Day 025: Reservoir-tions
Summary: Tink and Reno are working on a project and she confesses some issues she's been having with her love life.
Date: 17 June 2016
Related: No! Not Hanne! Umm...Thanks
Reno Tink Jumar 


Tech Tent
This tent is really nothing more than a taut stretch of sun-bleached blue and gold parachute pulled taut into a large eaves. One side of it has been attached to the outer wall of the drop ship, while the opposite corners have been tied tightly to the tops of some thick sapling poles.
12/20/2016

Reno woke up and scuttled out of the drop pod early and had been working off what light there was. There was his small ration of food there and a glass of what water he got sitting in a cup up on a block with a couple pencils balancing across the rim. He looked tired and wired all at teh same time; a man woken from sleep, or just unable to sleep. Inspiration does this as he's got a couple pages worth of notes that manifested overnight.

Tink spent the night in the tent, feeling rather mortified after she made a complete fool of herself. She sits there, tooling around with one of the broken solar cells that didn't make it when they crashed landed, trying to see if she can grab any valuable parts. But her usual bouncy step is not so bouncy. Tink is actually frowning as she considers the device.

Reno still had the blanket and looked utterly tired as shit but stumbled over and said with a quiet mumble, "Couldn't sleep either?" He cracked a half smile. He didn't have his glasses on but they were hanging from that useful leather strapping she made for him which seemed to come in functional use after all. Fingers pushed through his hair and he let her get used to someone else showing up.

Tink glances up and that mopey look gets a little brighter, "Yeah…I didn't sleep." She nods to the solar cell, "I was just trying to salvage something…do something useful…not be so freaking stupid." She isn't calling her tech skills into question, clearly the girl is upset about something else but she's glad Reno is there to keep her company.

Reno bit his lip and looked to the solar cell quietly listening to her. When she was done he nodded. For a guy that never got to be around people he seemed to be perceptive enough to get that he didn't need to check her for brain trauma having lost all her faculties. He stayed silent for a moment and gave her a small, reassuring smile. Thumbing at one eye to get sleep out of it (not that there was much) he tapped the rolled up papers in hand and waved them in her direction as if to start a prepared speech. He stumbled at it and said frankly, "Look if you have a second I think… well I thought this might cheer you up."

Tink isn't sure that anything could cheer her up but then Reno does the one thing that could make it all better. He has plans to show her. Something that he created. Suddenly all the teenage angst of last night is gone and she goes running full tilt into geek mode, "You made plans?" She perks up and then moves some things so he can spread it out, "Show me…I want to see."

Reno gave her a modest half-grin and though it was half-hearted, it was honest feeding off her enthusiasm. Everyone got into a funk and it seemed he was working to engineer through his. Boy and blanket leaned against the edge of one of the work benches and he mused remembering yesterday afternoon. "You remember that walk we had? The stuff goin on with the…" He didn't say war. He didn't want to say it. He sighed. "I don't like where things are headed out there Tink. I KNOW you don't. I… well it doesn't much matter my reasons. It's just nice to know that it's not just me who thinks our progress is going in a bad direction. Maybe it is necessary, but then what? We still have nothing to fall back on."

Tink nods softly, after the events this past day, its hard to keep that frown upside down. She smiles as he mentions their walk, "Yeah…I remember…" She looks to him to see what he means, "I don't like…I don't want…" She doesn't say the W word either. It's just too horrible. And then Hanne…what happened to Hanne. She feels a few tears perk up and wipes them away, "No…it's not good Reno…we have to figure something out better."

Reno stopped and gave Tink a wan look, "What… what happened to Hanne? I talked to her just yesterday?" The worry set in. He took a slowl breath and reached out a hand and more quietly sked, "Tink, what happened? She ok? You ok?" Plans were hung for a moment as clearly people were not in fact ok, but hey, people come first.

"She was attacked…just outside the wall while she was with her flowers," Tink tells him as tears start to flow, "Lark…Lark dragged her body in and they did surgery…I think she lost a thumb." She takes a deep gulp, "It was grounders…they left her for dead Reno…and she had cuts everywhere. When I saw all that blood on Stone…I freaked cause I thought he was hurt." And the tears just start flowing, "I just kept thinking…cause I was also outside…that it could have been me. I mean…I was just patching the wall and it could have been me."

