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Post by Dusk on Sept 3, 2015 3:11:33 GMT -5
Jane nodded. She was sure that a lot of people misspelled his name.
"So how many times do you get mail that's wrong?"
She jumped a bit at the door, but quickly remembered that it was okay for there to be sound this time. Eiron was actually supposed to be in this building. "Unlike you about a month ago," her brain supplied.
Either he had night vision like she did, or he really did know where everything was in his "organized mess." Jane watched him step over and around obstacle after obstacle without so much as bumping a tool before he grabbed some candles.
Jane instinctively jumped back from the light source before realizing that it was fire. Fire-fueled light sources were about the only thing she'd found besides Christmas lights that didn't hurt terribly to be around. She shifted uneasily as Eiron made his way around the shop. It wasn't that she didn't mind the light. It was that she minded the idea of the light. "I hope the power stays out."
When she focused back in on what was going on she caught sight of Eiron part-way up the stairs that she had been positively sure would collapse if she tried to go up them.
"Wait, you live here?" she blurted completely missing his offer of dry clothing in her shock.
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Post by kyngarthur on Sept 3, 2015 3:46:33 GMT -5
"Well... Yeah? Where else am I supposed to live? I mean my moms have been uh... missing..."
He bit his lip for a second, glancing down at his feet before gesturing towards the room with his head, "Come on, I know it's not all that great looking, but I call it home."
Nudging the wooden door at the top of the stairs open, he stepped inside without waiting to see if she was going to follow him. When she did get up there, she would see a fairly cluttered yet clean efficiency apartment. A tiny kitchenette on the right with an even smaller dining room table, covered in dozens of parts for who knows what. There was a single couch, with more parts strewn across the coffee table in front of it, and a bed sat in the corner. The only other thing in the room was a dresser next to the bed, the only flat, solid surface not covered in chunks of steel. The only thing on it was a picture of two women.
He strode over to it and pulled open a drawer, rummaging through it until he found a pair of sweat pants and a sweatshirt. They both had small holes in them, but nothing that would be considered revealing. He sat them on the end of the bed and pointed towards a second doorway, "If you want something dry, you can wear those. The bathroom should be um... private enough? For you to change in that is. Not that you have to! I'm just saying if.. if you want to."
His cheeks flushed red violently and he blew air out through his lips deeply while looking away and scratching his head, "I'm just going to shut up now."
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Post by Dusk on Sept 3, 2015 13:43:37 GMT -5
Jane's mouth fell open into a small 'o'.There was no way that she could have known that, but she felt like an ass for asking anyway. So it was definitely likely that Eiron hadn't been living in this place long. It'd been more than three months since the last time she'd been to the scrap yard.She let the revelation drop. The only thing she could really say would be sorry.
She squashed the desire to ask Eiron more about his missing parents. By the time she was confident that she wouldn't put her foot in her mouth Eiron was already up the stairs. She hesitated. She could just leave now and drop the awkward situation all together. It wasn't like she'd ever see this guy again. It wasn't like she would run into him at the store or anything. And that's exactly why it'll be okay to go up there. Who knows when you'll run into someone you can talk to again," she thought. It had been close to a year since she'd talked to anyone other than her parents. She went up the steps as quietly as she could and took in the apartment in front of her. It looked a lot like how she'd always pictured college dorms.
She turned to see Eiron setting out a pair of clothes and realized how chilly she was. Now that she was out of the rain the squishing sound from her shoes was rapidly becoming irritating. The way that Eiron flailed at conversation so often forced her to smile. She knew that she probably wasn't any better, but it was definitely different to observe it happening.
"Yeah, thank you! The bathroom should be fine," she said as brightly as possible. She'd already brought up negative things once tonight. There was no point in dragging things like that out with her companion for the night.
She took the clothes from the foot of the bed and made her way to the bathroom. When she got there she closed the door behind her and shifted into the darkness so that she could see the room a bit better. It was as small and cluttered as she imagined it would be. In spite of that it was clean. She quickly changed clothes and shifted back out of the shadows. The bathroom seemed significantly darker while her eyes adjusted again.
"Alright, it's all yours," she called.
She pushed open the door and made her way back to the main room with a ball of wet clothes.
