Electrician and Engineer Who: Verity and Corey, plus Jasper (NPC) Where: The lobby When: Late morning
Verity had slept in a little bit, and now he was going to use the bright daylight in the lobby to get started on his security projects. Tayne was probably busy, and Verity didn't really want to go looking for him. And Terry was totally laid up. He didn't think anyone would object to his new plans, so he figured he and Jasper would just get rolling on his floodlights. Tomorrow or sometime soon he'd try and recruit people to clear the area around the hotel, see what other defenses could be thought up. For now, bright lights were good for scaring away undesirables. Might work on monsters as well as crazy people with guns.
And now that he had his power back, he wanted to use it. A lot. It felt as though all those little machine tweaks were pressing against the backs of his eyes. He'd found his scrounged tools and supplies undisturbed, and he and Jasper had pulled light bulbs and even a few high-powered flashlights out of janitors' closets. The makings of his deterrent surrounded him, and Jasper sat beside him, assisting ably, the brothers hemmed in by twists of wire and circuitry. They looked more alike than usual, both intent on their task, heads bent and eyes sharply focused. They didn't talk much. They didn't need to.
Corey hadn't slept in very late, but then, that was his way. He'd been out at dawn, stalking the streets with Blitz, hoping to get her fed and scavenge up something for himself, so he didn't have to break into his or the hotel's stores. Foraging was always the first way to go, though there wasn't a lot left worth much of anything, it seemed. Either it was rotten, or picked over already, or both.
Though he did find someone's apple tree, and came back with a backpack full of apples. That ought to cheer someone up, if not himself.
Blitz and the cats trailed after him as he pushed open the lobby door and headed inside, backpack on one shoulder and rifle on the other.
Verity didn't look up from his work. With wires sticking out of the corner of his mouth and a pair of tiny clips held inches from the end of his nose, he was an absurd picture of geeky concentration. Perhaps more oriented to self-preservation, Jasper looked up. Hearing the older kids talk, he'd learned there were a lot of people to be afraid of, and one couldn't go around assuming that just because someone could operate a doorknob, they were safe. Just Corey and Blitz, though. One would have to be Jasper to find that routine. He raised his hand to wave.
Corey stopped at the sight of the two kids on the floor, surrounded by what he would consider his own tools of trade. As if that wasn't enough of a sign to investigate, then he recognized Jasper, and he started walking over. He wasn't exactly silent about it, given he was over six and a half feet tall and wore heavy combat boots, but he didn't say anything, just jerking his chin in a nod to Jasper before eying what they were doing.
Blitz and the cats, of course, were fascinated by the wires and things. Blitz started batting at one of the spare cords on the floor.
"Huh?" At that, Verity looked up. Big guys in combat boots seemed pretty par for the course. Who else would be around in the Hotel Apocalypse? But someone messing with his tools, well, that was worth thinking about. And when he looked up and saw a deranged looking cat-thulu insect hybrid thing, he jumped backward a bit. "Whoa!" It didn't seem to be attacking him, though, and after that poor maybe-raccoon thing in the hardware store, he'd had no desire to go around executing monsters. "Jas... Okay, you're calm. You're usually smart. So that thing's okay, is it?" He'd been missing things for days, and Jasper was observant, if not a joiner.
"Blitz is fine," Corey answered. "Blitz, say hello." The cat-monster drew back from Verity's things, lashing her twin tails and uncurling one tentacle, ears half-back. "That's no way to be polite, Blitz," Corey chided her, then shrugged and looked back at the two boys. "She'll learn, if we hang around here long enough, I figure. This that brother of yours, Jasper?"
It was kind of impressive he'd remembered the kid's name. He was proud of himself. Seeing the stone on his necklace probably helped.
"Good name for Cat-thulu, I guess." He liked that. Now he'd go ahead and wear the joke out. He never could help himself. Verity studied the cat as calmly as he could. It was definitely a monster. No question. But it didn't seem to intend him any harm. He had a feeling she was flipping him off in monster-kitty language, but he could deal with that. "Um, yeah, I'm Verity." He wondered how the guy knew Jasper. He must have talked to Rowan and Liah to know Jas had a brother, unless the kid had started talking again. And if he had, he'd done so secretly.
