Waiting for the Crowd Who: Tayne and Joyce Where: The kitchen When: 6:30ish
The actions of making dinner, and making enough of it for the whole hotel-- okay, with help, but still-- had calmed Tayne down some from the stress of the morning. Not entirely, but certainly some. He wasn't sure he'd come to grips with the changing thing yet, but he no longer shook every time he thought of that grocery store and how much he'd wanted to tear down that poor dead girl and tear out the throat of anyone who had a hand, or a paw, in putting her there.
Okay, so maybe that thought left him a little shaky. He was trying not to think about it, really.
He leaned on the counter, arms folded across his chest, as he tried not to think. Dinner was done and sitting in the giant fridges, and he just had to wait for that seven-o-clock to roll around and everyone to get downstairs to eat. There wasn't a whole lot to distract himself with, really, except maybe other things he'd rather not be thinking about, like worrying how long their food would hold out, or about people tripping down the stairs in the dark, or about heat in the winter. So he wasn't going a very good job at keeping a cheerful face, at the moment.
Joyce thought dinner had been a successful venture. The four of them had worked together well enough and the results were all set to go in the fridges. It was simple - sandwiches and salad - but it could be elaborated by the usual bags of chips and Doritos and the like. Items in vending machines had lives that extended beyond those of 'real' food, but it made the meal seem larger and who didn't like a bit of crunch?
She had managed to coax some flame from a gas stove and had boiled potatoes. Using the various ingredients while they still could, Joyce had assembled a potato salad without drowning it in mayo. Her mother would have been proud.
Thinking of family, she covered the large, metal bowl with plastic, set it on a bottom shelf and straightened as she closed the door. The fridges were already warming from the loss of power. Lack of refrigeration would be a challenge.
One of her fellow cooks was leaning against the counter, looking displeased with life in general. He had been friendly but preoccupied during the making of dinner. She didn't blame him for that. Grabbing two bottles of water, she crossed toward him and offered him one.
"Tayne, right? Nice deli style you have there."
Blinking, Tayne took the bottle, though didn't open it. He did, however, offer Joyce a little smile. "Hey. Nice what? Oh, you mean the salad and stuff?" He shrugged. "This is the easy stuff. We didn't even get to bake anything." Though he was glad the stoves still worked. They'd really need to be able to cook food in the future, and despite the potential danger of gas stoves when there wasn't any electricity, it was safer than starting actual fires in the grates, or anywhere else for that matter. "It was Joyce, wasn't it?"
"You make a mean sandwich and you cut them diagonally, like I do, like a deli does, so..." She opened her bottle - with plans to make it last - and had a sip. "No baking, no, which is always sad. I make mean brownies. I did get to make the potato salad, though. I hope that goes over well. Good source of potassium." She gave him a bright smile. "And yes, it's Joyce."
"I was mostly on the salad," Tayne told her, a little apologetically. He'd mostly left sandwich making to people who he presumed were less used to making things, and thus more likely to know how to handle a sandwich, though he'd done a few once he'd finished with the salad. "But thanks anyway." Having someone telling him about the potassium in his potatoes was a little unsettling, especially paired with a grin like that, and he wasn't entirely sure what to say to it. "At least it's variety?" he offered.
"At least we still have fresh vegetables, though I don't know how much longer that'll last. Not long enough, I'm sure." Joyce sighed. "Getting a garden growing could be tricky, unless the roof is viable for setting up something... I'm... just babbling." She leaned against the counter, too. It wasn't tall enough for her to really work at comfortably, but that had always been an issue. SHe had a prep station installed at home that was much better for her height. Maybe, if they were going to stay here and she would be helping prepare meals more, she should rig up something here.
"Variety is the spice of life, though I've always suspected that the worms were the spice, but that's very 'Dune' of me..." She was tired and referencing science fiction. Would he think she was crazy? Oh, well...
The Dune reference got a blank look out of Tayne-- he was definitely not a science fiction reader-- but he was much more comfortable with the idea of a garden than anything else. "If we could keep ourselves safe enough while we explored," he commented, "urban gardening's actually pretty popular. I bet we could find all sorts of fruits and vegetables and such if we knew where to look, already planted. It's when winter sets in that it'll be a problem. We'll need plenty of canned shit, at that point, to tide us over."
"We need to explore, absolutely, but with all those... creatures out there. Well, I'm sure we'll have lots of expeditions for food, growing and canned, in the next little while. Stock up and so on. Maybe we chould pickle things, think like our great-grandparents." She frowned slightly. "I haven't tried pickling in ages, but if we can find the equipment, I can probably get something going."
