Sky Sector Catch-All: May

[wrathfulkhan]

Characters: Everyone!
Date: Throughout May
Location: The brand spanking new Sky Sector
Situation: Moving in, getting settled...housewarming parties?
Warnings/Rating: None anticipated. Please don't blow the new houses up. We just built them!

The Palace of Landed Sky has been largely demolished, and a good section of the land has been repurposed as Foreigner housing, should they choose to move into the new dwellings. But there's not just housing - there are shops and artisans and a space that may become part of the university. The new sector of the city is abuzz with possibilities.

Comments

[whitelotustile]

[And someone is surveying the shops with an eye to reopening his tea shop]

Hmmm... I shall have to check my budget.

[And ask Wan and Zuko, of course.]

[walkthedarkpath]

Vergil had realized at the end of the month he had next to no means to make his rent another month after he had splurged and bought himself more clothes. He felt it was an understandable expense. So when he finally ran out of luck and he heard of people moving in to the Sky Sector he finally made his way. The furniture he had acquired he would gather later, for now he had a case holding his clothes. Rebellion, and the zweihänder both wrapped in sheets and held to his back by leather straps around him and the swords. His other hand held onto a drunk that was likewise bound with leather straps. Nelo Angelo's armor was locked inside. He had cast the armor inside the box as soon as he acquired it.

Dragging the box and with the swords on his back it might seem he was overloaded but to him it was all light, it just looked heavy.

[jinzhong]

Meanwhile, Jackie was poking around in the Sky Sector, thinking about moving there. It would be nice to have his own place, he thought, but he'd gotten used to the dormitories - and even though he'd lived in the suites before, he found the amount of space here to be weird and slightly off-putting.

But hey, that guy looked like he needed help. And Jackie was trying to be a model citizen. Sort of.

"Hey, you need help with all that?"

[walkthedarkpath]

Vergil heard the voice and looked back confused a moment it showed before his cold mask returned to his face. "I can not pay for help." He was the type who expected everyone wanted something in return. The load was not heavy for him just awkward since the swords kept slipping in the straps. He really thinks no one will guess whats under the sheets strappd to his back.

He had not seen Jackie before but he was not against meeting someone new. If only because he was so very bored of late.

[jinzhong]

Jackie shrugged. "That's okay. I can help anyway, if you want. Just like...Foreigner to Foreigner, ya know?"

The things strapped to the guy's back kind of looked like weapons, but Jackie knew better than to ask, lest he get acquainted with them firsthand.

[walkthedarkpath]

"Alright." Vergil agreed after a moment, letting the trunk slip from his hand. "You have my thanks, and I am indebted to you." he spoke as he reached back and yanked one of the straps to make the sword slam back in place against his back. It was annoying him. With his hair down as it was he looked more like Dante, had he shaved and lot weight and muscle mass. "If you could carry this it would be a help. It is a little heavy I suspect." Armor inside of it, but it wasn't too bad.

closed to Toph

[highprofilerichkid]

The construction on the foreigner housing is almost completed: there's just a few finishing touches left before people can start moving in. The downswing in work means the site is a lot less crowded, but Tony's still around often enough, micromanaging keeping an eye on things.

At this particular moment, he's in the armor, eyeing an artful arrangement of large boulders in one of the complex's open areas. He frowns, and consults the blueprints. "Well, that's not going to work." They're very nice boulders, he's sure, but they happen to be sitting on right top of a water main. That's going to be a big pain in the ass if those pipes ever need servicing.

He grunts, and starts relocating the inconvenient landscaping focal point, one rock at a time. Just a few meters over should do it; he'll try to preserve the original layout so he doesn't get a grumpy landscaper berating him for sabotaging his artistic vision.

[seismometrics]

This sounds like a job for . . . the Blind Bandit! Also known as the Runaway. Also known as the Groundpuncher.

Cue theme music here.

. . . In reality, Tony had attracted the attention of the small earthbender anyway. The suit made him stand out like a beacon to her senses -- or at least a metal burrito with a very squishy center, which was equally as interesting. Attracted, Toph had wound her way through the remains of the palace grounds (now foreigner housing), seeking out the source, breaking into a half-trot.

She'd felt something like him once before. It was vital to find out if she could see the source of it again.

Tony will suddenly find the rock he's currently wrestling with much lighter -- and rise a couple of feet up into the air.

Truly peculiar behavior for a rock.

