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Post by LOUISA GOFORTH on Dec 17, 2013 20:01:12 GMT -8
Louisa’s surprise about the blackout had expanded as she discovered the extent of it. A blackout in a big city wasn’t all that uncommon, right? At first, then, she didn’t take too much notice of it. It might have been her building or her block without power, no big deal. She received no calls about work being delayed, after all, so she got up and dressed for her radio station gig. It was while she was driving that the oddity of it really kicked in. It was beyond her block, or even the next two or three. As far as she could tell, a great expanse of the city, at least, was without power.
Seeing as how she’d been raised to take especial note of odd things, and she’d been transferred to LA to help take care of odd things, it crept into her mind that this sort of thing might be trouble. She grumbled, fumbled around her passenger seat, and found her cell phone, decrepit piece of shit that it was. She hadn’t missed any calls. She had half a mind to call Headquarters to see what the deal was, if anything, but she decided against it. That ‘if anything’ still held a lot of ground. She ought to wait for a bit, try to bit of some news on her own before trying to shove her way into anything. She might end up looking dumber than usual if she wasn’t careful. She instead started taking mental stock of all of the work-appropriate items that she had in her truck, just in case something was actually going down tonight.
That was a train of thought she had to abandon when she arrived at the station. Wouldn’t do to look all serious-faced in the face of the civilian population, and the people who saw her on a regular basis were more likely to pick up on changes in her demeanor. Time to be just as oblivious as everybody else! No too hard a task for her, truth be told.
The power was out here, too. Louisa found a flashlight buried under her jumper cables and headed into the building, all the way to their workspace. She opened is a characteristically boisterous way, shining the light around to see who was present. ”Hell. Are we even on tonight?”
Date: May 17th
Tagged: Donovan, Mi-Ho, Makara
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Post by MI-HO MOON on Dec 18, 2013 5:33:29 GMT -8
She said leave me alone, but just don't leave me here, alright?
May 17th
tag | Radio Peeps
words | 389 | Blackouts weren't really all that common in Los Angeles, especially not ones that were city-wide. However, Mi-Ho still met the situation with little surprise and more passive frustration than anything. She let it pass for about an hour, thinking that the power wouldn't possibly be out that long. Perhaps it was a bit odd for it to be lasting so long. However, she didn't think much of it. When it proved her wrong, that's when she made the move to prepare herself for a night at work in the dark. She figured that she'd still have to come in considering that no one had called her. Being paid to sit around in the dark for a few hours didn't sound that terrible either.
The teenage girl grabbed a book, a yo-yo, a flashlight, a few candles, and her extra cellphone battery and stuffed everything into her tote bag. If nothing else, she'd find a way to keep herself entertained. After two hours it felt a bit like the power was going to be off for forever, but one could never predict that sort of thing. It was really all up to whatever the electric companies could do and how quickly. She was curious as to what caused the whole thing, but it would be undoubtedly on the news in the morning. She thought the best thing to do might be to turn on the radio and listen to whatever news station she could tune into, but that seemed a bit odd to do when they were already at a station.
As she was a girl who preferred to be early to work, even in the unusual event of a blackout, Mi-Ho was already there when her co-workers started arriving. She double-checked to see if there was a generator of some kind only to find out that there was not a working one. Donovan came in first after. She sat at the same desk she usually stationed herself at and played online Scrabble, glancing over every now and then at the sounds of the man falling over something.
Then in came Louisa. The voices of her co-workers were unmistakable, which she found surprisingly comforting in the dark. "Not right now, no. The only generator we have is old enough to have been on the Titanic, and I think it's dead." |
electric has gangnam style and back to neverland |
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Post by DONOVAN SHEPHERD on Dec 18, 2013 6:20:42 GMT -8
About to answer Louisa in greeting, Donovan instead yelped as he bumped his knee into the side of a metal filing cabinet, cursing the day that people decided pieces of paper needed to be kept organized. Or maybe the ghosts of the paperwork he threw into the trash were coming back for revenge. Either way, maybe it was best that he stay immobile for awhile before he managed to bruise every inch of his legs, and Donovan felt around until he finally found a chair to safely sit in. Unlike Louisa and Mi-Ho, he hadn't come prepared with a flashlight, not that he even owned one, and had been wholly unaware that there was a blackout at all.
