Television For Fairhaven - RPLOG

Participants

• Nyazuli
• Critter
• Zelmra
• Poppy
• Bleu

Date

18/4/2021

Log

There are those who would argue that we were better off without the advent of television, after all the information this service provided in the past was of the lesser quality and often skewed by political interests, but this is the new age damn it! We can try again! WE CAN DO IT RIGHT! WE CAN... watch Saturday morning cartoons like we used to, because let's face it... the lot of us are now a bunch of toddlers in adult bodies. Digression aside, the worksite would be as announced on the publicae, right atop the middle of RSX Headquarters' rooftop. To those just arriving, they'd bare witness to a flurry of motion all around as various mutants scramble to get their part of the work done. Technicians, laborers, organizers, electricians, various other kinds of engineers and workers were all setting up what appeared to be a BEHEMOTH of a transmitter, a tower easily in the 20-30m height, secured by taut wiring connecting to the edges of the roof, supporting massive dish-like apparatuses all along its overwhelming height. Overseeing it all was someone easily identifiable thanks to their bright orange hard hat and "Foreman" sleeveless jacket. They were an otter lad by mutation, and a bit of a stress ball by the looks of how he would twitch and fidget every so often. But can one really blame the poor thing, this was not the kind of project that tolerated mistakes. One bad move and they'd have the whole thing collapsing down on them.

And for as completed as it looked, this array still had so much left in need of doing, though mostly finessing as the gruntwork had already been primarily taken care of. Those just arriving would be directed to the Foreman by the guards, and instructed to take their business either to him, or to his assistant, who appeared to be a very small, very sweet, very energetic fennec girl standing at her foreman's side, providing suggestions and directing the workforce whenever her boss was too busy calculating something or taking a phonecall. She however wore no hard hat... perhaps due to those massive ears getting in the way... who knows? Now then...

Nyazuli Heard about the new project to bring back television to the wastelands. She didn't remember much, if any, of what it used to be but was curiously interested in the project. She set herself to go on the installation site in RSX and started asking around for direction. After learning who the forememan was from a random guard. She decided to approach him and see if she could lend a hand. She tried attracting his attention and asked, "Hello sir! Is this where the television broadcast is being setup? This antenna is so impressive! Are you looking for any help setting things up?"

Zelmra also had heard about the project, and had spent a couple of days reading through her engineering books at her house to see if she could glean anything of use. Sure, she was a biomedical engineer, but perhaps there's /something/ in there that would help. When the big day arrived, she packed up her backpack with calligraphy paper, her calligraphy set (for note-taking), two of her estimated-to-be-useful books, and galloped over to the site. Of course, her naturally bad sense of direction caused her to get lost wandering around the construction site for an hour, but she finally arrives! Just as Nyazuli's talking to the foreman. So she stands off to the side, listening to the conversation, and waiting to speak.

The call for workers had been put out, and the day's work had been put aside for it. Poppy made no effort to hide her enthusiasum as she slithered on up to RSX's roof, a pleased humming slipping free from her. The doors opened though and she beheld... wonder. A majesty of motion and activity. Watching and listening to the people moving at a speed one would almost call running, but never infront of the foreman, lest something happen, working in broken and fragmented groups, assembling and welding all over the growing monolith of a technological marvel. How could you call it anything other than a wonder?

The awestruck look on her face was gently patted off, the lass shaking herself free from that revery. Work, not sightseeing. A few people lingering, waiting on instruction, a few people seeming to scramble about above... Yep. Work could be done. So, her eyes sweept across those on the ground, trying to find the center amidst this storm of activity. There... In the orange and looking paniced and frizzy. Poor lad. Shaking and pulling herself up to a small height, she slithered on over, a hand raised in greeting, but nothing said till she was by that side. No need to distract them more than they already were. "Morning Sir! Poppy, reporting for duty." A familiar clopping of hooves, a somewhat familiar drake, but she only offered them a nod for now. Work was to be done.

Bleu has exactly a good idea about what TV entails. He'd been watching Zephyr's preliminary experiments in broadcasting awhile back, but looks like RSX is beating them to the punch, regardless. He's keen to get in on this tech, ready to throw around as much freecred as necessary to get in on the ground floor of this soon-to-be burgeoning industry. Besides, he's got torrents of Classic Doctor Who back home. Time to bring that back to the masses. He makes his way into the site, toward the foreman and his fennec assistant, ready to offer them however much freecred they need to get things up and running.

