kryss: Ace: "Well, old habits die hard," he said in response to her quip, "And this habit isn't all that old." He took the granola bar with a gracious thank you. "What are the plans for today, then?" he asked. "Are we going straight to the fence, or is there any other projects or chores you'd like my help with first?"
@ashestoapples: Lorna waved a hand as she finished chewing her first bite. "Don't worry about any other chores. Conrad and I usually take care of most of them- just the usual things, like checking the supplies, taking care of the water pump, refilling water jugs, things like that, and what he doesn't get to, Skylar will help him with... in theory. Rick takes care of the kitchen and actually prefers it that way most of the time. We just need to worry about the fence." She glanced outside and took another bite of the bar, chewing thoughtfully. "We don't have to go immediately, unless you prefer to do it that way."
kryss: Ace: "I'm happy to move by your schedule, ma'am." he said. He did feel slightly awkward not having an assigned job, apparently an hour before anyone else would be getting up at all, let alone the household at large.
@ashestoapples: Lorna glanced over at him as he opened the bar and took a bite before turning to the window again. Small talk. In an apocalypse. She could see why this would be awkward-especially in a setting such as this. It was kind of ridiculous, actually. She barely knew this guy and basically only trusted him at all because he was so absurdly military. She contemplated some ways to get out of it as they each finished their bars. "I think I'll actually get a jumpstart on those chores, if you'd like to see how we normally do things in a more specific manner." She held out a hand to take his wrapper.
kryss: Ace: "Sounds like a good plan to me," he said, following her lead. He handed over the wrapper, following her through the living room and into the kitchen. "You really do seem to have a nice setup here. I find it surprising it needs so little upkeep."
@ashestoapples: Lorna: She smiled slightly, straightening her back ever-so-slightly as she threw the wrappers away and placed a hand on Rick's precious counter. "Isn't that what a large part of what makes a base reliable? It also helps that we're in North Dakota." Crossing the room, she opened the food cupboard and picked up the clipboard that hung from the door, counting boxes and bags while making tallies. "I'm just checking off essentials, really. It hasn't been a problem keeping food around for the most part, so we haven't needed to implement a stricter system. With the exception of Skylar, I'm not aware of anyone sneaking more food than they need- and I don't worry about her too much because she mostly hoards the non-essentials-- luxuries. It sounds worse than it is, really." She finished checking off a few things and took the clipboard with her when she made her way to the garage. "While I take a loose count of the cans, could you start filling the empty jugs? There's a spigot right next to the door outside," she explained, pointing to the door she was referring to, a small side door between shelves.
kryss: Ace: "Right," he said, taking the jugs. He had no problem with her counting her food - he had absolutely no intention to take more than they directly gave him, and it wasn't half so bad as the woman he had stayed with for two days that kept obsessive track of every grain of rice and peanut, let alone her entire cans. And he was very interested in her descriptions of the other group members. The fact that they not only tolerated a hoarder, but spoke of her with amused exasperation - that spoke volumes. They did feel more like a family of some sort than the other groups of survivors he'd met. Skylar - he'd gathered that was the purple girl. Rick was the angry man. He couldn't remember the young ASAP boy's name, but he believed it had a "Kuh" sound at the beginning. And there was one other girl, but he hadn't seen her since he arrived, and as far as he knew she hadn't been mentioned. He finished topping off the jugs and carried them back inside. Maybe these people were what they seemed... but he didn't want to take any chances yet. Alicia was to vulnerable, and he had too many bad experiences. Still, at least they seemed like it would be good to work with them for the time they did stay here. He carried the jugs back inside. "Is there anywhere in particular I should place these?" he asked.