Reno winced and was not unaffected. There were people who were cut out for survival by agression. He was not a guy who climbes up the food chain so much as walked around it. He reached out an arm and offered the hug, blanket and all. Because sometimes keeping one's shit together needs to go on hold for a bit. "That's not Who DOES that to another human being?!" Not making her answer that he sat patiently. She'd figure out what she needed and that seemed fine by him. "I said it won't be you. So it won't." Because he decided on whose authority? Best not to ask.
Tink just snugs under the blanket with Reno, holding him tight because it's just so horrible what happened, "I know…I mean…who hurts Hanne…she's the sweetest thing. Cass…I get Cass…but freaking Hanne has never done anything mean to anybody." She gives him a squeeze when he tells her that he said 'it won't be you' and she murmurs, "I hope not…I can't imagine what she went through…" What Tink could have gone through if they had chosen another target is left unspoken.

Reno just hung onto her for now and shook his head. "We're all we got, Tink. Best to try not to think about what if. It didn't and, trust me, if there's one thing I know it's life's full of paying for the crimes of another. Which… is why i wanted to talk to you. I may need your help. To try to make things better. I haven't been sleeping cause of all… this shit but I'm tired of watching things get worse. I may have found a way to help us out. Put our science to a progressive use and… well I'd like you to help me out because I'm short one brilliant mind who understands more about quat levels and ph reactions better than I do so we don't make a mistake. But I think we can keep people from being injured to a degree."

"I want to make things better too," Tink looks up with a smile, "And if you thought of something bang up awesome then I want to see it." Cause maybe Reno is just smart enough to help them out of this mess, "So show me…I want to see what you drew up." She starts to get excited when he starts talking quat levels and ph reactions, "What did you design?"

Reno Smiled with some pride in the work, not that he had hubris; no, it was excitement and nervousness to share the idea. He handed her his rough blueprints. They looked like maybe large powder kegs? Wtrapped all around the dropship with tracks? With a warming grin down at her he said hesitantly, "I think I figured out how to get us water. So we won't die of dehydration, or have to go out, and get shot looking for it. It's not a cure all. Not yet, but I think with the patterns of storms that seem to be building on and off? I think we cna harnes that out of the sky and here? Here's a sort of semipermiable membrane made out of some of the cloths we have from teh tarps and clothes we cna spare to make a retaining lid. Water'll go in but be much slower to evaporate so we're not battling heat loss."

"Holy crap, that would totally take care of dehydration!" Tink looks at his design, glad to see that her brilliant friend thought of something that helps rather than hurts, "And with less trips…less likely folks will get hurt." She gives him a big squeeze, "This…this will totally work Reno, I can totally help you build this."

Reno grinned and seemed to relax and let the tired take the other half of the nerves out of him. "I didn't like it. Didn't sit well with me and wanted to figure out a way for us to do something without you having to abet something you didn't want to be a part of. I… well I wanted you to have that chance to work toward something better. That didn't sit right with me either. I figure I can hit up Max to help get some of these pieces. But yeha I was looking at this goin without water even if we win we lose sooo, yeah." he nodded "You got it entirely. And then maybe Cameron can calm down a bit and no one else has to go through what Hanne went through. We have a shot for hope if we can work things out, but success on teh plan also relys on finding the parts that are usable and we might not be able to find them all. I'm anticipating revisions, but it's really not a complex design. Just have to study which direction the weather is coming in at to see if there are any patterns. Optimize placement and… well yeah."

"Okay…so what we need to do is come up with a shopping list," Tink tells him with a smile after he tells her about his reasons for building these designs, "And then we can ask others if they've seen it. And Cole won't mind me getting off wall duty to work on this." And Tink then gets less of a chance of being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, "And maybe we can build something to sit underneath it that rotates…so when the weather changes, we can move it easier to rotate with the moving weather patterns." She starts jotting down some notes on her own notebook to show him."

Reno tilted his head and let her shuffle off to think and expand her brain there. For a brief moment he actually tuned out watching the wonder of it all before his brain caught back up. "Oh yeah that's not a bad idea. In fact if we can fill em we can roll them to the gally by the food and that. Also if we get really fortunate we'll be in better shape if a fire breaks out. Unlike the Skybox we're sorta surrounded by a LOT of carbon. As it turns out? Earth seems to be pretty flammable." He nodded sagely and watched her sketch to get a better idea of her thought. "Great plan. See, knew you were the one to ask." And honestly the other problem his engineering was there to try to repair seemed to be doing better. She seemed more… her for what he could tell. So far it was a Monday off to a better start after a totally shit and thumbless Sunday it would seem.

Tink gives a nod and continues to flesh out her idea since he's keen on it, "Yeah…I think we might be able to find the rollers…if not, we could try to use wood…on a round base…" She continues to draw it out. She bites her bottom lip and then glances at Reno, "Reno…it's going to work." Yeah cause the more she fleshes this out, the more clear it's doable, even with their limited resources.