"What? Oh, yes..." He then takes a look at his watch, and clears his throat. "Yes, good uh... morning. What's that?" His attention snaps towards his assistant once she tugs on his sleeve to whisper into his ear. "I see... okay, yes." He glances back towards Poppy, and the others who arrived with her. "You are here to assist, I take it? Good, good... it's a mess here as you can probably tell, but there are a few issues that need resolving. Uhhh... one, two, three... okay!" He hits his desk with one webbed hand and exhales slowly. "Here's the deal. I was going to have the next shift handle this, but better we get it out of the way now so it doesn't impede progress. One of the antennae was not wired in properly, sector C-16 right here..." his finger dances over one of the rougher looking blueprints detailing the entire structure, gesturing towards the east-facing dish-shaped component secured somewhere two-thirds up the height of the tower. "If someone can climb up there without causing accidents... or fly preferably to fix the sloppy work of the last tech team, I'd appreciate it. Mind, if you're going to climb, max weight is one metric ton. I am not risking a structural failure here, no sir!" He huffs sharply out his nose, then resumes... "There's also the labourers, team B over there..." his hand waves dismissively at a pack of four lupine males in overalls, idly sitting by the entrance, smoking cigarettes. "Bunch of bullies they are, Zephyr sent them over to assist with the efforts, but they have it in their heads that they're done with their work when they've barely done anything. If anyone can talk some sense into them and remind them that they've yet four more hours of contract to fulfill, I'd appreciate it." The Foreman then rubs his arm and clears his throat. "There's one more thing... and this is a little embarrassing, but... we have some legal documentation to fuss over here, but these are not things I have ever bothered myself with in the past... and yet me and my assistant are expected to handle the financial and legal issues addressing compensation and labor division. If anyone among you is better acquainted with legal matters, especially in the new age, gods help me I would be so grateful." He then picks up a shiny looking suitcase from the ground near himself, and pops it open, retrieving a small folder of paperwork from within. "Here's copies of the legal jargon. The originals will, ofcourse... remain with me." He then handwaves towards the structure as a whole. "Then there's the shoddy components. Oh, we can finish the project with what we have, but I would love to come back here in a few days and add some quality breakers and reinforcements to the delicate electronics, but such delicate components cost a pretty freecred, and our benefactor is not the erm... well... educated sort, you see. There is no talking them into shelling out any more freecred, they see things as handled already. Well, that's the gist of it!" He then handwaves towards his fennec companion, and hands her the copies of the legal paperwork. "Report to my associate here for further instruction and guidance."

Nyazuli Glanced at the other assembled mutants while listening to the Foreman's instructions. Once he was done, she addressed the foreman as well as the group and suggested, "Alright, I have two wings and a working brain. I can probably handle the wiring work on the east-facing dish. Is everyone ok with it?" Seeing no disapproval in the crowd, She checked the various schematics and wire plans. After a few minute she had a pretty good idea of what the final result should be. She interrogated the foreman for some final confirmation and asked where she could find the tools for the job. She then picked what was needed and started flying toward the dish

Zelmra listens to the foreman intently, but her ears perk up when she hears mention of the troublesome Lupines. "I think I can take care of the worker problem. One way or another. But the peaceful approach is probably the best for us all." she says, in her typical warm and calm tone. She turns to the fennec and asks for some notes and paperwork on the workers' duties, contracts, and what work they'd actually done and its quality.

Poppy would quietly listen and nod as the foreman and their assistant spoke. A bevy of issues, but no big project lacks them in any degree, so that's no surprise. Let alone something like this, where the corps would start to bicker and argue. All falling down on the poor foreman and his assistant. "So, sounds like we've got some electrical up top, workers who probably are probably the bad sort of union, paperwork problems, and parts issues." Nodding, the lass would shake her head, a faint sigh given. "Sounds like the whole supply chain is messed up. But! Gotta work with what we've got at least."

Raising a hand to shade her eyes, she'd furrow her brow as she looked on up. But, as the drake piped up, she just nodded, a thumbs up in affirmation. Her own ability on the technical side was not exactly the best after all. "Mom taught me not to get duped for my work. I'll help you not get duped on yours," is all she said, slithering forward, taking the offered paperwork and coiling up with a pen.

