story_pinecn_1_1

7:00 A.M. \ Sunny, clear

Rhodes Island Dormitories

Mina? Mina? You up?

Nnuuh...

Shaky bedframe—bad...

Buh! You're already back, Kafka?

Just landed. Moseyed on down to you afore anything else... Oh, aaand I got a letter for you. From your dad.

Ooh, thanks!

You only got back yourself dead of night, didn'tcha?

Been takin' more stuff on these days...

You hit snooze, then. I got a Logistics Dep to swing by.

Doing well, Mina?

Your mom wanted Kafka to run you some clothes, but I intervened. Figured your friend was plenty busy enough back here in Columbia, seemed it'd inconvenience her.

How's your new job? They call it Rhodes Island? Kafka says you get along just swell with your coworkers.

If both her and the old Simon Co. head are working there, I bet it must be rock solid.

8:00 A.M. \ Sunny, clear

Rhodes Island Engineering Department Hallway

...Bridge's facade repairs are basically done. Just a little testing an' work's wrapped up all tidy. I—I'll get to it in a bit.

Heck, you're done two whole days ahead of schedule.

Best not forget to inspect the bridge this afternoon, Mr. Jeff.

It's fine, when have you ever messed up on the job? I'm a proud mentor here.

Say, Pinecone, were you in a hurry to get out this morning?

Uh... don't think so.

Look at your socks. One's a stocking and the other's ankle-high. Not to mention the color clash.

Oh, shoot!

Looks like you got muddled again. Maybe that afternoon inspection really is called for.

Uh, socks are socks, work's work...

You don't slip up at work either, but last week, um, you had your gloves in the microwave like they were a loaf of bread.

Yeah, you sure did! And Closure chewed you out hard for that.

Look, I was half-asleep by that point, okay?

Ahem... Okay, Pinecone, brass tacks. Here's the Engineering itinerary for today. Take it and get to work.

I'll see you cafeteria-side at noon, Pinecone! Don't forget lunch this time!

Mm-hm, got it.

How long's she been here at Rhodes now?

Clocking in close to a year. I was the one taking her through sign-on the day she reported in.

Registered her info, checked in at the dorms, and gave a tour of the landship. She was both curious and nervous the whole way. Didn't ask much, though, kept shy.

But the very last step, the simplest one, that was a real wringer.

The Engineering Operator contract's only a couple pages, right? She went through at least seven, eight times, checked over every single line with an HR op for any breach of contract clauses that might be lurking.

HR was convinced she was straight-up a spy from some other firm...

And she was way too serious about work while she was new. Enough to make even Closure not wanna assign anything to her.

Less serious, and more terrified of messing up. She took everything real carefully. I hear it's 'cause of some stuff she went through in Columbia, Kafka mentioned it once.

I remember nobody was willing to even crack a joke in front of her. Look at her now, though, firing your goofs right back at you.

Hahahahah—sorry, Jeff, I just can't help it.

Quit giggling... we're on the clock.

Your dad's recovering just fine. The whole project's been put on hold, though, and even the office shuttered. I asked around, and heard it was an investor that went belly-up. Simon Co.?

I'd been stuck at home for half a year now, no new job to speak of. Really hanging over me, but what can you do?

That's just the line of work we're in. Doesn't matter if you're in the right, clashing with the site owner is a big no-no. People think you'll rock the boat. Not to mention Columbia's got construction workers to spare.

Thank heavens for all the money you've been sending home... It's all my fault for being so useless, Mina, I know I'm a burden on you. Dashing all over the place with Rhodes Island can't be easy going either.

1:00 P.M. \ Sunny, clear

Rhodes Island Convalescent Garden

Thank you for taking the time today, Pinecone.

I found all these ruptured floor tiles yesterday while inspecting the greenhouse. Water's seeped all unevenly through the walls too.

Sprinklers are working alright?

Mm-hm, PRTS upgraded them just last month.

Uh-huh... floor got a case of overworn moisture proofing...

Will it be hard to fix?

Add extra dried charcoal to each part's proofing, re-lay the proofing for the damaged floor tiles, and that should do it.

Not much hassle, but... it'll take a li'l bit. Just leave this to me.

Phew—this should be good...

(Ungh—shoulders are killing me...)

You've been at this for five hours straight, I can't thank you enough! I got you some flower cookies—take them, I insist.

Thanks.

Let me see you out.

You got so many flowers here. Didn't even notice till now.

We barely ever see you in the Convalescent Garden! How about I give you the tour? It's the perfect opportunity.

We cultivate a lot of rare flora here. Miss Lena says you could compare it to an entire small-scale botanical garden.

That's some mighty fine work...

I loved reading things like <i>The Nomadic City Gazetteer</i>, back in Bolívar.

They wrote about how all the big cities had gardens and nature museums, and how they'd hold regular botanical expos, and that they'd assemble all kinds of rare plant life for people to admire.

