ArchivedLogs:Door-to-Door

Door-to-Door
Dramatis Personae Jackson, Nicoleta and Toma, Melinda, Kate, Nzinga, Tove
In Absentia	2013-11-13 '
Location <NYC> Melinda's Apartment - Lower East Side
The apartment is composed of four bedrooms, two baths, a living room and an entry space attached to the kitchen, near the door. That kitchen is covered in tile, from floor to countertop to back splash on the wall, all white, with light, thin blue stems and flowers. The cabinets are newish, with blond wood kept meticulously clean of fingerprints. It is also outfitted with an excellent coffee maker, or two, with all the accoutrement to go with it. The living room is mainly furnished by found pieces, two chairs and a couch. None of it was constructed at the same time, but it all has been reupholstered with the same cloth, the surfaces colored similarly and with a regular weave. The wood has all been refinished as well, dark and able to hide stains well. The walls are colorful, but that goes with the territory of having a mutant roommate with Tag's ability. Today, it is a sage green with some abstract blue and orange intermingling in different places. Tomorrow it will be different. A cursory inspection shows that five people live in this four bedroom apartment, so it's difficult to pick out what belongs to any one person. The apartment is quiet, for the most part. The three of the four occupants of the apartment are silently enjoying each others' company in the living room. It's become habit at this point, to feel more comfortable where everyone can see one another, watching each other's backs in case of any sort of problems. It also appears to be quiet reading time, as two people, Melinda and Kate, have books open, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell and Moretta, Dragonlady of Pern respectively. Nzinga is lost to exterior sound, watching the glowing screen of her laptop with large headphones on. The sounds of a shower in the other room indicates where the fourth roommate is. Additionally, there's what smells like chili on the stove, with something sweet underneath. When the timer goes off, Mel hops to her feet and heads toward the kitchen, pulling out a tray of cornbread from the oven. The smell is practically intoxicating. "Hey guys, dinner's up. Guys?" Kate lifts her head and smiles. "You're going to have to shout louder than that to get her attention." "You know, you could just tap her shoulder when you pass," Mel offers, dryly. "Oh? Well, I much prefer the the pillow method." And with that, Kate grabs a throw pillow off the couch and launches it into the other woman's lap, creating the tell tale cry of one who has had their attention refocused suddenly. Kate laughs and moves to fetch the pillow when Mel raises a hand. "SHh. Quiet. I hear something." All go quiet and listen, waiting for that sound to repeat. Kate is silent as she moves to grab a baseball bat. Just in case. Taptaptap. That is the sound, currently coming from a window. Out to the fire escape. Taptaptap. It's not quite the ceaseless /thud/ of the undead. Just -- taptaptap. Outside the window, Jax looks far less /bright/ than he usually does. Dark cargo pants, dark jacket, dark cap. Somewhere under the bloodspatters, his boots are sparkly purple, though. Taptaptap? He's rapping very lightly against the glass with his fingernails. Meanwhile, in the third floor hallway, outside Melinda and co's apartment, two hooded figures approach the apartment directly next to theirs. The figures, Nicoleta and Toma Lupei, are wearing long sleeved hoodies with fingerless gloves, on each, with the hoodies matching, and also slightly covered in blood. Nicoleta, who is in front, is brandishing an axe with a pistol at her side, with her older brother holding a small hatchet, also carrying a pistol at his side, and a duffelbag is slung around his shoulder. Nicoleta approaches the door, listening for sounds, before readying the axe, speaking to her brother in Romanian. "{Clear. I'll bust it open, cover me.}" Toma nods, looking around the hallway, hatchet in hand. No one to be sighted. Seconds later, Nicoleta is loudly smashing the axe down onto the door handle, doing this several times until the handle is knocked off, allowing her to push the door open. The twins enter the empty apartment, loading various supplies into the dufflebag, before heading out, approaching Mel's apartment next. Melinda lets out a sigh before setting the cornbread down and heads out of the kitchen. "Hold on, it might be the calvary for once." She frowns and moves around toward her bedroom. There are so many sounds to choose from tonight. Soon the tapping at the window is challenged by the clanging of metal and wood in the hall way. Kate lifts the baseball bat in her hands and twists her hands on the grip. "Get Tove," she whispers hurriedly to Nzinga, who is already packing up her laptop and heading toward the bathroom, rapping knuckles against the door until the sound of water shuts off. The mood grows steadily tense. In her bedroom, Melinda opens the window to stick her head out, no fire escape out here to endanger her. She peeks first toward the metal railing in the direction of the living room to smile at Jackson's waiting form. The noises catch her attention and she turns her head in the other direction and sticks her head and shoulders out further to peek in the neighbor's window. "Shit," She whispers as she looks back toward Jackson. "Looks like it's a busy night. I'll let you in, okay?" She slips inside and closes the door, running to the living room to open up the barricade on that separates Jackson from the apartment. Jackson just nods up to Melinda, not answering further and just looking down the three stories below. Absently tracking the desultory shuffling figures moving down there. "Fff s'getting cold out here." His voice is just a whisper, still; not loud enough to attract the attention of the figures below. He steps in quickly once he's allowed, stopping to help put the barricade back in /place/ before giving Melinda a tight hug. His single eye scans the room restlessly. "You're all alright?" As the twins approach the apartment, they stop, Nicoleta listening in. As she goes to whack at the handle, Toma stops her, speaking. "{Wait, do you smell that?