June Sentencing

[expiationmods]

Who: The Sentenced & Their Enforcers
Where: Aldrip Training Grounds
What: Group sentencing activity that requires cooperation! It's time for some restoration work after a tragic fire to this location that remains a pillar of community togetherness.

Sentencing: Community Service Edition

Community Service Group Therapy

The training grounds had unfortunately sustained fire damage thanks to an arson attack. The fire spread to burn the grass, some brush and trees and there are skeletons of the frames left over from tents where it burned. A few straw practice dummies were also singed in the process, but they have lived to be beaten on another day!

The damage could have been much worse, of course! Thanks to the fast acting and thinking of some of Aldrips finest, the fire was contained and extinguished. They have saved this gathering place of skill and story sharing from complete ruination, but now it needs to be restored to its former glory.

Six Chosen have been found guilty of various crimes around the city this month, and so their task is a restoration project of the grounds. These Chosen will show up at the grounds in a timely manner (or else someone might need to retrieve them for duty) to start their tasks. It will be obvious who they are as they are outfitted in tacky yellow work coveralls with reflective stripes; this will be over whatever normal clothing they may be wearing.

The six community service Chosen are: Jinx, Silco, Beta, Echo, A2, and Fandaniel. Surely they will all get along and work hard on this task and not be difficult about it, right?

Well, to ensure that they complete the restoration project are their team of wranglers enforcers who are responsible for saving the training grounds in the first place! The heroes of Aldrip have been provided little badges from Jerry that designates their authority to oversee the tasks at hand for this restoration project.

Their task is to see that the job is completed and done well by however means necessary except they are not allowed to participate in the activities. They need to oversee their wayward charges and are exempt from recourse for whatever it is they need to do to convince the Chosen, and the native population and other Chosen may drop by to observe the work and maybe cheer everyone on (or heckle).

The eight community service enforcers are: Gadriel, Hiei, Kurama, Fauna, Morph, Rogue, Kuwabara, and Scott Summers

The tasks that need to be completed are:
• Laying new sod over the damaged grass areas. Alternatively, hauling in gravel stones to fill the areas.

• Tree trimming to remove damaged hazardous branches

• Remove damaged tents and then construct the metal skeletons of new ones before adding canvas material over them so they are good as new. How-to instructions will be provided (think IKEA-type)

• Building bird nests to replace those lost in the fire. Think of the children!

• Gardening! This place needs a spruce up and what better way to do that than enhance it by constructing raised garden beds. All the materials are provided including plants.

• Garbage collection. You know what to do. Take up your bag and extendiarm and get out there to collect the rubbish.

NOTES

• The six convicted Chosen cannot wander away from the training grounds during their shift or else they suffer from physical ailments.

• The enforcers may work one-on-one with a sentenced Chosen, game plan between each other or double-team sentenced Chosen into doing their tasks.

• Threads do not need to be completed by July 9th for success or failure on both teams. They do need to be started and in progress by this date.

• If the rest of the community wants to stop by, they can do so. They are not allowed to assist in either the tasks or the enforcement.

Comments

Questions/Comments

[expiationmods]

JINX / arcane, cw: it's jinx, guys.

[opheliac]

[impersonating the council, that is her crime, and in all honesty, she finds it extremely ridiculous. because out of all the chosen cooped up in aldrip, she is one of the selective few who had been living in this simulation longer than a year. two years, in fact; her anniversary is coming up. what joy! and what better way to spend her ceremony by making others' lives more complicated? in jinx's perspective, she might as well be the top dog in Aldrip (even though she doesn't care for it some days). and that is because her father, silco, owns almost every business in town, even some many aren't aware of.

so for the two of them posing to be the actual face of the council? not necessarily a stretch. but it seems jerry and the bosses see things differently, and thus here she is, wearing these awful and boring overalls (she'll design it later) with a trash bag over her shoulder.

maybe the other rule breakers have already started working, or maybe they're discussing among themselves which task goes to whom. either way, jinx hasn't moved an inch since being brought here. and what makes it a little unsettling beyond her stillness is the crooked smile on her face. it appears innocent, but there's an artificial sweetness to it. and the more her lips curl, the further the poison bleeds. that is, until suddenly, she springs to life by raising her left arm straight and high above her head—like a student recalling a question they wanted to ask twenty minutes ago.]

