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

[meat_mooks]

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.

Comments

[keep_surviving]

"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.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"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]

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]

"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]

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]

"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]

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]

"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]

"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]

"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]

"Of course, you're the most adorable sort of douchebag."

"Can I drive yet?" She smiled and teased as they opened the doors.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"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.