plot bnny death place3 Chapter 6, a misc. plays/musicals fanfic

Test Your Bones

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

After another couple of long days, I have the mess in Los Angeles straightened out and I'm almost

looking forward to getting on a damn plane if it means getting home. Jess is her usual magnificent

self and has wrangled a couple red-eye tickets back to New York that will get us home around

midnight. That's fine with me; maybe I'll actually sleep some of the trip.

I've been too tired and cranky to indulge in my new obsession, but now I'm shedding the stress of

this damn trip. Once settled on the plane, I use the anticipation of more video entertainment to get

me through the stress of takeoff. When we're free to do as we please, I get connected and go to

click on the next video, chuckling as I see the title, 'The Four-Footed Aliens'.

This ought to be good.

"An early morning phone call from Lucy has the rest of us awake quite early to see what manner of

unexpectedness she has brought to us this time," Brainy says dryly as the video is a wobbly mess

through the tent and out into a very black morning.

The headlights of what turns out to be the big worktruck instead of Lucy's Subaru approach. Engine

rumbling, the truck rolls into the barn's exterior lights to show that it is towing a battered stock

trailer. Sheepishly, Lucy explains that she did something impulsive even as something large and

bleating kicks from inside of the trailer.

Alex's $%&U#! expression is priceless.

Whatever is in the trailer has the team flinching away as though they are being shot at, and there is

a lot of bleeping out. Lucy is rambling on that she had to save them and made the owner give her a

mess of cattle panels -which turn out to be both heavy, gate-like fence pieces made of tube steel,

and sturdy wire grids- steel fence posts and a truckload of hay.

The action speeds up to show them reinforce and extend an existing pen between the barn and tent

while I wait breathlessly to see just what's in the damn trailer! Finally they're ready and wiggle the

trailer around to get it up against the makeshift gate that lies open in preparation. The back door

yawns wide and the dingy morning sunlight reveals a crowd of gangly creatures with comically

thick pelts of black, white and many shades of brown. They're the size of large dogs with

ridiculously long necks and legs, one of them easily twice the size of the others.

Even as Alex's cussing is bleeped out as she approaches the nervous animals, I realize what they

are. A herd of alpaca and one big, pissed off llama.

What on earth has Lucy done?

The llama's spitting is too fast to see clearly, but there is no mistaking Alex's flinching. I shudder in

mute sympathy. Yuck! It takes some effort and turning her head away several times, but Alex

finally gets a hand on the llama's halter and stares it down.

"Come on now," Alex coaxes, gentle but firm. "It's safe."

Kara peeks around the doorway and the camera doesn't catch her expression, but the llama's ears

go from wary to interested as it steps over. Without missing a beat, Alex hands the animal off for

Kara to help it step down to the snowy ground before turning back to warily, but gently, shoo the

smaller alpaca out.

In a rush of furry bodies, the pen is crowded with the ungulates, skittish and milling about the

strange space. The humans stay very quiet until they settle a bit and Lucy opens the barn door and

steps away from it. Apparently, alpaca and llamas are impervious to cold, because none of them

step inside, but with those great woolly coats, I suppose that makes sense. Aren't they from the

Andes or something?

"Figures the jerkbutt llama loves you," Alex complains mildly as Kara timidly loves on her new

friend. Then she shakes herself out and makes a disgusted face. "Ugh, I need to shower about five

times. She got me good."

It takes real effort to not giggle over Alex's expression, and a few stifled noises of amusement

escape me anyway. Jess looks bemused and soft over my enjoyment. That doesn't surprise me, as

I'm not generally the giggly sort.

After a wary moment, Alex asks almost reluctantly, "they are 'hers' right, Lucy? Because most

male animals, at least with hooves, are beep."

"Yes, all hers. I asked. Had to leave some boys behind, but I could only do so much. Sorry to

spring this on you."

Alex leaves off her glaring down at the dark marks speckled over her clothes that must smell

terrible by her pinched-face expression. Her face softens and Lucy visibly relaxes.

"No, we're good. If they needed rescuing, I'm all in. Though I'm punishing you with taking my

laundry into town. Tonight. Yuck." There's a wisp of smirk under the grouch when she looks back

up again, looking insufferably kissable in that moment. "So what the beep are we going to do with

all of them?"

Kara's wild giggle brings the camera over to show how sleep-tousled and gleeful she is. "My sister,

grumpy cat."

The llama just nibbles on the loose flaps of Alex's flannel shirt while I giggle, feeling like I am

there with them.

