Who: Furiosa and Stefan When: Early August Where: Gas Station What: Random Encounter/Partner Thread Rating/Warnings: Low/None Status: Complete
Furiosa eased her corvette into the gas station, then got out. She'd pushed it a little too far since her last fill up and honestly it was a miracle she'd made it this far. But then, Furiosa had a penchant for getting using every last fume if she had to. "I really need to break that habit," she muttered, heading inside to pre-pay, and pick up a few snacks for herself and Capable.
Stefan was standing in line at the gas station. He’d planned on using his credit card to pay for his gas, but the thing was out of order. At least, that’s what the paper said that was taped to the machine out there. He turned when the woman came in through the front door, and then his eyebrows rose. “Sorry?”
“Running on fumes,” Furiosa clarified. She frowned, fishing around in her pocket for some cash, then smoothing her hand over her bare scalp. “Almost didn’t make it to the station.”
“Oh.” Stefan nodded. The explanation made perfect sense to him. It was something that he did far too often, too. “Yeah, I know how that goes. I try to make a habit of filling up when I’m at a quarter tank.”
“I know how far to push it, but it’s a bad habit.” One day it would get her stranded, but it hadn’t happened yet. “What’s with this line?” The cashier looked like he was having… problems. Luckily Furiosa had no place to be any time soon. But she’d like to go home sometime this afternoon.
“Hopefully it’s just some irate customer and not technical problems.” Stefan mused aloud, looking toward the front. He focused his hearing on their conversation and found that it was, indeed, just a fussy customer quietly demanding to see a supervisor. Something about cashback from a credit card purchase? He shook his head. “It should clear up soon.”
“Why do people insist on being assholes?” Under certain other circumstances Furiosa would consider smashing the customer’’s head into the counter. But he probably didn’t deserve something that bad. Probably. “It’s not like he deserves to be treated like that.”
“No idea,” Stefan muttered, leaving his eyes on the jerk at the front of the line. The rest of the people waiting seemed to be getting restless, grumbling to themselves, too. One man simply left the line and went back out to his car to drive away. Maybe he gave up on it.
Stefan took a step forward and took hold of the man’s arm at the front of the line. His eyes dilated as he turned on his vamp power of compulsion. The rude customer looked straight into Stefan’s eyes as the vampire said, “it’s not a big deal. You can go home and forget any of this happened.”
Suddenly, the rude customer dropped his argument, turned, and headed out of the gas station.
Okay what just happened? Furiosa looked at the man as he left the gas station. He’d just given up, just like that. She shot a glance at Stefan. “You’re unusually persuasive.”
“Some people just need a gentle push in the right direction,” Stefan said, obviously hiding something. But the line was moving now, so they could both get out of there before hours had gone by. “It’s not worth holding up the whole world over a couple of dollars in cashback.”
Her eyes narrowed just slightly, but she wasn’t particularly interested in starting a fight without understanding what was going on. The line was moving, anyway, and he seemed nice enough. Nice wasn’t usually enough, though. “I don’t see why people just don’t use ATMs for that.”
“That’s what I think.” Stefan agreed with the woman in line behind him. “But some people think the whole world owes them, or should bend over backward for them. I just don’t see things that way.” He stepped forward with the line. It was going a lot more smoothly now.
“Most of those people wouldn’t survive the apocalypse,” Furiosa muttered. That, or they’d be the ones that became the Immortan Joes. The despots, the people who say other people as tools at best.
“You think the apocalypse is coming?” Stefan asked, raising an eyebrow. There were people out there who did, he knew. Seed savers and the like. He just wasn’t one of them. Then again, he was a vampire. He didn’t have that much to worry about.
If Trump won they were all screwed. She shook her head. “Just some.. Odd dreams, that’s all.” The desert, after the apocalypse. She knew it was earth somewhere. Possibly Australia but she’d never bothered to look for land marks.
“Ahhh.” Stefan nodded. He knew from odd dreams, that was sure. “Is this something I should be worried about?” Because, y’know, Dreams could bleed over from the dream world into the real one. Stefan just wanted to make sure he was prepared should the end of the world be coming.
“If you ever see a bunch of madmen in white body paint driving hulked out and spiked up cars while shouting ‘Witness Me’ and huffing chrome, run,” Furiosa warned him. “You won’t be in for a good time.”
Stefan turned to look at her, a confused expression on his face. “Witness me?” He asked, frowning. “Well, I’ll definitely keep that in mind. White body paint. Hmm.” That sounded like something that would come up in Orange County.
Furiosa hoped it didn’t. She pulled some cash out as they got closer to the front. “It was nice talking to you. Hopefully if we meet again it won’t actually be the apocalypse.”
“Fingers crossed,” Stefan said, giving her a little smile. “Good luck avoiding the guys in white paint.” He stepped up to pay for his gas, then headed out of the mini-mart.