Last night almost became an all night work marathon, but common sense had forced the oversized feline to get to bed and show at least the rough draft. Having a real life job was still more vital than some in game quest. Still, Alonso got enough done that he was able to prove to the investor there was a capable task at hand. "My group and I will discuss any adjustments regarding this draft later, and I plan on overseeing any safety precautions necessary before setting up these mirrors. Due to the materials needed this is expensive, but if my current rendition is adequate enough then I thank you in advance for your investment," he said to the noble lady in front of the brawler. This woman, Lady DeLucifa, had been an active member of festivals related to the Autumn season. Her name was odd, but Alonso found her reputation to not be soiled.

The dark gowned woman, with fur resting about her shoulders, curved her lips, the Lady DeLucifa gazing upon the brute of a Marquees with a curious aura, "Very well, my lord, you got yourself the investment you desire. In truth you didn't have much of a challenge in convincing me to do this. You have no idea how much it heats me up knowing you strange adventurers have such charity towards the community for these holidays~."

-------------------------------​

And that conversation soon followed up to the field prepped for this hall of mirrors. The grounds were flattened to the best of the prep workers' ability, since it was not unheard of for large attractions in Dunnstads during this season, making it easier for Alonso to begin making edits to his plans on the provided workbench. Some time was needed for the majority of the materials to be sent his way, but the Felis at least had a few mirrors to determine space capacity. The measurements on his current draft were off, a few marks sprawled about his sheet. He needed to work fast if his team was going to finish up this attraction. Sighing, the hulking player wiped a towel over his forehead, then maneuvering the towel down to wipe sweat off his hairy, musclebound chest. The reality of this was his finding an excuse to go about shirtless. Granted, he just hoped DeLucifa was not spying on him just to get a glimpse of his bod. He did not swing for the ladies.

Making sure the message was settled, he snagged a screenshot of his current draft work for later. By no means could he form a team if nobody else was able to find him. Clicking on the attachment icon, he nodded with a sonorous hum, sending the private mail to the two who took up his LFG:

Mail

For @Elmyra Cressen and @Curious George ,

In this message I have given you two the coordinates for the location given to us, which I am currently at working on the rough plan I drew up, admittedly in a rush. You should see an attachment for this draft for your viewing as you make your ways here. Agree to certain aspects or not, I did not intend for this draft to be a finalized plan.

From: @Alonso Thorlion

 

It had been one of her log-ins days when she came across a message in the in-game message boards. It was a notice concerning the upcoming festival celebrating the Hallow’s Eve, and the various help wanted notices that was posted in those message boards. It seems that in addition to the Halloween event – which had been kept secret as a surprise – there had been various efforts in order to get the players to think of various attractions and exhibitions in the spirit of the olden day festivals.

Though honestly, she probably had to admit that the endeavor won’t be as popular as they are without the promise of reward concerning the mysterious Halloween event. As it is though, the inclusion of said mystery seemed to have been proven to be effective.

It was an intriguing prospect, she had to admit, and a popular one. One by one, requests had been filled up the more Sophie was beholden by real-life obligations and as time passed more and more of the intriguing requests had been filled up. Sophie had considered just picking any one request that hadn’t been filled up, but nothing really grabbed her attention. Without something that captured her interest, the resulting work would just be a half-assed one. That would probably do her partners a disservice.

Luckily for Sophie, she had stumbled upon an intriguing prospect largely by chance after one-day browsing. It was an advertisement to call for able-bodied artisans and craftsmen in order to construct one intriguing attraction: A hall of mirrors, and not just any hall of mirrors mind you, one that’s intentionally designed to induce confusion and illusionary illumination on anyone who entered the hallways.

So, in a sense, it’s less than an attraction and more of a giant challenge to anyone who attend the festival. An unusual enough game plan to be sure, but surely if they managed to build one it’s going to be a memorable one. Why, the flower of the festival even.

So, without giving it too much of a thought, Sophie agreed to assist in the endeavor and posted in the LFG advertisement.

It was only sometime later that she finally gave it more of a thought of what she could do in order to help the others in their endeavor. Elmyra’s not much of an artisan, that much is true, and she probably wouldn’t be much help in actually designing the labyrinth paths inside the hall of mirrors itself. What she could do, however, is to perhaps prep the mirrors themselves so that they can be without blemish, reflecting the lights and images precisely so that the illusion couldn’t be deciphered that easily.