The power had gone out while he'd been taking a shower, resulting in worse than usual fashion choices as he got dressed in the dark. His roommate had been loudly annoyed by the situation before he resided himself to eating all the ice cream in the freezer before it melted. Donovan wasn't all that used to blackouts, but he doubted that it'd last long enough for any of the food to spoil. To escape the ranting, he had left earlier than usual for work, too caught up in daydreaming that he hadn't really paid attention to the clear signs that the outage was city-wide. Getting to work and being informed by Mi-Ho that there indeed was no light there either and she wasn't just sitting around in the dark for fun, he was willing to broadcast in the dark until realizing that meant all the radio equipment wasn't functional either and they'd been off-air for two hours already.
He hadn't even thought to look for a generator, didn't even know that such a thing existed, although it was easy enough to guess its purpose without revealing his ignorance. But apparently it didn't work, which meant they'd probably be sitting around doing nothing for a long time. Which was fine, except he was likely to fall asleep.
"I know who could fix it," he suggested, remembering the building manager who had helped him find a couch to sleep on a few nights before. "Well, maybe," he admitted, not certain of where the man's expertise began and ended. "Worth a shot, anyway."
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Post by MAKARA SOM on Dec 20, 2013 14:29:01 GMT -8
Makara rarely slept through a night. It had been months, if not years since he'd managed to go a full night without waking up, and the constant disruption of his sleep meant that Makara slept whenever he could. He was asleep at six, and he managed to sleep until just after eight, when someone banged on his door to rouse him. He'd emerged only vaguely groggy to investigate, only to return to his room not five minutes later, having done what the man who woke him up should have done: looked out the window. If the buildings power was out, that was one thing. If the whole cities power was out, that was a whole other. There was nothing Makara could do to get the power of the whole damn city of LA working, and he'd declared as much before heading back to bed.
He hadn't slept though. He'd found himself sitting in the dark, staring up at the ceiling. It was far darker then usual in LA, and it brought back memories of home. It wasn't that he didn't give a damn about the blackout--if anything, he had positive feelings. There had always been blackouts back in Cambodia, even before things had fallen apart, and he had faint memories of being very, very young in the dark, before electric lights had stained the sky grey. In Cambodia at night, things had been truly dark, and you could see the stars.
In LA it often felt like there were no stars. The light from the city blotted them out, and only the most obvious are visible on the darkest of nights. With almost all the city lights out, a single glance out the window showed much more of the night sky then usual. Even with the clouds, every gap showed a mess of stars, and Makara found himself sitting at the window, staring up at them. He missed them, in a strange and melancholy way, and he made a mental note to go out to the hills on a cloudless night and try and get a better, more clear look of them.
He was dozing at the window as he watched, content to simply sit there until bothered. |
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Post by LOUISA GOFORTH on Jan 4, 2014 22:59:15 GMT -8
Louisa snorted at Donny’s pain, about to berate him for trying to move around, poor thing, if he didn’t have a light or anything. Mi-Ho spoke up, though, and Lou’s flashlight trained on her instead, nose wrinkling and the assessment of their situation. ”So, what? We’re just supposed to sit here for god-knows-how-long?”
Well… Maybe not, if Don had anything to say about it. Lou was sure that this knowledge was some other thing that he’d half-stumbled into. She had to admit the guy had a knack for accidental involvement in interesting things and other bits of usefulness. Her flashlight was on him again, partially for the sake of conversation and partially to help him out of whatever filing cabinet hell he’d trapped himself in.
“Oh, yeah? Do tell.”
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Post by MI-HO MOON on Jan 6, 2014 8:07:43 GMT -8
She said leave me alone, but just don't leave me here, alright?
May 17th
tag | Radio Peeps
words | 254 | Louisa’s comment about sitting around was met by a half-hearted shrug from Mi-Ho. The girl recognized the inconvenience, but it was one she had prepared herself for ahead of time. In fact, she would have then suggested a game of cards with the other women before Donovan caught their attention. First came the very unsurprising sound of the man bumping into something, as he had not remembered a flashlight for himself. Second came the slightly more surprising revelation that he actually knew someone who could solve their problem.
The idea that a co-worker who had worked there longer than she had knew someone who could help them shouldn’t have been as strange as it was to her. Mi-Ho skeptically tilted her head, but she was interested in where this was going. She did debate in her head whether it was better to potentially go on an adventure behind a man who couldn’t keep track of his own mail or to sit and continue the game of online Scrabble with her father. In the end, she decided that she was technically on the clock. May as well see where this was going since she was getting paid to keep the others’ business in line.