Reno deliberately designed it to be light on resource needs to up the odds. He was, well, he was excited. Beaming inwardly right now as his last 18 hours seemed to be meeting fruition in concept. "Yes. Yes it is because we have a couple of the brightest minds on this planet working on it and we can turn this camp around. I'm hoping if this works maybe they'll come to us more for alternative means to get what we need and peaceably ablate hostilities until we can work out something mutually beneficial with our neighbors. I'd like to think of it as an opportunity for change. The NEXT step, and here's where you'll be really helpful, is to figure out if the water we collect is drinkable and suitable for medical purposes. If not, what do we do to make it so."

"Many molecules, including dyes, will change their structure by either accepting protons from an acidic environment…one that readily gives up protons…or donating protons to a basic environment…one that readily accepts protons. If I could talk to Cameron…maybe we can make some ph strips with some paper and dyes. We can test the water to make sure it's not too acidic," Tink starts to think to herself, writing down what plants she might need to create the dye that would allow them to make ph strips.

Reno laughed and said "Or we can stick a finger in there or try drinking it. There's also the direct route." Because sometimes they overcomplicated things and sometimes it was just more fun to see what they could do rather than think there was nothing more. A nod followed and a hand rubbed his face with a tired grin. "You look MUCH better inspired. But this is good. Question is when this is done what next? We try to wrangle livestock and figure out how to sustain animals or make a food source sustainable. We haven't made it to Mt. Weathr to get the grain stores back yet."

Tink flushes a bit when he tells her that she looks 'much' better and then switches topics cause something is bothering her, "Reno…do you think I'm okay…as a girl, not a tech." She puts away her design for a moment and tries to explain, "I just…yesterday I tried to kiss someone and not only did they not feel something for me…but…it was a total dud…and I sometimes think that maybe I'm faulty or something cause I don't really inspire that from people." Maybe Reno has some insight on this cause he's pretty smart.

Reno also had no real good experience with people period and blinked at her and stammeered a bit. His ears turned red and for a moment he just shut his jaw as to not proverbially catch flies as they say. How does he put a thought into words. Finalyl he said, "For what it is worth I think you're pretty terrific all around and either maybe they aren't smart enough or enjoy a life of risk by way of poor life decisions. I… I dunno. Not everything's for everyone and frankly? I dunno. I mean I'm no expert. I grew up in hiding Tink. I grew up being told I don't exist so maybe I'm not the best person to say. I don't…" He was rambling. He pressed his lips together observing her disappointments and said less 'oficially' frI like to wonder is it better to get attention or to make things better. Can't hang your life on teh opinion of another. hought hat is TOTALLY me speaking from a point of hypocracy so … for what it's worth?" He shrugged. "You're a pretty great person. Part of that I thinkis because you're a great tech. That doesn't ahve to be mutually exclusive., an d a strong mind is never an unattractive trait to hve. Don't lose too much sleep over the messed up opinions of the rest of us. I mean if we were all wrapped right? Prolly wouldn't have been IN the Skybox so we all got room to improve on some things. Keep being you."

Tink watches Reno turn a little red and does her best not to make his embarrassment any worse by not keying into this reaction. She does relax a little when he tells her she's terrific, "Hey…I think you're pretty special too." She gives him a shoulder nudge with her own shoulder, "Hey…you might have been hiding but I feel like you see things. And well…I really respect your opinion." She decides to just get it out and confess her whole idiotic idea, "And…it probably didn't work because I wasn't coming from the right place. See…I got a little scared cause all the talk about how…how we're going to die from Kai…" She gives him a look to assure Reno that she doesn't think that, "So…" Oh god, this is a little embarrassing and her cheeks flare, "I didn't want to 'die' a virgin…which is stupid, I know but I decided to try to make a project around it. And…" She makes a noise of explosion and something crashing, "I…didn't…when I was trying to calculate things, I didn't take into account other people and…" She gives a shrug and looks at Reno, "But now…after stuff, I think I just have to get out of my head and stop worrying about the what ifs. More like the what could we builds."

Reno tilted his head and listened. Hey he was a pretty good bulwark when it came to words. Not slings and arrows, but words and math? Sure. At the whole story his expression went from oh? to OH!! right. The dots. That whooooole connectivity thing. he rubbed his eyebrow with one finger and said "well, ya sorta get good seeing things when your life is only being able to look without environmental integration. Or you're welcome. Not sure which we were going for there. On your um, project? I mean is it really any big deal one way or the other? I mean half the people around here act like it's no big deal and the other half make it the end of the world." He shook his head and pulled his blanket over his shoulders. Tink was drawing wheels on his blueprints for what looked like a resivoir of some nature. Finally the lanky MacGuyver shook his head. "Don't make more out of it than it is and appreciate it for what it is when it is and don't overthink it. Shi told me that on the ship. Used to get real strung out over not being able to leave the pod. She'd bring back stories and sometimes it's hard looking at other people doing things and being left to wonder what am I missing out on. We'll know when we know." He looked past the tent flap at people moving around, but more the trees and the dirt and the open space on teh ground before looking back to her. "We'll know when we know. There's always something else we don't know and I think that's a good thing. I think it's worse TO know and have nothing lft to look forward to."

