Log:Hands Like Tin Part 2

Hands Like Tin Part 2
What's the plan?
Participants Olivia Utridge, Weaver Utridge, Saulot as ST	24 July, 2018 The Iron Tongues need help once more. There's no threat from any outsiders this time, but the problem is internal. One of the factory née homes they've repurposed has a problem with its apotheopic cogwheel and this is has only worsened the problems of their glamour conversion pumps. While the hobs are handy in their own right, they need the help of people with a bit more strength. Also because there may be a glamour-mite infestation where things have collapsed. Whoops.
Location Suburban Sprawl
Weaver wasn't a morning person. Before and after being taken he preferred to sleep in. Neither Ogre's afforded such an oppurtunity, but Olivia does get to sleep a bit longer. When she is woken up Weaver's standing at the threshold while one of the hobs is shouting, "Wake up!" over and over until she arises. For his part the dragon notes, "I held them off for a couple more hours, but it's time to start moving again." Olivia isn't really a heavy sleeper these days anyway. She wakes fairly readily, one eye cracking open to peer over towards the hob that's yelling at them to wake up. She grumbles quietly, still feeling some residual ache from the old wounds. "Fine fine," she grumbles, getting up onto her feet and rolling her shoulders slightly. "What's the plan?" "Don't ask me," Weaver responds with a shrug. He's dressed in what he was the night before, although much of his torso is bandaged up along with his wings. The hob in front of Olivia looked like a goblin straight out of a fantasy movie if it weren't for the cast-iron lower jaw bolted there, and what look like gems for her eyes. She clears her throat as if either Ogre might be ignoring her. "We need help with an apotheopic cogwheel in section A18. It's really messing with the glamour conversion pumps. You two should be able to move things around easy enough, and that'll pay for the room and fruits." Olivia rubs her eyes as she walks over to stand beside Weaver, peering at the hob curiously as she speaks. She manages not to stare, per se, but she can't help but study the other woman curiously. She does listen, quite attentively, but she isn't sure what the hob is talking about. Olivia leans sideways over towards Weaver, speaking quietly to him, though her eyes remain on their host. "I don't know what any of those things are, so you're gonna have to tell me what I'm doing." "Fuck if I know. It's all some building and making shit. I don't know half of what they say." The hob pipes up, "Because you're always drunk, you dumb dragon." "Not drunk," he notes with a finger lifted, "and I'd say I fucking earned after that fall." The hob sighs, and then directs the both of them out. "Shoo now. Go out there, and Ulidia'll explain what you lazy bastards need to do." "Well I don't know how to make stuf- Hey!" Olivia would puff up if she could, looking a little indignant as she eyes the hob. "I'm not lazy. I'm just new. And I could make up some shit and do it, or you could just tell me and have it done right the first time." She huffs quietly, crossing her arms and marching out of the room. "Get out, and tell it to Ulidia. I offered my room as a favor to Ulidia, but never again with you people!" She then gets her broom, and Weaver takes his exit. "You people smell like wet four-legs, and look like you eat princesses! I said out!" Olivia scampers out of the way, lest she get swatted by a broom. She scowls a little bit and looks back towards Weaver. "I thought you said they were your friends," she mutters in his direction, inching close to walk nearer to his side. "Unless this is normal behavior." "They are and that is. It may also be due to the fact that I convinced Imaria to let you sleep a bit longer, but you needed itanyway." He shrugs as they start moving from the hallway out of the room, and then out of the house itself. "Worst case, I can smooth things over with some hera pears later on, and-" One of the hobs outside clears her voice, and starts limping over. "Weaver, and..." This hob is shorter than the rest seen, but much older in appearance. Her hair is cut close to her scalp, and several scars can be seen along all sides of her neck. Her oddest feature are the twin prosthetics she has for legs that clank and clatter with her every step. "I don't generally sleep much," Olivia points out to him with a small shrug. "Though I am sleeping better than I used to." She walks along slowly and carefully, looking around with indisguised interest as she studies the immediate area around them. Upon hearing the clearing of the throat, Olivia turns and