And I wanted to go and see those places for myself, so badly.

Did ya ever go, then?

I never did. Right after I left home, I met Miss Lena, and then I came to Rhodes Island with her.

These are summer wisterias, these are iridescent hydrangeas...

These are coralblack willows... These are skeleton flowers, a very mysterious kind. They're native to the Higashi mountains.

You can see how they're pink right now, right? But when they get wet in the rain, they slowly turn translucent!

They do?

Mm-hm, it gave me such a shock the first time I saw it. Do you want to see, Pinecone? I could sprinkle a little water...

Uh—I'm good, I'm good.

These are fire crotons... The ones in the pots over there are pinetails, which flower for just one short week.

Oh wilderness, wilderness, runnin' for the sky♪

Oh city home, city home, my palms they hold you right♪

Machines do roll, do roll with care♪

Say don't roll over them grassreed hairs♪

They'll move to city home, come some right time♪

They'll live with us, come some right time♪

Hmm, hmm—uh, sorry 'bout that...

No, that was wonderful! What's that song called?

Dad taught me it, um... it's just those lines, no name, really.

I used to... put in shifts with my dad at the site, but work was always on. Barely got to talk the whole day.

So after we clocked out, he'd walk me home real relaxed-like. We sung that song all the time, to shake the day off.

Sing it the whole way, and suddenly you're not so tired anymore.

Did you help build a lot of new cities, while you were in Columbia?

The lyrics talked about taking the plants home, so you must've had gardens and nature museums, right? So were there really flower expos?

Nnuuh...

I—I don't know... Dad came up with the words himself...

Huh?

All I really remember's the wilderness... A whole lotta heavy machinery driving out into the barrens, bringin' along all the workers and materials together.

Construction's awful loud, even scarin' off all the fowlbeasts living nearby. Nothin' but dust, all across the land and sky... 'n then layer after layer of buildings rising on up, fast as fast goes.

Sometimes the foreman'd tell us what the buildings were for. Office block, lab, observatory... 'n all together they'd form a city.

Um... but it wasn't like we could imagine how it'd pan out after folks moved in.

Once one project gets wrapped up, the machines all moved us off to a new patch of wild... Some folk who fell ill and couldn't work anymore got left where they were...

Altogether, I guess, um... we only ever saw the city blueprints, and the materials to build 'em, never the actual city.

I see.

Oh, that's far enough. If the seepage ain't sorted out, come get me anytime.

But surprise! Your dad's found new work!

Remember Uncle Peter? He's an old work buddy of mine, and now he's a foreman. Does right by his friends too, I tell you! Called me in to the site. Good thing I kept covering his shifts all those years ago!

We're working on a small-scale nomadic city right now. I hear it's going to be used to temporarily settle people forced to migrate. It's no real big place, but functional enough, and welfare facilities are all well accounted for.

Peter says they're anticipating this city to work like a burdenbeast, doing runs through the wilds between big places like Trimounts, taking in anyone without a homeland anymore.

And it's all up to us to see to it that this burdenbeast gallops smooth!

Never thought Peter was foreman material, to be honest. The way he talks has grown just as much too. But he sure tells it like it is. There's still a hell of a lot of meaning in us building these hulking new cities.

That's our lot as frontier workers. The men don't matter so much, but the things we do matter like nothing else.

7:00 P.M.

Rhodes Island disused training grounds

Umm... is she not here yet?

Whoof—

Late, sorry about that.

I—It's fine, I just got here from the Convalescent Garden.

You've never been skateboarding, yeah? I copied a few photos from when I won 'Legs on Wings.' Check it, that's the skatepark behind me there.

I can—give it a shot.

I owe you, Pinecone. You're doing me a solid.

It's fine. Closure says the landship needs more recreational facilities to help us all destress... but it might be kinda cramped indoors...

A buffer zone, some grind rails, a quarter-pipe, a half-pipe, a bowl, and a wave... That's all you need to kick it. Watch me if you don't believe.

Lucky it's sloped right here. Hmmm... if we buff out the floor a little, then install a bar down here beside the...

For sure. You do that, I can finally pull off that nosegrind. Sweet!

What was, um, the 'Legs on Wings' thing you...

It was this trick skateboarding competition a couple blocks got together to hold. Nothing big-time, but crazy professional. Champion's prize was a high-grade, custom-made board... yeah, see what I'm riding right now? This is one of them bad boys.

They quit holding it even before I started getting treated at Rhodes, though.

Wh—Why?

Neighborhood was old bones, government turned it over to a megacorp to turn into a commercial sector. Said they were gonna build this business complex over the park we hung out at.

Whoops, I meant 'commercial sector.' All they did was the same shady business once they landed...

But in a city as big as Trimounts, skating, graffiti, it's stuff they only let you do in a designated area... a tiny little corner.