"Don't recall if I got a name or not. Guess I do now, if I had before or not." Corey dropped to a crouch to investigate the parts and pieces, completely forgetting to introduce himself, in return. "What're you putting together, then, Verity? And Jasper?" he asked, sifting a hand, encased in fingerless gloves that only increased his vibe of ugly hobo-- or bad-ass anti-hero, depending on your point of view-- through the mess. He tacked Jasper's name on there, since it seemed obvious the boy was helping. Maybe not helping much, but probably at least trying.
Verity was easy to impress with the impression of a wild antihero, and he found Corey perfectly appealing on that level. He didn't mind the lack of a name. Suited him. What he really needed was a wide-brimmed hat and a pair of revolvers. And maybe a monster horse. "We're rigging up some floodlights. They'll eat power, so obviously emergency... But since we've got known hostiles in the area, well, we want to have defenses. Jas and I rigged up some emergency indoor lights already, so it's not a big deal. Just need a better power source and to make sure the wattage won't burn through the circuitry." Jasper poked Verity's shoulder to shut him up.
"Huh." Corey supposed that was smart. When it came to security, emergency lights were the first important thing, after boarding up the windows-- already done-- and setting a watch-- which he'd seen no evidence of. "You got any sources of power set up already? For them emergency indoor lights?" Those would probably be small-- maybe batteries. For floodlights... you'd need a whole generator, for those. And a place like this, with this many people, could really stand its own generator.
"Little battery packs for the inside stuff. So far we've mostly been using candles or camping lanterns. But batteries aren't gonna last forever, I know. Seriously big batteries will keep the floods going for a little while. Like these police flashlights. Guess someone got this for dealing with the basement." He indicated a half-cannibalized lamp. "Plus some sheet metal cones to focus the light, I'm thinking. Mirrored if I can manage it. And if I'm feeling really enterprising, mirrors out in the lawn. But this is the important bit for now. And I'll get back on the windmill for the roof later. Tomorrow, probably. This won't take us very long, right, Jas?" Verity had yet to learn to shut his mouth.
Corey shook his head. "Windmill's gonna take you lot longer than tomorrow, kid-- and that's just to build it. Do you even got a clue how to hook it into the breakers to turn what it turns into into usable power?" Corey did, of course; wind and solar power were popular, these days, and in order to make money, you had to know how to do it. But that wasn't the first thing they should be doing. The first thing they should be doing was looking into more conventional sources of power, to see what was available, and get that running to last them until they had the time and space to work on something bigger than that. "And you don't wanna hook these into batteries. That'll kill a scarce resource in ten seconds flat, turnin' on something that big. You need somethin' more stable."
The boy had ideas, but he obviously didn't know when to stop. Nor did he have any idea of what was reasonable.
"Well, yeah, I do. I built a small windmill once. Yeah, it'll be a lot of labor, but Jas's a great assistant. And I meant I'll start tomorrow." Verity wasn't used to having his abilities impugned, and he glared a bit. He knew what he was doing. "This stuff is all pretty elementary." Burn. "Well, I'm giving them all separate packs, anyway. I mean, this battery lasts a lot longer than ten seconds." He held up the police light. "And I'm just mimicking this design to be mounted outside. So it's not like I'm going into this like it's a high school lab." Not that he'd ever set foot in a high school.
"Then you won't be makin' floodlights," Corey countered with a shrug, not about to let some stupid teenager's attitude get to him. Not immediately, anyway. "Floodlights have a whole lot more light behind them than a flashlight, kid, police-grade or not. You'll just be making slightly bigger flashlights, which won't do you a whole hell of a lot of good. You really want this shit to work, you wait a day or two, and let me see what I can find. From what I hear tell 'round the building," he continued pointedly, "this place kept power longer than everywhere else-- which tells me it's got a dedicated power source, which just went down 'stead of being stuck in with the power grid."