LL Not-Your-Neck-Of-The-Woods 1 minute ago

The sisters are a delight! And, Alex, your patience with the llama is admirable. I hope

you got your shower. :)

A Work Montage. Beginning February 20th and time marching on…

12560 views

Rainbow Haven Acres

Published on March 8, 2017

The alpaca and Jerkbutt settled down quickly and seemed as curious about their new

people as Team Lanvers was about them. Then came the veterinarian. They weren't

real happy about her, but there was no avoiding getting poked and prodded and

dewormed and having their overgrown toenails trimmed back.

Lucy choked a bit at the bill, but there was nothing for it but to hand over a credit card.

Good thing she drew a pension…

The herd was also in desperate need of a shearing to get their filthy coats off, but that

would have to wait until spring. Cold hardy they might be, but much of that was their

fleece coats, no matter in how poor of condition.

Sturdier fences went up and electric wires were strung tight around the outside to give

any hungry predator a nasty shock. Only then could they finally get back to the empty

yurt. With the worksite less than twenty feet from the paddock, the alpaca were both

curious and faintly alarmed at the noise and chaos, humming and burbling their

annoyance. Jerkbutt, of course, was the loudest, pacing the fence and haranguing the

team. But there was no more spitting, so they carried on.

Bit by bit, an asymmetrical box taking up at least a quarter of the interior space was

built. It was a rudimentary kitchen back to back with a toilet and shower tucked inside

the box and a queen bed atop. After the sheer annoyance of wrestling the bulk of the

mattress up, the drawers built into the steep, narrow steps were the hardest part of the

build and they all gave Alex a wide berth for a few days while she learned on the fly.

At least as much of her churlish temper was that the makeshift shop in the barn was

freezing and ill-prepared for the magnitude of their task. Kara picked up on her misery

and corralled the others into helping her ghetto-wrap the shop with plastic and staple

guns, before cobbling together some sturdy tables built from the piles of scrap.

Luckily, Nia was able to find an antique kitchen range that looked like little more than

a rusty sculpture to a bygone age. But it still burned wood, taking the teeth out of the

bitter cold, and its flat top made an excellent place to heat coffee mugs and bowls of

soup.

Things smoothed out significantly after that and the team was able to finalize their

layouts and take another big drain from the funds to get construction supplies ordered

and on their way. But for all the pain of watching so many zeroes vanish, they knew it

meant more warmth, safety and privacy for the team.

All of which were important.

I can't find anything clever to comment on about this video and something like, 'I'll keep you

warm,' is a bit suggestive, even for me. So, best to shake it off and just move on.

The next playlist is called, 'The march of March', and is only 4 videos long. Well, this is

different…

The Revenge Of: A Work Montage. Week 1

17900 views

Rainbow Haven Acres

Published on March 15, 2017

Almost two weeks after the ragtag herd joined Rainbow Haven, spring was hinting

around the edges of the farm and forest.

Brainy was beside himself with glee, as much as Brainy ever was, when a small team

with thankfully excellent four-wheel drive arrived to put in sturdy concrete footings

and left them to cure. That was only the first step to getting them back on the

information superhighway, and while none of them were quite at the withdrawal levels

on their token male, everyone was looking forward to not feeling quite so isolated.

Work continued on the yurt and much fine-tuning was done to the huge tent and the

drafty old barn. Quickly, the alpaca and Jerkbutt were used to their busy humans and

their strange tasks. It was as though the ungulates had always been there, the big mass

of them providing companionship and entertainment to their new humans.

Their calm was a welcome thing when, on the second day of March, a huge truck and

trailer just shy of a tractor-trailer showed up, laden with plastic wrapped freight of

masses of shaped wood. With little preamble, the fancy tilt trailer slid the pallets onto

the packed snow beside the roadway, got a signature and was off.

"Guess I know what will be keeping us occupied now," Lucy teased and the gang set

about turning the pallets of raw kit into livable spaces.

Lucy cracked up when a second truck showed up with yet more pallets and the sisters

only stared in confusion. When they saw the directions for what it was, she laughed

even harder.

"Lane, you absolute maniac, why did you buy a wild west style saloon?" Alex

squawked and flapped the packet of papers from the manufacturer at her.

"To see that exact look on your face, obviously." Full of pure mischief, Lucy poked

the paper packet of directions in Alex's hands. "Kara mentioned that we needed an

office, and she's right. Turns out this thing was a rejected customer order that they

gave me a ridiculous deal on. Besides, it's whimsical."

