Chasm

BrookeDi

BrookeDi

Well-Known Member
Benefactor
Sam started off the morning the same way she started every morning. Awake at the shift change and in the office of the first floor. The next scavenging trip would be beginning in less than a week and they were getting together a list of things to keep a particular look out for. Clothes were a big one, particularly with winter fast approaching.

Her morning meeting with Dorian was brief. Nothing had changed since they last spoke; the pipe was still burst and wouldn’t be fixed until sometime the following day. For some reason no one had come to the blonde with their complaints about the lack of a shower for a few days. Instead all the dissatisfaction had been directed toward Dorian. She felt bad knowing her inability (read: unwillingness) to put on a friendly face was weighing on him and his ability to be a father. He had a daughter to care for as well as the camp, and she should be taking more off his plate. She would vow to work on her promise to become more… approachable. The blonde grumped and the old man teased and their meeting was ended with her handing over the list to give to Marcus and practically shoving her father figure out the doorway. She was laughing, too, but it quickly died when someone in the hall heard and looked over curiously. Laughter had been reserved for Olivia only, and then Dorian and Emilia.

When she went to the dining room later that morning Samantha had started for her usual spot, a small table that usually only allowed room for the only two people she’d allow to sit with her, but upon remembering her promise to the old man, she hesitated and ended up standing awkwardly before turning and finding a large six person table to sit at. It was a cowardly move but she chose to sit next to two teenagers. There were three seats remaining and Sam would be sure to reserve those for Dorian and Emilia, leaving one seat available for the taking. “Morning, Holly. Emily.” The sour-faced blonde would greet while attempting less sour in her face.

Holly looked up from an old battered book--the only word Sam caught of the title was Cookbook--and exchanged a glance with Emily. “Uh, morning. Sam...antha?” The brunette greeted. She had never really had a conversation with Sam except for when she joined the community and that had been a lot of explaining of the rules and… a demand that she work for the food she’s fed. She found the blonde intimidating and was surprised that Sam even remembered her name.

Sam remembered everyone’s names, she just preferred for the only conversation with the members of her community be about the needs of the Hotel and that was it. The blonde peered down at her oatmeal and wished desperately that she had not agreed to being ‘nicer’. She felt uncomfortable.

Andrea had staked a claim to chairs at one of the tables; her boots were propped up in one and she sat in the other. Sometimes she sat alone, other times she sat with a few different people here and there never sticking with the same people, occasionally she sat with Emeril, but only when she was looking to get in on a betting pool. Today was she was sitting alone, but she’d grabbed a second chair on the off chance that Marcus decided to join her for breakfast as he had joined her for dinner the night before. She thought (read: hoped) he might, but Andrea had brought down her incomplete copy of Stephen King’s Misery, just in case.
 
Last edited:
Dorian knew that the repair crew, the Janitors, would be upset with him eventually. Especially considering how hard he'd been pushing them to get the water lines repaired. Rust had completely eaten through one of the main arteries under the building, and even though they lacked the training to get it done quickly, they were trying there best. But their best was slow going, too slow going for the old man's taste. Still...they had promised four days, where earlier it had been a week at best. They were getting better, and the better they got, the more the Hotel would flourish. Which meant less pressure on himself, on Samantha, and most importantly, on his little girl. Without her mother around, Emilia needed her dad around as much as possible, and Dorian hardly thought he was doing much of a good job...

The day would drag on, until Dorian found the sun peaking through his window blinds, rousing him from a very ever-so-slightly hungover slumber. He'd get dressed, wash his face with a bucket of ice cold water on the balcony, comb out his hair and his beard, make sure that he himself was good to go before waking his daughter.

Getting the seven year old ready for the day always took twice as long. As a result, the two of them were always late to breakfast, rarely arriving before the half-way mark of the meal period. Today would be no exception. Once they'd received their food, oatmeal and hydrated milk and dried fruit chips almost hard enough that the little girl could barely chew them, the father-daughter pair would join their leader at the table populated by a couple of teenagers. It was...a step in the right direction, and Dorian found himself grinning stupidly when he made his presence known. "Why good morning everyone! Sam, Holly, Emily, I hope you're all doing well!"