@ashestoapples: Lorna: "Ah, yes," she peeked out from within the narrow shelves and pointed to a sort of closet. "We have the water storage in there- just set it anywhere it will fit." She took note of how many jugs were in his hands and flipped a few pages to check them off.
kryss: Ace: He headed to the closet she'd pointed out, setting down the jugs from one hand to open the door. He made his way inside. At first he had trouble seeing clearly - there were no lights on, and what had at first appeared to be an average hall closet turned out to be a small room. When his eyes adjusted he was shocked to find shelves upon shelves of jugs just like the ones in his hand. There was enough water in here to last a group their size a month, maybe two? This was by far THE most well stocked place he had been at, short of a military installation. Admittedly, their food supplies, while impressive, were slightly scarce, water was a much more precious commodity to him. If you had enough water, you could keep going in order to find food. He placed his jugs on a shelf that had six empty spaces, just enough. He exited back to the kitchen, where Lorna was finishing up inventory. "Is there anything else you need me to do?" he asked.
@ashestoapples: Lorna: She hung the clipboard back on the door and closed it before speaking. "There's only one thing left to do before we head to the fence- it's by far the most important, but it's not hard." She moved past him and lead him out to the well house where she pulled a small box of tools. It was at this point, that she demonstrated to Ace how to properly take care of the pump. It was fairly simple, and mostly involved taking the pump apart and putting it back together again, but it wasn't something that could be done without watching someone else do it first. She cleaned the individual pieces and used a small can of oil to make sure they were properly greased before putting it back together and replacing the tool kit. "We really don't need to do it everyday, but I'd rather do that than have something happen to it. I don't know where we'd find additional pieces for a water pump, honestly." It was one of the things that scared her most.
kryss: Ace: He watched carefully, filing as much of it away as possible so that he could mimic it later. He nodded in understanding. A piece of equipment like this would be something you pin all your hopes on. He followed her back into the house. Some time had passed, but not as much as he'd like. It was still difficult to pass the time without delving into awkward silences. Part of him wanted to ask about their history, but mostly he felt like that would be inappropriate. "Skylar, Rick, and.. C..arl? I'm afraid I don't have the boy's name down. But are those all the other people here? It's a good sized group - not too bulky, but enough people to get everything done and provide backup."
@ashestoapples: Lorna: "Conrad, but also the other girl who's been less-than-hospitable is Jane. I think it's a little small, but overall a good size. We can have a couple people at a time going to check on different places to scavenge or hunt, so that's good at least. Rick and Conrad.... a...rrived.... here in April, Skylar in May and Jane in July."
kryss: Ace: He noticed her voice catch on 'arrived'. That didn't bode well. The man he could see having done something. Did he kill people to get where he was? He supposed that he could actually be in control of the group, a sadistic shadow leader like many he'd met. But no one here acted as the other people in those groups did. There was no tension between members, no frightened whispers or darting looks. He decided to let it slide for now, but his guard came up just a little more than it had been. Realizing he still felt a rind of sweat from his work out, he excused himself. "I'm going to clean up," he said, heading upstairs to take a shower. As usual, it only took him about five minutes. He toweled himself off and found his one change of clothes. They weren't clean, but at the end of the day, after he'd helped them fix their fence, and maybe killed a few MRZA+'s for them, he would see if they could get their clothes cleaned.
@ashestoapples: Lorna internally chided herself. 'A...rrived.' Smooth. She could only hope she didn't mess up too badly- luckily she wasn't given much time to think about it as Conrad descended the staircase and was happy to find his chores were done. She sent him out to the fence though, and he sighed but followed orders. Rick was starting to get up around this time, but had yet to leave his room.
kryss: Ace: He made his way downstairs about the same time as the ASAP boy - Conrad! - and made his way back to the kitchen, although the angry cook - Rick! - wasn't up yet. He took a seat at the counter on one of the stools. Conrad had been sent away by Lorna it seemed. He hoped that now with one person awake, it wouldn't take long for the others, especially since Lorna said Conrad and Rick tended to get up at the same time.
