Road Upkeep 3 - Upkeep Harder - RPLOG
Participants
Date
8/1/2018
Log
Waiting at Zephyr's doorstep is what might appear to be a familiar-looking bunny, depending on your interactions in the Lobby in general. She looks like she's dressed in casual attire, the sorts of clothing she won't mind losing if it comes to that, but it doesn't look like she intends to engage in any naughtiness. Rather, she's surrounded by...cans of...paint, with brushes? And hammers? Weird. Maybe she's the one who sent the comm message.
For the moment, she seems to be waiting for someone, or possibly someONES. Somes-one. However that's said.
Rune made his way through the darkness in a mixture of some old black jeans that he had ready for work. A simple long sleeved black t-shirt adorned his upper body, obviously worn with a bit of age to it. Though with the mention of being good with his hands, he'd brought up some clawless leather gloves for the moment, keeping his nanopack across his shoulders as he headed out from the lobby. A quick check of his comm left him confirming the location before he'd look around. "Looks like this is the right spot." Though upon seeing the familiar-looking bunny he'd blink. "Hey Aaron... Been a long while, good to see you doing well. I see we need... Finesse?"
Skylar steps out of the lobby, the very pregnant dragoness trying to zip up her jacket with one hand and failing, she sighs, her other hand holding an enormous cup of coffee in her hand. She then looks up and down at Aaron and Rune blinking. "Uh, Aaron? What..the hell?" She asks slightly confused with the late night message.
Sami knew she was just right for this kind of mission. The voice on the speaker box thing had specifically asked for anyone that was good with their hands! What luck; it wasn't every day that she could get paid doing something she might otherwise do for free. She hustled over to the entrance of the Zephyr lobby with a light metal jingle of her collar in each step of her otherwise naked form, noting that several figures had already arrived.
A call for agents just before midnight on a calm winter night with weather just a few degrees above freezing... with a situation like that Ebreus couldn't help but take it seeing as he'd be visiting Z tomorrow if he didn't anyway. Whatever had to be done in the den of night was sure to be interesting.
Ebreus flew out to the tower and on the aproach glided down to the street to see the gathering of other agents who could stand the cold and the late hour enough to see why a call had gone out. He lands into a light jog bringing him to a stop close to the group. He wares a white shirt and brown vest above black slacks as he looks over the supplies and gathered Agents. "Hey Rune... and Aaron, right?" he says trying to place those whom he recognized. "What's going on?" he asks.
Niles approaches down the street in an all-black attire; shirt, jacket, pants, and beanie, all heavy enough to stand against the cold and stained slightly in a myriad of colors. His hands are in his pockets and his tail sways gently as he walks up to the crowd of strangers. "So..." He says with a grin, his eyes running over each individual appreciatively, "Is this where the thing is?" His eyebrow lifts as he sees the paint and things on the ground. "What's all this junk?"
Aaron seems cheered by the sight of several faces - some familiar, some new - showing up to her call. Rising to her feet, she points to Skylar. "That's a very good question." she answers, her tone serious as she begins to pace back and forth. "Some of you may be aware of the Town Hall meeting I've called one week from today, regarding the creation of a government independent of corporate interests. This...
...has nothing to do with that." With that, a bucket of paint is hoisted in each hand. "The streets are clear enough, but they still look like somebody went at them with a hundred years of yuck." she explains, tail twitching merrily as she speaks. "So your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to help me fix things up out there. Paint fire lanes. Paint lane indicators. Medians. Make note of damaged street signs, and where you can, fix them. Make this look like a city again." Each hand offers a roller and bucket of paint, one to Rune, the other to Sami. "It's tough work, but I know we can do it, especially without the hot Californian sun coming down on us. You in?" There seem to be more than enough supplies to go around for all present, if they agree.
Rune blinked incredulously at that the point before that merry wriggle of her hips left him admiring the point. "That I can work on. Lane indicators... Damaged street signs... That I can repair. I assume you have some maps to help where fun-loving deviants decided they would take on a few different street signs and switch things to where they don't belong?" That said, he'd take up four buckets on each arm, serving to extend for the proper road signals to the group, Walking paint stand!
