Call For Help

[cyclicalitymods]

After the events from November 11th, the city has been in a constant state of repair. In an effort to speed things up, a variety of construction companies have offered high wages for helping out since many have too many orders to keep up with. Earthbenders in particular are welcome, especially if they're able to metalbend, but it's hands for labor that are most needed.

Those who received the newspaper on the 5th of this month will have noticed some overlaying text that probably shouldn't be there. It said to meet outside the city council office if you want to help rebuild the city, but those who went on the 5th and the 6th know that nothing happened. Around noon today, however, a golden light shoots out of the ground. Instead of dissipating right away, it sketches out the word "hope" in the dirt. Shortly after, genuine gold appears where the light had burst forth. Every now and then, a variety of items and tools appear, lying scattered among the gold. Many of the newly appeared items can be used to help rebuild the city such as stacks of timber and stone, but many of the other items appear to have been previously owned. Heirlooms that had been previously destroyed now in perfect condition along with other lost items and the like keep appearing at random in front of the city council office in addition to all the gold.

The text on the newspaper wasn't lying, though. Someone is watching. Or something. Everything everyone does will be under close surveillance. Whether they keep the gold, leave it alone or give it away; whether they work to repair the city or sit and do nothing. Either way, the area around the council office is brimming with spiritual energy, but no spirits are coming out to play.

Comments

Open

[fallensun]

[All this reconstruction and helpfulness and charity and whatever is starting to wear on his nerves. It's bad enough that it's sinking in that it's on his head to make plans if he wants to get anything done around here. He doesn't need spirits working to foil the plans he hasn't even made. This is too much thinking and he doesn't like it.

Judar watches as yet another stack of timber appears out of nowhere. And then he sets it on fire because it's pissing him off.]

I don't like Republic City anymore.

[badday_badday]

H-hey! You shouldn't do that! People could use that wood!

[Jackie's standing about fifteen feet away, having just turned when he saw the figure set fire to the stack of wood.]

[fallensun]

What do I care?

[He grabs a few pieces of wood that didn't catch and tosses them into the bonfire.]

They're just going to build more things with them and that's just more things for me to tear down when they're done. Might as well get some work done now.

[It's almost admirable. He deserves a reward.]

[badday_badday]

What?? Why would you want to tear down buildings like that?! These could be used to build homes for people!

[Seeing that the guy wasn't finished, Jackie ran over to a different stack of wood to try and protect it. The how in this plan hasn't actually been thought up yet, he just doesn't want anymore wood destroyed.]

[fallensun]

'cause I'm gonna turn this whole place to rubble eventually.

[He'd rather just get on with it, but he's been cut off from anything resembling orders and it's getting more and more frustrating. One day, he's going to snap and bust everything and the rest of the group can just deal with the fallout. He thought he'd like being free to do whatever he wants a little bit more than this.]

It just looks lame if I start knocking shit down and no one understands why.

Re: Open

[raavashing]

[The wood that was set on fire was quickly doused by a sudden splash of water. Wan had thrown a bucketful. The water could have gone to better use but the wood was worth saving.

He turned and glared at the firebender making trouble.]

If you're not going to help, then you should find somewhere else to go.

[fallensun]

Like where?

[He plants his hands on his hips and cocks his head to the side. Who's this guy think he is, anyway?]

If you've got a suggestion, I'm open to new ideas. This place is starting to get to be too much of a bother.

[raavashing]

I don't know where. Just somewhere where else. Where you're not going to burn perfectly usable wood just because you're bored or whatever. People were invited to come here to help. And you're not helping.

[Wan said as he put one hand on his hip and let the water bucket dangle from the other as he shifted so he could stand between the troublemaker and the glowing word in the ground.]

[fallensun]

Got news for you: I'm gonna do this wherever I go. I don't think there's anywhere out there that I'd hate any less and if that's how it's gonna be, I don't see why I should have to leave any of it standing.

[He's going to knock it all down eventually, anyway. It's just a matter of time and finding the best way to do it. Funny how this guy thinks standing in front of something is going to keep him from destroying it, though he'll give him a little bit to run his mouth off to see if he says anything interesting.]

