[Mikashi]

London led the way back to the mine once again. The entrance of it was filled with rubble still and she couldn't see in to it. This, she took in with grim satisfaction, that the creep inside was still within, if he was even still alive. He would share the tomb with the man whose death he had been responsible for, Gabriel. It wasn't really fair for Gabriel though, sharing that tomb.

As they came up to the mine, London quickly surveyed the area and pointed to a spot above the mine, where the rocky hills the mine burrowed in to flattened out. "There," she said, "that's where it will go. Gabriel can be remembered this way, while the rest within that place lie forgotten. People will see the cairn and know it marks something. We'll know what." She hefted up a decent size rock from the mine entrance. She didn't intend to take everything from there, since the place should remain sealed, but it was symbolic. She held the rock close to her body and hiked the short distance up to the flat area that she had pointed out and set the rock down there. She dug her heel in to the ground around the rock in a roughly rectangular shape a bit bigger than a man of Gabriel's size. She explained for Julian, "I'm gonna fill that with rocks and build it up to a point."

It was probably good that she had not explained it before, he might have realized then that this was going to represent a fair bit of work and despite what she had said, she was glad for a little company. She admitted, "Its gonna take a bit, I'm afraid," she told him with a lopsided smile. She slipped her backpack off from her shoulders and added, "I did bring water, and if you want to help, that'd be cool, but I don't expect you to." She then set about gathering up rocks that were close to the cairn site, and began adding them to the pile, again with her hands, her body, not with her ability. She could have telekinetically shifted many rocks around, much more quickly, much more easily, but that would have devalued this place that she was making it. The time and effort, they gave the place greater value, greater memory, and she did not want to allow herself to forget anything that had happened here.

[Mad4Milo]

Julian followed along behind London, watching as she lifted a rock from the crumbled mine site. Then she lead the way up a somewhat steep incline where she apparently planned to build a rather large pile of rubble. Now he was unsure if he regretted coming along for this. Heaving these rocks over was going to be a lot of work beneath the hot Arizona sun. Julian's body already naturally ran a degree or two higher than the norm since his abilities manifested.... this should be a blast. Ugh, I'll just do it. This is for Gabe. I can't forget it was my fault.

With that in mind he wordlessly began helping, although beads of sweat lined his brow quickly. Julian tugged off his beaten leather jacket and tossed it on a the ground nearby. At least the dark green t-shirt would be slightly cooler. He grabbed the biggest stones his arms could carry to help London create a flat, wide base. After placing another good sized tan colored stone on the pile that was about as high as his waist, he brushed his hands off on his jeans and reached for one of the water bottles.

"Damn your good. Keeping the hard work part a secret until I walked all the way up here."

There was sarcasm in his voice though. Obviously he wasn't mad at her, just looking for some sort of conversation to fill the silence as they worked.


OOC: Go Nival with the Dukes of Hazzard reference

[Mikashi]

London lifted her bared shoulders in a nonchalant shrug. She'd ditched her jacket and was just in a tank top, given the work that this all entailed. "Well, if I'd explained what I'd intended, you might have just shoved me off the bike a mile up the road without so much as a sayonara. I figured this way, you'd at least take me to the bike itself. Everything else is a bonus." She drank slowly from one of the bottles, not gulping and not drinking too much at once, before tucking back in to a small shady patch beneath some weatherworn rock. She admitted to him, "We could be done, but ... but I think its supposed to be hard. Its not just a card, quickly read and forgotten, or an obituary in the local paper. When this is done, it will stand here for a long time." She lugged another rock over, not so big as Julian's, but she certainly wasn't sluffing off. She told Julian, "So, you see, I didn't have a choice, I had to use my wiles to get you here as well to halve the work for me."

[Mad4Milo]

Julian finished half the bottle in minutes, and put it down to save the rest for later. He leaned against the side of one of the taller rocks, staring out over the desert. He could not help laughing as she mentioned shoving her off the bike. That would be an interesting sight. His dark eyes switched over to her as she spoke. There was a lot more to her than he had thought at first. Most people that tried joining up with the Paladins out of some sort of need to repay them slacked off and left. But she was different, she really cared, she cared about Gabe enough to think of all of this.

