Participants:
| Scene Title | Tell Your Friends |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | First impressions are important, and Max does not disappoint. |
| Date | March 5, 2019 |
Providence - Max's House
Max’s house in Providence is one of the nearer ones to the center of things — inasmuch as anything can really be called the ‘center’ of things here. There isn’t much, in other words, but that’s part of the reason why they like it, right? At least, one assumes.
At the moment, Max is in his front yard with a shovel, and he seems to be digging up the dirt. It’s thawed enough to do it, and maybe he’s planning on planting some things for the coming year. They do trade with the city, but they don’t need to get everything from there.
With her cart in tow behind her, filled with a cooler and a pile of furs and a few other supplies, a young woman quietly makes her way up to the house, dark eyes roving about as she takes the small civilization in. She makes for a particularly peculiar sight — around her neck, a live mink is curled up, beady black eyes darting about not unlike the person it rides upon.
She comes to a stop close to Max, peering up at the house for a moment, before turning to the man and raising a mittened hand in a friendly wave. “Are you Max?” Clara Winters smiles to the man, putting the handle of her large wagon up to rest against the cart itself. “Kara and Finn sent me,” she adds, for context — just in case he didn’t get advance warning.
Max looks up when he hears someone coming, sticking the shovel into the dirt and leaning a hand on it as his eyes find the source. “Yep,” he says with a nod and a friendly smile, lifting the other hand up in return. “You Clara?” So he must have gotten at least some notice, perhaps via carrier pigeon since there can’t be cell phone service out here.
He pushes the shovel down a little further so that it’ll stand up, and starts toward her, extending a hand. “Good to meet you. Guess we’re gonna be roommates for a bit, huh?” He doesn’t sound like he minds, certainly.
“That’d be me, yeah,” she replies, grinning to the man. “Though most people call me Weasel, and Kara and Finn seem to have named me Kit.” She reaches out, taking the offered hand with a smile — so far, the welcome she’s received has impressed her. Providence is nice, possibly even more her style than the Safe Zone in some ways.
“Nice to meet you, too. I hope you don’t mind the two extra room mates,” she gestures to the little mink around her neck, who is staring up at Max with a twitching nose, sniffing in his direction. Then, she gestures to her pocket, and the tiny white weasel that is staring up at the man in similar fashion. “They work for their room and board — I promise, you’ll be rat-free by the time I’m out of your hair.”
“Well all right then,” Max replies, shaking her hand firmly before he lets go. A chuckle escapes him at what she’s been dubbed by his compatriots. “Finn likes to give nicknames. You get used to it.”
His gaze moves to the mink, tipping his head to the side just a bit as he studies the creature. Then to the weasel, with the same treatment, before his eyes move back to hers and he shrugs. “All right with me,” he says, instead of asking her to explain about the ‘why’ of their presences. “Guess they don’t take up too much space. I only got the one extra room.” Though that is probably a joke.
He turns toward the door then, gesturing for her to follow him. “It ain’t much but I’ve been fixin’ it up since I got here, so hope it’ll be comfortable.” He opens the door to the house then, which is pretty much what one would expect from the outside — small, unassuming, but clean and neat, with the signs of certain things having been semi-recently fixed.
The young woman laughs. “I don’t mind nicknames. Never really felt like Clara fit me so well, thus the Weasel nickname.” She grins up at the much taller man as she follows him into the house, pulling the wagon up to the side of the building for safe keeping. “I kinda like the new one — I may keep it.”
She slips in, dark eyes roving over the small house with a small smile on her face. “I just spent two days and two nights out on the road getting here from the Safe Zone, so I could probably sleep on the floor and it’d feel amazing.” She chuckles — it doesn’t sound so much like a complaint as a simple comparison.
“Thank you for your hospitality, by the way. I really appreciate you taking me in while I’m here.” She grins. “If you like, I have rabbit, squirrel and fish for dinner — if the frozen stuff doesn’t do it for you, the stinkies and I can go get something fresher.”
Luckily, she will not have to take the floor — The room Max leads her to has a bed, and all the stuff one might expect to find in a guest room like a dresser, and even a little desk. The stuff looks as though it was probably mismatched at first but has been stripped and varnished to match somewhat. “I hear that,” he says. “Slept on the floor or the ground a good bit, myself, but I want to make sure we’re a little more hospitable.”
