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| Ithaca's Apartment — Blue District, The Ring |
| The door of this musty, basement apartment bears several chains across the spanalong with multiple locks, electronic and mundane. Inside it is almost empty, Spartan to an extreme. There's just one, windowless, main room serving as the entire living space, and a small bathroom. The bedroom consists of a mattress on the floor in one corner. The kitchen is nothing but a counter with a small sink, microwave, mini fridge/freezer, hot plate, and electric crockpot
Along one wall rests a small tattered loveseat and a coffee table which looks to be an old trunk of some sort. The rest of the space is taken up by computer equipment, resting on scratched up Plexiglas sheets propped on rusted old filing cabinets, stools, chairs, anything that could be used to support the flat surfaces. The walls are plastered with page upon page of code and mathematical calculations. |
| 30 October 3013 |
It's movie night! Rook has been waiting for this for a while, and she's more than a little nervous about hosting her brother in the dump she calls a home. She's thrown a worn out blanket over the ratty couch to hide the spring that pokes through the cushion on one side. That is her idea of tidying up. There isn't much else to tidy up, just the bare plain steamer chest she uses for storage, the mattress on the floor in one corner from which she took the blanket, and her gobs of computer equipment. Her tiny kitchen is rarely used for more than nuking frozen pizzas in the small zapper, and keeping the pizzas and beer in the small refrigerator. There's a hot plate, but the layer of dust on it indicates Rook may not even know how to turn it on. She's wearing sweat pants and a simple tank top, because the climate control is off in the hot direction today.
Lincoln comes knocking on the door, but it's low, like foot kicking low. When the door is opened, it becomes apparent that he did kick the door, as his arms are full with two bags filled with…food, it looks like. "Hey Ithaca…I figured I'd cook, instead of doing frozen pizzas…." There a smoothing of his face when he sees the condition of her apartment, but he's professional enough to not react more than that. "Did you pick out a movie for tonight?" He'll move in, stepping towards the kitchen area and does frown slightly…."Where's your stove?"
Rook blinks at the armloads of groceries. The only person who ever brought her any was Nitrim, and that was pretty much beer and cigarettes. "Stove?" she asks, still a little stunned as she steps aside to gesture at her kitchenette. The one room place is dark, overwarm, windowless, and she's probably lucky the bathroom is its own room with a door. "Just zapper. And some plate thing I dug out of the trash." She shoves her hands into the pockets of her sweats a bit sheepishly after she reaffixes the multitude of door locks.
Lincoln puckers his lips a moment then nods, "Ok…I can work with a …hot plate." He'll blink at the dust and give a small smile. "Does it work?" He can improvise if it does. He'll set the bags down. "I brought some beers too, should probably get them in the fridge right away." He'll start digging through the bags, pulling them out. He'll hand them over, "here…." the rest of the stuff starts getting pulled out, he's clearly picking and choosing now, trying to decide what to make now. "Is the water safe here?"
"Dunno, never tried it," Rook admits, still looking a bit shell shocked at the bounty of groceries. It does, in fact, work, because she repaired it, electronics whiz that she is. She takes the things handed to her and puts them in the mostly empty fridge. "Mostly," she replies in reference to the water quality. There's a little filter on the kitchen sink. "Just from there."
Lincoln nods. "Ok…we'll try it." He'll take the dish rag, rinse it and them wash off the hot plate. "I can do burgers then. I don't have buns, but we can use the bread, instead. He'll pull out the meat, some spice jars, and a bag of shredded cheese. "Here….fridge this too." He'll hand the cheese and then some veggies as well too. Looks like he was gonna do some kind of pasta thingie originally. He'll just shove the box of noodles into the broken cabinet. By the end of the night, he's shoved anything he's not using up. It's not a lot, but she'll have a little bit of food in her apartment by the time he leaves. He's definitely comfortable cooking and will smile up at her, "How do you prefer your burgers?" He'll plug the plate into the wall, eyeing it a moment making sure it doesn't catch fire.
"Depends on where you got the meat," Rook replies, her lips twitching in a little smile. "Anything bought below level 15, better well done. Above 15, medium." Down here, the term meat is used loosely. She puts the cheese and veg into the fridge and then closes it, leaning on the counter to watch him curiously. "I guess you have a stove?" she asks. Clearly, she went into the wrong line of work.