Skylar chugs her coffee and places the cup on the floor before finally zipping up her jacket to protect her from the cold. She blinks at all the other agents. All looking ready to throw down. Only for it to be...maintenance work. She snickers. And nods at Aaron. "Yeah, I can take care of that...since it's dark, it also our chance to see where streetlighting is more needed." She pats her currently heavyset figure. "I was working on the updated maps for parcel service, so, I think I should take care of the more uh, communication and scouting aspects of this noble mission. And...I also hope Aaron has the newer version of those maps, since mine is on my comm unit." She then picks her empty coffee cup...can't be dirtying the streets while cleaning them! Rune get smiled at. "Leave some paint for the others!" She calls out in a playful tone.
The Husky's head tilted, her fluffy form making an adorable image as she is handed painting supplies, the dog's slim form tilting slightly to the side as the weight of the paint can causes her to lean. "P-Paint? I... what?" It takes a few moments of neurons firing away before the canine's nanite addled mind seems to connect with what's been said. Pant... paint... painting... "OH. Ooohhhhhhhh." The husky's eager body seemed to all at once down-shift, ears drooping, curled tail lowering... she really misunderstood what this was about. Poor thing. "I UH... YEAH. PANTING. I LOVE IT. Leave it to me, totally got this." she says.
Ebreus raises an eyebrow as Aaron explains that the job is replicating preP-Day roadmarkings now that there is enough decently layed blacktop that it's even possible to do that. "So replicating old-world roadmarkings. It's an interesting idea, might make reintroducing the use of cars or at least carts to general use easier down the road... no pun intended." he says, grinning. He looks down, and then up, the road before returning his attention back to Aaron, "I'm pretty sure I could fix even thuroughly vandalized street signs." he states.
"Aw, what?" Niles whines as his tail stops wagging. He practically flinches as Aaron holds up the paint buckets. "No, c'mon!" He holds out is hands in defense of the dreaded aspect of hard labor. "You can't trick honest people like this." He looks around dumbfounded as the others all so easily accept this, save the husky. He points at her. "See! Calling for a group in the middle of the night? For agents who are 'good with their hands'?" The wolf makes air quotes. "We get here and it's just painting? This is a ruse! Or a prank of some kind." Then at the mention of street signs, his expression shifts. The furrowed brow and rolling eyes and tight lips the telltale signs of someone trying to remember something.
Aaron smiles cheerfully at the group. "Nope!" she declares, quite candidly. "I have the same resources you do. That's where we come in; we're going to figure out what's misplaced, what's damaged, and what's merely worn from going through a teeny-weeny li'l apocalypse, and we're going to patch up what we can and make note of what we can't. We are the people who will be making the maps you were hoping for!" She certainly seems chipper for this time of night. Weird. At least everyone else seems mostly awake too,
Fortunately, a few other mutants seem to have responded to the call, and the bunny begins passing out cans and instructions to everyone, including some guidance on what fire lanes and medians and markers and such are, what streets should go where, and more. Good thing she's been making the rounds of the city basically forever! Sami's reaction isn't entirely lost on her, and she notes, "I'm going to suggest you pair off to do this, with whomever you're comfortable partnering alongside. For example, Ebreus would do great with someone who's more about painting! Sound good to everyone?" She's no dictator. Feedback is welcome, so long as we all get to work.
Niles, however, gets a raised brow. "Trick? I don't remember promising anything. And I didn't say anything untrue; whether you're on repair duty or painting duty, you need to be good with your hands." Now that she's passed on one pair of paint cans, she puts her hands to her hips. "What exactly were you expecting?"
Rune had to chuckle a bit at the point, though his nose twitched with the lactic bounty that still caught his nose from Skylar. A slight lick of his left canine as he watched that jacket zip up might be caught by passing eyes... and definitely caught by her own after she laughed back at his hefting feat. "I'm here to share. I'll carry for anybody I can just to help there. Set em close and help everybody get to work."