Yes, hi, hello! — I'm good, how are you, never better...! So... I gotta take a piss. What do you want me to do about that, huh?

[showing her teeth now in her devious grin, her arm drops dead weight by her side while she elaborates.]

Should I just... do it right here? Pop a squat? [a brief pause, then.] Oh!! You know, human waste is great for fertilizing crops. Sometimes preferable.

[and there she goes, unfastening her belt to either actually do it or just putting on a facade. hard to tell with this girl.]

oh no

[thecodexabides]

Please do not do that. Here, at least. [Here is one of your guards, and it is
someone who is clearly going to not think this is some kind of crafty plot.]

I could escort you to a proper facility. [They were wrongdoers, but he wasn't sure--yet--that they were heretics, so he will give her the benefit of the doubt. Until he decides.]

What did you do to get sent here? [Because he's not sold on this job either.]

[jaganshi]

[ Hiei.. stares impassively for a long moment as Jinx presumably suggests dropping trow and going to the bathroom right in front of him. Honestly, not the most disgusting thing he's ever had happen in his presence, by the scale of demonic happenings. It takes him a moment to sift through responses, his general annoyance somewhat assuaged by the amusement at her boldness.

It helps that he has only been introduced to actual bathrooms in the human world since he lived feral in the demon world for who the hell knows how long.

Of all things to be asked of him here - ]

Have at it. Just don't expect to stop for medical attention if you're bitten or made uncomfortable by anything you touch your ass to.

[nobetawedielike]

[ Beta's not having the easiest time of it-- She has very little strength or stamina. Her face is already flushed with effort as she tries to move trash and supplies. The garden beds would be the ideal spot for her, but until those are set up, she's stuck struggling through manual labor. ]

It's not a bad idea, but it doesn't work like that.

[ She just barely managed to set down some wood for the planters with a grunt of effort. ]

You'd need to compost it first.

[grappler]

[well.... you know Vi's going to have to stop by her sister when she sees her. and of course she's making a scene.

she crosses her arms at her.]

Wouldn't that sort of thing get you Sentenced all over again?

[Big Sister mode, activate.]

You want me to take you to a bathroom?

fauna | oc

[nightwild]

[Look, Fauna doesn't want to be here either. She tried to ask Jerry if she could just do the work herself, and Jerry did his Batman act before she could. Which leaves Fauna standing around, looking pretty agitated and fidgety. Still, a job's a job.]

Look, let's just... all try to get this over with fast, okay? We don't want to be here, either. But if you guys are the ones who spread the fire, you gotta fix what you did.

[At least, she's assuming it's true for everyone. Still, the work has to get done, so...

Still, she's getting bad feelings about a lot of this. She's keeping her changer ready to transform at any moment...]

fellow guard

[thecodexabides]

[So, none of them want to be here, basically.]

It seems a reasonable penalty, to fix what they destroyed.

Yet....[Something doesn't sit right with him but he hasn't been here long enough to decide. ] Does this feel right to you?

Re: fauna | oc

[nobetawedielike]

I had nothing to do with the fire, though.

[ She says it with a weak protest. Regardless, she's doing her best, although her best is 'weak nerd arms barely able to carry a piece of wood'. ]

Hiei | Reluctant Enforcer

[jaganshi]

Hiei... is only actually here because of Kurama's blatant force on the matter. The redhead can be spotted in different places around the training grounds, though he is mostly lingering where he can keep a close eye on his fire demon partner.

The demon had very openly tried to shirk his responsibilities here, annoyed at the idea that he should be enforcing anyone else's punishment in the first place. In its own way, overseeing prisoners is a unique form of punishment for Hiei, who has resented having to babysit humans since time immemorial (since they were put together as Team Urameshi at Maze Castle).

In typical form, the little demon can be found atop something Tall™, looking about as irritated as he feels, arms crossed over his chest when he isn't snacking on (aka savaging) random fruit from the surrounding trees. He's keen on watching, at the very least, hawkish in his attention to what everyone is doing, even if he is not particularly intent on stopping bickering or being particularly pushy about keeping their wards moving if they keep him entertained his boredom.