She probably gonna need a lot of polishing oil.

And so, at the agreed-upon date, Elmyra took an extended amount of time gathering the ingredients in order to construct an inordinate amount of bottled polishing oil. Judging by the ambitious project alone, she’d probably still coming up short in amount, but if hard-pressed she could take the time to hit the newbie zone again in order to gather the required ingredients for the oil.

Aside from those oil, Elmyra had…other ideas to throw into the contention. She wanted to bring this up in the LFG thread itself, but an impromptu idea like this is best to throw face-to-face in her opinion. You see, Elmyra had ideas the other day, thanks to the discovery of a brown mushroom growth, to manufacture hallucinogenic concoction designed to enhance illusion. While an actual free potion would be very suspicious – well, at least she would find it very suspicious – she might be able to modify it so it’s a hallucinogenic olfactory substance instead of an ingested one. Some sort of hallucinogenic perfume.

Of course, there’s also the ethical question of using hallucinogenic substance in an attraction. At least they’re not addictive substances…

So, Elmyra had arrived in the agreed-upon place with the alchemical substances on hand. The flat surface is about the same space as she anticipated, so she probably had brought just enough potions. Spying on, she saw the large, muscular Felid already started with the preparations. He got into the spirit of things as well – what’s with the topless look and all – which made her a bit guilty on no thinking of pulling her own weight in the manual labor as well.

“Ah, hello.” Elmyra greeted her artisan companion, “I’m the one who posted in that LFG thread. Elmyra Cressen. Before we start on the construction, I can keep the mirrors at tip-top condition. May I see them?”

@Curious George @Alonso Thorlion

 

Curious George had traveled to the location when he logged in – which took some time given work and family. But when George did the man casually made his way down to the location given to him, a tool belt strapped around his waist. What little funds he managed to put together were put all into these items to help him with his mastery ‘artisan’. Just thinking about it made the man scratch his cheek, one comically long finger scrapping against it. When he had zero mastery he couldn’t manage so much as a small carving without messing up. Now that he was sitting at something like a trained worker, Curious George was able to put his efforts into more intricate and detailed work. Why, George was confident he could easily set up the frames for the whole thing by himself if he needed!


He arrived on the scene last of the three, looking between the two. “Hello there, Mr. Thorlion. Elmyra.” Curious George nodded to the alchemist in greeting. He reached down and, with a few yanks as he found the holster to be stubborn, pulled his saw out. “Now that we’re all here, might we get to work? I’m a trained artisan, Mr. Thorlion, and I’m sure I can help setting up the frames for the mirror house.”

Curious George moved the saw around to look at himself in the light sheen of the cutting tool. It’d be good practice for him to build this mirror house of fun and see how far the mastery skill let him go in the design. He looked back up from his saw at the two. “Might I have a look at any plans you’ve made? I’m sure you’ve already got good designs, but maybe I can improve on them a little? Offer a second opinion?”

@Alonso Thorlion @Elmyra Cressen

 

The man paused his current task as the first of the two he invited revealed herself. He gave a nod upon recognizing the young woman's names, "Good to see you kept your promise and arrived promptly. As you maybe figured, I'm Alonso Thorlion." Alonso set down his writing instrument, folding his arms over his chest and leaned against his workbench. The lack of a smile may have felt off, although his posture gave off a less angered demeanor, his tone of voice emotionless and baritone. Glancing over at the mirrors in the vicinity, the Felis spoke up, "We don't have all of the mirrors yet, but for the most part feel free to get started on taking a looking. Come on."

Pushing himself off the bench, the large man turned and began escorting his party member towards the mirrors in quest, but stopped after a couple steps. Another person caught the brawler's gaze, brow raised at the rather typical sight of a man ready to build things. The quick mention of the pair's names was suspicious, but Alonso realized the reasoning behind the knowledge was logical, "Good to have you, eeer, Curious George, if I remember your name correctly. Reminds me too much of a particular monkey, but that's irrelevant. I was just about to show Elmyra the mirrors we have." Hands placed on his hips, Alonso took into account the desire to take a look at the current plans.

