ArchivedLogs:Homebase

Homebase
Dramatis Personae Dusk, Melinda, Shane	2013-11-14 (Part of Infected TP.)
Location <NYC> 303 {Lighthaus} - Village Lofts - East Village
This apartment is cheerful, in its way -- bright and airy, its floor plan open and a plethora of windows providing it with an abundance of light. The tiny entrance hall opens into a living room, small, though its sparse furniture and lack of clutter give it a more open feel. The decor is subdued and minimalist; black and white is the dominant theme, with occasional splashes of deep crimson to offset the monochrome, though of late myriad bright-coloured dragonflies swarm across the living room wall. The couch and armchair are upholstered in black corduroy, the low wide coffee table central is black wood and glass-topped, and a few large pillowy beanbags provide additional seating by the large windows that dominate the back wall. The living room and kitchen both hold a rather inordinate number of lamps in addition to the ceiling lights; standing lamps, small lamps on each counter, large sunlights in the corner. More often than not, they're largely all turned on, too. Towards the back, a couple of doors lead off into bedrooms and bathroom, and to the right, the kitchen's tile is separated from the living room's dark hardwood floors by black countertops. Above the bedroom to one side, there is higher space; a ladder climbs up to a lofted area looking down on the living room. Standing in front of the partition between living and cooking area is a large fish tank: one lone Betta, blood-red, swims regally among several species of black and silver fish. A hallway beyond the kitchen leads further into the apartment. Another bathroom stands just into the hall and the farthest door leads to the apartment's final bedroom, the door usually kept shut to hold in the acrid fumes of turpentine and paints from within. Dawn is just thinking about spreading across the sky when Melinda enters the kitchen, quietly sitting and waiting (and maybe cleaning a little), waiting on a flutter of activity to give her a sign that it is okay to begin her day. Once the first person rises to go to the restroom, she starts grinding coffee, the high pitched grinding noise lasting under a minute before the dark harvest is scooped into a machine and the brewing process begins. The weeks sitting and waiting and worrying have taken their toll on Mel, as has the poor diet. Instead of going string thin, she has begun putting on awkward central weight which makes her arms and legs look even more gangly, if such a thing is possible. She attempts to cover it up with bulky sweaters and loose clothes, but the warmth of Lighthaus causes her to shed a few layers. As she stands now, she is wearing a green and gray striped shirt over a pair of magenta sweat pants, white athletic socks on her feet. Her hair is still long, but looks less healthy, and new worry lines seem to be appearing as she focuses on her work. She's lining up mugs on the counter top and filling the tea kettle with as hot of water as she can manage from the tap. Shane emerges from Spencer's room shortly after the whirring of the grinder, heading for the second bathroom. The water runs; he emerges soon a little damper than before. He's not in pajamas; instead he's sleeping these days fully dressed. Long hiking pants and a sweatshirt that hangs even looser than usual; even his thin frame has been whittled down to something that looks on the edge of emaciated. Black eyes sunken in their sockets, narrow-faced features more sharply defined. He leans against the counter, gaze slipping over Mel with intense scrutiny. His eyes move towards the door, quiet. Listening. From outside there is quiet. Then the creak of a door. Slow footsteps. Faster ones. Then quiet again. Years of customer service and barista training leave many free braincells for noticing people on the other side of the counter in her otherwise entirely caffeine focused state. When that unconscious part of her mind pings Shane's presence, she grabs a mug off the countertop and moves over to the coffee pot, lifting the carafe out just as soon as the dripping stops, sloshing (with an expert hand) the beauteous dark liquid into a mug. She turns and sets it down in front of shane as she heads to the fridge for milky products. Finally, she pauses. "Unless you've switched to tea?" Shane tenses, at the sound of footsteps outside. He lifts a finger -- quiet -- staying very still and watching the door until there is quiet again. Only then does he look back to Mel, curling his fingers around the cup and pulling it closer. "Coffee's good." His eyes flick over here again. "You're all alive." Still more silence from the hall. But now there's noise from outside; a flap of large wings, a soft shift of metal as booted feet hit the fire escape. Dusk taps on the window quietly with one clawed wingtip, wings folding in firm against his back. Melinda is appropriately quiet when Shane suggests it, giving up her search for 'creamers' and skirting around the counter to move toward Shane's side. When he notes it's safe and that she's alive, she wraps him up in a hug. Despite the 'safety,' she speaks quiet and low, trying not to wake others as well. "Yes. So are you. I was so worried, but I didn't want to text everyday." Her head turns automatically toward the tapping at the window, face impassive and cool as her eyes narrow to make out the features of the person outside. "Oh. Dusk." She exhales and releases Shane, moving quietly toward the window to let him in. Shane returns the hug, fierce and