Openbending

[savedtheworld]

Aang has been in a bit of a funk since Katara went missing, but he's clinging to the potential lead that he's found now in this newspaper. Something spirit-y is going on, and if he manages to meet this spirit, maybe he'll find some lead as to what's going on. Maybe he can stop feeling like he's letting everyone down.

The message ends up being a simple one. But Aang's a monk of simple sentiments, especially considering the importance of "HOPE" to the person he's now missing. And as the gold scatters, he'll seek out a piece to look over. Ultimately he'll leave it be, but first he has to conduct some very special Avatar spiritual tests.

"Excuse me, are you a spirit?" He closes one eye as he peers over the gold piece appraisingly, as if expecting to find a spirit peeking out. After a minute or so with no response, he tries to bite it, just to make sure it's not actually candy. That would have made a better consolation prize than actual gold...

[dustonmyfeet]

Okay, so there are some spirits that fly. But usually they have at least some kind of weight on the ground . . . and Toph really doubts that Aang is talking to any of the assorted citizenry diving for the gold. For her turn, the girl has scooped a piece from the ground, wading through the excited masses towards the boy-monk, testing the metal with her fingers. Fortunately she hadn't been too far from Aang in the first place.

". . . I hope you're talking to somebody." She has to be loud over the clustering, jostling bodies. "Because it sure doesn't seem like it."

Pushing a man away from crushing her: "What exactly happened, anyway? Everyone kind of went crazy."

If people don't stop pushing, she's going to start doing some pushing back.

[savedtheworld]

Things are getting kind of crowded very quickly. It's a bit confusing and disorienting. But it's easy to distinguish Toph amongst the crowd, so he sets down his gold piece for the moment and tries to very gently move past some of the crowd towards her. He actually makes an apologetic motion towards the guy who was pushed. Then he calls out to Toph with a warm smile. With Katara gone now, she's definitely a sight for sore eyes.

"Toph! I- I'm trying to talk to a spirit. Because all this gold appeared all of a sudden and - and it must have been spirits!"

[dustonmyfeet]

Hey, don't smile at the guy that tried to crush her, Aang. Whose side are you on, anyway?

That next elbow to the head is the last straw, and without a second thought, Toph jabs into the empty space. A ripple shivers through the ground as though the earth shrugs, sending yelping bodies toppling to the ground. It's fine as far as she's concerned; they'll recover soon enough and not be any worse for wear. (And better yet, she can finish off her goal without getting jabbed, jostled, or maimed.)

Grabbing for Aang's hand (and hopefully not too far off), Toph seeks to yank him out of the group where they can talk properly.

"Okay. What'd you say?"

[savedtheworld]

He's trying to be on the side of everyone being getting along and getting over misunderstandings instead of - well, instead of whatever's happening around them. He does still wince as she takes the elbow to the head. He'll go along as she tugs at him, but he does spare a few quick apologies for those displaced by her earthy attack.

Once he's pulled along, his attention is on her, however, and he holds up the piece of hold in his other hand. "Well I was trying to see if this piece of gold was actually a spirit by trying to talk to it, and it looks like it's not but it's gotta to do with the spirits somehow and are you alright, Toph?"

[mercuryadept]

Mia had noticed all the weird words in the paper and had gone to investigate things at the appointed time and place, but having heard nothing since then she began to wonder what sort of odd prank it could be. However, after seeing the sudden light burst from the ground, she had dropped what she was doing and ran back to see the golden letters of HOPE on the ground.

Mia just looks at the letters with a good deal of bemusement. Just this past week she had felt like she was starting to understand more about spirits than she had ever learned, but now everything was thrown into chaos. "Hope? Hope for what?" she says softly to herself as she just watches the gold slowly scatters outward. "And why... gold?" Her koalaotter sitting on her shoulder looks just as confused as her.

She picks up a piece of the treasure and looks over it before seeing someone else equally bemused next to her. The question of asking whether or not this was done by a spirit would ordinarily be funny if it weren't for the fact that this was so confusing on its own. But she can't help but shy away from the conversation.