Obliging his current ally's whims resulted in a hand gesture towards the workbench, "I have the current plans on the table, and you shouldn't worry about the exterior walls and roof. That's all been measured out as you may notice. We don't have to concern ourselves with building those parts, only making sure they're together, since we got a crew coming along to drop off what we need. Our investor was generous about that." Of course, the investor was also odd beyond belief, and Alonso still had the odd feeling she wanted more from him than he was comfortable even thinking. Right, he still had to give some more instruction.

Hurray true obligations.

"As for the mirrors, you should find them all the same," the Felis said to Elmyra, turning to continue his escort, "We'll have a few extra, but I'd imagine you know to be careful regardless. Don't be afraid to ask for help moving them about either: they're a bit heavy, and I'd rather you not hurt yourself." Extending a hand, the wall of muscle motioned towards some mirrors propped up for viewing. They were simple mirrors, since using trick ones were not the intention. Alonso nodded again and left Elmyra be to do her business.

Wandering towards one end of the plot, Alonso called out to them, "I'll start bringing over some materials for the frames. There should be some near the workbench already, and take your time looking at the rough draft I have of the plans as well so we're all on the same page."

@Elmyra Cressen @Curious George

 

The Felis man had seemingly recognized her from the get-go, which is probably a given considering he had probably recognized her from her name. The message function isn’t really that inconvenient to access even when you’re multitasking.

Though there was a…sense of intimidation that’s inherent with the build and demeanor of the Felis man. For one, he basically towers over her – already an achievement that’s seemingly not a lot of character models share, Felis or otherwise – and his monotone, stern, straight-to-business demeanour. Yet at the same time he’s nothing but polite to her. It’s a strange dichotomy, like someone who can’t help what kind of aura they exude while trying to act otherwise.

As she nodded politely, she was then escorted to the mirrors around the vicinity. It was then that Elmyra instantly realized that she underestimated the work when it comes to the mirrors. They’re all of bigger size that she anticipated, and while they’re not quite as numerous as she imagined the sheer volume of their individual mass would take a bit more than what she had in hand. Perhaps she had to do some impromptu mixing after all.

Her train of thought however, was interrupted by a new entry at the vicinity. It was a relatively more familiar sight compared to the hulking Felis man, but she still had to look up to address him anyway.

“Hello, Mister George.” Elmyra nodded, waiting for Alonso to greet the man before turning back to the mirrors and the schematics. “You’re just in time, I think. We haven’t even finished studying the current plans, let alone getting started in the process.” She took that opportunity to study the plans, specifically the placement of the mirrors. It seems that since they’re all the same size, the only thing that matters with the mirrors is the placement.

…Well, perhaps the exact shine of those mirrors can also help.

Moving on with the introduction, the Felis man finally showed her the array of mirrors and where they’re potentially going to end up. Still, the exact kind of placement seems to be still up in the air so far, so what she needs to concern herself now is to make sure that the mirrors are polished and ready…preferably without breaking a few mirrors or something like that.

“I think if it’s just around the weight of those mirrors I can handle them myself, Mister Thorlion. Thank you for the warning however.” Elmyra nodded in response before making her way down towards one of the mirrors. They’re all uniformly the size of a grown man – the kind where in real life you’d probably call another to assist you – but Elmyra had no trouble picking one up with her – admittedly artificially augmented and strengthened – two hands and let it go gently to lean on the bench.

Withdrawing one of the bottles of alchemical polish she carried, Elmyra poured some of the content to a washcloth and began polishing the surface. Shining light reflected on the surface pretty much indicated that she’s on the right track. Heeding Alonso’s advice, she occasionally tuned herself out from the monotone task of continuous polishing and glance at the pre-determined plans.

“Mister George,” She called out at the artisan, “If you need help in trying to set the frames, feel free to ask.”

@Alonso Thorlion & @Curious George

 

“I should hope so. The similarity was intentional.” Curious George smiled. A children’s book he often indulged in with his kids when he had the chance. The fondness leads him to take on a name that gave good memories whenever George logged in.


The moment Thorlion let him have a look, Curious George was running his comically large finger down the schematics. He wasn’t nearly talented enough to manage a quick glance and understanding of the content, but he could keep up with Thorlion’s comments. After double checking the measurements on the table, George nodded. “It’s good the majority of the work has already been handled for us.” As much as Curious George would like to use his shiny new tool, practicality and more importantly less time spent away from his family. She’d gotten onto his case about too many games lately. “I’ll make sure it’s all put together as it should. Double check pieces and fittings to make sure nothings off.” Sometimes people make mistakes in the construction process and it was always better to be safe than sorry.


