HPU - Richmond Acres

[MrNeonShot]

Hutch gingerly puts the cotton gloves on.
"Bit tight, but these will do." Hutch says, feeling the cotton with his gloved finger, or claw tip. Hutch takes the papers carefully, as if the slightest bit of breeze could turn it to dust, which is probably true. Hutch pulls out 2 large plastic bags, big enough to hold the papers in.
"I keep these for evidence I might come across during my adventures." Hutch explains to Piper, as he puts the papers in.
"Thank you for helping me out. If you can think of any other information that could help, or if you want to hang out," Hutch hands Piper a business card, with the words Hutch and Roo on it.
" or if you need help from me, just call me."

[Keeshah]

Nadia , circling around the truck with her tail now acting like a windmill in a storm , yelled "come on ! chop chop ! we're wasting day light !"

Kandi gets Senka buckled up into the center seat, then fastens the fox in next to the door.
She then walks around the truck and gets in, fastens her belt, starting it up..
backing out from under the awning of the barn.. vurrrm vurrrm...
An were off..
Kandi drives off down the road into town, the wind blowing into the truck from the open windows.

[Serence Frostbite]

the fox sat in her seat , looking outside as the scenery passed by . She wanted to stick her head out , feeling the nice breeze hitting against her face so much , but kept telling herself not to give Kandi any satisfaction , she did say she wasn't gonna do it . So instead , she just slightly stick a little part of her muzzle out , that doesn't count right ?

[Hlaoroo]

Piper is horrified. "Stop! You can't take them! These are valuable documents, some of which contain sensitive personl information on the architect's clients. And you absolutely cannot store them in plastic because that will trap the humidity and make them decay even faster! You're welcome to read them here as often as you like and I can make copies of any that you particularly want to take with you but I can't let you take the originals." She sets the business card on the counter and then begins unpacking the documents from the bags.
"Sorry for snapping. It's just that historical records, especially those relating to the history of Richmond Acres, are not easy to come by and must be properly looked after."
~~~~
Flynn rolls over, still dozing and, swinging his paw over his body into a more comfortable position, accidentally clobbers the nearest pet.

~~~~
John takes the stack of tiles from Cinnamon and lowers them to the floor. "Oof! These are heavy. I'm surprised you managed to lift them at all. Where do you want them?"

[sunauto]

"Clearly we all had a different vet because I didn't like mine all that much, I think they were afraid I was going to bite them. Sheesh not like it would turn them into a werewolf or something, then again they probably would make a bad wolf so... oooph." He stops as the rabbit's paw clobbers him in the nose and he rubs it better "I thought those things were supposed to be lucky..."

[WeirdGamer]

"You've known me for a full day at this point," Lucky pointed out, "Do you really still believe rabbit paw's are lucky?"

[Argent]

"Martens are stronger than we look, Mr. Porter, don't ever get in a fight with a wild marten, they'll eat your lunch proper! Anyway I just had to push it along the floor to get to the chimneyway there. Me? I don't want 'em, I was just clearing out the attic here so you can clean it up. They look like they match the tiles on your roof, see, so I figure the builders just left them here and forgot about them when they were putting this extension on, so you'll want to keep them because otherwise when you need to repair the roof some time you'll be spending days looking for matching tiles because they don't keep these things in production. It's not as bad as computer parts but I know this guy with some pet raccoons, a real nice couple they are too and good friends with Mister Badger, who makes quite a bit of money digging through the dump and finding old building material in good nick. Oh, speaking of old building material, see here's the aluminum wire leading to this air handler, it goes back through that gap in the old roof, where they cut the hole for the duct, no you can't get through there even I got stuck, I didn't bend the duct up much and see it popped right back to shape."

