Paved Roads Quest Catch-all! | OTA

[dripdrive]

Who: Emporio, You and maybe even some asshole ostrich (Anasui)
What: Paved Roads quest
When: Throughout May
Where: The city streets further towards the forest.
Warnings: Anasui being Anasui.

For a while, Heliolisk has been in charge of expanding the city streets further towards the forest, making transport of goods and services easier and overall expanding Bottlecap Bay. The project had been slow going but progressing well until about two months ago, when Heliolisk noticed that some of the streets have somehow diminished in length. The reason why remains unknown. Perhaps it was a quirk of the forest that the guilds didn't understand - 'Maybe the forest doesn't want to be expanded into?' - but that didn't explain why some of the roads closer to town were also disassembled, making patches in the road. Many other Pokemon also pointed out there are a number of cobblestone towers alongside the path wherever these patches are, obviously sourced from the road itself!

The mystery of why the roads are shortening is largely left to speculation in favour of actually solving the problem. Hence why the quest has appeared on the quest board again, this time from Polteageist: they need reliable Pokemon to help clear the roads of debris, flatten the dirt where it needs to be flattened and place the cobblestone back.

There are many roads to be fixed and you'll likely find Pokemon already there, regardless if you're doing a patch job or going all the way to the forest's edge to re-expand the paths. One of those Pokemon is a large Espathra, who only casts a half-glance at you before going back to what he was doing. He seems to be placing cobblestone in a very particular way...

...and according to the Cubone rounding up as many as possible for the job, that's entirely typical. He can't be sure if it's something he specifically did in their own world, mind you, but he's pretty sure he would have if possible. Emporio notably seems more concerned with just gathering stones to be available for Anasui to place. Perhaps it's a strength thing. Perhaps not? He's absolutely doing his part, but occasionally he'll watch someone else putting their stones down and then glance in Anasui's direction before wincing. As if he knows something.

And maybe he does, because after a good bit of work with their own team, Emporio will jump.

"...Anasui's gone!"

...It's probably fine, right? Best to just focus on your own work.

Although... if you are placing cobblestone down, you may notice Anasui behind you, pulling up the stones you JUST placed and swapping their places. What is up with that???

[[OOC - To account for how many are involved in Anasui and Emporio's team for Paved Roads, and the fact that the Mods saw fit to refer to him in the quest response over all, this is a thread-jack friendly open log! Specify if you want Anasui or Emporio most of all, but otherwise, there's no holds barred here. That said, if you do not want threadjacks, please note this in your tag in. That way it doesn't get too unwieldy for you.]]

Comments

Team Hotblooded Idiots (Akechi, Akari, and Ren) - Threadjacking welcome

[truthdecided]

The situation with the roads is... odd, to say the least. It feels like deliberate sabotage or absurdly inconvenient mischief.

But Akechi's eager to compensate for his failure last month by taking as many quests as possible, Ren's just as eager, and Akari... is Akari.

She's Little Miss Hero, eager to apply herself wherever possible.

Well, at least he can trust her to put in some good work. So, to start, Akechi flutters into the air, eyeing scattered roots and plants. "I believe we'll be more productive if each of us handles a separate task. So, I'll handle removing weeds and roots, one of you can flatten the earth, and the other can place the cobblestones... Unless you have any objections?"

[ooc: Threadjacks welcome, especially since Anasui came up in the prompt.]

[arceusstansme]

"I'll take flattening the earth." she said, holding up a nub. "I think I have Rollout understood and this would be good practice for it."

[colorsflyinghigh]

"Guess that leaves the cobblestones to me," Ren says with a nod. "Sounds good."

They're probably a bit heavy for his little kitty body... not helped by the ache in his joints. Well- no pain, no gain, right?

"Right-- let's get started, then."

[truthdecided]

"Agreed." With a plan in motion, Akechi dives at the nearest weeds and roots, plucking them up in his talons with all the strength he can muster before tossing them aside. "I'll keep everything organized in a pile, to minimize the workload."

[arceusstansme]

[Akari watches Akechi for a few moments before leaning over to Ren and whispering.]

Looks kinda silly doesn't it? Some of that plant life is bigger than he is.

@ Emporio to start (but threadjacking welcome!)

[telewarped]

Shoka has just flattened out a section of the ground with a vicious strike from her Wood Hammer attack when Emporio calls out. Tail-stick still in hand, she glances up at him, then around at their crack construction team.

Sure enough, there's no sign of Anasui.

"... So?"

[seacub]

To say the cubone looks nervous is an understatement. He's not even looking at Shoka when he speaks- instead trying to seek out Anasui's presence from wherever he might have gone.

"So, you've seen how he's been working with us. There's a reason all of us started focusing on preparing the land and stones instead of placing them..! What if he's gone to where the other teams are working?"

[telewarped]

Shoka has apparently been preoccupied, because she hasn't really seen exactly how Anasui's been working or noticed any reason for concern. She was under the impression that he was just really passionate about road design (and right now, she much prefers the process of tearing out and pulverizing obstacles to the more delicate art of placing stones anyway).