He'd break his focus back over to Ebreus, glad to see him in the midst of this new chill. A light dip of his chin was cast his way before he'd glance back to the buckets across his planked arms. Thankfully, his feline grace allowed him to balance across the multiple cans. "Good to see you again Ebreus. I have to learn more about those skills as you go. I've been studying quite a bit but I'd do well to see things in practice to get better."
He'd pause a second, casting his ruby hues back over to Aaron and Niles in contest. "Hey... No one said that you can't put your talents to use to help alleviate people that are tired after work you know. Massage is usually best after labor. You tend to enjoy the sensation of release a little more after tension no?"
Skylar shoots a thumbs up at Sami. "Yep! Painting! Did you..." She drops the line of tought as she looks at Niles. "Well...someone has to do it sometime right?" As Aaron mentions the lack of extra maps or even updated ones, she simply nods. "Understood, my work is halfway done from my time with the Parcel Service, so...I'll be the pointwoman going around and checking what needs to be done and the complexity of each task...I'll also mark any dangerous stuff. Lets just exchange our contact information and then I'll go my merry way~ Anyone disagrees?" She looks around, expecting everyone to agree, she wasn't so sure she could handle the more 'hands on' stuff. As Rune licks his teeth...she winks back at him...she wasn't sure why, but it felt right. "That's...really nice of you. Ah!" She adresses everyone now. "I'm Skylar by the way, pleasure to meet you all!"
:lets out a cute affirmative woof to Skylar's proclamations and trundles off carrying her can of paint over near Rune's area, carefully watching him set up his materials so that she might hope to figure out what they're supposed to be doing without looking like a complete idiot. If she had to ask for help that would be the wooooooooorst... "Just uh, gimme a second here, I'll be right with you all in a moment. Just need to uh... stretch first." The husky was certain they believed her.
Ebreus raises an eyebrow at Niles as he seems unhappy about why the call was sent out. "We got a call in the middle of the night from a source scarce on the details of the job. This could've easily been anything... heck it still could be a diversion from something happening elseware." he says grinning and sounding a bit more amused with the last part.
He then turns his attention to Rune when he is adress, "Yeah. It's nice to have people you know on wierd calls. Well we might be able to achieve two things at once then. Fixing up part of the city and a practical demonstration of nanomagic." Right when he's finished his reply to Rune and Skylar speaks up she gains his attention.
He listens to the plan before replying, "I guess you'd be able to scout well if you're a courier. I don't have much experience painting but I can replace signs damaged to, and including, entirely annihilated. I could also help with danger removal once we've fixed what we can in the safe areas." he replies. Right as Sami excuses themselves he says, "Oh, anyone have problems with me communicating though telepathy?"
Niles rolls his eyes and spreads his hands. "An orgy! Y'know, middle of the night, freezing weather? 'Good with your hands'? How could I not think that?" He looks around. "And then I got here and there's all these hot strangers." He looks at the husky and points. "She's naked, for crying out loud! It's freezing out here! Perfect 'press our bodies together' weather." The wolf perks up, though, at Rune's suggestion. "Massages, eh?" His eyes run up and down Rune's form. "Would you like one after or before or during or all three?" He asks with a wink and a lick of his lips. He rolls his eyes at Ebreus before taking a bucket and paint roller. "So you agree with me. It could've been an orgy." Then he pauses and looks at the paint bucket. "Well, I do have painting experience, just only with spray cans." He says and chuckles to himself. The wolf blinks and shoots a worried look at Ebreus. "Besides the fact I don't like the idea of people reading my mind?" He asks before following the husky. She seemed the most interesting after all. He smiled at her and chuckled with a nod. "Stretching is important, yes. Be sure to do lots of it and be sure to do it where we can all see. We may yet orgy it up!"
Aaron rubs her temples. There's always one, isn't there? Found the one. "Okay. Ebreus, thank heavens I already know you can be counted on. If you could pair up with Skylar, I'd appreciate it. Rune, if you could go with Sami, I'm confident that the two of you will do a good job too." She then turns to the remaining quartet of agents, pairing them off with one another - a gryphon and a monkey for one pair, a tiger and a weasel for the other. "As for you, Mr. Orgy, you're coming with me." she addresses Niles. "Alternately, I can join someone else's pairings and you're free to go if you want to. Remember, this is all voluntary; no one is forcing anyone to be here."
