Participants:
| Scene Title | Lighthouse Reborn |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | It'll need a new name, but it's all ours. |
| Date | June 6, 2019 |
It was Joe's dream to own a place like this — it looks like a freakin' Ghostbusters movie set. Williamsburg might be one of the only places remaining in the city where such a building could be found, and it's perfect. An old fire station, large opening from the old days now a glassed-in window looking into a common lobby area that could also make a nice socializing place, and it's comprised of a half-dozen small flats. The old fire pole is still in place, with protective railings. It needs work, for certain. Run down over the years, overgrown in the back. But it also has a flat rooftop where they can put a small garden area and solar panels. Gillian co-signed for it and now the young adults are the owners of this incredible structure… the new Lighthouse.
Brynn stands in the lobby area, her dark hair tied up into a cloth bandanna to keep dust and ick out of it. She brought a whole huge box of cleaning supplies with her to the building today. The clean-up has to be accomplished before they can determine how much of the flooring may need to be replaced in the flats both on the second floor and on the first. Though the first floor looks like it might be tile laid over the old concrete and may be perfectly usable once cleaned.
"New Lighthouse, new Lighthouse, new Lighthouse." Joe singsongs as he wanders around the lobby area, looking at stuff, peeking into corners, poking at bricks and mortar and stuff, cheshire grin very much in place. "This place is awesome." He confirms again, for probably the three dozenth time. Because it bears repeating. "I wonder if we can hide any of the rooms, like in case we need to hide people at some point. Like secret rooms that just look like walls or something. I dunno. Stuff!" His hands are moving too, but he's too excited for just sign language. He's talking too, listening to his voice bounce back at him in the big wide open space.
He turns back to look at Brynn, putting his hands on his hips in a very Peter Pan sort of pose before they lift so he can speak to her. So! Where do we start? Walls first? Probably the walls first so we're not like double scrubbing, floor then walls then floor again and what not. Yeah? Or uhhh. Joe is bouncing with excitement, not able to contain it as he darts around the room looking at stuff, then stops at the pole, looking up at it with a wild grin on his face. Yeah, that's going to get put to good use.
A roll of her eyes accompanies the expression on Joe's face. That pole is gonna be the death of someone, Brynn's sure of it. But she ignores that thought for now in favor of studying the intricate banister detailing on the stone stairs that go to the second floor. The wooden handrail held by metal spindles appears to maybe even be original — even beneath the dust and grime, it has the patina of old wood.
Yeah, I'd say let's start high and work our way down. That makes the most sense. There's a back stairwell that goes into the kitchen, but there aren't any appliances back there. We're going to have to scav those. And the sink has a crack in it, but it might be repairable. The Kids are war orphans and Ferry children. They are used to hard work and making do, so it doesn't bother her that there's a lot that has to be done here. Though admittedly, she's a little worried about the cost of reflooring the upstairs flats.
We might have to do this place one apartment at a time, I dunno. Depends on how bad things really are. But I was going to ask Cas to come take a look and help us with solar panels.
The pole will not be the death of Joe. There's almost no conceivable way he could kill himself with that pole. So many shenanigans will ensue. The thoughtful look says he's not entirely sure how these things will happen, he's only sure that they will. His head cants to the side a little bit. Hmmm watcha think? Grease the pole so Lance falls on his butt? He asks, glancing over to Brynn with a mischevious little smile on his features. His head dips a couple times to the things Brynn signs. Scavening we can do. I'll take a couple trips into the ruins and see if I can't dig something up. Can also trade at Red Hook. The sink… yeah that might be a problem. We'll probably /have/ to patch that. Cuz I'm not sure there are sink repair guys anywhere. Not even sure how to patch a sink. But we'll figure it out. Joe walks over and leans in, giving Brynn a hug from the side, an arm wrapping around her shoulders. This is pretty primal. Then he walks over to the cleaning supplies and gathers up as much as he can. "Okay, upstairs, work our way through there then down here? Is anyone else coming to help or is it just us?" He asks as he totters towards the stairs and starts to climb them, arms full.
