Personal Quest [se] ashes, ashes, we all fall down
Wessex Theskyra
the Wraith
General of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 47 | Height: 5'8'' | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 61 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 61 - Luck: 58 - Int: 2
LOKI - Mythical - Dragon (Energy Blast)
Played by: Astor Offline
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Posts: 3,156 | Total: 4,350
MP: 0
#1
I know, I fought you in the dark
So much fire. Everywhere. It saved them, yes, but why had the Sparkbird been so angry? Why hadn’t Morgan put out this fire, let someone else lend a hand, as ghost-Mara had suggested? Why hadn’t the Warden stepped up, when it was apparent she was was the only one with leadership experience in the room? Wessex shakes her head, letting her thoughts ramble on and on as her arms cross over her chest in the slightest of hugs.

Mara and Ezra, dead. Not much to be upset about, she’d concluded in the dark, lingering days of sitting in the Jail. They hadn’t prepared as she’d advised and whether or not they took the task seriously was also debatable, given her last glimpse of Ezra. Wessex washes her hands of their deaths and looks to the future, instead.

Burned out husks of buildings, no longer smoldering, stand as ugly scars in the still, frosty dusk of Flowerbirth. She sighs to herself and steps across the threshold of the Barracks, beginning to move charred beams to a pile to one side. Azrael might get their wish after all, she muses to herself, trying to imagine what might replace the Barracks.

------------------

This is a PQ to clean up the Barracks! Open to as many as want, but know there will need to be many other PQs to clean up the Grounds. Don’t burn yourself out!

Pick something to do - move beams, collect potentially unmelted weapons / other training items.
1. Aamu
2. Henry
the wraith
WESSEX
Weaponsmith

Age: 361 | Height: Kinda short | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 14 - Dext: 17 - Endr: 16 - Luck: 11 - Int:
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MP: 970
#2
and I've only got my brittle bones to break the fall
He's angry, about a lot of things. It sits in his chest like a hot coal, sharp, unpleasant, building up frustrations, pressure he can't ease. There's no one to take it out on, for no one is—strictly speaking—to blame.

He's angry at himself, for trusting blindly. For not questioning. For not realizing. For not.. what? He'd like to say it had been too late, but that's to flee responsibility.

Soot streaks his messy braid, his fine cheekbones, his slender hands.

He's a stray cat that survived the fire, fur all dirty now and soul hopeless.

"Wessex," he says, quietly. Calmly. (His eyes are a storm.) There's not much else to say. Slowly, carefully, he walks over warped floorboards and the remnants of lives, approaching the armory and beginning to clear out a space in there. Before he can sort through the weaponry (and being a weaponsmith, he's quite experienced in seeing what's salvageable or not) he needs to remove the debris, such as the fallen-down roof.



Aamu goes to the armory and begins to clear away the debris in preparation for going through the weapons etc!
Aamu
Henry Walker
Advisor

Age: 31 | Height: 5'11" | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 16 - Dext: 14 - Endr: 15 - Luck: 11 - Int:
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#3
HENRY
I was waiting for something extraordinary
but as the years wasted on...
Henry's been drifting through the remnants of his home since the moment Longnight was over. Nobody's happy. Was the mission a success? It doesn't feel like it. His eyes are heavy with dark bags and reddened by storms of tears that had raged through him, but as he pauses on the sidelines, he finds no emotions stir within him. Nothing but numbness as he surveys what was once the barracks, the same barracks he had helped to fortify for what was to come.

No longer.

He says nothing to Wessex, not because he's angry at her, but because words are hard for him to muster in this time. There's nothing to say that would ease any of their burdens. Aamu is given a cursory glance, vaguely familiar to him, and then he remembers the sword. It would appear the man had made it through the darkness after all.

The same could not be said for Henry's family. So his gaze sullenly drifts away to ruined beams that pile amidst the ashes. Those will need moving, he figures. He silently begins to move them out of the way. If he has to break them apart in order to do it, so be it. So be it if his foot smashes through charred wood with unnecessary vigor behind it, so be it if pieces of wood are tossed out of the way with little regard for much else except for that no one is in his way.



Henry angrily moves the destroyed beams.
nothing ever did
unless I caused it
Wessex Theskyra
the Wraith
General of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 47 | Height: 5'8'' | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 61 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 61 - Luck: 58 - Int: 2
LOKI - Mythical - Dragon (Energy Blast)
Played by: Astor Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,156 | Total: 4,350
MP: 0
#4
I know, I fought you in the dark
She turns to see Aamu approach, the remnants of LongNight even more stark on his skin than it is on hers, and his greeting is cordial enough, though there seems to be something else about him. “Aamu,” she replies in return, equally cordial, missing whatever his eyes might look like as she turns back to a beam she’s hefting and when she turns back, notes that he decides to head to the armory. She doesn’t know enough about him to tell if this singular word is representative of trauma, exhaustion, anger, or just a stoic personality.

