Participants:
| Scene Title | Kittens and Traps and Asylums, Oh My! |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Angelina chases her kitten, nearly runs into a trap, then hears all about abandoned underground structures from Bones. |
| Date | March 5, 2010 |
Evening. When it's the quietest, usually. Not tonight though! Angelina has apparently been playing her guitar, because she has it with her. However, it's been slung around to rest against her back. Or it would be if she wasn't running, making it bounce with each step. And why is she running? Because she's chasing a kitten who has, apparently, made off with what looks like a late night snack. "Dammit furball. Don't make me blow that chicken up. You wouldn't look good with bits of chicken stuck in your fur!" she mutters to the feline, who runs right into the room that Bones tends to frequent.
When she gets in there, it looks as though Angelina is starting to settle in. This is the first time she's been seen wandering the library without shoes on, just socks. Which of course makes this whole kitty chase more comical, since it means that she slides a little when rounding corners. Like the one into the room. Sliiiiiiiiiide!
Having apparently been about to exit "the war room" as Claire has officially dub his room and workshop, Bones' lashes out with those lightning reflexes of his, limbs shooting out to take completely different actions: his left plucks the kitten up by the scruff of its neck, the little kitten still running in midair as it is picked up and his right hand grabs Angelina by her shoulder, picking her right up off the ground in an effort to keep her from falling. "Whoa, hey. And just where do you think you two are going, hmm? You look like a bad Tom and Jerry cartoon."
Angelina yelps in surprise as she's scooped up, a sound which is mirrored, a bit more pitifully, by the kitten. Then she blinks at Bones, then flushes. "Damn fuzzball stole my dinner," she mumbles sheepishly, nodding to the kitten, who is still clinging to the pilfered chicken like her life depends on it.
"If I set you down, are you and the kitten going to behave?" Bones asks, playing now though though he continues to hold both kitten and Angelina in the air, not showing much strain if he is feeling any. "You run around in the library without looking where you are going, especially the cartography room here, it can have dire consequences." he informs as he backs in to the room a little and turns her so that she is able to see there is a bear trap set out on the floor a short distance away.
His words only have Angelina going a little redder in the cheeks, then going wide-eyed when she spots the trap. "What in the hell is that doing in here? Do we have mega mice running around or something?"
"I'm trying some new security measures." Bones says as he slowly lowers Angelina back down to her feet and holds the kitten out to her. Pulling a pellet gun from his cargo pocket, he fires it at the bear trap which promptly snaps shut. It gives a jump in the air as it trips and flops harmlessly on to its side. "I won't be using those, but I wanted to test if I could weaken the spring enough that it wouldn't chomp someone leg off. The answer is that I can, it's just not worth the time I put in to it. Back to the drawing board."
Angelina takes the cat and takes a step back. She winces at the trap getting sprung. "Uh…if a little pellet could set it off…so could miss priss here, huh?" she asks, looking at the kitten with some concern. Enough, it seems, to forgive the threat and put the furball down to run off and enjoy it. "Do you really think we need bear traps though? I mean…Claire apparently has a shotgun, you can go all Wolverine on someone, and I can do explosions. That's a pretty strong group of defenses right there."
"And Davy Crocket and James Bowie both may have gone on to live to a ripe old age if the Alamo had had some form of warning before Santa Ana came swarming over the walls." Bones shrugs as he walks over to the trap and picks it up, tossing it on the workbench. "Unfortunately, every defense is fallible. I would rather be thought insane for over thinking my defense and remain safe safe than thought of as a complete idiot for not considering myself to be in danger as some clandestine government agency hauls me away and places a black bag over my head."
Angelina considers that, then nods as she moves further into the room, heading for a chair. "Okay, yeah, I can get that." She smiles wryly. "Besides, I don't think you're insane. The bear trap just surprised me. Well, that and I'm used to my early warning system just being me sleeping light. Way light. Like a cat purring would wake me up." Which explains why it still looks as though she's hardly sleeping.
