That Hits The Spot

Participants:

elle4_icon.gif jaiden_icon.gif

Scene Title That Hits The Spot
Synopsis Two captives of the dome meet and form an alliance.
Date February 6, 2011

Hunter's Point Waterfront


Outside the dome, it's cool. A bit above freezing with a wind coming from the east at a little more than a good walking pace - enough to ruffle hair and send flags fluttering lazily, perhaps move some papers left out on a porch, but nothing major. Inside the dome, it's cool as well, but with no wind. It's like being inside an aquarium, frankly, and like any good captive that can't go where he wishes to, Jaiden patrols the perimeter of the dome, looking for a way out.

Since his internment in the dome, he's had to change a few things about his life. He's normally not the kind to break and enter, but when you don't have food and need a place to sleep and somewhat clean clothes, you do what you need to do. Taking a cue from his scavenging days, he's found a small abandoned apartment in the midst of the destruction on the bottom floor of a warehouse that miraculously did not burn. The smell of smoke is strong but, with enough scented candles and potpourri it smells almost normal.

He's on his way back 'home' this evening, his backpack of 'stuff' thrown over his shoulder, paying attention to what's around him, listening to the sounds of silence in a world that, to be honest, seems sterile since it's been cut off from the outside.

She waited in that dark warehouse for Howard. For two nights, she sat in the abandoned, decrepit warehouse, with nothing soft to lay on— just hard concrete or burnt wood. She went through the emergency rations that she had with her, and ran out last night. All in the hopes that Howard would be back, that he would come back and explain. A combination of hunger, desperation, and pure fear of dying alone drove her to climb out of the warehouse.

Elle then found her way back to the edge of the bubble, scared and alone, and began to follow it, keeping in hiding whenever she could. Never know what she's going to find out here, and it's terrifying to be alone. Especially with the Institute after her— seeing Howard's scars scared the crap out of her.

As Jaiden comes into view, Elle Bishop swiftly ducks into hiding behind a half-demolished wall, peeking out as she tries to determine who it is— at this distance, she can't tell just yet.

He's definitely a he, with sleeves rolled up past his elbows and a hat perched on his head at a jaunty angle. He looks relatively clean, too, and the fact that he's drinking from a bottle of water more than likely would make him a lot more appealing than most of the people around at the edge of the dome. Food, after a few days, has become a bit of a commodity, but Jaiden, being the best kind of boy scout, spent the first couple of days accumulating things. Things to keep himself alive, sure, but things to keep others busy too. Last night's foraging turned out rather well, what with the way his bag bulges, and the twisting bag on the side of his pack could only be a loaf of bread. Sure, it'll be stale by now, but toasted, you'll never be able to tell.

Glancing over his shoulder to make sure that no-one is watching and finding that he's seemingly alone, Jaiden pulls a bit of wreckage away from his 'apartment' and ducks into the building to unload and see what he's got stored up.

Elle is watching— Jaiden doesn't do a very good job of checking to see who is watching. The bread, the bulging bag of food— it's pretty damn tempting. Sure, she only ran out of food last night, but she was really stretching her two bags of beef jerky and three bottles of water. Two nights on just that and anyone would be hungry. She's too far away to really recognize his face just yet.

She pulls the crowbar out of her purse, pushing up the sleeves on the oversized hoodie that dwarfs her frame. She wants to hope that the clean guy with bottled water is nice and will share, but paranoia has the best of her after a little bit too much time alone, to think about what will happen to her if she falls into Institute hands.

You can never be too careful, right?

Quietly, she edges out of her hiding spot, once the man ducks into his apartment, a frown on her face. The crowbar is held up in one hand, while her other hand is balled into a claw-like shape, though she isn't 'charging up' her ability just yet. From outside of the 'apartment', a timid voice calls out, "Hello?"

There's a clank as something is shoved into something else and a glimmer of light as a flashlight is clicked on and shined at the entrance of the apartment. The air grows a bit drier if Elle was paying attention as Jaiden draws the water to him in a quick defensive motion - best to have some ammunition if needed, after all.

"Um…" His voice is quiet. "Hello. If you're gonna come in, come in. Don't stand there attractin' attention."

There is a moment of hesitation, before Elle finally slips into the apartment, lowering the crowbar and her hand back down to her side. Once within, she glances around, blinking owlishly in the contrast of light. She's still tense, looking pretty scared for whatever reason— definitely not the same as when he saw her when the dome established itself.

And the first sighting of food draws her eyes faster than anything else. "Are you sharing that food?"

At the entrance of a hoodie-clad woman with a crowbar, Jaiden's flashlight flicks to shine about mid-chest, making him a lot harder to see thanks to the light. Anything could be in the darkness of the apartment that he's found for himself. The crowbar, apparently, does not seem like too terrible of a threat so the light clicks off, plunging the place into near darkness. The only light is from the covered window, giving the apartment an eerie glow, almost.

