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Sigrun's been at this for about a week now. Enlisting whoever will help her in whatever capacity they are willing to help in. Shackamaxon saw what happened up in Old Iron when the hedge walls gave way, and they're not keen to let that happen down here come the weekend.
The dead and dying bits of thorns are being pruned back to give vital life back to bits that are still fighting back and clinging on. Frequent and regular cuttings of the roots are taking place in and around the hollow, while just beyond the safety of its confines, members of the freehold have been digging out a trench just outside the hedge wall, cutting back the thorns, and piling the trenched out dirt into a rampart wall that's about six feet tall, all told. Sharpened stakes between six and ten feet long have been hammered into the mound, angled upwards, and then sharpened with axes to wicked points. All by hand, too, to avoid provoking the roots.
Until it's time to provoke the roots, that is.
Meanwhile, inside the freehold and within what's left of the hedgewalls, cinderblocks are being laid, mortared, and stacked up to form a defensive wall behind the ramparts. Hopefully all of this will keep the hedge critters from stampeding through, or causing damage. Hopefully the trench will make it harder for the roots to surge within. Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully.
At present, Sigrun is out in the trench, extending it one shovel throw at a time, dressed in coveralls worn at the waist and a sports bra. The heat's awful, but the work needs to get done. It's dirty, smelly, exhausting work, too. But good exercise? At least?
Did someone say digging?
Oh, Oso is here for digging. No one's going to yell at Oso for digging? They're going to WANT him to dig? Oh, he is the happiest of dogs.
Oso is big for a pup but small for a fae mount -- he could have gone either way, really. He looks like a massive pibble/rottie mix, with an intelligence beyond even the intelligence of normal dogs in his eyes, and he's been dispatched to dig the trench. His massive tail wags earnestly as he's face-down in that trench, dirt flinging up between his legs.
Teagan's next to Sigrun and Oso, shovel in hand; they're wearing a pair of cut-off jeans, boots, and no top. Tits out for Shackamaxon, apparently. Fuck your gender-required clothing. It's too hot for that shit. Their tattoos are on full display -- loopy black line work with hash marks between them down both arms, 'Teagan' in black calligraphy on the back of their right wrist, 'this machine kills rapists' on the back of their left wrist, and then up the inside of their left arm: a Skeleton Key, two different paw prints, an 8-bit heart in bi pride colors, a Viking shield, and a spray of autumn leaves around and through the lot of it. Lastly, there's a wire-wrapped chunk of stone worn as a bracelet which Teagan adjusts absently before bending back to the work.
While his day job required a fine touch Aurelio wasn't one to shy away from brute force labor for a good cause, and it was thus that led the Torrent to be among the others in the growing trench, shovel in hand and putting those stony muscles of his to good use. It was also a rare moment where the man wasn't in all-black, instead wearing a now-dirt-covered pair of jeans and a white t-shirt that was slowly going grey from the slightly-damp dust that passed as sweat for the man these days.
It being the hedge, Sigrun still has a sword at her side, even if she's not wearing armor. You can never be too careful. She also has her waterskin slung over her shoulder, which she pauses to take a guzzle from fairly regularly. Collapsing from heat stroke is not going to do anyone any good. When she's done, she pull the skin from around her neck and passes it on to Aurelio. "I wish I had little nitties. This bra sucks, but I am not relishing grit in my boob sweat. Eugh." Once the skin is passed off, she asides to Teagan, "I'm jealous." Then she's back into the work, one spade at a time, tossing the dirt up onto the pile. "I cannot believe it's ninety goddamned degrees at this hour. This city is awful and I hate it."
She's really becoming a Philadelphian!
"You could be a Mirrorskin for like three minutes and solve that shit," Teagan points out. They do, in fact, have tits that barely qualify as same. They're boobs, but... barely. There's some sort of joke to be made there, but they're not making it. "At least temporarily, because no one wants your boobs to go away forever." They pause, waiting for the water to be handed in their direction; water drunk, they lean down, whistling for Oso. The hedgebeast stops digging long enough to lap up water from the Mirrorskin's scarred hand. "Your hatred of Philadelphia only fuels the city, I hope you know that."
Oh, did someone say moving, and laying cinderblocks? That sounds like a good job for a frost giant. The good thing about being made of mostly ice is that you can pretty much get away with wearing whatever you want no matter how hot it is, but Sturm's not wearing her usual coat, and jeans. Sometimes a five strength motherfucker just wants to show off, y'know? Workboots, black denim cuttoff shorts, a sweat-drenched Judas Priest tee with the sleeves shorn off and the midriff tied off into a makeshift crop top, and a black bandana around her forehead to keep her hair off her face while she works.