Lincoln nods and smirks as he starts in on preparing the food. "Yeah, I got real stuffs. I don't even get to cook, unless it's job related anymore. so I splurged." He'll nod, spicing the meat with a pinch of something here and a splash of some kind of thing there. "Yeah, I got a stove. I have a small apartment near the Nirvana…just makes it easier." He'll look up, pausing, "This is ok…right?"
Rook blinks at him a few times, then barks out a laugh. "This is nice. Like real family. Eat together." She gets a pair of beers from the fridge, opens them, and hands him one. "Sorry my place is shitty. Lot of debt. Best I can do." She sips from the bottle, plucking up a spice container with the other hand to peruse it. "Plus, kind of safe here. No one comes looking for computers down here."
Lincoln gladly takes the beer, "Hey, no need to apologize. It's your place. It's fine." No, it's not, but he can work on that, slowly. He'll take a sip of his own beer, "Do you have a ton of computer stuff here?" He'll glance around, taking in everything again. "Did you pick out a vid to watch yet?"
"System War Z, Zombie outbreak. Should be good," she replies with a little grin. It's not hard to see that one wall of the place is filled with computers and monitors, keyboards, laptops, shelves with printers and scanners and all kinds of stuff. "Work from home a lot. Better for me. Better for coworkers," she notes. That might have been a joke.
"Crackerjack.I haven't gotten to se it yet. Those lines for the play are killing any vid time I usually have. Why I decided to go for a main character or even a talking head piece is beyond me. " Linc shakes his head, taking another sip before turning back to the burger making. He'll let out a soft chuckle, "Yeah…I guess you can't go sit and work from a cafe or anything, huh?" And that's about as far in his computer/electronics knowledge as he can delve.
"I do sometimes. When don't want any chances of being traced here," Rook admits. She works for Gentleman Johnny, not everything she does is on the up and up. "Looking forward to play. Want to see you on stage. Cool." She grins and works at peeling the label off her beer.
Lincoln nods, he assumed most of what she does isn't legal. Gentleman Johnny wouldn't have asked for her if that as the case. He lets out a laugh and smiles, eyes staying on forming the patties and starting the cooking. "Well…it's nothing fancy, don't get your hope to high. I'm not doing anything Jane Wyre worthy or anything." There may be a touch of friendly teasing in his voice…he's starting to feel better about his sister. "it's a bit more heady than I prefer. I like plays that have some action to. Or at least songs." He'll pause, having just admitted he liked musicals, his cheeks just dusting a touch pink before he gets in under control. "I actually went to the Observatory in Arboren to do some research on my character, and I think I met an actual mad scientist. It was bizarre."
"You're good at it. Talking. Words. People," Rook says quietly. "Not me. For me, people use too many words. Complicate everything. Doesn't make sense. Something is broken in my head." She shrugs, not seeming too torn up about it. "Jane is nice. Had a beer at Nirvana. Gonna get lunch soon." She arches a brow at the scientist bit. "Like from a movie? Zany and dangerous?"
Lincoln keeps his eyes down, "Yeah…well…Kinda important in my lien of work, I guess. People like words." He'll blink, biting his lower lip as she talks about her head, "I…yeah. I get that." Unlike her, there's flash of frustration across his face, which he smooths over with another sip of beer. "She was at the Nirvana?!?" Linc has like, the worst timing ever. He's gonan kill whoever knew and didn't tell him! He'll sigh and then laugh, "yeah, like, down to the insane hair and everything. He was trying to plot where the 5th world was going to be, so he could throw rockets at it, or something. I think he was mostly Zany, but he did have an odd twitch." He's grinning so it's hard to tell how serious he's being.
"Rockets? Not a bad idea." Rook ponders a moment, and he can almost see her calculating. Her eyes gloss over white as she uses her psychometric abilities to draw some configurations in purplish light including two worlds, vectors, strange equations. "Oops, nope, bad idea. Shrapnel from detonation would hit Imperius, sending debris into atmosphere for decades. No light, everything dies."
Lincoln blinks watching what she's doing. He looks slightly uncomfortable, she it's not from the awakened powers. He'll nod, "Well…I'll let him know, if I see him again." he'll start working on the food more, moving to cut the bread. "Do you have plates?" He's not trying to be snarky, but…it's a legit question.