"Yeeeah. See if I miss sleep, my digestion goes off and the old metabolism starts to eat at me a little." Bones looks at her and raises his brows, his expression showing a touch of humor. "Maybe I should set /you/ out on the front steps and cover /you/ in snow." he grins a little as he moves over to seat himself as well, propping his feet up on the tabletop.
Angelina smiles. "No thanks. I'm enjoying actually being warm for once," she says, plopping down in a chair. "If I'm not going to sleep, I may as well be warm when I wake up, you know?" She looks over to the trap, considering it. "What about like…motion sensors or something? Rigged to some sort of silent alarm? Like, when someone shows up, it sends a message to everyone's phone or something."
"Too many factors. Bad batteries. No power. EMP. Hacking. Phone traces. And anything electronic would show up on an infrared scope like a beacon that would just scream 'here we are!'." Bones shrugs once more, reaching under the table to detach one of his hidden candy bars and peels it open, snacking away. "
"Oh," Angelina says, and that has her going silent for a minute, adjusting the guitar so she's not leaning back against it, then taking it off and setting it to lean against the table. "So…I've only seen you in here, working. And saying that you're leaving to work. Do you ever do anything but work?"
"Oh, sure I do. I go to see my folks in Chinatown. Have dinner. I teach two or three classes a week at my family's dojo. And… I sometimes go have a beer or three with some of the other Sandhogs." Bones says as his eyes flicker back and forth as if he is recalling what else he does besides work and putter around in the library. "Oh! Last week I had to recertify myself to be able to carry my firearm on duty. And sometimes I actually need to go down to the union house to turn in my previous order and pick up more and they have a pinball machine that I pop a few quarters in."
Angelina arches a brow. "Recertifying is fun? And dinner is fun. It's…necessary." Her head tilts as she studies him. "Doesn't it get old though? Only working and teaching?" she asks, sounding genuinely curious.
Bones thinks on this for a moment, seeming the type that actually pauses to think when his gut instinct is to fire off a denial. "I see how you could think my life is repetitive and monotonous, but really, no two days are ever the same and my job constantly shifts with the situation I am put in. I could be exploring some abandoned ventilation shaft in the morning, and by evening I am inspecting buildings or chasing some kids out of an old passenger rail station." he smiles, tossing the empty candy wrapper on to the table.
Angelina shakes her head. "No, I didn't mean monotonous. I…well, I'm not sure what I meant, really," she admits with a bit of a smile. "I really don't know though. Only 'jobs' I've had…haven't exactly been the type you'd want to put on a resume. And I enjoy living, so…" she trails off, shrugging.
Bones muses a moment before he tips his chair up on two legs and then kicks his feet off from the table, sprawling himself out onto his back and then throws his feet over his head, he rolls right up on to his feet once more. This puts him right next to a couple of satchels, one of which he rummages through for a moment before he finds what he is looking for with a small triumphant sound. He picks up the chair and brings it closer to her, turning it so that he sits down on the chair backwards. "Here…" he says, tossing a small photo album on to the table and begins flipping through it. "Here. This is from when I dropped in to what was going to be the Park Street station. They dug it and found there was no sediment rock for another two hundred feet down and had to abandon the whole line." he explains before pointing to what looks like the front of a 20s rail car. "They go two whole engines down there before they realized this and they just buried them so the street above would not collapse from the weight of the cars passing overhead."
Angelina still seems surprised by his acrobatics, and when he first starts to fall she half rises, mouth opening, perhaps to call a warning. When he grabs the photo album she closes her eyes and sits down again, before she opens her eyes to look at the pictures. "What's sediment rock have to do with digging a tunnel? And you really enjoy this whole thing, huh?" she asks, looking up from the photos and to him.