His tone is waspish, though, for those who take too long of a break or don't seem intent on their current activity.

"Dragging your feet isn't going to make this faster for any of us. Get moving."

[nobetawedielike]

"I just need a minute." Beta says, trying to catch her breath. She's clearly not suited to physical labor; moving anything heavy takes her great effort, she needs breaks after nearly anything. At the moment, she's seated on some random pallet of supplies, hands on her knees and face flush with exertion.

Was this something people actually did on a daily basis on Earth? She couldn't even imagine it. "Maybe you could help?" It lacks the bite Aloy's words would have, when she barely speaks loud enough to be heard to start with.

[despitethenora]

Hiei, Hiei, Hiei. It's not just A2 that reacts poorly to his tone. Aloy is here to look out for her sister, looking just like what one should expect if Beta had actually had a more physical lifestyle.

The hunter's planting hands on her hips as she looks up at him.

"Easy to talk from up there."

Gadriel, tallest enforcer

[thecodexabides]

[He's conflicted about this, because he follows orders that seem reasonable, and if the people had been part of the spread of the fire, they should face some penalty, and a little light cleanup sounded a great deal less terrible than time in a pain glove or something...

But something still doesn't feel right and he can't put his big finger on it. Maybe it's that he doesn't like following mysterious summonses. Maybe it's because he's still pretty sure this is some daemon realm and this mysterious "Jerry' is, well, a daemon. It sounds like a daemon name to him.

But whatever. Gadriel stands, looking a little worriedly, over the crew of their charges, trying to decide for himself if this was a just or unjust duty. If you're one of the sentenced, he may sidle up and ask if you feel you were judged fairly for this, or if there was some worse punishment he didn't see. He can't help, they say, but maybe he could be convinced.

If you're a fellow guard, he might ask what they know about the fire and why it was set. He had been so busy with trying to put it out, that he hadn't bothered with any non-immediate question.

Any way you take it, his first salvo in the conversation will be simple exhortation. ]

If we do this swiftly, the punishment can more quickly recede into memory. [A solid quote from the Codex. ]

the way I snorted at 'tallest enforcer'

[jaganshi]

[ Hi again Gadriel - you probably remember the little demon who's been posting up on tall objects or occasionally flickering in and out of the area to return with fruits as snacks.

He perches on some remnant of half burnt wood like a hawk, savaging away at an apple even as he balances on the balls of his feet, watching. The fire demon hardly feels apt for this sort of role, considering he himself is hardly a saint when it comes to crimes committed.

After all, he sort of does them as a casual hobby these days. ]

I don't know why it was set. I barely understand why the hell I must be here.

I only showed up to make sure it did not come toward where the people from my world are staying.

[ Which is a dick move in particular considering he cannot be burnt even here. But it is classic Hiei. ]

[laserguy]

[Oh hey, it's the dude that straight up ate one of those chrome eggs without even batting an eyelash. It really is fitting that he's standing out around here as one of the enforcers as well... and definitely being the tallest one in the entire field really. But that's not what he really focuses on, the teen actually far more serious compared to the last time they talked.

He's frowning and watching the sentenced work. And it feels wrong? Maybe even off putting?? Yeah, that and more.]

I don't know much about the fire, honestly, I just went there when I heard about it. Only got there in time to help put it out, didn't see anything else.

[He has his doubts about all of these people being involved with the fire too.]

he definitely is that.

[chimericalclaw]

[Altius had gotten the impression this man was large simply across the network, but seeing him in person... It's not often he has to look up at all, but this is a new experience entirely.

Regardless, as someone otherwise uninvolved, he's carrying a couple of drink trays from a local cafe, having heard about this strange new endeavor and curious enough to investigate—but not without making himself useful in some way, even if he can't actively help.

He approaches after Gadriel has addressed the sentenced.]

Well said. I'd suggest the same for all sentencing here.

[Despite certain... topics, Gadriel has struck him as a reasonable sort, so he's interested to know how the soldier ended up doing this.]

Coffee?

