(open) The wall

[lazyinlove]

Date & Time: Tuesday (today)
Location: Out in the city!
Characters: Stanley Lucerne and whoever stumbles across him.
Summary: Stan has the feeling he could plaster a wall if he set his mind to it...so he gives it a shot. He hasn't recruited anyone, so all are as likely/welcome to be there as you want.
Warnings: Cursing. He's an American teenage boy from the modern era. Also drugs, whoops. You know, stuff like that.

((OOC And any format is fine, I'll follow. Just starting in prose because it's less work on my phone.))

It wasn't a gradual thing. Gradually, it might've made sense. Maybe he could've mulled it over in his sleep and worked things out. People did that. Famous people. He'd fallen asleep in many a history class to the drone of 'and in a dream, inspiration solved x huge historical problem.'

Instead, it was sudden. As soon as that lady with the weird speech patterns had suggested it, he'd known it was in there. The ability to help. The knowledge of how to go about rebuilding. Which was weird, frankly, since he'd never so much as lifted a hammer before in his life. Yeah, sure, there were tools in the garage back home. His dad might've even known how a few of them worked, though that was debatable. A certainty was that he had never even attempted to show them to Stanley, who had always made his disinterest in manual labor known to those around him.

So it was more than a little unexpected when this morning he woke with not only the feeling that he was capable of helping in the aftermath of the bombing, but the alien new feeling of actually wanting to do so. Which was how he found himself gathering stones and materials, and quietly setting to work. It didn't even matter what the buildings had been before, because he wasn't interested in helping anyone specific. It was sort of like being possessed.

Then again, it could've been worse. He could've been levitating and vomiting pea soup. That would've sucked...

Comments

[charming_jerk]

"Sorry, man, didn't mean to sneak up on ya." He walks over to see how far along Stanley is, and where he can help. "The people in town don't want me around, so I figured I'd see who around here needs it. I'm Johnny, by the way."

[lazyinlove]

"Yeah. You don't really blend in." Stan replies, shrugging. Ow. Ugh, his shoulders already hurt. He rolls them a few times to loosen them back up, and offers Johnny a hand along with his name. "Stanley."

[charming_jerk]

"Johnny." Stanley gets a firm, strong handshake. "So whattya workin' on? I don't know shit about building stuff, but I can learn. At the very least, I cn carry stuff around."

[lazyinlove]

"Fixing the holes in things first. Restoring structural integrity to buildings that partly survived."

It's kind of a mouthful, but weirdly enough, at the moment he knows exactly what he means by it. And he's not about to turn down some help.

"We need big stones. And some other stuff, but first the stones. They suck the worst."

[charming_jerk]

Johnny nodded. He gets it. "Alright, I can do that. One thing we got, it's rocks." Like rubble. There was plenty of that. He'd start gathering what he could around the area. "You do this kinda thing before?"

[lazyinlove]

"First time." Stanley admitted, casually glancing away. Yep. That should go over well.

[charming_jerk]

He looks somewhat skeptical. "Then you sure this is actually gonna be of any help?"

[lazyinlove]

"What's it going to hurt?"

Stanley makes a gesture at their surroundings. Which are definitely in ruins in this area.

[charming_jerk]

Johnny paused, then shrugged. "Yeah okay, can't argue that. Worst we can do is turn rubble into more rubble, I guess. To be honest with you, though? I think the next big project we all oughta do is fix up the catacombs. If this keeps happenin', we need a place to hide that won't feel like it might collapse. Get it fulla supplies 'n' stuff too. Ya know?"

[lazyinlove]

"Yeah? Hope you get paid more than me."

He retorts, but otherwise doesn't comment. He's been wondering the same thing, actually. It's good that other people are mulling it over. Stanley sure doesnt want that job.

[charming_jerk]

That earns a sarcastic snort. "Yeah. I get paid as much as everyone else, almost nothin'. What it get us in the end is some security, which is worth somethin', I guess."

[lazyinlove]

"Yeah sure, open in case of bombing. Again. But where're the materials?" Stanley points out, as he moves a stone into place in the wall and starts to seal it in. This is just repairs, but already there's a lot of compromise going into it. Any new construction would be pretty much impossible without a very dedicated crew and a lot of resources.

[charming_jerk]

"That's the biggest problem, I figure. Exsilium has shit while the UE's got everything. We either take 'em from missions or we need to start takin' from the UE somehow. Easier said than done, I know."

[lazyinlove]

"Don't missions have a point anyway?" He quirks an eyebrow just a bit. He's only been on one so far, but it was pretty life or death. At least for the people waiting back in the hospital it was. It didn't seem like there was much time to do side quests. Especially not construction material stealing side quests. Those would probably be difficult.

[charming_jerk]

"Well, yeah. That's why they're missions. But besides the big ones they send us all on, you can go on some on your own. Or with a small group, I guess. Doubt they'd send ya anywhere alone." He'd be willing to go alone, but it was probably a bad idea.

[lazyinlove]

"Yeah?" Nope, that's not an interested tone of voice. Missions are dangerous, and lately Stanley's been noticing his body is pretty breakable compared to most people around. He finishes with the stone and stretches before going for another. "Let me know his that goes."