looks at the hob. Her name wasn't given before, so Olivia doesn't immediately offer it now, instead glancing to Weaver to handle the introductions. "Ulidia, this is my cousin Olivia." The hob narrows her eyes on Olivia for the time being, studying the other Utridge. "What is a cousin, and why is she here?" "To help," he notes with a fanged smile. "Good. You look like something a briarwolf dropped, and you need the help as much as we do." She then motions for them to follow, and then starts leading them to one of the other houses in the area. There's a few dozen of the many-hued hobs working right now. Some digging near a house. Others hang from ropes as they weld iron into the houses with the hind end of a fiery bug they squeeze for the flame. The rest are lounging about, likely on break as they whisper and look at the Changelings. "The apotheopic cogwheels down in A18 are down, and we need them back up. By down I mean they've fallen off, crashed through the floor, and went a kilometr or so down a hole we didn't even know was there." "Family relative," Olivia explains at the 'cousin' question, popping her head around Weaver to look at the hob curiously. She does nod at the reason for her presence, helping being something she is certainly going to attempt. Her lips quirk a bit as she leans over towards Weaver, speaking softly to her cousin. "I DO know what a briarwolf is." Hey, it's a start. She follows along, letting Ulidia lead the way. As the situation is explained, her eyebrows hitch up and she blinks a few times. "A kilometer? That's... that's a big hole." "What she said," Weaver adds. To Olivia he whispers back with a happy smile, "And you do." That comes with a playful bump on the shoulder, but it hurts his own and he winces while chuckling. "You see, we use the wheel to turn the collected essence of what we work on into something solid. That's part of what we sell to you people. If even one of them goes wrong it can stifle the whole process, but in this case it's happened with two!" This draws a laugh out of the hob despite the dire circumstances. "They shouldn't be too heavy for your kind, but that plus the hole is a problem. We've had a gravewyrm problem as of laet, and could use all the help we can with that too. We're safe from them right now, though." Olivia smiles at him, seeming rather proud of her tiny bit of knowledge. She looks back towards the hob at the explanation, listening carefully to make sure that she gets as much of the information as she can. There is a small squint and she rolls her shoulders a little bit. "I don't know how much help I'll be against a... gravewyrm... but we can try to haul the stuff out of the hole, I think. Though a kilometer is still pretty deep. Not quite sure how I'm going to do that. I don't fly." "You don't need to," she says with a smile as they near a blue house with much of its roof replaced with metal. "We have black widower silk to handle the heavier lifting, but we can't lift them up either way to get the rope around them. That's where you two come in, and you can probably bring them up that way or pull them after." The hob nods, clearly having thought of this for a while. "So..." Olivia thinks for a moment, processing as much of that as she can. "Go down the hole, tie it to the thing, then climb back out, and haul the thing back up?" Because she can't remember what it's called, honestly. It's a thing in a hole. "Am I understanding that right?" "Yes, you are. You know, you're a lot smarter than your cou zen. What was it that other one said, quicker on the uptake." Ulidia laughs while Weaver rolls his eyes. He tries to cross his arms, but the act brings more pain than comfort. "What other one?" he asks. Ulidia stops for a beat, brow quirked as she looks to the elder Utridge. "Big dragon. Bigger than you two. Bright blue. Smelled sweeter than anything in the world." This gives Weaver a moment of pauses as his Adam's apple bobs. "Oh. Okay." Olivia smirks a little bit at Ulidia's compliment, seeming vaguely amused. "I've had a lot of practice with crash-course education as of late." She looks over towards Weaver as he asks of the 'other one,' and arches a brow slightly at the reaction it gets. "Is that going to be a problem?" she asks him quietly. "It's my problem," Weaver notes with a weak smile that turns into something more genuine when Ulidia turns back to look at them. "She said she was a friend of yours, and wanted to talk to you about her husband." She shrugs, and moves to open the door to the house. "I didn't tell her anything, but she knew enough about you to tell me she knows a lot about you. Also something about skydiving naked and-" Weaver's