meat_mooks ([personal profile] meat_mooks) wrote in [community profile] trans_92012-03-11 08:05 pm

Survivalist Plot: All That Scarcity Promotes is Desperate Men and Tyrants

Day 3 and 4

The remaining hours of the night are tense and ugly, marred by the smell of blood and the complete distrust sewn by Bridge's death. When the sun finally rises, it feels as if the night's been far too long and yet their chance to rest was cruelly short.

The sun peeks over the horizon and onto the parched desert. In the bright sky, if one squints, it's possible to make out that lights are still flashing on the radio tower. The rest of the town is dead, as usual.
keep_surviving: (Insult)

[personal profile] keep_surviving 2012-03-17 10:12 pm (UTC)(link)
She allowed herself a small look of satisfaction when she was right about the cliffs, though the wrecked shuttle kind of put a damper on it.

As they got out the car and made their way over, Diana did a quick scan of the machinery she could already see and really, it all looked the same to her. “I’m not too good at this stuff. Like you said, Jack would be much better.”

They picked their way around the collapsed metal, splitting up to poke and stare at random bits shuttle with wires and things in it that indicated it might be important but hell if they knew what it was for.

After several minutes of futile search she threw up her hands and walked back over to Howard, putting her palms on jutted hips. “I’m going to be honest here, shocker I know but here we go; I have no idea what we’re supposed to be looking for.”
iselldrugstothecommunity: (Basic - Dumpster Dive)

yay I get to use my dumpster dive icon

[personal profile] iselldrugstothecommunity 2012-03-17 11:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Howard, on the other hand, thrives when surrounded by junk. That doesn't mean he knows what to do with any of it either, but he's excited to have stuff to look through. He keeps making trips back to the car and throwing stuff into the back.

"Look for anything that blinks or looks like it might have once blinked. And, you know, the usual. Any emergency food and water supply. A crash kit. Medical supplies. The whole shebang."

He sounds positively gleeful as he pulls a compartment out of the shuttles damaged dashboard. As much as it frustrates and discourages him to be reduced to, yet again, going through garbage and refuse looking for useful things, at least there are useful things to be had. He tosses Diana another flashlight from the compartment and finds another flare gun, although this one, being issued by Stacy, is a bit more futuristic. He hopes it still uses cordite.
keep_surviving: (Default)

\o/

[personal profile] keep_surviving 2012-03-18 09:23 pm (UTC)(link)
She rolls her eyes at his excitement and goes back to picking through the wreck. She piles anything that looks vaguely useful near Howard for him to go through.

Of course, the medical stuff and supplies she recognized right away. She announced them, so Howard wouldn’t have any reason to get his boxers in a bunch with her, they have enough reason to distrust each other, food and water had to be something they were at least half honest about.

But that did bring up something…

Diana takes the flashlight. “Won’t you need this?” Then she eyes the flare gun in his hand for a while wordlessly, fingers idly running over the groves of the one she already carries.

She speaks to him again. “Are we letting the others know about everything we’ve found?” It sounded as cruel as she thought it would, but she refused to take it back.
iselldrugstothecommunity: (Basic - Omnomnom.)

Re: \o/

[personal profile] iselldrugstothecommunity 2012-03-18 10:52 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm not. Are you?"

Howard doesn't care even a little about how cruel it sounds. It's practical, and now that they have meat and monster blood back at their shelter he doesn't even feel guilty about cracking open the food supply box between him and Diana. It doesn't have much, just a meager compressed food bar of rations for each of the crew members for two days - so fourteen in total - and iodine tablets.

Figuring they're allotted at least two of these each, and that the Master has gone off to do whatever enigmatic douchebags do in these circumstances, Howard hands three to Diana and takes three for himself before relocating the other bars to an innocuous-looking toolbox. They'll hide the toolbox inside a seat in the car or something. He pockets two of his share and snaps the third in half before eating a portion.

It's not like anyone else is out here to stop them stealing the allotted food for the mission.

He holds his hand out for the flashlight. "Good point. If we split, I don't want to get left in the dark around here."

They still haven't found a distress beacon. He keeps looking, but honestly he's not sure what to look for either. A black box? A radio?
keep_surviving: (Interest)

[personal profile] keep_surviving 2012-03-18 11:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Diana shook her head, tossing the flashlight back to him.

“Glad we’re on the same wavelength.” Well, not really, because that’s kind of creepy, but she makes a tease out of it by smirking at him.

As Howard does another circle around, Diana spots something that seems to be flashing the same numbers over and over, along with the word ‘error’. Preparing herself for disappointment, she walks over and after giving it a soft tap with her foot to ensure it wouldn’t blow up in her face she picks it up. The same numbers continue to flash, along with the error message.

The wire that connected it to the shuttle had been burnt so badly that when Diana inspected it, it simply snapped under her touch and as she watched, she noticed the display growing dimmer. Something pops loudly inside the machinery and everything dies, numbers and message included.

Well, if it wasn’t broken before, the smoke coming from the cracks meant it was now.

“Howie~” She called.
iselldrugstothecommunity: (Basic - Phone)

[personal profile] iselldrugstothecommunity 2012-03-19 01:11 am (UTC)(link)
"Skank~" he calls back, heading back over. They've picked the shuttle pretty clean and there isn't much left they can use, but he has found something important - his communicator with Zouichi. Currently it isn't picking up any signals, though. That would be something lucky.

