Lane Mansion's Coffee Grounds

Once a farming community just east of State Center, Iowa, the Mansion's grounds are renovated and changed up quite a bit. They require a lot more maintenance, and considerably more dragon patrols and security measures, to make sure that the Combine don't come along and ruin it all. Or the mantis-men, or invasive wildlife. (Map image last updated 5.17.22)

Lane Mansion's Coffee Grounds

Let's not mince words: Keenan Lane loves coffee. Back in the 70s through early 00s, if he didn't have his briefcase in one hand, the other would be holding a fresh mug or Boomer's Coffee cup. This is likely because of that 'waking up not breathing' thing back in the late 60s, whereupon he literally stopped sleeping and needed a little pick-me-up to function around other people. (Until cloned, healed up, and ready to face the world after a good night's sleep once more). He did learn how to remain awake without incident, but it certainly always was 'better' with coffee. Never much for tea, though he admits it has its place. (Eli likes tea, a joking point between them.) So when he realized, back on Repurposed Earth that is, that this Post-Combine-Invaded world he'd caused would be at risk of forever losing that precious commodity, he took it quite seriously. On that Earth, he convinced Eden to come with him on a world-spanning journey. Collecting whatever she wished to cultivate: vines, trees, herbs, bushes, tubers... Coffee, hemp, willow, flax, nightshade... Take your pick. Medicinal or nutritious, useful or colorful, Eden was quite literally on cloud nine for that trip. Her promise to him however, was that she would seriously attempt to get these things to grow where they couldn't normally. Namely, cane sugar, vanilla and cocoa beans, and coffee.

On Repurposed Earth, it's less of a problem where she wound up growing them: the Enrichment Center is moist, warm, coastal on the southern part of the USA. Not ideal for all of them, but certainly a lot better than the dry and hot Black Mesa. But when the Rookery was started up, Eden was tapped again, and was met with a bit of a suprise herself when she got to the site she'd be working on this time.

The Grounds of Lane Mansion have been, shall we say, radically altered by both Local and Repurposed Lane. While they aren't necessarily the type to just hang out and have a beer together (and most certainly not Barney's beer...) they can agree that the grounds required coffee, and to get coffee grown right it had to have the right climate, altitude and... well, not be in a ruined state. While Eden and her daughter kept the Rookery's plants suitably healthy, they were a bit surprised when out of literally nowhere, two small mountains appeared on the nearby farm land here at the Mansion.

Though the Mansion's grounds were certainly overgrown already, and had to be tamed a bit before people came to live there, the surroundings were uniformly flat and dull. Originally almost entirely farm and cattle land, with little bits of woodland separating major farms, and the only major town some 3 miles west of there. Now? Well, now there are a number of reorganized spots that the two otherworldly beings have fused with the local Iowa ground. A lake from several miles north west was brought closer and cleaned up, a few outbuildings and actual cattle from another direction, windmills and power lines to restore full power to the 3-mile Grounds area to fit into the existing power and water grid. But the big changes of course are the inclusion of two lush hills, both of which end somewhat abruptly in rugged cliffsides, and the Xenian sites. Perhaps the earth shapers will get the insides of these built up. Maybe not. They seem to be more difficult for Vortal use than any regular land, and that's likely because they have had to be force-fit into place already with a tremendous amount of willpower and Vortessence. Notably around RY 16 as things are truly underway here, those mountains are hollowed out for dragons to reside in. What's the use of having cliffs that loom over the orchard or golf course that can't be leapt from and flown over? It's very likely that the locale connects directly to the smiliar spot on another entire dimension, at Wakefield Vault in Vault Earth. Since there is a distinct opening to Xen in both...

The hills are directly from Puerto Rico - and they're not from the Rookery world. Neither is the extensive forest just south of them, where the hemp is being grown (which was likely brought down from Colorado). A lot of garden soil, fertilizer, indeed actually fertile crop land, was brought directly from some other Earth. Will they miss it? Who knows. It's probably from Twoarth, honestly, since both Lanes know people at Carramba who can very easily replace what they've swiped. (Why they didn't just get them to come and produce these things? Well, 'magic' and 'divine power' are things that don't necessarily work very well here.) They've grabbed cocoa, coca, vanilla, peanuts, almonds and cashews, as many exotic useful plants as they could with this effort. The hippies know what to do with them, don't they?