[Esper]

Mercury curled up on his side, dozing more deeply now, resting his head on the nearby Travis and snore-purring quietly

[Hlaoroo]

As the pain signals from his paw reach his sleeping brain, Flynn drifts back into wakefulness.
"Ouch. Did I hit something?" he asks groggily as he sits up.

~~~~
"Huh, I'll remember that. I've been warned about raccoons and opossums but never martens. Well we might as well keep the tiles up here until they're needed then. I'll put them in this corner since it looks like you've already swept here." After depositing his tiles he croses to the aforementioned shaft and looks down.
"Oh, there's one stuck halfway down. So that was the bang. Can you climb down with that rope and tie it on so I can hoist them back up?" He looks over at the wire.
"How are we going to replace that, I wonder, given that it's so inaccessible..."

[~\Rook/~]

Meanwhile:

A removals truck and a small sedan behind it roll down Sycamore lane and turn onto Ash drive, stopping in front of the first house on the road. The sedan reverses a little, then turns onto the driveway and parks, turning the engine off.

The house is a flat, single-floor open plan building with a large porch, addition on the left, and garage spanning the right. The sedan is parked right in front of the garage.

The passenger door opened and out stepped a short, lop eared rabbit. He was brown, with a white scarf around his neck, the ends wafting in the light wind.

"Wow, it's just like those veranda houses on TV!" He says as he shuts the car door behind him.

Out of the driver door steps a rather tall, thin man with a receding hairline in a brown, casual suit.

"Yep, this is home now, Aron.. the perfect retirement home.." He said, leaning himself with one arm on top of the car.

"Well, you and the guys in the truck have some moving to do, right?" Aron said, turning to his owner.

"Me? Oh, nonono.. My back's had enough moving furniture packing it all away! As soon as they've moved my chair in, and the water's working, I'm going to have a nice cup of tea.. " He said, smiling at the thought.

"Heh, whatever you say, Mr Jenkins!" Aron said, walking towards the street.

"And where are you going?!" Mr Jenkins said, shutting the car door.

"Off, Going to see if they have an aviation museum or something!" Aron said, waving behind him.

(Ooc: Right, first post up! Where am I headin''?)

[MrNeonShot]

Piper is horrified. "Stop! You can't take them! These are valuable documents, some of which contain sensitive personl information on the architect's clients. And you absolutely cannot store them in plastic because that will trap the humidity and make them decay even faster! You're welcome to read them here as often as you like and I can make copies of any that you particularly want to take with you but I can't let you take the originals." She sets the business card on the counter and then begins unpacking the documents from the bags.
"Sorry for snapping. It's just that historical records, especially those relating to the history of Richmond Acres, are not easy to come by and must be properly looked after."
~~~~
Flynn rolls over, still dozing and, swinging his paw over his body into a more comfortable position, accidentally clobbers the nearest pet.

~~~~
John takes the stack of tiles from Cinnamon and lowers them to the floor. "Oof! These are heavy. I'm surprised you managed to lift them at all. Where do you want them?"

"Woah, those were the ACTUAL documents? I thought those were an old, useless copy of it." Hutch blushed as he watched Piper take the papers.
"Sorry about that. I guess I should have known, seeing the age." Hutch put his paw on the top right side of his head as he winced.
"The last project I took didn't end well. I'm probably not on my A game right now. I do want to take a look at the Winton House, so I'll take some copies." Hutch couldn't shake the feeling of embarrassment of his unprofessional behavior.

[Argent]

"Oh no, the bang was the one down in the garage, it landed on the bags of rubbish so nothing important got broken, The rope's still tied around the one in the shaft. Oh, yes, possums are nasty, short sighted, bad tempered, and aggressive. And they got more teeth than's good for them, on top of that. Most of the coons I've met are nice people, no more likely to make trouble than anyone else. To be honest, I'd trust a coon more than a dog."

He peers through the gap in the roof into what appears to be complete darkness.

"It's a bit dark through there, but it looks like the original attic, so if you climb up inside you should be able to work the replacement wire through."

[Hlaoroo]

"I shall have to investigate that, thank you." He crosses back to the shaft and peers down inside. He sees the rope snagged on a nail just below the lip and taking hold of it, hoists the jammed stack back up to the attic and, untying the rope, sets it with the others.
"You've done a good job up here, Sixtoes. You'd hardly know there were squirrels here at all. Is that them I can smell, that faint sort of... mustiness? What do you still need to do up here?"