"Hey there…yeah, since you've asked, I will. I'm not advertising that I've got it, but if you want a bite or two, I can help you out." Jaiden's sitting on a scavenged couch, half-covered in a ratty sheet that looks rather clean, even though it's used as a bed most of the time, and as he leans over,a box is pulled out from beneath the table that's positively packed with canned goods. He got lucky, what can he say?

"Crackers, I guess…they're kind of dry, but who cares now…it'll fill you up enough for soup."

Greedy eyes turn toward the box of canned good, Elle's brows raising. Finally, she sets her crowbar back in her purse, moving a bit closer to Jaiden. "That'd be nice…" She slowly moves over to the other side of the couch, uneasily settling down into the seat near him. She can't see him, but she recognizes his voice. He knows Cardinal.

"I had this guy take me from the people I was with, to a warehouse…we talked, and then he just…abandoned me." Her brow furrows. "If I ever see that douchebag again, I'm going to seriously ponder sterilizing him." She scowls into the dark of the apartment, before turning back toward Jaiden with raised brows.

"Pretty nasty, this place. Reminds me of the time I went to North Korea. There were a handful of haves and an army of have nots…wasn't pretty." Jaiden lets out a snort and bends, rooting through the box for a second, coming up with a dented can of Chunky soup - Beef and Potato - and grabs his pot, tossing a sleeve of saltines to Elle and slowly assembling a small makeshift stove that uses gas siphoned from the cars. It heats things like crazy, but there is the danger of fire and burning death, but warm food is the important part.

The story of the guy causes him to shake his head. "Shit…" is his masterful assessment of the situation. "If anything, people need people now. e should not have done that."

"Yeah…he said something about being even with me, even though I've only ever met him twice." She frowns, her eyes going down to that can of soup. "I don't know what his problem was, but he had better hope that I don't see him again, after that shit. I could've starved or gotten killed…or worse." She sounds like she knows exactly what the worse part could be.

The saltines are almost greedily taken, and opens rather quickly and begins to munch on, settling down near the stove and seating herself, curling her legs up to her chest. "Thanks for your kindness…not many people would help out in a time like this." Granted, she was at the point where she was just about to use her ability or the crowbar to knock the man out, if he hadn't shown the kindness he has.

Almost? With the way she looks, Jaiden would expect her to inhale these things by the fistful. And if she does, that's okay. He's got a couple of boxes of these - cheap and they last a long time and fill you up with all sorts of nasty carbs for energy which is definitely what is needed now. His little stove is blazing merrily and, using a scavenged enamel pot that's hissing from a bit of water he poured in, he pops the top of the soup and pours it in to warm through.

"Sounds like he was someone who has to pay by the hour for companionship. And the less we talk about that, the better." Jaiden shakes his head and sets the pot down with a frown, sinking back into the couch. "In here, there's really no law. I don't think anyone'd notice…hell, I'm surprised they haven't started stringing up looters or…" He sighs and rubs a hand over his face.. "Fuck it sucks being in here."

Elle is quite happy to stuff her face full of crackers, right now. If this were any other day, any other place, if she wasn't so god damn hungry, she would be mentally scolding herself. This so breaks her diet. But this isn't time to think about diets. This is the time to think about survival. And food is very important to survival. Eyes watch the soup as it goes in; judging by the look on her face, she could probably eat it cold. It smells so good.

"I don't know. Asshole had me thinking he was my guardian angel until he pulled that shit." She scowls faintly, turning her eyes toward the door as if she expects the man in question to just waltz right in. "It does suck. Best we can do is stick together." She pauses, glancing around the place. "I know a safer place than this - another guy and I set it up together, it's nice and protected, and there's more people there."

In a starvation situation, diets really have no place. A diet is 'food, period.' weight loss comes kind of naturally which is not very healthy for most. Even Jaiden, who is fairly well put together with little fat has lost some weight. Hard work and lack of Calories will do that to a man.

The soup is heated through rather quickly and Jaiden, ever the perfect host, pours it into a Styrofoam bowl and hands it over, along with a plastic spoon. "Eat slow, it's hot." he warns. "Oh, and I've got water and….stuff you can mix with water. Some lemonade and a green tea thing…

Elle doesn't seem to listen to Jaiden's warnings about the heat. In fact, she doesn't even seem to feel the heat, let alone care about it. That tends to happen when your body temperature is higher than most. She promptly takes a few large bites, making little sounds of satisfaction as food finally starts hitting her stomach. She even crumbles up some saltines in her fist and stirs them in. Food is a good thing.