Henry comes in as she’s lugging a big one out, and she thinks she can gather that he is upset. Wessex had seen the farm but hadn’t stayed long enough to know if anyone else was there or not.

Let the silence stand. They don’t need to talk to get work done.

Maybe its the young Walker’s singular focus - or his grief? - that lends him the strength to easily crack through several beams of wood with  nary a splinter or bruise. He’s able to clear the entire pile he’s working on.The one Wessex is hauling breaks as she’s trying to get it into a pile of support limbs, so she has to head back and get the other half. Aamu is perhaps the least successful, as that roof he has to move is stuck under somet debris and won’t easily budge.

--------------------------

Aamu, keep working on that roof.

Henry might will notice if he looks up that what’s left of the corner of the roof is looking real shaky.

Wessex will find remnants of Mara.
the wraith
WESSEX
Weaponsmith

Age: 361 | Height: Kinda short | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 14 - Dext: 17 - Endr: 16 - Luck: 11 - Int:
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Posts: 229 | Total: 642
MP: 970
#5
and I've only got my brittle bones to break the fall
He spies Henry: does a double-take, as the young man he had admired before LongNight seems gone, replaced with grief. His face is haunted by something, marked by lack of sleep, and Aamu wonders what's happened. What—how much—he's lost.

But now's not the time. Aamu retreats to the armory, content to be alone, unsure what he would say. He's in no position to offer anything, neither consolation nor apologies. It's better this way, just him and the burnt-out beams, the cracked shingles, the fucking debris

He's in no rush. Works slowly, surely, meticulously on removing the collapsed roof. It offers no judgment, no encouragement, it just is and he's glad to focus on it. To forget, if only for a bit.



Aamu keeps on cleanin'
Aamu
Henry Walker
Advisor

Age: 31 | Height: 5'11" | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 16 - Dext: 14 - Endr: 15 - Luck: 11 - Int:
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#6
HENRY
I was waiting for something extraordinary
but as the years wasted on...
Henry finds relief in the lack of idle conversation, or of prying questions, or of announcements of what the Ascended had accomplished - or what they'd lost in their accomplishments. His mind bears no room for anything more than work right now, wishing to envelope himself in the tasks.

So he does, and with all of his angry focus he is able to get the blackened and burnt wooden pieces out of the way. There'll be little left in his wake, little else than what is currently still managing to stand, especially with Aamu clearing the rest away.

His eyes catch the shake of the roof as his weight bears down on the ground near it. That's an accident waiting to happen.

If the intention is to salvage the barracks, then this will serve to buy enough time until it can be properly redone. Henry uses whatever tools there are, even if it's just hammering a bent nail in using a rock, to try to fasten a sturdy block of wood across the part of the roof to re-stabilize it. He expects it all to fall apart beneath his hands, though. There's a glisten of frustrated sorrow in his eyes as he tries his damnedest to prevent that.



Henry tries to use spare tools and a sturdy piece of wood to stabilize the corner of the roof.
nothing ever did
unless I caused it
Wessex Theskyra
the Wraith
General of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 47 | Height: 5'8'' | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 61 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 61 - Luck: 58 - Int: 2
LOKI - Mythical - Dragon (Energy Blast)
Played by: Astor Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,156 | Total: 4,350
MP: 0
#7
I know, I fought you in the dark
Wessex returns to the Barracks and opts for another large beam, more or less covered from head-to-toe in soot. Every place she touches, if not blackened already, bears the mark of the LongNight. She grasps this one by the end, ready to shift it to one side and drag it out of the skeletal building, but as she does, something shiny catches her eye. Pausing, the Wraith puts the wood down and squats down to inspect it, gently brushing away the fine film of dark gray that covers it, revealing thin spikes.

Her brow furrows, unsure what they could be - or have been - until she looks at where she is, and then looks at the door, and a wave of fury and grief washes over her. She should have known to get out, she should have - shaking her head to herself, Wessex gingerly and respectfully picks up all that’s left of Mara, placing the upgrades in her pocket for burial at some other time.

With any luck, this will be last LongNight she has to deal with this sort of thing.

The sound of a rock on a nail gets her attention and unfortunately for both Henry and Aamu, their luck wasn’t a good as their first round. Aamu’s slow, meticulous work is smart, but there’s no accounting for structural instability and he’s unable to see that he’s removing a piece that is actually keeping the back half of the roof elevated. It comes down with a resounding crash. Considering that he doesn’t need to breathe, Aamu should be fine even though the air around him is filled with a fine soot, but the weapons he’s looking to salvage are still buried.