The little girl would effectively clamber into the leader's lap once her food was safely on the table. "Auntie!"

---------------------------------------------

Marcus entered the dining hall like a skulking animal. Avoiding conversation with just about everyone who might've approached him. His head was ringing, just a little bit, from the night before. Booze, chems, and near-winter winds for six hours from the night (and early morning) before had certainly taken its toll on him. With his hood pulled up around his scarred face, the furtive Scavenger leader would move through the food line as fast as he could, taking coffee instead of powdered milk, before zooming to join Andrea.

This time he sat next to her, instead of across the table.

And he'd eat in silence, unsure of what to say. Even after both of them had made their intentions and interests clear to one another, Marcus still had no clue on how to go about...whatever might come next. If there was anything that was supposed to come next. A part of him knew that there would be, eventually. Andrea had said as much. Not with words, but with her eyes. And even though they'd only started their fledgling relationship the night before, he was already beginning to trust her. Just a little bit, just a sliver. But it was more than he trusted anyone else. "...Good morning..."
 
Every morning, after getting dressed and doing his eyeliner, the only makeup he wore on his face mainly because he didn't have another one at the moment and to get more it'd probably take longer to put on so it wasn't really that worth it, it took Abel at least twenty minutes to decide what to do with his hair. He'd style it differently each day and hope he wasn't helping out with any scavenging trips that day. His hair was pretty cute today.

Arriving into the mess hall for breakfast, he'd look towards different tables, looking for one where conversation was assure.
oh la la... was that Samantha sharing a table with them peasants???, That wasn't something you saw every day. Must investigate.
Swiftly getting there and saying hi to Holly, whom he knew better from helping out at the daycare a few times... he sat down at the table and grinned, looking radiant even at first hour of the day. But when did he not??.
"Good morning~"
 
Alexis liked to arrive at the dining hall early - at least before the first lot of people to eat had left. If she failed to register someone, that was on her head. Arriving early meant that she didn't need to rely on word of mouth to fill out her register. People, she thought - including herself - were unreliable. That's why she hadn't implemented a registering system - she didn't know someone had been in the room if she couldn't see them herself.

So, today, when she had overslept by ten minutes, her most immediate thought was that she didn't have time to brush her hair. She scraped it through with her fingers and tied it back with a bare elastic band so that the top of her head closely resembled a mountain range.

As soon as she reached the dining hall, Alexis gave a full sweep of the room's perimeters. It was too late for her to take up a stance near the kitchen and watch people come through the door - what if she missed someone because she forgot to look to her left? No - today wouldn't leave any room for her to stand still. Except to write - she might lose precision if she walked and wrote at the same time, so she stood still to list the names she could see. Still - she might have missed someone: she didn't know because she had woken up late.

She drew in a deep breath through her nose and strode to a populous table. Taking a moment before speaking, Alexis straightened up and made sure her grip on the clipboard was sustainable.

"Has anyone come and gone?" she asked. Then, remembering herself, said: "good morning" and hoped the sentiment stuck.
 
Emily walked into our dining room with her dad and got her tray with him, but that was the most their interaction went. He went off to sit with some other older men (probably blasted on chems) and Emily immediately went to sit with Holly. "Hey." She grinned with yellowed teeth, rolling up the sleeves of her jumpsuit. She noted that the other teen looked to be pretty interested in the book, so decided to not bother her with too much chat. She was just working on not breaking her teeth on the fruit chips when Sam spoke to them.