[highprofilerichkid]

"Hey! What the—" The sudden lightness of the rock would have been more helpful before he picked it up, because the rock getting lighter in the middle of lifting it just means he hits himself in the face with it. Graceful. Good thing he's wearing the armor.

He lets go of the boulder, expecting it to fall back down despite its physics-defying change in mass. Instead, it defies physics further, and stays floating in the air. It even rises a little higher. Possibly to mock him.

"Well." He stares at the flying rock in bemusement. "That's not normal."

[seismometrics]

It's the same. The metal is the same, encasing the body. Just like then.

But the voice is wrong. Not the one she knows at all.

Temporarily distracted, Toph had indeed allowed her rock to rise a little higher than necessary -- though swiftly recovers, tugging it back to line up with the others. It settles neatly into the soil as though it had never had any crazy ideas of its own.

(Thankfully for you, Tony, she also missed it hitting you in the face.)

"Hey," she proffers -- more as a casual greeting to call his attention to the fact that she's there.

Time to figure this out.

[highprofilerichkid]

Tony turns towards the voice. The speaker is... A really short little girl?

"Uh... Hi?" She's the only other person around. Is she responsible for the boulder-levitating? He's still watching that unusually lively rock out of the corner of his eye (in case it gets more adventurous and decides to try hitting him in the head all on its own).

"Mister Pebbles over here wouldn't happen to be yours, would he? Because he's getting a little frisky off his leash."

[bigdamnhiro]

Honestly, Hiro's just glad there's not a lot of stuff to move from their hotel room to the new housing, because with skinny arms and a glitching dimensional doorway, moving could end up being a real pain. As it is, there's only a few boxes of his and Tadashi's things; the rest will be coming from whatever Callaghan has in his apartment. Callaghan and both the Hamadas will be seen coming and going from the same housing suite toward the end of the first week of May, bringing small boxes and maybe the occasional item of furniture.

Hiro, for his part, seems to be overloading his boxes in an attempt to cram as much into one trip as possible and reduce the amount of legwork needed to finish the job; you might catch him stumbling with a precariously balanced box of scrap and metal bits and bobs, a smiling Megabot perched neatly on top. Or you'll find him lying on his back on the front porch, catching his breath, or passed out on the couch in the sparsely furnished living room for a nap, the front door left open. Otherwise he'll be putting the finishing touches on whatever's not finished; nailing down a shutter or tightening a door hinge somewhere.

Or, you know, trying to loft the beds in one room into a bunkbed. Maybe that.

[OOC: prose for starters since that seems to be the majority rule, but please do switch to actionspam if that's your jam coughPANDAcough]

my jaaaaaaaaam

[anewangle]

[While Tadashi's not exactly fond of the act of moving, he's spent large chunks of his time patiently doing the exact opposite of Hiro. Unpacking overstuffed boxes wherever he can, spreading the contents out to make for more reasonable load sizes. Plucking the top layer off of whatever Hiro's carrying and adding it to his own instead. Reaching out to give Megabot a steadying nudge when the little bot looks like he's about to slide from his perch. And all this with a few of his customary "knucklehead"s and hair ruffles.

He's trying. He's trying and it's really hard, but he's managing some semblance of normalcy. Sort of. There are still... moments. Moments when he's not moving or working and he has time to think on what he found out on the day Cass appeared. She's since disappeared again, that a blow in itself, but the knowledge gained is still there. It explains all of those strange little behaviors that the younger Hamada's been exhibiting, and Tadashi hates it. He's seen the looks that Hiro gives him when he thinks Tadashi isn't looking. Worry and guilt and obvious indecision, like the wrong word will send their little world shattering. Hiro's never supposed to look that way, but beyond that? It's a constant reminder of other things that aren't supposed to be, that can't be possible but must be and how completely unprepared Tadashi still is to deal with any of it-

He can hear Hiro moving around inside the room they'll be sharing, and he stops outside for a few moments to draw a steadying breath, readjusting his grip on the glowing plant settled in the crook of one elbow before stepping inside. Push past it. Normal. He can do this.]

... Hiro? What are you doing?

[Alright, it's pretty obvious what he's doing. A more appropriate response would be "why are you trying to do that by yourself?".]

[bigdamnhiro]

[Alright, so there's a mattress shoved against one wall and a toolkit strewn across the floor, and there's Hiro grunting and heaving and trying to negotiate the one bed frame on top of the other. There's no "it's not what it looks like" here, because it's exactly what it looks like.