It didn't matter that he didn't read science fiction. Things like that didn't bother her. Joyce regarded the young man before asking, "Do you think we should stay here? It's fine, for now, but... I've been wondering if we should maybe have a few 'safe zones'..."
"Having other safe places is a good idea, just in case, but I dunno about moving," Tayne said, scratching his head. Thinking about logistics was a nice distraction from the tiger thing, and the anger thing, and all that-- and the question about moving kept him off the subject of scavenging, since their last expedition had gone so poorly. It had other pitfalls, though, and now he was worrying about the future again. "Maybe if we found someplace with more old-fashioned furnaces that could run on fire, or windows in the stairwells, but otherwise hunkering down in one place and not trying to give it up sounds smarter, to me. Can you imagine trying to move the lot of us?"
She nodded, sipped her water again. "Oh, moving all these people wouldn't be easy, but it wouldn't be impossible, if we had to. I'd like to have something in place, in case we have to go, rather than just..." She gestured vaguely with her free hand. "Heading out into the night without a plan. We're stronger together than we are apart. I firmly believe that. I don't want anyone to panic, but we should be ready. You know?"
Joyce sighed again. "And one of the problems with burning wood is that it makes smoke, and smoke attracts attention. We'd have to really think hard when the weather gets colder." Assuming they lived that long, of course. She tried not to think about the infection, the change - whatever it was wasn't still lurking inside the survivors, waiting.
To say that the idea kept her awake some nights would be an understatement.
"I'd be less worried about the smoke catching attention," Tayne said with a little grin, "and more about accidentally burning the building down. I don't imagine monsters are much different from regular animals, and if they see smoke, they'll go the other way. All animals have instincts about avoiding fire." People, on the other hand... well, that'd be a different story. "I'm wonderin' about all these powers. Whether there's something somebody's got that'll help-- somebody who makes fires, or just heat even, or who can, like... channel electricity, and then can run the hotel's heating system, or somethin'." It was a thought, anyhow.
Joyce returned the grin with a little one of her own. "I hadn't thought about burning the building down. I'd hope we'd manage to avoid that outcome, but I don't know. Some of these creatures... used to be Human and some of them still seem to... think on a certain level. All it would take is one to process that food might be where the smoke was and..." She shrugged, not really enjoying the topic, but feeling like she needed to talk to someone about it.
Poor kid. He probably thinks I'm a crazy woman.
"As for someone with that kind of power?" She paused. "That would depend on a number of factors, and the first one I can think of is that they might want to help, but they might be afraid of being used, and though I can't picture anyone I've met here using someone in a brutal way..."
Damn, she used fancy words. Tayne could never talk like that. Factors, brutal, outcomes... he felt like he was somewhere beneath her, not sure if she just always talked like that or if he were special to get the treatment. It really kind of made him feel stupid. "I ain't seen a single monster think beyond what was right in front of its nose," he shrugged. "But if you've seen different, then I guess you'd know it and I didn't. All my co-workers who didn't die outright got pretty stupid. They didn't even stay back when I had a-- a ch-chainsaw."
The thought of which made him wince. Ugh, why did he have to bring up shit like that? He went on to her second subject, not wanting to think about it. "If people're afraid of being used, they're in the wrong place. We gotta work together, here, and trust that we're not gonna use each other. Else what's the point of stayin' together to begin with?"
Joyce would have been positively mortified to learn that she was making him feel stupid. She tended to talk like this all the time. Especially with her father being a teacher and having no siblings, she was the focus of a lot of positive attention as a child. Her parents provided her with the best they could manage, and that included love and language.
At the mention of co-workers and a chainsaw, she stopped. She just... stopped. She didn't want to think about that scenario, though obviously, Tayne had experienced it.
Oh, God...
"That's..." She couldn't continue for a moment and went with the second topic, though she was more quiet than she had been. "Yes, we have to... work together. Absolutely. Trust might be tricky for some people. That's all..."
Feeling like an idiot for even mentioning it, and a little sick again now that the memories had resurfaced, Tayne quite happily stuck with the second subject. "Then I guess we'll hafta prove that we're trustworthy, somehow, huh?" he suggested with a little grin. "So nobody'll think we're gonna take advantage, or anything." Because he wouldn't want anyone thinking that of him, anyway, much less at a time like this.