"Well you have to have a base to set your supports on that will not give way. You have to dig to get to it. Well with this tunnel, since it was just a short distance from the one they were planning to build on to to connect the rails, they didn't bother to find out whether it would be able to support a system." Bones continues after her question and smiles as he turns the page, tapping on the photo of what could pass for a cathedral of some kind, portable flood lamps set up all over the place. "And /this/ was part of an insane asylum. The place was shut down in the fifties and the upper levels bulldozed, but the sub-levels remained completely intact." he flips the page and shows what looks to be the same structure but a rather glorious pool area complete with frescos and other wall paintings. "These places are just all lost to time. And I get to be the only one to possibly ever see them again."
Angelina looks back down, then she wrinkles her nose. "I'm not sure I'd want to see a place like that. I mean, basement of an abandoned looney bin? That's the sort of thing that horror movies are made of." She pauses, looking thoughtful. "For that matter, I think that was a horror movie," she murmurs. "But hey, if you get a kick out of it, then it sounds like the job for you."
"Oh, no. Nothing bad could happen down there. Nothing could have survived except for bacteria, maybe. But even then, when I got to the asylum all the bacteria was dead." Bones shuts the album and sets it aside, grinning quite widely. "When I opened it up, the air was completely toxic. The bacteria inside had eaten up all the air over the years. Parts of the building her actually being held up by the vacuum this caused and two support pillars gave way about an hour after I let the air in."
Angelina looks amused. "And that doesn't sound like something out of a horror movie?" she asks, lips slowly curving into a grin. "I totally wouldn't go down there. Me? I'd be popping pillars and stuff to make sure it was sealed up all nice and tight, along with whatever creepy monsters or deadly viruses were down there."
"Naw… That place is a work of art! A brilliant showcase of Art Deco. Honestly, the only thing that makes it creepy or unsafe is the fact that it was designed as a nut house and that portion of it was built underground. Otherwise? That pool area looks like the one at Hearst's Castle practically." Bones points out as he gets up to stash his album once more in his bag, his hands moving behind his back to weave his fingers together.
Angelina laughs. "Says you. Like I said, you can have it. No way am I going down into anyplace like that unless I have to. And it would have to be life or death sorta need. I mean, I've stayed in some bad places, but total creep fest!"
Bones steps back over to the table and turns to sit on top of it, pulling his bare feet up to sit crosslegged. "Oh well… Suppose I won't take you with me on any of my jobs then and show you what I am talking about. It's hilarious fun. Climbing, crawling, repelling, diving, swinging, zip-lining. I even got to commandeer an entire subway train once due to a gas leak."
Angelina nods towards the pack with the photo album. "I just mean places like that. No insane asylums, thanks. But…I don't know how to repell or dive," she confesses.
"Actually it's not ever very wise to even go near water in my line of work. Bacteria in water sometimes created gasses that are held in place with the surface tension. You go wading in to the wrong stagnant pool mix certainly chemicals or gasses and you might as well just put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye." Bones smirks as he seems to find something quite funny with that bit of knowledge he imparts, reaching over in to a cooler set on the side of the table and pops it open, taking out a couple bottles of gatorade, tossing one to her while he uncaps his own.
Angelina catches the bottle, but doesn't open it just yet. "Seriously? Ooookay. Avoid any underground water. Check." She shakes her head. "I don't think I envy you your job." She glances towards the door and signs. "Fuzzball should've come back. Should probably go check on her, make sure she's not playing with wires that hook up the cameras or something," she says, rising and picking up her guitar.
Bones nods as he takes a gulp of his drink, watching her get out of her seat. "He left?" he asks, apparently having missed the kitten darting away. "Alright, well take care, huh? And get some sleep. No one is getting in here unannounced for the next few days with the snow piled up outside as high as it is. And like you said, you explode stuff and Claire has her shotgun that is going to end up putting out someone's eye one of these days if you ask me." he slides off the table and waves her on her way. "G'night, Angie."
Angelina smiles faintly. "I know. But too many years of…having to be so careful. It'll take a while before I can be comfortable sleeping through the night." She lifts the drink a bit. "Thanks for the gatorade," she says, the smile warming a touch, then off she goes.