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Post by kyngarthur on Sept 3, 2015 14:05:40 GMT -5
He rummaged around in the dresser again and pulled out a pair of wrinkled coveralls that were the exact same as the ones he had on already. He stepped in to the bathroom with a candle in his hand, setting it down on the counter before turning and shutting the door behind him. How in the hell did she get changed without seeing what she was doing? There was a slight cluttering sound as he knocked over the trash can under the sink while pulling off the old pair, but besides that it was easy for him to get changed. Grabbing the wet clothes, he opened the door and grabbed the candle again.
Walking out of the bathroom and across the room, he walked just out on to the landing at the top of the stairs and hung his clothes over the railing. Peeking his head in the door, he looked at Jane, "If you want I can hang your clothes out here as well so they'll dry a bit faster."
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Post by Dusk on Sept 3, 2015 14:13:27 GMT -5
She winced at the sound of the trash bin clattering around. "How did he forget that he had a trash bin there?" She looked at the picture on his dresser while he was gone. There was no way that she could pass up a picture. The two women looked like pretty cool ladies. One of them was definitely a bit more severe looking than the other, something about the way she held herself, but they both looked nice. She rushed to the couch as soon as she heard the door to the bathroom open and tried to play it cool.
"Yeah, that'd be great," she said and tossed the ball of clothes to Eiron.
"So, uh, what's the plan?"
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Post by kyngarthur on Sept 3, 2015 14:26:41 GMT -5
He caught the ball of clothes and leaned back out through the door and hung up her shirt with one hand. Looking down, his face instantly turned bright red as he realized that he had been thrown all of her clothes. With a few quick, jerky movements he hung up the rest of the clothes and stepped back through the door. Scratching his head, as he realized that this was quickly becoming a nervous tic, he turned back to her, "I um... yeah... just..." he held up a finger that told her needed a moment.
Walking in to the kitchenette, he reached under the cupboards and pulled out an old style kerosene heater. Taking the candle he had been using for light, he lifted the guard on the bottom of the heater and put the flame inside as he turned the dial to release kerosene. With a FWUMP the heater caught the flame instantly began to warm up the room. He stood back up and turned to her, "I don't really have a plan. You're the first person I've actually run in to in... months. It's pretty dark out, so if you wanted to sleep, you're more than welcome to the bed. I don't sleep much, insomnia and all that. But if you want to, I can just go down in the shop and try not to be noisy. And I'm rambling. I'm shutting up now," he leaned against the counter as his face blushed again
What would mother think if she saw that I had a girl in my room? He was thinking of older, taller, more mature mom. Or worse.... what if mom saw? He was thinking of the fun loving scientist that would just love to give him a hard time about this.
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Post by Dusk on Sept 3, 2015 14:39:24 GMT -5
"You okay?"
Jane had no idea what could have happened for Eiron to be so flustered. She stayed quiet once he held up a finger though she wasn't sure if she really believed that he was okay. She scooted back a bit unsure of whether or not the contraption that Eiron had was a light or a heater. When it didn't light up she calmed down and settled back into the couch trying to play it off as natural.
Eiron suddenly began rambling to himself about everything at once. Jane blinked rapidly as she followed him from one bit of information to the next. When he was done she took a moment to piece everything together.
"Yeah, I haven't really talked to anyone lately either, and I'm honestly pretty much nocturnal. I don't wanna keep you if you have work to do though. I mean, if you have an umbrella I can wait until my clothes aren't so drenched and head home if I'm in the way."
She glanced up to see what sort of lights were in Eiron's apartment in case the power came back. It looked like her best bet would be to make a dive for the table or shift under the bed or something.
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Post by kyngarthur on Sept 3, 2015 14:49:25 GMT -5
"No no no you're not in the way! I just don't want to force you to talk to me? I mean, I want to talk to you! But if you don't want to I could just... go away."
He walked over and plopped on the bed, sighing deeply, "Dear God I am horrible at socializing. Sorry I'm not very good at this 'being a host' thing. I was pretty much raised in military buildings and labs, so the only thing I really know are.... these," he gestured to the machines on the tables.
Eiron watched when she glances up at the ceiling, then looked back at her, "If it's too dark in here, I can go see if the front office has any electric lanterns or something like that"
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Post by Dusk on Sept 3, 2015 14:57:27 GMT -5
"No, no, you're fine. Talking or like, playing cards or something is fine."
