[PQ] sink deep and breathe

HOTARU

It's a good thing they're separated by rooms, because Hotaru and Deimos are not doing well in the main room. Hotaru is far too hopeful in her efforts with such a large piece of wood, considering how petite she is. It slides off to the side and, in her attempts to catch it, she gets caught beneath it as it comes off and gets half-crushed beneath it with a yelp of a rather colorful array of curses. The wood cracks at the edge as it hits the floor, and she falls backwards beneath it, barely catching it from hitting her in the face. She manages to lever it off, huffing and climbing back up to her feet to glare down at it.

Whether it's her shout that startles him or just bad luck, after Deimos succeeds in fixing the floor he gathers the timber for the tables and trips over a stray tool. While he remains upright the timber does not, crashing to the floor. From where she stands Hotaru gives him a pained look. "What is with our luck lately, huh?" She gestures to the wood that had nearly crushed her. "If you help me lift, I can hold the wood while you nail it for the tables?" Maybe two hands will be better than one at both tasks.

One the flip side, Weaver and Jigano are excelling at their tasks. Weaver is quickly successful at rehanging the curtains, and they hold sturdy even when given a few testing pulls. Perhaps this gives her the encouragement she needs, but the rest of the curtains are hung without any further problems at all, and the wax in the meantime has started to warm and melt a little in the insulated area of the house. It is primed and ready to be spread, leaving her at an advantage for the next step.

Jigano is still at least partially successful, Hotaru pops her head in after the counter debacle to give her approval on his staggered idea, suggesting a sloping floor for safety to accommodate the height differences. The deeper he goes however the harder the earth is, and with many more rocks of larger sizes to have to move. He will find that he is moving at half the speed of the initial effort, but still making a dent in the deepening pit.

- - -

Deimos and Hotaru suck but don't give up! Weaver is doing fantastic and can move on to sealing the floors! Jigano has made about half his anticipated progress for the flooring portion of the pit, but still has some hard dirt and stones to move.

Hotaru still needs to get the counter on and has asked Deimos for help. Deimos has fixed the floor but needs to start building the tables, which Hotaru has offered to help with.

she's a butcher with a smile
cut me deeper than I've ever been