from here). What in the world?! That had to be the strangest thing he'd ever seen.
It actually took him a few moments to regain his thoughts after the strange display before following his friend back down to examine the plant. It was now open and he was able to see its interior shape, for what that was worth. Kind of strange looking actually, though he wondered if it actually was a plant or some kind of animal. As he came up next to her and she showed the powder in the plant, he nodded his confirmation and went ahead and started collecting some to bring back. Truth be told, he wasn't expecting it to be worth much, but maybe there was something to this. It did looking something like sulfur, which might be useful. With that done, they were free to head back up and return to their hunt for a place to set up shop.
It was a relief that the builder was working properly, and he felt a strange sort of pride in seeing Fairah's reaction to the pillars. He never ceased to find her clapping adorable and it was neat to see that she found the supports so cool. He had no issues with her going over to touch them, in fact had she not been so quick he probably would have urged her to join him. Still, all seemed to work and he was free to start building on top of the supports... once he had metal. Still, there was only so much he could put up a grand display before he decided that they needed to get back to work. Welcoming his friend with bright eyes and a thumbs up, he then looked around and saw another slab of metal lying in the sand below and pointed to it then, towards the pod to tell her that it was time to start getting materials for the home. Assuming she had no complaints, their work would begin as they started grabbing remnants of the Aurora and taking them up to the pod to be diced into pieces by the fabricator, stocking up on pieces before heading back to the build site. Truthfully, she was doing more of the lifting, though he was trying to help as best he could--the fact of the matter was that he was just kind of a poor swimmer by comparison. Still, the job was getting done and they were in no particular hurry. Once he had a healthy amount, he went inside with her to take a quick breather and have a little food before heading back in to return to work.
With a fresh batch of titanium, he started laying out the platform, starting with simple crossbeams before 'filling' the holes with more metal. This actually took longer than the pillars, mostly because he had to constantly make sure that everything was flat and even and the he could step on it safely, often banging on it with his hand to test it (if Fairah wanted to help him test, that would be fine), but before long the base of his home was built, a big flat surface of nearly-pure titanium with some rounded edges to keep it from being dangerous and a slight patchwork pattern caused by its construction.
|
|
Jackie
Child
Professional lazy grump.
Posts: 248 Likes: 23
|
Post by Jackie on Jan 11, 2016 22:54:32 GMT -5
Despite feeling like a child again, seeing so many things that were new and strange to her and approaching them with that same curiosity, Ferah understood that these smooth metal roots were just the beginning of Gahven's new home, and she found herself wondering just how long it would take him to build the whole thing with his little magic stick, then there was the question of how much scrap he'd need to do it in the first place. It appeared she'd soon be finding out, for Gahven snatched her attention and pointed out a piece of the very scrap she'd been thinking about, promptly motioning towards his little pod on the surface afterwards. Of course Ferah understood the message, he needed more metal. Nodding her head in recognition, Ferah darted off to collect more of what her friend needed, excited to see the project progress. While they may have not been in a hurry persay, that didn't stop Ferah from moving with a quickness, quickly ferrying healthy sized chunks of the debris to Gahven's pod. Fortunately for Gahven, the girl's powerful tail allowed her to carry larger pieces of the debris with both hands and still propel herself through the water with impressive speed. She had no idea how long she'd gone at it, but by the time the pair stopped for a break, her muscles were tingly, her gills were constantly flaring, and if she had sweat glands, she'd have been sweating pretty damn good.
