[open] Tear it down. Tear it ALL down (snake teardown thread)

[reapsthewind]

Who: Anyone. Seriously. This is an open log, and you don't even have to know it's happening! Wander in! help commit crimes! YAY
What: BREAKING THAT STUPID STAKE STATUE IN THE DEAD DISTRICT. BREAKING IT HARD.
Where: Snake statue, dead district.
When: Saturday night

Chris had taken extra precautions earlier in the week. She'd bought clothes at five different thrift stores throughout the city, clothes that didn't match and weren't her usual style, and paid with cash. Ratty tennis shoes a size too big for her (shored up with insoles and stuffed with socks). Nondescript black hoodie, too big, no logo. Nondescript baggy black jeans, again, a size too big, held up by rope, not a belt. A ski mask. A bandanna. And today, she wore her blue contact lenses, not the usual brown ones, a color she'd only used once, four years ago for an MIT costume party.

She'd also picked up a huge ratty old rolling suitcase the same way, and had filled it with rope, a pulley, and yes, a sledgehammer. And then, finally, she'd rolled around in the dirt. Really. Seriously.

She looked, for all the world, like just another homeless wreck. She hoped everyone else had the sense to follow suit.

Gear ready, it was time to go break shit.

Comments

scouting; pre-game

[reapsthewind]

[Stuff BEFORE the teardown happens. Scouting the area, trying to get rid of ~spies~ if we can even ID them, chit-chat, hangouts, gathering, and gettin dem echoes.]

[mightymegatron]

Matt managed to look fashionable, despite the fact that he was wearing a non-nondescript grey hoodie and a pair of jeans. No sunglasses, becuase it was the middle of the night, but he' also secured a baseball cap. Just to break up the outline of his face - the last thing he needed were vandalism charges. But hey, it was for a friend. He buries his hands in his pockets and glances down the street.

"So, we're basically just tearing a statue down? That doesn't sound too hard."

Says the man who hasn't done a day of manual labor in his life.

[reapsthewind]

"Did you seriously get a designer hoodie for this. Really, dude? What the hell am I ever going to do with you?" she sighed.

"And yes, we're going to tear down a statue. Do you know anything about civil engineering and breaking stuff? No, because you went to Harvard."

She sighed. Mostly, she was teasing. Mostly.

"Anyway, okay, admittedly, breaking is easier than moving, which is what I've done in the past. The big problem here is that the snake is sitting on top of a pretty wide base, so it's gonna be hard to topple it. Idea is to try to get it to fall over, then smash what's left with hammers. I think I should have brought a lever or something, so we could have lifted the base..."

[mightymegatron]

"I didn't buy it, I already had one," Matt retorted with a shit-eating grin. He'd forgotten how amusing it was to play the tit-for-tat game with Chris.

"And maybe I don't know anything about civil engineering, but I do have a battery of highly-paid lawyers on speed-dial."

Hmm. Admittedly, he didn't know much about the physics of statue destruction. He tried to picture it in his mind's eye with some degree of success.

"How heavy do you imagine it being?"

[professorwolf]

Lyall was here. Lyall was also nervous, but he was here. Nothing smelled off the way that detective or those mutant dogs smelled off... but the street leading to the statue don't smell empty, either. They won't be alone in there.

So he waited down the street from the statue. He didn't look nearly as ratty as Chris did, but he did have a big, shapeless duster and an even bigger, more shapeless hat. And sunglasses, even though it was dark out. Really, he looked kind of ridiculous.

And when Chris showed up, it was only by her scent that he recognized her. His nose wrinkled. "You smell terrible. Where did you get all that?"

[reapsthewind]

"Thrift stores, and uh, the dirt plot behind my apartment," she said. "And dammit, I guess the police-dogs would be able to ID me by smell."

"So what's the situation? We being watched?"

