[Open] Escapades With A Mad Genius

[10billionpercent]

Who: Senku Ishigami and anyone who wants to spend time with him.
Where: Various
When: Imagination 1-6
What: Senku apparently has all kinds of things to do pre-mission.
Warnings: One prompt is medical in nature, it's not really graphic.


Kitchen

In the absence of a laboratory, Senku appeared to be using cooking to cope. No, he wasn't on the purple team, meaning he wasn't officially cooking, but it was keeping him busy, and no one really wanted him to have idle hands for too long.

From the time they left the platform, until the night before the mission, he could likely be found in there at least once a day working on one project or another.

The first day, he was busy using the new ingredient of honey to make a caramel on the stove, and he had bunches of cilantro and some limes on the counter in front of him, as well as a water carbonatation machine.

After that, he could be found with a few other projects. In one instance he had lemons, honey and coconut oil in front of him. In another, he appeared to be making some kind of marinade with soy sauce and a variety of spice packets and some kind of meat. In a third, he was slicing ginger root and daikon as thinly as he could.

On Imagination day 5, he'd found his way to a few mangoes which since he didn't wear his SCA on the train very often, he didn't get the reminder that peeling mangoes was a bad idea. He'd barely started the first one when he developed a rash on his hands and at least the skin that could be seen swelled up, including his eyes and lips, thanks to urushiol being present between the peel and the fruit. One might stop at that point and deal with the allergic reaction, but Senku proceeded to continue peeling fruit as though he wasn't immensely uncomfortable.

Spa

Senku will likely check out the spa late in the evening when he couldn't sleep one night. For modesty's sake, at least other people's modesty, he will select the requisite orange swimsuit and sink into the water for a little soak. Notably, when wet, his hair collapses into some semblance of ordinary.

He wasn't interested in a massage, but a soak and a steam wouldn't be out of place.

[OOC: Also available, choose your own adventure. Senku haunts most cars, he doesn't sleep a whole lot and he doesn't usually mind company. You can just add whatever you like - don't be afraid of the pre-planned threads, or you can contact me on Discord: Ammeschan#5385 or Ammeschan]

Comments

[fun_thementalist]

Gen, like most on the Earth, hadn't remained conscious. But Senku had been one of the first and few. He often wondered and worried about that - from the first time he saw the date written on the tree - just how such a person's sanity could've survived it. Perhaps the healing factor of the petrification helped, he always wondered.

"Spoilers, my dearest," Gen told him with a little bit of a wry smile, responding to his future knowledge. "You'll find out soon enough. And our plans are a little up in the air anyway, you know how these things go. We will need to adjust our plans based on what happens when I return anyway."

A light, cheerful way of saying he wasn't even entirely certain if Senku was alive, or dying. Yes. Not dwelling on that right now.

But then he gave Roland a rueful smile. "I was revived by a man who I shared an interview with once - I knew exactly who and what he was, a very fearsome MMA fighter. And within a few seconds, he made it clear to me he'd prefer me smashed and dead - and that he wanted to kill 'the smartest man on Earth.' I was in a bit of a precarious position!"

And Gen laughed, as if that wasn't such a big deal.

However, once more, he largely let Senku handle the bulk of the explanation. And ... there was a lot here that he had inferred, but never heard confirmed aloud. He knew Senku had shitty stamina. He knew he had struggled. And ... he doubted any of those six months alone had been easy, since he'd been awake for a thousand years, and alone for even once he was finally able to move.

He reached out, and offered Senku his hand to hold and squeeze, wordless support.

[adregem]

There's a point in the conversation where a familiar flash of light shines from the bottom of the table, but it's nothing they have not seen before. Roland glances down and places his well-used journal on the table, and a pen resting between its pages comes out of hiding too. A natural motion of jotting everything down - everything he thinks will aid him in the long run; a flurry of strokes and periods that accompany pauses and breaths taken in sync between the two of them sat before him. His intuition about them was not wrong, he realizes with some level of relief. And he understands more than anything that what he asked of them was certainly not shared without some semblance of trust, however small it may be. Roland hasn't known them all that long, but this much of an impression he can confidently gather.

The flow of information doesn't intimidate him, but spurs him to start writing faster, cherry-picking what he can and saving his thoughts for another time. He doesn't wish to interrupt the flow of events as he processes it, one factoid at a time, nodding and humming and shifting his gaze from the pages to their faces, making sure to catch nuances in between. From what Roland can tell...it almost sounded like a modern-day genesis. Restarting the world, literally, from the races born out of the surviving astronauts. Would his reality have that? Would that be the key? Get in touch with astronauts who may have been in outer space during the time of the nuclear bomb going off? How would they even land, then? Where would they go...?