"It's not that hot, is it?" Sturm -- the Snowskin that's currently turning into a fine mist -- offers with a wry smirk. Like a fucking gremlin. With a stack of ciderblocks that she's carrying back towards the wall, and ramparts. Sure, she's sweating like a motherfucker, but to her credit, she barely seems inconveinenced by the heat. "You could always, uhh. Pick up that Contract that makes weather not bother you."(edited)
"Grazie." Aurelio accepted the water-skin when it was offered, taking a pull before passing it over to Teagan. The mention of the weather earned a small smirk, although Sturm got the comment out he was going to make first. "A good weaving to know...summers at home are not much better."
"Yeah, but then what would I have to complain about," Sigrun points out to Sturm, accepting the water skin back when it's finished its rounds and slinging it back over her shoulder and situating it at her hip. Then the shovel comes back out and she's back at it, tossing dirt onto the growing rampart.
"I might do that, though. As a matter of practicality. Because this is getting ridiculous." Sigrun even glances aside at Teagan again, clearly thinking about it. "Honestly, I might take you up on that. Though I cannot wait to get back to our hollow and wash off in the spring. Turning into beef jerky in this heat is almost worth washing off and cooling down in there. Something to look forward to."
She tosses a few more shovel loads onto the pile and asks aside of Aurelio, "Was it that hot there? I figured it'd be pretty mild, what with being on the water and all. Duluth was always really pleasant on account of Lake Superior, for example."
"Look, there are certain rules. When in the Hedge, little tits and no dick. They're just inconvfuckingvenient." Teagan reaches to scratch Oso's ears approvingly, murmuring to him in Spanish and sending him back to work. The Hedgebeast barks once, twice, and wags his tail, warbling a response in the same tongue before tromping back to happily start digging once more. "You tell me, and I'll swap out your Kith, so you can do it yourself."
Having tended to their dog, the Mirrorskin turns back to digging. "I could do that, with the contract. Ain't really been my focus. I kinda like the heat. I definitely fucking hate the cold, though." They lean into their work, turning their head slightly toward Aurelio when Sigrun asks the obvious questions.
"Not unlike here, warm and humid. Up to..." He thought a moment, doing the conversion to Freedom Units in his head. "90s in the heart of it."
"Eugh. And humid, too? Because water? Makes me wonder why you always see 'em all dolled up in velvet in the paintings and such. That's ridiculous." Sigrun glances aside at Teagan again and shrugs her shoulders in an uncertain manner. "I think if I did a thing where I was not just changing my kith but my measurements, I might like to do that without an audience the first time. Becoming a Helldiver for a mission was one thing, you know? Reforging the Mississippi Queens is quite another." She puts her back into the work once more and throws some more dirt onto the pile. "Thanks for the offer, though. I appreciate it, genuinely." Her shovel hits more of those damn roots and with a growl she begins to dig around it so that they can expose and remove it. "This bullshit can't be over soon enough."
"This bullshit might be over," Sturm grumbles. She pauses for a moment to lean on a stack of cinderbricks, lifting up her shirt to wipe the condensation from her face, and leaving her cheeks smeared with mud and dirt. "... but there'll be some other bullshit, mark my words. With any luck it won't be labor intensive bullshit, though." There's a pause and Sturm quirks an eyebrow at Teagan, her expression completely deadpan. "I didn't realize you felt so strongly about the cold."
A nod from the Mirrorskin. They get it. Kinda. (They don't really get it. Reshaping their body is as easy to them as breathing.) "No worries, Adora," Teagan answers, pausing and waiting for Sigrun to dig out the root; they unhook Baby from their hip and heft the handle in their left hand. The comment from Sturm makes them raise an eyebrow at her. "Congratulations on being my exception, doll. I used to have a rule about dating Winters, too."
"The layers required in pre-air-conditioning days were fucking ridiculous," they add, and once Sigrun has the dirt cleared from around the root, Baby is applied judiciously to chop that shit up.
"Very true...we did what we could, though." Aurelio nodded to Teagan in agreement before turing his attention back to the task at hand. "Prefer the heat overall these days, between the two. Part of why I joined the Spear."
"I hate the heat," Sigrun continues to complain, because complaining is the lot of soldiers digging trenches. That's just how it is. "Minnesota in the Summer was bad. Don't get me wrong. But nothing like this. This is almost Miami stupid. And I hated Miami." She gripes aside to Aurelio, "Miami was like this, but in like. October. Stupid. Stupid hot. Stupid humid. Just a stupid city. Like this city, only moreso." Sigrun drives her shovel in to continue digging around the root. There's more of it, it'll need to be exposed further to be properly removed. "We should get a giant fan and make Sturm stand behind it. Get all that cold air moving around."