She rests her head on his shoulder when he side-hugs her, and then grins up at him. Em's already upstairs. If you don't hear a vacuum yet, she's probably wiping stuff down or sweeping the vast piles of trash into the hallway or something. The flats aren't empty, so I got no idea what she's gonna find up there. She gestures around here. I was thinking we should start here, so we have a place to hang and rest when we take breaks. Brooms to the ceiling, mops down the walls, then the floors? Because it makes sense. I'm not decorating these walls til they're clean. She makes a face. Gross! And I'm pretty sure there's critters. Hailey better come over soon and convince them to go somewhere else. But it's just us today. They're the ones who aren't at work at this moment, after all.
There's a pause. Hey… there's a teeny pantry of some kind in the kitchen. I think Aunt Gilly called it a butler's pantry or something. I was thinking we could use it for weapons. Because … Brian.
Dude! Think of the primal murals you can put up in here!!! Joe's hand motions are big as he spins around in place, eyes going wide at the realization that they can get like… big true Brynn art, and they can leave it up! Heck, she can change it whenever she wants. YOU CAN DECORATE THE WHOLE FIREHOUSE!!! Yup, that got Joe's excitement even higher. If that's even possible. He does come back to the middle of the room with the cleaning supplies he'd gathered. Em is here? Is she feeling okay? Wait is Em living with us? Is she officially acknowledging that she's one of us now? Joe's grin is wide. He knows he gets on Emily's nerves, but he counts her as a close friend. He looks around and hmmmms softly, making a gesture for thinking. Okay, yeah. Ceiling, walls floor. This is so awesome! Joe reaches into his pocket and pulls out a set of earbuds and plugs them into his phone. Clean up time requires music. He hits play on his phone and starts singing. Queen songs. You're My Best Friend being up first. What do you think you're going to put up on the walls?
Emily is here, as can be evidenced by the sudden scream and clatter that comes from upstairs. "Goddamn it!" rings out in an echo, followed by the loud teenage UGH usually accompanied with a roll of the shoulders. "Fucking mouse."
It may have been a big mouse that wasn't a mouse, but she's keeping that to herself.
I don't think she's living with us. She has an apartment with a roommate, Brynn points out. And I doubt she's ever going to acknowledge that — especially since Uncle Avi is her dad and stuff. Cuz that's always amusing. And well… she can't hear the screech!
Brynn drops Avi and… Joe doesn't catch it. He is watching her hands and then he hears that screech! His head jerks away and his hands move before he's darting off. Emily screamed! His hands sign before he RUNS up the stairs, missing the part where Brynn signs to him about Avi. Joe is doomed to never know the truth. He goes tearing up the stairs, skidding to the side and then taking off down the hallway. He bursts through the doorway into the room Emily is in aaaaand stops dead. She's fine. He looks arond, then to her, then around, then to her. "What?!?!" He asks, confused, alarmed, confused and even more alarmed. "What just happened?! Are you okay???" His eyes dart around the room trying to figure out what made her screech like that.
The sudden appearance of Joe and his shouting makes Emily start again even though she could hear him clodding up the stairs. She throws a used clorox wipe in his direction with a scowl. "I'm fucking fine." she growls. "Jesus." She does glance around for wherever the critter went, though. "This place just needs more than a good deep clean, that's all. Get you some mouse traps or something." Emily mutters, tearing a fresh wipe from the container and snapping it shut again as she digs her fingers into the grooves of the baseboard to pull away grime and brighten it to maximum capacity.
What's that, Lassie??? Emily's in the well?? Startled by Joe's sudden descent into Combat Readiness, Brynn nevertheless drops her mop and dashes up the stairs hot on his heels because… Emily screamed. At what? No clue.
Standing uncertainly in the doorway while Joe does what Joe does, Brynn looks wary. ##1E90FF|Please tell me that whatever it was at the very least was worth Joe forgetting about the pole,# she signs with a sigh.