quick to shut Ulidia up by pointing the large, gaping hole in the wooden floor inside. Several pipes can be seen leading all around through and out of the house. "Is this it?" Olivia gives him a dry sort of look. "Your problem became my problem, so you are GOING to tell me what's going on when we have a bit of down time," she tells him sternly. "Because I'm not doing that again, and I'm going to help. And you don't get to argue." She lifts one hand, waving it a bit at him if he starts to protest. Instead, she turns her attention to Ulidia as she speaks about this apparently-female problem that Weaver has. At the mention of skydiving naked, her brows rise and she turns to Look at her cousin. Capital-L look, brows rising with a, 'Really?' sort of expression. But then there's work and she looks back towards the hole in the ground, moving carefully to the edge to try and peer downwards. "Sure, yeah. Down time. Right." Weaver rubs at the back of his neck, clawing at an already sore spot. Both literally and figuratively by the look of him. Ulidia claps her hand to call the attention of a few hobs around, and they repel from the ceiling down to face the trio while hanging above the hole. "You ready," she asks as both hanging hobs offer a rope to each Changeling. Olivia peers at her cousin for a few moments longer, weighing his discomfort before her attention is dragged back to the hobs and the hole in the ground. She looks at the rope, considering it for a few moments before reaching over to take the one that's passed in her direction. "Not really, but that hasn't stopped me recently," she says, giving the rope a small tug to test its strength. Weaver does the same, tightening his grip on the rope. As he tries to test its strength with both hands he grunts in pain, and reaches for his shoulder. "Just gimme a second." As he tries to work out more than a few kinks in his arm Olivia's afforded a few moments to peek down the hole. It smells of sulfur heavily mixed with the scent of roses. Overpowering all of that is a strong stench of oil, likely from the wheel itself. Beyond that, she can make out the movements of something down there, but it's too damned dark to actually see what. That is definitely a strange mix of smells. Olivia's nose twitches slightly and she lifts one hand to rub at her nose in response to the subtle tickle it leaves behind. She isn't sure if they're normal or not, but hey... what's normal these days? She squints a little bit at the subtle movements, tilting her head a bit. "There's something moving down there. I can't really see what, though." The rope goes slack in Weaver's hand, and after one moer tug he lets it go. "I can't go down. At least not right now. I can jump down if things go bad, but are you fine with going down on your own?" He lifts the good arm to place a hand on his shoulder, those reptilian eyes searching hers. "After that bullshit with the thunderbird I know you can do it, but if you're not up for it that's fine." His talking upsets Ulidia, and has the hob rolling her eyes as she moves to take her leave for the time being. Olivia looks vaguely concerned at the news that she's going to have to go down alone. She leans over briefly to look back down the hole before her gaze shifts back to her cousin. "I don't know what's down there. And I don't know how to fight something I can't see. If it even wants to fight with me. Though I get the impression everything wants to eat me." She rolls her jaw slightly, watching Ulidia leave, looking thoughtful. "What exactly am I supposed to do? Just tie the rope, yeah?" "Not everything wants to eat you. It mostly depends on what you're dealing with and why. It also helps when you can talk things down." Weaver leaves out the fact that he's always had a silver tongue as he smiles gently. One of the hobs notes, "Like hildebears. They only wanna eat you if you're made out of plants, and then there's the wall-eaters. A nasty lot, them. They like to-" The young hob's cut off by Weaver clearing his throat. Both hobs chuckle at that. "As I was saying, you already got the idea of things." "Well I'm not made of plants. I don't think." Olivia squints slightly and peers down at herself, examining herself for a few moments before shrugging and looking back up towards the hobs. She blinks a few times as they keep talking, eyes flitting back to Weaver when he clears his throat. "Alright, I guess. I'll just... scream if I need help." She wraps the rope carefully around herself, testing her grip before beginning to make her way down. The rope is taut when pulled, and holds firm in her grip. It's slightly sticky to the touch, although it takes little effort to let