video » un:millerlite

[pampa]

( they’re standing in front of what looks to be a garden, even though it’s empty at present. miller is standing there in his porkpie hat and for once he looks… happy? he claps prax on the shoulder with a small smile and gestures back through like they should show everyone around. )

I told you we’d find it, didn’t I, botanist?

( prax is smiling, too, eyes not focused on the camera but on the rows of hydroponic installations. )

You did. ( that’s soft. a little more firmly, addressing not just miller even though he still isn’t looking at the camera: ) This is enough space to ensure food supply and air filtration, if we’re creative. And if the seeds are still viable, there’s almost enough to fill the spaces in the mess hall tables and the corridors, too.

( and the chapel, don’t sue him for forgetting that. )

Potatoes, mushrooms. ( and then, with obvious pleasure: ) Soy.

( miller raises his arms up to the ceiling in apparent victory, just as excited though he doesn’t know dick about gardening. )

Air is good, isn’t it? Air is nice. ( he addresses his smartwatch again after the brief distraction, ) That doesn’t mean you assholes can smoke, got it? Keep it classy, Inners. We’ll keep everyone breathing easy with these greens, but you all have to do your part and not fuck it up.

( prax nods. he wouldn’t have put it in those terms but yeah. ) We’ll need to test these seeds for viability. Plant them, if they are. Figure out the proper mineral solution needed for long-term stability.

( he glances at miller, then - finally - at the camera. he looks hopeful. ) This is good.

( miller nods at prax a final time and gets a last word in before cutting the feed: ) We all might not die. ( his optimism truly is something to be admired, isn’t it? )

Comments

[contorta]

Testing for viability isn't too much of a drain on resources.

( even if it was. it'd be worth it in prax's eyes. )

[thingpuncher]

Oh. Good.

So then I'm out of ideas on how I can help; fill me in, here.

[contorta]

Right now, I want to get all of these catalogued. Then, tests for viability. After that, it'll be time to plant them, make sure they're growing and healthy.

Planting them all over the station and connecting it all to the air filtration system will take the most work, to begin with.

( a beat. )

Could you have done anything about the drain of resources? ( it kind of sounded like it for a second, there. )

[thingpuncher]

I can catalogue. Computer's good for that.

Don't need to eat or breathe as much as the average, uh, 'Earther'. Probably less than your 'Belters' too.

[contorta]

What computer?

( prax feels like he missed something, there. )

[thingpuncher]

Oh, right, uh.

[He counts it out on his fingers:] Abducted as a child, experimented on by mad scientist, ultimate fighting machine, computer in brain, calculates fights. Make sense?

[His new angle is brevity mixed with information density, but he can never tell if he's gotten the mixture right.]

[contorta]

( brevity mixed with information density. it's not a bad strategy, or it wouldn't be if "abducted as a child" and "experimented on by (mad) scientist" didn't hit two of prax's trigger buttons right now.

mei's been abducted. she's probably being experimented on right now, dr strickland trying to turn her into a hybrid. her and all the other kids he was treating. prax feels sick just thinking about it, what happiness and certainty he'd been feeling at the discovery of the farm draining from him in a single heart beat. )

Right.

( he swallows. looks away from the camera. ) I'm sorry.

[thingpuncher]

...Yeah.

[Luckily Midnighter is at least empathetic enough to know that Prax is worried about his kid, not rejecting or disgusted by Midnighter. There was a time Midnighter wouldn't have been.]

Oh, and I escaped and now I use the tech put in me to make sure nobody else ends up like I did.

[contorta]

That's good. ( prax still doesn't look back at the camera at that addition, but he manages a small smile again, tone soft. it's a good ending, in a way. it's a good purpose. he just doesn't think it'll be in the cards for mei. he's seen what those hybrids are like. he's looked one in the eye, searched for even a glimmer of humanity left.

nothing.

after a moment, he rallies. )

If you'd -

If you want to help with cataloguing, that would be great.

[thingpuncher]

[Yeah, he wasn't expecting miracles. But it's enough.]

Sure, yeah. Point me in the right direction, professor. I don't know shit about plants. Less than the average person, probably.

[Not that he knows what 'average plant knowledge' is, but it's probably, uh. Not great. He could be wrong, though.]

[contorta]

It's on deck one. ( a beat. with another attempt at a smile: ) And cataloguing doesn't really require much knowledge.

[thingpuncher]

You point to seed, I put seed in box?

[contorta]

They're in containers right now. And labelled. So it's more compiling a list of every label than anything else right now.

[thingpuncher]

Oh, great. My WPM is off the charts. Little known fact about metahuman science experiments.

[contorta]

( only about half of that made any sense to prax, but he gives a nod regardless. )

Okay. Thank you. ( for, y'know. offering to help. )