“I’ll let you know, Elmyra.” Curious George nodded. “All three of us will work together to slip the mirrors in when we finish. Once everything’s double checked it should just slip in.” He said with all the confidence in the world. George rubbed a hand on the back of his neck. “Time to get to work then.”


(And this is tiny post because I’m being eaten alive by real life. My apologies for wait/smallness. Hopefully it’ll clear up in a few weeks.)

 

Gathering up various materials, and keeping an eye on his two coworkers, the Felis noticed the time passing at a solid rate. In fact the time had come for the walls and roof sections to arrive in addition to the rest of the mirrors. Alonso gave a nod of approval as he noticed a caravan riding up to the construction plot. "Good, they're here. Both of you stand back so you don't get hurt while I help the crew put up the building itself," he said to Elmyra and George. This part was crucial, and perhaps one of the more dangerous aspects of this project. All of the temporary workers assigned to help this phase cannot have anyone bothering them and causing panic.

However, even with the assembled crew the walls and roof took quite a bit of time to complete. An hour to an hour and a half at most, considering the giant of a cat man took control of the situation and gave the orders necessary. Every so often he looked over at his main companions, making sure they were okay in their personal endeavors and focuses. Feeling every muscle in his body strain from holding onto the ropes, the man grit his teeth and unleashed a few growls as the workers locked the sections into the ground. Just this last wall, and then the roof, which Alonso found the gathered crew were more than capable of doing without his help.

Good. He was a bit exhausted from all of that wall raising labor.

A quick wave was given to the exiting crew, leaving the now ready building for the group's use. "Well that's done. Looks like they did a paint job on the walls and roof already today, both inside and out," the big man said, peeking his head inside the building before he closed the door and faced his allies. So far Alonso was able to trust these two strangers, though he found himself distracted. There was just something about the door that bothered him. He tilted his head, brow cocked, "Random question. Don't suppose either of you think we could spruce up this door a bit?"

@Elmyra Cressen @Curious George

((No worries. I've been lagging on getting posts done myself. >>))

 

It had been seemingly like days since Elmyra had started polishing the mirrors one by one. Oh, she knew it had only been hours since they started, but the repetitive mirror polishing action combined with the uneventful way times passed pretty much had her looking at her HUD to see just how long she had been waxing the mirror on and off. Apparently it had only been a couple of hours since they started, and she had been rather anxious to get the mirrors planted.

Fortunately for Elmyra’s sanity, a caravan then arrived at the vicinity. A number of workers then exited the vehicle, along with a number of logs of wood and a couple of stony foundations, all building materials designed to be prepped out with haste. Sure, the hastiness of the preparation might come with the cost of overall sturdiness when it comes to the overall finished product – and Elmyra might still have reservations on the overall sturdiness of the finished structure – but she can see the logic, and also the logistics, for using those materials.

They are, after all, not building for sturdiness per se with the attraction, just sturdy enough to support perhaps around a hundred people. Bit materials also can come a long way if built and assembled the right way.

“Alright.” Elmyra gave a polite nod to the now-working crew with their materials before moving a number of her mirrors to the side, as to not have accidents with sharp and sturdy objects. She occasionally gave glance to the workers assembling their materials with prowess before returning to her own mirrors, polishing them with muscle memory honed over a thousand times of routine.

It wasn’t long before the walls of the attraction had been raised, and the workers offered a few polite words before departing. Elmyra gave a wave and another polite nod at the leaving crews before turning back and apply finishing touches to her own mirrors. With just the a few more polishes, the mirrors now have the right amount of shine, as well as clear enough to be seen from a hallway away. Ready to be prepped inside the attraction.

A call from Alonso, however, got her attention. She left over her newly-finished mirrors and scuttled over the door, admiring the newly-installed door. However, to say that it needed no adjustment might also be speaking too soon…

“Is it…perhaps a little bit too plain? I can perhaps concoct a few color dyes in a short notice, but in my opinion the door itself is a bit too…well, if you ask me, it won’t give a natural sense of excitement.” Elmyra said, telling it like it is. Perhaps a bit too frank.

@Curious George & @Alonso Thorlion

(Sorry for the delay as well, had to juggle both backlog and work these two weeks)