She's just about done handing out supplies at this point, and she continues, "Considering Fairhaven's overall shape, I'd recommend each pair take one east-west street. Start at the far west and work your way east. If you get to the end, go north-south until you find others, or hold your position and take what will be a well-deserved break. Together, our civic pride will win the day! Or night! Or both, really. And if you get into any trouble - though with the regular patrols, I can't imagine why you would - radio for help and I'll come running. The locals know not to mess with me."
"Any questions?"
Rune had to smile at the shift of Aaron's hips before a soft chuckle cut down at the slight bob of her curvy frame before slowly pivoting Skylar's way and adding a nod of introduction to the rest. That wink wasn't lost on him. A slight ruffle of his pants legs attested to that... and the warmer, more disarming smile. Though as the introductions broke on he'd second his nod again to Ebreus. His tails however, went to work curling around the spare paint brushes that he could gather, setting them up in wait to have a good twenty ready to set the line work as desired.
"You're right Skylar. Pardon my manners, I'm Rune everyone. Nice to meet you all. I look forward to working with you. Lead the way to where we can put this all to use. I can also help with the clearing, backing up Ebreus. Though if there's anything else anyone would suggest I'm glad to work on it. I'm rather good with design work but I tend to work with my hands a lot more."
Though as Sami grew a bit closer, his own mixed scent of cinnamon, nutmeg, and a hint of ginger drifted around her frame, touched witht he pheremonal rush that had begun to stir about his form. His eyes narrowed only slightly in the wake of all the other pheremones that remained keenly assertive to his nose before he'd refocus again. Yet with Niles' comment, he'd chuckle again. "Muscle fatigue is real. I'm game for all of the above if properly done. Just gotta stay focused on the task at hand while finishing. Hell, if it's done right that can make it all the more challenging and fun."
He'd revert his attention between Skylar; Sami, picking up her paint bucket; and Aaron. Upon receiving his pairing and directions he'd give an affirmative nod to Aaron and paused a second to make sure he had left the proper supplies for others. "Ah. More effective to split up rather than keeping the big group for the coverage I guess."
Skylar seems a bit...lost on all the talk of orgies and massages, so she simply ignores all that noise. Rune gets a smile as he introduces himself to everyone, the dragoness quite happy that more people were being nice and sociable. As Aaron gives out the assignments, the dragoness nods and makes her way to the tall fox named Ebreus and promptly extends him a clawed hand. "I'm Skylar, I would like to know more about this telepathy you were talking about! ...And also do our job." She still looks back at Rune now and then.
Ebreus smiles at Nile's reply and corrects, "It's one way. I can send messages but not read thoughts. I just preffer it to texting. I'll try to remember to text if it still bugs you." Then as Aaron suggests the grouping he was going to anyway he nods. "Sounds good to me." he says when the plan is given. He nods when Rune introduces himself and says he can help with clearing dangers. "Right, manners. I am Ebreus. Nice to make your acquantance. I'm a nanomage. Basically my telepathy is I can think something with a special trigger so the nanites remember it, tell it to the nanites in someone elses head and they'll play it like an audio recording for just them. I can also use it to make metal behave like wet clay or make new signs materialize from the surrounding material."
Niles stops in his tracks as Aaron singles him out. "Aw, what? But she's naked!" He pleads as he comes back to the bunny. "And the other one is hot!" He grumbles as he walks back to the rabbit sullenly. "The name is Niles, by the way." He says before pausing with a thoughtful look. "Although..." Then he looks over his shoulder at Rune. "That's not the only fatigue I'd give you." He says with a wiggle of his hips. At Ebreus's explanation he waves a hand. "Knock yourself out then, I guess." before giving his focus to Aaron again. "Alright, bunnybutt, where do you want me? Or should I save us both some time and just dump this can of paint over, cos this probably won't end great."
