nightlogs | talking to ghosts

Who: Miggy & You??
What: Miguel stays behind to do dead honoring activities
Where: the Pole to start
When: Late October, Early November (Day of the Dead time)
Warnings/Notes: themes of mourning, though it can be lighthearted also

Miguel would be reluctantly absent during the action around Halloween. A strange enough decision, given his first instinct would be to throw himself into the fray as a distraction.

But as of late, he couldn’t hide that something was eating at him. The gloomy spell over his mood seemed more intense than months prior, burning away his patience and making short tempered remarks and the flashing of fangs more easy to let slip. He'd done okay keeping things somewhat under lock, but it was clear now something was definitely wrong.

And so, after some tense, but persuasive conversation just convincing enough to accept staying behind, Miguel finds himself idle on a quieter and lonelier Pole for a few days.

((prompts incoming - brackets or prose are fine))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Dan's gotten used to AI assistants, but only because his daughter set up Siri on his phone back in the day to help Dan dictate and receive text messages. Over time, it's meant that the phone's more useful to Dan but also that he's reluctant to use it, because engaging with it means a reminder of how Ellie thought to make his life easier for no reason other than that she thought his life should be.

"A little humor does wonders for workplace morale. Even sardonic humor," he says, smirking at Miguel, fairly settled now in his understanding of what kinds of humor Miguel is both receptive to and prone to engaging in himself.

He slides the blueprint over to Miguel, looking up at him with the sort of respectful but confident expression of a student who knows he's handing in an essay worth an A. The design is clever and clearly the result of a few drafts and a good mind for mechanics and how things work in space. There aren't any evident errors, although there are some under-done sections where Dan's expecting to figure out the exact measurements as he goes.

"Tell me about your gadgets. Aside from the suit. I'm curious."

"The webshooters were the most useful ones by far." He rubs his left forearm, as if out of an old habit of massaging aching muscle. "They're integrated into the suit at this point, but they started off as UMF gloves. You can imagine my relief when I figured out a reliable way to make light-webs work instead of the spinnerets that grew in."

Biological machinery was messy. The glands tended to itch or get stuck or feel sore. His appetite was insane with the calorie draw of producing webbing. And then the inevitable silk incidents when someone squeezed his arms. It made trying to live his normal life absolute hell. Yeah. He was glad to get rid of those. It was nice to feel like he was slightly less of a freak, too.

"Sorry, that was a gross example." He looks down at the plans to avert eye contact and hide the slight flush of embarrassment. "There's the Multiverse watch. I had to work in a subspace pocket to fit in all the things one could need while jumping dimensions. Recording equipment, scanners, and what have you..."

He rattles it off without thinking as he starts to focus on the paper in front of him. He tapers off as he takes a good look. The lack of numbers was a little odd, but the lines were accurate. Dan clearly had worked out much of the problem his own way.

Edited 2023-12-24 19:45 (UTC)

"If you think that's an offputting example of the requirements of your work, you got to remember that half my job is gravedigging and cleaning up after monster attacks. Real bloody work. Real fragrant, too." Dan laughs. "I don't understand the details, but it is nice to just be able to remove the tech when it's not in your service."

The idea of spinnerets growing in reminds Dan of the Rig's shock collars, and he scratches the scar on the back of his neck out of memory for how it felt, how he never felt like he was unaware of its presence.

"You patent all that? Are patents still a thing in Nueva York?"

"They are, but all of this work is under the radar."

Which begs the question of how, he imagines.

"A large enough corporation can obfuscate a lot for you, even in plain sight. Bad idea to make public your discovery of how to jump dimensions. I guess you would call them trade secrets, but making money was never the point of it."

Spider-Man Stuff was never particularly legal, especially in Nueva York, and hiding nasty things in the basement was something Alchemax was very good at. Convenient, for him. His eyes narrow as he recognizes a few of the scribbles on the paper to actually be numbers. Oh my.

"Is this a 1:1 drawing? I was going to ask how you kept track of measurements and material thicknesses."

“Trust me, I’m aware of what a big corporation can sweep under the rug. Ask folks around here about the Rig. Reckon it was a rite of passage for some of us dimension-hoppers.”

Part of him does want to demonstrate he’s not an idiot to Miguel. Tech talk, as much as he likes to hear people enthuse, does tend to make him feel like his inadequacies are at the forefront.

“This design is three times the intended size. I got the measurements all…” He taps his temple with his fingers. “Not to toot my own horn, but I got a great memory and I’m good at math.”

He blinks back for a moment, puzzled. His first thought is that human memory, even excellent memory, was still flawed. That's why it's important to document. But the hastily written notes remind him that Dan mentioned not being a fan of writing much, and he puts together the picture of why he was doing things this way.

Miguel was shipped off to an academy since he was 10. It ruined the relationship with his mother, for one. It also left a pretty big blind spot when it came to ways of doing things that were outside of his usual, rigid structure. That didn't mean Dan's way was wrong if it worked for him. There was a lot of intent and thought put into his work.

"Here I was wondering if you were saving the extra large one for the husband." he says, dryly. A little humor never hurt.

"I'd have more questions if we were dealing with a harder material, but with wood there is room to feel it out as you go." he says. "The mechanism here is very elegant."

There is elegance in things that are designed at just the right amount of complexity.

“He gets the gift of my company,” Dan says, smiling. “He don’t do Christmas much. Thinks it’s an overrated holiday.”

He sees as Miguel reads between the lines, and he’s grateful that there’s no derision. He knows they come from different worlds in this regard, and overall, the world is structured assuming Miguel’s level and type of competence and not Dan’s.

“Thank you. If you don’t see nothing that looks evidently wrong, I’m going to start placing saw to wood.”

“It looks good.”

At least, with Miguel’s very blunt way of talking to others, the sparse compliments sprinkled in between have their authentic shine to them.

Dan had most certainly earned his, in his own way. He starts to get up - if the power tools were about to be turned on… well, enhanced senses came with their drawbacks.

Maybe it was time for him to find another task for the altar.

“I appreciate it.”

Dan, being married to someone with heightened hearing, anticipates Miguel’s concern. An electric saw would be easier, but he doesn’t want to be rude and drive Miguel off, so he gets the clamp set up and his safety gloves on and starts to use his analog hand saw. There’s still the sound of sawing, but it isn’t the terrible whine of a power tool. It’s an accommodation he’s happy to make without drawing attention to it.

Dan may not have drawn attention to it, but Miguel takes note. For the first time in a while, he is confronted with the thought that someone else might like to keep him around. And did so with an uncanny attention to detail.

Dan wants him there. For whatever reason. Despite the inconvenience.

He settles down then, for now. Perhaps he can get some painting done, after all.

talking to ghosts

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