Bleu listens to the otter politely. He has a thing for otters, but nowis not the time, nor the place. His bushy tail wags a little, his ears perking as he hears tell of supply and funding issues. Music to the fox's ears. Stepping forward, he puts on a big smile. "Ah, you need more freecred, you say? This is a big job, of course, but it sounds like someone's being stingy... I could provide you all the the funds you need, but..." He turns to the fennec. "Perhaps we should talk about contracts, terms, and conditions. What could *I* get out of providing you with all the freecred you need? And perhaps most pressingly, just *how much* do you need?"

The otter seemed far too preoccupied with his own duties to handle anything that went outside his own specific responsibilities. It was the fennec who pulls Bleu's arm and clears her throat. "Unfortunately there is nothing we can offer in recompense. This is a community project, for the good of the community. Not a market for the exchange of services." She speaks in a soft, melodious tone. "All donations are welcome, it goes without saying, and the amount that would be quite beneficial is anywhere between five hundred thousand to two million freecred. Anything above that wouldn't really find much use." She then sighs quietly to herself and shakes her head, muttering something about financial inflation of the market.

Meanwhile, Poppy would be greeted with quite the scandalous sight... looks like Zephyr were trying to squeeze a little more out of their involvement with the project than they were due. The legal terms were all very flowery language ofcourse, and were someone not well acquainted with legal terms to stamp and sign this abomination of a legal contract, it would in essence hand the entire project over to the fat cats running the big Z. How devious the beurocratic nightmares are!

Nyazuli circled around the structure, spending more time than really needed contemplating the structure from closer before finally approaching the defective dish. She gracefully landed next to the wire case she saw on the schematics, securing herself to the structure with her tail (safety first!) before using one of the screwdrivers she picked up to open it. She compared the current situation in the cable case to the schematic she committed to her memory earlier, trying to figure out where the heck each cable was going and what was their purpose. She spent a long time trying to figure out whether she should just fix the wiring or commit the time to redo it completely.

With a sigh, she started working her clawed hands unplugging everything, uncrossing the wire and making sure that every connexion was clear and color codded. It took her a long time, but eventually the initial worker's mistake was apparent and she just had to put blue on blue and red on red. Job's done! after checking one last time that everything was correct, she closed the case, screwed it back on and started flying down the tower, landing near the foreman ready to report

Zelmra looks over the contract and sighs. Yeah, these guys are lazy, all right. As for getting them back to work? That might be tough. She prefers to be polite and diplomatic, but these guys may not respond to that. Or maybe they will? One way to find out, she supposes, and clops on toward the smoking workers. "Hello there," she says, calmly. "Enjoying your break?" she adds with a quiet hint of I-don't-really-want-to-know-the-answer-because-I-know-you're-not-su pposed-to-be-here.

Twisting up on the floor, Poppy would sprawl out a bit, using the broad section of the coils infront of her as an impromptu desk. "Stupid dumb words," she rambled to herself, pencil quickly going to town on the documents. Not signing, oh no. But underlining. Circling. Noting. Sumaries written in the margins, connections made between the sides, parallels used and ambiguous language noted. Her coms set up in her lap, a few definitions asked on the more exotic and magnanimous terminology. All the while, a constant verbal mumbling barrage would fall from her lips. "No, using that sort of payment scale works on project based financing, not work based. This is establishing ownership of the bill of credit, rather than the bill of goods. That's overstating it's involvement in the project by using the wrong sort of metric. This is actually right... but not for a community project, but a buisness venture. Yech... Yes payment is in the form of capital, no it is not in the form of a untraded private good. No no no..."

"Mister Ottor Sir?" The lamia lass would slowly turn back up, a deep furrow in the ridge of her brow, that hood shading her sides. "This is gross. If you have some spare paper please, I can help get this to something more... sensible. I'm guessing you just asked for the standard payment contracts for this sort of work, so it was biased there. This is gonna take a little while though." Coiling back up, a small sigh would fall from her. "A really long while."

Bleu smiles at the Fennec. "Monetary compensation is not required, miss... I just want one thing. In return for offering you two million freecred, I want access to my own broadcast time, to broadcast whatever I please. Maybe a whole channel to myself? We could always hash out the particulars later. I have things I want to broadcast, and you have a broadcast tower... And I have the freecred to make it actually work..."

