RP:Painted Crew

From HollowWiki

Part of the Rynvale New Dawn Arc


LOCATION: Rynvale Sewers

It was dark, and the sewer intersection was quiet. Along the bottom edges of the wall it was obvious that the water level was at least a foot lower than normal. The cause was equally obvious, with large piles of rubble dominating two of the major tunnels out. And the stench in the room could peel the rind off an orange, and set it on fire.

At first there was no noise other than the trickle of water and some unsavory objects floating within it colliding, but slowly an erratic scratching sound became audible. Direction was difficult to tell in the sewer, with echoes resounding from all sides, but soon the source was revealed, as a small gray fermin backed into the main tunnel from a smaller side passage, jerkily dragging a pick axe bigger than he was behind him. Even as he turned and started yanking the axe down the main tunnel, another fermin, this one with black fur, came into view dragging a full-sized shovel. And it was followed by more fermin, all of them dragging tools or buckets toward the blocked intersection. None of them spoke as they toiled, nor did they bother to avoid the sewage, uncaringly dragging their feet or tails through it. A lone brown fermin, larger than the others, moved out of the pack and up onto a good vantage point. From there he issued quiet commands and gestures, moving each of them into position to do the work they were there for. All of the fermin had seemingly random paint splotches on their faces and heads, but the leader appeared to have far more markings than the workers.

Kinter and Binks were the first two into place. Kinter’s fur was brown, and he seemed to be built much heftier than the other workers, while Binks was an average-sized blackfur. Kinter grabbed hold of the handle and braced it against a rock while Binks lifted the head up into the air, then started walking down the shaft, raising the axe into an upright position. Once he had gotten it into an upright position, Binks turned it so that the point of the axe was pointing the right direction. He nodded to Kinter, who was still crouched down and holding the handle in place. Kinter nodded back and made sure he was holding on tight, as Binks suddenly shoved against the top of the axe as hard as he could. The point of the axe whanged weakly into the rock, having only the weight of the axehead behind the blow. But it still managed to dislodge a small chip of rock, which Binks quickly grabbed and tossed down to one of the bucket teams before turning to lift the axe back into its upright position to repeat the operation.

Elsewhere other teams were working similarly. Another one such was that of Gurt and Trif, two small brownfurs, each with only one stripe of paint on their faces, a brown that almost blended into their fur. They were lifting a prybar into place and wedging the point into the gap between two rocks. Once it was securely wedged in, they both grabbed onto the far end and began tugging downward on it, trying to dislodge the rocks. When the rock refused to budge, Gurt tried hanging bodily from the end, grabbing on with both feet and hands, while Trif wrapped his arms around Gurt’s waist and pulling. After a few grunts and squeaks and no movement from the rock, Trif let go of Gurt and scampered up a nearby rockface and onto a higher rock. He looked down over the edge at the bar with Gurt hanging off the end still kicking his feet trying to make it move. Trif stepped back, then rushed forward hurled himself off the rock and through the air at the bar. His body hit it straight on and, with grunts and squeaks, bounced off and rolled down the rocks and splashed into the filthy water. As he climbed back up out of the water, he could see that his and Gurt’s efforts had managed to shift the rock slightly, and that Gurt was now stretched out with one foot to grab a crevasse and using it to try and pull even harder on the bar. Trif quickly scampered back up to Gurt’s side to help him pull on the bar and move the rock slowly to one side.

As the tool teams labored up above, the bucket teams on the floor scampered here and there across the room, collecting every stone bit tossed their way and putting them into their buckets. When a bucket became full, two of the bigger fermin slid a prybar through the bucket’s handle and used it as a yoke to drag the bucket deeper into the sewer. Every time, the echoes of the heavy bucket dragging along the floor would drown out the sounds of pick axes hitting the rock and grunts of fermin slaving away.

Behind the fallen rocks three more fermin worked in silence. The water was higher here, backed up behind the rockfalls. Each fermin carried two sticks, which they occasionally poked under the water and moved around. These fermin were guiding several oozes and slimes through the water toward spots where organic sludge and debris had clogged up and blocked the water flow. The acidic secretions of these creatures feeding slowly worked to dissolve the debris and allow the water to flow a bit more.

The fermin worked inexhaustibly on, each tiny bit of progress slowly adding onto the whole task. Injuries, even some fatalities, were ignored as they continued to labor on. To an outside observer, it might have seemed very similar to watching water erode rock. Small changes, almost invisible when taken alone, added up over time into a single major endeavor that would have been a challenge for any of the larger races to accomplish at all.