Hiro freezes when Tadashi appears in the doorway, stooped under the weight of the top bed frame he's caddy-cornered across his shoulders, casting a momentary glance at his brother before turning his attention firmly to his work in progress instead.]

Uh...bunkbeds? [He bites his bottom lip. When did it get so hard to talk to Tadashi? Besides the obvious 'oh, by the way, you died.' One of the bedposts on the top bunk slips, and he stumbles a little as he tries to negotiate it back into place.] I, uh, figured we could make more room by lofting them.

[They haven't talked about it, and Tadashi pretends it's fine, but you can see it in his eyes when it gets quiet - there was a flash of it just now, for the span of a second when he appeared in the doorway. And Hiro doesn't know how to fix it. It's not like putting spare parts in a machine. People don't work that way. This was why he didn't want to tell him; he still thinks he would've rather stoppered the lie forever and dealt with the guilt than this.

He just wanted his brother back.]

[anewangle]

[The bedpost slips and Tadashi quickly sets his plant down so that he can take hold of the frame as well. In fact, he'll take all the weight if Hiro will let him. The better for Hiro to finish his work, after all.]

Not a bad idea. [His gaze flicks to Hiro for a moment before settling firmly on the floor.] You could've asked for help with the heavy lifting, though.

[Your shoulders aren't quite big or strong enough to handle this one alone, bro. Not without risking getting squashed, anyway. Really, there are a lot of things Hiro shouldn't be trying to shoulder on his own, but as both brothers are beginning to realize, some problems can't be easily solved by just adding another Hamada to the equation. They're playing it off fairly well during certain moments (at least to an outsider's eye), but for Tadashi? It's hard to find a new angle from where he's standing. The strange rift between them is a nearly tangible, and it's his fault. Hiro lied, sure, but Tadashi can understand why. He probably would've done the same were their positions reversed.

No, this isn't Hiro's fault. Hiro didn't run into a burning building. Hiro didn't get himself killed.]

[bigdamnhiro]

[Hiro looks at Tadashi at the same time Tadashi looks at him, a brief moment's eye contact, and then he's staring at the floor too. He stubbornly maintains his grip on the bed frame, only shimmying over a little so he can pick up the one end and try to align the bed posts while Tadashi holds up the other.]

It's fine, it's not even that heavy. There's no reason I couldn't handle it on my own.

[Are they even talking about the bunkbed, or is this turning into some weird double-sided conversation? Maybe. Hiro props one bedpost on top of the other and then looks around, because he has some wooden pegs and he drilled some holes in the top and bottom posts to make sure they'd stay on top of each other once positioned, and - over there.

Instead of asking for help reaching one of said pegs, he makes a quiet, frustrated noise and stretches a foot out, trying to grab it with his toes like an idiot.]

Besides, I didn't wanna bother you. I figured - rrgh - figured it'd just be easier if I dealt with it myself.

[Okay, so maybe he's doing the weird double meaning on purpose now. Because we can't talk about our feelings, we have to hide them behind meaningless bunkbed chatter.]

u can have some jelly with ur jam

[pushtheboundaries]

[it feels odd to be moving again; the apartment was pleasantly small, at first, especially when it was just him. but as things have progressed, as more and more things have grown like kudzu, spreading completely out of control...

maybe it's time to stop trying to stop it, per se, and simply manage as best he can with it all. use it to his advantage, or at least...stop treating it like a problem. maybe all he needs, really...is a new angle.

so here he is, moving his own boxes...and what pieces of furniture he has, likely with another's help for the biggest pieces. not Hiro's, though- Hiro will be given exactly one chance to try and 'help', and then pointed towards another task that he can actually accomplish without, you know, breaking anything.

but there'll be a point where Robert will find the boy on the couch, and peer down at him with an expression somewhere between concern, amusement, and...something else entirely. that something else is extremely hard to read, and only lingers for a few moments before he reaches down to lightly shake Hiro's shoulder.]

Up. Use your bed if you're going to nap, at least.

[bigdamnhiro]

[Hiro scrunches his nose and stirs fitfully at the feeling of a hand on his shoulder, but doesn't wake immediately, mumbling soft stream-of-consciousnesses in his sleep instead.]

Quiddit, Tadashi...m'sorry m'a liar....now stop lookin' like a sad...sackashit.... [He bats clumsily at the hand on him, curling away from the contact.] ...'n lemme sleep.

