ArchivedLogs:Lost & Found

Lost & Found
Dramatis Personae Alex, Anole	2015-03-22 "That offer still on the table?"
Location <MOR> The Realm of Lost Things
Cramped and dark and tortuous, the tunnels here are not the most hospitable place. With enough exploration or someone to guide the way, it's possible to navigate through the underground labyrinth to these dim halls, lit sporadically by the often faltering electricity stolen from the city above or candles when those fail. Down here tarps cover rows of crates or plastic tubs shut against the large rat and mouse population; inside is a trove of goods scavenged from curbs and dumpsters and patched back into working order, or outright stolen from stores or homes or people. There's generally food to be found, canned more than anything else, and a mismatched assortment of clothing and blankets in various states of repair. There's other things, though, too; aging electronics, children's toys, bicycles. Board games (often missing pieces). Pet supplies. Dishes. Soap. It's hit or miss whether any of it is /useful/ or even in one piece, and there's no sort of organization to the mess. It keeps them going, though, and occasionally there are gems to be found in this communal trove scavenged together by the community. Free for any Morlock to take from and generally /viciously/ guarded against outsiders who have the misfortune to stumble in. Rattlerattle. Skitterrattle. Dripdrip. The tunnels are never /really/ quiet. A pair of rats is unearthing themselves from a pile of odds and ends to disappear down the tunnels. Something is dripping from the ceiling, forming a slimy puddle on the floor. Somewhere deep in the back of the room something shuffles, and then quiets. There's a quiet scraping against the ceiling; Anole isn't entering along the floor but crawling up high, a backpack strapped to his chest. He makes his way down the wall, dropping to the floor to unzip the backpack, starting to unload cans of food into a plastic tub. Exploring the corridors of the Morlock tunnels is not exactly the safest way to spend an afternoon. Hoodie stained damp from dripping... liquid of a questionable nature, shoes glopping along wetly, Alex is frowning as he weaves through the piles of junk carefully. "Uh. Hi. Sorry." Alex, as he walks, has been apologizing here and there to anything that moves - rats, shadows, little piles of junk that fall over. You can take the boy out of Canada.... So far, at least, nothing has responded to his quiet apologies, and he has pulled the backpack closer to his chest. Anole looks up, wide-eyed, blinking; he presses himself back against a wall, starting to fade into the grungy brown-grey of the filthy walls. "... what are you apologizing for." Anole gets wide-eyes turned on him in return. "O-oh, hey, Anole." Alex blinks and tugs his hood up a little bit further over his hair, reflexively. "Uh. For... scaring people." There is a pause. "Or getting in people's way. Uh. Or..." He trails off. "Uh, it's just what you do, eh?" Color sparks on his cheeks, and he scratches awkwardly at his head. "Been a while. How are you doing, Anole?" "What... people?" Anole steps slowly away from the wall, skin shifting back to green. Slowly he stoops, returning to unloading his backpack. "Trust me, you're not that scary." Alex pauses for a moment, awkwardly. "It's possible they were just rats living in the sewer." The teenager says, slowly, eyes flicking to the ground embarrassed. "It's not so easy to tell sometimes, so I was just... you know. Taking the safer option." Wincing, Alex presses on. "Hey, birds can be scary. We steal shiny things from you, and after a while, you can aim poop like woah." Anole presses his knuckles to his lips, stifling a small chuckle. "We steal everything," he points out with a sweep of huge-clawed arm out to the dump around him, "and live in the /sewer/ I don't think you're going to scare people down here with poop." He pauses a moment, considering. "Cassowaries, though. I'd be scared of those." "Swans, too. They'll fuck your shit up and leave you for the scavengers, just because they can." Alex shudders and shakes his head. "Asshole birds are bad news. Geese. Yuck." Glancing at the piles around him, Alex shrugs his shoulders. "I need to start stealing more myself. My shack got raided by some rent-a-cops, so I lost everything I didn't have on me. I've been thinking about trying to do sketches or something for some cash, but...." Alex shrugs and gestures to himself. "Dunno how many customers I'd get." "I don't know. Maybe a lot if you were a raven," Anole suggests with a crooked smile. "So long as they didn't catch on you were a person. There'd be a novelty there -- though I guess it'd be hard to get people to pay you actual money as a raven." Frown. "Probably best to stick to stealing. I bet you'd be better at /that/ as a raven, too. Hm." "Small things, yeah. It's the larger, heavier stuff that I can't steal as well. Food, though - that's easy. Just grab some off someone's plate, or out of a convenience store." Alex's smile widens and he shrugs his shoulders. "Then people just go off yelling about the asshole crows, and I laugh, and laugh, and laugh...." The teenager flashes a grin at Anole and takes a couple steps towards Anole. "My secret identity as guypersondude is safe for another day." "Larger heavier stuff you just steal as a person." Anole shrugs a shoulder, tucking the last of the cans from his backpack into the tub and then replacing its lid. He slings his now-emptied pack onto his back again, taking a couple steps back towards the wall. "Which is way more efficient than stealing off people's plates anyway." "Seven mouths eat quicker than one," Alex says, glancing around the room. He pauses, awkwardly, hiking his own backpack up on his shoulder. "Hey, so... uh. A while ago, you offered me a place to crash if I needed it. That offer still on the table?" Alex doesn't meet the other teenager's eyes. Anole shrugs a shoulder, waving a hand around the grungy tunnel space. "Don't think this place is going anywhere." His crooked smile returns. "But you'll have to get better at stealing. Or something. You live down here, you don't just feed yourself." "Yeah. I understand. I might be able to help fix some of the stuff that we've got around that's broken, too. My dad taught me a bit of construction - metal and gears and engines and stuff." Alex glances around the room of broken junk, and he chews on his bottom lip for a moment. "Should I... where do I go?" Alex asks, shifting the backpack to adjust it better on his shoulder. "Just find somewhere that's not taken, or are there places for new people?" "Naw you just find somewhere and don't take anyone's stuff." Anole backs up a little further, straight /up/ the wall towards the ceiling. "Might want to grab some blankets. Or something. Find somewhere to make comfortable. There's usually some free nooks off the main cavern. C'mon, I'll show you." Alex's eyes follow the other man and he nods. "Alright. Can do." He places his backpack down on the ground and crouches down. He seems to almost melt, head and body vanishing in a shift of pale skin, red, and black feathers sprouting through flesh - and the sound of crunching bones. A group of birds struts their way out of the clothes, one crankily pecking at another, as several of them bend to gather the clothes together and place it on top of the backpack. Three of them, though, flap off of the ground and follow towards Anole, a familiar caw on their lips. "Guypersondude!" Anole just hitches his bakpack onto his chest, scurrying up onto the ceiling and heading back down towards the main cavern.