"Yes," she said. Awkward moment was awkward. "I mean, no, we wouldn't want anyone to think that we'd... I know I'd never..." She had another sip of water and cleared her throat. "I haven't met anyone yet with that kind of power. Heat or energy or... anything. Have you?"
Social Joyce. Graceful Joyce. Come on, girl, you can do it...
"Hell, most everyone I've met don't even think they have a power... or if they do, it's somethin' small and weird." Tayne shrugged a bit, relaxing a little and trying to move the conversation on and away from the weird. "Like one guy who don't have to eat anymore, that's the only one I've really heard of so far. Everyone else either don't have anything or don't know what it is yet." Except himself, and he still didn't know what to think of his.
"I've met someone who can teleport," she said. "And someone who seems to... move ahead in time by about fifteen seconds or... something like that." That covered Juan and Paige. She wasn't sure how to describe Amberlee's ability nor did she know if it even would be considered one, and she had no clue about Alan. "I haven't met anyone else with a... special power or whatever." Joyce shook her head. "If I have one, I don't know what it is..."
"You're still ahead of me, then," Tayne said with a wry grin. "I hear there's a kid around here with wings. Now that would be something to see." He didn't offer his own "power" or whatever, yet; he still wasn't entirely comfortable with it yet. But if she asked, he'd certainly answer.
"Wings? Seriously? I haven't met them yet. I'd remember that." She didn't want to ask him and he didn't offer, so she left any questions about his personal circumstances unasked. "That must make it... difficult to find clothes..."
Tayne couldn't even imagine how the kid managed getting dressed with wings, himself. Though that reminded him, too, of how he'd managed to shred his own clothes that morning. He needed to get his truck and the rest of his shit.... "So you know a lot of folks here, then?" he asked. "Besides the winged fellow, anyhow. You been here long?"
"I think I got here... on Day Three of all... this. I'd have to check." She gave a small, rueful laugh. "Time is being... weird. I don't like losing track of it. So... four days here, at the hotel. I know there are people here I haven't met. The angel is a boy, huh? Well, he's one of them. Let's see..." Joyce leaned against the counter and thought of the names. "Paige. Amberlee. Juan and Alan and... Terry met our group. Charles... you... Landon, he was the other cook, right?"
"I've been keeping a journal with the date," Tayne offered. "It's the twenty-eighth today. I haven't really been counting days since, though." That made it feel was too cataclysmic, for him. "I've met Terry, too-- and Taylor, Ver-- Verity, Pepper, and Dav. Daval I think his name is. And that nice young lady who met us at the lobby... I think I forgot her name." Which was shitty of him. Maybe it'd come to him once he saw her again. "Dav's the only other one with anything different about him-- well, okay, power-like." He grinning, thinking of Pepper. "Pepper is massive and furry now. She's pretty awesome, though. Nothing to be afraid of, or anything."
"That's a very good idea. I've been making lists.... and I've met Verity, too. How could I forget him? We did a run to a hardware store yesterday. That's when we met Josh..." She sighed. "I don't recognize those other names, though it sounds like Pepper would be difficult to miss." Maybe she was just tired.
"She would be. She's gotta be, like... seven feet tall or something ridiculous like that." Tayne chuckled. Even given what they'd been through, thinking about Pepper kind of made him smile all in itself. After walking all the way to the grocery store together, he found her pretty damn fun, to be honest. "Hope everyone shows up for the dinner thing. Then at least we can get names for everybody." He paused. "You know, I think maybe I'll run back to my room and grab my notebook... I could write down names and powers and, like, hair color or something. Otherwise I'll completely forget everyone's name."
"That's... very tall and I guess she... wasn't that tall... before?" Since they both understood what they were talking about, she felt she didn't have to say 'the Apocalypse' every other sentence. It made her feel better not to, at any rate. "I have a notepad in my room. I'm going to get that, too, and jot a few things down. Add to my lists..."
Since Tayne didn't know what she was like before, he just shrugged and grinned a little. Glancing at his watch, which he was probably lucky still worked, he suggested, "Let's do that now. Before folks start showing up. I can walk you up the stairs-- I can see in there better than most everyone else. I'll at least make sure you don't trip on a stair or something."
"Sure," Joyce said and put the cap back on her water bottle. She pushed lightly away from the counter. "I'm on the fifth floor. You?" She thought about asking how he could see better than 'most everyone', but decided not to pursue it. Maybe he'd want to talk about it and maybe not. Right now, Tayne seemed more comfortable with her and she wanted to keep it that way.