Look, Sturm went from smoking a practically a pack-a-day to not having had a cigarette all day. She's allowed little an ornery as a treat, I guess. There's an apologetic look, and an amused snort as she catches herself - followed by an actual laugh at Sigrun's grumbling. "Texas wasn't really humid, but the summer's'd be upwards to the 120's out near El Paao and that was just utterly fucking miserable no matter what the humidity index had to say." There's a pause, and she moves to stand near Sigrun. There's no fan, but the Valkyrie can enjoy a smidgen of cold radiating off of Sturm, plus her strong Winter mantles effects. "Nacogdoches wasn't nearly as bad. Only barely hitting a hundred is pretty nice for a Texas Summer."
They crouch down and start hacking away with the machete, pulling up chunk after chunk of root and tossing them out of the trench. "Miami is a bullshit city, but you love Philadelphia despite its bullshit, right?" This is asked with a winning smile cast aside at Sigrun as Sturm goes to stand near her. Teagan grabs hold of the root and leans back, putting their whole weight into yanking it out. "Yeah, we did what we could," they agree with Aurelio. "But I prefer a refrigerator to an icebox, and I surely do love air conditioning."
"No. No one who loves this city loves it despite its bullshit, they love it because it's such a festering stink filled garbage dump of a burgh. It smells like a drunk's asshole." Sigrun keeps on shoveling the dirt, truly demonstrating that she has fully acclimated to Philadelphia and its peculiar regional self-loathing. "But I will straight up beat up anyone from Pittsburgh who has a bad word for it. You can only bitch about it if you live here. Otherwise you're just talking out your ass." Sigrun climbs up out of the trench with her spade and begins cutting down into the ground from above, extending the line they'll be cutting and loosening the surface roots and such to make the work a little easier. "I've just decided Texas isn't a real place. It's just hell with a shotgun and a cowboy hat."
"Ah...only ever been here in the States. Has taken some time to adjust, but it's grown on me, though." Aurelio moved to help expose the pesky root further, nodding again to Teagan. "Agreed. The new tools these days are definitely helpful."
"Probably, yeah." Sturm offers a shrug before stealing a swig from the water skin and heading back over to where she'd been working. "Hell in a Cowboy Hat with a Shotgun just happens to be my type. The country out that way is beautiful, and you can actually even see the sky sometimes." There's a beat where -- in a very uncharacteristic move -- she sticks out her tongue. "Not that Philly'd know too much about that."
When Sigrun responds as she does, Teagan grins lopsidedly. "And that's how I know you're a real Philadelphian, Adora," as they pull on the root and then fall on their ass when it suddenly gives way. A grunt, and they hack off that section of root, tossing it out of the trench before grabbing on to the next section that Aurelio reveals. "Boy, you're just full of piss and vinegar today, aren't you, doll?" Their broken-mirror eyes glitter.
"Those aren't stars. Those are the clouds reflecting back the sequined shoulder pads of the Austin Lady's Bible and Gun Club," Sigrun counters with a wry and wicked grin before stabbing her spade down and tearing out a clod of topsoil. "Besides. If you want to see stars in Philly just ask a cop for directions to the nearest donut shop." She's on a roll tonight, theydies and gentlethem. "Though to be fair, Friday Night Lights was a pretty good TV show. So I guess Texas can't be all bad. Though. It does keep electing the Zodiac Killer to the Senate."
Aurelio blinked when the root gave way, moving to offer Teagan a hand up if they needed it. The banter between the trio earned a small smile, albeit followed by a mildly puzzled look as the flurry of references went over his head. "Sorry, but I do not follow...they elect who?"
Sturm scrunches up her face at Sigrun and sticks out her tongue again. Y'know, because she's a Jotunn, not a scald. Odin didn't shape her with witty banter in mind. She offers a hefty sigh at Teagan's comment, and then hefts another cinderblock onto freshly laid cement. "Yeah, sorry T. Maybe a fuckin' little bit... but now we're talking about Ted Cruz which means I have to piss more vinegar." She turns to Aurelio. "Texas is gerrymandered to fuck and back because Republicans in the state don't play by the fuckin' rules, and the Democrats decided to make playing fair their whole fuckin' identity, and they never fought back. Now? Well, now we've got Ted fuckin' Cruz -- spinless little kiss-ass pigfucker that he is -- and can't get rid of him because his party's so entrenched in the state it doesn't matter that nobody likes his cowardly ass."
She fuckin' huffs, and then moves another brick. Teagan gets a little wink, though.
"So yeah. Piss and vinegar."(edited)
"Like I mind. I fell in love with you because you're a gremlin," Teagan answers; they take the hand up that Aurelio offers them, wipes a hand over their chest thereafter, and gets back to work. There's mud smeared across their boob now, where the dirt mixed with their sweat, but this is how it is. They snicker when Sigrun starts razzing Sturm, and keeps at their work. "Ted Cruz looks like someone smacked a pig in the face with a cinderblock," they opine.
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