She watched him flop on the bed.
"Me too. It happens. What are those anyway?"
She hoped her eyes weren't as big as she felt like they were.
"N-no, nope. I am okay. This amount of light is fine. I was out in the dark remember?"
Jane swallowed nervously and tried to force down the rapidly rising feeling of panic.
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Post by kyngarthur on Sept 3, 2015 15:06:28 GMT -5
"Well, they're all parts to my project I mentioned earlier. When I was out in the scrap yard, I found a... machine, that wasn't a car. It's been de-weaponized, but I'd recognize it anywhere from pictures my mother showed me," He grinned slightly, "I found an old tank out in the scrapyard, and I've been trying to restore it."
"Okay okay, no lights!"
He frowned slightly, edging closer to the edge of the bed, "Why is it that you don't like lights? It's not like most nocturnal people where you just prefer the dark... you're scared of lights?"
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Post by Dusk on Sept 3, 2015 15:17:29 GMT -5
"That's...pretty cool actually. Can't believe they'd have something like that in a town this small."
She'd been living in this town for a little over a year now, and from what she'd seen there was no reason for them to have ever had a tank. Maybe there was something to the rumors going around that something was off around here.
She felt herself smiling nervously. It was just about the only smile that she had that showed teeth. "Damn it. See? This is why we don't talk to people. It's because we're bad at everything," she thought condescendingly to herself.
"What do you mean? I'm just not used to them. Ehehe, pretty sure I haven't been out in the sun in years. I mean, it's practically like I'm a vampire," she rushed. Maybe she could joke enough for him to drop it.
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Post by kyngarthur on Sept 3, 2015 15:24:53 GMT -5
"It looks old. Maybe it belonged to some weird veteran, or a militia guy. I don't know much of the world outside a lab so it could be anything to me."
He squinted at her then shrugged, "Whatever you say. You better not be a vampire though. It would be just my luck to finally talk to someone and they were a vampire however."
His nervous tic took over again he scratched the top of his head, feeling the ever-swelling goosebumps on the back, "So, do you wander around scrapyards often or do you just happen to like this one?"
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Post by Dusk on Sept 3, 2015 15:35:21 GMT -5
"Yeah, that could be it."
She was relieved to hear him drop the subject and chuckled.
"I'm not a vampire. I have a reflection." She paused. After her narrow escape from that line of questioning she really had no clue what to say.
"Oh. I dunno. I guess so. I just sort of look for things that look abandoned when I'm out and about. I haven't been to this one in about three months or so honestly. It's not bad when it's not raining."
She looked over at the picture on Eiron's dresser again.
"So, what do you do when you're not rebuilding tanks?"
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Post by kyngarthur on Sept 3, 2015 15:53:47 GMT -5
"Oh so this isn't your first time in this scrapyard. Interesting... Wait you haven't actually been in this building before right? Cuz when I sleep, I sleep for like... a couple days at a time."
Did she just look at the picture of my moms? Does she recognize them or something? Maybe she knows where they're at.
"Oh you know. I rebuild things. People drop their cars off up front, I go out there at night get them, fix them up and put them back up front. The people that own this property let me stay here, and have groceries dropped off for me. It's sort of nice."
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Post by Dusk on Sept 3, 2015 15:58:14 GMT -5
"It's not my first time in the scrap yard, but I pretty certain that the door out front didn't work at all. Can't say that I've been inside, but I never guessed that anyone lived here," she lied.
She looked back over at him.
"So you're like a mechanic then? How long have you been living here anyway? I don't think I've ever seen any lights on in the building."
"So I really wouldn't have run into him at the store even if I went there myself then."
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Post by kyngarthur on Sept 4, 2015 0:27:56 GMT -5
"Well apparently you're not the one that's been climbing in through the window then. I've been trying to catch them but they don't do it very often."
He nodded, "I specialize in mechanics, but my mom taught me all kinds of stuff with computers too so I'm pretty alright with that stuff too," he shrugged, "I've lived here for about a year and a half. I found it a short time after my moms went missing, and it's a good place to hide out. I think whoever took them might want me too... Which is why I tend to stay inside and shroud the windows unless I'm sleeping."
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