"Why are you getting angry at me?? You were the one screaming like you were being attacked!!" Joe looks utterly perplexed. The wipe hits him in the chest, then falls to rest on the toe of his shoe. "Uhhh yeah. Mouse traps. I enjoy NOT having Hailey send critters after me in my sleep thank you very much. But we could get Hailey to come like… clear the place out." He admits then turns and signs to Brynn. Something scared her. A mouse I guess. She said mouse traps I said yeah no. Hails would kill us. We shouuld totally have her come clear the place out of pests though. Joe darts a look around them, then looks over at Brynn, switching back to regular sign language. Totally going to use the pole to get back down. Just you know… going up it would be kind of odd. I mean sure I could climb it but… still odd.
Looking back up long enough to realize she's missed too much of the conversation, Emily groans audibly and leans back over her work. "I'm fine, I swear. Also, don't break your neck on the way down."
Brynn just throws her hands in the air and laughs that near-silent chuckle of hers. Yeah, I'll get Hailey to come. She'll have an absolute cow if we hurt the mice. She winks at Emily and then waves. She'll go back down via the stairs, TYVFM. When she gets down there and Joe's already there, she signs, #BA55D3|Glad Bug isn't with us — he might have launchd in there with teeth.## She's not sure what Hailey trained him to do to protect Brynn.
"She's not fine. She's yelling at me for being concerned for her." Joe remarks out loud and in sign, his hands moving for Brynn's sake, his tongue being stuck out at Emily. He makes another face at Emily before he stalks off and yeah, he takes the pole. He takes a running leap to it and slides down it with a rather loud woop of noise, dropping to the floor and grinning. Yeah. The pole definitely stays. Oh. Yeah that well… would have been animals being animals. Hails wouldn't have gotten mad at that. But us killing mice? Yeah…. that'll get us revenged on bad.
Brynn nodnods emphatically. She's with Joe on this one — Hailey's been known to be mean when people unnecessarily killed critters that could have been just urged away. This place is gonna be primal when we're finished, you know. She can see the bones of the place. It's got great bones. Heaving a sigh, she grabs up a bucket. Earlier in the week, she dropped off 5-gallon containers of water for just this work. Setting the bucket near one so that she can use it to fill with water and cleaner, she also signs, We need a rain barrel out back for this kind of stuff. And there's room for a vegetable garden back there along with Hailey's friends. Not much room for anything else, but it's a ton of space for us. She's grateful Aunt Gilly had been able to convince them that four young adults barely into their 20s could handle a building.
This place is going to be great. Joe remarks, then just stands there, looking around himself at the firehouse, a wistful and even slightly sad expression on his features. He breathes in slow, then lets it out before his hands move again. It's ours. Like… actually ours. We're really not kids anymore. The end of something, but the beginning of so much more. He swallows hard, and the sadness eases, a simple smile settling in it's place. What should we call it? Besides… home. Because places need names. The LIghthouse. Gun Hill. Pollepel. The Cabin. Everywhere they've lived has had a name. So this place needs a name too. He gets to work though, his head constantly turning to check on Brynn, a happy little smile settled securely in place as he turns his music back on and resumes his singing.
Brynn watches him and nods slightly, seeing the expressions pass across his face. And when he asks that, it appears that she's already been thinking of it. The Turret? she suggests. The Cupola? Both words harken back to the Lighthouse.
Joe considers those names, his head tipping to the side before his head shakes a little. I mean it'll be a group decision. But I dunnos. His face scrunches up as he pauses in his cleaning to ponder the name conundrum. He resumes for a time, working on it before he turns, his hands signing. I honestly have no clue to be honest. Odd. I'm never lacking for ideas. He looks slightly perplexed by this but shrugs his shoulders with a grin in place and goes back to work, jamming out to the music on his phone as he does so. Ceiling, walls, then floor.
Brynn just shrugs and grins at him. Then she starts on her own section of wall for cleaning. Working in tandem with him without talking… it's a strange kind of comfort to her. This is reminiscent of the years of chores back home. And somehow it makes the place feel more like home, too — doing all the mundane work of making it not gross.