"Sounds like he's their problem, then," she replies blandly.

[seacub]

"If he's their problem, it's going to become our problem I'm pretty sure though... ...he's probably undoing all their work as we speak..."

He is correct, oh well.

Emporio groans, but understandably, there's not a whole lot they can do right now. "...I'm a little leery of trying to place any stones myself until he's back too, for the same reason..."

There's just something disheartening about that...

[telewarped]

Right; they're all technically a team, even if Anasui decided to go off on his own. Ugh.

"Well, what do you wanna do about it? Put a leash on the guy?"

Open to Threadjacking, let's do it

[bladeofnymeia]

[For Firoza's part, she's focusing on pounding the earth flat. You wouldn't associate a little Nidoran with that, but she seems to have a method for it...circling, patting, circling again, and going over to the edge of the line where the stones are to see if her leveling job is actually staying level. Obviously they're not going to be cutting directly through, say, large hills or anything, but she's making a concerted effort.

And sometimes she'll find a really nice rock and carefully bring it to the pile Emporio seems to be making.]

This one looks good.

[She's helping!]

[seacub]

[After a certain number of times where Anasui undoes your work, a 'mon falls into the pattern of preparing land and stones pretty quick.]

Oh! Yeah, that one's nice and flat...

This is going a lot faster than I expected it to, if I'm honest. I kinda worried I didn't have the skill set for it...

[Granted, he's mostly just sorting rocks for Anasui to grab and place, but hey.]

[bladeofnymeia]

It doesn't hurt to try, even if you're unsure. [Hmm hmm, how about this other stone? Round on one side but quite flat on the other, you just pound it down into the dirt a bit and it should be fine.]

Why did you think it wouldn't go quickly?

[dripdrive]

It's sorting rocks. Any idiot can do it, most of all you, Emporio.

[Anasui appears out of nowhere and leans over and extends his neck right between Emporio and Firoza. ignoring Firoza, He quickly snatches the next stone into his beak and just walks off to place the next one.

Anasui, please.]

[seacub]

[Excuse him, while he places his head briefly in his hands.]

.....That, for one...

[mister anasui please]

Uh- I guess also just the matter of being able to prepare the road for the stones though. It's easy to feel like what we're doing is 'small' when other pokemon can just...take a step and flatten something for a few meters I guess.

[At least Anasui seemed to like that last rock though.]

i am *always* open to threadjacks, let's go

[outbounds]

[ Emmet is probably only just coming back from another trip off to the Spire's supply rooms and workshops to grab more cobblestone for everyone's efforts when Emporio makes that particular announcement. Which means that he does take a glance around to where the various different teams are working, and ... yeah, they sure are missing one cream colored ostrich. ]

... So he is. Is that a problem?

Heeheeehoohoo

[seacub]

[Emporio takes a deep breath.

Grimaces.]

Y...you know how Heliolisk said the roads somehow got shorter..?

lmao,

[outbounds]

Yyyyeeeesssss...?

[ Slowly, drawn out, prompting.

Yes, Emporio? It sounds like you have something more to say? ]

poor emporio like someone whose dog ate everyones left shoe,

[seacub]

A...Anasui might have been the one...um...taking it apart...

[It's fine though, because now he's putting it together again! Y...Yay?]

emporio and his very big, very tall dog who keeps chewing up things

[outbounds]

... Why? Was there a problem with it before?

[ asks someone with probably at least some background in civil engineering, all things considered, ]

/slides in here (threadjack away!!)

[dunchies]

[ Laios doesn't quite catch Emporio's emergency call about a missing bird. For what it’s worth, he’s too focused on clearing debris from the road, digging up whatever mess he can before jumping down with his front paws to pack the dirt. When it looks ready enough, he heads back to grab a bag of cobblestone, dragging it over to his original spot.

Only to find it paved over. And another spot he just finished earlier back to being a mess again. ]

... What.

is he here? is he not here? who knows

[dripdrive]

[Excuse me, it's not a mess. It's extraordinarily organised. It just looks like a mess because you've been working on it. He's just been fixing it. Laios will find that the uprooted cobblestone isn't too far from the new hole. In fact, it's sorted incredibly neatly by size and shape. Some of those stones he used are missing though, which Anasui currently has with him.

He's remarkably quick for such a large creature. And he can move very quietly, for some reason...]

oh my god lmfao

[seacub]

Ahhhhh....

[Right when they weren't even looking...]

This is what I'm talking about...

[Frustrated, he calls out- seemingly to the air-] We're supposed to be fixing these..!!

[dunchies]

H-hey... I'm doing my best... [ Emporio why would you say that about his hard work. Look at him. He's got depression now. ]

At least someone stacked them for me again. Was the pavement really that messy?

LMFAO OH NO LAIOS...

[seacub]

N- Not you!!!

[he's so sorry he didnt mean it noooo laios he didnt mean itttttt

Frantic, the cubone emphasizes the stack of stones.]

It's Anasui..! He did the stacking and the de-stoning!