002: [Video, as brought to you by Room 647 on the 10th Floor!]

[boutthisonetime]

[The wall-mounted unit of room 647 on floor 10 is picking up the activity of a young man in pair of tied down coveralls, currently covered in smears of paint and dry-wall dust. In addition to his usual getup, Ellis is wearing a tool-belt and has a welder's mask (pulled up) strapped to his head in place of his hat. At least he looks like he's bathed

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[mississippikiss]

[ Rogue, being on the 10th floor herself, can't help but notice the noise. She takes a walk down the hall, following the sounds of construction growing louder until she reaches 647. Somehow, she's not surprised by what she finds. She laughs quietly. ]

El, that's kinda' Spartan, don't ya' think?

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[boutthisonetime]

Aw man, she really has taken to that 'El' thing, hasn't she? Oh well, it could be worse!

"Oh, hey!" He puts down his beer, pushing himself off the saw horse he'd been leaning on. "I, uh, well it's not done yet!" Ellis has to grin, even if it is a sheepish grin. Nobody's told him about rooms changing to suit their owner; in fact, Ellis likes to keep busy, so this whole manual labour thing is doing the trick pretty nicely!

"I'm buildin' up a safe-house, is all. Th'door's been takin' more time'n I figured, but once that's done -- it's th'most important part, after all -- this's gonna be the most awesome safe-room you ever saw." Scratching the side of his face, he adds, "just, y'know, people're sayin' there aren't zombies now but there could be? I figure, nothin' gets through a safe-room door. Might as well take some precautions, y'know?"

[ action ]

[mississippikiss]

What? She's calling him what he told her to. Can't fault her for that.

She stops at the door, leaning across the threshold to peer inside. A cot. All the wonderful, plush amenities this place had to offer, and he opted for a cot. She had to sleep on one of those during an entire event; the mansion turned itself into a hospital and no one could sleep thanks to mysterious explosions. The very idea of cots left a bitter taste in her mouth now.

She spent most of that event passed out on Diogenes' floor anyway.

"Ain't a bad idea," she agreed, leaning back against the unfinished doorjamb. "But I'll tell ya', the real annoyin' events roll around, and the entire place changes completely. Might keep ya' safe when things are normal, but don't count too much on it when things get sticky."

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[boutthisonetime]

Hey, a cot by Ellis' standards is a respectable rung up on the ladder of shitty living conditions. For the last couple of weeks, sleeping on the floor (once in a drainage swamp pipe, but that's a story for another day!) with gunfire going every few minutes had been a welcome lullaby.

Besides, he has his plans, oh yes he does.

"That's what folk keep telling me," Ellis looks determined, rather than distressed. Either it's the optimism of the new or just his special brand of willingness to bring it! "But that's why I'm plannin' also on an armory there," he points along one wall, "and all the supplies you could need to patch a feller up nearby. Food, water, good old HDTV, movies... I guess blankets if it's gonna stay cold out. Anybody stops by Ellis's Safe Room of Protection, they won't be runnin' into trouble, that's fer sure." Okay, so maybe he is trying to be impressive. But just a little bit!

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[mississippikiss]

Rogue couldn't hold that optimism against him. She did, however, hope that naivete didn't go hand-in-hand with that optimism. He was a nice guy, and she would hate to see him break. She'd seen that happen far too often for her liking.

"And what good's a TV and movies gonna' do you if we ain't got electricity?" She wasn't being condescending. Truly, she was curious if he had a plan for this.

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[boutthisonetime]

"Oh, that's easy. Grab a portable generator, store it in easy reach, and store the gas cans somewhere else that's also'n easy reach. Learned our lesson the hard way this one time back in Georgia: back when we still had the Jimmy Gibbs Jr. stock car..." Here he looks downcast for a moment, but then continues, "so we come up to this bridge, and there's these other survivors which don't exactly come a dime a dozen, and it turns out that they spent the last night just tryin' to get the damn thing up, on account of they was takin' a boat to try an escape the zombies for good?

"Anyways, the bridge was hooked up to this generator that was on the other side of the river, but the other survivors weren't so willin' to help us out, only they wouldn't really say why. So we found some tunnels and went under, which smelled almost as bad as the swamp we crashed in later that week, and on the other side, there's the generator but no gas. Anyway, the other survivors didn't mind shootin' down the zombies, but we find out they don't wanna come down on

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[mississippikiss]

Her brow seemed to be traveling higher and higher the longer his story went on. The world he came from sounded absolutely terrifying. She didn't want to think about what her own world would be like if a zombie apocalypse happened (we'll leave Marvel Zombies alone for now.) The idea of losing her faculties and turning into something completely brainless scared her.