"Second. Or, well, first. The rooms are numbered with ones, but it's up one flight of stairs." Tayne made a face, standing up fully. "I was hoping I'd get something on the ground floor, the actual first floor, but apparently there's, like, only one of those, and Dav's got it." He led the way out of the kitchen towards the lobby, and the nearest stairwell. "We'll go to yours first, how's that?"
"I know. That's confusing to me. I've always thought the ground floor should be 'one', but whatever. I'm not a building designer." She followed him from the kitchen and nodded. "That's fine. So, Dav had claimed a room on the ground floor? I didn't even know they had guest rooms there, or has... Dav converted an office?"
Joyce would get the names straight for everyone, eventually.
"I really got no idea," Tayne admitted. "I just know he can't do stairs. He's kinda stuck in a wheelchair. I'm not really sure where he's staying...." He'd have to do something about that, actually. He wanted to be able to find the guy for the promised drinks. Or just to hang out. He kind of liked him. In a non-romantic way, of course, because he just did not need that kind of crazy right now.
"Oh. Yep, that'll make stairs difficult. I knew one guy who was a paraplegic, but he's do stairs if he had to, using his arms to lift or drag his lower half... He called it 'undignified, but necessary'. I think the city was behind on making buildings more accessible." And no one as likely to be bothering now. Assuming any of the politicians had survived this... Apocalypse - I need a new word - - they weren't likely to be dealing with city planning anymore.
"Don't think Dav is paralyzed, he pretty much said he wasn't yesterday, but he's probably just got some kind of nerve damage that makes him weaker below the waist, or... something." Tayne really didn't know, and he hadn't wanted to ask. He pushed open the door to the stairwell, then eyed it with a frown. "We should prop these open... that'll at least shed some light in the stairs, if every floor's door is open."
"Nerve damage. Oh, that can either be very painful or very... numb, weird sensation." He paused in the door and made a suggestion that sounded good to Joyce. "Right." Glancing around the stairwell - which proved empty and useless, even though it was difficult to see - she leaned out to look around the lobby and grabbed the nearest chair.
"Brilliant? No. Will hold it open enough? Yep..." She dragged it over and set it in place. It kept the door from closing, but wasn't heavy enough to hold it open. "Okay, work in progress. This'd be good to do on each floor, though. Good thinking."
"Won't be much help at night, but during the day it could be," Tayne nodded. "At least then we can save flashlights and lamps and stuff by not using them during the day...." He started up the stairs, taking them slowly to give Joyce time to get her eyes more adjusted to the low lighting. Well, and to give himself time, but he adjusted more quickly. "We don't hafta do it now, but maybe somebody can take care of it tomorrow, or somethin'."
"We'll figure something out," she said, placing one hand on the railing as they climbed. Her eyes found everything a little murky, but her vision was still basically good. Forty-three and no glasses yet. She tried not to think about any future changes in her health. Initially, anyway, things would be just too chaotic for anything beyond medical emergencies.
"Verity picked up flashlights yesterday and I found one of those wind-up battery charger units. It's a start." It was a good thing she was fit or climbing all these stairs would be a challenge. Of course, if she hadn't been fit to start with, she would be soon after this regular workout.
"Oh, that's good," Tayne said, grinning some and lagging behind a step, letting Joyce go first so that if she lost her footing in the dark, he'd be behind her. He could warn her of anything else on the stairwell, from there, anyhow. "I have a feeling night owls will start turning into morning people, before too long. Without lights and things to keep people awake and active after dark, seems like waking up with the sun is a better idea." Which meant in winter everyone would probably sleep more, but given the cold, that was probably smart.
"It's something. We'll have to still use them wisely." She smiled, then realized he wouldn't be able to see her facial expressions properly and gave a little laugh. "I'm a morning person, so getting up with the sun won't be a problem for me." Her sleep was off still, but given the circumstances, she wasn't surprised. I like my coffee, though, so that'll be my challenge more than dealing with the Day Star."
"We've still god gas," Tayne commented. "And we might be able to scrounge up a coffeemaker that runs on batteries." Living without his coffee was going to be a challenge, too, so he thought he'd do everything in his power to avoid that eventuality. "But I'm one of those people who loves to sleep in... gonna hafta get myself back on farm time if I wanna get anything done." He sighed. "Too bad there's no roosters here."