Wessex looks back at him, then at Henry and yells towards the Ascended, “You okay? Need a hand?”

In the meantime, Henry will find that he’s stabilized that portion of the wall for now, but it likely isn’t a permanent fixture. There are however, portions that aren’t nearly as badly damaged as the rest of the building. Whether or not they can be salvaged still needs to be determined

--------------------

No post order. Sorry Aamu - another not great roll. Keep at it?

Henry, take a look at the rest of the building and identify what needs to come down and what might be able to be salvaged.

Wessex will either help Aamu or keep removing the big stuff.
the wraith
WESSEX
Weaponsmith

Age: 361 | Height: Kinda short | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 14 - Dext: 17 - Endr: 16 - Luck: 11 - Int:
Played by: Neowulf Offline
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Posts: 229 | Total: 642
MP: 970
#8
and I've only got my brittle bones to break the fall
Turns out he's more distracted than he thinks he is. Like, he's focused on what's right in front of him: the beams, the tiles, the.. debris... And he's focused on shifting that away. Getting rid of it. Away, away, away

But he's not looking up. He realizes what he's done the instant it's done, just a fraction too late, and as another piece of the roof caves in Aamu jumps like a startled cat. The resounding crash is deafening to his already tired senses, and it takes effort not to wince at it. A fine black mist hangs in the air once the worst of it clears, and Aamu, pale eyelashes stained dark, peers in the direction of Wessex. "I'm fine!" he calls back. No point in dusting himself off, but with a small shrug he resumes his work for clearing the well-buried armory.



Aamu ... keeps cleaning ... the armory... x''DD
Aamu
Henry Walker
Advisor

Age: 31 | Height: 5'11" | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 16 - Dext: 14 - Endr: 15 - Luck: 11 - Int:
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#9
HENRY
I was waiting for something extraordinary
but as the years wasted on...
The wooden plank is placed firmly enough that it keeps that part of the roof intact. Meanwhile, another piece of it comes crashing down. He startles, recoiling from his work and craning his neck to see what happened. He catches Wessex's glance and moves forward instantly to help Aamu, forgetting his own troubles, waving away the ashy dust. But Aamu says he's fine, and... well, he appears so. Henry lets out a thoughtful 'hmm', turning his attention to the rest of the building.

"I'll take a look and see what else might fall apart before someone actually gets hurt," he states to them, and makes good on his word.

He'll give it a walk-about. First he tests walls that look better off to make sure there are no invisible weaknesses, applying small bits of pressure and stepping back in case another part of the roof falls. Rinse and repeat.

As for the parts that look shaky, well...

Boldly, Henry reaches up and grabs at looser pieces of the roofing or walls. Whatever is hanging by flimsy threads will come falling down with them. Better now, intentionally, than later by accident - on top of someone unsuspecting.



Henry double checks the stronger walls for offensive weaknesses and takes the weaker sections of the building apart so they'll fall now rather than later.
nothing ever did
unless I caused it
Wessex Theskyra
the Wraith
General of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 47 | Height: 5'8'' | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 61 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 61 - Luck: 58 - Int: 2
LOKI - Mythical - Dragon (Energy Blast)
Played by: Astor Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,156 | Total: 4,350
MP: 0
#10
I know, I fought you in the dark
The fallen roof is, for now, the last of Aamu’s major troubles and he’s able to clear it away without much more difficulty. He’ll find the cache of weapons, salvageable and unsalvageable, where they would have beens stored - their shelves, hooks, and bags mostly gone, but it looks like the back of this area is in better shape than the main Barracks.

And the Barracks isn’t doing well. Henry will find that the stable portions are actually few and far between. The way the Sparkbird lingered here, specifically, means it took far more damage than other buildings, such as Wordsworth Books. Wessex joins him, watching for a moment before stepping in behind him. “Might as well push the weak parts down now.” So she leans against the charred sections, shoving out with her shoulder until they collapse (and to be honest, it doesn’t take much for them to collapse).

Henry ends up accidentally pulling at something that’s got a nail sticking out of it - missing his hand and body, but catching on his shirt sleeve and ripping a hole in the sleeve.

-------------------

Aamu made it through the roof, good job! Keep on keepin’ on.

Henry, be careful. There still things here that can hurt - either help Aamu or switch to clearing away the external debris.