Aaron mmmns. "Also, it'd be great if nobody gets sidetracked with humping like greased weasels while you're out there. Or at least if you don't let it stop you from getting the job done. ... ... ...no offense." The weasel paired with the tiger gives a diffident shrug. "We're here to work, not to fuck. (Though if you want to fuck later, or if you think you can do it without it getting in the way, who am I to tell you no?)"
Niles gets a firm pat on the shoulder from the doe, and she grins at him. "Yes, that's part of why you're coming with me. They'd be a horrific distraction. And so help me, if you waste that paint - dump it out, do a shitty job deliberately, or anything like that - I'll show you why Renaria likes to call me 'punchbunny'." That cheerful smile is frozen on her face, adorable and sweet, with just the right undertones of 'I will end you and everything you love'. "Rune, Sami, you take the far south. Ebreus, Skylar, you take the street north of that. Slackerboi and I will take the one north of that. You two-" here she points at the gryphon and monkey "-will take the one north of that, and you two-" (the tiger and weasel) "-the one north of that. Remaining work will be divided up between whoever's still up for it. Let's head west, team!" With that, she reaches out for Niles's arm, trying to gently-but-firmly tug him away with a hammer, roller, and paint can in her free hand.
Rune still had glances back to Skylar's abdomen every once in a while as he'd kick just slightly outside of his shoulder range every about five to ten steps to re-adjust his pants legs. Though upon getting his footing, he'd hear the undertones of deathly destruction and pain that could come from such the wonderfully cute package. Having personally witnessed only a few of the things that lead to her moniker, he held a genuine smile at the sheer thought of it, far more malevolent than his previous one. "I would suggest not provoking that. Or do...But be ready for severe consequences and reconstituting your flesh from blunt force trauma over a prolonged period of time akin to at least an abomination's level of punch strength."
That said, he'd turn back to Sami and lead the way towards the far south, leaving his fur coated hybrid of tails weaving behind him with the paint brushes in tow. His sides holstered a proper toolbelt, fetched from the offerings at the front, and a simple pouch for the indicators to be placed along the sides of the roads and the median. "Let's get this started."
Skylar still keeps her hand extended to Ebreus. "That sounds mighty useful to our purpose, we could even make new signs where the pre-p-day administration failed!" She gives Rune one final look, before focusing back on Aaron. "Understood, and no worries Aaron. We'll make sure to do our best~" She declares with a cheery tone before turning back to Ebreus...her hand still waiting to be shaken. "Ready?" She asks...making sure to not look directly at Rune for now.
Sami dutifully followed the chimeric mutant, tugging along her can of paint with both paws. "Uh-yeah, Lets get panting... painting. Paint." The husky shook her head, as if she had only had a mild stutter. He didn't seem entirely unpleasant, who knows, maybe if she applied her *charms* right he wouldn't notice how bad she was at all of this?
Ebreus does a light stretch before grabbing some supplies and looking back to Skylar, "If you can lets fly to the startpoint. Should save us a little time." he says. He shakes the offered hand before turning to Aaron after Rune comments on her physical capabilities. "Well... Aaron it's starting to sound like you'd be fun in no-holds-barred sparring." he says with a big smile on his face. After a moment he returns his attention to Skylar to await the aswer of wether or not she can fly.
Niles meets Aaron's smile with a blank look. He shakes his head. "'Punchbunny' doesn't work at all as a nickname. Bunnybutt's way better." He rolls his eyes at Rune's words and mimics him mockingly for a moment before nodding. "Yes, yes, we're all big scary mutants who can do big scary mutant things. Weee." The wolf says flatly before 'ack'ing as the bunny yanks him away.
Aaron smirks at Niles. "Yes, that's right. Take me for granted. Surely, I'm utterly harmless." she advises him. As the groups begin to break up into their separate roles, the night is still relatively young, and everyone will find - even on the way to their starting points - that they have their work cut out for them. Feral combat has not been kind to the city, nor have the nanites or the weather; there's serious flaking away of paint pretty much everywhere, leaving some areas with only vague indications of where paint is intended to be. Street signs range from 'lightly damaged' to 'what sign', leaving some note-taking almost inevitable. And this is on the WEST side. Who knows what'll happen when you go further east?