"Yeah, generator," Verity said with a nod. "Nice while it lasted, though people weren't exactly careful about power use. Guess we were all still running on empty ourselves. Y'know, panic." They wouldn't be exactly floodlight, not properly, but he didn't have the bulbs for that here, which was why he was planning on helping them out with mirrors. If the whole point was protecting their home from an attack, then it'd be counter intuitive to have someone go looking for the right lightbulbs. He wasn't even sure where they'd be stored or bought. The small ones for houses, maybe, but not the scope he'd need. "In case you haven't noticed, supplies are kinda limited. I've been making due with everything I've built. Still holding out from our last trip to the hardware store." Jasper sat a bit uncomfortably. He could tell when Verity was being combative and he didn't like it.
Corey sat back with a pleased expression, ignoring Verity's combativeness with this new discovery. "There is a generator here? Where is it?" If there was a generator, then all he needed to do was fix it, juice it up if it needed fuel, and then just flip a couple breakers on and disable a few lines so only the most important areas for the power. That'd keep things from overloading, and make it easier to maintain. "I could fix it, I'm sure. My house had one." And he'd worked with a few other dedicated generators like that, before; he knew the way they worked. "If the generator worked then you could augment it with wind and solar, but you need a stopgap in the meantime. No project is going to be as easy as you think it is, kid, and you need to plan for that." He blamed adolescent hubris and lack of experience, for that. Stupid kids.
"My projects go pretty quick, actually." He smirked a bit. "Between being an engineer and being able to telepathically make machines do what I think they should." Verity wasn't very good at bragging, and behind him, Jasper shook his head a bit. "Reason I haven't really looked at the generator is it'd need constant fuel. No way we could be self-sufficient long with that thing guzzling. Even if it lasts as long every time as it did the first time, that's a scrounging expedition and we'd have to go further afield each time. With bad guys and monsters around. And once it starts getting cold it'd be even worse." Wouldn't be too bad to have it as a backup, he supposed, but he'd been trying to think forward.
"Huh, gas guzzler, is it? Not self-sustaining?" Corey thought on that a beat, again ignoring Verity's non-essential commentary, about being telepathically connected to machines. Just bragging, to him, an adolescent attempt to impress. More to the point, there were tons of gas stations around, that he imagined no one was using, that they could tap. "Monsters aren't no problem to me. I could get us enough of a store for emergencies, easy, and enough to run it for a week or so while we set something else up. Even if not, having it down there makes your job easier. Hook your wind or solar up to those circuits, and run the power through that, and it runs the building. Then you don't gotta rewire the whole damn place to accept the new power source, just the generator. Much easier," he said with satisfaction.
"Be lots of fun getting the wiring down from the roof, but yeah." Now Verity felt stupid for not thinking about the generator. He'd just sort of figured it had already failed, so why bother when there were all sorts of other options? Not that he was going to admit he'd fucked up in that respect. There were a hundred excuses available to them and he allowed himself them all. Hadn't been thinking too clearly back when the power went, had been planning long term solutions, wanted to implement a system that could be expanded on... Yup, he was in the clear. "I haven't actually looked at it, to tell you the truth. Been busy." He was still as haughty as ever. Verity was used to being able to condescend mentally. Since this guy seemed able to keep up with him, he was a little confused, and not a little doleful about having to react to someone else's ideas seriously.
"Not as hard as you'd think," Corey shrugged. He'd done the like before, and would rather do that that rewire the whole thing. He belatedly stuck his massive hand out, offering a handshake, and introduced himself. "Corey Jackson. I'm no fancy engineer, like you--" Stupid kid. "--but I ran an electrician business, before all this went down. This kind of thing is my trade. I've done more solar paneling than I care to think of. Might be smart to think of putting some of that up, too." Wind and gas for winter, solar for summer. They could make this place work. If Corey felt like putting in the effort, anyhow.