After climbing back up into the pod, Ferah found somewhere out of the way to sit as Gahven altered one of the few remaining fish she'd caught earlier with his blue beams, turning it into another one of those delicious morsels as he'd done hours earlier. Whatever he was willing to give her, the pink creature happily accepted it and dug in without hesitation, though she wasn't quite as ravenous as she had been earlier, and she didn't eat nearly as much. Once they'd both eaten their fill, Ferah stood at Gahven's side as he began running all the jagged scraps they'd collected through the blue beams, turning them all into neat, shiny blocks. There were quite a few of them too as it turned out, so many that it would take the both of them many trips with their arms full to transport them all to the spot Gahven had planted the metal roots. Ferah didn't shy away from the task however, and whenever Gahven gathered up a bundle of the metallic slabs in his arms, she'd do the same. The girl was actually surprised by just how weighty the blocks were, and in the end she wasn't able to carry quite as many as Gahven could since she wasn't as strong as him, but once in the water she could swim faster with her load than he could with his, plus the blocks weren't as heavy seeming once they were underwater. It took several trips to ferry the sizable amount of metal slabs to the building site, but eventually they were all stacked neatly nearby where Gahven could take them as he needed them. From there, Ferah merely stayed out of the way and watched as her pale friend worked.
Watching Gahven's home come to life was absolutely astounding to the simple creature. Her people had relied on natural cave systems for long term homes, and while they could widen and shape them to some minor extents with crude tools, none of that stacked up against the magic Gahven was weaving with his glowing beam tool.
|
|
|
|
Post by aardvarklord on Jan 12, 2016 15:10:48 GMT -5
Gavin was all too happy to share a lunch; after all she had been the one that caught it and she had more than earned her keep. Of course, once they actually had the titanium ready to be transported, he was somewhat disappointed (but unsurprised) that the ingots were too heavy for Ferah to realistically carry herself, so what he did instead was had her get in the water to hold them once down there while he handed them down to her. It wasn't much to lighten them, but it was something. At least they weren't in the open air. As it was they were a bit heavy for him, perhaps not as bad as it was proving to her, but he definitely understood why she was having problems.
As he worked at the site, he was surprised by how quick he burned through the titanium, mostly just out of forgetfulness and not realizing how much metal he would use. Of course, that didn't mean that it was a problem, as they had gathered plenty and it was a short swim to gather more metal from home. Occasionally he took a moment to breach the surface and take the mask off just so that he wasn't tormented by the suction on his eyes, but for the most part he worked nonstop, occasionally going back to fetch some more ingots and taking a quick breather. Ferah probably wasn't getting as worn out as he was, but that was because he wasn't used to swimming; actually building the habitat was proving fairly light on him. It took time though, and as he began building the skeleton of the main room and considered the different things he would need to build with it, he knew that he would need to build it piece by piece, knowing that before he sealed it he would need a simple air-water filter to keep it supplied with oxygen and some solar panels to keep it powered. Those wouldn't be too much of an issue though, just a matter of getting the materials, which were mostly silicon, titanium, and copper, of which there was plenty. Throughout his work, Ferah might have heard him humming a tune to himself through his mask, just happily working away and getting it done, occasionally checking on her and gesturing in a 'what do you think?' kind of way. Slowly but surely the frame of his home began to take shape, and by the time that it was starting to look a little close to sunset for his liking, the shape of the house was pretty clearly laid out: a single large 'living room' for them to work out of, a trio of tube-shaped sections in the back to serve as two bedrooms and the hallway between them, another tube stapled horizontally onto the main dome to serve as a work station, and one last smaller dome that would act as the 'airlock,' which was only marginally larger than his escape pod and would be entered similarly to serve as their entry way. He had an idea also that he wanted to ask Ferah about, but he would handle that later... and when he had more supports to carry this whole thing. All but the entryway were set up on the platform, but he made sure that they all had supports.
Still, eventually he had to call work quits, so after quick moment to examine the day's work with a smile, he gathered up the metal they had left and, once he had Ferah's attention, gestured to a passing fish with the thought that it was time for them to head home and grab some food. Before long they made it back to the pod, where he flopped down with an exhausted sigh until she provided the fish and gladly got it cooked up after taking a big old gulp of water. Ah... that was good. Chuckling softly, he said to her with a smirk, "Good day, huh?" He knew she wanted understand, but he was in a good mood after all that he'd gotten done in such a short time. Heck, the builder had held together, that was enough for him to be happy about.
|
|
Jackie
Child
Professional lazy grump.
