Lf1m Off Tank For Monkey Rescue Raid

Participants:

caspian_icon.gif joe_icon.gif lance_icon.gif

Scene Title LF1M Off Tank for Monkey Rescue Raid
Synopsis Joe and Lance visit Caspian to see if he won't come help find their sister's monkey in Brooklyn.
Date February 25, 2018

Caspian's Warehouse

Caspian's Warehouse, West Eltingville


The Safe Zone is generally okay, as long as the sun is up things are fine. When the sun starts going down, people start heading for home and, in Caspian's case, that's exactly what he's done. The lucky recipient of a tract of property in the western part of Eltingville with a garage and a building attached, Caspian's home base, as he likes to call it, is plenty of home in the middle of the safe zone. A sign is mounted just inside the fence, out of reach from beyond the chain links, advertising that Outside Electric and Solar works out of this space and, if you look really closely, the van - that mythical, wonderful Van - sits parked in a garage door that, for now, is halfway opened. A little box with a button sits next to the gate, a small sign that says 'Ring for Service' with another, smaller sign in black marker on cardboard 'will be turned off after sundown - 240v current to be applied after dark'

"Don't touch that," Lance instructs Joe completely unnecessarily, at the sight of that sign upon the gate. He glances up to the edge of the fence, then to the garage that's part-way opened. Cupping both hands to his face, he pushes up on his toes and calls out, "Hey! Hey, Caspian! You home, man? CASPIAN!"
You know, for such a quiet kid, he sure projects pretty well.

Joe peers at the fence, then glances over to Lance, then back to the fence. "You know I'm resistant to electricity right bro? Like… that's not gonna hurt me. I mean if I stood there with my hand on it for awhile yeah but… I can totally get us inside the fence without you shou…. ting." He sighs with resignation as Lance just goes hollering for Caspian. Joe… well Joe does what Joe does. He walks over to the electric fence and reaches out to tap the wire. He gets a good solid jolt in return and laughs, shivering as if… well as if it tickles. "Tingly." He comments with a wide grin, then taps the fence with his hand again. Sometimes Joe is dumb.

It really only takes one guy getting blown out of his shoes thanks to capacitor discharge to send a message, and the steel plate just in front of the doorway - with black footprints painted on it to look like scorch marks - only underlines that you do not hit the button after dark. Since it's not dark, Joe gets no tingle, no buzz, no nothing.

Up on the second floor, names are rarely used so a window is opened and a familiar-looking head pokes out of a window, peering down. "What're you two doing out here?" he calls out from upstairs, a buzzer sounding. "Get in off the street. Take the door in front of you, up the stairs. AND CLOSE THE GATE BEHIND YOU!" Security is a necessary thing in the Zone.

"We're not trying to infiltrate the place, we're trying to— stop that!" Lance rolls his eyes at Joe as he reaches out to tap the fence in the hopes of getting electrocuted, and he reaches out to smack the other teenager in the back of the head. Then there's the call from above, and he looks up - a grin at the invitation, a told you so look to Joe, and then he's pulling the gate open to head in. Making sure it's closed behind them before moving for the door, and to head up and see the man they're here to see.

Joe turns his head to look over his shoulder after getting smacked. "Lance. My ninja man. One of these days you'll remember that smacking me does not have the desired effect you're looking for. Now… peanut butter denial, that might affect me some. Unless you have negation gas then well… yeah. But please don't gas me. That's so not fun, or cool." He's walking along with Lance as he talks, letting the other one close the gate behind them, he's just walking and talking right alongside the Lance as the approach Caspian's house.

Through the front door - heavy, with bars on the opposite side to make entry quite difficult - leads to a storeroom of sorts that takes up the entire bottom floor. Long, rectangular boxes labeled '240v Solar Array 4/24' and 'Motorcraft Deep Cycle' are stacked on pallets here and there, each apparently staged for some job in the future. The staircase leads up to the second floor where it opens into a warehouse that's been converted into a large living area. It's sparse, with scavenged furniture and the like, but it's clean and warm and homey, with a large table and a kitchen over to one side, all lit by big windows and warm, unlike a lot of places. Caspian is waiting there, dressed in sweats and a t-shirt with a towel around his shoulders. "Hey there, guys." He scrubs his head with the corner of his towel, apparently just done with the shower for the day. "What brings you to my neck of the woods?"

"That's why I'm hitting you," Lance reminds Joe with a roll of his eyes. It's not like he actually wants to hurt his friend, after all! In through the door, and he heads up the stairs, craning his neck to look all over curiously - oohing and aaing at the boxes and their labels. Then he's flashing a grin over, "Hey, man. Uh, sorry to come out so late, I was just — we were just wondering if you'd be free tomorrow to… uh, to give us a bit of a hand with something?"

"Speaking of wooods!" Joe comments lifting a hand with his pointer finger extended upwards. "We would like your company on a monkey rescue mission!" Yeah, he totally trods all over Lance's trying to be polite and broach the subject easily. Screw that noise. Joe flashes a wide grin at Caspian, then looks back over to Lance, then around the apartment and back once more to Caspian, waiting. He rocks on his heels as he waits, letting his eyes wander about. "You know you have like a fortune in stuff down there? You could trade for ALL of the things if you wanted. Just sayin. Also your electric fence needs more electric…icity."

The towel over his shoulder, Caspian looks from Lance, who's taking the roundabout route, to Joe, who just says screw it and goes as the crow flies. "Monkey Rescue Mission?" He blinks, the corner of his mouth quirking up. "Come on, guys. You're kidding, right? Why'd you really come all the way out here? Need me to fix something for you?"