"Oh for the Arks sake, I do not need to listen to yet *more* teenage angst. Just get it over with already so some of us don't walk into it during trap planning." Yep. There's Jumar. He might be the one working out field traps for the upcoming fighting, and he's diplomatic when he wants to be with that musical voice of his… but apparently patience is not his strong suite right now, "It really isn't world shattering as people make it out to be, and since I would know from Natalie when I was apprenticed in manufacturing, I would know. I'm sick of this entire camp arguing themselves in circles." He puts down his sheet metal on the table Jumar has been using for his tools and other things, "I'll be the first to give you a thumbs up when you finally do the deed. Promise."

Tink listened to Reno's words and smiled because what he was saying did make a lot of sense to her. 'Don't make more out of it than it is and appreciate it for what it is when it is and don't overthink it.' was the line that really stuck with her. She was overthinking it…it wasn't a big deal…it…Tink stops short when Jumar comes in, jawing off about teenage angst and 'just get it over with' pep talk. She flushes bright red and tries to talk to explain but she's not good at speaking when she's flustered, "We…didn't…just…talking…" Taking a deep breath, Tink holds it for a second before releasing it, "We weren't talking about having sex right now!"

Reno blinked and arched an eyebrow half awake and very confused at Jumar. When the full impact of his impressions came about Reno squaked, "I'm just trying to build a water resivoir. It wasn't a euphamism!" Flustered, amused, and looking utterly apologetic he stammered, "Tink…you just… disambiguated nothing." He looked to Jumar and said "Thanks. That wasn't awkward at all. Well done. While you're here you know if the drop pod has any coolant hoses on it we don't need that you saw?" Yup. Shifting to tech. Life safe behind a blueprint and prudent planning.

Jumar gives a glance to Tink. then… "Sure. And I'm the Chancellor." He turns to leans against the table, then. "It's a perfectly natural desire. Or so the teachers said. There's something to be said about how good it feels, but I'm sure you'll figure that one out on your own." He grins, then. "Just be careful on the first attempt, lining it up can be hard the first time." He looks to Reno, then. "I need my coolant nose, thank you very much." Yep. Jumar being a dick and teasing. Apparently there's something in the air.

“I gotta go…" Tink is so red right now, she might look like she's having trouble breathing. She is so embarrased by the whole conversation, then Jumar…the last tech she would want to overhear the conversation…did hear it and now he's actually teasing her about it, trying to give her advise on how to line it up. If only the ground would open up and swallow her whole. She takes off, taking her notebook but leaving her part of the plans behind because she just wants to put as much room as she can between her and Jumar before she bursts into tears or beats that jerk over the head with a table.

Reno said drily trying not to just die inside. "Jumar… Trying to save our colony by helping us stay hydrated, not repopulated. Let it go." Fingers pinched the bridge of his nose and with that he walked from teh table and watched Tink skirt so far around the issue it was moving her bodily out of the tent. He sighed. He tried his damnedest to turn today around and salvage it to make it better and then Jumar just pantsed it. Looking back to him rolling up the initial draft for the water collector he said, "Thanks. REALLY productive pep talk." Aaaaaaaaaaand sunk. His head hung and he started to take inventory of what tools they had presently or needed to make. He murmured "We're working on water collection project to mitigate the need for going outside the perimeter. Cuts back on casualties if we can get it to work. Internalize supply and demand"
"Oh come on, that was just too easy. She left herself wide open for that one… I just couldn't not do it. I was just teasing." He shrugs, then… and Jumar gestures to the dropship with his head, "Are you thinking rain, or checking for underground reserves?"

Reno folded his arms, not in irritation but more to keep the blanket up. He was tired and had been up racking his brain for the last 18 hours. He watched Tink leave ruefully and then back to Jumar and business at hand. "Rain collector with a easy built in filteration to protect it from rapid evaporation and also from any insect or animal life. Tink's talkin put them on mobile platforms so we can swap them out. Good thought too that we can use them likewise for fire suppression if something goes totally haywire too. After we can do tht I think underground resource or maybe some sort of aquaduct would be a good idea." He thought about it and finally admitted, "If we move the camp they'd be able to come with us so that's got potental if the need arrises. If you got thoughts, I'm happy to hear them cause I'm tired as hell."

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