~~~~

"Woah, those were the ACTUAL documents? I thought those were an old, useless copy of it." Hutch blushed as he watched Piper take the papers.
"Sorry about that. I guess I should have known, seeing the age." Hutch put his paw on the top right side of his head as he winced.
"The last project I took didn't end well. I'm probably not on my A game right now. I do want to take a look at the Winton House, so I'll take some copies." Hutch couldn't shake the feeling of embarrassment of his unprofessional behavior.

"Yeah, sorry, my bad. I should have made it clearer, though I would have thought that the gloves and cloth would have given you a clue. So what sort of project are you working on? Is it just for personal interest?"
She gingerly turns over a few more pages. "Aha! A plan of the house. I thought all these were supposed to have been destroyed during the tornado. This is quite a find! I'm sorry I didn't look through these papers earlier. There's no mention of secret passages on here though. Dad! You should come and see this!" she calls. Setting the plan gingerly aside she reads aloud the letter underneath.

Dear Mr. Smythe-Winston,
Regarding your query as to the feasability of constructing concealed passages and/or rooms in Winston House, we feel that we must advise against taking such an action due to the possibility of causing weakening or damage to critical sections of the house's superstructure. As can be seen in the original plan there are several crawlspaces which may be adapted for such a purpose, however we do advise that modifications should be kept to a minimum. With regards to your suggestion of continuing these tunnels underground, our surveyors have informed us that from their measurements of local geology there is a high likelyhood of natural caves in the area. Therefore discretion is advised as drilling or mining in the area could cause instability of the surrounding geological structures.
We thank you for your custom and look forward to future business undertakings with you.
Signed...

"...I can't make out that signature but it would belong to one of the architects. As she is reading, Richard enters from the back room.
"What have you found, Piper?"
"In those papers from the architect's bureau, the ones we hadn't gotten around to properly going through yet, a plan for Winston House and a letter about secret passages."
"Really? What a find! We must read through all those papers and see what else there is to discover."
"Indeed. I'll make copies of these two for you, Hutch, and we'll give you a call if we find anything else, if you like. It's going to take a while to read through this stack properly."
She disappears into the back room for a few moments. An electronic whirring is heard and then she returns with the originals in one paw and the fresh, warm photocopies in the other. Handing (Pawing?) the copies to Hutch, she passes the originals to Richard who has put on some gloves and his glasses and begun poring over the other papers already.

[Argent]

"The mustiness is mostly leftover from the trash pile. That was nasty. Don't think you're gonna get it out without professional cleaners. I can smell all kinds of things up here. You, Joan, tar, still a lot of dirt and filth, Flynn and the other animals, squirrels, about four kinds of wood, me, sparrows, a hawk, rats, spiders, kapok, cotton, acorns, burned acorns, coffee, burned insulation, dust, gasoline, candle-wax, sweat, faint smell of blood, and someone's been crying over by the trapdoor."

He goes over to the edge of the roof, where the light was coming in through the vents.

"Needs someone to nail down the fascia and the paneling around the vent there. I can't really get the leverage to swing a big hammer, you'll want a human for that."

[sunauto]

Ryyn shrugs helplessly at Lucky before Flynn questions what he hit. "I'd say, and you packed a strong hit to the end of my nose. If I didn't know better I would say that you fought invisible spies like your dad was this morning."

[Lifio13]

"Why would there be invisible spies?" Rusty asked, "Unless... they're spying on us!" he pauses for a moment to think, "But, why would they be spying on us? We haven't done anything wrong, right?"

[Hlaoroo]