tight if not quite /as/ fierce as his usual. "It's been rough," he admits, and then, "Spencer's gone again." His voice is low, and a little shaky when he continues on to add, "-- and I haven't heard from B since the weekend." He picks up his coffee, drifting after Melinda towards the window. His nose twitches, eyes raking over Dusk quickly. Dusk steps in quickly; for once he gives a hug with his arms and not his wings, perhaps because of the frigid cold still clinging to them. He is shivering, but unlike the others he seems to be doing pretty alright through this, muscles filled out strong. He lifts Mel off her feet with his hug, putting her back down after. "Building's clear again," he informs them in a low voice. "And around it, for a couple blocks. At least the streets. /That/ changes all the time, though, they trickle back in as quick as I can clear them out. -- How are you? Everyone?" "Missed you, too," Melinda admits when she is high in Dusk's arms, hugging him around the neck while she's off her feet. When he sets her down, she lingers for a moment near him before moving back toward Shane and the kitchen. "Did you want some coffee or tea? could help warm you up." She rests her hand on Shane's shoulders as she pauses, pausing to pull him close again. "We'll find them both, Shane. I know we will." After another distracted moment, she finally focuses on Dusk. "Oh, I'm all right. Things have been boring, really, in between heart thumping terror moments. All of my roommates came with me here and are somewhere around, healthy. Didn't get sick. How about you guys? What's been happening here?" "I think it's nightmares. He freaks out and disappears." Shane offers his cup of coffee to Dusk. "We're all sick. But not dead yet. Kinda worried Pa's going to /work/ himself to death before the zombies get him, though. Have you had enough to eat? He brought in new -- more --" He gestures towards the cabinets. "Because you look like you could use some veggies. All canned, but uh." He shrugs. Dusk follows back towards the kitchen, wings slowly flexing and then re-folding. He takes the coffee with a nod of thanks, dipping his tongue towards it brief, testingly, and wincing at the heat. Instead he just holds it close to his face, letting the mug warm his fingers. "Boring? Heh. Boring -- boring's." He frowns, and shakes his head quickly. "Better. Than the alternative. I've been keeping the building clean. It's slowed down mostly. I think all the people who've died /in/ here, just about, we've taken out. Especially now that we've been making sure everyone left takes their medicine. But keeping the neighborhood clean is harder. And trying to find supplies and drop them to people who need --" He shrugs, through his wings more than through his shoulders. "I'm fine, Shane, but thank you. I'll make sure to eat more vegetables." Melinda glances toward the cabinets when Shane looks toward them. "Yeah, Jax said you guys were getting by, but we brought supplies in as well. I think Tove has a backpack just full of spices. He says he's going to make spam taste good, but he may be a bit delusional." Melinda finally pours a mug of coffee for herself, letting aroma draw more focus to her thoughts. She eyes Dusk when he starts to trip up over a word - opening her mouth to say something, but refrains. Instead, she nods. "Good to know you're creating a homebase. It's really good to know." "I don't know, I bet Pa could manage it -- if he ate spam, anyway," Shane adds with a wrinkle of his nose. "Somehow I think him wanting meat was the scariest part of all this. Is Tove a good cook, I've only seen him in like. Post-raid mass-production-cooking, soup-kitchen food always kind of washes out to something pleasant but bland." He moves back to the counter once again, elbows propped on it and his eyes drooping as his chin rests in a hand. "It's been nice. Sleep easier knowing the building's clean at least." "As fine as anyone can be. /You/ look like shit run over, Shane." Dusk moves to the kitchen, leaning back against a counter, his own expression definitely solidly in exhausted territory. "Get hungry enough and most things taste good anyway, though. Mmm. Do we know other people still out there that we need to pick up? I've been getting twitchy any time people don't answer my texts. One day to the next you just -- can't really know what happened." "Yeah, there is that caveat." Melinda moves back out of the kitchen to come in between Shane and Dusk, wrapping an arm around both of them. "There are only so many times a person can say, 'oh, maybe their battery's just gone dead.'" She exhales and leans on the taller man. "Can't you go hunting, Shane? Get a good batch of fish in you and a cooler full of leftovers for later?" "River's disgusting -- even moreso now that it's kind of full of corpses that try to eat you," Shane answers with a grimace. He leans into Mel as she leans into Dusk, closing his eyes. "Ocean's better, and I could -- go there but getting in and out keeps getting more dangerous. S'cold enough the transition sort of fucks me up which makes hiking back through miles of city really likely to get me killed, /plus/ the Coast Guard shoots anyone they catch at shore trying to get out. Which means I can only leave from really isolated places which --" He shrugs. "S'not really any /good/ answers. Plus any of them would mean leaving everyone here alone too long. Better now that Pa's back but before I couldn't --" "We should get you back out to the school," Dusk decides. "Might still be plenty of deer and things in the woods. Westchester isn't