Posts: 248 Likes: 23
|
Post by Jackie on Jan 26, 2016 20:44:46 GMT -5
While she could do little to assist Gahven in the actual building of his new home, Ferah at least assisted by bringing metal blocks to him when he needed them, and making resupply runs to the pod and back when he was running slow on them. Any time he looked towards her and gestured towards the frame with a curious look, she'd merely smile bright and nod her head enthusiastically, thinking he was doing a great job and not actually realizing he was more interested in her opinion of the project itself. Regardless, Ferah very quickly realized that, despite the power his little beam tool possessed, building his home would still take a bit of time, and as Gahven burned through his metal blocks setting up the frame of his homemade cave, she could tell it wasn't going to be finished tonight and that it was likely going to take more metal blocks to finish it period. While disappointed, as she'd been dying to see what his creation would look like when it was finished, Ferah didn't let it get her down, it was something to look forward to tomorrow or the day after at least. When Gahven finished using up one of his blocks and looked to be calling it quits, the pink creature swam over and joined him in gathering what few metal slabs remained, and assisted him in hauling them back to his pod. She also noticed when he gestured to a nearby fish, and promptly nodded her understanding, she'd have to do some hunting after dropping this load of metal blocks off. When they reached the pod a few minutes later, Ferah waited patiently as Gahven pushed the hatch up and climbed inside, at which point she'd swim up and hand off her blocks to him. "Be right back!" she'd exclaim happily before slipping back beneath the water and swimming off into the distance to catch them an evening meal.
Ferah was only gone for about five or so minutes before she'd suddenly splash up in the still-open hatch of his pod, the girl promptly deposited a pair of freshly killed 'Peepers' as Gahven coined them, after which she'd make to climb in herself, happy to accept his help if he happened to offer it. After shaking herself a bit to get the majority of the water off her, Ferah made her way over to Gahven as he set to work doing whatever it was he did to the fish to remove their bones and insides and make them taste so good. She'd actually worked up quite the appetite, and the woman was practically drooling as she watched the whole process. When he finished less than a minute later, Ferah happily took the offered fish and greedily dug into it, chewing and swallowing two sizable bites before plopping herself down next to Gahven and continuing her assault on the tasty meal. The pink girl had no idea what he said obviously, but it was pretty obvious he was in a good mood, just as she was, and that was enough for her to grace him with a bright, happy smile in response.
|
|
|
|
Post by aardvarklord on Jan 27, 2016 12:21:48 GMT -5
It was a relief to have help in packing up the work camp for the evening and had he been able to show a smile to her, he would have done so--as it was his eyes were clearly cheerful when she looked at him. Still, that couldn't compare to how he felt when he saw her pop back up with some fresh food--he was famished from all that swimming. Yeah, he knew it was something he'd have to get used to and he'd no doubt wind up getting pretty fit from all this effort, but until he was used to it, he was going to work up a serious appetite from all this work. He gladly plopped the peepers in the fabricator and gave her the first of the two peepers finished, grinning as she happily chowed down on the big slab of fish. It was adorable to see her so happy from something as simple as a cooked fish; he was well aware that it was probably a luxury she had never experienced, but it was still pretty entertaining. Eventually he had his own and sat down next to her to eat his own, perhaps not eating with quite the same energy but still pretty darn ravenous as he tore the fish apart.
