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The first construction site Mel sneaks up to is one of the sites that was furthest along. The block-like apartment building is nearly finished--or it was, before it was vandalized. Now there's pieces pulled off of the balconies and windows, gutted walls, and the place is... kind of a mess. It's been cleaned up enough to be safe, and tarps and boards put up over windows and exposed areas to keep water from coming in.
A large fence has been put up all around the construction site, blocking most of it from view of the street. There's a chain link gate on one side, large enough to drive vehicles and equipment through, that has a chain and sturdy looking padlock keeping it closed.
It's been heartening, knowing how quickly organized union action was able to get all this shut down, but Mel's had a growing feeling that they've not done enough, especially after the group risked themselves going after Robin directly. Which is why they're skulking near the construction sites now. Work is stalled, not cancelled after all, and if you give idiots and bureaucrats enough time, they'll get things started again. Mel's pretty sure there's folks in the freehold working to stop that on the political side but, well, they have a idea. Maybe not a great idea, but maybe it'll make them feel a little bit more useful.
Hard to get work started again when you can't even get security to stay on the job, right? So they're skulking around in Light Shy, seeing if they can find a security guard or two to target with some grade-A Autumn horror.
Peeking through a gap in the fence coverings, Mel does in face spot a couple of guards. One is sitting close to the fence, lounging back in a fold up chair while fiddling with his phone. Another is idly wandering the outskirts of the mostly-finished building. Both look bored out of their minds.
Mel pauses for a moment, nearly perfectly still as they consider. Bored is good. Bored people tend to let their imaginations get away with them. Slowly they stoop and pick up a small bit of gravel and toss it through the fence. Just to see how the guards react to the sudden noise that isn't part of the background hum of the city.
The sudden clunk of the rock hitting the ground does make them look off in that direction. The one in the chair looks over, but quickly goes back to looking at his phone when the other security guard takes the initiative to wander over and investigate the area the rock landed in.
The minute the one guard goes over to look, Mel moves, just in case the guard's smart enough to look back along the trajectory. Light Shy should hide them, but there's never harm in being careful. Especially since they're not sure how much iron's still in the buildings. Still, it might be better to get closer. They reach out and rattle the fence for a moment - mostly to test whether it would be climbable, but, well, more strange noises never hurt.
Neither of the guards seem to notice them at this time--though the one sitting in the chair does glance over when the fence rattles. He frowns, but... well, they're invisible, so nothing to really see...
Mel manages to climb up and over the fence without falling or making too much of a ruckus, landing easily on the other side.
They let out a low, hooting chuckle as they land, and then move to around the corner of one of the buildings, out of immediate sight. They look around for abandoned supplies or convenient gravel piles to kick over and make more noise.
There's a fair amount of things to choose from--there's a stack of rubble, no doubt from the vandalism, that has been pushed aside into a pile. As well as a stack of pipes and bricks.
Mel times things just right so that the piles go toppling and rolling right when the guards have their backs turned--so that when they jolt and look back... there's nothing. And then again, when they are looking, building up that fear and confusion bit by bit.
"What the hell?" the one walking around says, frowning, clearly unnerved. "Tim, you seeing this shit?"
"Uhhh...." Tim slowly rises up from his seat, flicking on a flashlight to shine over the area. "Anyone there?" he calls out.
"I didn't see anyone," the other mutters, also looking around.
Mel manages not to gag as they snatch a poor spider out of its web and swallow it. But that makes it way easier to scramble up the side of the building, and then around to about eight feet above the security guards' heads.
"Run," they stage whisper at the guards in their best crackly witchy voice. "This place isn't for you. Run"
As said, no one ever looks up. Not dumb people anyway, and these two clearly aren't the brightest bulbs in the bunch...
"What the fuck?" Tim blurts, turning around in a circle as he looks around, face going paler. "You heard that, right?"
"Yeah, I heard something--shit, calm down," the other snaps, though he looks no less unnerved, shining the flashlight around and jumping here and there at the shadows it makes.
"This place is fucking cursed, man," Tim adds, inching closer to the front gate.
Mel moves to avoid the flashlight, even though it's not aimed anywhere near as high as they are. "Yessss" they say, letting the last letter draw out in a hiss. "Cursed. Run fools" They clack their beak a few times as punctuation and then let out a long hoot.
Tim lets out a scream of fright, then turns to sprint for the gate, colliding with it. There's a moment of fumbling as he tries to get keys into the lock to undo the chain, but after a moment just... gives up, dropping the keys then climbing over the fence to just run.
The other man seems frozen in place, all the color draining from his face as... yes, there's a stain spreading in his pants as he literally pisses himself. It takes a moment for him to realize what is even happening, before he as well goes running for the gate.
Mel lets out a full-throated hooting laugh as the guards beat their hasty retreat. “And don’t come back!” They call
The second guard has a harder time climbing the fence, and ends up falling down with a pained grunt on the other side--but then gets up and runs off down the street as well...
Looking around, Mel does find some paperwork tucked inside one of the little work cranes that is still on site. It has the name for a Ryan Mercer on it, which Mel figures out is the Project Manager for this site.
Mel makes a mental note of the name, and then maybe messes stuff up - not full sabotage, but just making a mess that'll have to be cleaned up before any work can be done. Then they'll sneak out.
The next site they hit, it goes more or less similarly. They're almost caught--but being half seen while doing their spooky haunted act just ends up helping scare the shit out of the guards. Both end up running in terror for their lives.
The second site has... far less luck. Neither of them notice Mel, so at least they don't get caught. The guards are definitely unnerved, but don't go running--in fact they end up calling the police, which results in Mel having to make a break for it.
The last site goes better. Again Mel is nearly caught, having to climb up a wall in order to avoid being seen, but the Autumn leaves their mark as the guards there chatter amongst themselves, talking about how they "don't get paid enough for this shit". They don't go running in terror like most of the others, but they definitely seem to be rethinking their jobs...
By the time Mel gets back to their Hollow they're feeling shaky but overall pretty pleased with how things went. With luck, it'll be harder to find guards willing to work the sites.
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