[ota] over the bridge & far away

[ghostfluster]

i. setting up

[there's been a bulletin up for a little while now, but on a morning not too long after newbie arrivals, Rosa does do a followup on the network for anyone that missed it:]

[un: eyeseeyou]

hey guys -- rosa here. if you're up for getting a sandpath laid the rest of the way over the pont corneille bridge with me & jan so we can see what's what in the rest of the city, come to the start of the bridge after your work shift is over today (& following days? this might take us a while guys)

yeah we know our notice said pont mathilde, but i don't think any of us really want to cut right through the middle of the island after the other day. still won't hurt to have ready access to it though.

we'd really appreciate any help people want to give -- we've both got permission to use the sand for this, but it's a hell of a lot to move.

ii. and moving

[it's a pretty crude setup when you get there, honestly; since most tools and things like wheelbarrows are right out, there's not much for it but to haul the sand from where it's stored to the bridge point and beyond, using buckets and heavy-duty bags like the ones brought on the Paris trip.

Jan (laytheghost) is a little way out on the Pont Corneille itself, getting the actual path started; Rosa seems to be preoccupied more with actually carrying sand from storage and piling it up for use right there. Jan seems pretty preoccupied and will wave off questions at the moment, but Rosa seems willing to talk (well, 'talk'), if you want. in fact, if you didn't work out what you'd be doing beforehand, she'll insist on it so she can assign you a thing to do and give instructions if you need them: she's the one organizing this shindig, apparently.]

((heads up that jan's player may tag around in here a bit later, but i'll be doing the bulk of postrunning!))

Comments

[kiljoy]

[Kilgrave sees the message on the network and decides to go check it out one fine blustery afternoon. Wind and sand, not the best combination. He's dressed in one of his rather smart suits which already has a fine dusting of sand on it and he has absolutely no intention of helping to lay any sand paths ever. He's just here to check it out and find out who this girl Rosa is that he's been talking to.

So he wanders up until he catches the eye of the girl who seems to be directing everything. She's tiny. No wonder she needed help.]

Are you Rosa?

[He waves, pointing to the message on the device. Hello, is he talking to the right person?]

[ghostfluster]

[she lowers the bags she's carrying to the heap and then flashes him a thumbs up; a little preoccupied, perhaps, but not unhappy to be interrupted. he is perhaps right to avoid the labour here: sand is a pain in the ass to haul by hand, it seems.]

caught me. who's asking?

[kiljoy]

Kilgrave.

[Yep. The one and only. He shows her that first and then types another message:]

Pleasure to meet you, Rosa. Thought I'd come see how things are coming along here. How's progress so far?

[ghostfluster]

[Kevin*, she has the momentary and overwhelming urge to type, but doesn't. be nice, Rosa. it's damned hard for him to talk to anyone out here in the open, isn't it? and he did actually come out to see her -- or this project -- which is a surprise.

she thought he'd look scarier.

her actual response, though, is perhaps surprisingly polite; she just nods once and dusts her hands off, device briefly stuck in her hoodie pocket, before offering one to shake]

nice to meet you in person. it's slow going right now, but i think once we have everything set up so we can just scatter sand from the mouth of the bridge it won't take long. it'll be a few days to have it laid all the way down the road unless we have a big turnout of helpers though

[kiljoy]

[Kilgrave is tall, but not physically imposing. He shakes her hand, and this is all very pleasant and cordial. Being out in public is safer in many ways: anyone going after him would have to be pretty desperate to risk an ambush here with all the people around.

He reads her message and nods.]

Looks like a lot of work. Let me know when it's ready. I'd like to see what's over there.

[ghostfluster]

if you want to take a sandbag out sometime youreself we're keeping them here.

[he's made his intentions clear enough, but hey! putting that out in the open doesn't hurt]

if not then yeah sure i'll give you a ring in a while

not literally

[kiljoy]

[He smiles at the 'not literally' comment. And yeah, he won't be picking up any sandbags so he just ignores that part.]

Sure. Quite the endeavour you've got here. Best of luck with it all.

[And that's a goodbye from him, unless she has anything further to add.]

[ghostfluster]

[tips a tiny salute at his retreating back, smiling crookedly

that could've gone worse.]

[worlds]

[Ouni's... not exactly a team player or the sort to helpfully volunteer for community service, but he is interested in exploring more of this place, especially if it might help get them out of here faster.