"Wow. That's quite a schnoz you got there! You can really smell all that?" John shifts the last of the stacks of tiles into the corner and dusts off his hands.
"Alrighty. Do you need any more help up here? If not, I suppose we'd better go and get Koa's stuff. Did he tell you that, Sixtoes? That we've adopted him since his ex-owner surrendered him this morning?"

~~~~
"Oh! Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean- Oh I hope I didn't hurt you! I'm so sorry! No, Rusty, he means he thinks I was dreaming about fighting them. Tell you what, I felt that whack too!" he shakes his paw ruefully. "I dunno what I was dreaming really. It was pleasant though, whatever it was."

[hypernovatic]

"That looked like it hurt." Ryze said, sitting up. As she sat up, Ryze rubbed her neck.

[Argent]

"Wow. That's quite a schnoz you got there! You can really smell all that?"

"As far as you know! I'm done up here, if this looks clean to you then that's the whole point, isn't it. I'm gonna go mess around on that computer, if that's OK with you do you have any books about ancient machines like that? It doesn't seem to have a bootstrap for the disk drive, just a debugger. That's awesome about Koa, are you going to get him properly looked at, he seems to have an amazing pain tolerance, but he's got a lot of damage and I bet Dad could make him feel a lot better."

[MrNeonShot]

"Yeah, sorry, my bad. I should have made it clearer, though I would have thought that the gloves and cloth would have given you a clue. So what sort of project are you working on? Is it just for personal interest?"
She gingerly turns over a few more pages. "Aha! A plan of the house. I thought all these were supposed to have been destroyed during the tornado. This is quite a find! I'm sorry I didn't look through these papers earlier. There's no mention of secret passages on here though. Dad! You should come and see this!" she calls. Setting the plan gingerly aside she reads aloud the letter underneath.

Dear Mr. Smythe-Winston,
Regarding your query as to the feasability of constructing concealed passages and/or rooms in Winston House, we feel that we must advise against taking such an action due to the possibility of causing weakening or damage to critical sections of the house's superstructure. As can be seen in the original plan there are several crawlspaces which may be adapted for such a purpose, however we do advise that modifications should be kept to a minimum. With regards to your suggestion of continuing these tunnels underground, our surveyors have informed us that from their measurements of local geology there is a high likelyhood of natural caves in the area. Therefore discretion is advised as drilling or mining in the area could cause instability of the surrounding geological structures.
We thank you for your custom and look forward to future business undertakings with you.
Signed...

"...I can't make out that signature but it would belong to one of the architects. As she is reading, Richard enters from the back room.
"What have you found, Piper?"
"In those papers from the architect's bureau, the ones we hadn't gotten around to properly going through yet, a plan for Winston House and a letter about secret passages."
"Really? What a find! We must read through all those papers and see what else there is to discover."
"Indeed. I'll make copies of these two for you, Hutch, and we'll give you a call if we find anything else, if you like. It's going to take a while to read through this stack properly."
She disappears into the back room for a few moments. An electronic whirring is heard and then she returns with the originals in one paw and the fresh, warm photocopies in the other. Handing (Pawing?) the copies to Hutch, she passes the originals to Richard who has put on some gloves and his glasses and begun poring over the other papers already.

"No no, it's my fault. Bit of a bonk on the head, I'll be fine soon enough. Well, I was hired by an anonymous person to research something about civil war passages. Looks like the civil war thing was wrong.
After Piper read the note, Hutch thought shortly to himself. Then he said out loud "So, not man made, but geological. Geological passages are more hard to go through, but I'm going to have to. Nevertheless, this giant house seems to hold a lot of information." he fumbles with something in his pocket as he thinks. He quickly pulls his paw out of his pocket and claps.
Right then, I think I'll stop giving you heart attacks and go. If you find any more information about the house or tunnels, you can call me, or look for the guy who is hanging from a potential life threatening place." Hutch tips his his fedora. "It was nice meeting you Ms. Piper, Mr. Piper' s dad." Hutch paused. "Thank you for your help, and I apologize for scaring you about the papers." Hutch turned and walked out of the antique shop.

Hutch' s Journal, entry 2.
So, turns out, they are geologically carved passages under ground. But, the architects of the house wanted to make bigger passages. Maybe he claimed the passages as his own? I do know one thing. I have to get to that house. ~Hutch

[WeirdGamer]

"Wow. That's quite a schnoz you got there! You can really smell all that?" John shifts the last of the stacks of tiles into the corner and dusts off his hands.
"Alrighty. Do you need any more help up here? If not, I suppose we'd better go and get Koa's stuff. Did he tell you that, Sixtoes? That we've adopted him since his ex-owner surrendered him this morning?"

~~~~
"Oh! Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean- Oh I hope I didn't hurt you! I'm so sorry! No, Rusty, he means he thinks I was dreaming about fighting them. Tell you what, I felt that whack too!" he shakes his paw ruefully. "I dunno what I was dreaming really. It was pleasant though, whatever it was."