He sends off a message: "S.O.S.". The comm screen flashes with "Message Undeliverable: Please Connect with Service Site". Figures.

He looks over what Diana's found. "Did you break it?"
keep_surviving: (Sly)

[personal profile] keep_surviving 2012-03-19 01:24 am (UTC)(link)
"Love you too." She calls back automatically before turning to him and presenting the... whatever it is to him.

A look of amusement crosses her face before she puts on a mock pout and heightens the pitch of her voice. "Oh, no, dear. I just looked at it and it broke, I swear! You know how useless my female brain with these technowhusits. It would be much better if you, a much more clever man, just took it out of my simple dish washing, pot roast making hands."

And with what could only be called a witches smile Diana shoved the said 'technowhusit' into Howards hands.
Edited 2012-03-19 01:26 (UTC)
iselldrugstothecommunity: (Basic - Run?)

[personal profile] iselldrugstothecommunity 2012-03-19 05:09 am (UTC)(link)
"You know that's not what I meant. I just mean I didn't think it'd still be smouldering four days after we crashed." He tugs the technowhusit away from her. "I guess it might be a beacon. Or a mini-microwave. It's the best shot we got."

He carries it over to the car. "And now, while we're all missing dear Jack, let's take a minute to consider the odds that anyone in our little group knows anything about technology."
keep_surviving: (Patronize)

[personal profile] keep_surviving 2012-03-19 05:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Diana leaned against the car bonnet and thought for a moment, looking up at the cloudless sky.

“What about that guy?” She smirked and used her hands to place quotation marks around his name. “You know, ‘the Master’.”
iselldrugstothecommunity: (Basic - Srs Face)

[personal profile] iselldrugstothecommunity 2012-03-19 06:40 pm (UTC)(link)
"He's a douchebag." Not that that means he can't be useful, but Howard just wants to put that out there. "He'd probably be our best bet, but no one knows where he went. And honestly, I'm not going to trust him not to screw us over, and not even the practical screwing people over thing that we do."

Diana and Howard are unlikely to get people killed out of pure malice. To better their odds at surviving, sure. But the Master is a different sort of evil.
keep_surviving: (Ponder)

[personal profile] keep_surviving 2012-03-19 07:18 pm (UTC)(link)
She shrugs. “Alright then.”

Diana turned to him, expression one of expectation. ”Well, you know the others better than I do. What are Karis and Cedric like with this stuff?”
iselldrugstothecommunity: (Default)

[personal profile] iselldrugstothecommunity 2012-03-19 10:23 pm (UTC)(link)
"Karis is dangerous, but she's got my corner. Cedric's a sucker. You don't have to worry about him." In a strange way, Howard's trying to protect Cedric by saying that. If he's not a threat, she'll feel less inclined to undercut him. "Clef and Maxine seem like decent people."

So, meat shields.
keep_surviving: (Snark)

[personal profile] keep_surviving 2012-03-19 10:34 pm (UTC)(link)
She waved the comments away, clearly unimpressed. "I don't mean that." From the way her eyes flashed it was easy to see she'd already made assessments on their crewmates, not that this was unexpected.

But Howard trying to keep Cedric lowkey was a funny sort of cute. In fact, the two of them walking on eggshells around her was adorable in the most amusing way and she had no intention of spoiling it yet.

"I asked if you know if any of them have a clue about electronics."
iselldrugstothecommunity: (Basic - Thinking)

[personal profile] iselldrugstothecommunity 2012-03-19 10:58 pm (UTC)(link)
"Ah." Howard crumples his mouth up into a thoughtful expression. "Cedric doesn't, wizards don't do technology. Clef probably doesn't either, he uses magic and it's probably the same deal. Karis comes from the dark ages, sorta. Maybe Maxine would."

Honestly, Howard likes being able to lord something over Diana - and the fact that he's been on the ship longer, and knows everybody, suits well enough.
keep_surviving: (Boredom)

[personal profile] keep_surviving 2012-03-19 11:07 pm (UTC)(link)
"Great, so, one person, not counting the person you called a douchebag earlier." Diana sighed in answer, undercutting his superiority with that single comment.

"Well, that's a great start."
iselldrugstothecommunity: (Basic - Working)

[personal profile] iselldrugstothecommunity 2012-03-19 11:18 pm (UTC)(link)
"An evil douchebag. Not the cute and charming sort of douchebag like me." He turns the thing over in his hand again. It's not as if he's a complete novice to electronics - he wired a fridge, after all. "I can see what I can do with this. Let's get back to the house."
keep_surviving: (Mock)

[personal profile] keep_surviving 2012-03-19 11:30 pm (UTC)(link)
"Of course, you're the most adorable sort of douchebag."

"Can I drive yet?" She smiled and teased as they opened the doors.
iselldrugstothecommunity: (Angry - Loser)

[personal profile] iselldrugstothecommunity 2012-03-20 02:26 am (UTC)(link)
"Not until you get your own set of keys, you can't." He hops into the driver's seat and, just in case she missed it, dangles his set in front of her before snatching it back and, with pickpocket deft, slipping them up his sleeve.