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 Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 7:08 pm
((This is a roleplay thread wherein Lithium takes his broken guitar to Technetium to have it fixed, as per Neon's suggestion. ^^))
Lithium entered the labs cautiously, his eyes darting around as though he were loath to be there. He clutched a long package wrapped in what appeared to be an old sock to his chest, protectively as though it had been his firstborn baby (though really, if Lithium had a child, he probably wouldn't have taken care of it that well). He stood dripping in the doorway for a moment, rain drops cutting streaks through the filth covering his body, and then stepped inside.
"Techneti-whatever?" he shouted. "Are you in here?"
She had better be. He didn't have time to run back and forth very often.
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Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 7:13 pm
Technetium, busily examining a housefly carcass in the corner, straightened at the sound of her name and winced slightly, putting a hand to her back. She was still very sore from her fall off the stairs, and had in fact come to find out what had happened; but no one was on the table, and she could only find the dried, smooth white material that had knocked her off.
Pica (the ferret-gargoyle she lived with, who had flown her here since she wasn't up to taking the bus) chattered from a shelf near the ceiling at the newcomer. Tech turned and saw that it was Lithium, the guitar player. She raised a hand in greeting and walked to him.
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Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 7:24 pm
"Um. Hi."
Lithium hated approaching people. Bleh. And the way Tech just STARED at whoever she was talking to...it was more than a little creepy. He shuddered and shook himself mentally.
"I've got kind of a problem....uh, Neon told me I should talk to you because I ca--I don't really have the s**t to fix it myself." Bending, he placed the bundle on the ground and unwrapped it to reveal his now five-stringed and useless guitar.
"One of the strings is busted," he said, pointing at the vulnerable top string. "And you can't get replacements. I NEED to have six. Got any ideas?"
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Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 7:34 pm
Tech squatted (with some difficulty) and picked up the guitar. She looked at the wire strings and thumbed them, listening to the notes.
"The strings are different gauges. I'd have to experiment to find the right gauge for the sixth string. Who made this? Where did they acquire the wire for the strings?" She thought to herself for a second. "We could get wire at the hardware store. But it is closed at this time of night."
She thought of Ocean's 11 and The Usual Suspects. Those men were not halted by locks. "There may be an unlocked window," she offered. "We can look."
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Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 7:39 pm
Lithium thought.
"Some ******** in Tennessee with a lot of free time made it," he said slowly. "No idea how or what with."
His eyes widened a little at her suggestion. "Break into the hardware store?" he repeated. "I guess...whatever. I don't got s**t to do, all I wanted to do tonight is play this piece of s**t." He poked at his guitar with his toe. It wasn't really a piece of s**t; it had been good to him up until now. But then the jackass had to go and break. Bleh.
"You know where it is?"
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Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 7:47 pm
"No."
Technetium turned on her heel and whistled as loudly as she could. Pica rolled off the shelf, righted herself inches from the floor, and flapped over to Tech. Pica whistled back musically.
"Are you coming?" Tech looked over her shoulder at Lith.
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Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 7:53 pm
Lithium quirked an eyebrow.
"You want me to RIDE that thing? That flies? Particularly when we have no idea where we're going?"
Psychobitch! What the hell was she thinking?!?
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Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 7:56 pm
Technetium emitted a minute sigh.
"Yes. I do know where we are going - my apartment, so I can look up the hardware store's address, and get money." This all seemed completely obvious to Tech, so she just stared at Lithium expectantly, and then had a thought.
"Unless you know of another source of several gauges of wire you can use to restring your guitar?" This was not sarcastic in the least, as such things were beyond Tech - she really meant the question.
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Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 8:03 pm
Lithium snorted.
"You're getting money when we're going to break into the store? What is the point of THAT?"
But he climbed on the godforsaken beast nonetheless. "And no, I'm afraid I do not." He scowled. "No need to get bitchy about it," he added under his breath.
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Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 8:05 pm
"Bitchy?" Tech asked, as she climbed gingerly on to Pica's back. She didn't wait for an answer though, since she suspected she wouldn't understand. "We can't steal the wire, that is illegal. We are just taking it and leaving payment after hours."
Pica launched off the floor and flew to the window, after a short diversion to a snuffle up a spider in the corner of the ceiling with protests from Tech. They left, Tech leaning out to close the window behind her.
Pica soared over the city, swooping ocassionally and whistling in delight. They arrived at Tech's apartment after 10 minutes or so, and Technetium slid down the cord inside her window to fetch a $20 bill Sal had left on the countertop, and quickly looked up the local Gaian hardware shop on the Internet.
Back on Pica's back, Tech twisted to look at Lithium. "Ready?"
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Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 8:14 pm
Lithium shrugged, still shaking violently from the first leg of their journey--goddamn did he hate flying. Heights on their own didn't scare him, but this flying bullshit was WHACK. And the way that damned rodent kept swooshing around was making him sick.
"...Whynot," he replied, his voice coming out much more sickly and squeaky than he would have liked. "Just get this the ******** over with."
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Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 8:28 pm
Tech furrowed her eyebrows. "You look ill. You should have told me earlier. I will ask Pica to fly less erratically, but she does not have a very long attention span, so I cannot guarantee she'll listen."
Tech poked Pica's neck and whistled at her. Pica whistled in a very derivative way, but flew more or less straight to the hardware store after that, and left them on the ledge of a window, which luckily had a hole in the screen.
"Are you alright?" She asked, while surveying the inside of the store through her cupped hands.
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Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 8:35 pm
Lithium glanced up from where he had been doubling over the windowsill and gave a very sardonic thumbs-up. "********," he called back weakly, and then heaved the contents of his not-so-full stomach over the sill.
Straightening, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and pushed his guitar through the hole in the screen. He clambered after it, sustaining a few scratches to his leg from the stiff wire, and then waited for Technetium to follow.
"Come on."
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Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 8:39 pm
Tech watched him vomit and then climb through the hole, impassively. "I apologise for the rough ride." She crawled through, a little slowly, her back aching. She would need to rest for a while after this.
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Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 8:50 pm
Lithium snorted as he peered over the inside windowsill. "But you don't really care, right? You don't, like, feel anything. So why apologize?"
It was a bit long to the floor, but there was a festive Halloween electric pumpkin plugged in on the windowsill. Lithium took a moment to scrawl a moustache on it with his loose dust, and then slid down the cord to the floor. He landed a bit roughly and felt his stomach turn again, but managed to hold it down. He wasn't sure what he'd throw up, anyway.
"Can you get down that way?" he asked, pointing at the cord. She didn't look particularly, er...agile.
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