"Solar paneling is another of those raw materials things, but I'd gotten started thinking about it. The best would be getting them onto the windmill, for starters." Verity was so caught up for a moment that he forgot to extend his hand until Jasper smacked it. Jasper didn't care for many people, and he'd prefer it if his brother would get along with one of those few. Verity grasped the hand, not feeling particularly dwarfed. Corey was a lot bigger than he was, but so were most guys, and you got used to it. "So, yeah, like I said, Verity Meany." He was more concerned about the solar paneling than Corey's not at all veiled jibe. That one he was used to. Working at the garage had exposed him constantly to being the dumb kid with all the fancy education.
Shrugging, Corey said, "I've got sheets of it in my basement. Maybe I'll bring some up one of these days. After I find the generator and give it a look-over. Get it some juice." He shook Verity's hand absently, and looked down at the parts Verity was working with, now, then set down his backpack and rifle at last to settle himself down, rather than crouching. It amused him, briefly, that the younger one made the older one take his hand. Kind of cute. "You'd want to only set up some of the building for power. Kitchen, climate control, stairwells-- nothing else. Less waste, and no need to have people lighting up the whole damn building for everyone in town to see, all night. Probably should disable that wiring, at the source box, just to be safe."
"Well, yeah, we can do a lot of stuff manually or with batteries, too. Every time I've been out I've been looking out for crank-powered flashlights, or the ones you shake. Yeah, they're a pain to keep charged, but they make life a lot easier. So for basic light, that's fine." In Verity's experience, people didn't really behave the way they said they would. Sure, everyone would agree not to use the lights for frivolous reasons, but the excuses would fly hard and fast. If he and his friends could get along without lights even with the kids to deal with, well, so could everyone else. "Disabling the whole thing would be the easiest, yeah. Though in case the situation changed, we'd need to keep it reversible."
Though he couldn't imagine how the situation would change, especially not with these nebulous enemies who apparently kidnapped people out there, Corey nodded. He eyed Verity with a little more interest, reminded of this kidnapping. There was some rival, potentially enemy group out there, and Corey wanted to know about it. "What happened, when you disappeared and needed rescued?" he asked. "I missed the boat to come along, or would've seen myself."
"Whoa, now, that was a mess." Verity glanced at his brother significantly, hoping Corey would get that he wouldn't go into the nastier details with Jas witting there. "We went to go look for some missing people who apparently were in the basement, trapped by giant spiders. Because life bears striking resemblance to Tolkien lately. So we went to this mall. Which was a terrible idea. You never go to a mall after the world ends, right? Just stupid. Either way, we had a weird moment where we saw some birds, and then all our powers shut off. Then a couple people with guns pointed them at us. In retrospect, we probably should have started shooting. There was one more of us than of them and they were pretty clearly crazy and planning on killing us. But what's done is done. So they put us in a store that was mostly stripped. We broke out the first time that night. Wasn't a hard lock to pick, though I almost broke my hand breaking metal bits off the cabinetry to get through it. We also set off their fire alarm as a distraction, but apparently they were crazily well prepared and rounded us up again. And then we waited for the rescue party, basically. They had some crazy powers, those guys. Someone was wiping minds and replacing them, or maybe cloning people. Someone shut off our powers, and someone summoned a bunch of monsters, and I think the crazy lady there had mind-control powers, and someone else had a dragon head and breathed fire. Though some of them got shot or crushed now. I'm pretty sure they were just going to eat us, but they were really irrationally aggressive."
That was a lot of talk with hardly a break for breath, it seemed, and while Verity jabbered the whole tale out in one go, Corey glanced around for Blitz and the cats. Blitz had flopped down on the mostly-intact sofa against one wall, and the cats were prowling the walls. Nobody was causing trouble. "Guess your brother isn't the only one with lock-picking skills. So these guys were very organized and very aggressive, you say? What makes you think they were gonna eat you?" That seemed like a kind of extreme thought to come to, but not necessarily a wrong one. Very adolescent, though. Nice and dramatic.