“It’s not the cleaning woman, is it?” She asked, slipping her phone away and then picking up her flashlight. If it was the cleaning woman, she wasn’t going. After some minor disagreements over how often the trashcans should have been emptied, she couldn’t imagine herself on the woman’s good side. |
electric has gangnam style and back to neverland |
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Post by DONOVAN SHEPHERD on Jan 6, 2014 8:52:34 GMT -8
 HOLD YOUR BREATH AND COUNT TO TEN "Actually," and Donovan paused for emphasis, the opportunity for him to actually know something his coworkers didn't quite rare indeed that it trumped an otherwise perfectly okay night spent in the dark doing nothing and possibly getting a nap. That was Plan B. "Not the cleaning lady." And he definitely heard from her about that trashcan incident, had chosen wisely to nod neutrally and not take any sides. Squinting against the light shown in his direction, Donovan moved his arm up to shield his eyes. But it at least prevented him from another stumble, barely avoiding tripping over a mess of tangled cords that were probably some sort of fire hazard or other risk but Donovan figured if nothing burnt down yet and nobody else was concerned then they were safe. At the door that led into the hallway for the rest of the building, he motioned for Mi-Ho and Louisa to follow He'd be willing to go off on his own, but didn't quite trust his navigation in the pitch black to end up in the right place. He only recently explored what existed beyond their own small corner, still baffled by the fact that there was a nicer break room than their own per use of the more legitimate businesses only. And after only one visit to where Makara's office/bedroom/whatever (he hadn't cared to pry) was, he at least had a vague memory of how to get there. "The building manager is around this time of night," he explained on the way, and didn't want to mention that the building manager was actually around at all times because he lived there. A brief knock to the door, Donovan waited while rocking back and forth on his heels. He hadn't a reason to bother the man again since returning his blanket, a bit glad for the opportunity to do so. And if he wasn't in his office, maybe they'd stumble into the man in the dark like their last meeting. Donovan vowed not to squeak this time, because at least he expected it. WORDS:344 TAGS:Makara NOTES:
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Post by MAKARA SOM on Jan 6, 2014 10:29:18 GMT -8
Technically, Makara was almost always around. He lived there. He certainly did leave every so often, but the majority of the time he could be counted on to be either in his room, or at least somewhere in the building. If he wasn't, he always had his phone, and could be summoned back to the building in a short amount of time. He rarely was though. People came to him only when things got really bad, and he tended to be home when said things got really bad. It had been years since he'd been called back to the building, in part because Makara was the sort of person who made sure things were fixed before they suffered a catastrophic failure. Things had failed a whole lot less in general since he'd been hired, and his boss--who rarely even visited--was particularly happy with that.
The knock on the door would have been enough to rouse him if Makara hadn't already been up by then. He could hear the footsteps padding down towards his door. They weren't terribly loud (although someone, probably Donovan, was not terribly quiet about it), and Makara's apartment was silent without the usual radio that played. Someone was coming to his door, and for once he had a fairly good idea as to why. The power was out, and either something was broken, or someone was coming to ask him to fix it.
He really wasn't intending to scare anyone, but he probably was going to anyway, because he swung the door open less then five seconds after Donovan knocked. He'd been waiting, after all, and his apartment was pitch black inside. He hadn't felt the need for a flashlight (although he had one in his pocket), simply because he knew exactly where everything was.
He could half tell who it was simply by the size of Donovan and the fact that his hair was particularly messy. He was half silouhetted in the door after all, and Makara took the moment to adjust the long sleeves he was wearing, hiding away the black of the tattoo, but not managing to hide the red flesh on his wrist.
"Donovan." He knew his name now, even if he hadn't before. He had files on everyone, even though he rarely touched them, because it was important he know if someone was breaking in at night or just happened to work there. Night shift people had their own pile, and it hadn't been hard to find the tiny bit of info he'd been given to let him recognize them. It wasn't terribly hard to guess who was with him (his coworkers, of course), although he didn't know them. He was vaguely annoyed to note that the one he could half see seemed to be just as tall as Donovan.
"What can I do for you?" He was casual as anything, as if the power wasn't out leaving them in total darkness save for a flashlight.
LOUISA GOFORTH | MAY 17TH, 10:30 PM |
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Post by LOUISA GOFORTH on Jan 10, 2014 7:09:20 GMT -8
The louder footsteps were likely Lou’s, as she tended to stop concentrating on her movement outside of situations in which precise control was necessary. She was all loose-swinging limbs and a worn pair of tough, clunky boots. In the dark, with silhouettes and vague glimpses available, she cut an image close to Donovan’s. She’s taller, if only by a smidgen, with similar head of dark, curly hair.
The bizarrely-instantaneous answer to the knock got a raised eyebrow out of her, invisible as it was behind her flashlight. What, had the guy been just waiting by the door? That’s either pathetic loneliness or acute paranoia, right there. Louisa tilted her light to rest on the apparent building manager. Little guy, bit hard ‘round the eyes… Southeast Asian? Pacific Islander? She wasn’t good with geography or people-placing. Whatever.
