Participants:
| Scene Title | Might As Well |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Over breakfast before the beginning of another day, Sahara Jackson is pleased to learn her wards seem to be finding their way. |
| Date | September 16, 2020 |
Jackson Residence, Phoenix Heights
"My word, what a shame this all is," Sahara Jackson murmurs to herself as she looks over the newspaper while having her morning coffee. For once, she isn't cooking breakfast. Young Roman Santos is earning his keep on the nights he and his brother sleep here instead of with other contacts.
Evran Foster has no such helpful impulse, sprawled on the couch, tossing a tennis ball into the air lazily and catching it. It's repetitive, something merely to bide the time until the cooking is done and the eating can begin.
"What's that?" Roman asks, swirling eggs in a pan. He can't make them with the same skill his host does, but scrambled does just fine.
"Oh…" Sahara murmurs, turning the next page over to look at the enclosed photo and read a bit more of the story. "There's been this fire now, going on for a few weeks … it's tearing through the countryside, and you wouldn't believe how many people they're saying have had to be evacuated because of the way it's spread." Her brow furrows and she lets out a distressed sigh, still polite. "Now, on top of it all, it's causing explosions."
"You know, all those Expressives out there these days, they really should just send someone to put it out already…" she remarks to herself, bending the pages over to read on to the next article.
At hearing just what she says, Evran snatches the ball out of the air and sits up, one foot coming to the ground to serve as a brace for him to look back over his shoulder. "Are you kidding me?" he asks sharply, a tone Roman recognizes and brings him to look up from what he's doing. Sahara, though, just keeps on with what she was doing before.
"What?" she bats back perfectly conversational, not even looking up. "If they're going to be out there in the public, they might as well make themselves useful," Sahara opines lightly. "Think of all the lives, the property that'll be saved… places like Pennsylvania weren't exactly high on anyone's list of places to salvage after the war, and all. And if those peoples' homes go up now…"
Roman shakes his head at Evran meaningfully before turning back to the eggs, making sure they don't burn, and the latter relents with a scowl, coming to his feet.
"So, what are you boys going to be getting up to today?" Sahara asks, abruptly laying aside the folded up paper and leaving behind the topic as if she'd been talking about something as simple and bothersome as the forecast.
Evran lets out a chuckle to that, pacing across the living room space for a lack of anything better to do. He's trying to keep from inviting himself to the bacon that's already done, which smells amazing. They're eating better lately, but this is a treat indeed. It brightens his mood into answering, knowing his patience is about to pay off. "Oh, you know, this and that. Think we're going to be out doing a bit of scavenging later…" he answers, looking off at the ceiling while he loses himself in his thoughts.
"Scavenging?" the Southern woman balks, twisting in her chair to better face him and laying a hand on the back of her seat in the process. "Scavenging… what?"
Ignoring the look Roman discreetly sends him, Evran smiles easily as he meets Sahara's look, arms lifting and opening as he explains, "Well, outside the fence, there's still plenty of materials out there that can be salvaged from the wreck of the city. Depending on who you run into, you can get top dollar for items that are particularly in demand. There's all kinds of good stuff you can find out there, and information on big finds too large to carry back with us net their worth, too."
He smiles, and Sahara's worries relax right away. With them, so does Roman's concerns, and he snaps the dial on the stove off. "It's done," he announces quietly, stepping back from it into the corner of the kitchen area, pushing his hair back from his face while he waits for the other two. Sahara comes to her feet with a warm smile. "Thank you, Roman, that's been too sweet of you."
His manners, or at least the pretense of them, certainly made up for Evran's brasher attitude some mornings.
"Well, that doesn't sound so bad. Good, honest work," she enthuses brightly, voice honeyed and warm. "I'm glad to hear you both are being smarter these days."
Evran smiles in return, but his is a sharper thing. Sahara writes it off as a result of the weight he could stand to put on, not holding it against him, but he means every bit of its wolfishness. "Of course, Miss Jackson—"
"We wouldn't want to waste the opportunity that's been given to us."