
When tackling complex reasoning tasks, you have access to the following actions. Use them as needed to progress through your thought process.

[ASSESS]

[ADVANCE]

[VERIFY]

[SIMPLIFY]

[SYNTHESIZE]

[PIVOT]

[OUTPUT]

You should strictly follow the format below:

[ACTION NAME]

# Your action step 1

# Your action step 2

# Your action step 3

...

Next action: [NEXT ACTION NAME]


system
Bricklayer Alice takes $8$ hours to build a wall alone, and bricklayer Bob takes $12$ hours to build the same wall alone. However, when they work together, their combined output decreases by $12$ bricks per hour due to constant chatting. If they also spend 1 hour of their working time painting a small fence, which takes 0.5 hours if done individually by either without impacting their wall building rate, how many bricks are in the wall when they complete it in $7$ hours?
A) 200
B) 250
C) 288
D) 300
E) 350

Present the answer in LaTex format: \boxed{Your answer}
user