[PQ] Let's get down to business

MORGAN

Some nights, I wish that my lips could build a castle
Some nights, I wish they'd just fall off

Since her father's death, the training grounds that had once existed in the Palace walls was left to fade away and grow moss; Morgan had always preferred to take her troops out to fight and there had been less conflict in her time that demanded such constant training: but with the new threats opened up by the portals (and by the man in charge of her Citadel) she knew she had to take training seriously once more.

Stepping out into the snow and moss covered square of land, large enough to train maybe fifty men at a time, she looked over what they had. Ground that needed to be cleared and re-gritted, some dummies that had rotted away halfway and what had once been a rack of weapons was now a rusted pile of shards and remainders. There was a lot to do.

She had some of her guards to help of course, but she could not use all of them for this task. To that end she had put out an advert in the Citadel, asking for help from serious volunteers, assuring them they would be paid for their time in a good meal from the Palace kitchens. Stood in the middle of the ruined training area she waited, leaning on what had once been a dummy.

---
Assist Morgan in building a better training grounds for the Deepfrost Shields!
There are 3 spaces in this PQ:

1. Weaver
2. Korbin
3. Loren

But I still wake up, I still see your ghost
Oh Lord, I'm still not sure, what I stand for

What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.

She had offered to help. This may not have been exactly what she had in mind at the time, but Weaver was good for helping in just about any form it took. Besides, she may be a better fixer-upper than she was a cannibal slayer; just don’t judge that statement based on the state of her house. Not that it was run down, it was just cluttered. Putting things away seemed like a serious waste of time if you were only going to get them out again the next day. Or the next week.

Weaver has not spent much time in the Palace, but she’d been here on occasion. Most recently to help Loren get the infirmary in working order again, so it seems vaguely fitting that she’d come help Morgan get the training grounds back in order as well. Though she may not love the idea of anyone actually attempting to rule them, she had not been disappointed with most of the council members their new Warden had chosen.

Weaver makes her way into the training grounds wearing only a long sleeve shirt and a pair of pants. She’d left her scythe behind today, though her belt of knives is still with her. The cold doesn’t bother her, and it would be easier to work without the cloak or other heavy layers. ”What can I do?” she asks when she sees Morgan, perched against an old dummy. Amazingly, Weaver’s not even here for the food (not that she wouldn’t take it), given the Kraai’s bustling kitchen. No, Weaver is actually just here to help her home.

Weaver

KORBIN

And round about his home the glory
That blushed and bloomed,

Anyone who needed help in Halo would get help from him. The town and its people had raised him as much as his actual family had, and there wasn't really anything he wouldn't do to repay the debt. It was true that Korbin resented the outlanders that held the power, but the captain was one of them, Halovian born and bred. And the Shields were meant to keep the people safe.

So, the decision to respond to the request was really not a hard one. He might not be the most enthusiastic trainee when it came to fighting, but he did it all the same. And they were here to build, not fight. All was well.

Hands in pockets, Korbin followed in the wake of his sister, bundled up well against the cold, unlike Weaver. He didn't have the advantage of her Academy magics, but the cold and the fur clothes really wasn't a hindrance to him.

"Captain," he nodded, with an easy smile and the usual humorous glitter in his eyes. "The palace food better as good as they say, or I'll be terribly disappointed." Settling in beside Weaver, he casually rested an elbow on the top of her head, as it was in such a comfortable height for it.

Is but a dim-remembered story
Of the old time entombed.

LOREN

Loren had seen the advert, of course. Unsurprisingly, he showed up at the training grounds, though he wasn't the first volunteer there. Giving Weaver a friendly nod and Korbin a much less friendly one, the healer finally turned to salute the Captain. "Let me know where you need me." With that, he clasped his hands behind his back.

Glancing around at the area, he was honestly a bit surprised to see how much it had fallen into disrepair. However, no sign of that showed on his face. Instead, he kept his features schooled into a neutral mask. Standing there, he looked every inch the good little soldier he'd once been trained to be.

look at how a single candle can both
defy and define the darkness

MORGAN

Some nights, I wish that my lips could build a castle
Some nights, I wish they'd just fall off

Pleased to see two Halo natives appear Morgan smiled at both Weaver and Korbin, nodding to each in turn. "Thank you for coming - I will give out tasks in a moment. As for the food--" With a similar dry humour in her voice she gave Korbin a shrug. "--It varies from day to say. You might be lucky." Having eaten nothing but the palace food for years now, she knew it went from terrible sludge to fine feasts depending on how busy the chefs were: they knew soldiers would not complain, and so they were bottom of the pile.

Loren was welcome too, Morgan impressed by how much help the man seemed keen to give. "Thank you for coming, Loren."

With enough people there to begin, Morgan walked to the middle of the training grounds and gestured with one hand to the obvious disrepair around her. "As you can see, the grounds here are in desperate need of recuperation. I tend to train my men out in the mountains and these grounds have not been used since my father's death. ...But..." Looking to the top of the wall, where beyond lay mountains and sky and their new neighbours -- "...Now, I may be overly cautious, but with the new openness of the world, I feel we must be prepared for a whole new series of conflicts. Even if they do not occur, it is never a bad thing to be trained and ready."