}". Nicoleta, looking annoyed, turns to him. "{Smell what? I'm busy here, you-}". Suddenly, she takes a second to sniff, smelling the fresh food inside. "{Fuck..smells like cooking. People inside.}". Toma nods, as he begins to pass her, replying. "{Then let's go. If there's people in there, chances are they're armed, and we don't want to take that chance..}". Nicoleta eyes her axe, and stares at the door, shouting over to him. "{Fuck that. I smell food, I'm starving, and I'm not going to live on instant ramen and REMs. If they're armed, we deal with that, but they have to have some sort of supplies in there. I'm bashing it down.}". As Nicoleta goes to bash the handle, Toma grabs her arm, staring at the door as well. "{Well..how about we knock then? Ask for some food?}". Nicoleta growls back. "{Yeah, I don't think that'll go so well. They'll just be like "get the fuck out of here". But, whatever the fuck you want to do. When it fails, I'm bashing the door.}". Toma shakes his head at his sister, and then goes up to the door, knocking several times, loudly. And then follows that with English, speaking very politely. "Hello? Is anyone in there? We're starving and need supplies.". Melinda helps Jax close the barricade on the window before finding herself enveloped in a Jackson-style hug. She smiles and rests her hands on his arms and leans into it. "Yeah. We're mostly fine," she replies in a whisper, her attention drifting back toward the others. Kate loosens her grip on the bat to only one hand and lets it rest on her shoulder as she moves in to give him a stiff side hug, as warm emotionally as she's ever been. "Jax, good to see you." Nzinga peeks back around the corner where she disappeared earlier, brows high on her forehead. Her initial question of, "whatcha doing here?" is quickly diverted to more pressing matters. "We got shoppers in the hall or eaters?" She turns her head when the bathroom door opens and announces in another hushed whisper, "Tove, Jackson's here. Get your pants on." At the sound of a voice, Melinda stiffens a little and purses her lips, her eyes drifting toward the kitchen. Kate, however, answers. "Didn't you get enough next door? Shit. Are the grocery stores really empty?" Jax returns Kate's hug, too, a tight (and fiercely warm as he always is) one-armed squeeze. "Shoppers," he answers quietly. His eyes close, and for a long moment he seems to be -- listening, perhaps, focusing on something not in the room. "Two of them. And yeah, grocery stores are -- well. Some of them are empty. Some of them are pretty packed with biters. This keeps up, the next death toll's just going to be starvation." He looks around the others, from each face to the food on the stove. "-- We have plenty for now at our place. And we're good at getting more," he tells them quietly. "Can you spare a meal?" Louder: "How many are you? If you try anything funny, we are more than equipped to kill you." Toma quickly replies, nervous. "Just two, me and my sister. It seems whoever lived next door packed up in a hurry or something, because there was virtually nothing. And, uh, don't worry, we just have axes and pistols. I think you have the better chance of winning in a battle.". Nicoleta glares at Toma. "{What the fuck, why are you telling them all this? I mean, still have my switchblade, but, seriously, shut up next time}". She then coughs, speaking in the politest voice she can, in English. "Please help us?" "We're leaving, right?" Kate looks to Jax after listening to the people in the hall talk. "Let's take this show on the road then. Out the window." She and Nzinga head to the kitchen and begin pulling out boxes of food that they have stashed away, adding to them things that are on the shelves as well. They pack quietly, having had some forewarning to get things together. There are small suitcases behind the couch, waiting for them. Tove exits the other hallway and makes his way to Jackson, moving to grab him in a hug and practically lift him off his feet. Melinda nods and clears her throat. "Yeah, we have a meal or more to spare," She tells their rescuer before turning toward the door. "Look, we're getting out of here. If you want food from us, meet us downstairs near the fire escape on the west side of the building. Don't believe us, have fun chopping through the door. It'll take you a very long time." She shakes her head. "I was going to feed you before we left, make it a nice dinner, but I guess it's got to be 'to go,' you know? We've got some boxes of supplies, most all food. Nothing more than we can carry." She draws in a deep breath and heads toward the kitchen as well. "It's a bit ridiculous, I guess, but ... well, leaving home and all makes it feel very final. Kind of want to take some stuff with us." "Take what you need, but we're going on foot. I can keep the biters off of us but not -- indefinitely. It's not even a mile, though, so it shouldn't be -- that bad of a haul." Louder, to the door: "There's hot food. We'll meet you downstairs." Jackson watches the others in the kitchen, but for his part he heads back to the window. Slowly unbarricading it to head back outside and scope out the alley below. He has a small bit of path-clearing to do before they can get properly on the road. After hearing the good news, Toma shouts back through the door. "Right, downstairs. Thank you so much!". Nicoleta sighs, as she moves her axe away from the door, looking towards the staircase. "{Hope these people don't kill us. I'll blame you.}". Toma laughs, as they head for the staircase. "{If they kill us, I'll totally make it up to you, I swear.}" The twins then descend the staircase, heading to meet the group they almost just robbed.