Scott Summers | Enforcer

[laserguy]

for any convicted;
[Scott has a certain face to him, like he really doesn't want to be here. Or at least, doesn't want to be standing around and just watching other Chosen be forced to work on the training grounds. He already thinks that the whole sentencing thing is bullshit, so he's not really convinced that they really deserve to do crap like this. Besides, shouldn't everyone just pitch in to help restore the training grounds?

But on the other hand, getting a favor from Jerry seems like a good idea. Maybe it will lead to more information. Or something else. So outright just saying fuck it to this whole thing is also stupid.

Still, the teen's a little grumpy as he sits on some overturned log, only really addressing anyone that seems to be slacking off. Or worse.]

Come on, let's just get this over with.

for any enforcer;
[Scott's been thinking about bringing some snacks or water for the working Chosen, because all of this is leaving a bad taste in his mouth. He wouldn't say he's a fan of every single convicted Chosen that's currently out here, but that doesn't erase the uncertain feeling that's developed in his chest since Jerry showed up with that stupid badge.

Like why now? This is the first time he's ever done something like this in the two years since he's been here. He wonder if it means anything. Ugh, maybe he'll find and open a bag of chips and start shoving something in his mouth as he thinks.

But looking at any fellow enforcer nearby...]

So, this sucks, right? [He wonders if Jerry is planning something by doing this... divide them?]

[nightwild]

Pretty much...

[Fauna looks pretty annoyed, even though she does have that badge clipped to her belt.]

If you're fighting two people, make them fight each other... but that doesn't seem right for this.

[jaganshi]

[ Hiei... just gives Scott one of those sarcastic, long-suffering stares. He is not at all interested in babysitting a bunch of people to do cleaning tasks, nor had he shown up to the fire to do anything even close to heroic.

He had quite simply shown up only to save himself some trouble and feels a lot like he's being punished in some way by having to play prison guard. If only by Kurama's insistence, he's shown up, with his favorite redhead lurking nearby to make sure he doesn't shirk his duties or dig in too hard once he starts to get more annoyed about it all. ]

I only showed up to make sure it didn't spread toward the house. Standing here doing this feels like a punishment itself.

Richard / observer

[traumaticus]

[Unlike the others Richard had not been sentenced to either role. But seeing that he was the one who had built the training area from the scratch and organised the training routines and programs he'd argue that he has more reason to be present at burned area.

Establishing the training grounds had been one of his first actions in Aldrip and a clear move to bring the Chosen community together, so yes. One could say that the place was somewhat a mark of pride to him. So yes, when the news about the fire had reached him Richard had been absolutely livid. And it did not help his ire that the culprit behind the arson remained unknown. So, he made continuous visits to the training grounds, trying to salvage what he could do what he could to rebuild the area.

When the ragtag group of the misbehaved Chosen arrived to do their community service along with their guardians he had no other choice than step aside and observe them. While he was glad for their efforts he can't say that he was exactly fan of the nature of it. The yellow jumpsuits were nothing but offending to his senses. So, he keeps eyeing the crew from the sidelines with a displeased expression on his face. And! surely enough, one can spot his trusty white boar Whitey poking around he ground with his pink snout, probably looking for a misplaced treat among the ashes.]

[opheliac]

[unlike everyone else who is putting in effort into doing what they're supposed to, jinx is... somewhat putting in hers. if one could put a percentage towards her labor, it'd be about twenty to thirty percent out of one hundred. the bluenette would occasionally pick up the trash from the ground, but only to examine it before returning it to the grass. it looks like she is more interested in scavenging than cleaning up the place, so the bag itself is still flat and weightless.

she noticed richard standing from the sidelines, watching them all like a disgruntled vulture, but she kept her distance and pretended he was nonexistent. mostly because silco is here too somewhere, and having knowledge of their relationship—the girl felt the best way to go is to not draw attention to the duo's personal connection.]

[but what she does instead that the man will witness is drop her garbage bag completely when she makes eye contact with a familiar boar. the teenager squeals in enthusiasm and sprints over to the animal with her arms open.]

Bacon bits...!!