@ashestoapples: Lorna, having heard movement upstairs, made her way up to knock on Rick's door. She heard some sort of tired... something from inside. "It's nearly eight," she said simply before leaving him be. She heard the door open and close behind her and turned to see him shove his hat on his head. "'Mornin," he muttered as he followed her down the stairs. "Good morning. How'd you sleep?" In reply, Rick grunted. Who slept well anymore? Not him. He made his way into the kitchen to see Captain Perfect on a barstool. He wordlessly moved past him and to the cupboard to find something for breakfast. Part of him said 'Break down and make the awful grits' and the other part of him said 'Impress with pancakes, it's been a while.' Yeah. Why not? He got out the required ingredients and started whipping up a batter. Lorna was surprised. "What's this?" "You'll see, Lor," he said, shooting a grin and a wink at her. "Lemme work 'ere. Maybe yeh should wake up th' kitty cat. Don' want 'em ta be cold by the time she gets down 'ere." Lorna considered and shook her head. "Maybe after some are done." She wasn't looking forward to either getting smacked or falling over in her attempt to dodge being smacked. Rick nodded as he lit the pilot light and began heating up the pan.
kryss: Ace: As Rick came down and shot him a glare, Ace stood. and made his way upstairs. He opened the door to his assigned room softly and walked inside. Alicia was still snuggled down warmly in the bed, her small head pressed into the pillow, her hair coming out of its ponytail. He sat next to her and gently shook her awake. "Alicia," he said softly, "Alicia, it's time for breakfast. Aren't you hungry? It's time to wake up now." As she groggily woke up, rubbing her tiny eyes with her tiny fists. He picked her up, briefly marveling at how /warm/ she was, before setting her on the edge of the bed. He helped her dress quickly, and carried her downstairs.
@ashestoapples: Alicia stretched in his arms and snuggled into his chest, ready to fall asleep all over again right there. It was cold out here and Ace was warmer than the air!!!! She mumbled something unintelligibly until they made it into the kitchen and she smelled the pancake Rick had just flipped onto a plate. "Pamkays?" she asked after a yawn.
kryss: Ace: He cleared his throat suddenly when she spoke. Some day he'd have to teach her how to speak correctly, but when she said things like that, especially in such a small, sleepy tone of voice, he had to try very hard not to respond by squishing her by accident, or frightening her by punching something close to her. "Yes," he said when the initial burst had passed. "I think you're right, Rick is making us pancakes. What do we say when people do things for us, Alicia?"
@ashestoapples: Alicia: She gasped a little, waking up suddenly for 'pamkays.' "Thank you!!!!!!!" she said excitedly. When Ace set her down in a barstool she clung to the counter as Rick (who couldn't bear not to give her a pamkay immediately) put a plate in front of her with a pancake and an amount of syrup on it suitable for a 4-year-old (not much, but enough that they wouldn't say it wasn't sweet enough). Suddenly remembering the last time she had pancakes, a slow day that her mom had had off work and had gotten to eat with them, she said "Ittadakimasu!" Before managing to cut enough off to take a big bite but not a monstrous one.
kryss: Ace: He sat next to her, trying to make certain that she minded her manners. He tried not to react when she burst out the word before she ate. Well, that solved his suspicion. She was absolutely half Japanese. He sighed when she took her bite, wanting to chastise her but deciding it wasn't a battle worth fighting. Instead he sat patiently, willing to get his food whenever they decided to serve it to him. He was still new here, and Rick at least did not seem fond of him. And he was in charge of the food.
@ashestoapples: It wasn't long before Rick put two pancakes in front of Ace, as well as the syrup, and turned back to the stove. "Where's the bunny rabbit?" he asked Lorna as she made her way back into the room. "He's out at the fence- I'll go get him." Rick flipped the pancake into the air, certain to put on a show for the child who quickly put her fork down and clapped. Rick grinned and kept on cooking. He could deal with this Captain Buff guy if the kid he brought with him was this cute. Maybe.
kryss: Ace: He made certain to thank the cook before cutting off even portions of his pancake. He didn't bother putting any syrup on it. Between army rations and scavenging finds, he had been living off tasteless food for some time. Some men compensated when they got the chance, cramming in every luxury they couldn't find, but for him, things like that made food too strange now. It all became too sweet, too salty, too spicy. He preferred his food bland, when he could get it.