... Still, again, actively offering to help is, uh, hard for him. And thus, while he does head over there, he ends up awkwardly loitering around the area instead of approaching anyone or doing anything just yet. Hi.]

[ghostfluster]

[fortunately, Rosa's the nosy type; it doesn't take long before she notices him awkwardly hanging about and does her best to catch his eye.

she waggles her eyebrows when she does, since her hands are full of sandbags at the moment; a silent hi! what's up sort of expression and gesture]

[worlds]

[Ouni has no idea what the eyebrow waggling is supposed to mean, but since she's noticed him, so he'll walk on over. Admittedly, his body language might come off more as combative than friendly, but that's just his default state, oops.]

you're the one setting up paths?

[ghostfluster]

[she does recognize combative -- her own stance gets a little more drawn up and tensed, though she's not getting ready to run away on him or anything]

yeah rosa's the name. jan's the one on the bridge right now. you interested?

[worlds]

in seeing more of this place? yes

[Easier to say than something like wanting to help. Which he most definitely does not want to do, and the fact that his interest would happen to produce the same effect as helping is a complete coincidence—]

[ghostfluster]

pretty straightforward then!

[she nods towards the stack of sandbags they've already piled up]

if you want to head out the bridge and get the path stretching further out you're welcome to. if you want to come back in a few days and check it out instead you can too. up to you i'm not a boss

[worlds]

[...]

better to get it done sooner than later

[As he types that out, markings form on his skin. Similar symbols, faintly glowing, appear near a few of the sandbags, before they then proceed to levitate into the air. Another reason he chose to volunteer: physical labour's a lot easier when you've got telekinesis-esque abilities.]

[ghostfluster]

[she opens her mouth to say something

and then realizes she can't say anything so just kinda leaves it open for a second

and then shuts it]

ok i was not expecting cool psychic powers

[worlds]

[Thanks for not getting them all killed, Rosa.

He has no idea what "psychic" (... how do you even pronounce that?) means, but he can guess at the general gist.]

what were you expecting

[ghostfluster]

[picks up a sandbag herself, balancing it on her hip and typing one handed]

manual lifting haha

im not complaining though whatever works for you

and thank you

[worlds]

don't thank me. i'm not doing this for you

[Keeping his device afloat with the same ability, he reaches over to pick up a sandbag the normal way as well.]

[ghostfluster]

what can i say im a polite girl

[also thoroughly unfazed by grump, apparently.

she's fine with walking as they work and talk, though, making their careful way out onto the bridge with ye olde sand load]

that's a pretty useful power

[worlds]

[Shuffling his bag so that he can type on his device:]

i guess

[Apart from the tiny problem of a country hating his people for it, but ehhhh.

In any case, he's always had it, aside from one brief period, so he doesn't know what life is like without it.]

[ghostfluster]

[on the one hand she's not sure he really wants to talk more about it

on the other she absolutely believes in the principle of: won't know until you ask

hmmmmm

ACTUALLY BE POLITE AND DROP IT
> ASK MORE QUESTIONS]

how much can you lift & how far can it go? that's already more youre floating than i can haul jeez

[worlds]

[Ouni is, like. The worst person to ask questions to, to be honest.

He eyes her for a moment, wondering, before:]

it's not infinite

[Sort of answering the question, while still being vague as heck.]

[ghostfluster]

nooo you're like ms lu li

when you dont want to answer stuff you get vague

[weirdly, she doesn't seem put off by it? she's smiling, even as she starts to lay down the sand from the bag she's hauling.]

[worlds]

[He's not 100% sure what she just called him, because curse his lacking literacy skills, but he can guess.]

i answered

[ghostfluster]

only sort of

[worlds]

[...]

not my problem if you aren't satisfied with that

[ghostfluster]

fair enough

you're probably going to get that question a lot though, stuff's a lot more potentially silent floating than being dragged and carried around

it's appreciated either way

[worlds]

[...]

is it that unusual

[ghostfluster]

i think so

the only other person i've seen able to do anything close is carpet, and he does that by, well, being a magic carpet and carrying things. mostly he floats himself rather than them

i.

[hoaxer]

YOU GIRLS ARE ALWAYS BUSY WITH SOMETHING.

[It's a good thing.]