When he finished, he lounged with her and let out a long satisfied sigh, content to sit there for a moment as he sat around, enjoying the moment. Before long though, he remembered the stuff they picked up from the weird flower-fish-thing and pulled it out to let the fabricator have a look at it. It actually took a moment for it to analyze it, and in the meantime, he remembered that he had his scanner--which had gone completely unused up until this point because... guess he just was too overwhelmed or something. Taking it out, he briefly showed it to Fairah, just so that she saw it was different from his other things, then quickly used it to scan himself, which she would see as a bunch of multicolored lights passing over him before the thing beeped and gave its data to the PDA, which she would no doubt notice from the tablet's beep and change in screen. Pulling it out, he turned to her and, if she wanted to, could come see what all it told him, even if she couldn't actually read it, but there was lots of information about his current condition and even gave a rough layout of his anatomy if she wanted to see it. To his surprise, he didn't have radiation poisoning--there were trace amounts on him, but that was to be expected from his (former) job and he had been bad about seeing the doctors. Then, he turned to her and asked gently "May I scan you?" If yes, he went ahead and took it to her--she would feel nothing as the lines passed over her (unless she thought up a placebo), but after a little bit the PDA would beep again and he would be able to see what all her anatomy consisted of.
Most of what he was reading was interesting, but to be expected. Aquatic specimen, advanced brain function (as compared to animals, "probably roughly comparable with humans" to quote the scanner), powerful build, gills... though he was surprised that she actually had lungs; he was assuming she was breathing through her skin like a mudskipper or something. It also confirmed that Fairah was unquestionably female and showed that she was in perfect health, besides maybe a handful of minor scars that one would expect from wild life. She was welcome to look at what he was getting to learn about her, and she would even get a chance to look at what her insides were like, showing her internal anatomy (which generally looked similar to a human's, but had differences one would expect from an aquatic creature, including a relatively small swim bladder). Oh, and her heart was on the right side. Amusingly minor thing for there to be different, but okay.
|
|
Jackie
Child
Professional lazy grump.
Posts: 248 Likes: 23
|
Post by Jackie on Mar 20, 2016 18:34:27 GMT -5
Ferah ended up scarfing down her fish a fair deal quicker than Gahven did his, after which she was content to rest her back against the wall and let her legs sprawl out before her, clearly even more happy now than she had been now that she had a full belly. As she relaxed, the creature found herself looking thoughtfully at her new found friend, her eyes curiously drifting about his features as she watched him eat. Ferah found herself wondering what his home was like, she may have been rather simplistic in her thinking compared to him, but her species weren't stupid by any stretch of the word, and she was able to piece together certain facts. For starters, wherever he came from must have been very dry, as he was blatantly more agile when out of the water as compared to in it, the exact opposite of her. There was also the fact that he lacked gills or a means to breath underwater without the stuff he could create for himself. It was hard for Ferah to imagine a world entirely different from her own, heck, she supposed he could very well be from this one, just a far away part of it, after all, she had absolutely no idea how far it stretched in each direction. The girl often contemplated questions like these on nights she couldn't sleep. Did this place stretch on forever? What was the giant orb that drifted across the sky during the night (and during the day, though it was harder to see)? What made the sun glow so brightly that you couldn't look directly at it without hurting your eyes? How high in the sky could you go? The list went on and on, truly her mind was one that thirsted for knowledge, alas, it was knowledge her species was likely millennia away from attaining.
Ferah was pulled from her deep thinking when Gahven suddenly produced a small doodad she'd yet to see him use, and immediately her long ears perked up a little bit as her eyes fell upon it when he showed it to her up close. Next thing the girl knew, the pale man had turned it on himself and he was being covered with a proverbial rainbow of colored lines. It actually alarmed her at first, Ferah tensing up and looking a bit fearful, but when it became clear that Gahven was completely unharmed and not worried in the slightest, she'd quickly relax. Just as quickly as it appeared, the light show disappeared with a loud beep, and he'd put it away before producing his crystal square and showing it to her. To Ferah's amazement, the device displayed what was clearly a little representation of him. "Whooooa." she'd remark as she took the crystal in her hands (if he allowed her to do so) and examined what was on it closely. Of course the pink creature didn't understand most of what she was seeing, but she did at least recognize the figure it was depicting as Gahven. What was most interesting was all the things inside the figure, was all of that stuff really inside of him? Was there stuff like that inside of her? That was another thing that had always scratched at Ferah's mind, what exactly made her tick? What caused the rhythmic beating in her chest? What was the red liquid that leaked from her whenever she got a cut? The woman's attention was torn away from the crystal square when Gahven's voice sounded above her. Despite not understanding his words, Ferah understood full well what he was asking, the way he was holding his doodad and indicating to her told her she wanted to do what he'd just done to himself to her. Ferah was quiet at first, biting her lower lip in silent contemplation. Would the colorful lines be painful? She was inclined to not think so since he'd not shown any signs of being in pain when he'd used it on himself, but fear of the unknown was a powerful thing. Fortunately, as was often the case with her, Ferah's curiosity overrode her sense of self-preservation, and she'd eventually nod her head lightly towards him, gracing him with an uneasy smile as she stood up for him.