@ashestoapples: After Rick had two relatively happy eaters and a pile of about five more pancakes, Lorna arrived with Conrad-or more accurately, Conrad dashed in and sat down at the bar as well. "Pancakes!" he exclaimed, looking over at Alicia and Ace. Alicia looked at him curiously, face sticky with syrup and Conrad looked away somewhat shyly only to look back at her. So cute! "Hi, uh, Alicia, right? I'm Conrad." Alicia looked back at Ace and looked at Conrad again. "Comwad," she said after a moment before going back to her food. What was that even?
Conrad couldn't help but put his hand on his cheek but was interrupted by Rick sliding the syrup down toward him, expecting him to catch it bar-style (he did, barely) so he could plop two pancakes in front of him as well. “Ah! Thank you,” Conrad said, opening the cap. "You betcha," Rick replied before flipping another pancake and making a plate for Lorna to eat at the table with her book. Conrad gushed a little once he'd slathered on syrup and had eaten a bite. "Ahh, delicious!!" he proclaimed to Rick, who grinned lopsidedly at him. He could never get tired of people saying his cooking was good.
kryss: Ace: As Conrad came sliding in, Ace turned his attention to him for a moment before turning back to his food. He was glad to see Conrad getting along with Alicia so well. It couldn't help but put up a minor red flag, along with how much the Skylar girl seemed to like her last night. It wasn't fair, people liking children should have been a plus, but ever since the couple attempted to kidnap Alicia, anyone paying too much attention to her made Ace nervous, although she still seemed to appreciate it just as much. He finished his pancakes and laid his fork and knife to make a cross on his plate, then slid the plate away from him, indicating he was done.
@ashestoapples: Conrad: He had been about to cut another piece of his pancake when he slammed the fork down. "WAIT." If he ate anymore before waking Skylar, she would never forgive him. He'd never woken her up before, though, and as he climbed the stairs he remembered the night before and got nervous suddenly. After knocking on the door, he crept into her room slowly. "Skylar?" He laid a hand on her shoulder, shaking her very gently.
@ashestoapples: Lorna blinked out of her concentration in her book and her eating and turned around. "Where did he go?" Rick shrugged and Lorna prayed he wasn't about to wake up Skylar. There was a reason she'd been letting her sleep as late as she wanted lately.
ooc;; I can't believe I'm missing this post but basically all you need to know is she did in fact smack him in the face hard enough to make his lip bleed. It was purely instinct, she didn't mean to do it. She apologized immediately and felt pretty bad!
Conrad's first thought had been 'SHE HATES ME,' but it was quickly followed by, 'Well, I guess now I know why Lorna lets her sleep in.' Surprisingly, he found himself laughing in relief! "Oh man, don't worry! I thought I did something that made you mad or something!" He felt his lip with his hand and found that he was in fact bleeding, but the stinging wasn't bad. "This is nothing, really! Don't worry! Let's just go eat!" Something told him he should have told her to kiss it better, but by the time he thought that he had started blushing again, so he shoved the thought out of his mind.
kryss: Skylar: The second he took his hand away and she saw blood, her stomach contracted. "Aw, frick frick frick frick frickf rikcf rickfirick!!! I'm so sorry!" Before she thought too much, she got up close, putting her hand on his cheek so she could angle his head to see it better. She bit her lip , resisting the urge to give it a kiss, She had that instinct for small injuries, and she also had that instinct because eff Stedman, it was stupid that he was this cute. But she knew that he might implode if she tried that, so instead she backed off, saying again, "I'm sorry! I didn't realize it was you! I just... um... move a lot... in my sleep." That was obviously a stupid thing to say right now, but she didn't know what else. She bit her lip again. She supposed it wasn't really that bad, but /holy frick she had bloodied his lip./ Still, there wasn't much to do about it now. She stood and snatched a tissue from her nightstand, giving it to him to press against his lip. She left the room, heading downstairs when she bothered to wonder why he was waking her up. Her question was soon answered when she caught the aroma of pancakes drifting from the kitchen. She squealed a little and ran, Conrad temporarily forgotten.
