#perhaps the start of henry’s pyromania

[epicfroggz]

Henry/Golden Freddy headcanon

[mzyrimworld]

Duster Part 14: Quadrum 14

Last quadrum the colony was kept busy with raids and quests (which didn’t stop them carrying out a questionable election that Lion won), and gained a new colonist in late Priscilla’s father. Meanwhile the prosthetics surgery began with a couple of successful operations, but there’s a lot more still to do...

First thing, Sky’s questing party has finally returned to the base with the two new prisoners. Sky and Emu will finally be able to get some proper treatment for their sensory mechanites now they’re back home.

For those who don’t recall, the sensory mechanites are odd things that cause a fair amount of pain and tiredness, but actually boost the senses. The colony does have a painstopper it could install in one of their brains, but probably they ought to just be healed.

It’s not the only thing Emu’s dealing with, of course. With his brain damage and anxiety you wouldn’t even notice some of the mechanites’ benefits.

Jay managed not to contract any mechanites, but is still healing from the fight at the stash location.

So too are the prisoners. This fairly young man who should be able to heal to normal...

And this older woman who would be alright, but seems to have a pre-existing issue with her heart. If she did join the colony, Zeiph could probably make her a new heart, but they’ve had prisoners get themselves killed trying to break out before...

At the base they completed a new room for off-world trading, mostly in order to buy the necessary ingredients for prosthetics. Ships haven’t been that common so far, but it can be useful.

Emu continues to have... issues. It’s hard to tell how much of the problems he causes are down to his personality or the brain damage, since the brain damage happened before he joined the colony. Maybe they can do something to fix it?

Of course one of the things that they brought back was a brain stimulator, and Julio got it in safely, but it doesn’t seem to have fixed the brain injury itself. We’ll have to see what has changed when he’s awake again...

Meanwhile Julio heads off to do some hopefully simpler work, trying to cure Henry’s anxiety (again)...

Emu’s woken up and although a lot of his stats still don’t look good, they are better than when he arrived back. Perhaps if his anxiety is cured as well...?

Henry’s anxiety is cured! Less work for Jethro, her therapy dog. Now she just needs a new ear installed...

One anxiety down, and now it’s Lion’s turn...

Cured! Though, as I recall, she only developed anxiety after the last move, and they probably will move again shortly...

Installing new ears is riskier, but hopefully Julio’s had a good warm-up fixing anxieties, because we don’t want to lose original colonists to surgery...

Henry has made it through safely! Her ear (and the others Zeiph has prepared for himself and Dead) aren’t as advanced as the one Lion received, but they don’t need it so much as she did and it’s expensive to upgrade them.

Now it’s Dead’s turn to receive her ear...

Another safe surgery! Julio’s doing good work right now, despite his frailty, but that’s not a guarantee so we shouldn’t get complacent...

Bellerose has been pretty quiet in the background, but in absence of sufficient bedrooms, he’s been given space next to his daughter’s sarcophagus and memorial statue. He doesn’t seem too disturbed by it.

There’s an even more significant prosthetic underway, planned for Eri’s receipt, and this will probably be the real test of Julio’s skill, replacing her entire spine...

Apparently Steroid isn’t a fan of how kind a person Morales is, but he’s apparently not so kind that he won’t throw hands in the freezer!

As though the hospital wasn’t busy enough with all the surgeries going on.

But Steroid and Morales will be forced to endure each other’s company until their bruises heal.

And now Eri is in for her spine surgery. Can Julio pull it off?

During all the tension, somebody seems to be trying to help by dropping more prosthetics - but they don’t really need wooden feet.

The spine implant was a success! This could be very useful when they move, so Eri can better keep up with the others.

Eri’s in a better state than she was, but she could use a new kidney as well, and that’s surely easier than installing a whole spine.

So Eri’s soon back under the knife...

Ah. Well, I did say we shouldn’t get complacent. Kind of a waste of a good bionic spine though, if she was going to die getting a new kidney put in...

The first death since Priscilla’s and some people were on edge enough as it was, it’s not good for morale, or Morales especially.

That’s a very... shady sarcophagus Jay’s created for her, basically illustrating her death and blaming Julio (which, yes, it was him, but not deliberately). In any case, Eri is laid to rest, so I guess it’s montage time.

*Generic unlicensed sad music*

You know, I’d gotten used to my conception of Eri as a slightly frail older woman doddering around, but she actually first came to the colony as part of a raiding party from the Combat Society pirates.

She was the only survivor of her party, and ironically it was during that fight that her eventual death, her missing kidney, was caused. But she was taken prisoner back at the first base.

She joined at the beginning of the new base, when all hands were on deck to get things set up. She didn’t talk in detail about her past, but once she had apparently been a standard innocent shopkeeper, but wound up imprisoned for crimes untold before escaping, probably by mining her way out with a crafted shovel.

She was with the colony for almost exactly a year and a half. Her skills didn’t change much in that time, but she helped defend the colony when necessary, and mostly her work was keeping the place clean. There’s no skill for that, but everyone else would have been a lot more upset (and potentially ill) without her doing it.

Rest in Peace, Eri. At least she died unconscious, in no pain, probably entirely unaware of her death to the end.

I’m not sure if I’m surprised that Zeiph has the guts to be the next under the knife following Eri’s death, but he crafted this ear, so he intends to receive it.

His faith in Julio is rewarded; the ear is implanted safely. To be fair to Julio, he’s had many more successes than failures.