"I'm glad you decided to stick around London"

He responded, not really to her words but simply stating a fact. Julian hated to admit it but he enjoyed her sarcasm and company. So much for being the badass loner....

"Oh yea, your so sly London... you were using your 'wiles' on Reese last night if I remember correctly"

He said with a chuckle and started working again. Except they had not worked quite as well then, but that was only because the guy had felt guilty about her being drunk. Julian was pretty damn sure that kid would not turn her down next time. He grabbed another stone and placed it on the growing monument. In the distance he could see a car flying down the road awfully fast.

[Mikashi]

London turned her head down, looking to the base of the cairn, then back over to Julian before she looked down, studying the dirt on her boots. "Yeah, well," she began, "I guess that I am too. I don't know what I'm doing half the time, well maybe more than half the time, but it feels good to do it. It feels right. I didn't know what I was really going to do before." She looked up to him, managing to not look away this time, "You and the others helped to give me a little purpose, maybe a little meaning that I didn't have before." She was a bit embarassed to admit it, but it rang true.

His next words did not improve her situation. She lifted a dusty hand to her face and rubbed at it, half-covering her eyes. "Oh, jeez," she began, "that all really happened then. I was so smashed, I wasn't sure. I remember really wanting some company at a couple of points." She gave a little self-deprecating laugh and shook her head. "Oh man," she said, still shaking her head as she went and gathered up another rock and sat it down before she saw Julian gazing off. She squinted in the bright light, trying to follow his gaze. A car. "I don't think that's one of ours," she offered up.

[benderboyboy]

Originally Posted by Lazarus

Giving the door to the garage a firm kick at the bottom, it swung open with a resounding 'THWACK', announcing his arrival to all inside.
Which to his dismay was only Denzel.

Sh!t... he grimaced, hands dug in his pockets as he glanced around.
You ready to train today Harper? He asked the extraordinary garbage man, who seemed to have woken only recently.

Denzel Harper,
The Lost Highway log

Lazarus' intrusion, though loud, did not have much impact on Denzel. Thanks to Seth's rude awakening, he sort of expected a shaky morning.

But even though he saw it coming, his reply took some time to form. Uh... he paused and scratched his head. I...guess. But don't you wanna wait for Seth? Denzel finished, grabbing his knapsack, slightly heavier than the day before.

[Espada]

‘’As best I could with my friend’s snoring.’’ He said chuckling to himself. ‘’Not much seem’s to go on around here. A couple of miles out into the desert those, there’s this circle. It like a rite of passage place.’’ he said. ‘’I’m quite looking foward to it, when we get moving again to San Francisco. I like seeing different place’s in the world, been traveling around for the last couple of years.’’

[Mad4Milo]

He nodded in response. Julian felt the same way. He had no idea what his life would be right now without Pyre giving him some sort of direction and a place to crash when he needed it. Sure he had been involved with this a lot longer than London but it would not make it any easier if he somehow had to pickup a normal life again. That seemed impossible and hard to remember. Normal for him was when he was 15 years old, that was quite awhile ago for a man who had recently turned thirty-five.

He could not help but grin as London seemed quite embarrassed about her behavior the previous night.

"Don't worry, everybody has a few too many once in awhile... and plus we both know that Reese sure as hell didn't mind the attention."

He replied, returning to work as the car continued to kick up thick cloud of dust on the road below.

"Nope, someone's in a rush though."

Julian heaved another couple stone onto the stack of them which now was up to about the height of his elbow.

"So... how tall you want this?"

In any other situation he would have had enough and walked off, but this was Gabriel.... This was different.

[Mikashi]

London gave a small smirk and commented about Reese, "Its my wonderful personality, once someone's exposed to it, they can't help but adore me."

She then gestured over the pile they had with both of her hands and told Julian, "I think we work it into a point here, so not much higher. That will keep it pretty stable." She continued to add more stones to the pile, with fewer and fewer stones needed at each 'level' now that they were working inward to a pointed top.

She also pointedly added, "Thanks for helping, Julian. I won't forget."

Ever so often, while hefting rocks in to place, she would glance off off towards the approaching dust storm being kicked up by the car. Risking jinxing the entire situation, she commented about the car, quoting from Star Wars, "I've got a bad feeling about this."