The fennec's brow furrows, and she raises her open hand at the vulpine offering that massive sum of money. "Unfortunately that is not something we can agree to, plus such a service would undoubtedly be worth much more than what you are offering to donate right now. I am going to have to ask you to keep your money if those are your terms." Once Poppy speaks up however, she nods eagerly and retrieves a few spare sheets of printer paper, and offers it to her. "Thanks a bunch, love. We really hadn't the faintest with what these legal eagles wanted with us." The exasperation vivid in her tone as she speaks.

Nyazuli meanwhile has an easy time working with the circuitry, though her work would likely go unchecked for a long time to come... considering the position of the box. Upon her return, she'd be greeted by one of the technicians with a sheet of paper in his hands. Tall lady, a black panther of all things, garbed in overalls and the telltale yellow work helmet. "You the one that was just up there? Good work, we just took a reading and it looks like you fussed out some bad wiring, the relay is gobbling up a fair bit less electricity to do its job now. Here! Have this as a means of thanks from the Senior Engineer." She smiles and pats Nyazuli on the shoulder, then hands them a chit worth a few thousand creds.

Then there's the bunch of slouches. When Zel approaches them, all they do is share a laugh together, before one of them finally speaks. "We already did our job. Ain't paid by the hour, but by the contract." Another one pipes up "Or are you gonna give us a stern lecture, mom?" he notes with a distinctly disrespectful, condescending tone. What a bunch of dickbutts this lot were. They'd need more than a finger waggling it would seem. "Look, we ain't being paid enough to do overtime. You tell the foreman to cough up some creds and I'll get the boys back to work. Otherwise... it's beer and poker until the shift's over." The leader among them speaks up, then pipes down and returns to his game.

Just then... *THWACK* a deafening crack akin to the swing of a whip pierces the air, one of the support lines having given way due to stress and snapped clean in two. The wire swings faster than any could react and lashes two unfortunate workers through the chest, bowling them over, seemingly unconscious. The one nearest to them immediately muffles a curse, then calls out "I NEED A MEDIC OVER HERE!"

Nyazuli opens her mouth to thank the panther for the reward before hearing the crack and instinctively docking and protecting herself. She looks around assessing the situation. Something broke, someone is yelling medic, that's the next place she had to be. She stood up and adressed the Panther, "I'll deal with the injured" Before seeing that someone else was already running there. "Never mind, where is the emergency shutdown before someone else gets injured? We need to cut this place from the grid now!"

Zelmra was about to give a retort when she too heard the cable snap and the shouting. She looks over to the commotion, turns back to the workers with a somewhat strained smile and a "We will have to continue this chat in a little bit", before charging over towards the injured in a full gallop. Or she would have if she didn't twist her ankle as she turned, and ends up doing a faceplant into the ground. Growling, she gets back to her feet, even more annoyed than before, but not /quite/ enough for her Determinator instincts to kick in. She aligns herself properly this time, and gets set to head over as soon as possible.

Taking the offered papers, Poppy would give a very dry and very sad laugh. "What they want? Oh, that's easy. You've got electricians from RSX, work force from Zephyr and New Dawn, a smattering of contracters from each, the tenative land deeds from RSX and a whole mess of questions of broadcast lisccenses. The only thing they are wanting you to do is fail in a way that makes them cash." Grumbling for a few moments, she'd set the papers down, looking back over them with a soft frown. "Alright... Payment for services can't be tweaked too much, but the terms can be adjusted at least..." And so, she'd start to set about writting, a pen used now.

Words would flow and the writting would spill out like the ink it was made of. Only stopping with a unhealthy THWANG cracked through the air. Perking up, she'd turn to the incident with a look of shock. Someone running over though, someone attending. Good, that's good at least. At least, until the centaur's legs got caught over themselves, crumpling and falling to the ground. A deep breath and a wince, the lamia picking up her papers and setting them by the foreman. "That will take a while, don't touch it yet." Snagging some of the emergency supplies by the Foreman's desk, she swiftly slithered off, making her way owards the injured. Not the centaur, they could right themselves with a bit of time. ""Ah... Drat. High Speed Impacts..." Wracking her brain she'd grumble. "No, I don't need to remember how to protect from that, but to heal from it darn it!" Shaking her head, she set about trying to bandage them up. Poorly, but it was something at least.

Bleu raises a paw. "I can give you more. 5, 10, even 20 million or more, if you need it. I could buy this entire tower twice over." He gestures over to the recalcitrant workers. "At the very least, I can offer those louts extra monetary incentive to actually do their proper jo..." *THWACK* The fox looks up, his ears flattened, as he instinctively ducks. "What th' hell?"

