Why? Why did Zephyr always insist on starting their little projects so damn early in the morning? Maybe it had something to do with giving them more hours in the day to do whatever asinine chores he'd thought up, but Isabel suspected it was more likely that he just wanted to irritate her by dragging her out of bed. He would be the sort of monster that got his scrawny ass out of bed before the sun was barely up.

She's barely managed to throw together a cup of coffee from the Sanctuary kitchen before he was ushering her into his truck and carting her off to she was too tired to care where. She was starting to get used to these little excursions to the quieter spots in the city, usually so he could continue figuring out the nuances of her abilities and push her to try new things with them. But just because she was getting used to the obscenely early wake-up calls didn't mean she had to like them or agree to cooperate without whining the whole way in between trying to drink her too-hot coffee.

As it turned out she had to play the part of construction worker for the day. It wasn't exactly the most exciting task, but at least he wasn't making her run laps until she collapsed. Still, she didn't exactly understand what the point was. Her talents were better used in the demolition business. Also the murder business. Generally any line of work that didn't include being constructive.

"Alright, I give up. Why am I playing Bob the Builder?" she asked as she slid out of the passenger seat and leaned against the side of the vehicle, debating whether or not to finish what was left of the coffee in her hand. "Isn't reinforcing buildings enough? What's the point of trying to make them from scratch?"

The city of New York was many things to many people; a place of business, of entertainment, a financial capital and tyrannical regulator, some even called it home. Regardless of how one chose to see it though the overarching trend was that people wanted it, but in a city that already had nearly 30k people for every square mile, space was at a premium as it simply could not keep up with demand.

In light of this it was not hard to grasp that the ability to create one’s own space, an area under their sole control, had untold value both financially and otherwise. The only difficulty then came in leveraging that potential into something substantive whilst retaining control, because if there was one force as constant as gravity it was human greed.

"Alright, I give up. Why am I playing Bob the Builder?"

Well, greed and sloth.

"Isn't reinforcing buildings enough? What's the point of trying to make them from scratch?"

Interestingly enough despite the shapely soubrettes habitual incivility her words lacked any their usual bite, almost as if the girl was simply operating on automatic. Admittedly it could just be the fact that it was six in the morning but the hessian liked to think that the girl was actually starting to come around. Granted the country was more likely to return to the gold standard first but if one never expected better then things wouldn’t change.

Tucking a small bundle under one arm the elemental joined Isabel outside. Construction sites were a dime a dozen even years on from the riots and it wasn’t hard to find any number that were essentially abandoned at this time of day. “The point Isabel, is to see if you can, and if you can’t well...”

A slight smirk tugged at the hessians features as he gave a far too innocent shrug and glanced meaningfully at the dark clouds above as thunder echoed. ”I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Shall we start with a shed?”

Isabel downed the rest of her coffee as she listened to Zephyr's stupid explanation. He was trying to goad her into making something just to prove she could, but it was a lot harder to get indignant when it was so early in the morning and the caffeine hadn't had quite enough time to kick in yet. She was starting to catch on to his tricks, but recognizing them was usually a lot easier than ignoring them. Grogginess made not caring a little easier.

Not caring until he threatened her with a damn thunder cloud, that is.

It was hard to say whether the ominous cloud was a natural storm rolling in or if the windbag had something to do with it, but either way she had very little desire to get caught out in the rain if there was going to be thunder and lightning involved. There was always the truck or her ability to create her own makeshift umbrella for shelter, but she certainly wouldn't put it past him to make her sit outside and get soaking wet to teach her a lesson.

"You knew it was gonna rain today and that makes you the worst," she griped as she turned to drop the empty cup through the partially open window of the truck before stepping out into the open space he'd chosen. A shed was simple enough since it was essentially just four walls, a roof, and a door but that didn't make the task any more enjoyable.

Lazily she raised her hands and anchored several thick stands of bone to the ground which would become the corners of the structure. Once she was sure they were stable enough she strung them together in a loose grid pattern that gradually began to fill in and create the walls, leaving one open patch to serve as a doorway. The roof was created in much the same way and was given a nice, scalloped trim. She circled around the tiny building to make sure she hadn't missed any spots or left unintentional holes in the walls. When she rounded back to the front of the structure she melted away two small sections on either side of the door to make little windows, complete with tiny shutters.

Isabel turned to face Zephyr while gesturing toward the building with a sleepy sort of grin. It could probably be called a shed, but it looked a bit more like one of those tiny child-sized houses that young kids would play with in their back yards. "There. Now you can have a tea party for yourself while you sit around and I do all the work."