It took a little effort, but the little John Deere dragged each of the kit pallets closer to

the end destination of the product. That left them tucked up against the edge of the

forest and the big hill that separated them from the seasonal stream that was little more

than a snowy rut amidst the trees right now.

Luckily, just a couple days later, the construction supplies came in aboard a flatbed

truck that growled through the softening road and chewed up the gravel and slush

beneath it. The forklift attached to its rear bumper for offloading did even more

damage, lurching about the warming ground beside the old road.

The spring melt followed by a drying out couldn't happen fast enough.

March seventh marked a month at the farm, and a new milestone. The fixed wireless

internet team returned with a load of spindly-looking metal struts and spools of wire.

By the end of the day, it was a slender tower more than thirty feet high, long wires

pulled tight from the top to heavy anchors in the earth.

After evening chores, the team gathered in the tent where Brainy had been muttering

and tinkering over boxes of gear taken from his trailer for half the day. No one got on

him for bailing on evening chores. What he was doing was a necessity of a different

sort.

They celebrated with a Skype call to the final member of their team, Winn delighted to

see them. "Welcome back to the modern world," he crowed. "How's it feel?"

The others laughed when Kara said, "tiring. Because I know Brainy won't be sleeping

tonight."

"Can't blame him there. Now see, I told you fixed wireless internet was the way to

go!"

"Yes, yes, we know," Alex teased dryly. "You were right." She grinned at the camera

Lucy held and shrugged. "This is the boy's thing, not ours. Luckily, the bar owner in

town already has a good-sized tower to catch the signals from the valley and we can

use their signal to bounce up to us. Down the line, maybe we'll get a community drive

for a big upgrade or something."

"Building community!" Lucy crowed cheerfully. "That'll get ya laid!"

Even in the terrible conditions, deliveries somehow still make it to the farm. The porta-potties have

to be maintenanced every couple of weeks, literal tons of building supplies are trucked in and Alex

seems to be making near-daily trips into town for food and things delivered to the post office for

them. Some of which must be annoying to the general store owner, because they're huge!

From the truckload of lumber and sacks of cement, a grid begins to emerge. Lucy tells the camera

its thirty by thirty-five feet and will enclose three sides of the sheds that will be Kara and Nia's

homes.

"The deck gets everything off the ground," she rambled on, gesturing at the worksite. "So it will be

easier to plumb from underneath and run wires and beep, even though the floor will have to be as

heavily insulated as the roof and walls. Later, we can expand the deck as we grow. Oh, and single

holes for pier-type footings are possible in this slop where pouring concrete would not, so there's

that. When everything dries out, we'll pour a slab for the saloon and get it built then."

Just as Lucy described, that is what the team does. Holes are dug with a worm screw machine

atop it. Once dry, wood footings are bolted into the brackets and heavy crossbeams follow to keep

the uprights rigid. Deck boards that don't quite look like wood make a floor, two large holes left as

the group makes their way to the back. Short stairs are added and then the shed kits are dragged

over for assembly.

And so the playlist of their days go as I watch the hyper-accelerated footage of framework and

siding and insulation and roof and windows and doors put in place. There are no real breaks in the

action, and the filming is all done from static mounts or the hovering drone. It's all hands on deck,

ranging from building to building as they grow.

There are periodic pauses in the action for a bit of explanation when they think something is

interesting, but there is a notable lack of… lightness to them. They still work hard, sun up to sun

down, but it's glaringly obvious that the team is exhausted. In fact, there's a notable lack of

interactions with the camera. The majority of the time, Brainy is right in with his friends, pitching

in. Good boy.

Even just observing through the lens of time and distance, I can see how worn down they are, how

the fluctuating weather conditions and hard work has pushed their limits.

Right at the end, it comes to a head when the truck returns one afternoon, the back large and lumpy

under the protective tarp. The misery on Kara's face hits like a blow as she climbs out, looking

around somewhat frantically.

Alex's welcoming smile falls and she meets her sister halfway for a crushing hug.

"Hey, hey, I've got you," Alex croons gently, voice barely picked up by the camera close by.

"What happened?"

Lucy appears and her face is a novel of wrath. "Remind me to never make country hick jokes

again, huh?"

Alex frees an arm to reach for Lucy, but only gets her fingers squeezed as Lucy grumbles about

needing to hit something with a hammer and stalks off.

"You seem a little miserable here," Alex says with a gentleness borne of real love and Kara sniffles

loudly where she has her face hidden in her sister's neck. "You could go home you know. No one

will think less of you."