[will her call frighten the poor thing? possibly. but it doesn't matter because when she reaches him, she crouches and links her arms around his body — hoisting (and straining herself) him up to hold him like he is an infant. and with a struggling voice, she says:]

Nnnngh! — Such... a ... big porker! Oof! You wanna play with Mama? Huh?

beta | sentenced

[nobetawedielike]

[ Beta had no part in the fire. She'd hardly been aware of it, actually. So the requirement for her to do this specifically is lost on her. Unfortunately for her, she's the Sobeck most likely to just do what she's told without question, so here she is, in overalls that even she thinks are garish.

To say Beta has poor stamina and even poorer levels of strength would be the kind way to put it. A life of sedentary isolation in virtual reality has left her weak and easily tired. She takes frequent breaks, it takes her forever to haul anything, she looks ready to be done for the day within the first 15 minutes.

But she's also stubborn so! Watch her continue to do all of those things even as the breaks she needs get longer. The girl is trying. ]

[thecodexabides]

[Gadriel is super not enjoying this, but duty is duty and if it were enjoyable, it wouldn't be duty. So his goal is to get this over with as quickly as possible. And he sees her...sitting down a lot. ]

You are unwell. [Questions are not his forte. However, his grasp of the obvious? Rock solid. Did you get injured during the fire? ]

a2 | sentenced

[abandonware]

[Her own sentencing is something she accepts without complaint or disagreement, and some part of her is made content by it — the structure she'd missed while in YoRHa reestablishing itself in a small way here. That being said, she works much faster and can carry much more weight than any human, and moreover, she's not really talkative most days. She just wants to get this over with.

Pod floats nearby but doesn't interfere — A2 had asked it not to, not knowing if it would count as "interference" or not. Instead it plays music as she performs the mission. It takes requests!

A2's particular interest appears to be in building nests and making raised garden beds, but she does a little of everything — hustling past others with huge trash bags filled in record time, hauling multiple sacks of gravel on her slim shoulders, setting up wood pallets to be used as the base for the garden beds. Knocking over old tents and scowling at instructions.

Eventually, in a mutter:]

I can do all of this faster than any human. [...] What's with the group?

[Local robot misunderstanding the assignment.]

[thecodexabides]

[Oh no. He recognizes her. She was one of the few who was trying to explaining things to him when he arrived. ]

I cannot believe you committed this crime. [Say it ain't so!]

Kurama / Enforcer

[sinningtree]

On one hand, being able to teach others about gardening had been the whole reason Kurama joined Richard's training program in the first place. Which makes all of this a little too on the nose in some way, even if it was a perfect opportunity to get the word out. On the other hand, not being able to do anything himself and having to be very careful about crossing the line between teaching - or enforcing - and acting... seemed more like this was some twisted way to punish those who stopped the fire for getting involved in the first place.

A. - Gardening

Regardless, Kurama will settle in by the gardening tools and materials, arms crossed over his chest casually as he watches the group of Chosen - sentenced and enforcers alike - making the effort to be a bit more proactive about being involved, at least. Whether someone approaches him directly or he simply calls out to whoever is nearby, the fox maintains a pleasant demeanor, as if unbothered by the expectations set upon them as enforcers despite everyone else's apparent resentment and suspicion.

“This is as good a time as any to learn a new skill. A perfect opportunity if you've ever been curious, even if only for the sake of food.” They have had enough food shortage scares to warrant some attention, if nothing else. Maybe that will be enough to entice some curiosity towards self-sustainability, a selfish motivation is still motivation and it might get them all through this that much sooner.

“Care to get started?”

B. - Trimming

Alternatively, if someone seems more interested in the pruning equipment, he'll leave the gardening - and anyone he's gotten started there with some advice and a few tips - long enough to assist them, as well.

“I don't suppose they left instructions for how best to proceed?”

Does he think half the people here would just start hacking away without any idea about the how or why of what they're doing? Probably. Definitely. Is he sarcastic and petty enough to point it out?

Really, that depends on the response he gets.

C. - Wildcard

[ooc: hit me up to discuss something specific! Feel free to wildcard other areas/subjects, whether sentenced, enforcer or observer. Kurama will naturally be focused where his particular set of skills make the most sense, but he's pretty easy going if someone seems to need his attention elsewhere.]

b

[nightwild]

[Fauna is just hanging out nearby, watching the group... but she seems fidgety, like she wants to be doing something instead of just watching.]

