DAWN: Routines, Scans, and Tiny Betrayals
Watches rotate with mechanical efficiency. Shovel Man stands first-post by the river with Scoopheart planted point-down in the mud like a ward. Oliver paces the treeline, binoculars in hand. Cassie traces a charcoal glyph in the dirt every morning now; she says it calms the trees. Sector morphs into a low glass dome for the water store. Wembry chews at her lip and jerks awake at every twig snap.
Shovel Man (soft, to Oliver): “I will keep the perimeter. If anything moves strange, I strike.”
Oliver: “Good. Keep your shovel where we can see it.”
Cassie (muttering as she draws): “Watch rotations at two-hour spans. I’ll wake you if I sense a specter.”
CMP Goober’s absence is a raw hole; his discarded pages are still in Oliver’s pack, edges fluttering like guilty birds.
At the tactician grove, dawn is a business meeting full of sarcasm and undercurrents. Parcelboy sits on a log counting bolts. Scampton hums a jittery tune and sets little Pipis traps that beep when the frost melts. Stormy polishes his gun, half-smirk, half-warned. Spy appears from the mists like he was always there — slick, smelling faintly of cologne and danger.
Parcelboy (narrow-eyed): “Spy, you took those bolts yesterday. Put them back.”
Spy (smiling in that too-cool way): “I borrowed them. Aren’t you glad they’re safe?”
Scampton (loud whisper): “[MINI-GAME]—who wants to press the shiny button?”
Stormy (tail flick): “Less games, more pointing guns. I’m not into long speeches.”
Tension hangs — Parcelboy’s paranoia, Stormy’s impatience, Scampton’s need to perform, and Spy’s silk-slick evasions. Everyone watches the others’ hands.
Grimm, Goobert, and Pablo are a shadowed trio on a ridge. Grimm paces like a director waiting for the scene; Pablo is a quiet punctuation; Goobert sits chewing a lollipop and seems less sure-of-self than last night.
Grimm (low, pleased): “Luck is a spectacle. Use it. Remove what frustrates us.”
Goobert (murmuring): “:3” (but his smile is a fraction too small.)
Pablo: “Pablo thinks patience.”
Grimm’s presence is a pressure—Goobert shifts when Grimm speaks, a small tremor in his lollipop grip.