go of it when gravity's allowed to do its work. Above all else, the rope is smooth to the touch, and its adhesive nature is largely what keeps her hand attached to it. "Just don't scream so loud you lose your voice. Okay?" "One would think you'd WANT me to lose my voice," Olivia counters with a small, nervous laugh. "Hopefully whatever is down there can't see me any better than I can see it. Though I doubt that's going to be the case, so I'm just going to hope that it doesn't want to eat me." One hand lifts and she gives a brief wave. "See you soon." "No, I won't even joke like that," Weaver insists, "I know how much you love singing and playing." There's a jab for her shoulder as he adds, "Be safe either way. If things don't go well start climbing and I'll do my best to start pulling. If it does go well, call up anyway." "Losing one's voice by screaming is usually temporary." Olivia bobs her head towards Weaver and begins to climb down, looking down in the direction she's going. But a kilometer is a long way down. It's likely going to take a little bit before she manages to reach the equipment that she's to tie off with the rope. Weaver sighs and rolls his eyes. "Of course that's how it goes." He gives her a wave as she goes down, worry clear to see in his gaze. Away from the light and into the darkness she goes. It is a long trip down, and the further she goes down the more pungent that aroma gets. The scuttling hurries more as she goes down, only for it to stop as she nears the bottom. Olivia closes her eyes as it gets darker, taking slow and deep breaths. She has her own set of nerves to deal with, and she is doing her best to keep them under control. The sound of the scuttling whatever does nothing to calm her. She coughs a bit at the smell; it's stronger than she'd like. Her eyes open again as she nears the bottom, not that it does her much good. She blinks a few times and feels around slowly, looking for something to attach the rope to. Feeling her way around is easy enough. However, what she first finds isn't the wheel. It's something hard, but it feels natural. Like a slightly squishy stone. It moves and fidgets in her grasp, and in an instant light and fire shoot out from the end opposite her. One of the bugs the hobs used for welding was staring back at her, and in those few seconds of light she can see almost a hundred of them scuttling around. Olivia yelps as she feels the bug spark in front of her, yanking her hand back. It gives her a brief moment of light, seeing FAR more critters than she'd like. "Sorry. Sorry sorry sorry," she whispers in rapid succession, giving the creature a gentle pat, silently praying that it isn't an ornery sort. "I have no idea if you can understand me, but my family tells me that sometimes the beasts can." She's a bit more careful now, getting a brief idea of what might be a safer place to attach the rope. The bugs eventually acquiesce, and their movements still. They've no words to speak, but do offer her light while down here. Through it all she can see the gargantuan cogs are below the sea of fierbugs. They look more like light than metal, shimmering under the faint light of bug excrement gives Olivia something to see with. Olivia moves slowly and carefully, doing her best not to upset the bugs too much. If it needs to be moved, she carefully scoops up the bug to set it to one side. "Sorry," she murmurs every time one of them gets jarred or nudged, reaching her hand down to loop the rope around the machinery as much as she can. She doesn't want to come down here again if she doesn't have to, so she's trying to make it as secure as possible. Her apologies do earn a bit of worry from the bugs. One even pats her hand, no matter how creepy that is. Eventually a hundred or so of the firebugs climb the wall and spell out, 'It fine. You first. Speak.' As one group talks the rest move out of the way. The others move to reveal the whole of the other wheel. 'Who you.' Olivia jumps a bit as the bug pats her hand, not having expected the contact. And surely it's patting her hand because it's in the way. "Sorry," she utters again, shaking her head a bit. As they wriggle around on the wall to spell out words, her eyes lift from her task at hand to read them. "Oh. Uh. I'm Olivia. I'm just... trying to get this thing out of here." The first cog is tied up, but she'll have to go up, out, and back down again for the other. The cogwheel seems to be weighing down the rope heavily with just enough for her to hold onto it. 