[ghostfluster]

we're just going a bit stir crazy i think

not that i don't appreciate our hosts! but i'll feel better once we have the start of a way out of here set up or at least the search for one going

anyway you do building too so this is a little pot kettle dont you think

[...]

im teasing

[imitationsoul]

[ Miach has never actually taken up her officially assigned job yet, so she's essentially free all day every day... so when she chooses to arrive a good while late, it's just that. A choice. A choice that is absolutely made to avoid work.

But she'd indicated interest in this expansion project before, or at least what's to be found there, and the loss of her friend Tuan has left her restless. So why not distract herself with this?

It reeks of volunteering to help here, so Miach is going to kind of avoid being too useful though.

She approaches Rosa with a wave, then holds up her device. ]

I'm 'werther'. I believe we texted.

[ghostfluster]

[she waves back -- a little awkwardly, under the bags she's hauling, and turns to drop them on an existing stack before answering in kind.]

rosa. nice to meet you in person. you've come to check out how things are going?

[she doesn't seem to be instantly pressganging miach into heavy lifting, at least...]

[imitationsoul]

My actual name is Miach.

[ Werther is a fun username for online and all, but in real life she'd probably fail to listen to it. Well, if there ever is noise for listening. ]

Do you have any idea what there's to find yet?

[ghostfluster]

i dont remember if i mentioned mine, but it's rosa. 'nice to meet you' stands.

[she'd tap her foot on the sand at the second question -- she shifts her weight to do it briefly, then stops -- if that wouldn't make noise]

it's a main road, or it used to be. i'm hoping we hit a commercial area right away, though this close to a bridge it might just be office buildings and we'll need to turn into side streets for more variation. depends how similar european city layouts are to american ones.

either way we're going to cross the tip of creepo island in the middle of the river, so i guess we get a closer look at that mess too.

II

[justbeingknife]

[ ooc: sorry to be late! thought I posted here already for some reason

As promised, Majima showed up at storage, but hadn't actually worked out beforehand what he'd be doing. Since the name of the game appeared to be piling up sand, however, it seemed like his work was cut out for him. ]

Rosa-chan, dunno if you're busy but I found the sand. Figure I'll start hauling it over unless ya got somethin' specific in mind.

[ghostfluster]

[she waves at him cheerfully enough, happy to see him]

that would work! it's more of a pain to bring it out here than to unload the individual bags over the bridge, though -- you sure?

[not that she thinks he's afraid of hard work, exactly]

[justbeingknife]

Your call, Rosa-chan,

[ he said, with an abridged version of his customary full-service bow. ]

You know who ya got coming out here to help, so whatever gets the job done fastest.

[ghostfluster]

right. let me introduce you to the guys at the storehouse then, so they know to let you in and out, and we can start hauling some back

[she beckons him down one of the Reims sandpaths proper]

i'm holding out for someone to invent some kind of sci-fi floating wheelbarrow for us sometime, but until then, i guess we're all getting serious exercise

[justbeingknife]

[ He followed her lead at an easy walk. ]

Yeah, guess so. But that's fine. Ain't like this place has any 24-hour gyms.

How'd ya manage to get them to lend you the sand?

[ghostfluster]

[she purses her lips for a moment; it looks almost stern, until you realize she's holding back a laugh]

i did my job maintaining the regular ones -- you have a point about it being a good gym replacement -- but then i kept nagging them in between

they don't mind as long as i do it in free time

[justbeingknife]

What, so all I gotta do is ask 'em a million times,
and they'll just fold and give me stuff?

Sounds like a pretty sweet deal. Who do I bug first?

[ Majima's smile suggested that this wasn't actually a serious question, but it was a good thing to know that they were reasonable with requests. ]

[ghostfluster]

you'll still have to deal with carrying it away!

[but she's laughing outright, soundless, a hand half over her mouth]

i can introduce you to a few of them, though, make it easier. they're not bad people, just...real cautious, you know?

[justbeingknife]

Yeah, I guess. Probably won't help if I'm the one askin'.

I can be pretty convincing when I can actually talk, though!

[ghostfluster]

we can try Sunday, then. or i guess you could talk to them in the reset room workshop...? it's not like we're 100% unable to chat even in this place

[justbeingknife]

Sunday it is. Everyone's gathered together, anyhow.

Think it'd be a good idea to bring a gift to smooth things over?