ELECTRIFY MY HEART — THE FINDERS & TUNNEL CHECK

[GRAVES]

[align=center][div style="0px; width:450px; height:auto; text-align: justify; font-size: 9pt; line-height:13px;"]Graves was getting old. He could feel the frost more and more as every winter approached, more and more he felt more reluctant to leave the comfort of his blankets. However, every year since he’d managed to get up. Keep moving. The crisp outside air was clean, and the soft noise of the flowing river helped to ease Graves into his awareness. Calm your mind. Prepare for the day. He’d been checking on the river flow that morning before returning to his spot overlooking the canyon — wondering vaguely to himself if they might end up flooding that spring.

Perhaps that was his sign to start checking tunnels. Anything that might require a little extra love before the ground softened, and they started to have problems. ”I need some volunteers for tunnel check.” He turned his attention to the groups of Finders who had made it out into the morning air, beginning to cook breakfast or just trying to wake up. ”I have some concerns about some structural soundness. We’ll just check for now, see if any work needs to be done.”

[ELI .]

[align=center][div style="width: 400px; text-align: justify; line-height: 12px;"][font=calibri]Among the group of Finders waking up was none other than Eli, a member who had joined within the last few months but was finding himself well-adjusted to the group. He liked the adrenaline rushes that each mission brought, he liked the wind whipping through his hair as he rode with the others to a find. At the end of the day, he had a place to rest his head, which was really all he needed to keep pushing on.

An NPC had been making a pot of hot water to pour into fresh coffee grounds, and Eli stood near them as they worked on brewing his cup. He glanced up at good ol' Graves, who had requested volunteers for a tunnel check. That.. sounded boring. "Naw, gonna hafta' pass. Come talk to me after I had my coffee." Eli responded with a smug grin, knowing that Graves may find his lack of participation an annoyance. He seldom liked to do things in the morning besides eat and sleep, an exception being early-morning missions that pumped excitement through his veins. Volunteering for a tunnel check didn't sound too exciting for the boy, and so he simply had to decline.

[DoI]

[align=center][div style="width: 390px; text-align: justify;"]"not too smart. i don't think he was actually asking, eli." hank grunted sat not far away from the group. the night before had, once again, been sleepless, too preoccupied with talking to seemingly no body or just scampering around trying to figure out something to preoccupy himself with. he hadn't been tired in the slightest, but now that the others were awake, the voices had begun to die down a little, with less silence to boom through.

bright. bright light. off.

the light is staying on. thought hank firmly, mumbling to himself as he spoke. he probably said the exact same thing under his breath to the voice, but he couldn't really tell if he had. scrunching his nose, he looked to graves. "i can check a tunnel or two.. i didn't sleep, so i don't know how much i can do." he admitted slowly, scrunching his nose again as the garbled voice kicked in.

s̸͕͕̓h̷͇̄̅o̷̗͎̓͗u̶͎͗́ḷ̶̣̼́d̸͚̓͊͐ ̸̱̩͇̚s̸̝͓͙͐l̸̡̈̄̋͜è̷̫̖̔̾e̴͕͌̽p̸̛̯̟̠̕

i haven't made his joining yet but i wanted to post uwu

[Jackal]

Jackal had just woken up but other than a nest of charcoal hair, you would have thought he had been up, wrestled a flintlock, and won. The man had draped on his gear and surveyed the crew before even reaching the threshold of the meeting. Ah what a beautiful day, but not because of the quaint scenery, no. Because today was another day for using tools and playing notes.

Well aren't we just as lively as the rising sun, Jackal cheers on the people, as they definitely do not appear as warm rays of sun but like tired piles of shit. Sarcasm, yes, for it is Jackal.

Don't worry Papa Parka, you just stay with the grandbabies, he comforted, while also poking at a tin can of beans. Ammo for later.

[GRAVES]

[align=center][div style="0px; width:450px; height:auto; text-align: justify; font-size: 9pt; line-height:13px;"]A slight chuckle shook his body as Eli spoke, but quite not enough be distinct between a laugh or a cough. Graves himself didn't consider general maintenance to be the most exciting thing in the world either - but it was a requirement in this world, to make sure that Graves knew he was gonna be able to have each person around the campfire the next day. These tunnel checks, they could save someone's life. Already had, possibly.

"Perhaps you don't mind dishes duty, then?" He asked Eli lightly, raising an eyebrow at the boy before Hank spoke. Narrowing his eyes at Hanks words, Graves moved closer to the other man, dark eyes fixating onto the man as he lowered himself next to Hank. "How many nights has it been?" He asked, his hand lightly brushing against Hank's shoulder in a comforting gesture. "We'll get you some medicine to help you sleep after we finish the patrol, yes?"

Raising to his feet, Graves snorted at Jackal's words. He didn't know where that nickname had come from.. and yet it had stuck. "Trust me, Jackal - grandbabies and I will not be mixing any time soon." Raising his hands to the sky in a stretch, Graves yawned, feeling several distinct pops in his back that indicated that maybe he needed to hunt for a better mattress. "Come on, anyone who's coming. There's two main ones I'm worried about." With that, Graves started for the tunnel entrances, pulling a flashlight out of the box near the entrance and flicking it on.

[DoI]

[align=center][div style="width: 390px; text-align: justify;"]how long had it been? maybe a day or two, but then again, his mind had no concept of time, minutes could be hours to him or hours could be minutes, but that was another frustrating corner of his head that he didn't want to explore at the moment. staring ahead in thought, hank tried to figure out how many times he had watched the sun rise and fall, it almost felt like a million, but he knew that wasn't possible. "three." he seemed so sure at first.

four.

"four? no, im definitely sure it was three." are you sure? "well.. maybe it was four. but i think it's three." me thinks four. "i don't think it was four," he tended to have these conversations with himself often, much to the confusion of those who heard these little arguments with his head. he realised that there was another voice, graves' this time, actually speaking to him. he knew this because his mouth was moving. "oh, thanks." he mumbled, giving a tiny nod.

h̸͇̹̙͖̦̓̈̐̒͒ǫ̶̨͚̤̜̈́̃́̐̅w̸̢͖̳͚͌̇͌̒͂͘ ̴͚̺̺̤́̔̀ḵ̷̛̛̤̙̬͎̪̀̏͝ĩ̸̳͓̦͊̀͛n̴͚͚̂ͅd̷͓̩͚͋

"huh?" he breathed adn moved to stand once graves' did, tilting his head. "where're we headed boss?"