"Water's fine." She murmurs, smiling up to Jaiden as if she doesn't care that the food is quite hot. "Maybe tomorrow, you and I could go back to the Brick House? Doyle's there, and while he's a scary motherfucker who can wrench your control over your body away from him, he's…okay." She rubs at that cut on her head that is going to heal all wrong. She may have to use some of the bottled water just to clean the head wound he reopened the first day out.

Jaiden watches as the soup is inhaled, glancing down at his backpack and pulling it out, unzipping it to start rummaging about. Being hungry gives people what he calls a camper's stomach, which means if it's food-like, hot, and in front of you, the important thing is to put it between your hips and ribs as fast as you can in order to not be hungry any more. Oh, and then sleep after.

"I don't know about moving. This place…yeah, it's dangerous, but that's why no-one comes out here. If I go somewhere, I'll have to distribute my supplies…not that I don't mind sharing, it's just…until we find a way out, we've got to be rational and…well…ration. I'll send you a box with some things - you can say you found them in an apartment or something that wasn't opened yet - but me…I'll probably hang out here and just pop out every once in a while to check up on things. I always have to have a plan…"

Elle quickly shovels down a few large spoonfuls. Food is good, and it doesn't quite burn. Either that, or she's just used to the heat that seems to radiate off of her. Heat won't be a problem with Elle around, at least. As he notes that he'd rather not go to the Brick House, the blonde-turned-redhead blinks a few times. "It's a Ferry place…" She tilts her head.

"But if you're not going there…I'm not going back. I don't like Doyle." She frowns, before she's back to devouring her freshly acquired meal. Oh god, that hits the spot.

"Oh, that place…I've heard of it, but I've never been. The ferry are good blokes from what I hear. They should have a good stock of supplies there." Jaiden blinks after a moment. "How'd this Doyle get in control of this place?"

Elle tilts her head to the side. "It was a Ferry safe-house, 'til it got raided. It's safe for right now, though. I think the law is more concerned with the rioting than they are with watching the Ferry safe house." She shovels a few more bits of food into her mouth, chewing with a faint smile on her face. Blessed food, Elle will never take you for granted again.

“He's not in charge. He was just the one who knew where it was." She shrugs.

Until this dome comes down, the only law is what they make inside. Jaiden lets out a puff of breath and bends, taking up an empty bottle of water which slowly starts to fill, as if by magic, stopping in time for him to take a drink and then filling up again to almost full. "Didn't catch your name. I'm Jaiden."

Ohhh, so that's what his ability is. And apparently, Elle's red hair and different ability has apparently properly disguised her from Jaiden. Her brows raise faintly, before she offers a faint smile. "We've met. Through Richard Cardinal." She shovels the last of her food into her mouth, before setting the now empty bowl down and leaning back, patting her happily full tummy. She'd love to eat more, but that would probably just make her sick.

"Elle Bishop. Last time you saw me, I was a blonde and an Electromagnetic."

Considering the lack of food, meting it out slowly is best because if it's not in someone, it needs to be in a can, not on the floor half-digested. Doesn't do anyone good there except the roaches and rats, of which there are many. There's a flash of recognition and even a snap of the fingers to underscore that, yes, he did recognize her from somewhere. "I thought you did look familiar…" He chuckles. "What I wouldn't give to be on the outside of this place looking in, huh?"

Elle smiles faintly, rubbing at her tummy while she waits for the full feeling to kick in - which it will, like a kick to the gut, but a satisfying one. "Yeah. I'm working with Richard these days." And occasionally kissing him, but that's not for anyone's ears but Elle's. "Good guy. Kinda miss him." She tilts her head toward Jaiden.

“Yeah…wishful thinking, though." She tilts her head to one side. "We should stick together, Jaiden. I'd…I'd rather not be alone at all right now." The woman frowns. "I was just completely alone for two nights…and I really don't want to repeat that." That, and staying with him means a better shot at avoiding the Institute than being alone.

Jaiden chuckles, stretching his legs out in front of him. "Richard seems to get all the cool kids to hang out with him. First time I met you, I was instructed to hose you down if you got out of line, but strangely, I don't think that'll do anything more now than hack you off something fierce before you cook me into component parts." He grins. He's not planning to do it, of course.

At her suggestion, he nods. "That "Sounds like a plan, then. You watch my back, I'll watch yours, and if all goes well we'll get out of this with a few less pounds and a few good stories."

"Yeah…just try to splash me, now. I'll just steam it off and get mad." Elle smirks. "Though I do wish someone who doesn't know about my new ability would come and try to splash me." She tilts her head to the side. "Just so I could scare the shit out of them, or something." She giggles softly, shaking her head. Then, her eyes turn down to her hands. "I used this ability to scare off Sylar. I…I almost like having this ability, really. It's nice, not being scared of water for once."

Then, she offers a slow nod. "Sounds like a good plan to me."

Jaiden replies, "Well then, to be blunt, get over here so I can fix your head."


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