The Foreman was definitely having a very bad day at this point. Help was

called in, and sure enough before long the RSX operatives were upon the scene and doing what they did best, reacting quickly. One of them pulls Poppy away from the injured, looking a bit annoyed and muttering something about amateur good samaritans. Thankfully the tower itself remained stable, it was just one cable that'd snapped, but the foreman was having none of that. For such a sweet little otter, he certainly can start yelling, and that he most certainly does. "I WANT ALL THE SUPPORT LINES DOUBLE-CHECKED!" he yells "TRIPLE IF NEED BE!" sending the technicians scrambling to do exactly that.

As for the fennec, she merely remains quiet, it wasn't her place to deal with any of this perhaps, though she does answer the vulpine once he starts strutting his wealth. "Sir, we're hired workers. We don't own this structure, it's property of RSX. Talking to me about it is the equivalent of asking a pedestrian how much they're willing to sell the street they walk upon for." She sighs quietly and pulls out a sheet of paper, then dots down some information on it. "Here, this is the contact information for the one heading the operation and the one responsible for the structure. Our so called benefactor in this, if anyone can make your dreams come true, it's him." She grumbles and folds the paper in two, before handing it to the vulpine. "If you contribute to us, it will be a pure donation with intent to make this happen properly. That's all I can tell you at this juncture."

Zelmra trots over a little slower this time, so as to avoid any more faceplants, and comes up to the medical team. "Do you require any assistance? I have some experience with working in medical matters," she asks.

Having been pulled away and... well, a quiet scolding given, Poppy would sort of droop. Paperwork, injuries, and lazy workers. What a mess of things. Shlouching for a few moments, she'd reach up, patting her cheeks and working to sit up a bit! A forced grin... more of a grimace really, but she'd keep pushing on! Letting it defat her wouldn't do anything! At least nothing useful. Before a move could be made though, a voice called out, askign for her to check on the cords. "Sorry! Wouldn't know what I'm looking for there. I'll try to get them to check it out!" Them? Well, slithering back towards the desk, the lamia lass would toss a look to the layabouts and to her paperwork. "Stupid, dumb, lazy jerks." Ah, that them. Rifling through the papers, she'd pull back out one of the copies, a small humph of a nod.

Making her way to the lazybones, she'd grumble a bit louder at them. "Well! You all are the contracters from Zephyr, right? You might want to work if you want to be paid decent you know. You get paid by the contract, right? And the contract specifies the time you should be working here." Looking at them a little frustrated, she'd state the obvious. "Contracts are between people, you know that right? Like Zephyr and the Contracter. Who'll want to not pay Zephyr because money. So he'll ask your Foreman over there. Who can say you didn't uphold your end of the contract. And not pay you."

Bleu takes the piece of paper, and opens it up, frowning sharply at the name therein. "Well, no wonder you were upplied with shoddy parts and not enough cash to replace it with. This dolt doesn't know quality if it bit him in the ass..." He sticks the scrap away for safekeeping. "At any rate, I'll offer a donation..." Begrudgingly. "How much is required to replace all the shoddy parts?" He looks at the comm device on his wrist, and starts pressing buttons. "Does 1 million freecred cover it?"

"Alright, ALRIGHT!" One of the dogs growls loudly and gets up. "Just stop the nagging! You're worse than mother! Come on, you louts. We got only a hour or two left to burn anyway, may as well stay out of trouble." The others among the lazy folks seem to agree, getting up albeit with a growl and a few muttered curses. With things stabilizing once more, the foreman of all things approaches them, visibly distressed. "The insurance agents are coming over to survey the damage and the injured, I would rather you four aren't around for that. It'd be a paperwork nightmare for me and my assistant if you were. Shoo! Off with you. Report to the second floor office just west of the stairwell. Number sixteen I believe. You'll find the organizer there, she'll hand you your earnings... oh!" He looks a touch surprised when one of the slouches brushes past him, casting a leer down at the otter. "Looks like you got them back up. That helps too. I'll be sure to report that. Now go!" He tells all four, before returning to his station... still visibly stressed. Then again who wouldn't be were they to deal with such a situation? The fennec speaks up before the party departs. "Any donations are welcome, thank you in advance." Before turning tail and rejoining her foreman for what was going to be a very tense day...