Whistle While You Work: [Open]

[ford-sawyer-815.livejournal.com]

There was a problem with having big, massive battles that encompassed the entire ship, aside from the whole 'OMG We're Gonna DIE!' thing. The problem: Someone had to clean up after it.

After the battlefields of World War II had disappeared, after the Nightmare King had been destroyed, and after the pissed off bald kid had dropped a damn hurricane into the ship, the city was littered with rubble and debris. Broken sections of buildings lay on the ground, blocking entire streets. Shattered glass threatened to cut open the plant suits--of those still wearing them--and lodge themselves in people's feet. And then there was the dust that had been kicked up by the winds and still hadn't come down. It was a disaster.

But someone had to clean it up--or at least try--and someone was. Sawyer, equipped with shovels, some brooms, rakes, and a couple of wheelbarrows that he'd found in a garden shed in the Vatican, was down in the city getting to the business of cleaning up the mess. With the heat of the city coupled with the physical exertion and the dust in the air, he'd long ago ripped off the top of his plant suit and wrapped it around his nose and mouth in an effort to keep the dust particles from getting into his lungs.

It was a dirty business, but someone had to do it. Although, some help wouldn't hurt.

Comments

[anoldtrickster.livejournal.com]

"Let me give you a hand with that," Mr. Wednesday says, moving in to claim one of the wheelbarrows. As for him—well, he weathered the storm without even a mark, too look at him. It's a little curious, though, how the old man's simply been gone and out of sight for a while...

[ford-sawyer-815.livejournal.com]

Sawyer looked up just as he was hoisting up another shovel-full of dirt and readying to dump it into one of the empty wheelbarrows. "Yeah. Thanks," he replied, pausing to wipe the sweat from his brow.

"So, where the hell you been?" he asked. He didn't remember seeing the old man since Sawyer had been so unceremoniously expelled from that damn AI's maze. "Almost thought ya'd bailed on us."

[anoldtrickster.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I've been working on a few of my own projects," Wednesday says pleasantly. He grabs a shovel and starts scooping up the dirt, with a certain sort of effortless strength in the movement—he may be a bit squishy-looking, but body fat doesn't mean there isn't plenty of muscle underneath...

[ford-sawyer-815.livejournal.com]

"Riiight," Sawyer said, eying the man suspiciously. "Lemme guess, it's a secret just like everything else around here, right?" Not that he's one to talk considering no one board even knows his real name.

[anoldtrickster.livejournal.com]

"Oh, no," Wednesday says with a chuckle. "Renovations, mostly. There's one of these buildings I'm trying to get halfway decent for a pig to live in, not that it's easy with the lack of anything that isn't just reused from something else."

[youngsoldat.livejournal.com]

Now that he wasn't dead on his feet, Erwin was out and about helping. He was doing his best to clear rubble and was likewise stripped to the waist. Although underweight, he was still fit enough and he moved like it. He was piling rubble neatly on one side of the street, sorting it and getting the street clear.

[ford-sawyer-815.livejournal.com]

Sawyer is taking a break, after some of the more heavy lifting he'd done earlier, by doing some light work sweeping up the shattered glass and dumping it into a barrel he'd found in one of the alleys. "So, what's yer name, Green Bean?" he asked, looking over at one of the guys that had stopped to help.

[youngsoldat.livejournal.com]

"Erwin," he shot over his shoulder as he lugged a piece of masonry over to his pile. "And you?"

[ford-sawyer-815.livejournal.com]

That got a look. Something along the lines of 'say what?' Yeah, what the icon says!

"Sawyer," he replied, pushing the broom along the ground in short strokes. "What the hell kinda name is 'Erwin?'"

[youngsoldat.livejournal.com]

Erwin paused to stretch his limbs out. He arched his back and rolled his shoulders before turning back to his task with a laugh. "It's the name my parents gave me. I'm not complaining."