"You know," said Lucky, "At least I have my luck as an excuse. You're just clumsy." Lucky stood up and stretched. "I'm going to take a walk into town. It was nice meeting you all. Thank you for having me" With that he exited the house.

[Keeshah]

the fox sat in her seat , looking outside as the scenery passed by . She wanted to stick her head out , feeling the nice breeze hitting against her face so much , but kept telling herself not to give Kandi any satisfaction , she did say she wasn't gonna do it . So instead , she just slightly stick a little part of her muzzle out , that doesn't count right ?

Go on puppy, let your head hang out the window.. just don't fall out of the truck..

Enjoying the ride as much as the fox Senka?

[hypernovatic]

"Bye Lucky!" Ryze called as the rabbit left.

[Rhyzer]

Travis watched quietly as Lucky left the yard, her usual stern, penetrating gaze latching onto him until he was well out of sight.

"In all honesty," Travis contemplated, "it really is a nice day to relax, and... maybe take a short nap. I might not get a chance like this in a while, now that I think about it..."

She sighed.

Putting her mind at ease, Travis gently lowered her head back against the soft, swaying patch of grass, as her reclining elbows soon landed flat against the ground, too, with each arm lying at her side. She also didn't mind her friend curling up and napping closely beside her, as opposed to how most dogs would probably react.

A pleasant, warm-hearted smile arose -- in stark contrast to her typical indifferent, and somnolent demeanor -- as she gently stroked the fur on top of Mercury's head, slowly falling asleep in the process.

[Esper]

"See yah later, Lucky..." Mercury managed to mumbled out

[WeirdGamer]

Lucky made his way into town. He walked around for awhile trying to wait before heading to his destination. Finally he headed to the antique shop. He took a deep breath, opened the door, and stepped n.

[Serence Frostbite]

Go on puppy, let your head hang out the window.. just don't fall out of the truck..

Enjoying the ride as much as the fox Senka?

"wasn't gonna do it" Nadia mumbled.....then slowly stick the rest of her head out , and within seconds already lost in her own world
"where are we heading anyway?" she asked , minutes later

[Hlaoroo]

"Fair point. Well if you think you're done, why don't you come down into the house and I'll see if I can't find you that book. I'm sure I have it somewhere... We'll definitely get Koa looked at properly. We wouldn't be responsible owners if we didn't." He hands Joan back down onto the rungs and then waits for Cinnamon before switching off the lights, climbing down himself and shutting the trapdoor behind him.
Leading the way into his study he gazes around at the books on the shelf.
"Now where did I put it..." he makes a soft clicking noise with his tongue as he thinks.
"Aha!... No, that's not the one... Ah, there it is! I haven't used this thing in years! It's one of my old textbooks from university, you know. Should have everything you need in there. If not, there'll be other books up here you can help youself to."
After the marten runs out with the heavy book, John stops for a word with Joan.
"Can you come with me to get Koa's stuff? I'm not sure how he's going to react when I show up on his doorstep but hopefully with the both of us he'll be complacent enough. I'lll keep him occupied while you and Koa get his gear and hopefully we'll be out of there as quickly as possible."
Joan agrees to this so they head down together into the garden.
"Ready to go get your stuff, Koa?" Joan asks.

~~~~
"Wait! You're still wearing my-" the shop door clunks shut behind the intrepid reporter. "Gloves." she finishes uselessly with a ruefull smile at Richard. Shaking her head in despair she switches on a bakelite radio and settles down to read the papers.
Later...
Setting aside a bundle of letters between the architect and his accountant, Piper sighs.
"I never knew history could be so dull. The architects finances really aren't that interesting. Have you found anything?"
"Hmm? Oh, er, yes. I've found a fascinating set of documents about the library. Did you know that it was originally going to have 3 floors but they decided it would be too big for a small town like this?"
"Really? I had no idea. I'm glad they didn't make it that big. We'd never have been able to see the ridge out our kitchen window otherwise."
The bell jingles as the door clunks open again and Lucky walks in.
"Speaking of the library..." remarks Piper.
"Oh, er... yes, er... I've just remembered I left the oven on..." responds Richard before climbing the stairs to the apartment above, leaving the two rabbits alone in the shop.
"Hiya, Lucky. How's it going?"