But then, Roland would be all alone then, if he ever returned. Would that even be a possibility for him? He decides to compartmentalize what he wants to focus on, for now. At some point in time, these thoughts will come rushing back at him again anyway. Things are crossed out, squiggled away, and he continues in beat with Senku and Gen's words.

"What a nefarious scheme." He says under his breath, just audible enough. "To do this to the whole world...To invent a technology that causes mass extinction thru petrification...What a journey you've both had. From waking up to apparently, getting death threats as soon as you do." And from the sounds of things, it's far from over too. This sentiment he means quite deeply. It seems this little gathering of survivors really had that thread of hope connecting them all to the endgame - to bring back or revive the fallen, start anew, the best way they could or knew how to.

He moves his pen again, turning to a fresh page. Senku's survival plan is detailed, but he appreciates it because he had no base knowledge apart from the usual: looking for water, which he had outlined already; then building a fire? Roland's brows furrow, muttering just to repeat what Senku instructs. "Right. So bow drill, next..." His writing slows significantly with each passing line, the only indication that Roland's thinking much harder than he was previously. Otherwise, his face betrays nothing.

He wants to ask so much more. Senku, what would you do if you had neither deer to hunt for food nor a viable place to find clean water, a stream to drink from? Roland realizes there was going to be an extra layer of challenge for him; a nuclear wasteland was not going to be the same as a world covered in overgrowth. But a part of him is hesitant to talk about it, the words heavy on his tongue. How would he truly ask for Senku's brilliance or Gen's astuteness if he didn't try to be honest about things from his end, though?

Thankfully, he could buy himself some time with an equally genuine observation. As he ponders what to say next, his pen swaying side to side like a metronome, Roland returns to a point mentioned, a small smile on his face. For now, he will keep his other observation close to his chest until he confirms more for himself; since when did Gen start calling Senku his dearest and not just 'my dear...?'

Interesting.

"Say, if you want, I can always train with you here. Help build up your stamina, build some cardio and muscle tone. Whatever I can help with, just let me know. For both of you." Roland turns to them, determined. "I was a pretty small kid back in the day, and picking a martial art honed my body in a lot of ways I didn't expect. Anyway, it's something I want to offer in case it ever crossed your mind. And it's a little better than small talk training, right? You've got Gen for that, now. Heh." That inside joke was never going to get old, at this point. The origin of Roland's friendship with Senku, at this point.

[10billionpercent]

He didn’t protest or complain when Gen offered his hand, Senku just accepted it with a bit of a squeeze. It was a difficult time, but it was done. If he had to do it again…

No. He wouldn’t consider that. He didn’t have to do it again.

“By the time Gen was revived, we’re talking a year into the future here.” Senku pointed out. He smirked slightly at Gen and returned back to him. “Spoilers.”

He sighed and continued. “Food, water, next need was shelter. I built a tree house over time, as well as made leather from the deer hide. While the deer was pretty scarce, sometimes I caught things that were smaller. I foraged for mushrooms and berries, edible plants…” Senku sighed. “My days were completely filled with this. There was no shortcut, and no matter how tired I was, there was no way to avoid the fact that staying alive was the priority.”

Needless to say, he wasn’t resting very well. “Once the leather was ready, I then had clothes.” Yes, he’d been wandering around mostly nude for a long enough time, but it wasn’t like there was anyone to see him. “Another thing to keep in mind is that water, because if you hurt yourself you need to keep it as clean as possible. Infection is another death sentence when there’s no medicine. I would get soap, but again, that’s months away at this point.” He frowned a little bit.

“I had a base set up eventually, tools made, extra food gathered and a shelter and finally I could maybe work on something else, which to me was figuring out how the hell I was revived in the first place and how to get someone else to do it with me. There’s no way a single human can keep going forever, it’s just too hard.” Senku admitted. “I narrowed it down to the nitric acid, and went and poured it on him, but that didn’t do anything which was…” It had been immensely frustrating and disappointed and after he thought it through that night had been unpleasant.

“Also, I was doing a lot of talking. Partly, maybe, to remember how.” Senku frowned. “I talked to animals and statues and all kinds of shit.” He glanced away briefly. “Socialization is required for all humans, to some degree and as time goes on, it starts to really eat at you.” He could caution Roland of that.

“I hauled Taiju directly to the source, and I would sometimes go and yell at him for taking so long, I was getting really impatient with him, but nothing could be more of a relief then when he did wake up and that was in October.” Senku admitted with a pleased exhale. “The thing was, his brain wasn’t sleeping either, he just doesn’t think much.” He loved his best friend in his own way, but he wasn’t much of a thinker.

