#debukefarmhold

Things are busy at the farm, post Beltaine. The floods of the river have become all too frequent in other parts of the state, and the DeBukes try to help, but there is only so much they can do. Still, even now there are reasons to smile as Clem does as she beholds...

A) Zara holding still while Earl paints her

B) Dagmar moving along happily on Blueberry for her lesson.

C) A new changeling amoong the DeBUkes breaking out...though much to her surprise NOT as a troll

Mara DeBuke is one of many teenagers - too many kinain to keep track of, of course. Like most of the clan, she's tall and sturdy and blonde.

Mara feels a bit dizzy, she's been around the balefire before but ever since beltaine it's like something got jarred loose

"Oh, come ON!" The tractor has been acting up, and it seems it has just sputtered out... again...

and the tractor is ..ice on the cake

Clem walks up, "Problem with Old Nutty?" meaning the tractor

As black smoke belches from the exhaust, Mara hops down from the seat and STOMPS around to lift up the hatch. "THIRD time today, Clem!"

"Look, you and Bix have been the only ones able to keep it running..and Bix is away for Mountain lessosn at RV. WHat the tools we've got are doing it? We can't afford a new tractor"

She grumbles and glares. "Yeah, good job Bix. Go be a mountain, leave Nutty to rust. Sometimes you just gotta show him who's boss."

She rubs at her nose with the back of her hand, studying the engine for a minute before she gives part of it a solid THUD.

"Hey now I..." Clem blinks as Mara seems to spark for a moment. "Must be the sun coming off the.. wait"

The engine sput.. sput.. sputters a bit, and Mara's cheeks seem oddly blotchy...

"Oh, I know, I know, he's kith, he's gotta learn stuff... c'mon, you old goat...." THUMP.

"Now if this is some sort of Kithain get special treatment complaint, we're working on it... and are you sure kicking it is really gonna help?"

"Gotta just... in the right place...." BANG. And with a groan of complaint, the engine starts back up. "HA!"

Intense satisfaction wells in Mara, sure beats just throwing hay around... or even having to socialize with the childlings on some baby sitting duty... 'Be nicer, they're just kids' she's told. Well, she thought she was. THe machine? Oh she doesn't have to be nice to it!

She grins and closes the hood. "Told ya."

"Well, I'll be" Clem is impressed, "I guess you taught it who's the boss. I.." a bit of glamour pops off from the event... where did that come from. It wasn't Clem. They're not near the balefire proper.

Nor does it feel like typical glamour. The feel is different, not off, just different. Not a scent of 'stoic guardianship' on it

She makes a face, and touches her temple. "Whoa, yeah..."

Clem moves to her, "Hey now.. Mara, do you need to sit down? Or get inside?"

She sets her other hand on the tractor, steadying herself. "I feel... funny.."

"Mara, I think you might be... how on earth did it take so long, heck, the lifting and shoving things around is enough for ... Mara... I think you might be undergoing a change." Clem moves to her side offers an arm on the shoulder.

Before she does so... Mara is feeling.. yeah, funny. She got a good look inside Old Nutty... now suddenlyh her mind is imaginging what might IMPROVE it...

somewhere, the hammering of their only anvil (used for horse shoes mostly) seems to be getting louder

"I think I got a headache. What dunderhead is hammering?"

"That's the smithing" She reminds and starts to do that clem thing where she checks for fever and more "Odd, you're showing the signs of an early dream dance, but I can't understand why it would go off now"

"You know, I bet if we fixed up some new pipes - like, a multi-set exhaust - Nutty wouldn't get clogged up near so much..."

"I dunno. If I were, I shoulda popped ages ago."

"More worried about you than Nutty" she says "Pipes? Sounds like you want to soup up Old Nutty like an organ" Wry "And yes, that's why I'm confused. Not like you haven't been in the open before I... Hey, I think that glamour is coming more fast now " Indeed, the idea of the pipes and mutli exhaust has given Mara ideas

it's like one idea leads to more ideas, or at least ideas on how to improve the idea that she just had...better better better leads to perfect eventually right?

"Well, Nutty runs pretty dirty, he's got an oil-gas blend insteada just gas and you know that junk just gunks up... but it burns and gums up all the workings... so, like, you get more air in there, less of the smoke'll stick to the movin' parts..."

"Okay... " Clem helps her lean against Nutty for a moment "Okay, here I thought Bix was the expert."

Bix? Bix would just clean, replace, and wait till it happened again.

She snorts. "Bix didn't tinker. All he ever wanted to do was the same thing, over and over - clean it up, replace a part maybe, and wait for this to happen again."

"What's the definition of insanity? Exactly. We can't afford a new tractor, but I pet we got some spare pipe around..."

"I just would need to cut some holes here and then tack weld..." She pulls away from Clem, getting her hands on the tractor again.

"We have some pipe, hold on here, I'll get it for you" Clem moves away, but leaves at a dead run to do so. Clearly she wants to be back for whatever this is.

Old Nutty is no longer just a piece of junk... it is now a canvas waiting for the blue print of genius!

She opens the hood once more, squinting and glaring at its innards.

The innards make more sense than ever before... oh plain vanilla, but she can see what needs a tweak here, a touch there... a few extra bits there..and which parts she's sure she can improve by ripping them out and replacing them with just a few ideas she's having RIGHT NOW. Bix? HA! Bix would never dream of what she's dreaming of! Bix would never dare! Bix doesn't understand that mechanics isn't just nuts and gear, it's a SCIENCE! It's...a kind of wonderful puzzle that allows you to make your own pieces for the puzzle! It's creation.. itself!

A sound like Tesla coils sparking up makes a brief noise in the near dreaming around Mara

"Oh, I could... if I switch..." she pulls at some wires, crossing them...

ZAAAAAAP! and the engine roars louder!

"(&%&&*!" She declares as she is shocked - her hair standing on end!

...and she goes right back to it, she knows this is gonna work...

Clem moves towards her "Hey you o...oh wow." Clem has the pipes and tools and things she needs!