Wessex has commandeered a wheelbarrow or two and some shovels, she’ll continue clearing.
the wraith
WESSEX
Weaponsmith

Age: 361 | Height: Kinda short | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 14 - Dext: 17 - Endr: 16 - Luck: 11 - Int:
Played by: Neowulf Offline
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Posts: 229 | Total: 642
MP: 970
#11
and I've only got my brittle bones to break the fall
He's content to work alone, not paying the others any heed as they go about the rest of the Barracks. Walls fall and sleeves get torn in different parts of the barracks, but in the armory Aamu's finally cleared enough of a space to get to the weaponry itself. He gives some of it a cursory inspection before departing to find two types of storage. Could be wheelbarrows, or boxes, or EUR pallets and he places them within the cleared armory. What's the point of picking things up twice?

Aamu starts to go through the weapons, leaning on his expertise as a weaponsmith to sort them into salvageable and unsalvageable. They go into the two different storage locations for easy transport out of here. He's not a stranger to taking his time in appraising them properly.



Aamu sorts weaponsssss
Aamu
Henry Walker
Advisor

Age: 31 | Height: 5'11" | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 16 - Dext: 14 - Endr: 15 - Luck: 11 - Int:
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#12
HENRY
I was waiting for something extraordinary
but as the years wasted on...
As he makes his way around, taking things apart, he's not nearly disconcerted enough by the nail that narrowly misses him to give up. However, with Wessex and her wheelbarrow, he does take pause to figure that she's probably got things handled from here. Aamu, as well, seems to be doing better than before now that he's found all of the weapons. So, that just leaves one thing.

He moves to the outside of the building, continuing in the process of clearing away the debris with vigor. Wooden planks, pieces of crumbled walls or roofing, things of that nature. It's a mess of everything he'd never wish for for his home; destruction, chaos, death. But he doesn't let himself sink into his emotions, instead gritting his teeth and throwing himself into this next task.



Henry clears debris outside! (so sorry for the delay)
nothing ever did
unless I caused it
Wessex Theskyra
the Wraith
General of the Hollowed Grounds

Age: 47 | Height: 5'8'' | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 61 - Dext: 60 - Endr: 61 - Luck: 58 - Int: 2
LOKI - Mythical - Dragon (Energy Blast)
Played by: Astor Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,156 | Total: 4,350
MP: 0
#13
I know, I fought you in the dark
Only time and rain will be able to truly wash away the ashen snow, the scars on the earth, the memories in their heads, but that doesn’t stop them from working at it. Indeed, the three of them toil on and soon it’s clear that their hard work is paying off. It will need a bit more polishing and clearing and sorting before they’re ready to truly rebuild the Barracks, but as with most things, there’s a plan for that too.

Wessex might be more smudged than not, looking like something out of a Dicken’s novel instead of a Queen. Amun would have had a fit, telling her that she’s not acting like a Queen, she thinks, and a pang of loneliness seizes her so strongly that she has to pause in her wheeling. Still, between the two of them, the last of the large, charred pieces are carted away and all that remains is a few of the thicker, stronger vertical beams and the floor. “We ought to rebuild in stone,” she tells Henry when she finally stops and takes a good long look at this now-empty space.

In the armory, Aamu is able to sort through the weapons, and Wessex is genuinely curious what’s survived. “I’m going to check on Aamu and the weapons, but you’re free to go if you like,” she offers to her Advisor before heading towards the lone Ascended.

“How’s it looking?” she asks, quietly entering the space.

------------------

We done! Thank you! Feel free to post again or not.
the wraith
WESSEX
Weaponsmith

Age: 361 | Height: Kinda short | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 14 - Dext: 17 - Endr: 16 - Luck: 11 - Int:
Played by: Neowulf Offline
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Posts: 229 | Total: 642
MP: 970
#14
and I've only got my brittle bones to break the fall
It's a mixture: weapons that relied heavily on wood and leather, such as spears and bows, are largely destroyed. The heat has warped, cracked, or straight-up burnt them. This was expected, but still a shame.

Largely metal-made weapons fared the fire better. A few were kept in locations that burned heavily and hotly: some of these are salvageable with some attention from a whetstone, some might need a bit more care, and some are just to melt down and re-forge. Then there's ones that are largely untouched, though all leather is dried and cracked and ought to be replaced.

By the time Wessex and Henry are done and she comes over Aamu is more or less done sorting the weapons. He glances up. Soot streaks his face, and his dirty hair is piled up in a bun run through by a misshapen stiletto.

"As expected," he says tiredly, wiping some of the oily fluids from his brow. It just makes more of a mess on his youthful face. "All wood's destroyed, a few swords and knives took too much heat and need repairs. I can see to those. Most are fine though, but all leather needs replacing. See?" He hands the sword he's holding to her, hilt first. The blade itself is fine, but the leather is dry, beyond salvaging.

( Up to you if you want to continue the thread or not! :3 )
Aamu


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