For her part, Aaron begins to paint lane markers first, getting the basics down and handing Niles a hammer. "Do what you can to hammer those signs back into a relatively flat shape." she tells him. "Carefully. Don't damage them worse than they already are, at the very least." Surely, the wolfboy can at least handle hitting things with a hammer while she does the detail work!
Rune upon finding the disarray that lingered across the area he'd slip his gaze back down to the lane markers as well. "Alright. Let's see what you can do. We'll start here with the lay lines. We need to trace our way back up the sides of the street. Thankfully, they've repaved the way for us. So if we follow along the edges of the street we should have a pretty good guide to make it up to the next block."
With the new point made he'd draw his tails up from behind, setting the paint brushes in front of him. Each one was set, keeping their extensions smooth and clear, winding his way along the left side of the street when facing south. Each point would leave him trailing one layer behind the other, settling it down with a careful attention to detail. He'd shore up each line making sure to have stayed inside the borders that he'd set.
Skylar eerrms as Ebreus asks her about flying. She was out of practice and quite heavy. But shouldn't be that hard to do such a short flight. "Yeah!" She says decisevly. "Ready to take off, sir!" As she starts to stretch her wings, she turns to Aaron and waves. "See you around, Punchbunny!"
Ebreus nods, "Alright then. Sounds like there's nothing further but to get to it." he says as he grabs another paintbucket. "See you Aaron, Rune," he says then looks back to Skylar. He nods in confirmation of her 'ready' and crouches before leaping into the air and flapping his wings to gain altitude and steady himself in the air. He circles once around the takeoff point to keep an eye on Skylar and then flies to the startpoint to find the nearest sign or place where there should be a sign.
Niles rolls his eyes again. "I wasn't saying you're harmless I was dismissing the threat. Punch me if you wanna, I'm sure it'll give you a nice warm feeling of accomplishment that you beat a frail non-combatant up." He takes the hammer and stares at it like it's a foreign object for a moment. "Damage it? It's a metal sign." He says before grabbing one of the road signs and laying it flat on the floor, kneeling beside it. "And I'm not sure how to hammer the dents out of something 'carefully'." He says as he starts banging away on the sign, using the ground as an anvil as he works to get the metal un-bent.
Sami followed Rune closely, grateful he opted to heft her bucket while she watched him set about to their ordered area and delivering instructions. It wasn't terribly exciting, but the Husky did her best to pay attention. She didn't want to get distracted by things like his prehensile tails wiggling about, making neat white lines on the fresh surface while he was talking.... Rune's work was steady and methodical, and after a few passes, it didn't even begin to look all that difficult. Something seemed to change inside the husky, as if a light-switch just went off. "OH. I totally know how to do this!" she said, and proceeded to pick out a spot (with Rune's approval) to begin delicately drawing her first bit of white.
Aaron gets to work as best she's able, painting line markers all the way down one side and up the other, taking care to do her best to get the median as well. Everyone will find that while it's slow work for sure, it becomes both faster and easier with time, especially if you're helping your partner. The local ferals seem disinclined to attack, though whether it's because they're slowly being weaned from the idea due to the now-regular patrols - some of which you will see as you work - or because of more personal reasons is hard to discern. Some of them even seem to take a keen interest in what you're doing, though they're not likely to help (or really be able to). Mostly, you'll do well not to have pawprints of certain colors of paint wandering away from the area where you're working. One thing is for sure: it's going to take a while to do a good job, but whether you do a quick round first and then go back to be more precise or just muscle through it, this is no small Duty; it's a good thing help was called!
Skylar takes a running start, jumps as high as she can and flaps her enormous wings. At first it isn't as elegant or stable as Ebreus' flying, but she soon manages to find her rythm, trailing right behind her colleage. "I'm fine! I'm fine!" She quickly adds, hoping that her partner can hear her. Without effort she pulls out her comm unit, and begins to update her map from Parcel Service. Soon the both of them are where signs should be, ready to start the reconstruction! The dragoness waits to see the magic, while already mapping out their route.