He steps out of the way so she can look around, adding, “You’re welcome. And any of that sounds good to me. I ain’t gonna turn up my nose at frozen so don’t worry about gettin’ anything new. I even got a grill in the back I can fire up. It’ll feel like a barbecue.” Kind of, anyway.
“Man, this is nicer than most of the places in the Safe Zone,” the girl marvels, setting her backpack down gently on the floor. After a moment, the two critters suddenly scurry down off of her and onto the floor, where they busy themselves sniffing about. A far away look crosses the girl’s eyes briefly, before she turns and grins to Max. “There’s a few rats hiding in your walls,” she murmurs, nodding toward the two slinky little creatures. “They’re sneaky and tenacious. Minerva will happily liberate you of their presence, and make sure they stay away for a little while.”
Then, she grins wider. “Oh man, grilled rabbit sounds amazing. I usually just roast it, but there’s something special about grills.” She makes a mental note to get one for her place with Geneva. After a moment, she shrugs off her heavy coat, reveling in the fact that she is indoors again, after living a nomadic lifestyle for two days.
“Well, we try,” Max replies, watching the little creatures run around. He doesn’t look particularly perturbed by them, and when she says that he has rats, he chuckles, glancing at the wall then. “I won’t say no to that,” he adds. “Thank you kindly.”
He nods once then, continuing, “Good. I’ll go get it goin’ then. I got some other stuff in the pantry to fill it out. Feel free to look around, and get whatever you want that I got. You can feel at home while you’re here.” He turns to head out of the room then, presumably to get the grill going.
“Thank you again for the hospitality, I really appreciate it. So far, I have to admit that I’m a little bit charmed by this place — it feels pretty welcoming.” Still, there are aspects of her personality that always shine through, inevitably, and this might not be a good place for such inclinations
She turns her gaze down to the two slinky little creatures. “They don’t mind, to them that’s some good eating,” she murmurs, reaching down and scooping up the impossibly tiny little white weasel and kissing him atop the head, before setting him on her shoulder.
Her eyes raise as he turns to leave, smiling as she settles down to sit on the bed. “You’re very kind, thank you.” She then promptly flops back onto the bed, taking a short moment to simply enjoy having something soft and dry and warm to lay on. “We’re gonna sleep so good tonight, kids,” she can be heard mumbling to her fuzzy companions.
“Tell your friends about how nice we are,” Max calls as he walks out the door, though he sounds like he’s joking — at least, mostly. It probably wouldn’t hurt to have more allies, especially nowadays.
She has a little while to hang out before she hears from him again, but luckily the hearing from him again that’s happening is him calling that dinner is ready. “Anyone who’s eatin’, come now!” It’s friendly, even if the words themselves are a little abrupt.
The spread is pretty good — grilled rabbit from her, but also some cornbread, as well as vegetables that he must have done at the same time as the game. “Hope you like it,” he says as he sets down plates and silverware. “I ain’t had company in a bit so I don’t have as much as some days.”
The girl’s changed out of her traveling clothes by the time dinner is ready — while he was cooking, she sent her mustelid friends off into the walls to catch their own meal, and she enjoyed laying in a bed for the remainder of the time. Coming downstairs, she wears a slightly worn thermal shirt with holes in the sleeves for thumbs, and a pair of slightly ripped old jeans; her feet are only covered by socks, because she’s pretty sure nobody wants muddy bootprints tromping around their house.
The man and the spread is met with a wide smile. “Oh man, I could get used to this. You guys gotta stop being so charming here, I keep getting tempted to stick around longer.” She laughs, sitting down at the table. “Thanks for cooking — I’ll be sure to make some squirrel stew before I leave.” She chuckles.
“You’re welcome. Long as you’re here, you’ll get the good treatment.” The offer of stew gets a nod as well, before Max sits down himself, and closes his eyes briefly, bowing his head. He doesn’t say anything out loud or seem like he expects her to wait, though even if she did wait it isn’t a very long pause before his eyes open again and he starts to serve the food. “Stay as long as you like,” he continues, without saying anything about the moment. “We’re happy to have visitors.”