She held one chip in her teeth, the mere action of the stoney faced woman speaking to them surprising enough to make her pause. She exchanged the glance with Holly, then took the chip from between her teeth. "Mornin'," she spoke after Holly, then went back to chewing. Soon after - once she'd managed to chew up one chip - Dorian came around to the table, his kid nearby. Emily wasn't very fond of kids, not in the slightest, but she wouldn't sneer at that little girl if she was forced to. Something about her dad told her that if she did, she might just get shot. She smiled at Dorian. "Mornin'!" She probably would have said more, had she not just witnessed something she wouldn't have believed if it was in a dream.

This little kid, just runs up to Samantha Walker, and just...puts herself on her lap. Calls her 'Auntie', too. Emily blinked a few times, and then quickly looked away, not wanting to be caught staring. She looked at Holly, bushy eyebrows raised an a silent scream of 'Are you seeing this?!'.
 
The arrival of Dorian and Emilia was both a blessing and a curse. The blonde woman was used to acting a certain way in front of the rest of the community and acting another way with the young girl climbing into her lap. Saving a seat for the two was no longer seeming like a good idea because she couldn't be Leader!Sam with Emilia. "Hey, Squish!" She greeted enthusiastically, hugging Emilia and giving her a kiss on her forehead. "Ready for the day?"

Then she'd turn her around to face the table so she could eat, sitting upon Sam's knee and effectively clearing out one more seat. When Emilia wasn't looking, Sam would turn her head to give Dorian a very hard glare. Other People weren't supposed to see her like this. "Morning," She grunted, her tone a lot less delighted than it had been with her niece. Still more affection was in her voice than was used with anyone else. Abel soon joined them and Sam grunted the same good morning that she had given the two teenagers, still exchanging looks with one another. Under Dorian's stare she would even ask, "How are you?" She eyed Abel, carefully. She never understood how his hair managed to always look so nice or why he bothered putting in any effort into it when there was work to be done. The most reasonable hairstyle would be pulled back out of the face or like Andrea's and all cut off.

Meanwhile, Holly was practically kicking her friend under the table, because did you see that? Her gaze flickered back and forth between Sam and Emily and back until Abel joined them. "Hey," She greeted, vaguely familiar with the guy. "How's it going?" She was tempted to make a joke about how the end of the world must have come (again) because there was Samantha, smiling, but it didn't seem the best thing to say in front of their fearsome leader.

"Uh, anyway," She tried to get back to some normalcy, "I'm supposed to be looking for a new building to work on my other stuff, because... one mishap and this whole building..." She made an explosive gesture with her hands, looking at Emily. "I have to take someone from Security with me, but do you wanna go when you're done with all your stuff?" She was still looking sideways at Sam. This was weird. So much weird.

When Alexis showed up to the table, Sam seemed relieved. Work stuff. She could do work stuff. "No one has come through the doors since yesterday afternoon," She gestured to an elderly woman in the corner gnawing at the dried fruit. "I don't think we'll be taking any newcomers in the next few days." There were raiders nearby, not that she wanted to spread that information around, but they tended to shut down their entry during that time and any individuals in the area would be less likely to make an approach.

----

Andrea was silent as Marcus came to sit beside her, but a small smile threatened to replace her usual smirk. She said nothing, only poking at her oatmeal until he spoke. "Morning." The dark haired woman was much more chipper than the scavenger leader as she nudged his leg with her foot under the table. "You look like hell." She pushed over her untouched coffee toward him, "You can have it. If you want. Alcohol free," she promised. Not that she was completely opposed to drinking this early in the day, but she had things to do today.

And it was kind of frowned upon.
 
Every second made Emily more confused. Squish? And was that a little kiss? She rested her chin in her hand as if she was tired, but really she was using it as a way to hide her snickers. Last thing she wanted to do was make it obvious that the deal with Sam and Emilia was making her way less scared of the woman. She glanced at the albino as he sat nearby, giving him an acknowledging nod. Her words were more reserved for the people she knew, and the people she had to be polite to, or risk being reprimanded.