Under Rune's careful observation, Sami had settled in to work on a small patch of road where it didn't look like she could cause tooooo much damage. She seemed to pick it up relatively fast, as if old memories were firing up as the Dog first toyed with the brush in her nubbly pawed fingers, and then began making her first strokes (and steps) backwards down the street. "Brush Brush, Brush Brush. This is kind of fun!" Sami woofed, watching with fascination as each swipe of her brush and paint stained the ground white. All she had to do was try to keep a couple paws length from the edge... and not try to doodle on the side. "It kind of looks like a little river of milk flowing down the side of the road, heehee..." she thought as she steadily painted and stepped backwards, working in a soft rhythm of fixation. Each ounce of paint struck to the ground brought the surface alive in a strange way, making it feel... respectable. Official even. Weren't important people the only ones that got to do that sort of stuff? She resolved to ask about this. "Hey Rune.... RUUUUUNE, are we important now? Because we get to draw street lines and other people don't?.... Rune?" she asked without looking up.
Ebreus nods as Skylar confirms they're okay and begins to fly ahead toward the starting point for their 'team'. He lands well ahead of her and sets the supplies down in the center of the first intersection. He then takes a close look at his surroundings. As he sees the ferals non-agressive he smiles and waves then when Skylar catches up he says, "Doubt the ferals will cause us much trouble. If you can start on the painting I'll fix the signs at this intersection... should be a quick task with Sculpting."
Niles keeps up his part of the work. At least it's not very demanding. When the patrols circle by, the wolf loses all focus and goes right back to flirting, though he disinterestedly describes the work they're doing when asked. When there's nothing else to hold his attention, though, he's banging away on street signs. The street signs aren't rendered perfectly flat under his attention, of course, but they'd be legible and any dents left after Niles was through with them would hardly be seen unless someone decided to /really/ look at a stop sign close up.
Aaron is the steady-as-she-goes sort of worker, keeping up a respectable clip. After all, the only way to the end of a journey is with one step, then another, then another...she's diligent at the very least, and appears to be somewhat motivated. She'd better be; she's the one who called everyone, after all!
(Hours of work later...)
As the teams begin to finish their work, winding up on the east side of town, they'll find the gryphon, monkey, weasel, and tiger patrolling north and south, looking for others who have finished. Each group gets a wave of greeting, and the gryphon steps forward to address the crew. "Welp! We finished our part. And then some." shi explains, grinning over at the others. The monkey and weasel are chattering and vibrating like they've been plugged into electrical sockets, each clutching a dripping paintbrush! "Both of our groups finished two lanes apiece, so they're all done!" Wait...that doesn't sound right. How...?
Skylar huffs as she finishes her fourth can of paint already, her jacket now open and her body sporting a few splotches of pain. So many places to paint... She turns to Ebreus, plodding her way to the tall demonic fox. "I think...we're done, you alright?" She asks as she begins to flap her wings again so they can return to the rest of the group.
The first thing you really spot is a fluffy husky butt stuck up in the air with a curly tail bobbing above it as Sami appears from behind the corner... still dragging an empty bucket and near dry pain brush along the ground.
*Oh dear.*
It's only when the focused canine hears the commotion of the returning teams that she drops her heart-shaped booty, turns around and notices she's among familiar company once more! "HEY. IT'S YOU GUYS!" she barks, as if this were a great discovery and fortuitous event. "What are you doing here? - Oh wow, we walked a long way....I Got so focused on what I was doing, I used up all my paint too see and Rune got silent and.... where'd Rune go?" the confused pup lost her own partner while she was working!
Nearing the end of the first road Ebreus sits focusing on a piece of metal slowly taking shape into a hexagonal sign. The process completes about when Skylar asks how he's doing and he looks up, "Last sign is coming along nicely." he says as he begins to paint the hexagon into a proper Stop Sign. "Heh, too bad paint doesn't dry faster. Painting them has to be what takes longest about manifesting signs for where they were missing." he says as he works. Once the hexagon is red and dry enough for more paint he adds the word 'STOP' in the center and paints the edges white. "Once this one's dry enough to mount we're done." he says to Skylar.