Caspian nods to Joe. "I know. Down there is basically my entire savings, and some borrowed besides to keep the business going here in the Zone. All that down there is enough to power and store electricity for about three buildings. Got two installs lined up already, which means I order more." Thank god for the cell service operating here. "And as far as my fence…it's more of a threat than anything. I can turn it on, but a three or four good shots eats my batteries for the night and I prefer having light in the morning while i'm getting ready." He grins. "Just took one guy getting bit before the locals left it alone. The sign keeps most people from trying."

Lance rubs a hand over his face. "It's not just— " He sweeps that hand out to one side, "Look, uh, I'm trusting you here. My sister lives out in the Bronx and — some racist douchebags decided to try and nab her. She got shot. She's okay, but she's left a bunch of stuff out there… and yeah, a monkey… and we need to go get it back. We're worried those assholes are still sticking around, though, so— " A shrug, "I figured, hey, bullets can't go through force fields, right?"
Joe shakes his head, his grin growing even wider as he gestures towards Lance to do the explaining on the reasoning behind the Monkey Rescue mission. He listens to the talk of projects and the fence and the local who got himself electrocuted and he snorts, rolling his eyes. "Stupid people. Well if you ever need another example I can come provide one. It won't kill me. Just like bullets won't so if you do come on the mission you won't need to worry about throwing a force field up in my direction. I'm bulletproof." He glances over to Lance, then back to Caspian. "Neither of us understand the damn monkey. But Lance's sister, who like Brynn is my sister too even if it's not by blood, loves the stupid monkey. So we're going to go get it."

That quirked corner of Caspian's mouth goes down after a moment when Lance indicates that, yes, Joe is quite serious with the whole rescuing of a monkey thing and asks for trust. Supporting himself on his arms, Caspian leans against the back of a couch - a big sectional in a green with a blanket over the giant rips in the cushions, and listens, his legs crossed, looking from Lance to Joe as they talk.

"You figure right." Caspian lifts his right arm and there's a glint as he forms a shield. It's like watching ice melt in reverse, fast forwarded. It just builds from the back of his hand and really can only be seen if you look at it just so in the light. "It's not fun getting shot, but this…" He actually slaps it, a muffled thud coming from where his hand stops in mid-air. "Generally prevents it. As long as I'm not flanked, anyone behind this baby is pretty much bulletproof." With a twist of his wrist, the field dissipates and Caspian rubs the back of his wrist. "There….there's a lot of unknowns in this little jaunt across the wasteland. If they're still there. How many. How much stuff to carry. If this monkey's even going to come with us…" He trails off, thoughtful.

"You're going to go out there anyway, even if I don't come, aren't you?" HE knows the answer to this question, but he still asks, just because.

"Yeah," Lance admits with a shrug of one shoulder, "And we can handle ourselves if we need to, man, but… you know, we aren't stupid." A grin tugs up at the corner of his lips, and he shrugs upwards with both shoulders, "Any card we can stack in the deck, and — aside from us and Aunt Gillian, you're the only person we can get to on short notice to come help, who's got a power that might be useful. Don't have to come, just wanted to see if you were willing, is all."

Joe nods his head up and down dramatically when Caspian asks if they're going out whether he goes or not. "Most definitely yeah. Lance and I alone? We could totally go get the job done. But Hailey wants to come, and our Aunt Gillian wants to make sure we're all safe, and Brynn doesn't want to be left out. So that's a lot of people and we thought that well… your ability is defensive… coudln't hurt to have someone helping that could defend the squishies. I'm the tank and Lance is the DPS. They're like… the squishy spellcasters." Yup. He's defining people's roles in the group by MMO terms. "You can be our off tank." He grins at Caspian, bouncing from foot to foot a little bit. "But we dont' know how many. I'm not too worried about it. Lance and I are pretty capable. But we were always taught to stack the deck in our favor. And you're a pretty cool dude. So… you wanna come on an adventure?" Both of Joe's brows waggle up and down, his grin wide and happy.

Caspian slips off the couch on bare feet and walks over to the kitchen, lost in thought. He's not ignoring the pair in his living room - he's just going to the cabinets to pull out a can of whatever for dinner. Chunky Beef Stew, it looks like. Blowing out a breath, he slaps the counter with both hands, a decision made, and turns to face the pair. "Well….I guess I need to know what time to meet up. Always liked the idea of being a protector of sorts. Guess my first task is to rescue a fair monkey…maiden…from its' captors."

"I'm the DPS?" Lance gives Joe a bemused look, and then he shrugs, "Yeah, I guess so. Rogue, maybe? Anyway— " He pulls himself out of video game land, looking back to Caspian for the man's decision… and then he says yes, and the teenager grins broadly. "Primal. Appreciate it, man, really do. Brynn said you were cool."
"Uhh yeah bro. You're totally the DPS. Sneak up on guys and BAM! Takedown. We're the raid leaders, you're head DPS. I'm head tank. And once we have Paul he can be head… uhhh phasing through things guy. Not really sure where I was going with that one. We need to get Paul here though. Seriously. We're missing part of our trio." Joe doesn't abandon the video game analogies. "Primal. And Brynn knows people. She's a good judge of character. After all she loves us. So I mean… what more proof do you need?" A wide grin from Joe as well.

"Well then." Caspian says, looking from one to the other. "Give me a little while to put some food in me and get a couple of hours of sleep and I'll meet you wherever it is I need to meet up with you. Now, unless you want to stay for dinner and talk some more video game stuff, I'll see you in a few hours."


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