She smiled and nodded at Holly. She needed a bit of an adventure. “Aye, sure,” she said. “I’ve got a lot to do, though. The older janitors are workin’ on the water lines, so I’m pickin’ up their work. Not doin’ it alone though, so, still shouldn’t be takin’ too long.” She rolled her eyes. It took a fair deal of her strength to not complain about the change in work load, but considering the people in very obvious earshot that would have been pretty dumb.
 
Being late to breakfast was unusual for Gabriel. In fact, being late for anything was unusual for him. He was a morning person anyways, but these days he wasn't feeling it. Maybe he was coming down with something...That would be worrying. Almost as worrying as the current state of the water lines. There's only so much a gardener could do for the crops with the possibility of a water shortage. They'd been sponging up and collecting the droplets of condensation on the greenhouse walls to reuse but of course that was only barely enough to water the rooftop garden alone.

Entering the dining area, the first thing he noticed was... Samantha sitting with the teenagers (and Abel)? That's new. He had rarely interacted with her, save for things pertaining to his job, but he had gotten the impression that she was the impersonal sort. He raised an eyebrow at the child sitting on Samantha's lap but he didn't say anything.

He goes over to table where Marcus and Andrea were at. He was unfamiliar with either of them but he didn't want to eat alone either. "Hey, mind if I sit here?" he asked the two.
 
Marcus would glance up from his food, hovering over it protectively as he regarded Andrea's offer of extra coffee. He sure as hell needed it, and he sure as shit felt like hell. "...Thanks." He'd grumble, taking the hot beverage in hand, just in time to have his morning ruined.

The scavenger leader would regard Gabriel with a hard, almost menacing glare. But what came out of his mouth surprised even him. "Fine. Have a seat." It came out hostile, almost a growl, but it was an invitation all the same.

---------------------

The little Emilia would kick her tiny feet as she ate happily from Sam's lap. Her father couldn't help but smile. He'd all but trapped their sour, dour leader in a snare of rainbows and smiles. Dorian knew it must be killing her on the inside.

The goofy middle aged man would laugh when he noticed the looks Holly and Emily were shooting their way, and Abels joining gaze only made his merriment boil over, the ex raider clutching his gut in faux pain and hysteria.
 
Okay - no newcomers likely. That was good to know. Alexis had registered the old lady the day before - she probably didn't need to take her down again, but... It wouldn't be right not to - what if there was a fire or an attack? She needed to note the old lady down. She scribbled down the old lady's name - if it even belonged to the old lady - and then glanced up. Emily was snickering and Alexis couldn't make out Holly's expression. Alexis ran a hand over the top of her head, kicking herself for not brushing her hair into a proper ponytail. It wasn't until she saw Dorian laughing that she registered that nobody was actually looking at her. Rather, they were looking at Samantha and the tiny girl on her lap. It was quite sweet, actually: Alexis thought she'd read something about character layers in the introduction to the 1970s edition of a classic novel left relatively unscathed after - after everything, under the heading 'LITERARY CRITICISM' in big, bold capital letters. She didn't remember what it said: she hadn't read anything other than information pamphlets and 'CAUTION: WET FLOOR' signs in a long time.

Masking her own smile under pursed lips, Alexis looked around at everyone again. "Have I missed anything else? Has anyone spilled their food?" Alexis's eyes darted towards Emilia. Scolding herself, she brought her focus back: just because Emilia was young, it didn't mean she was going to waste food.
 
Having arrived earlier, Lukias was sitting with his younger brother Ishade, and their friend Matthew in a neighboring table to the one where Andrea and Marcus were. There was still enough room at the table for a few more people as the small group chatted about their life, love and whatnot, mainly their jobs. Ishade was a junior gardener, and Matt was a cook, only he wasn't in the morning turns, at least not that day.
 