"Wow. You really do," she said, sounding sincerely impressed. "I know where I'm comin' when shit hits the fan."

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[boutthisonetime]

[There is a tiny Ellis patting himself on the back for being awesome in the back of his mind right now, sort of!]

"Heh, awesome. You got a preference for snacks? I mean... if the place changes and the room gets lost then there's not much as one can do for it, but if it's not that bad then I can probably store a few things for folks. Last thing you wanna hear in event of a wait in a cramped room is, 'Ellis, you got shit for taste!'" At least this time he can do something about that!

[ action ] Sorry for the sloooow.

[mississippikiss]

That earns him a hearty laugh, and she leans over to cuff his arm lightly.

"Gimme' some cornbread and moonshine, and I'll never leave."

She pushes a hand through her hair and begins gathering it into a loose bun, securing it back with a tie she has on her wrist.

"So what're you tryin' to do here? Anythin' I can help with?"

Re: [ action ] I will wait forever for the cute-levels of this thread.

[boutthisonetime]

"Girl, I like the way you think." Ellis is grinning from ear to ear as he shoves away from his resting place and looks around the piles of in progress work that he has going.

"Well, I was just about finished that door, but it's gotta be reinforced when I hinge it up. You wanna help me by takin' these," he tosses her a packet of extremely heavy-duty looking door hinges, which clink upon several heavy-duty bolts and pieces. Gesturing to the powerdrill, he continues, "get them set up on the frame while I hold this sucker in place? That'd actually help a lot! I got everything set up and ready to go, just needed an extra set of hands!"

[ action ]

[mississippikiss]

A man was actually trusting her unquestioningly with power tools. That was refreshing, to say the least. Even back home, the boys were hesitant to let her near their handiwork. But this? This was more like it.

"You got it, sug'," Rogue assured him, hefting the drill in one hand and slipping a handful of bolts into her pocket. God only knew how she managed to fit them in her pocket with pants that tight, though. "Need any help gettin' it held up?"

Superstrength definitely had its advantages.

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[boutthisonetime]

If Ellis actually knew about Rogue's various abilities, he would probably be having some serious envy issues at the moment! However... "Nope, I got it!" though he was obviously taking some effort to get the door into place; his face had turned a nice shade of red as he strained to haul it up. Once it was up, it seemed as though he had things under control!

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[mississippikiss]

Rogue might have even been able to do this one-handed. She pressed a few screws between her lips, holding the extras there so she'd have both hands free to position the first hinge. Top hinge in place, she suddenly paused and looked over to Ellis.

"Woun' it be a betta' idea t' put the hinge on the insi'e?" Rogue mumbled through the screws. "Wha' if someone tries'a unscrew it from the outsi'e while you're in?"

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[boutthisonetime]

Okay, so he might not be envious so much as busy gawking in nigh upon childish glee... but that can happen another day! In the meantime, he gives her a frown, then replies, "shit, I never thought'a that. Back where I come from, only people who woulda tried it were the ones you were tryin' to protect; the rest just smashed their way on in if they had a chance!"

Holding the door steady he gestures with his head to screwdriver. "Well, that thing's got a reverse setting, let's do this again!"

[ action ]

[mississippikiss]

Rogue actually brought up a good idea. That didn't happen very often. She wasn't stupid, she just wasn't one of the thinkers. This was, indeed, a moment to be savored into posterity.

"Yeah, tha's why they pay me the big bucks," she snorted still talking through the screws in her mouth. "Then again, if ya' got somethin' tryin'a pound through, puttin' hinges on the insi'e'd make it easier'a bust down."

She frowned deeply, looking over to Ellis. This was exactly why they didn't let her make the decisions, or perhaps exactly why they should.

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[boutthisonetime]

Ah, wonderful. Two meat-shields trying to think an idea through! At least they're working in their general areas of expertise! Thinking on this for a few moments, his frown of concentration turns into a big grin. "How 'bout we put these screws on the outside, then cover'm over with some sheet metal? I got a torch in there, wouldn't take more'n a few minutes!" Those hinges were pretty heavy duty! They can probably handle it!