With her reasoning aside she looked about the grounds then back to her volunteers. "There are some large jobs that need doing first. The ground needs to be flattened back out and covered again in sand and gravel: you can find this along the wall there." She pointed to where several sacks were stacked up against the palace wall, next to a very sweaty guard who had been tasked with bringing them outside. "Then we need to get rid of these old weapons. I would like them to be melted down and the metal we can salvage recycled - for the moment, they just need to be gathered into a pile. Be cautious, for a lot of them are sharp and could fall apart easily."

The final task was one she would assist with. "Finally, a good workspace is a clean one. The walls here, as you can see...well." Morgan turned to look again at the Palace wall and Outer wall on either side of the grounds, both of which had seen better days: nearly green in some places from mould and old mud, some bricks turned red with dried blood from years past, scratches from swords swung... "I will be using my water magic to clean them, but they will need a finer hand. There is a ladder and selection of brushes there, by the door. It is not the most glamorous work, but it will be well appreciated."

With that all said she nodded to each of them then went to stand by the wall, ready to start the cleaning with whoever would come to assist.

--
No Post Order!

Tasks:
1. Help with flattening the ground (getting rid of weeds, stamping it down, putting on gravel/sand), you can assume guards will help with this.
2. Take the old rusty weapons and gather them somewhere away from the main area to be melted down later.
3. With Morgan using her mastered water magic to pressure wash the walls, scrub the place clean of blood, mud and other stains.

These will be rolled for, but there's no risk of serious injury/death obviously, lol.
Feel free to PP any guard NPCs to say they helped you/how they did.

But I still wake up, I still see your ghost
Oh Lord, I'm still not sure, what I stand for

LOREN

Loren listened to Morgan's explanation of the tasks, expression still neutral. When the Captain finished explaining all the tasks, the Launceleyn nodded. "I can take care of the weapons." It didn't seem too difficult, but if he messed up he could heal himself of any cuts or splinters.

So saying, he walked over to the rusty and broken weapons. Gingerly reaching down to them, he tried to pick them up carefully and bring them over to an out of the way spot, where they could be transported easily to get melted down. It wasn't hard work, per se, but he focused very carefully on it nonetheless.

---

Loren works on the weapons

look at how a single candle can both
defy and define the darkness

What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.

Korbin comes, and she gives her brother a smile until he puts his arm on her head, at which point she elbows him in the ribs. Not too hard, but just enough to be annoying about it. Then Loren joins them, and she gives him a friendly smile, noting the less friendly nod given to Korbin. Perhaps they had met already...because that would explain just about everything. Korbin wasn’t exactly making friends lately.

Soon enough though Morgan gets started, explaining more than Weaver might have expected. She appreciates the Captain’s honesty, and though she hopes it never comes to it, she also appreciates her preparedness. It certainly was a good idea, for who knew what the future might hold for them. Just because Weaver embraced this new order did not mean she didn’t worry about it.

Loren goes to work on the weapons, and Weaver looks up to her brother for a moment. ”You can play with the dirt, brother dear.” Not that cleaning was necessarily better, but she wasn’t in the mood to weed. Weaver makes her way over to the ladder and the brushes, grabbing a few of various sizes and shoving them into her pockets before joining Morgan. One of the larger brushes is in her hand and she nods to Morgan, ready to follow along and scrub away whatever Morgan’s magic did not remove.

***

Weaver comes to help Morgan clean the wall.

Weaver

KORBIN

And round about his home the glory
That blushed and bloomed,

He just laughed at the Captain's retort, an easy and lighthearted sound that faded only when she began to hand out instructions.

Loren's presence was noted with a mere arched brow and nothing more. If his expression was a bit cool as he mer the man's gaze, it only lasted until Weaver's elbow found his ribs. The grin that replaced it was genuine; without a moment's hesitation he retaliated by poking a finger into his sister's ear, then jumped out of reach.

"My favorite! Why thanks, sis, you do spoil me," he quipped sarcastically when the only task left was the tedious and cumbersome one. "Alright, better get on with it... sooner we're done, the sooner we get to eat, eh friends?"

He gestured for a handful of the soldiers to come join him, and kept up a steady flow of bantering with them as they began to work. It was a simple enough task, if tedious, and he tried to make a game out of it; splitting his group in two and challenging to see which one could do the better, quicker job.

------------
Korbin takes task nr 1 and lead a group of soldiers in the task of leveling the ground. He tries to spice up the boring work by making a game of it.

Is but a dim-remembered story
Of the old time entombed.

MORGAN

Some nights, I wish that my lips could build a castle
Some nights, I wish they'd just fall off

Loren went to work on the weapons, and Morgan only watched after him for a moment before she was sure he could manage alright. He was capable enough on his own after all and she knew the Healer was a strong and accomplished mage. Sure enough, he was successful, pulling the weapons out of their rusted holds and putting them in a pile to be melted, not getting a single wound from the job.