[professorwolf]

He was silently grateful that she didn't use the word "werewolves". He might have twitched if she had. "It's possible, but not by any of those dogs," he answered, peering ahead in the direction of the awful thing. "There is someone there, a couple someones, but they smell like anyone else would. So your scent is probably safe with me, for now, at least."

[shiromadoushi]

It was really hard to get his hair all hidden away. Even tied back and stuffed in his hoody it was threatening to escape and despite the thrift store wonders he was wearing, he still felt like he stuck out.

...didn't help that the impulse to pick out a red hoodie instead of his normal blue and heading back into the Dead District had gotten his mind thinking of the more antique sets of flashbacks and how well the previous excursion had gone.

But he wasn't going to sit back and do nothing and this should go far better than that... right?

[reapsthewind]

"Hey, kiddo," she said as Bakura arrived. She had out a calculator, a piece of scrap paper, and a bunch of measuring tools. Apparently, someone was re-calculating some stuff about how to best break this thing. "How you holding up?"

[shiromadoushi]

"I feel like I'm the most obvious person in the world right now," he admitted sheepishly, nervously tucking an errant strand of hair back under the hoodie. "Not cut out to be a ninja," he laughed, ducking his head slightly.

[searchforpeace]

Audrey had already been down this way the day before. And given the sheer feeling one got off the statue... well, it was enough to at least bring her to view the teardown if not precisely help.

The other day she had come dressed like a regular student so today she had to do things a bit different. A hoodie pulled up over her orange-blond hair, a cap worn over that in case the hood fell at some point. She was never one for jeans typically so wearing a ratty pair she had picked up set her apart from her normal look as well. Coupled with smaller chest hidden behind the layer of hoodie and shirt, she really did look like a rather skinny boy. Just one of the masses of highschool kids no one would care much about.

Audrey took in a deep breath once she arrived, stilling her nerves. Though she had been full of absurdness the day before, the feelings emanating off the statue and the things it conjured up were enough to have her feeling rattled by the end.

[mightymegatron]

Matt watched their motley little band trail in. Several high schoolers, a PhD student, an older man.

Well, there were worse groups you could ask for if you wanted to commit vandalism and mischief. He glanced at one of the younger-looking members of the group with a slightly amused grin, "Here for the get together, I imagine?"

Ugh, autocorrect. Assuredness, not absurdness.

[searchforpeace]

A glance over confirmed the man was speaking to her so Audrey offered the smallest of smiles.

"It seems to be a very motley crew, doesn't it."

[reckless_fire]

Kenji had probably put less thought into what he wore than anyone else and had simply grabbed a set of dark, well-worn sweats. If those werewolf...dog...things...were around, they already had his scent from the week before, when he and Anthony had blundered into them, so no lame-ass disguise he could come up with would fool them. And if they weren't around, well, so much the better. He hoped.

Keeping a wary eye on the more shadowy areas in case something did decide to lunge out at him, he ambled up to the small group beginning to assemble, dragging a large, rolling duffelbag behind him. Inside were a couple lengths of rope, a sledgehammer, and a crowbar, all "liberated" from his dad's workshop. Hopefully, he could get everything back before his dad noticed they were gone.

[reapsthewind]

"Hot damn, kid, are those tools in that bag?" said Chris as he approached, grinning. Guy looked too clean to be one of the vagrants that tended to hang out around here. "You're a total lifesaver. I only had the one sledgehammer."

[amberhearted]

"I dunno about this..."

Standing near the statue, with, and not yet quite, the rest of the group, Alex's discomfort was obvious by his body language. Seeing the statue in person -- being this close to it -- added another layer of concern to their presence. It was the subtle effects of the statue trying to convince him to leave.

He shifted the bulk of his weight to one foot, gloved fingers nervously rubbing the handle of the case they were gripping. His sawzall was inside, charged and ready to go. He threw Kenji a wan smile and a halfhearted "hey" at his approach, then glanced down at his bag.

"The little demolition team that could, huh?"