[sent-herself.livejournal.com]

It took some time to find footwear appropriate for the city when it's in this much of a state of destruction, but Mulan eventually got her hands on some hiking boots. They're very big on her, but a soldier's duty involves more than just fighting and there's no way this city is going to be safe for anyone if it stays this damaged. She's looking for work, so when she sees the, uh, rather well-built man already hard at work (of course he has NOTHING on her captain, handsome though he is, she reminds herself), she trots over to join him.

"Hey, could you use some help?"

She still has her loose pants and her large men's shirt on, so it's up in the air whether Sawyer can tell she's a girl, or just a very pre-pubescent boy.

[ford-sawyer-815.livejournal.com]

"I'd love some," Sawyer replied, planting his hands firmly against a sizable boulder and, putting his weight against it, rolling it along the street to a pile that had been started earlier.

[sent-herself.livejournal.com]

Mulan digs in to help. She's stronger than she looks, but only because she works at it hard, and the boulder rolls.

"What did this building used to be, do you know?"

[ford-sawyer-815.livejournal.com]

"Not a clue," he said through gritted teeth as they rolled the massive rock across the street. "I know what it ain't...livable."

[sent-herself.livejournal.com]

"It seems like a shame," she muses, between grunts of effort. "Not to know who built something like this, or what for . . ."

[yubyubcommander.livejournal.com]

Wedge has joined in the clean-up himself now that he's gotten some sleep. The pilot has wrapped one of his precious t-shirts around his face to keep the dust clear as he busies himself with cleaning up the area around his squadron headquarters. He's managed to clear some of the larger rubble into piles for use or disposal and is now busily sweeping the sidewalk in front of his building clear of glass and other small rubble. His normally bright flight suit is covered in dust, enough to make it look more like an orange brown then the eye-hurting bright orange it normally is.

[ford-sawyer-815.livejournal.com]

Sawyer, meanwhile, is busy moving stones out of the path and over to a pile that had been started by Erwin earlier. Pausing next to a rather big one that definitely weighed more than he could carry. He wasn't Superman.

"Hey," he called out to the guy in orange. "Ya got a minute? I could use a hand with this."

[yubyubcommander.livejournal.com]

"Certainly!" The pilot's voice is muffled by his makeshift head covering, but he heads over across the street. He crouches down to examine the chunk of masonry.

"So, you get on that side, I get on this side and just heave it onto the pile on three?"

[ford-sawyer-815.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Sawyer nodded, crouching down and getting a grip on the stone. "Aiight...One...Two...Three."

[yubyubcommander.livejournal.com]

Wedge grunts as they heave the stone onto the pile, then stands up straight, dusting his hands off.

"We're gonna need more people. Hopefully the squadron will be done here later to do some more organized clean up."

[riseupnchargem.livejournal.com]

Jamie's working, silently and steadily, some distance away, alternating between shovelling loads of smaller debris and moving bigger chunks by hand. He's taken a cue from Sawyer and is using one sleeve from his plantsuit to cover his nose and mouth, but aside from that has opted to leave the suit intact, despite the humidity.

[ford-sawyer-815.livejournal.com]

Sawyer was back to shoveling piles of debris into the wheelbarrows and hauling them away to one of the less used area's of the city, well out of the way so people wouldn't be getting hurt on it, while the kid cleared the streets. "Ya know, I'm startin' to think we can't ever have anything nice around here," he said with a tinge of humor.

[riseupnchargem.livejournal.com]

Jamie smirked a bit behind his dust mask. "Seems that way sometimes," he agreed. "Always something trying to destroy stuff..."

[ford-sawyer-815.livejournal.com]

"Pain in my a$$ is what it is," Sawyer grumbled. "Everyone likes to blow sh*t up but they never wanna help clean up when it's all over."

[riseupnchargem.livejournal.com]

This earned a somewhat more enthusiastic snort of annoyance. "Don't I know it," Jamie groused. "People just assume there's always gonna be someone else to pick up after 'em when they make a mess." He shifted another shovelful or two of debris and then continued, in a more subdued tone, "Then again, I wasn't exactly doing a whole lot when the actual fighting was going on, so...guess now's when I can do something useful."