When Gahven pointed the device at her and activated it, Ferah flinched when the colorful lines struck her body, the girl instinctively shying away a little bit, her flesh erupting in what he'd have called 'goose bumps'. Of course the creature had experienced this phenomenon before, and subsequently she knew it wasn't his doodad that was doing it. Sure enough, a few seconds later, the feeling faded and left Ferah feeling no different as the colors and lines danced across her. After a few more seconds, the lights stopped and the device beeped as it had done before. The girl was all to happy to huddle in close to Gahven and look upon the square with him, her eyes going to look at the things that were presumably inside of her, whilst he'd have learned all sorts of other information from her. Indeed her general anatomy/skeletal system was similar to his own, her primary organs, while maybe a bit different in their design as compared to his own, served the same functions. She had a heart, liver, kidneys, intestines, and a pair of lungs. Of course she also had things one would expect of an aquatic organism, namely gills (though those were rather obvious seeing as they were quite visible on each side of her abdomen) and a small swim bladder, the muscles in her tail were also very powerful unsurprisingly. She was definitely a female of her species if that wasn't obvious enough, as she had mammaries and ovaries that were similar in design to a human woman's, though something of note was that Ferah had far fewer eggs than a healthy human woman would have had. She also wasn't producing milk, an indication she had never bore any offspring despite being phsyically matured to the point where she could. Her ears would have fascinated an otorhinolaryngologist, as they were way more complex in their design than a humans, allowing her to hear a wider range of sounds and with better clarity than his own could hear underwater, her nose was also quite advanced, hinting that she could smell quite well beneath the waves, but the design of her eyes seemed equivalent to that of a human, granted she had a secondary set of transparent eyelids, presumably to protect her eyes from the salt in the water.
While not understanding it, Ferah was positively mesmerized by what she was seeing, clearly excited that she was actually getting a first hand look at what all was inside of her, even if she didn't understand the functions of the organs themselves.
|
|
|
|
Post by aardvarklord on Mar 21, 2016 0:46:53 GMT -5
Gavin found it a little amusing to see how concerned Fairah got when he used the scanner on himself, though he knew that she had never seen anything of that sort before (besides his other equipment), so he couldn't exactly blame her. Still, he was pleased that she was willing to go through with it, even if it was a little sad to see how frightened she was of his efforts--he felt like he'd proven himself trustworthy, at least with his own equipment. That said, it was interesting to see the little goosebumps on her skin; interesting that she would have that sort of reaction. Though, that said, there was a lot of things about her body that he could call interesting when comparing them to human bodies. It was neat to see how excited the sight of their anatomy was, and to be fair he was also pretty fascinated by the differences, as well as the striking similarities. There was just so much interesting about her, and while the scanner couldn't quite tell the extent of her hearing (and other senses), it could tell the differences and suggest that it was probably closer in ability to, say, a dog's or something.
As he saw her so clearly intrigued on the topic, he decided to humor her a bit and bring up a comparison between the two so that he could start demonstrating at least what the different parts were. He started off simple, showing her the hearts (which was interesting in that they were on opposite sides) and let her feel his bumping in his chest. If she allowed him, he would also gently put a hand over where her heart was (though he was good to not grope or anything like that). Then he moved on to other things like the lungs (and her gills), pantomiming those out. He then showed the digestion system, explaining that to her as best he could with a charade of food, then showing its rough path before coming out again. Those were the more successful attempts of course--other organs didn't work so well--but that was to be expected, and he really didn't mind it.