"If this wasn't the work of a spirit," she says to Aang, "it's perhaps the biggest and best prank I've ever seen."

[savedtheworld]

Aang is snapped out of his reverie by the unfamiliar voice. She seems friendly enough, and he flashes a light smile towards her. "I've never seen a prank like this before! What would be funny about giving away a lot of money?" He looks over the gold nugget in his hand again. "Then again, I never met a spirit before with pockets full of money..."

[mercuryadept]

That definitely causes Mia to think for a moment, though there's the hint of a giggle after a brief moment. "I suppose it might be a little funny for the prankster if the money wasn't actually real, though in the grand scheme of things, it'd still be in fairly poor taste." She shrugs at that, dismissing the idea for the time being. "It still wouldn't explain the weird messages in the newspaper though; if the spirits weren't responsible for that, I have no idea who could have been.

"But you are right," Mia says as shifts her weight to her other leg. "I don't know why any spirit would have all this gold..."

[savedtheworld]

"It's definitely not chocolate! I checked." He says proudly. "And if it's not chocolate, I don't see how it could be a prank! The newspaper message did definitely seem too spirit-y to be anything that's not a spirit..."

He scrunches his face in thought. "Maybe the spirit sold a bunch of things he didn't need anymore!"

OPEN

[badday_badday]

Jackie had heard people talk about Republic City in some pretty fanciful ways in the past. The usual 'streets are always clean', 'there's food for everyone', etc. While he'd been warned that things wouldn't be nearly so perfect as he'd been told, this whole bit of money literally appearing out of nowhere was like something from a child's story. It couldn't be real, but after about the third pinch on his arm, Jackie was convinced and started gathering what he could quickly.

[paybent]

Gumshoe never figured himself to be an expert on spiritual matters. That's probably why it's often easy for him to be conned into things like giving phoney priests "offerings" that would supposedly help spirits to give him metalbending, but that's neither here nor there. Regardless of that, he noticed the odd message in the newspaper and was ready to investigate.

He wasn't sure if this was a sting or a rescue operation, but the earthbending detective remains on the scene near the city council office. He had thought nothing of event would happen on this day... but then, suddenly, gold everywhere. He'll be scrambling to collect some, thank you very much. But he then feels guilty and holds some of it up. "Um... hey, anyone drop this?"

[raavashing]

"I think the spirits did," Wan replied to the question as he gathered up what he could of it. He wasn't getting in the way of anyone else who might be scrambling for it, to the point of actually taking a step back when someone else who was over-eager got too close.

"And this will go a long way to helping a lot of people."

[paybent]

"So there's a spirit of gold after all?" He speaks uncertainly as he scratches at his head. But Wan's point does help him feel more guilty about going for the gold. "Gee, pal, you're right... There are a lot of people out there who look like they could use some yuans."

[raavashing]

"I've never heard of a spirit of gold," he said back with a laugh. "But whichever spirit is doing this seems to want to pay us for our help. Humans usually pay each other for services, right? It looks like it's trying to do the same."

[count_to_peace]

It's been a while, if ever, that he had to work with wood, but he manages. Zechs is assisting with rebuilding a row of damaged trees in a park. They were leaving over, and almost uprooted, so he's helping out with making them right again. The work is difficult, and surely he'll be a bit sore later, but seeing real trees, and touching them, is worth the effort.

It's the small things you miss out on in space and war.

The tools and wood that continues to pop up make him cautious. Others are picking them up and using them to help make the work easier, but Zechs doesn't trust it. From time to time, he eyes the items suspiciously.

[prettyinhandcuffs]

Duo might not have been much of a construction type, but he had experience with errand running, and being pretty quick about it too. Nails needed across town three flights up? Sure, not a problem. And if he spotted a few pieces of gold here and there along the way, he sure wasn't going to ignore it. It sure more than made up for the lack of a tip if he only got there on time instead of early. Of course, the gold grabbing itself was something he did rather sneakily. Now you see it, now you don't. Even when he's carrying a stack of boxes. "Coming through!"