She speaks up before Donovan. ”Mi-Ho says there’s a busted-up generator in the building. Don suggested you’re the fella to see about that.,” she started, firmly laying the blame for any intrusiveness on her co-workers. ‘Acute paranoia’ was the first impression she was leaning towards, just in case. She turned her flashlight up to her own face to introduce herself, never mind that it only lit it from the bottom, ghost story style. ”I’m Lou. Hey.”
Tag: I mean MiHo oops
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Post by MI-HO MOON on Jan 15, 2014 6:03:50 GMT -8
She said leave me alone, but just don't leave me here, alright?
May 17th
tag | Radio Peeps
words | 257 | Donovan’s confirmation that it wasn’t the cleaning lady who could solve their problems sold Mi-Ho on the miniature adventure. She half-suspected that the cleaning lady actually could do something about the generator, but, as it was probably something along the lines of hissing at it until it cut on, she would have rather sat in the dark. It was fortunate that he apparently knew someone else, though that meant the improbable idea that Donovan knew more than one other person at the radio station. It had only taken Mi-Ho around two days to make that assumption about him.
Down the hallways they went, treading carefully with their flashlights in hand. Aside from Louisa’s boots, they quietly made it to their destination. Mi-Ho would have said she waited curiously after the knock on the unknown door, but it opened much too quickly. She held still, her eyes making their way down to the short Asian man looking back at them. The girl’s flaw as a dancer had always been her willowy height. She wasn’t as tall as her brother or someone like Louisa, but she was just an inch shorter than Donovan. Looking down at others wasn’t a weird thing. She hadn’t been expecting it, no, but it didn’t come as a surprise to her.
“It’s not quite ‘busted-up’, it’s just really old and it's not working,” Mi-Ho gently corrected, not feeling she needed to say any more than that. Time to find out who this man was and what he could do about their problem. |
electric has gangnam style and back to neverland |
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Post by DONOVAN SHEPHERD on Jan 15, 2014 6:52:49 GMT -8
HOLD YOUR BREATH AND COUNT TO TEN After having met Makara in a dark hallway under sufficiently creepy circumstances of mysteriously appearing blankets that turned out to be a strange act of kindness, Donovan was mentally prepared for summoning the man. He thought. But the quicker than expected opening of the door was enough for him to stumble back in mild surprise, glad enough to let Louisa take over the delivery of their request while he quietly recovered. She got straight to the point, at least, and Mi-Ho was good at filling in any of the blanks or whatever important details needed. Donovan figured they could easily handle it from there without him, since his only contribution was knowing where Makara resided. But without a flashlight of his own and nowhere else to be, he decided it was best to stick around as part of the team effort. "If you're not too busy," he added, almost apologetically despite knowing it was part Makara's job. But somebody who answered so quickly wasn't likely to have anything much better to do, unless they were coincidentally on the way out at the same moment. "I could kick it around a bit. But unfortunately that's the extent of my knowledge on how to fix things. Thought maybe it'd be better if somebody else had a go at it first." WORDS:### TAGS:Makara NOTES:
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Post by MAKARA SOM on Jan 15, 2014 9:19:07 GMT -8
They were definitely the people who ran the sunshine station. He wasn't familiar with their names until they were introduced, one of which by her coworker, and his eyes ended up settling on Mi-Ho. He could have guessed she was Korean (half because of her height, of all things), but the name sealed the deal. The only question was 'north or south'? Only he was going to take a guess at south, simply because America didn't get along with North Korea half as well as Cambodia did.
Makara's arms shifted, crossing across his chest as he considered the request. They wanted the backup generator? He was actually vaguely surprised that anyone knew about it, and the fact that it was Mi-Ho who mentioned it... well, maybe he'd have to take a glance at her file and see if anyone had left any notes about her snooping around in back rooms.
"We do have one." He began, starting it off on a high note. "But it isn't going to work." Better to get that out of the way. "It's been broken for almost two years." He still had the report he'd written somewhere in his room, even. "It needs replacing. Even if we somehow managed to fix it, at most it would power the lights. It didn't have the kind of juice required to power the station." So people would just have to go on without the radio.
He wasn't giving entirely grim news though. "If you're concerned and planning to stay, there's an emergency kit with a bunch of flashlights and other stuff in one of the storage rooms." Flashlights, food, water, batteries... everything they'd need for a 48 hour or less power outage, although Makara would have been shocked if it lasted that long. LOUISA GOFORTH | MAY 17TH, 10:30 PM |
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