"Fuck. We need to get this water saved up." JoJo would look around the boiler room, It was a mess of knee deep water and frantically moved boxes and shelves. They had gotten the leak to stop flowing, barely. It was a quick fix with some sealant and some Tack welding, it wouldn't hold on for more than a few days. Still plenty enough time for the Runners to find a suitable replacement, that's if they can secure a safe enough building. JoJo would look around, seeing all the tired and stressed faces of the other Janitors. This pipe had really put a stint in their plans, they needed to get them winter ready. What time was it? They had been there for longer than a day, including himself a couple of the Janitors had skipped their last meal. "Hey, anyone got the time?"

Micheal glanced over at his younger compatriot, smoking one of his cigarettes. "The fuck if I know. Looks like the leak is handled, for now at least," taking a deep drag of his cancer stick. "And lets try to scoop as much of this water as we can. Try to get it safe enough for the plants upstairs," working with Gabriel the past couple of days has been super stressful. Gabriel has been on edge since the leak started, then again anything happening to those plants is a detrimental blow to the Settlement. "JoJo, help me grab some of those extra rain barrels from storage. We will try to save what we can."

The young man groaned but nodded at the order. They trudged their way through the water to get up the stairs, their clothes no longer dry. A futile effort after working with the leak the first two hours. They made their way up the long flight of stairs, squishing in their boots.
 
Abel ate his meal rather quietly, he was usually a pretty talkative young man, but that morning he preferred to keep his mouth shut and his eyes open. Taking note of hos Samantha looked at her fellow ruler of their community, trying to decide if she was to use her stern or her apparently way friendlier and nicer as was the usual among children, persona. It was honestly hilarious to watch the struggle, he almost pitied her. No, he certainly pitied her and her horrendous hairstyle, it was obvious she was more practical than Abel, but still... it wasn't completely awful though. He'd seen a couple of teenagers commit worse crimes towards the bit of fashion that still existed in this terrible world they inhabited.

Perhaps he was being too obvious, watching them with attention and a devilish smirk glued to his face... but well, he'd come up with some shitty excuse if anyone complained.
 
The teenagers were mistaken if they thought that Sam didn't catch the glances between them. She would be getting Dorian back for this. As he laughed, and made his way through his breakfast merrily, she realized that he had thought this far ahead. He had known that she wouldn't be able to refuse Emilia, even around other people. There were words to be had! But for now, she ate her breakfast, carefully, around the little girl. "No wasted food as far as I can tell." She answered Alexis, her tone business like. "I think they're going to start harvesting in the gardens, if you want to make note of what is useable and what they end up having to trash." She continued before putting a spoonful of oatmeal in her mouth.

She tried not to give Emily a look when it sounded like she might be complaining, she was supposed to be learning to be 'approachable' and all, so she just... listened. "Yeah, it would be later." Holly agreed. She had things to take care of as well, "Probably after lunch?" She looked to her friend for confirmation. "I'll find someone who can escort us, in the mean time." Following all the rules with Sam sitting there, listening.

Sam would stay until Em had finished up her breakfast, and Sam would ensure the young child had enough to eat, quietly slipping the girl some of her own fruit chips when she was sure no one was paying much attention; she didn't even want Dorian to know, though the old man probably did. Then she patted the girl on the leg to get her to hop down. "I'll see you later, Squish," she told her quietly passing the girl off to her father. "Get with Marcus so he can put a team together," she told Dorian. "He should be able to take whoever he wants this go around, so he can just pick but I need to know today so I can plan the security detail for tomorrow." This was the first anyone would hear of a Run being planned, but it would be clear to anyone who paid enough attention that one was in need. The blonde addressed Holly and then Emily, respectively. "School duty. There is a bathroom that needs repair on the fourth floor, something wrong with the shower head." She constantly had a mental list running of what things needed working on around the Hotel. "And then I believe there is more work on the second floor to be done." The last part was also directed at Abel, as he would be needed to help pick up the slack of the janitors while they worked on fixing the broken pipe.

The second floor of the hotel housed what used to be the ballroom/meeting rooms of the hotel and were currently being renovated, a task with which Emily would be familiar with at this point.