Oh. But isn't it meant to be... real neat stuff?

Neat's not a word to them, y'know? Freedom, risk... the bigshots don't like that stuff.

They need order, doesn't matter if it's good or bad. 'Street culture's' just a dirty word to those guys.

I didn't... know that about cities...

Pshh... who cares, we got the last laugh. Sprayed dumb faces all over their construction site warnings...

Mr. Jeff, what're you doin' here...? Di—Did somethin' turn up with the bridge maintenance?

That's been checked and green-lighted. But I'm sorry, we're probably gonna need to call a halt to your skatepark project.

Um. We already notified Closure about it beforehand.

Here's the thing, Pinecone. This training grounds was pegged for specialist combat drilling in the future. They're gonna overhaul the whole space to simulate battle environments.

Closure had to put it on the backburner, but now...

Mr. Jeff, to be honest...

Aw, forget it, Pinecone. Skateboarding's the freest art anyway. What kinda Champion Legs on Wings would I be if I let a park tie me down?

But if people complain to Logistics about how 'somebody's making a racket skating in the halls,' that's not my problem, yeah?

We taking these poles and stuff down now then?

Good thing you'd only just started. Should be a cinch to return a place this small to the way it was.

Um, uh, do—don't take it down for now!

Mr. Jeff, the, um—follow-up training ground refurb, could you—could you let me be in charge of that?

To be honest, the pipes and bowls and wave ramps you need for trick skateboarding seem real close to how the terrain gets rugged in the countryside...

You think there's the possibility, uh, the stunt track could be... integrated with the development of the training grounds?

Could you let me be in charge? I—I want Operator Aciddrop and the rest... to have a place they can skate freely.

If I recall correctly, this is the first time you're proactively applying for a role, after all your time here at Rhodes.

The refurb's a big project, though. If you want to blend it with a skatepark, I can't imagine it'll be all that easy. You'll need to learn a whole lot of things...

I—I can give it my best shot.

Then you find Closure soon, and apply. I can be there to vouch for you.

Um... huh? Really? Thanks a dozen, Mr. Jeff!

Alright, I'll see you then.

Why'd you hafta go and sign up for all that extra work? I'm feeling beat just thinking about it.

Uh, um, I don't really know either. I just felt, I should try as hard as I could...

Rhodes Island's—like a little city of its own, I s'pose... and cities ought to be real grand.

Grand? Now that's a loaded word.

Mm. Billboards on all the sites in Columbia kept using it—'build grand new cities, beautify Columbia's badlands.'

I asked my dad, once, just what a—a grand city was.

Though to be honest, he didn't know either. Still, I reckon it should be somewhere with everything... with botanical gardens and nature museums, regular plant life expos where everyone can come see the pretty flowers...

And giant libraries you can read in, no matter who you are.

And streets free for everyone to skate on, and walls so they can graffiti as much as they like...

Not to be a wet blanket, but every city in Columbia's gonna disappoint you with those standards.

They use slogans to dupe the workers, and ideals to dupe the youth. <i>That's</i> Columbia.

Er, um... you're right about that.

But, well, but my dad told me, Columbia's got more pioneer workers than you can count. Probably hardly anyone reckons we matter, but the things we do have gotta matter a whole lot.

Uh. Us, ourselves, we ought to believe in that.

He was real sick before. It took a lot before he got better. But recently he found his way back to work. Said he was building a grand new city too.

So, I just think it's right I keep at it too...

If nothing we built before amounted to any kind of grand city, then at least starting now, I can make Rhodes Island a better place.

Um. So first, we gotta get you somewhere you can skate freely.

Rad... I've got your back on this one!

And also, you take part in our 'Legs on Wings' competition too! In light of your outstanding contributions to the competition venue, we can seed you for the semifinals.

Mm... muh?

Well, we got a place now, so why not revive 'Legs on Wings' here while we're at it? You dig it, right? I know you do!

(It'll be easy to win over the Doc and Amiya anyways.)

Umm, in—in that case, I'll go apply with Closure at Engineering tomorrow... so we can get your venue set up soon as we can.

11:30 P.M.

Rhodes Island Dormitories

Bridge, greenhouse, stunt park... That's everything for today, finally. Tomorrow, I gotta...

...It's some kinda late now. Mmm, I'm feelin' sleepy...

Oh, forgot about fixin' the loose bedframe. *yawn*—t'mmmorrow...

Oh wilderness, wilderness, runnin' for the sky♪

Oh city home, city home, my palms they hold you right♪

Machines do roll, do roll with care♪

Say don't roll over them grassreed hairs♪

They'll move to city home, come some right time♪

They'll live with us, come some right time♪

I'm on my way out to work now. Didn't think I'd have so much to write about. Didn't even get to anything important.

So I'll wrap this up quick, Mina. Work hard, and rest hard too. Take care of yourself.