@ashestoapples: Conrad: He froze and had been even unable to move by the time she left. Reasonably, he knew she was at least six inches away, but why had it felt like she wasn't?
? He got up and went to a mirror, splashed cold water on his face and then went down the stairs, tissue forgotten, and bleeding almost stopped. Rick had already taken care of giving Conrad pancakes and he raised an eyebrow at Conrad before laughing at him. "Wha' happened ta you, bunny rabbit? Oh wait, don' tell me, I think I know." He looked over at Skylar and laughed some more before turning off the stove and moving to get pancakes of his own. Lorna shook her head when she looked up. There wasn't much you could do for a lip injury, really, so she just went back to eating when Conrad sat down at his place at the bar. Rick sat down next to Lorna at the table and ate while trying to keep all his jokes to himself for the sake of the children. Child. Whatever. Conrad was basically a child.
kryss: Skylar: She made a face at Rick, sticking her tongue out before happily dancing to the pancakes, pulling three onto her plate. Unfortunately they seemed to be the last ones, so she felt all the more possessive of them. She took the syrup bottle and drizzled them generously, trying so so very hard not to take too much. She then sat the bottle down and began eating as fast as she could. They were sooo delicious!!!
@ashestoapples: Lorna finished eating and stood up from the table, rinsed off her dishes (heaven forbid she WASH them- Rick sometimes got super weird about people doing dishes for some reason, though not always) and scribbled down a few things in her notebook. "Alright, whenever everyone's ready we're going to try to make quick work of the fence. Whoever doesn't want to work on it can go down into the basement and catalog every scrap of food down there. It's up to you, but both jobs need to be done."
kryss: Skylar: She wiggled in her seat, not really wanting to do either. She decided to stay here. It'd be easier to slack off without Lorna around and, more importantly, she'd be able to take care of Jane. She knew that the other girl would be up by now, but she hadn't' so much as heard a peep from her all morning. Or had she been on last watch last night? Frick, she couldn't remember. Either way, she'd need to be around, just in case she needed anything.
Ace: He stood with Lorna, picking up a very sticky-faced Alicia. He set her on the ground, knowing she could keep up with him on foot just fine unless he set a brisk pace. He stood to the side as the others chose their jobs, as he already knew where he would be headed for the day.
@ashestoapples: Conrad shrugged rather than decide. He didn't much care where he went, in all reality. Rick finished a bite though before saying, "I was actually hopin' ta scavenge t'day if that's arright." He'd remembered the gas station they'd passed a while back and was eager to get back to it. If no one else had found the way in, there could sitll be a fair amount of supplies there. Lorna nodded and rummaged through a pocket to toss the keys to the van at him. "Well, the basement is a one or two man job, so Skylar, do you think you and Jane can handle it if I take Stedman with us to the fence?"
kryss: Skylar: She nodded, glad to have been paired with Jane. It could be fun, she thought, especially since it would give them the chance to talk a lot without stupid butts around and counting was easy work to shunt off on other people.
@ashestoapples: Lorna: "Alright, let's move out then. Rick, got an ETA?" He thought for a minute. "Four days?" Lorna nodded. "Take whatever you need and try to be back on time, okay?" Rick nodded before turning back to his pancakes. Without another word, Lorna moved to the back door and Conrad attempted to polish off the rest of his half-a-pancake before she got too far away. Alicia looked up at Ace. "We go ousside?"
kryss: Ace: He nodded to her, taking her by the hand and following after the others. "We're going to go see a fence today," he said. The air outside was brisk, even though where he used to live it would barely be cooling off by now.He hoped that Alicia wouldn't get too cold.
@ashestoapples: Alicia watched Conrad dash past them and she blinked, wide-eyed. "Is Ace dat fast?" she asked, looking up at him as she took five steps for his every one.