Then Sam was gone and they were all lucky she was not a petty and vindictive person, finding some truly awful chore for them to do for all their shared smirks and looks. A glare was aimed at all of them before she headed off, wandering to each table giving out the assignments for the day. She would stay behind after breakfast cleared, too, to make sure those coming from shift changes would get their plate of food and to give them their assignments for the day, many of which would not get to sleep until sometime after lunch.

Andrea wanted to laugh. He really did look terrible and she was more than glad to hand over her coffee. She didn't know why she drank it anyway, the taste never appealed to her. "You're welcome." Carefully she kept her face painted in the usual snarky smirk, one that was a constant mask hiding her true feelings, much like Marcus' goggles. The much too thin woman was equally surprised by Marcus' willingness for another person to join them and she certainly had no objection; it did require her to put her feet on the ground and sit like a normal person. "Yeah, of course." She only knew the man, vaguely, nothing more than his face. He spent a lot of time in the gardens, but he was always nice enough when they shared the same space so he was perfectly welcome to share her table. "How's it going?" Because obviously she was more of a conversationalist than Marcus. "Uhhh... sorry, I have no clue what your name is?" She shrugged her bony shoulders and offered a semi-apologetic smile.

Outside, wandering near to the hotel was a man. Tall, scruffy, underfed, and bleeding. He would collapse nearby to the hotel, somewhere in the street with a loud groan... just loud enough for the pair patrolling the perimeter to hear...
 
Felix tucked his notebook into the back pocket of his jeans. He was teaching himself French, and had been for months now, so he was challenging himself to write the notes in there in French. He'd kept a steady stream of notebooks, strung together from anything he could find in the hotel or on runs. It slowed his thoughts down, having to write them in French, but he wasn't certain that was a bad thing. Felix liked having time to examine his thoughts. He'd just come down from the school the floor up, having been roped into helping Seb with his choir made up of the younger children. Not that Felix minded. It was good to see kids singing and having fun. Their smiles were infectious, and it set their minds in the right gear to learn. From a philosophical standpoint, Felix appreciated what what Seb was doing on another level-he was creating a culture in the hotel that wasn't simply about survival. They had songs now, and maybe it wasn't an entire new society yet, but it was a start. It was something better than they had right now.
Felix was briefly tempted to pull out his notebook again-he had new lesson plans in there to teach basic literacy to adults, and a hotel crash course he meant to put to Sam for the new arrivals. It was going to involve basic numeracy, literacy, cooking, gardening, first aid, and some kind of shooting and fighting.
He scanned the breakfast hall as he arrived. It was clearing out-Sam wasn't there. Marcus, however, was, sitting with Andrea, and, astonishingly, Gabriel. Felix knew every person in the hotel, shared jobs and meals with all of them. He could hold a conversation with anyone, but some people were harder than others, and Marcus was certainly one of them. While he had managed to get more than grunts from Marcus due to their shared scavenging jobs, no-one managed that better than Andrea, herself more personable. Felix was impressed that Gabriel was daring to cut in on their time. Curiosity, and professional interest, drew him over to the table with his oatmeal and fruit chips. Reluctant to interrupt what could turn into a friendship though, he was content to sit at a neighbouring table within easy speaking distance and provide an out if it became necessary. Besides, Lukias was sitting there, and Felix wanted to ask him about adding first aid to the student essentials.
Nodding to Marcus and the rest of his table, Felix called out a greeting to them and sat down next to Lukias. "Sleep well, gentlemen?"