Yep, definitely uncomfortable. He's a paramedic for fuck's sake. He's not supposed to be on this side of the law.

[espigeonage]

Julien was still getting used to... breathing this way. He felt almost top-light. It wasn't unpleasant, having a similar sensation on the exhale as the inhale, hard to describe. But hey, he was recovered and if anything getting even better. Hadn't run out of breath once.

So he'd come along, looking even more like a hipster than usual. Black knit cap covering his hair, patched long coat he kept closed despite it being a little warm, knees showing through old jeans, scarred boots, a different set of glasses with larger, rounder lenses. Close examination showed tiny holes from a variety of flashy pins he'd removed from the jacket... He'd also gone and used a rag covered with charcoal powder on his clothes and skin. It was entirely possible he hadn't bought this whole ensemble in the last few days, but he usually ran more towards vain than scruffy.

And he was nervous. Julien still smiled whenever he caught someone looking his way, but kept quieter than usual, hanging around the edges looking out into the dark.

[exloserspromise]

This was still a terrible idea, but Sandy hated backing out of things so here he was. He'd unearthed lenseless hipster glasses from Halloween, a generic knit cap he was pretty sure actually belonged to his last roommate but which covered his dye job, and a reversible jacket he kept meaning to get rid of turned dark side out and zipped to his neck. It was a dorky look, but flexible.

Seeing all these unfamiliar faces in similarly shady clothes, it felt like he'd walked into a heist movie. God, he hoped his ma would forgive him.

[reapsthewind]

"Sandy, hey," she said, sauntering on over and pulling up her face mask enough so that she didn't freak him out. "Glad you could make it."

[eyesofstrength]

What a way to get involved with this motley crew for the first time, vandalism. He would have dropped a quick line to Chris before just showing up so that she'd not find him outright suspicious. That and he'd mention he has supplies that would be useful.

He's wearing about as nondescript of clothing as he can. Dark colored sweatpants and a black hoodie pulled up to cover his hair since the color isn't exactly common even if he doesn't dye it.

Of note, he does have a bag with him and it is filled with some more tools. He's got another sledgehammer, a winch, more rope, a couple of crowbars, some pulleys, a regular hammer and some other random supplies.

[reapsthewind]

"Oh man oh man, did you bring me a goodie bag?" asked Chris. She did recognize that guy from his note. "Niiice."

TEAR IT ALL DOWN

[reapsthewind]

[WOO YEAH BREAK SHIT YAY]

[reapsthewind]

"Okay, team A, on the ropes, team B, on the ropes, you ready? Team C, keep hammering at the base on the opposite side to destabilize it!"

They weren't much for teams, but Chris had done the force calculations, and it should be enough.

"Good, everybody in position? Fantastic."

... and then something curious came over her. Maybe it was the adrenaline, maybe it was just the mood, who the hell knew, but something about it...

"Listen up you lot," she said. "We've been through hell, let's be honest. A month ago, we were normal people living our normal lives, and then everything changed. We've all remembered pasts that never were, and our futures are uncertain. We're hunted, hunted by a force we don't understand. But tonight! We stop being the hunted! We stop being afraid, and we show that we're more than capable of fighting back. Not as a disorganized group of thugs under a washed-out fool of an ex military men, but as civilians, as revolutionaries! This here, this breaking of the enemy's tool? This is just the beginning! We are in control!"

Oh dear, someone stop her, it looks like she's going to go on for a while...

[elfstoned]

...oh dear, indeed. Not that he disliked the giving of speeches on principle, but now wasn't the time. Not for a long speech, anyway -- they could be caught at any moment.

Aaron stepped up next to Chris and took her by the elbow. He leaned in and said in a very low voice, "I appreciate the sentiment, Chris, but we're on a tight schedule. Save the speech for when we're safely away. All right?"

Aftermath

[reapsthewind]

[STUFF THAT HAPPENS AFTER]