'Move out the bugs spell out and then immediately disperse. She can hear what sounds like mild rumbling that inentsifies as a swarm of the bugs start piling into the hole. Olivia's given some space, but only after they're done pouring in. Since she has the first one the hedge bugs gather around the other, scoop it up between the million or so of them, and start pushing it back up along with Olivia, the other wheel, and the rope. Olivia makes sure the rope is secure, eyes skimming over the words as they're spelled out. She doesn't entirely understand what they're getting at until she hears the rumbling of the swarm. There is a brief surge of panic that threatens to rise as the swarm spills into the hole, but they seem to be giving her some breathing room. Which helps some. She holds onto the rope tightly as it begins to get hauled out of the hole, her gaze inevitably sliding back to the bugs as they help her get the other cog up and out. "Thanks," she eventually says, swallowing the lump of uncertainty in her throat. The surge of the tiny hedgebeasts pushes up and up until they're pushing Olivia up too. After a few seconds they outpace even the rope pulling her up. It wouldn't be that uncomfortable an elevator ride up it wasnt' for the constant moving and clicking, and probably feels even weird with their legs still moving about. Eventually she reaches the top of the whole where the wheel is tossed up, and they begin to sink back down. Yes, that is definitely weird. Olivia squirms and fidgets a little bit, but overall tries not to make it too difficult for the bugs as they haul her up and over the edge of the hole. She rubs her hands over her pants and legs, making sure to carefully shake free any remaining bugs. "That was... one of the weirdest things... I have ever done," she announces to whomever may be listening. The listeners appear to be Weaver and the two hobs that were holding up the rope. "Yeah, and?" Weaver leans forward to rest his hands on his knees, huffing more oxygen than he can rightfully breathe. One of the hobs, a woman with her green hair set in a braided ponytail, points towards the entrance. "You can set them right there." The other hob, a lady that goes up to Olivia's waist, laughs. "If she's strong enough to bring both of 'em up I wouldn't be telling her what to do." "I uh... I didn't. They did." One hand rises, jerking a thumb over her shoulder towards the hole. "The bugs. Fire bugs. Sparky things." Olivia gestures absently, not quite sure how to describe what she saw. She certainly doesn't know their proper names. "I told them I was trying to get the stuff out of the hole and they helped me. I guess they liked me?" And didn't try to eat her. Weaver doesn't have much of a response save giving a thumbs up. "Interesting," one hob notes. "Yes," replies the other, "They may be evolving, or-" An invisibile light bulb goes off of both their heads, and they immediately jump for joy. "Excuse us," and without waiting for a reply they immediately run off. Olivia quirks a brow curiously as the hobs run off, dusting off her hands and watching them disappear before shaking her head and crossing the room back over towards Weaver. "I have no idea what just happened. So does that like... pay our bill for the night? Are they still friends?" She looks around curiously, considering. She gets a nod at first, and as Weaver tries to stand back up straight it's with a groan of pain. "It wasn't a bill. It was a favor. They let us settle here for the night, and they healed us without issue." He leaves out the part that he's quite obviously still in pain. "Omaria was the one worried about it like payment. Anyway, when you're good I'm gonna see if I can get a few jars of bramblebeer to take home, and we can start to head back." She frowns at him, tilting her head at his obvious pain. She still has some of her own aches and pains, but not like THAT. "Are you sure?" Olivia watches him, studying his posture and the way he carries himself. "We could wait a bit if you need to. But if it only took us an hour to get here, it'd probably be like... another couple hours home?" "We'll be fine. Just gotta make sure to stay on the trods, and Alley Escape is safer in the day." Weaver's sure of that as he starts moving again. The way he was groaning earlier he's clearly in pain, but the way he's moving about now he may as well be completely fine. "I also wanna get into completely fresh clothes that don't involve chesse sneaking into places they don't belong." Olivia comes up beside her cousin, reaching one hand over to gently wrap one arm around his waist briefly. "We can wait if you need to," she tells him quietly. "But if you want to go home, let's go slow and you take breaks if you have to. I have a little bit of first aid knowledge, but I don't have a kit or supplies to apply that skill."