~~~~
"Nah, I reckon I'm just unlucky too. Can't really count as clumsiness if I was asleep, can it? Seeya, Lucky! Thanks for coming. Don't forget your gear in the tent and house!"

[WeirdGamer]

"It's, uh, going well, replied Lucky nervously, "I'm still sorry for almost breaking that vase." Just my luck I leaned on the one table with a broken leg..." He fidgeted with his fingers nervously.

[Hlaoroo]

Piper smiles. "That's OK. You gotta admit, it was kinda funny, watching you windmilling your arms like that and trying not to land on top of it and me. It was kinda our fault too. I'm not sure how that table got into the shopfront without being repaired first... Hey, I wonder if you can confirm a rumour for me. I heard someone has moved into Winston House. Is that true?"

[WeirdGamer]

"Yeah actually," said Lucky brightening up,"That's what i wanted to talk to you about./color] He held up his camera he had retrieved from the tent. "A rabbit named Flynn moved in. He's a cool guy. Anyway we found some old tunnels underneath the house and went exploring." He handed the camera over.

[Hlaoroo]

"Oh, cool! So I was right!" she takes the camera and after a few unsuccessful attempts at manipulating it, sets it on the counter, removes her gloves, and then tries again. Flicking through the photos, she laughs.
"Oh, good one of your leg there, Lucky. You must have banged the shutter while you were walking." she turns the camera around so he can see before resuming looking through the photos.
"That's Flynn, is it? You know, I don't recognise any of these pets. There must be a few new folk arou... Wow! Look at that cavern! So the surveyors were right. There are natural tunnels, and Marvin did build onto them against the architects advice." She hands the camera back before donning her gloves again and spinning the plan and letter around so Lucky can see.
"I've got some more gloves if you want to pick these up for a closer look, but then again, knowing your luck..."

[Roarin]

Senka shifted yet again her seat. Being in this metal contraption was almost as bad as watching it go by. At least it doesn't smell as bad. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she hadnt said a word since she got in the car. The mountain lion glanced out the window, watching everything whiz by. They certainly were going very fast. Faster than she's ever gone before. That thought didn't help to comfort her.

"Yes, where are we going?". And when can she get out of this thing?

[Keeshah]

Senka shifted yet again her seat. Being in this metal contraption was almost as bad as watching it go by. At least it doesn't smell as bad. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she hadnt said a word since she got in the car. The mountain lion glanced out the window, watching everything whiz by. They certainly were going very fast. Faster than she's ever gone before. That thought didn't help to comfort her.

"Yes, where are we going?". And when can she get out of this thing?

Were going to the pet store. get you pet collar, tags, leash. pet bed. pet blankets. pet treats. pet food.
then we are going to Lowes an get some stone pavers.

[Roarin]

"W-wait a minute. I thought you were kidding about the collar and leash.".

[Keeshah]

"W-wait a minute. I thought you were kidding about the collar and leash.".

No i wasn't.. Without you wearing a collar, everyone is going to think your a wild cougar, and be afraid of you.. then they be shooting an shooing at you. you wouldn't like that now would you?

[Serence Frostbite]

"but she is a feral , this is only for a short time until she can go back remember ? Unless she wants to stay..." The fox said , then turned around and asked as if she's afraid of the answer "....do you?"

[Keeshah]

"but she is a feral , this is only for a short time until she can go back remember ? Unless she wants to stay..." The fox said , then turned around and asked as if she's afraid of the answer "....do you?"

I notice that the wolf was wearing his collar again.. an i see that you have a collar on Miss Nadia..
Kandi grins.

[LovingCorgi]

"Yea I'm ready."

[Serence Frostbite]

I notice that the wolf was wearing his collar again.. an i see that you have a collar on Miss Nadia..
Kandi grins.

"well that's.....alright point taken ! I hate you" the fox said with a slight hint of annoyance in her voice , the stuck her head out the window again