He looks over to Sami and the other agents who've compleated their tasts. "Took a while but now the roads look like they could have cars on them... now we'll just need for somebody to re-invent cars, figure out how to manufacture them cheaply, and be able to effectively market them to the citizenry." he says.
Niles soon appears too, hammer in hand, absent-mindedly swinging it through the air. He's muttering soft complaints to himself that don't really amount to much until he approaches the crowd at large. "Well well well. Thing done and without any major fires being set." The wolf says flatly. "Look at us saviors of civilization." He puts a finger in his mouth and makes a *pop* sound with it before gently twirling the finger in the air. "Go us."
Aaron blinks confusedly at the gryphon. "Wait. Three plus two-times-two...that still leaves one land un-done. How can we be finished? And how the hell did you do two lanes in the time it took s to do one?!" she demands. "You didn't skip parts, did you?" At this, the tiger claps his weasel friend on the shoulder. "Triple-shot espressos. Kept 'em coming." he answers with a broad grin.
Waving Sami, Skylar, Ebreus and Niles over to hear this, she motions for the tiger to continue. "As for who finished the last road?" he answers, still holding that smug grin. "You called for help, right? So did we." This has the bunny staring back at the rest of the team. "I...huh." She pauses for a moment before continuing, "...wish I'd thought of that." This seems to be the cue for the quartet to drop off -entirely- too many paint cans and implements, and head out with a wave. Probably to detox half the team.
The bunny swats Niles lightly. "Yeah, with you complaining literally the entire time. It's your own fault, you could've walked away at any time. ... ... ...wait a minute. Has anyone seen Rune? Sami, where's Rune?"
Skylar huffs and puffs, sitting on the floor as everyone talks about two streets one street etc. Her tools in front of her as she tries to muster up the courage to get up and just walk back into her bed. "Sooo, we're done, right? Can we leave the rescue to another team...?" She looks at Sami. "Just...how did you lose your partner...?"
Sami whines nervously, "He was right there next to me.... When we started... a while ago..." the husky grows quiet, looking back over her shoulder at the "tidy" line she spent the better part of the past several hours painting. "And maybe I took a turn down the road... or two.... I was trying to follow the street like he said!" At this Sami began to shuffle her paws nervously, fearful that she was now in trouble, ears cupping down and her tail going between her legs.
Ebreus looks up to Sami when Rune is nowhere to be found, "That is unusual. Well Rune isn't a pushover so if he's in touble he shouldn't be hard to find." he says. He then picks up the last sign, having dried to the point where it only runs very slightly when Ebreus sets it on the pole holding it up and fuses them with some nanomagic. "Alright. This one's done. All the signs replaced or repaired... paint might be a bit worse on the first few though." he says. He then looks back over the group, "Well assuming Rune is okay it seems like we've done a pretty good job."
Niles whines out an "Ow" as Aaron hits him, regardless if the bunny meant it or not. "Well, yeah, I could have, but then I'd have nothing to complain about." He says to the bunny with a smirk. He waves off concern for Rune. "Meh. He's a big boy. I'm sure he can handle himself. Besides, from the way he was going on about tension before we started, I'm sure he just went someone private to rub out a quick one." He shoots a glance at Ebreus and grumbles as he uses literal magic to do what he'd be doing with a hammer for hours.
Aaron chuckles warmly and pats Sami on the shoulder. "It's fine, it's fine. Rune is tougher than he lets on, and he lets on pretty tough. We'll just go gather him and finish up." Looking amongst the gathered group, she tells those who have lasted, "Good job, everyone. We'll have to do a little bit of backtracking to make sure everything is done right, but I'm pretty sure the city is going to look more like a city, now. Civic pride, nothing replaces it." With that, she turns on Niles and gives him a hard look. "As for YOU, mister." She leans in close...and gives him a little kiss on the cheek. "Thank you for sticking with me throughout, knowing that you could've wandered away at any time. Even if you did it in the most obnoxious way possible." This time, the smile is warmer, more sincere. Maybe everything is gonna be okay after all.