-----------

Seb was beaming. He'd almost missed breakfast, but it was worth it. The little ones now knew all the words to his new song for the hotel. He'd almost got them singing in parts. And of course, he'd taught them plenty about rhythm by giving them sticks and letting them hit things as long as they did it in time. His guitar was hanging over his back, and he wore a shirt under his vest given the colder climate.
Felix was already seated over in the far corner by the time Seb made it in. He'd spent a little longer upstairs packing the room away and dealing with the little things that rose up when dealing with little kids. The breakfast hall was emptying out, but there were still plenty of people still around for Sebastian to annoy.
Dropping his fruit chips into his pocket and holding his cup of oatmeal, Seb grinned at the sight of a table of his friends. Spotting an all too familiar head of white hair, he felt a momentary appreciation of the style. He himself stuck for decoration, but he could appreciate someone who took that little extra time in the morning. He threw his arms around Abel's neck and called out a cheery good morning to the table. Leaving his arm around Abel, Seb asked, "Was that our glorious leader I just saw leaving this table?"
 
Emily nodded. “After lunch is fine for me. I’ll try ‘n’ get my stuff done for then,” she promised, breaking through the second fruit chip with a chrunching and clicking that was either satisfying or ugly, she couldn’t really decide. She started to work on another one. She opened her mouth to tell Holly to try and find someone who would take them, but be a lot more calm about it than someone else. But again, Sam loomed over them like a wild animal, even if the little kid seemed to have caged her. Emily still wasn’t going to poke her fingers through the bars.

She listened to her orders, taking it as her cue to get to work. “Yessir,” she said, stuffing the remainder of her foodchips in her pocket to eat while she worked. She looked to Holly and gave a half-smile. “See ya. Have fun with the kiddos!” She offered her outstretched hand, and the two exchanged a well known, speedy handshake. They’d made it ages ago, partly as a joke, but it had stuck. A better way to say goodbye, just in case things went tits up. Who wanted their last interaction with their best friend to be something boring, like a ‘goodbye’?

She headed to the fourth floor, dropping by her room to pick up her tools as she passed. She headed to the showers, finding them empty. The generator didn’t run for a while, for one, but the bursted water line would have made it impossible for anyone to shower anyway. Emily realised that this meant everyone was going to stink for a couple days. Brilliant.

The damaged shower had been tagged by either another janitor or just another member of the community, a piece of string with a big red bit of cloth on it. Emily took the tag off the shower head and stuffed it in her pocket, plucking the head from its holder. She realised there was no way to test it, since the water was buggered. She sighed, and decided she would just have to take it apart to see what she had to do.

After a half hour or so of working, she finally got access to the hose part of the shower. She pulled out the small torch from her toolkit and shone it inside to get a look at what the problem might have been.

She spotted a long leg, and shuddered. Some nasty spider must clogged the thing up somehow. She tipped the hose over and sure enough, the body of a large spider fell out, thankfully dead. Another thing came out with it though; a strange looking white ball. It looked fuzzy almost. Emily scowled at it, picking up the screwdriver from her kit and prodding the ball maybe a bit too hard.

Spiders. Hundreds of fucking spiders.

The tiny eight legged beasts poured out of the tiny cut, spilling onto the bathroom floor. Emily shrieked, bolting to her feet and immediately trying to stomp them to oblivion. She was thankful for her big feet, for once. Ten minutes of frantic stomping later, and the spiders were either dead on the floor, had escaped into the drain or had escaped into the bathroom or deeper into the hotel. She shuddered as she flicked one off her arm.

She put the shower head back together after poking around in there with the handle of her hammer, making sure there was nothing else lurking. She left the bathroom and came back with a broom and dustpan, having to sweep up the bodies of the spiders she’d killed. Once she’d disposed of them it was time to go do the other work, on the second floor. Hopefully, this job would have one hundred percent less spiders.
 
“Mercy Allen, some mechanic you are,” she muttered to herself, stress written all over her face in the form of fine lines around the eyes that really had no place being on one so young, but there they were as crinkly as you please! Two heavy pots from the kitchen were stuffed under her arms sideways, as she nearly crab-walked down the narrow hallway stairs. “Oh, suuuure, you can take apart a blender in two minutes tops, but when it comes to pipes, you're a class A ding-dong,” she grumped to herself.

