hydrokinetics | I started thinking out loud: I'm so sick and tired of being sick and tired [W2, Monday]

[It's pretty early in the morning and Percy's given up on trying to sleep. The hotel is quiet and weirdly peaceful so far. It's Percy's first hint that something might go wrong today, but that's on par for the course. Instead, he quietly climbs out of his bed and beckons Mrs. O'Leary to follow, leaving Harry to sleep in and heading down to the kitchen in his pajamas.

Mrs. O'Leary enters first, snuffling around to check out the area and finding Jason Todd in there instead with a bowl of cereal. She barks cheerfully, remembering Jason from earlier as the nice boy who pet her (which...doesn't say much, since everyone seems to.) It doesn't take long for Percy to come around the corner, still tugging on the hem of his ripped but clean t-shirt and suddenly looking up when he sees the other boy.]

Hey. [He sounds pleasant enough, if a little exhausted, but he gives Jason a half-grin anyway. He's honing in on the cereal though.] Am I the only one who thinks it's weird that some of this food doesn't fit in with their whole cowboy thing?

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[Jason seems to be doing more staring than eating at the moment, moving the spoon in his bowl as his cereal starts to get pretty damn soggy. Yesterday wasn't a good day. Today probably won't be a good day, either. But he acknowledges Percy with a glance, cocking an eyebrow and then huffing out a half-hearted laugh.]

Nah. You're not the only one. Told Noctis as much when we found ramen cups a couple days ago. [Bless the cup noodles, tbh.] But I'll take the weirdness over whatever "period accurate" slop they have around here.

[He still wants hot dogs, though. Let him get sick off nitrates.]

Considering that'd involve skinning our own meat and fish and probably a lot of beans and eggs? Yeah, I'll take the weirdness, too. [He'll move to enter the kitchen, heading for a cabinet and opening it to rummage around. Mrs. O'Leary approaches Jason and stands on her hind legs, resting her paws on the boy's leg and wagging her tail. Good morning bro.]

You'd think they'd give us a microwave or something at least if they were going to pull this off. [Dig, dig, dig. He doesn't think anything of the fact that Jason's here or that his tattoo's in direct eyesight or that he's not even sure if there're spiders or anything in this cabinet, but eventually he turns up triumphant with a box of pop-tarts he obtained from the store earlier.]

How long have you been up? ["It's pretty early" goes unsaid.]

You'd think. But then they'd ask us to use it as a murder weapon for compensation.

[This is fine. Everything is fine. He reaches over to give Mrs. O'Leary a scratch on the top of her head, letting his bowl of cereal be for the moment. He is totally spotting that tattoo, by the way... But does he dare bring it up? It is a mystery.]

An hour. Maybe less. Didn't really bring a watch with me.

[He'd shrug, if not for the very important dog petting happening at the moment.]

What about you, Mister... [Glancing at the tattoo again.] Senātus Populusque Rōmānus? Couldn't sleep thinking of all the other phrases you could have gotten on that arm of yours? Or maybe regretting not getting duped into the kanji for "ass" instead?

Bludgeoning with a microwave could probably do some damage. And the other thing I don't get is how we're even really keeping track of hours here. [You know. Speaking of no watches. Mrs. O'Leary appreciates the head scratches and wags her tail quickly. Percy's busy tearing open the box to examine how many pop-tarts are left, though he pauses when Jason brings that up.]

I'm surprised you even know what that means. [It's not like Percy really knew. But he rolls his eyes and pulls out two uncooked pastries.] Pretty sure the Romas wouldn't have been cool with tattooing "ass" somewhere on my body, but I'll take it back to them for suggestions. [He raises an eyebrow.] But yeah, couldn't sleep about sums it up.

Pretty sure the Romans have discovered what it means to have a sense of humor over the past centuries. [He thinks Percy is talking about Romans... as in people who live in Rome, the capital of Italy. There is no reason for him to think otherwise? Whoops.

Either way, he's just going to keep pretending everything is Fine.]

Fair enough. Not like sleeping is going to do us any good here. [H...ah.....ahaha..........] Might as well be up and at them early. Means more time for us to try and find a place out this dump before some nutbar tries to deep six someone else.

Been talking to a lot of Romans lately, Jason? [It's a clipped sort of question, partially because he thinks it's funny and partially because there are definitely three Roman's he's worried about right now that he can't get in touch with. But Jason wouldn't know and so Percy lets it go.]

Oh come on, didn't you hear? If they want it to count nobody's going after anybody until Thursday. [Ha. Ha. He's unwrapping the pop-tart and taking a bite, seemingly unbothered.] But I think we can agree to that. It's been a week and we're already running out of places to go from here. So what's next?

Might have. Not in the last two weeks, but— [He shrugs.] Neither has anyone else here.

[Either way, eh. He frowns at the commentary.]

Who's to say that getting their rocks off isn't a big enough reward? You saw how Nui acted, didn't you? Total freak. [And that's the thing that worries him the most.] We still haven't checked those boarded up buildings, though. Or tried "alternate" methods of getting into the train. Plenty of stuff to do— as long as you're creative.

[Haha, yeah. He's putting up an act, but Percy's right. They're running out of places.]

[He opens his mouth to argue before he realizes that with his time here and his time in Tartarus, it's been a month.] Yeah. Guess not.

I'd ask if we're sure it isn't all an act, but I don't want to take my chances with her. I'll pass. [He lifts an eyebrow, chewing on his poptart slowly.]

Well Mr. Breaking-and-Entering...what are you suggesting we do to start thinking more creatively around here?

Easy.

[Just. Shoves some soggy cereal in his mouth to punctuate that sentence. Add some dramatic suspense to it. The whole nine yards.

What a dumb teenager.]

We break, and we enter. [Said like it's supposed to be obvious.] Most of the interesting stuff around here is off-limits. The boarded up buildings. The conductor's cabin. Hell, even the second floor of the Sheriff's Station. That makes me think our ticket out of this place could be in one of those.

Better than some of the other ideas I've heard around here. To get into the boarded up buildings we'd need the right tools. Last time I looked we just have a couple of shovels. And the conductor's cabin still won't budge.

As long as we pull enough of the boards off, a couple of shovels should be enough to break a window and slip inside any of the buildings. As for the conductor's cabin, maybe we'll have to use something a bit more... explosive. If you catch my drift.

[Bombs. He's talking about bombs.]

[And before he can stop himself:]

Why does everyone know how to build a bomb except for me? [WHAT THE FUCK DOES YOUR FATHER TEACH YOU?]

You really think that'd work when we couldn't break off the lock in the first place?

The internet. [BLUNTLY. But also, totally bs. Sorry we can't all have Batman as our father, Percy.]

No idea. But we won't know unless we try, right?

Gonna tell you the same thing I told somebody else. Before you do something stupid, talk to somebody about it. Keeps you accountable, lets us know somebody else didn't tamper with your stuff.

[REASONABLE AND SENSIBLE SUGGESTION, PERCY.]

Aye aye, Capt'n. I'll be sure to whisper in your ear before I do anything stupid. Or at least — whisper in the ear of someone else that seems trustworthy. Sounds good to you?

[An eyeroll.]

Don't be a jerk. [But he's still pretty good-natured about it, even grinning a bit.] As long as it's someone, I'd feel a lot better about it? Call it personal experience.

I started thinking out loud: I'm so sick and tired of being sick and tired [W2, Monday]

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