nearly as infested as the city, I don't think their swarm would have eaten them all yet. They don't wander away from populated areas as much." His wing, slightly warmer now, slips around Melinda and Shane's backs both. "They're working hard down at the clinic. Won't last forever." Melinda gently rubs Shane's arm as he and Dusk speak, listening quietly. "Okay. In the mean time, I'll make a list of all the restaurants I know that have meat lockers with good seals. With any luck, we'll find at least one of them that hasn't been raided or lost power. We'll try to get you some food somehow." She presses a kiss against his forehead, not letting him go just yet. Her eyes close as they are enveloped in wing, the arm around Dusk squeezing harder. "So. What on earth can I do to help out around here and take some of this worry off your shoulders?" Shane's eyes close at the kiss, and he nods slowly. "That'd be -- nice. Thank you. Pa and Joshua have been going outside the quarantine zone to just /shop/ but there are so very many people to feed and carrying just enough for /me/ alone is --" He shakes his head. "-- Well, when there /is/ food it needs to be cooked and -- delivered." Dusk's wing tightens around them, curling in to drape blanket-like around both the others. "Yeah, actually turning this food /into/ food is always a plus. And then we've been making rounds through the neighborhood dropping things off for people holed up. I can tell you where in here and the buildings around people need it. I've been trying to keep the streets on these blocks clear but it's still not -- occasionally you run into a couple." Melinda nods as the two begin to prescribe activities for her to do. She turns her head to nose lightly at Dusk's shoulder. "Okay. I'll organize something, make sure no one goes alone, absorb the cooking duties from Jax, leave him free to spend time with the boys from time to time. It can only help them all." She pauses and squeezes them a little tighter. "I missed you guys and am desperately happy that you're alive." "Missed you, too." Shane's head tips at some noise from a different room, a quick smile briefly lighting his face. He reaches over past Mel to nab his coffee /back/ from Dusk. "Spence is back," he informs them, and stretches way up onto his toes to plant a light kiss on Melinda's cheek before zipping back quickly into Spencer's bedroom. "Oh, thank God," is Dusk's quiet breath at the news about Spencer. "-- Hey I only had a sip of that fuck you man." But there's no heat to the words; his other wing stretches out to brush up against Shane's back as the boy slips away. He rests his cheek against Melinda's shoulder afterwards. "You want to get breakfast started? I should probably eat /something/ before sleeping. Around lunch I give everyone sign language lessons, too, if you're down for -- /staying/ healthy, half of us aren't." Melinda lets Shane go when he pops up after his brother, watching him go with a small smile. She finds herself turning toward Dusk and leaning into the drape, her arms finding purchase on his hips. "Mmmm. Yes. Breakfast and ASL. It's really a great idea. It still boggles my mind that this whole thing can be spread by word." She stifles a small yawn. "Anything you want to eat in particular? You know the stock here better than I do." Dusk tips his head, slightly; for a moment his breathing is warm against Melinda's neck, his fingers tightening at her waist. "-- There's some grits," he answers after a pause. "With some garlic it'd be good. Maybe some protein. Tofu or bacon or who knows. There's shit in the freezer." "I'll be sure to look in the freezer." Melinda smiles a little wider and shivers at the touch of his breath against her skin. "Sure I can work something out with that. How many people for breakfast?" Her fingers hook into the hem of his pants, unable to be under his wings and rub his back at the same time. "Cook for two dozen. It'll be well more than that at dinner but that's the only meal we make delivery rounds on." Dusk glances towards the fridge with a grimace. "-- And hopefully they'll have come in with new supplies by then." Beneath Melinda's fingers his muscles tense, a small shiver rippling up him, too. He draws in a quick breath, straightening with a quick rippling stretch of wings. "I'll help. Let's cook." "Dusk, if you have been up all night, you should get to sleep." Melinda tilts her head to catch his gaze, not letting go just yet. "I mean, I appreciate the help, but I'd rather get you into bed as soon as possible." She presses a kiss to his cheek and holds him close. "You've been working all night. I'm here now. I can take care of some of this stuff now." "Have been up all night. I'm kind of built for it. S'what vampires do, right?" Dusk turns in more towards Melinda, curling his arms tight around her. For a moment he tips his head in, burying his face against her neck, but this ends with a quiet rumbling growl and he drops his wings, pulling back. "Alright. Sleep. Wake me up when we get around lunch, if I'm not already up, yeah?" Melinda blushes, Dusk's last embrace raising her body temperature a few degrees with a rush of desire. "I'll come find you before lunch. Where are you sleeping these days? Same place?" Her gaze follows Dusk as he pulls away, drinking in the cooler air that seeps in between them. "Yeah. Just up at my place. Flicker, Hive, Rachel, Scramble -- a lot of people in and out." Dusk watches Melinda, too, and represses another small shiver. "See you at lunchtime." He leans in to peck her lightly on the cheek, and then head for the door.