The Xenian 'crater' and 'invasive' pockets have been brute-force fitted similarly into the landscape, though one of them was already there in the form of a Portal Storm-brought chunk of cavern. One or both of the Lanes just figured why the hell not, and connected them to Xen outright.

So now, some 10 years after the Carnies and Hippies arrival from Aperturth, they have a thriving, well defended coffee plantation complete with cafes, processing equipment, and a full set of animals for more mundane farming. Goats, some sheep, and about a dozen dairy cows, along with chickens, ducks, geese, and other such local wildlife have been protected and continue to supply the Mansion as well as the Grounds with their food. Virtually any kind of vegetable, herb, and smaller scale gardening is done at every site, in almost every window or yard. But larger scale crops are now being produced - flax, cotton, oranges and lemons, almonds and grapes... these all require a lot more water than that one creek and lake would normally provide, so it's obvious that the Lanes have fixed the water table accordingly. Somehow.[*1]

All of this requires quite a bit of protection. Since this timeline is now "Rookery year 18" since the Hippies arrived 8 years after the Rookery itself, not only are refugees digging in and making a life for themselves once more in the safe havens that the Rookery provides, the Rookery dragons form regimented patrols and keep prying eyes away from the location by virtue of towers built for this observation. These towers are definitely not made from 'local materials', and some seem to be yanked straight from other dimensions if not entirely different genres. Each tower can house two medium sized dragons and their riders, as well as a small staff of two or three to make sure that the tower is maintained, and communication is open to others. It doesn't matter what 'look and feel' these things have to them - some of them are built of marble and rock, others brick and mortar, some are even cement bunkers reminescent of WW1 and 2. They are generally around 10 meters tall, squared rather than round, with a 15 or 20 meter wide rectangular landing spot on the top, and room for those inhabitants inside to reside at least part time. They are not merely 'watchtower' styled, there must be room for a dragon to come and go perched on it. Barricades and roads cluster around some, while others are surrounded by tall trees or barn equipment.

"Rookery Year +" and what it means in practical terms

Since the Rookery itself is considered the 'staging area' for training and housing the bulk of the dragons now, the inhabitants that serve as support remain, while the refugees who just need to be safe long enough to survive the invasion are being sent to the Mansion, and to the North Aperture facility. On the one hand: this means there are a lot of refugees! Between the two of them, the Lanes believe there to be somewhere around 20 to 50 million unharmed Humans living on the planet. Obviously they can't move them all into one small location like the Rookery! At this point in time, there are around 1100 total inhabitants at the Rookery and its distant outposts - citizens of the new world, some fighting for their freedom and others just trying to survive. However, this also means that food production must be ramped up. Dragons are quite big, too, and almost all of them are carnivores. So even though 10 years ago very little herding was being done at the Mansion, now that there's room and the need, they are putting great amounts of effort into it to supply meat, fruit, grains, veggies, and raw materials for everyone.

There are actually around 250 individuals working the fields and orchards, residing within the Grounds territory shown above, with at least a 3:1 'human to dragon' ratio. Keenan asserts it should be around 10:1 at some point, as long as there are enough places to house people safely, that won't be a problem. Besides, if more come, they'll expand their territory to include the nearby farm areas, and perhaps even the town of State Center itself, though it's still in ruins. There is a gun shop and several doctors offices that the Rookery has discovered there, but also nests of invasive wildlife that need to be taken care of before any further settlement can be arranged there. Housing can easily be relocated, it's more a matter of where specifically to put the homes without interfering with the existing layout of fields.

Repurposed Keenan finds it faintly amusing and ironic that he once claimed that his Rookery would hardly be like the Weyrs, Caers, and Dragonstakes of the Nexus. But really, it is: Black Mesa Dragon Rookery is invested in protecting the world, and that also means protecting crops, cattle, wildlife, and whole areas from harm.

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