[There's a couple of things that manage to filter through to him: firstly, that the hand he comes into contact with is fairly more calloused than Tadashi's, and secondly, that the voice chiding him is definitely not his brother's. This is strange, he thinks, and he finds himself waking and blinking up at Callaghan with bleary-eyed confusion.

Oh. Whoops. He exhales slowly, pushing himself upright and rubbing at his eyes with the heel of his palm.]

Professor...sorry, I...guess I fell asleep. Didn't realize. [He grimaces, blinking around the room halfway in a daze.] Also, I may have taken the bed apart.

[pushtheboundaries]

[those are some...interesting sleep mumbles. Robert is going to deliberately not think much on them, instead only tilting his head as Hiro pushes himself up.

he's more focused on something else Hiro has said.]

...Why did you take the bed apart?

[bigdamnhiro]

[Hiro yawns, nodding faintly and dragging a hand down his face. It sounds crazy, doesn't it? When you put it like that. He dangles his legs over the edge of the couch, sitting on the edge of the seat and looking just a tad embarrassed with himself.]

I was trying to make bunk beds. You know, so there'd be some extra space.

Closed to Tadashi

[pushtheboundaries]

Easy, easy...!

[the new houses are well-built, but it goes without saying that if you get a bunch of engineers in one - or, at least, people familiar with engineering - they're going to make some adjustments. with Callaghan and the Hamadas, some of those adjustments are deceptively simple...which is to say, this one he's only using one Hamada to assist.

namely, the elder, and the one he's used to working with- as well as the one he knows for a fact takes a certain amount of care in his work.

Callaghan's verbal caution is more out of habit than anything - he trusts Tadashi is more than capable of performing the weld, especially with Callaghan himself bracing the pieces in place. he trusts Tadashi to be aware of that, but also to follow it, because quite honestly one or both of them could get hurt if either messes up, here]

[anewangle]

[Between the brim of his baseball cap and the protection of his welding goggles, Callaghan won't be able to see the way Tadashi's eyebrows furrow, but the professor's seen this particular expression from his student often enough to recognize it on the rest of his face. That careful concentration Tadashi always used when working on anything in the lab, be it be simple coding or machining vital components for that overgrown marshmallow of his.

And just like Callaghan knows Tadashi's working habits, Tadashi knows his professor well enough to know that those cautionary words aren't a slight on his ability. They're just a reminder, and one the younger man can't say he minds having at the moment, especially considering recent revelations.

Following directions is easy. Simple prompts are a comfort.]

Almost done...

[He keeps the weld going at a safe, but steady pace, and it's not long before Tadashi pulls back, carefully turning the torch off before he flips up the shields on his goggles to inspect the work.]

... I think we're good.

[pushtheboundaries]

Make sure it's secure...

[and once Tadashi pulls away, he lingers there for a few moments more to give Tadashi time to investigate his work. even then, he waits a few more seconds before - slowly - lowering his arms, ready to catch the piece if it falls. a bit more and...]

...well done.

[he can actually see it, now, and it certainly meets his standards of work. not that he expected anything less, but...he offers Tadashi a smile as he works his arms, a bit, loosening the muscles now that he doesn't have to hold them and the weight in place]

It's good to see your skills are as sharp as ever.

[anewangle]

[He sighs a little as he removes the goggles completely, maneuvering them around the brim of his hat with practiced ease. Geez, nerd, you could take the dumb hat off while you're working, but nooo...]

Thank you. [He sets his equipment on a table off to one side (the better to keep Hiro from suddenly running into it somehow) and offers Callaghan a smile. His skills haven't faded, no, nor his dedication to his work, but there's something different about that smile. Something not insincere, but certainly lacking in some of the enthusiasm that would normally come with a compliment from his professor.]

I'm glad to see it too, to be honest. I was a little worried I'd lose my touch after a month of cleaning bathrooms.

[No he wasn't, but let's keep things light, yes no?]

[pushtheboundaries]

[after talking with Hiro, he thinks he might have an idea for that odd smile...Robert tilts his head for a moment, then offers a thin one of his own, deciding to start with something else that's been bothering him-]

I'm glad we're going to be putting those skills to better use, then. You were wasted there. Are you looking forwards to this new project?

[the whole 'business', that is. though Callaghan has a few other projects he could be referring to, really.]