Does Jerry really seem like the type to leave instructions to you?

[endcaller]

A.

[The moment Fandaniel is forced into yellow coveralls, the tacky garment becomes his entire focus. The task of cleaning up the training ground is quickly ignored. Instead, he can be found leaning against a target dummy, lacing flowers intended for the garden through the reflective material.]

Oh, don't mind me.

[He says without looking up and waves a dismissive hand when people approach him.]

I may have committed crimes but I refuse to commit a crime against fashion. Come fetch me when the training grounds are spruced up, won't you?

Ta!

[The dismissive wave becomes a "shoo" gesture.]

B.

[Fandaniel quickly grows restless and paces around the training ground like a caged beast. His hands constantly flex and stretch from pent-up energy. This is a bad use of his time. He has experiments to do. Machines to build.

When nobody is looking his way, he teleports back to his lab.

...Then suddenly appears lying face down in the middle of the training grounds, unconscious.]

My...

[He groans as his senses return to him. It takes a while for the blinding white of daylight to fade back into normal vision. When it does, he remains on the ground.

He shouldn't get up. Why get up? He deserves to lie in the dust. The moment anyone approaches he turns his head and frowns.]

Leave me be. I am a worthless wretch. I am precisely where I belong.

[Goodness, where did that come from?]

(ooc: Have other ideas? Feel free to hit up my plotting post!)

B

[nightwild]

[... well. That's weird. She's just gonna crouch down next to him.]

... Are you okay?

Silco | Arcane | Sentenced

[conflictresolution]

i. Unwilling Participant

[Silco did not wish to be here, and he was angry that his complaints had fallen on deaf ears, as always. There was no respect in this place, least of all when the reasoning for his sentencing was completely bogus in the first place. He had done so much worse than fan literal flames in this place, and this was the crime that he was nailed for?

How dare.

He stood looking affronted and angry smoking a cigar in the bright yellow coveralls as far away from the work as physically possible. He glared at anyone that happened to come close - except Jinx, his perfect, beautiful daughter - as if warning them to not bother trying to coax or threaten him into action. He was on a smoke break, which he intended to nurse for hours if at all possible.

And anyone that decided to look too long or approach, he glared daggers at them.] Don't you have something better to do?

ii. Grudging Action cw: mentions of torture

So some of the trees were singed. Big deal. Weren't trees supposed to be resilient and fire created regeneration in plants by activating their seeds in the soil? This seemed like the type of task that Piltover would deem worthwhile just like when they had the time and money to shape their hedges into flat walls or turn them into shapes like some work of art.

Of course, loppers were a tool he had used in the past, admittedly smaller and fit more in the hand. He had never had to trim trees before, so he supposed the elongated ones fit the task at hand. He had already assessed with a single resentful snap of the loppers that they would indeed cut off fingers as well, so at least he had some experience with removing such wayward defiance.

Snap. Snap. Blackened finger-like branches fell to the ground at his feet. He scowled the entire activity, taking his absolute sweet time about it. He even stopped to stare as if assessing which branches actually needed to go. This was good enough for community service, right? A full restitution of the plot surely wasn't going to be required.

He rested the loopers on the ground and leaned on them like a cane.] This is slavery work. I have other priorities of greater import than lopping trees.

iii. Project Management

[The longer he was here, the less Silco wanted to even be standing around watching the theatrics and resentments. This was the stupidest punishment all of them had to endure, especially as a group project. Why did this place think this was a good idea when such punishments should be kept to the quiet so people could avoid it? No, this was all spectacle, and the only amount of that he appreciated was if he created it.

So, he didn't want to do this work. He would look for someone else dull and daft who he could convince or bully into doing it for him. It was called project management, Jerry. If the work was completed then that was all that mattered, not the who or what.

He approached or waited for someone to approach him about the assigned work.] I require assistance with the task I've been assigned. It would be more proficient with two people. Can I count on you?

1

[nightwild]

[Fauna isn't just approaching, she's very particular about approaching from upwind. She's not fond of Silco here, either, and she is pretty sure he was involved in the fire.]

Yeah, make you stop stinking up the place. That reeks, and it's going to be another fire hazard when the place has already burned.