"Mostly because crazy lady looked us all over and portentously said we had to stay for dinner. It was like she was channeling bad horror movies." Apparently, Verity didn't consider cannibalism something he had to hide from Jasper. To be fair, Jas wasn't really reacting, just messing with his work. "And later on, another guy they had locked up said that prisoners were taken away, that he smelled fire or something, and that he thereafter didn't see them. Yeah, it's circumstantial evidence, but a whole effing lot of it, right?" Verity had no doubt at all that they'd been on the menu. "And that's my evidence for crazy, aside from the random, pointless aggression. I mean, they took over a mall and a grocery store. They had plenty of canned beans. It's some messed up Donner party stuff."
"It does sound like they had plenty of resources," Corey agreed, though he supposed he wasn't one to comment on the status of "crazy". Heh. He shrugged the thought away as one he didn't want to consider, given he was right about the end of the world when everyone called him crazy then, even if he did see things that weren't there, and pushed himself to his feet, taking his backpack with him. He had mostly run out of things to say, and gotten himself plenty to think on. Then he paused and opened the backpack up, pulling out a couple of the apples, one for each of them. "Catch," he suggested, and tossed an apple into each of their laps.
Jasper caught the apple, though he dropped his pliers in the meantime. Verity fumbled his. Both looked appreciative. Crackers and canned food might be enough to subsist on, but they didn't exactly leave one feeling human. Jasper took a big bite and nodded his thanks. He liked fresh fruit especially. Verity took a smaller bite, trying to make it last. "Hey, thanks, where'd you find this? Growing outside, I guess?" They were just beginning to be fresh and still tasted like sunshine. The Meany family had gone apple picking on rare occasions, and the taste brought a lot of memories back. Jasper and Verity glanced at each other and each managed a small smile.
"Go outside every day," Corey nodded, and heaved his backpack back up onto his shoulder, bending for the rifle, as well. "Best to stay sharp, that way, and keep the cats fed. Less cat food I have to waste, the better." Yes, cats, plural, who were trotting out from behind the counter, where they had hopefully not been pretending they had a litter box. Not that it would matter, since no one else could see them. "I gotta drop these off where they'll do some good, and look into that generator. See what I can do. I'm sure I'll be hunting you out again soon, work on this stuff. You usually down here?"
Cats? Well, there must be another of the Cthukitties, Verity reasoned, and Jasper just nodded. Both the Meany brothers were accustomed to a bit of mental peculiarity, Jasper a bit moreso. Having a loon or a mother, a shrink for a father, and plenty of therapy sessions of their own left them pretty prepared. "Well, I try and get out at least a little. If nothing else, for vitamin D. I'm always lousy at that, and now that I don't walk to work or anything..." Verity didn't actually know what happened to low-vitamin D sufferers, but it probably wasn't good. Lack of C meant scurvy, and with just one letter difference, it had to be a big deal.
"Good. You should do that. Get exercise and sunlight, both, and keep the lay of the land in mind...." Corey leaned the rifle against his shoulder, and looked over the other one at Blitz. "Come on, cat. Let's get this stowed and get back to work. There's plenty still to do." She grumbled at him, a low-level rumble that wasn't quite a growl, but she did ooze down off the couch and pad over, nosing at Verity's things once she got there.
"Well, uh, the roof is good for sun. And there aren't that many airborn problems. Just a few flying monsters." Verity took another big bite of apple. "Um, so, thanks for the snack. Bye." He waved, trying to be polite even if the guy was kind of a jerk. He reminded Verity of the guys at the garage. Not necessarily endearing, but not too threatening, either. Most of them learned to deal with Verity pretty quickly. And Jasper remained impressed with him, so the send-off was cheerful. Verity started to reach for the cat monster, but Jasper caught his hand.
Blitz gave Verity's hand an utterly disdainful look, gave Jasper a look that was a bit more inscrutable, then flicked her tails and turned to trot away on Corey's heels. They both knew a dismissal when they saw one, and there was work to be done.