The change is instant, Kara's head shooting up, fire in those wet blue eyes. "No! I want this

adventure with you! Just lemme sulk for a little bit and I'll be fine."

With a smile that could bring spring on early, Alex presses Kara back into the hug.

"Sulk for as long as you need."

Watching the sisters hug like they've been separated for a lifetime makes me miss my family; even

my stupid brother. Jess stiffens for a brief moment when I rest my head on her shoulder and sigh

heavily. Then she merely strokes my head once and goes back to the movie on her computer while I

rest my eyes. It's a relief that we're almost home.

Somehow, impossibly, I doze off and remain asleep until the plane bumps down to solid ground.

Startled, I jerk awake, steadied by Jess' hand on my arm. Then it's taxing into the plane's slip, the

crush of disembarking, arranging to have our luggage collected and delivered to the building and

getting the hell out of the airport.

Thankfully, Sam intuitively always seems to know when I'm feeling vulnerable and has schlepped

all the way out to the airport. I fall into her hug with abandon, soaking up the familiarity of her, the

haven she has always been.

"Welcome home."

"Missed you."

I'm too weary to give a damn about riding in a filthy cab and curl up sideways on the seat so that I

can hog the entirety of Sam's lean torso for comfort.

"You ditched out of work," I find myself mumbling bluntly and the soft pets over my head only

pause a moment.

"Of course I did. You're home."

It's times like this that I know it's love.

Bleary with sleep and reluctant to leave the warmth of the bed, I can't stop the little smile from

Sam's lips on my forehead and the click of ceramic on wood that comes with the scent of coffee.

Eventually it gets me up, because she always leaves it just a little bit out of my reach. Thusly

fortified, I ignore my grumbling stomach in order to get in a good, hot shower built to my exacting

needs and climb into soft, comforting clothes.

Heading out into the living areas of the apartment, I can hear my Ariases talking and, sure enough,

find Sam perched at the table with her phone.

"Gross!" Ruby laughs over the video call as I smooch Sam's head. "Glad you made it home safe,

Mama. How was Los Angeles?"

"Drier," I sass and enjoy her laughter as I head for the fridge and sustenance. Fresh fruit and cheese

sounds perfect and I collect and chop a bit more than I'll eat because Sam is a notorious browser.

"So, Jess tells me you've been mainlining the hot farmer on YouTube?"

Sam's sly comment makes me pause over a lovely goat cheese and celery spear I've just taken a

bite of. For possibly the first time in my admittedly cushy life… I find myself wondering where the

food came from. It's something that has never bluntly occurred to me before Rainbow Haven

Acres. A blandly dirty look gets me Sam's most innocent look, hands spread.

"She thinks it's cute, and gets the appeal of the older sister. How did she put it? 'I'm straight, not

blind'?"

I scoff even as I blush a bit. Someone without Jess' trust would never suspect how funny she can

be.

Sam's smile is a warm, welcoming thing and I drift over, unsurprised to find the still-active video

link showing Ruby's empty dorm room. Doubtlessly she would have joined in on the teasing had

she been near the speakers.

Long arms draw me into a hug and Sam's teasing voice is a caress. "It's addictive, right?"

"Yes," I mutter at her wit and she gentles even more.

"Yeah, I wasn't expecting to like it either. Well, the hot older sister is clearly a delicious hunk of

catnip cupcake, especially after she muscles up. Yum! But ending up fascinated by the actual farm

parts?"

Reassured it definitely isn't just me, I brighten. "Exactly! It's not right to tempt a couple of hardcore

city girls with something as weird as, I don't know, feeding a llama! And she is cute. And has nice

eyes."

Sam's laughter is always a bright, precious thing, and it rings through the apartment. When she

turns sly again, this time there's a wonderful lightness to the gleam in her eye. But she doesn't get a

chance to deliver her witticism.

"Did you make it to the dinosaur?" Ruby's voice suddenly bellows from somewhere a short

distance from her phone. That catches my attention and Sam's grin is like sunshine.

"I… have not," is all I can think to say and with all the trepidation a question like that deserves.

"And now I wonder if I should be nervous."

"Oh my god, Mom, don't you dare let her watch those without me and Lils!" Ruby squeals as she

throws herself back in front of her camera. "You promise!"

Startled at how vehement she is, I don't even protest. "I promise. I'll save the… uh, dinosaur until

the weekend."

"Yes!"

When I look curiously at Sam, she just shrugs and smiles fondly.