[open log] Week 22, day 3

[mightstealyrcar]

Who: Matt and anyone who wants to wander by!
Status: Open
Style: Prose, past tense
Where: By a waterfall in Mizusato
When: Week 22, day 3, backdated due to internet fail
Rating: PG-13 for cussing
Warnings: Just Matt's potty mouth, I'd think

The mini-hydro (micro more than mini, Matt thought) generator looked homemade and sort of kludged-together,

Comments

[monstersbigbro]

Touya just happened to be taking a little walk, around this time, taking a break from hours of planning that was starting to hurt his head, followed by hours of actual physical labor that eased it, somewhat.

That balance of work and study had always been important, and it still was, for keeping him sane. But at the moment Touya was quite wiped out, and he was wandering aimlessly around Mizusato, just trying to stretch and relax a little.

The yukata that he had traded his work clothing for hung neatly from his broad shoulders, pulled in with a proper obi, worn comfortably since Touya was familiar with traditional clothing.

Less comfortable was the look on his face when he caught sight of a stranger doing... something... that looked quite a bit like several science experiments that Touya had taken part in at school.

Quite familiar, yes.

But the idea of someone trying to do such a thing in Kannagara simply hadn't occurred to the teenager; he'd been too busy trying to sort out things like housing and frankly, trying to keep too busy to think about his sister's disappearance.

"What are you-?"

[mightstealyrcar]

"Oh! I'm, um."

If Matt had been honest, he would've admitted that thoughts about what to do with this had preoccupied him, even though it wasn't ready for public consumption. It was the beta version, if that. Gamma, even, maybe.

"Trying to make electricity." He knew he was blushing, for all that he tried not to.

He recognized this guy from the network, though he hadn't actually talked to him. He seemed to have gotten into the swing of things in Kannagara much better than Matt had, with the construction and all. Matt found that project interesting, and thought it was probably more useful in improving relations with the locals than his own would ever really be, but he wasn't exactly built for manual labor. He was pretty sure that if he tried to do anything more advanced than use a soldering iron, he'd take a hand off, or something.

"I mean, I am making electricity, but I dunno how much yet."

[monstersbigbro]

"That's rather amazing."

Touya steps closer, begins to take a walk around the generator, his attention obviously far more on the machine than on the man.

"You had to summon some of this, right? We're planning on summoning a few things for building the ryokan, but I hadn't thought about actually trying to..."

He paused, tilted his head, and turned to raise an eyebrow at the stranger. "How long did this take you?"

[mightstealyrcar]

"Yeah, some of it's summoned. Kinda cleaned me out." He had to borrow a couple of ryu from his boyfriend in the end, and this was just a first try at it.

"Once I had everything, it was pretty fast work, but I've been thinking about it for a while, like a month? Maybe more."

Matt's awfully inclined to like this guy after his calling the little machine 'amazing.' "I tried to use stuff I could find here as much as possible. If I could make a bigger one, like a real water wheel, it would be pretty awesome. Might be able to even wire up a whole village for power."

[monstersbigbro]

"That's a pretty amazing idea. A whole village wired for power, around here... that would make a big difference."

Touya pauses for a moment, trying to think about the far-reaching effects of such a thing. How would the other villages feel? What kind of industries would come up out of it? Which ones would fall away?

He's studied enough history to know these things, but for now, he'll think about how nice it would be for those used to having it.

"Perhaps for a bigger project, you could speak to the village elders first? I know a lot of the funding is going into the ryokan right now, but I'm trying to do that as frugally as possible..."

[mightstealyrcar]

That was an idea that had never occurred to Matt, tending as he did to assume that the 'otherworlders' were on their own.

"I just wanna recharge my GameBoy," he murmured, but this was sort of a lie. He was totally having delusions of grandeur, and trying to fight them.

"A version big enough to be useful, I don't even know how much it would cost, man. Five hundred ryu, at least."

[monstersbigbro]

"What I wouldn't have given for a game boy before I got all busy with this project!"

Touya laughed a little at the thought, shook his head, and then gave the man he was speaking to a curious look. He didn't know anything about Matt, really, despite having seen him around, like everyone.

So he wasn't really sure whether he should convince him to do something with this or not, didn't know if he would really be willing to see such a thing through.

"Well, it would be a really huge project. And I'm not sure the village could afford such a thing on its own, with what they're already giving toward the ryokan. Or if anyone would be interested without understanding what electricity can really do, what it makes possible. But..."

