greenpower | Rubilykskoye Inbox

[ Right now he is Very Interested In A Distraction From His Personal Life, and Jordana handed him one in the form of city planning. Her partner in the project is someone he hasn't heard of before - but it's as simple as thinking towards the right person, isn't it?

He's hoping so, anyway. ]

Ivy?

[It's always weird responding to this kind of message. Is it like text messages? Can you leave someone on read?

Can you ask for a text instead of a voice memo?

But she doesn't really have an excuse for begging off.

Just... how do you answer?]

Speaking. Do I know you?

Er - no.

[ Which does, he has to admit, make this whole thing fucking awkward. Perhaps he should have sent a missive in writing, but his other attempts to handle things through text have resulted in people speaking anyway. There's really no winning, it seems. ]

But I understand you're planning a settlement outside of Rubilykskoye, and I'd like to offer my services. Or rather - [ make it more awkward, de Rolo, you can do it ] - I'm told my services have already been offered, but I'd rather we spoke directly.

[ Perhaps a bolt of lightning could strike him right now and put him out of his misery. This is just a little excruciating. ]

Ah. Jordana talked to you?

[And since Ivy knows everyone else they'd discussed involving at this point, that leaves one option who this is.]

Percy, right? Something like that?

Yes - Percy de Rolo.

[ If he sounds grateful to have a reason to stop talking, it's because he is. ]

It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance.

We'll see if you still feel that way when you get to know me.

[Ivy doesn't expect so. But. Well, she'll play nice for Jordana's sake, and for their project. She's sick enough of dealing with the Duchess and Rubeans on the whole that it's worth working with others.]

She said you had some experience with city planning? And you understand we want to keep this as sustainable as possible.

I could say the same.

[ He's an acquired taste, and lately some people have lost the taste for him. ]

I've been part of an effort to modernize how Whitestone - my home - is managed. And I'm happy to work with whatever expectations you have, though you'll have to tell me what you mean by 'sustainable.'

[ He's not up on the language of modern American environmentalism, unfortunately. ]

What I mean is that we design our settlement to be as harmonious as possible with nature. We don't poison the land. We don't suck the life out of it to feed our greed.

We give back to the natural world.

That seems sensible enough.

[ He sounds slightly perplexed, as though the opposite hasn't actually occurred to him before now. ]

If we destroyed the land, there'd be nothing to live on.

[It's not the worst answer he could have. And the reminder that not every culture is defined by a parasitic relationship with the world they inhabit; this isn't the state humankind needs to be resigned to.]

You'd think that, but I've watched rich and powerful industrial types and tech bros poison the air and water, leech nutrients from the soil, and make sure every human being has enough micro plastics in their body that it's amazing we don't shit charge cards.

[Look.

At least it's not directed at him.]

So you get where my priorities lie.

I'm not sure what all of that means - [ microplastics, charge cards - he can guess at tech bros and hopes he doesn't qualify ] - but I'm not interested in poisoning anything that doesn't deserve it.

[ And since it seems like he should probably clarify: ]

The countryside doesn't deserve it, obviously.

Obviously.

So.

[That out of the way.]

I assume you're not a big fan of the Duchess?

[ Apparently, he's passed that particular test. Onwards to what promise to be more tests. ]

She's made clear that she expects me to fight for her without providing anything I'd value in return. So - no. Not especially.

[ He ought to be more careful than this, he knows, but the way his conversation with the Duchess went has left him annoyed and disappointed. ]

I won't be living in full-time your community, however. Will that be a problem?

Where you want to spend your time is none of my business.

Then I think we'll work well together.

Have you drawn up any plans for the settlement?

Not yet. We have some notes, but it was only fairly recently we narrowed down the construction site.

At this point, I'm trying to clear as much space as I can on my own.

[Unfortunately, there will have to be some traditional logging and clearing. Ivy doesn't like it, but if they can keep it to a minimum and make the thinning strategic, she's willing to accept it.]

Ah. Are you a druid?

[ They really haven't run across each other before. >> ]

Like, new age-y pagan environmentalism?

Er...like druids. People who draw their magical abilities from nature?

Not magic powers. I have... you could say a spiritual connection to the collective consciousness of all plant life.

...I see.

[ That still sounds like something in Keyleth's bag of tricks, but it's not like Percy would really know, would it? (And Keyleth isn't limited to the plants anyway.) ]

Well - that must be rather helpful right now. Do you need any assistance with the clearing?

Can you make trees uproot and move to new locations?

No, unfortunately - I don't work with magic.

I'll focus on clearing for now. I know we'll need to chop down some of the trees, but we can do that after I do what I do.

[Okay, Ivy, play nice.]

Do you have any plans in mind? An idea how much space we'll need to start.

That depends entirely on what you hope to gain from this endeavour - how self-sufficient you expect to be, how many people you'll have with you, and so on.

[ He's content to leave the actual forest-clearing to her, after all - that's nowhere close to his forte. But she has, unfortunately, woken the desire to talk a great deal about the sorts of things he finds interesting, and that is among his strengths. ]

At bare minimum, we'll need shelter, storage for food, and access to clean water. In theory, you could start with a single building and expand from there. But if you've got grander plans than that, we'll want to account for the basic tasks of a small village. I'd imagine a blacksmith's [ of course he would ], stables, a carpenter's, healers of some sort, homes for people living there all the time...and whatever other industries you expect to see. I haven't visited the region, but I understand it's a different sort of environment?

voice. early september.

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