"I hope the gas lasts a while," she said, turning to climb another set of stairs. "I'm not useless without my java, but I'd rather not have to experience a deficit. So, you grew up on a farm? As for the rooster, we can always set up an alarm for you, Tayne."
"Why waste batteries on an alarm?" Tayne asked reasonably. "When a rooster would wake me up without being as annoying? More likely, though, I'll just move my bed so that sunlight falls on my face at dawn, and that'll probably be plenty." He hoped. "But yeah, I grew up on a farm. My parents own it." Or did own it. As much as anyone could own anything anymore, if they were even still alive.
Not gonna think about that, either.
"I don't know," she said, pulling a key from her pocket and inserting it into the lock to her room. "I haven't seen any... normal animals." She opened the door and stepped inside. He was welcome to join her, if he wanted. She didn't feel threatened by him at all, but then, she was a tall, strong woman and -
Joyce paused and turned. "Sorry, what did you just say?" She wasn't scared. Was she? No, that was... "You... can turn into a tiger? Really?" God, he might be the last tiger on the damn planet...
Tayne waited at the doorway, rather than actually coming in, and he grinned a bit sheepishly at her surprise and clarification. "Um, yeah. I mean, I'm still me, I remember everything and I don't, like, attack people. But yeah. Tiger. Only actually realized what was happening this morning...." And damn, was that a revelation.
She blinked at him as a slow smile formed. "My, God. That's... incredible. What does it feel like?" And she stopped herself when she realized she was reaching out to touch him, as if to see if she could feel any sign of fur on his skin which, of course, looked 'normal' to her right now. She turned back to reach for her pad of paper and a few pens - in case one ran out of her during the meeting or someone else needed one - before facing Tayne again.
"It doesn't hurt, does it?" she asked, a sense of wonder in her voice.
The aborted touch made Tayne shift a little uncomfortably, glad she'd stopped herself. "I don't really know how it feels, or how to d-describe it. It just kind of feels like being me, just a slightly different me who happens to have claws and a tail. I ain't done it on purpose yet... mostly it just kind of happens, and I don't really know how. It doesn't hurt, though." He was pretty sure of that, anyhow. If it hurt, he probably wouldn't think he just felt like being him.
"I'm sorry. I... I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable, Tayne. So, you still think like yourself? You're aware of what's happening, just... as a tiger...?" She was glad it didn't hurt, but for it to just happen at random? "And you... don't know when it'll happen? Your... transformation, I mean..."
Joyce didn't want to make him uncomfortable, but she was genuinely interested in what he was experiencing.
"Well, last time I did it was cuz I was angry and in d-danger," Tane shrugged. Making him uncomfortable was going to happen no matter what, on this subject, so he just let it slide. "Time before that, I was just kind of... patrolling the halls, I guess. I don't know why. I think I kinda thought I was d-dreaming. Th-there might be a reason for it, like I heard something in my sleep or I th-thought it needed doing." He didn't have any idea how to describe how he thought, while like that. It was different, but at the same time felt perfectly natural. "And I don't think I think quite the same way... there's no words, or anything."
"Oh," she said, able to easily imagine danger at almost every turn these days. Tayne was stuttering a little and Joyce wondered if it was due to discomfort about the topic of if he usually stuttered? It didn't matter to her, except from the perspective of his comfort. "I can see how you would think it was a dream." She gave him a gentle smile. "Not every day you're a tiger, after all. Well, something you'll... have to explore." And she hoped he had the time to do so.
"If you ever want someone... with you or anything... company, take notes... I'm around, you know?" She nodded to the door. "I guess we should make our way to your room now, hmmm? For paper and so on?" She didn't want to rush him, at all, but she didn't want her interest in him to be the reason they were late for the meeting.
Though Tayne wasn't really sure how he was going to manage to explore much of anything until he found out how to change on purpose, he nodded and grinned faintly. "Thanks, Joyce. If I figure out anything, and need help with it, I'll letcha know. Guess, yeah, if you're done, I'd better go get my shit, too, and we can get going back down to the kitchen." People'd probably start showing up soon, and he needed to be there when they did, to help set stuff out.
She smiled back. "Great. And yep, I've got my shit together. Let's go get yours." She passed him and closed the door, making sure it was locked before pocketing the key. "I don't know if we need to lock up around here or not, but I guess it gives a sense of privacy, right? Given the circumstances, how we've all... likely lost a lot, it's a small thing to want to protect the rooms we claim, hmmm?"
The table was still holding the door open, as Joyce had expected. She held the door for Tayne this time and waved him to go through. "After you."