She was exhausted. The janitors were exhausted. Who in this God forsaken place wasn't exhausted? Mercy had been working alongside the janitors for hours without any sleep until the point where she was about to explode and just needed to get the frick out of there before she kicked something and did even more damage to the plumbing. Plumbing really was not her thing. Give her gears, electrical wiring, and engines and she could fix, hotwire, or create a new use for something, but give her pipes and she panicked.

Scraping her knuckles on the wall, the girl paused in mid-self-deprecating growl, lifted her eyes skyward and inhaled deeply before exhaling. Get. It. Together. In this moment of pause, she heard footsteps and voices heading up the stairs, and she skipped down to meet whoever it was, and low and behold...it was the janitors.

A one-sided smile curved her lips as she recognized JoJo and Michael. “Oh, hey. So, I'm sorry I left while we were working, but I needed to cool my head for a minute. While I was up there I grabbed a couple of these pots to scoop up some of that water.” Not only would it be reusable, but perhaps a lack of water would be, ya know, helpful in fixing the problem for good. “Where are you two going?”
 
Breakfast would be more than halfway over when Jason approached the table where Dorian and the others were sitting. For some one so young, he walked with a certain sense of...ownership. Like the world was him, along with everyone in it. In truth, it wasn't far from the truth, at least when it came to how the young blonde male viewed the Hotel and its inhabitants. A case of rather severe objectification. One that, and he was pretty sure at this point, he had inherited from his mother. In fact, his dearest Mom was the only person the young man regarded as an equal, and that was only because she was better at playing people than he was.

For now.

Moving up beside the others, ignoring the somewhat out-of-character glare Dorian would throw his way, Jason would stop right next to Holly, standing just off to her side, hands shoved deep in his hoodie's pockets. "Hey everybody. How's breakfast going? Good? Good." He'd give the young brunette a malicious smile and a knowing look. "Anyway," he'd go on, not giving the others much of a chance to get a word in. "Abel. I actually came over here looking for you. My mom thinks you'd be good for a little job she's offering at the bar. And since you're a floater like me...I figured I'd just bring the offer to you."
 
A fourth man would sit down at the table, interrupting the chatter that had been going on with a good morning. Of course without meaning to do so, but the other three men there were closer.
"G'morning dude" Matthew would greet Felix as he sat with them to enjoy some breakfast. Lukias'd give him a smile, and Ishade who had obviously not rested well as easily seen by the bags under his eyes, regarded the other with a grunt as he continued to eat.
"Heh, well... some have rested more than others, but overall it was all good" The older of the luseth's would answer Felix, who'd just sat next to him. Between him and Matthew that had been sitting a couple of chairs to his left.
"I hope you slept well, Felix"
 
Simply chattering at the table, the young albino man gasped with surprise when his friend Sebastian hugged him from behind, not knowing who it was at first. However, when he turned his head to check on the newcomer he'd smile and chuckle. "Eyyy Seb. Good morning~" He purred, as wasn't strange from the very flamboyant man. "It was her, yeah. We saw her smiling and all, this is not something you see every day" He'd whisper to the other guy as he stood up from the table, ready for his Janitor duty for the day. Seb would've had to let go but Abel got an arm around his shoulders right away. He was always very physical with his friends, close friends that is.

However, before he could start another conversation with the young musician, that Jason guy he knew because his mom managed the bar. (And god knew he spent waaay too much time in there, never alone though). Said he had a job offer for him, at said bar. That was interesting, he'd helped as a waiter a few times but never had Jason come fetch him for that. It made him quite curious and eager to know what it was about.
"Oh, sure man... lemme just..." The albino let go of his grip on Sebastian to walk closer to Jason with a grin on his face, although he took a second to look back at his friend "Seeya later dude, lets have lunch together." With that and a little short wave of his hand as see you later, his attention was back on Jason.
"Soooo... what's it about, uh?. The other times I helped it wasn't you coming to get me, big guy~". Abel purred, grinning like a cat.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top