And here he paused, frowning a little and trying to sort things out. "If you make a slightly bigger version, maybe build something simple but useful for it to power? Then I think you might get businesses interested as well."

[mightstealyrcar]

Matt grinned to know he'd met a fellow gamer. They were few and far between here.

Then he grew more serious, thinking about the possibilities. He'd never been ambitious, not in his world, and not here. Keeping his head down and getting by well enough for himself had come naturally to him. But he'd gotten entangled here, and couldn't regret it. It was the only life he had, after all.

"The cafe I work at. I was thinking about, um. Wiring it up. Like, as a draw for customers, with the novelty and all."

Ever since the night of the attack on the place, Matt had felt impressed by, and grateful, to, Yuui-Fai, and more business would help him, which would probably be welcome now that Little-Fai was here. It wasn't like they were counting on Matt, but they'd both been so nice, he liked the idea of doing something for them, even indirectly. Of living up to their good opinion of him.

"Hey, or maybe we could get the ryokan some light." That might help newbies, too, make it less weird for them to suddenly find themselves in a crazy version of medieval Japan.

[monstersbigbro]

"Where's the cafe at though?" Touya frowned, turning his eyes out toward the water for a second. "Is it on the water like this?"

That would make a big difference, he thought. Wiring up a village this close to the water wouldn't be near as complicated as some of the inland places.

"As for the ryokan, that would be a really amazing thing... but I'm not sure about the finances. We could make work some figures out, present the idea to the village elders, see if they have anything to offer? I'm sure some of the others involved with the ryokan might be able to help out somehow as well... and ..."

Well, damn, there's always the fact that Yuui seems to have however much money he needs, but Touya doesn't want to ask his roommate for money just like that. Not when the man had already opened his house to him.

"Yuui might be able to help, but I don't want him to feel obligated, either. I already live with him."

[mightstealyrcar]

"No, it's in Yomisato. I figure wind would work better there, but the parts for this were, um. Less prohibitively expensive." And Matt had still had to borrow a few ryu from Elfangor. He wouldn't have gone back to putting J at risk for the sake of having plenty of disposable income for anything, not after all that had happened because of it, but man, sometimes he did miss the disposable income.

He had to take a second to mentally translate 'Yuui' into 'Fai,' and hey, that was an idea, except that Matt already owed him, in his own mental reckoning of things. "Does he, like, prefer to be called Yuui?" He gave an embarrassed little laugh. "I haven't wanted to ask him. And anyway, I feel like he has enough on his mind lately that I don't wanna bug him about my project."

If the locals were willing, that was a good idea. Part of the point was helping them, too. "Think you could see if the elders are interested? I'd talk to 'em, if they were."

[monstersbigbro]

"I'll definitely check in with them and see."

Touya can't help but be a little excited over the idea. Because it would be a very interesting project, as well, even if he can't exactly take over the whole thing himself. It's not his to do, but he would love to be involved and... he's overloading himself, again.

Yukito would definitely lecture, if he found out.

"Yuui... well, since his brother arrived here, it's easier to call him Yuui. Though it's easy to forget sometimes."

He's still a little sore over having been given the wrong name, but it's not really something he can understand.

[mightstealyrcar]

"Thanks, man." Matt grinned.

He didn't know exactly how Fai's world worked, but he did know magic worked there, and had rules Matt didn't begin to know all of. He totally understood guarding your real name closely no matter where you came from. He'd been appalled, at first, by how freely people in Kannagara handed theirs out. He wasn't anymore, but he'd still only voluntarily told his own to one person.

"Heh, I kinda go with Fai and Little-Fai. I'm, um. Used to people being careful with their names."

[monstersbigbro]

"Oh?"

Touya blinked a little, really not sure why anyone would be careful with their names. He supposed magic did sometimes involve names, but his mother had never seemed to mind giving out hers... perhaps things were different in different worlds?

Or perhaps only those likely to have enemies needed to worry about such things anyway.

"I have to admit I never thought much about that."

[mightstealyrcar]

"My world was kinda fucked-up about them."

Matt considered the best way to explain this. It seemed like cheating to call it magic and leave it at that, because it wasn't. At the same time, no one could really understand it unless they'd lived it.

So he went with the truth. It wasn't like it mattered here and now, right? "The wrong person knowing your real name could get you killed."