“With Taiju there, our chances of surviving winter increased exponentially. My stamina is shit, but his is limitless. Cheat code, that he is. He could handle the gathering and the fishing and that sort of thing while I figured out what to do about all of the petrified people.”

At that moment he sighed and offered a bit of a shrug at Roland’s offer. “I would like to say that would help, but honestly, I don’t know what’s wrong. I can’t seem to build stamina at all.” He glanced away, it was a bit of a sore point for him, because he’s constantly lagging behind. “It’s not like I don’t live a very physical life, I do. Even when there’s more people, you might’ve guessed I can’t leave well enough alone, I’m involved in most of the processes. Mostly, I ignore whatever’s going on and deal with the consequences later.”

[fun_thementalist]

Gen gave Roland a weak little smile. "Nefarious is pretty right. There is simply no rationale to it - it's not as if they only targeted part of the world and left their own country intact, or something. Whoever did this ... it's as if they had it out or humanity themselves, which seems ridiculous."

His thumb was rubbing against Senku's hand, and he snorted. "Spoilers. It doesn't count if I was there to see that future, dearest."

And his grip tightened just slightly at the socialization bit. Senku was far from a social butterfly, but this much Gen had guessed before. He was human, and he needed people like any other human being did. Being aware for thousands of years, being alone for six months - it's something Gen worried over from the moment he saw that date carved into the tree, how a man enduring that could stay sane.

Roland got a wry look. "My friend, if Senku-chan's endurance didn't level up during all that time he survived on his own - hunting and fishing and building what he needed to survive before he woke Taiju - then it's not something positive thinking and exercise can fix. Of course he does put in the effort to do any work he drags me into, or asks Taiju or other muscle-y members of our group to do. If you'd like to help, you can help me keep him from wearing himself out too fast."

[adregem]

That look Gen throws him isn't enough to deter Roland, who just smiles at them both as if interested still. In fact, he does manage to throw in a lighter jab despite the seriousness of it, if only to reassure them that he's willing to put it the work to help. It's not survival training in any way shape or form, but - "Gen can come too. You can cheer Senku on. Or run laps with us. Doesn't hurt to try, y'know? Could help, somehow."

Would he be able to buy wooden swords for practice? Did they already have them? Roland makes a note to check. There's a lot there to make note of anyway, between Senku's further origins and the fact that he had been alone for so long. Such a detail wasn't lost on Roland at all; it might be what makes him realize that upon meeting Senku, it was no wonder the concept of small talk didn't interest him in the least. He wouldn't know what to do himself, not having anyone to speak to. Counting in your head, as your body refuses to move, petrified until luck chances your way.

He grows oddly quiet after that thought takes ahold of him. The pen in his hand stills, and the ink no longer stains the pages. Of all the things he's writing, the little tips and tricks, how to survive and what to do when you awaken...He has to be a bit more candid. Even this advice was too far ahead for Roland, if only because -

He takes a breath and sets his utensil down. For this, he has nothing to write about.

"Senku, what's your strategy if you woke up and none of those resources were available to you?" He starts first, feels the way he says it, makes sure its leveled. "What if instead of a world overgrown, you woke up to...nothing?" Roland stops here for now, wonders if that's enough to go on. Or, he'll wait, see what he asks so he can formulate a better way to say what he means. Not that he distrusts them, and by all accounts he should be more honest about things given how much they've shared already.

It's just hard for him to talk about, private by nature.

[10billionpercent]

Senku didn’t know what to think about that focus on his stamina. It was something of a sore point for him really. It frustrated him to no end that nothing he did seemed to work, or improve anything. It wasn’t very fair, and he couldn’t pinpoint the problem. “If you have some kind of idea, I might try it, but I wouldn’t expect much.” He told Roland bluntly.

He wished he could blame it on a lack of socialization and maybe some of that was there, but he hadn’t been the most socially adept person in the first place. People tended to have to meet him where he was and typically, they didn’t mind the more they got to know him, but Senku always had a hard time making friends.

He could continue the story, but it might not be necessary if Roland had something else in mind. He blinked.

“You don’t have nothing. You need to define nothing for me.” Senku answered easily. “Unless you’re floating in a void, I’ve got nothing for that, you’d starve to death.”

[fun_thementalist]

And that's why Roland had gotten a look - it was something Senku had already tried to improve, because the man was stubborn. And it didn't work. Through whatever scientific means he attempted to correct it, it still didn't work. Gen could and would help Senku with whatever he wanted to do to improve himself - but wearing him down in a frustrating exercise that only emphasized his flaws wasn't something Gen wanted Senku to endure.

"Even outer space has something," Gen mused. "Debris, space dust, UV light and radiation. It might seem silly, my friend - but you will need to give us more to go on if you want us to help you."

