Logs:Something Exciting

Something Exciting
Dramatis Personae B, Toad
In Absentia Ryan	2023-03-20 "Literally anything but this."
Location <BOM> Front Porch - Main Lodge - Ascension Island
The front porch of the lodge unfurls its way across the entire front length of the building. Stained in a dark reddish finish, it seems to have been refurbished somewhat recently, the sturdy wood rather less weather-beaten than many of the buildings on the island. A half-height railing edges most of the porch, with a wide gated staircase centrally leading to the heavy front door, and ungated ramps at either side end. Protected from all but the most driving of rains by a sloped roof, the porch has been furnished with an assortment of furniture. Wicker rocking chairs, a pair of small square aluminum tables, a hammock at the far right end, a bench swing at the left. Despite the solid locks on the doors and windows, the front door holds a cheerfully flower-edged mat reading WELCOME. Spring has been nearly sprung! It isn't quite official and it's still far from warm, but nevertheless SPRING CLEANING is the project of the day today across the island. Inside the cabin Ryan Black's "Rogga" is blaring fierce and loud; the citrusy smells of cleaning products are wafting out of the open windows. Out here, on the front porch, there's tidying going on, too.. Admittedly, B doesn't look like she's much helping -- the tiny blue shark has perched on a porch railing with a large travel mug of coffee, certainly not dressed for cleaning in silvery leggings under an asymmetrical blue skirt, black tee dotted with silver stars under a silver denim jacket, heavy metallic boots on her feet and matching thick cuffs at her slender wrists. She's sipping at the coffee and fiddling with her phone as a trio of colorful beetle-like robots work on sweeping up the porch in front of her. Toad was holding a duster and had leaped up to the rafters to dust any cobwebs, dust or grime off the higher areas of the building. He sometimes uses his tongue to reach further with the duster. “Man, spring cleaning is boring! Can’t wait till we’re done with this so I can go do something exciting.” B does not look up when Toad speaks. The slitted gills along the sides of her neck flutter once, quickly, and then lie flat. One webbed finger swipes delicately at her phone screen, and the little pack of robots shift their sweeping to diligently go over the porch once again, trundling along behind anywhere Toad has stepped. "Nobody's tying you here," she replies lightly, "some of us just like our home to be well taken care of." Toad looks down at her using his legs to hang upside down. “Well you’re having robots do it for you, so who are you to talk?” Toad raises an eyebrow waiting for a response from her. “Besides, I took my weekly shower yesterday, so you can call them off me now.” Now B does look up, her clear inner eyelids slowly blinking sideways open and closed, once and then again. "...you know I control these, right?" It sounds like a bit of a rhetorical question. The robots continue cheerfully puttering. "Anyway, don't let me keep you from your exciting plans -- what is it you want to be doing, anyway?" Toad gives her a blank expression still upside down “Literally anything but this.” He pulls himself up and sits on the rafters continuing to clean the base. B's huge black eyes stay fixed on Toad for several moments after he is finished speaking -- expectant, like she is waiting for him to offer something more. When nothing further comes, the hairless ridge of her brow scrunches slowly deeper. She leans back against one of the support columns running from railing to roof, head turning aside to look out at the grounds -- flowers starting to spring up in the grass, the trees at the edge of the forest clearing beginning to sprout new leaf buds. "Well," she says lightly, "it's only Monday, there's the entire rest of the week still free for doing --" Her webbed fingers flutter vaguely in Toad's direction. "Literally Anything. I'm probably heading back to the city once they're through scrubbing out here, if..." Whatever is meant to come after the if never really resolves. She hesitates, her frown growing deeper, and doesn't finish the sentence, pivoting instead to: "Though admittedly I was just going to head over to Freaktown and do chores there, so, that's probably not much of an improvement." Toad thinks about what B just told him. Then throws the duster into a bucket below and leaps down. “I’m gonna go train. Peace out.” Toad holds up the peace sign with both hands above his head as he left.