By the time they'd finished going through all that he could help explain to her, the sun had fallen beneath the horizon and the moon was on the way up. As the stars came out and they both started getting settled in for the evening, he found himself wondering what she would think of if she knew what all was out there. Where he'd come from, what kind of world he came from. This world was almost entirely sea-based, if he remembered the report, so he didn't know what it would be like for her to see a world on land. However, as he considered things, he did come up with one idea that might be interesting. Before she could curl up, he quickly checked what all he had for images stored on his tablet, and to his delight he at least had images of her planet and his, as well as a few pictures of home stored. He'd save the latter for later, but for the time being he called out lightly, "Hey Fairah," and gestured for her to sit with him by the 'glass' to look up at the sky. Assuming she did so, he then said with a smile, "Let me show you something." He wasn't certain if this was too much for her, but he was willing to try at least.
With that he showed her an image of her planet, all blue with only clouds to break up the solid blue (and the white of ice at the poles)... though he could almost swear that there were small dots and smears of brown here and there. With the image there, he gestured from it, to the ocean all around them, trying to get across the point that it was her world, her land, and pointing to the white as sky things, clouds (though there weren't much visible at night). Then, he showed her Earth, the great green and brown expanses of the planet's land clearly visible, and he told her, "Earth. Earth," then gestured to himself and to the world outside, "My world." He wasn't certain how clear he was being, but hopefully she would understand... at least to some extent. Then he went about trying to explain the way the cosmos worked... in a very simplistic manner of course. He started by sketching a nighttime horizon for her, with a blue ocean, a black sky, using white asterisks for stars and a crescent for the moon (even though right now it was a full moon for the most part). He gestured to each of the things, though hopefully that was pretty clear, but he would pause regularly throughout this lesson to try to explain things for her. Then he made a daytime one, with the proper colors and a golden sun made up of a circle and some rays hanging off of it. Once that was communicated, he then brought up an image of her planet and quickly cropped it into a blank image (the tablet had a good program for this sort of thing that he'd installed on it personally). Then, he made a crude, rudimentary solar system using the images he had used to explain to her, with a big golden sun in the middle, her planet outside of it, a crescent moon symbol near her planet, and then made some rings to show paths. He then gestured the way things would move, trying to wordlessly communicate that the planet orbited the local star, and that the moon orbited her planet. If that was a bit much for her, he'd leave it at that, but if not... well he'd try to explain where he was from. He was just so excited to share this with her, because he could only imagine what kind of thoughts it would bring--though he was of course there to help her.
He started by making a fresh image and drawing one of his stars on it, then drawing a sun again. Then he pointed to each, saying the same word: "Star." He was trying to tell her that they were the same. If she was having a hard time understanding that (or perhaps regardless of that), he would then draw a day with a golden star symbol in place of a sun, then make a night scene with tiny white suns in place of stars, still trying to drive that point home. He then circled one of the stars on the screen at random then brought up an image of Earth, and set it up orbiting a star in the same sort of manner. Of course, once he did that, he realized that there was one issue that he'd forgotten: size. How could those little pinpricks be suns? It was something he didn't think about regularly, but he was trying really hard to put himself into her shoes. So, what he did was he swapped out the planets (back to hers now) and drew a red line between her planet and the star, and measured that with his fingers and held it up for her, showing that rough distance. Then he drew an asterisk and her sun and made a red mark between them. Then he took those with his hands, and stretched his arms out as far as he could, trying to explain that they were just impossibly far away. With that, he was out of ideas of how to explain it to her, but he was still willing to try anything she brought up in a question, so to speak, but he was hoping that this use of a rough pictographic language would at least help her in that regard. But, even then, he was more than content to sit with her and help her digest and better understand things. It was a perfect night for this anyways.
|
|