His eyes glinted knowingly. "You seem to be preparing for a future of your own."

[adregem]

This was an exchange of trust. Right? And he asked to speak to them. He prepared for this, in one way or another. What was the other option? Play charades with them, hope they get the message? No, there was no darting around it.

Besides, what was this exchange between comrades - between friends - compared to the years and years he's had to endure to try and wrangle stubborn nations into peace? Senku and Gen at least, didn't mean him harm. They knew too, what it's like...

Roland closes his eyes only briefly, before donning his signature determined look, brow furrowed, lips forming a thin line. Worried, but it's as Gen said. How could they help him if he hid the fact?

"Nuclear, then." He says, quietly. "On the day my nation was supposed to host a world summit in a bid to unify all countries under a banner of peace...A nuke flew across the sky and leveled the city." Now one city was nothing, but Roland had to clarify -

"My version of earth was already at the worst of political and military tensions across every border. Such an act of aggression wouldn't be the last." He knew they were smart enough for the rest of what he's implying. The nuke would have started the end. The world war to end all world wars. He knows that. That's loomed over him for a long time, when he still donned the mantle of president.

He pauses here, and waits dutifully.

[10billionpercent]

It wasn’t just an exchange of trust, that was certainly part of it and Senku had definitely extended that to Roland, but he knew the man wasn’t going to go around talking of what they did in this space. He wasn’t worried.

He was familiar with the tensions that Roland was talking about, at least historically or rather it was always a possibility once nuclear weapons came into play. He sat back with his arms crossed then, inadvertently letting go of Gen’s hand, but he needed to think.

He got the picture, it wasn’t just one bomb but potentially annihilation. But world annihilation was so incredibly difficult and unlikely. One couldn’t really set off enough bombs to level each city could they? No, they wouldn’t, because once the governments fell, the citizens didn’t have access.

Senku considered for the moment that this was a possibility. He shifted in his posture, one hand coming up to his eyes and two fingers were raised. He was calculating, Gen would recognize that.

“What determines most the factor of surviving is very much how close you are to the blast. The thing about nuclear weapons is not just the explosion itself, but the radiation. It depends on the size of the weapon, and what agent you’re using, I mean the devices used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were completely different, so I can’t speculate as to what the composition is for your world.” He exhaled.

“In the short term, assuming I was outside the blast radius and didn’t die initially, I’d identify where the bomb hit and head in the opposite direction. I would travel as far as I could without tapping resources because radiation spreads. Even I can travel 80 kilometres in two days, if I have to. If you’re talking about two different places and being in between, you want to put yourself between the two places. Barring that, aim for an area further out. The worst of it can be avoided that way. The good news is that radiation levels decrease much faster than scientists thought they would, plants were already starting to regrow in those regions within two years.” Senku explained. “And getting far enough away would limit the long term effects on people, but the worst effects come from being too close, and it’s a really nasty bit of warfare.”

He had no intention, personally, in reinventing nuclear arms. Without a doubt they would be, someday, but it wasn’t going to be him.

“As much as you consider world annihilation, it’s statistically unlikely that you would decimate the entire planet in one shot. The governments wouldn’t survive, most likely and then who would have access to the arms? America in my world, is a huge landmass, compared to Japan, so there’s likely a lot of open space. It may not be ideal, but it might be what you have to deal with. Presumably you’d be dealing with a lot more survivors than I am too, because people would probably live outside of the blast radius and effects radius.”

[fun_thementalist]

Gen didn't mind that Senku let go - it seemed like it's purpose, giving his dearest friend comfort and support during a difficult memory - had since passed anyway. He listened and thought, because really, Senku was uncovering the truth of what Roland would need to deal with. Not the actual attack itself.

"That's going to be your big problem, my friend - and opportunity," Gen told him. "Governments and infrastructure as you know it will probably be gone. But you'd still have people. Tons, and tons, of people."

"People who suddenly likely have ... no internet. No international travel. No international trade, or even in a place like the United States or China or Russia, no organized shipping within those massive countries any longer. Society as you knew it will fall apart, and ... that's what you'll need to help manage."

"People are going to panic. People are going to fight and accuse and act against their own best interests as they attempt to protect themselves, and that is your real problem," Gen told him. "If you're worried about survival, you'll need to worry about how to keep people feeling safe, and like things are under control, and that their favorite brand of soda won't be out of stock indefinitely."

"Your cities are going to be the worst hit, even if they're not targeted by nukes," Gen told him, "because without a country's infrastructure to keep them afloat - they'll quickly run out of what they need to keep themselves going. Tight quarters means there will be a lack of food, increased illnesses, greater unrest and riots."

"Radiation is the least of your problems."