dock rebuild | ota / mingle

[lunchbreaks]

characters: Aziraphale, Crowley, Daylight, Eleven, Stone, Eliot and YOU
location: The docks
date/time: Early Nov through Nov 11th
content: A mingle log for rebuilding the docks and/or generally if you'd like to have your character help with a mini-project. Feel free to throw up your own TLs! I am also still on slowatus until the 6th but wanted to put this up with ample time before Sandman!
warnings: N/A. If you would like to handwave your involvement, please just lmk and I'll add you to a list or something so everyone can just assume your character was around

The wood, cut and planked, sits in a pile on the beach, covered in whatever tarp-like object can be found to keep it from getting wet. On the bright side, the ferry comes in when they finish gathering supplies for the dock - so they don't have to gather more, and they don't have to rebuild a ferry. Still, large trunks are prepared for weather and hammered into the water, and don't get much of a chance to stand alone before a small group of people descend on them to cobble together a little dock. Not as grand nor as finely-made as the previous one, it will be nonetheless sturdy and usable, with hopefully no further changes for the last two years it may need to exist.

Comments

[worthallthis]

You're welcome.

[And now they don't have to imagine what could happen if there were an accident. The rest go into the same pocket at the first batch.]

So where are we putting this batch of wood.

[lunchbreaks]

Ah, on the freshly-completed part of the dock. It's-- not the greatest looking dock so far, but it's sturdy!

Sturdy enough to bear the weight of the wood. It'll have to dock the ferry, after all. And a lot of people will be walking over it.

[worthallthis]

Sturdy is more important than pretty.

[That's agreement, though the Soldier eyes the partially-completed dock as they approach critically. Maybe if they shaved the edges of the planks a little on the edges that would make it more regular-looking, at least?

It eases the load down on the part already nailed in place, pausing to examine the nailwork. At least it's all stable, even if it's not very even. Not much to be done about that now.]

Could be a lot worse. For a bunch of amateurs.

[lunchbreaks]

I have built a bridge before!

[ Honestly Aziraphale would have gone through the effort of making it pretty if he hadn't planked all the wood by hand. Considering they're all even widths, and none of them live edges, he thinks it a win. ]

[worthallthis]

[Yes, but was it a good bridge?]

I've built.

[The Soldier pauses. They know, but they can't remember. It's frustrating, and makes it hard to do such a simple thing as banter.]

Something. I don't know what. But I know I've done this before.

[lunchbreaks]

See, so we're not amateurs after all.

And I daresay it was a decent bridge, you can even walk over it. It goes to the armory!

[worthallthis]

[That being the bare minimum of what's necessary for a bridge. Good job, Aziraphale! The Soldier gives him a narrower look, in the midst of kneeling down to start placing a new plank.]

You were that far out. And I didn't know about it. So I couldn't be there to watch your back.

[Aziraphale. Come on, you make their job so much harder.]

[lunchbreaks]

I didn't need you to. And Riku was there the whole time.

Which, have you seen him lately? I'm rather worried about him. I thought he'd been over by the old boathouse...

[worthallthis]

[Riku is fine and good, but not the Soldier. They smother the irritated noise they want to make, though, because it's Aziraphale. He's almost as bad about his own safety as Crowley.]

No, I haven't. I don't usually. See him much, anyway. I saw the message on the network, though.

[lunchbreaks]

What?

[ He pauses this moment to check the network at which point he adds his own comment, which I'm retroactively saying happens right now. ]

Oh dear.

How long has that been?

[worthallthis]

The message went up earlier today. Someone in it said they hadn't seen Riku since during the hallucinations. That seems about right, I haven't seen him since then, either.

[The Soldier focuses on getting the plank straight and fishing out a nail to hammer in. ... They use their metal hand rather than a hammer, curled into a fist and using the side of the palm. Why not, right?]

Will you hold the other end of the plank? Please?

[They're not ignoring the Riku conversation, they're just multi-tasking.]

[lunchbreaks]

--Yes, yes of course.

[ He obliges to get the planks steady. ]

That's worrisome.

I hope he's doing alright. Perhaps we should go looking for him after this.

--That doesn't hurt your hand, dear?

[worthallthis]

The arm doesn't feel pain like that. Just bashing things with it doesn't hurt.

[Nice of him to ask, though. There are other ways to make the arm hurt, but they all require getting deep inside it and fucking around with the nerve connections. They keep hammering. It's actually pretty effective, and gives them better control over the angle of their strikes.]

After this long, I don't think we could track Riku. There have been too many other tracks. We can look if you want, though.

[lunchbreaks]

Well, he's enshrouded in darkness. How hard could he be to find?

[ Very. This entire place is enshrouded in darkness, Aziraphale. ]

[worthallthis]

[That earns him a brief look, before selecting another nail.]

Aziraphale. Everywhere is shrouded in darkness unless someone has a lantern close by. Or is at the bonfire.

[lunchbreaks]

Right, but I don't mean this kind of darkness, I mean.

Darkness.

[worthallthis]

That's. Not something I can tell apart from regular darkness. I'm just a murder machine, not an angel.

[They say it almost flippantly, as if attempting to make a joke.]

[lunchbreaks]

But you aren't a murder machine. Neither a murder nor the machine, come now.

[worthallthis]

[The Soldier makes a little sigh. Even if they do kind of think of themselves that way, sometimes, they hadn't meant to bother Aziraphale with it.]

It was supposed to be a joke.

[Besides, if it's not a person, gotta have some various ways of referring to itself. And murder machine has a better ring to it than brainwashed assassin.]

[lunchbreaks]

Well, it wasn't very funny, dear.

You're perfectly safe with Crowley and myself. No murdering, no... machining.

[worthallthis]

Can't do much about the machining.

[They hold up the high-tech metal hand and wiggle their fingers at Aziraphale, before getting back to the nails.]

But no murdering. Promise. Unless someone tries murder someone under my protection.

[The Soldier does hope that's okay, at least. They don't think they can just... not protect people that they value.]

[lunchbreaks]

Alright, fine. But only under a very dangerous circumstance, dear.

[worthallthis]

If someone is trying to murder you or Crowley, that counts as very dangerous. Just so you're aware I am not letting that happen.

[Look, they're being assertive for once, Aziraphale. This is the one thing the Soldier will be assertive over: keeping your dumb asses alive and well.]

[lunchbreaks]

That's very well and kind, dear, but we've managed a long time by ourselves, you know. We're not completely helpless.

[worthallthis]

Not completely, no.

[They'll give you that. Since you in particular are still scary, Aziraphale. (Crowley is not scary. Crowley is pretty helpless.)]

But your powers worked better there. You had backup. You can be hurt now. I'd rather you didn't if I could stop it.