D A Y 0 8

[founds]

CHAPTER 2

NOV 7TH | 54℉☀(windy)

▸ Parka up for a cold an--*CHSKSSS--*- windy day in Blackwell folks! I sure do hope--*CHSKSSS--*-search team down at the lake won't--*CHSKSSS--*---*CHSSK--*-trouble out on the waters. Professional divers have been going in since dawn, let's give it up for the professional --*CHSKSSS--*-!!

▸ Old Lady Petunia has paid me to say DO NOT SEEK OUT THE ANGELS--*CHSKSSKK--SK--SSSH--*- In fact, there are no such thing as angels. See how easy that was? No angels, no problem.

▸ And now back to our --*CHSKSSS--*-regularly scheduled programming.

THE RISING IS NOT IN EFFECT

Comments

[tralineate]

Everyone wanted to be a firefighter once.

[ she smiles and shrugs; it's true though. a lot of kids just love the whole sirens and red trucks. ]

[espish]

This was before you discovered Hammett and Chandler, I assume.

[since you said the pulps made you want to become a detective when you were a kid, and that one stuck. as much as anything seems to stick to ben.]

I wanted to be an X-Man. Or RoboCop.

[steps into the tiny elevator when it dings and holds it open for nicola and ben.]

[eternalboy]

That's a tad unrealistic.

[ smiles and raises his brows as he steps inside. and people kept laughing at him for his inspirations in life? ]

Maybe I can still become one. You could use one more, right? I mean, they had you brought over from freaking Australia.

[tralineate]

[ snorts at sam's confession and nods ] Hey, don't crush a man's dream. There's still time. [ comic books are rad and all that ]

I came over from Richmond. I've been in the USA since I was fifteen.

[espish]

Yeah, you're never to old to become a fictional character.

[for instance, he didn't start trying to become a pulp detective until he was

presses the button for ben's floor as soon as everybody's in the elevator. he found the dumbwaiter on his floor, but if there isn't a door in the same place a few floors up then what's the point of a dumbwaiter?]

They start firefighters early in Australia.

[eternalboy]

[ you're triggering me with all this aging talk. ]

They have a lot of fires.

[tralineate]

[ funny guy, this sam person. kind of. he's an awkward funny guy or something. she rolls her eyes at him shaking her head with a smile. ]

My mum had a big offer to come to work in an office in Virginia, so we moved. My siblings were just about to go to college, so it all worked out. [ and she nudges ben ] Too right! It's because of all the hot people.

[espish]

[all the friendliest people he meets in this town are from nowhere near it. you should probably leave, nicola, before you make an unwise rooming decision and get stuck here. maybe not necessarily in that order.]

I hear you've got spiders the size of house cats and snakes so poisonous they can kill you just by looking at you, too.

[awkward funny guy, that's him.

this elevator is tiny and terrifying and creaky. sam does not like this elevator.]

[eternalboy]

[ all the more reason to move out hey ]

I've heard the same thing. [ smiles at Nicola. she must be enjoying this cliche Australian things hour. ] So it must be true.

Were you ever bitten by one of those creatures?

[ exits the elevator first when there's the ding. ]

[tralineate]

[ shrugs with her hands in her pockets ] Yeah, but it's the tiny ones that getcha, cus you can't see them.

[ shakes head to ben ] No, but a shark nearly took my foot once. My brother got mauled by a koala once. Fuckin' nasty buggers.

[espish]

[slips out of the elevator after ben and nicola and starts down the hallway.]

That's nuts. I guess you shouldn't trust anything that looks that cuddly in the wild.

[he did not know that koalas are dangerous. every day you learn something new.]

[eternalboy]

I gotta look up angry koalas on Youtube. I'll do it at work.

[ smiles cheekily. ok let's get that dumbwaiter. ]

[tralineate]

[ she points at ben. cuddly things. don't trust. look at that baby face. ]

They bite each others bollocks, did you know?

[espish]

I did not, and I'm pretty sure I didn't need to, so thanks for that.

[looks at ben's baby face.]

[eternalboy]

Ok, no Youtube.

[ those videos would be the first to pop up wouldn't they. looks at them. ]

What?

[tralineate]

[ snorts. shakes her head in a Nothing kind of way ]

So where's that waiter?

[espish]

Maybe not at work, anyway.

[shakes his head too. you'll never get anything out of us.

points down a hallway to the left then turns down it when they get that far.]

End of this hallway, I think. Should be.

[eternalboy]

[ makes a face at Nicola and goes ahead. ]

[ reaches the end of the hallway and he's already forcing the hatch open when they get there. ]

It's the perfect size too.

[tralineate]

[ following along the most stupid detective issue ever. stops right next to ben and looks at the little elevator, turning her head to him with a frown ]

Perfect size to what?

[espish]

What she said.

[leans in and squints into the little platform, then cranes his neck up to see if there's a top or if he can see up the shaft. There's a top. Oh well.]

You know these things can't usually take much weight.

[eternalboy]

It's perfect for the boxes.

[peeks in after Sam. ]

But I was hoping there wouldnt be a top. We could have piled them on each other. Now it's one at a time, I'm afraid.

[tralineate]

[ she checks her watch while the two converse and when ben finishes his plan, she speaks up ]

Well, you two have fun. I need to check up on more areas for my homework, so-- good luck. [ she points at ben ] Don't forget about my invitation to the party.

[espish]

Boxes? You have more stuff? How much stuff did you bring?

[i thought you weren't going to stay for more than a week originally. straightens up to look back at nicola.]

What party?

[i have a bad feeling about this.]

[eternalboy]

[ WHAT PARTY DO YOU THINK. ]

Me and Moira originally planned to move to one of the houses in Blackwell. I brought all my stuff.

[ shrugs. that's how life goes. he still has some of Moira's boxes too. he isn't opening them or throwing them away. ]

I better get them, hold on.

[ disappears down the hallway for a moment. ]

[espish]

[you did not answer my question and i am not standing around here talking to the dumbwaiter, so hold up because i'm coming with you.]

Well the dumbwaiter's not going anywhere. I'll give you a hand. Who's Moira?

[i don't think you've mentioned her before, unless she's the local girl you're dating whose name i don't know yet.]