Rook's eyes go back to their normal blackness and she nods. "Yep." She opens a creaky cupboard and pulls out some plastic plates that look like she got them in the 10/$1 bin at the cheap store. "These do?" she asks, setting them down.
"Perfect." Linc places the bread on the plate and asks her to pull out the cherry tomatoes and cheese. He'll improvise and just cut the in half. Enough of them will be enough to equal a slice,right? He'll flip the burgers again, letting the get a touch of crispy on the edge. "If you like, we can do this once a week…or month.Which ever." He'll not bring his eyes up and he sets the burgers on the bread, letting her add how much tomatoes and cheese. His he piles. He likes cheeses and tomatoes. "next time I'll bring something a bit more…together." He'll laugh, there's no condiments, but luckily the burgers are moist enough it's not too noticeable. "Do you have a favorite dish?"
Rook adds cheese but no tomatoes to hers. Too much like something healthy, no doubt. "Week, yeah, we can do that. Fun." She smiles genuinely, although briefly. "Favorite dish? Um," that really requires some thinking. She's so used to eating crap. "I like pie. Had pie at a party. Was good."
Lincoln notes the lack of tomatoes. he'll need to work on that. She's like, a walking stick. He's gonna health her up some. "Well, I can bake. Not here, but I can make a pie. Any specific type?" He'll just make the pasta next time. His eyes go to the counter, finally the thing that is most bothering him clicks, "Do you have a coffee machine?"
"I think it was apple," Rook replies. She snorts. "Ever know a programmer without a coffee maker?" She tips her chin towards the slabs of plexiglass resting on a pair of battered filing cabinets that serves as her desk. There is her coffee maker. Right by her workspace, so she doesn't have to get up while coding.
Lincoln nods, he can do apple. A look of relief crosses his face, he was worried he was going to have to have an intervention. "Ok…good." He'll finish off the bottle of beer and bend down to get another , "You want another?"
"I'm good. Can't drink as much right now. Still doing rehab at night," Rook notes. She takes her plate and beer over to the couch, setting it on the trunk to use as a table, and tapping her datapad to start the movie which appears on the largest of her monitors.
Lincoln follows, "Yeah…how's that going? How long do you have to do that for?" He'll glance around, "So you're sleeping there and working here during the day?" He sit down next to her, moving with that grace that all people in the higher ups ends of his profession have. He didn't think to bring napkins, so he'll just use his pant leg. he's not that prissy.
"Another month, then should be good. Body will take longer to recover though. Did a lot of damage over the years," Rook murmurs. She takes a bite out of the burger and her eyes widen at the fact it doesn't taste like cardboard. She swallows it down. "Good," she says, lifting the burger. "Yes, for now. Then there will be pills for a few months."
Lincoln's had a few fiedns go through this. And more who just fell to it. "yeah…well, that's not so bad, right? A month of sleeping somewhere else and a fe more of pills…That's doable." Says the guy not doing that. he'll just nod about the burger, "Thanks, next weeks dinner will be better, promise." Now that he knows what he's working with. His eyes flicker over to the screen, but he'll ask quietly before anything really starts, "IS there anything else you should eb doing? Like walking 30 minutes after you eat or some crap?" He's smirk over at her.
"Better than this?!" Rook asks, as if she can't conceive of that, "Awesome." She laughs, a short bark like before. "No. They make me do cardio before sleep, rebuild heart and stuff." She smiles and only partly glances at the movie. She's seen it already, to make sure it was good before she showed it to him. "How much do you work?"
Lincoln snorts, "yeah…better than this. Promise." He's trying to not puff out his chest, honest praise he doesn't come across very often. "Well, that's good. Better to build all that up. they got the smarts, they'll not steer ya wrong." He'll look over at her, "It's been slower, cause of the war. And den's given be hours to work with the practices and the show. If There isn't a request for me, I'm usually doing the bar. So, usually 5 nights a week? It varies." He'll shrug, "He's been really cool about my hours."
"Are they nice to you? Clients?" Rook asks. She remembers that most of Nysa's clients weren't nice, but she wasn't in a classy joint like the Nirvana either. She mows through her burger like she's afraid someone may take it before she can finish.
