Lucas Watches Muz As He Thinks, Smiling. He Rarely Gets To See The Man So Still.

RAFAEL SILVA at the Epic Cons Chicago 2 convention - September 15, 2024

They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered.

F. Scott Fitzgerald / This Side of Paradise

Susan Sontag, from “Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963″

Adrien laughs with him.

"Yeah. Figured I could get my hands on new phones and figure them out better."

Adrien looks at the panel again.

"Maybe. We've got a radio station, right? There any other satellites or power lines?"

Then he laughs even louder.

"God, I almost worked at one too. Are they as stuck up as they sound?"

'T-Mobile, yeah?' Before he can stifle it, a huff of a laugh pours out. Not at Lucas, mind you - just that he'd run through a great mound of jobs in his adult life and since arriving here, had cursed himself for not settling into something handy job-wise as an adult. Something that could have been practical and put to use in a place like Oblitus. Not having these kinds of skills in his repertoire makes him feel less than more often than not. It's these little slips of information from past lives of other people stuck here that remind him to not be so hard on himself with that. Though he doesn't doubt life on a farm might give Lucas a leg up here.

Muz nods at the panel in Lucas' hand. 'You should start work on a cell tower with that there. I worked at the, uh... The Apple shop. Once. The genius bar - I thought the title was funny so I applied but hated it.'

Adrien gives a dramatic sigh, like he's so put upon by the lack of candy.

"Fine," he says, sounding like a petulant teenager. "So long as there's at least one good-looking guy I can drool over, that should be enough."

He snickers.

Then he listens closely to El's explanation. His mind wonders what causes people to come over? What is the deciding factor? Who is deciding?

He nods in agreement. "That's all we can really ask for now, isn't it?"

He gives El a small smile. Then it turns mischievous.

"Besides, if I wanted glamorous, I'd be asking for a different job. You've got grease on your face, you know?"

El’s mouth curves into a smirk, their usual mix of dry humor and good-natured sarcasm creeping in.

"Eye candy, huh? You got some high standards already. I’ll see what I can do—though if you’re lookin’ for real candy, you’re probably outta luck unless you’re into stale peppermints."

They adjust their position slightly, wincing but masking it quickly with a chuckle. "As for how I got here, uh - I was on my way home from a work trip and the rest is history as for how I got this thing... long story, but let’s just say I tried to play hero and ultimately became the victim." El taps their leg lightly, the gesture casual despite the damage. "Didn’t really walk away from it—more like crawled, kicked a few times, and cursed until someone dragged me outta there."

Their gaze shifts, catching Adrien’s briefly with a flicker of warmth. "You know, kid, the Chop Shop ain’t glamorous, but it’s honest work. Keep your hands busy, and your head’ll catch up eventually." They shrug. "It’s not a bad place to land, all things considered."

Lucas sighs as well.

"Yeah, I get it. Is there at least someone here to confirm you were here during the storm? I'll confirm with them, then cross you off my list for good."

He really isn't in the mood to fight with Cherry today. And he's only really doing this to get the shop keep off his back about this.

" CAUTIOUS ." cherry repeats, her brows raising at the words before she's ultimately sighing and dragging a hand down her face . she leans against the door frame for another few beats before she's rolling her eyes and saying, " look, it was a real stressful night, alright ? maybe someone was locked in lally's and just helped themself ! can you blame 'em ? everyone copes with stress differently, right !" there's no hesitation before cherry raises a finger to add, " and before you ask i was locked in here the whole time !" she points down to the motel .

Lucas grimaces. He almost wishes Adam hadn't said that. Now he feels the urge to run out and help. Which would be a terrible idea. He knows.

"Why do they want to torture us so much? What did we ever do to them?"

Seven years, and Lucas still didn't know the answer. It pisses him off so much. It pisses James off. Pisses Rae off.

Fuck it! The whole town is pissed off.

"Don't tell me I'm the issue? I just thought he was severely constipated." maybe he misread the look of utter annoyance and discomfort other had for him, for simple digestive issues. Then again, Adam's ego never did allow him to see himself as the issue.

"We drink." he clicks his glass agains the others, savouring the moment that was not likely to come again soon. Drinking on the job. Quite an influence he was. "Oh no the screams are definitely real. Rain ain't as loud as those things torturing people long enough for the rest of us to hear it and feel like fucking powerless pieces of shit for not running out there to help them and die in the process. Diabolical."

Lucas looks up from the list he'd been writing out of things to do after the storm ends. If it even ends.

He shakes his head at his deputy.

"Sorry. No smokes for me. As for options, it looks pretty slim pickings right now."

He gestures over the bar to where there's notably no one working right now.

open to all. location: motel bar

A job of a deputy included a lot of risks, more than he'd ever imagined outside of Oz. But the blood stained uniform covered in heavy rain, leaving a trail of water behind him as he approached the Motel bar, was enough to showcase just how done he'd been with all the risk taking for one night. He was not fucking paid for this, or trained for this, and being outside right now? Running blind? It was nothing short of a death wish. "What we havin'?" question is directed to his right and he'll take out a pack of cigarettes now fully soaked through. "Fuck...you got a smoke? Preferably dry?"

"Wow, ten years?" Adrien doesn't even look up from his work as he continues talking. "I thought not really leaving my hometown for that long was bad. But this place?"

He let's out a stream of air in sympathy. He strips off the covering so he can get to more of the wiring.

"I mean, I've got the important bits: monsters that eat people, can't leave town, stay indoors once the sun sets. It's all very Twilight Zone. I guess I'm curious what all you guys do in the meantime? Gardening, scavenging, cooking, healing, that's all good, but that's survival, not living."

she'd forgotten how newcomers could be; so eager to learn and ask questions. its one of the reasons why she never took up a leadership position with the council; erin didn't think that she could keep herself impartial if she got too close to every newcomer. a lot of people didn't make it, she didn't want to sign up for the pain fest it would be when they inevitably died. she hoped that he wouldn't though, that he would somehow break the cycle. she stalls for time, looking around the shop and tinkering with things in the office here and there. "ten years," she replies easily enough, but if you were to know her then you'd notice strain in her voice as she says it. clearing her throat, she continues. "what do you want to know?" better to figure out what he already knows and then go from there.

"I mean, there aren't many good men out there, so it's not your fault for only finding the bad ones."

He snickers. Then the song changes and he cheers.

"I love this song. Come dance with me."

He grabs Cherry's hand and tugs on her.

THE QUESTION TAKES CHERRY ABACK FOR A MOMENT . her face scrunches a bit at the thought as she says, " usually pretty shit . at least by my track record ." there's a beat before she adds the disclaimer , " at least when it comes to men ." she shrugs then . " when it comes to everyone else it's pretty okay ."