Morgan began to shoot the wall with her water and Weaver came to help: between them they cleaned the wall, not entirely but enough to see it had been recently seen to, only a few clumps of moss left between the bricks every few feet. Enough that she could be happy with it for the moment (and the remaining moss would make a good task for picking out for misbehaving guards).

Unfortunately, Korbin was not so fortunate. Maybe it was because of his unfamiliarity with the guards or maybe he simply had been unlucky, but the teams seemed to be less than eager to engage with the competition and the parts of the field that had been seen to were scruffy, and easily half the space was still left to do. Looking around from her work, Morgan sighed and stepped forward, barking orders at her men to do better.

There would still be some work needed on that, but she figured it was best to have the finer jobs on the way too. "Those of you not helping with the field: I need someone to restuff the fighting dummies, then another to paint new targets on the boards over there." Morgan pointed to where some wooden boards lay on their side, buckets of paint in various colours on the side.

--
No Order!

Someone needs to help Morgan and the Guards redo the ground!
Someone needs to restuff the fighting dummies with straw!
Someone needs to paint the targets!

But I still wake up, I still see your ghost
Oh Lord, I'm still not sure, what I stand for

KORBIN

And round about his home the glory
That blushed and bloomed,

So much for trying to liven things up for them all. The response he got was half-hearted at best and the work they did was sloppy. Korbin did his best with his own work, but it was clear the soldiers didn't care for his way of doing things. Or maybe they didn't like being told what to do by someone as young as him.

Rubbing his neck, he kept smiling, though perhaps a bit more awkwardly when Morgan had to step in. "My bad, Captain, it seemed like a good idea," he said, and picked up his tools again. Korbin had no intention of leaving the job undone; hopefully with their commander to oversee them - like so many overgrown kids - the soldiers would get the task done. At least he had not been slacking, and was determined to keep doing his job well.

-------

Korbin sticks to helping the Captain and the soldiers with the ground! Ni fooling around this time.

Is but a dim-remembered story
Of the old time entombed.

LOREN

Thankfully, there were no issues with the weapons. Returning to Morgan, Loren nodded as the next set of tasks was laid out. When Korbin replied that he would keep working on the grounds, the healer glanced briefly at Weaver. "I'll work on the dummies." With a nod at the Captain, he turned to do just that.

Taking the straw which he assumed was there he used a combination of his hands and his telekinesis to stuff it into the dummies as best he could manage. Once they were full, he'd use the same combination to sew them shut once more. When he was done with one (he hoped) he would move on to the next one.

look at how a single candle can both
defy and define the darkness

What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.

The cleaning goes well enough. It’s sweaty work, though not hot given where they are. She’s rather thankful for the cold resistance magic since she’s not exactly dry now either, though she doesn’t notice the chill that settles in. As Weaver turns to survey the field, she notices Korbin having a less than stellar time of it, and a chuckle escapes her.

Morgan gives them new tasks, or in Korbin’s case, the same task to do again. Loren goes to work on the dummies, so Weaver goes to paint. How appropriate, since she met the Captain while painting lanterns together. Though Weaver’s painting skills are only adequate, she hopes she can do the job well enough. Grabbing the paint and brushes, Weaver sits down on the cold, lumpy ground. She grabs the first board and begins to paint the familiar circles that would make up the target, and will continue in this fashion till they are done or Morgan kicks her out of this particular task.

***
Weaver works on painting targets.

Weaver

MORGAN

Some nights, I wish that my lips could build a castle
Some nights, I wish they'd just fall off

"The guard are tired." Morgan gave as an explanation to Korbin: it had been a busy week between one thing and another, and she knew some of them had to be running out of patience by now. Thankfully, with her on the job as well with her strict demeanour, the guards seemed much more willing to help properly, and the ground began to be flattened out properly.

While she was busy she trusted that Loren and Weaver would do their jobs successfully and was happy to find that they had when she had a chance to look, the dummies seeming plump and ready to be fought and the targets brightly and precisely painted. "Great job. Thank you."

With those tasks left, there was only one thing left to do before everyone could have their celebratory meal. "The last task is to bring in the weapons and supplies we will need. Inside the Palace there are swords, hammers, shields, healing supplies and various spare pieces of armour." Pity the guard that had lost anything and needed to ask for them, though. "Help me bring those items here, then we will be done."

--
Help bring out healing supplies, weapons or armour! No order.
Loren
Korbin
Weaver

--

But I still wake up, I still see your ghost
Oh Lord, I'm still not sure, what I stand for

LOREN

Thankfully, the dummies took shape under Loren's care. Stepping back, he smiled, pleased to see that they were fine looking dummies indeed. Retuning to Morgan, he nodded when she laid out the last of the tasks.

Perhaps it would've made the most sense for the healer to deal with the cleaning supplies. However, he worked with them all day, and they were the lightest. So instead, he headed straight towards the armor. Lifting it up as best he could, he began to bring it out towards the freshly cleaned training grounds. Assuming there were no mishaps, he'd bring it all in, then help the others if needed.

---

Loren brings in the armor

look at how a single candle can both
defy and define the darkness