Lincoln watches Ithaca eat more than the movie. He seems happy that she's enjoying it. "Yeah, for the most part. There's always a rotten apple, but I haven't had to deal with anyone in a while." He'll work on his own burger, "Most clients are decent though…usually give decent tips. Although the more they want their trip to be a secret the bigger the tip." He'll laugh and take a swing of his beer.
"Been thinking. Maybe find dad. Do you want to?" Rook asks. "Don't expect much. He was an ass to Nysa, but just to see him from a distance, maybe." She wipes off the burger grease on her sweats and sets the empty plate down.
Lincoln blinks, eyes flicking to the screen, "I…guess we could. There were other names….other possible …siblings." He'll sigh, setting down what's left of his burger, "I didn't want to over load everything, ya know?" He'll wipe his hand on his pants then run his fingers through his hair before looking up at her. He's nervous, "It took me a while to find you…I didn't want to get your hopes up finding anyone else."
"Took a while, because you didn't have me," Rook points out, and gestures at her computers. "I can find anyone. And you found me, so I figured you might want to find the rest." She ponders as she sips her beer. "Won't be responsible though, if he pisses me off and I set him on fire."
"Yeah…I guess that's true." There's an odd tone that he's trying to cover up."yeah…I want to find anyone we can….it's better to know, right?" Linc then laughs, "Uh…If he's a douche, let me punch him first, ok? I'd rather not have burns on my fist from pouching his flaming face, ok?"
Rook cocks her head to one side. "What?" Clearly she's noticed the tone. And those black eyes of hers won't let him off that easy.
Lincoln's eyes don't meet hers, instead they focus on the vid. "I just wish I had been able to figure it all out sooner, is all…I'm sorry." He'll set the plate on the truck before pulling a knee up in a pretzel like position, he'll keep the beer in his hand though.
"Not your fault. Had no way of knowing til now," Rook points out. "Nysa never said anything, if she knew. Maybe she would have told me, when older, but didn't get there."
Lincoln holds his breath before answering, "Yeah…Mom…she talked but never really shared stuff. She wasn't… Well, mom of the year." They've discussed this before. "I was 17 when she …passed. But she has debts and I didn't get her things for a long while."
"I spent most nights in closet," Rook admits. That explains her comfort in such a tiny one room apartment. "Had to be quiet, so client couldn't hear me. So used datapad in there."
Lincolnnods, his mom was different type of damaging, it seems. He doesn't move his eyes, nervous about this topic, "Moms suck, sometimes. I ended up passed around a lot." He'll tilt his head, shrugging softly, "learned a lot, at least." Yeah, that's not super comforting, if one thinks about what he probably learned. and at what age. He'll absently take another swig, scratching his neck a moment.
"Learned to be alone," Rook murmurs. She shoulder bumps him lightly, in a sense of camaraderie. "To sucky moms, who we still miss despite the suck." She holds her beer bottle up in a toast.
Lincoln looks over at the shoulder bump, giving her a half smile. He'll raise his mostly empty beer bottle, clicking against hers, "Yeah…" He'll let out a sigh, but smiles, "Well…. holidays are going to certainly be better now, right?"
"They will?" Rook asks, confused. Clearly, Nysa didn't bother with that either. Ugh.
Lincoln frowns, "Oh…I mean, unless you don't want to?" He'll sigh, looking down at his beer, "Sorry…I'm not trying to be pushy. The Nirvana does stuff, it's fun. I just thought it would be nice to do dinner and stuff." He'll finish off the beer, his knee going just a hair closer to his torso.
"Oh! Do families do that? Been to some big party things nobles throw for the plebs, that's about it. Family stuff? Cool," Rook grins as she relaxes back, adjusting to avoid the errant spring.
Lincoln narrows his eyes, but a small smile tugs at a corner of his lip, "Yeah. Dinner, presents, uncomfortable stories. It's like…the Holiday tradition. way better than Noble crap. There stuff is always too…much. how can you enjoy yourself if you're too worried about which fork to grab or how your posture is?"
"Yeah, but food is free," Rook points out with a quirk of a smile. In a sign of how he has earned her trust, she leans against his shoulder and rests her head on it to watch the movie. "Glad you found me."
Lincoln chuckles, "Well, every time I've gone, I was paid to." After a moment, he'll lean his head onto of her's, "Me too."