Then it’s back to Emu again, hoping to cure more anxiety and get him working better.

It worked, but Emu’s still not ideal, and it’s hard to tell how much is still his brain injury or the mechanites. They’ll just have to keep treating those.

Mayor Lion knows how to raise people’s moods following a death, though there’s no formal funeral for poor quiet Eri.

For all the time that some of these people have spent together, the colonists aren’t generally very close or cohesive. Lion’s generally doing the best, but having a partner and one friend is not a high standard of social group. At least no fight is breaking out over the election last quadrum.

A trade offer is made, but from what I can tell the colonists are hoping to move soon, not spend a lot of resources creating guns for another group.

And then there quickly followed another request, to destroy a raider camp. Vas might be interested in an opportunity for a fight, and maybe a persona core in Emu’s head might improve him? Just a thought.

With not much to do while the colony prepares to move, Vas takes some of the fighters out to get the AI Persona Core.

The journey to and from will take them beyond the end of the season, but hopefully it will be worth it.

Meanwhile Emu’s recovered from the sensory mechanites, and the brain stimulator hasn’t made anything better than would be normal and left a number of aspects still subpar. Hopefully he’ll still prove useful somehow.

Perhaps one day the combat pirates will realise that one of them cannot take on a full party, but it certainly hasn’t happened yet.

There’s more than one attacker back home though, with more variation of weapons this time. We know grenades can be dangerous...

Dead is dead! The prophecy is fulfilled! She looked like she was going for the grenadier, but she was ganged up on by the melee fighters and the battering must have just overwhelmed her body! The past few victories must have made complacent, the first of our original colonists to die...

The fight is still going though, and it’s enough to make you wonder whether the quest Vas went on was some kind of deliberate lure to get the best melee fighters away from the base! Lion is downed but still alive, our colonists are doing their best to fend them off...

And Kilo decides this is an opportune moment to give birth to another husky puppy, this time a girl, the father is Wildwood again.

The fight is finished, and no more colonists died. Matvei the deer even lent a hoof...

In the absence of most of the melee fighters, most of the damage was by the various gunners...

There is one survivor though, and he’s close enough to the base to potentially save and recruit.

Plenty of damage to the colonists as well, though thankfully Emu hasn’t gone any more permanent damage to set him back...

Henry’s not too bad...

Steroid’s never really had to be in a fight before, but all the damage should heal...

He couldn’t not fight when his wife was so involved though - Lion took a lot of beating, but there’s no external bleeding at least.

Matvei actually took the worst damage, losing an ear and bleeding quite a lot, but Sky will fix him up.

Meanwhile Lucya fixes up the new prisoner. They need to start looking to replace the people they’ve lost this quadrum...

And they start very quickly! Prisoner Gazelle chooses to join the colony rather than be outnumbered by male prisoners now. She’s a very promising fighter and has skill as a medic, though pyromania is less than ideal.

And then Dead is laid to rest in the same chamber as Priscilla and Eri. I can’t say I really appreciate Julio’s choice of what to portray on Dead’s tomb; no glorious battle like on Priscilla’s, just one time when she got too hot in summer and was sweaty. For some reason this image apparently stuck in Julio’s memory, which makes me very dubious.

Anyway, we definitely have to montage for the original colonists...

*Sweeping, actually licensed, sad music*

Elisabeth Dead, of course, actually chose to go to this planet for this challenge (and signed all of the waivers, remember). An ex-music teacher, she had wanted to embrace a different side to her life and existence, and she certainly did.

She survived three and a half years on Duster, with the ominous fact of her own name hanging over her, but she survived. She lost an ear just half a year in, and a finger after a year, but she kept going.

Her skills didn’t grow nearly so well as her fellow original colonists’, but she was vital early on for her (relative) skill with plants, and she was keen to get in on the fights to protect the colony - too keen at the end.

Rest in peace, Elisabeth Dead. Hopefully her father might find her resting place one day, and her friend Lion will miss her. Maybe if Henry and Zeiph make it through this, they’ll create a monument to her too.

Hopefully people will be recovered enough to feel like gathering.

Meanwhile Julio, being the best medic and interested in crafting, has decided to start on a new heart for Gazelle to try and protect her from the minor artery blockage she already has. Perhaps best to take the chance because she becomes too invaluable to the colony.

Elsewhere Vas’ party finally arrived at their location up in the mountains. There are several combat pirates, but they aren’t too well armed.

It’s difficult to fend off automatic weapons with just a coat and a sword.

Even with a flak jacket, they didn’t stand much of a chance. One of their friends escaped though, as the battle went south for them.

It’s not the most technologically advanced place, but they were able to loot a new turret for the home base.

And then they start heading home, taking even longer than it took them to get there. Hopefully the home base won’t be raided again by the time they get back...

And before we end the quadrum, we’ll review the various factions. Naturally nothing changes with the Combat Society pirates, but the colony’s somewhat positive with everyone else, especially the Accord of Inmenin. Hopefully it will benefit them somehow.

Final Stats:

Eri: Surgeried to death :(

Dead: Beaten to death :((

Gazelle: Recruited, due to receive a new heart

Julio: Throwing shade at people on their graves

Henry: No longer anxious and now with two ears!

Zeiph: Two ears!

Lion: No longer anxious!

Emu: Possibly as good as he’s going to get now?

Colony: Minus 2 colonists, recruited 1, gained a prisoner.