Post by Admin on Aug 8, 2009 10:41:21 GMT -5
Play It By Ear
Suji:
Suji stood up suddenly straight. It felt like her brains were on the verge of exploding out of her ears, like someone was driving Hot-wheels cars inside her skull, like, like-
"ACHOO!" She sneezed for what felt like the millionth time. It was dusty in the room she'd taken as her own, and she was sorting through piles of what seemed like pure crap: broken knickknacks, parts of chairs long since dismantled, even a desk drawer or two (that did not go to the relatively large desk she'd found pushed to one side of the room).
Suji had been systematically piling everything, and then shooting it with the dracon gun she'd had since rescuing Karl... what felt like ages ago. It was on disintegration intensity when she did that, which cleared the piles nicely enough. Then she switched the gun's focus back to its lowest setting, and repeated the whole process over again.
Her door was opened, as was the window next to her. It was the only way to circulate air in the room, though at least the window didn't face out to anything important. The sunlight that came in was bright and buttery, making all the dust floating around visible.
Suji found a strange lump of material underneath a few stacks milk crates. The crates she had tossed into the 'possibly usable' category of items she'd found (which was pretty small). This oddly shaped lump was covered with a cloth that had been draped over it. She tugged the cloth off (sending billions of dust atoms spewing back into the air), and it took her a moment to realize what she was looking at.
A record player. Equipped with big brassy horn and everything.
"Ah-ACHOO!"
Drake:
Drake was rolling down the hallway again, in one of the wheeled office chairs from his room. As he went past Suji's room he heard the tsseww of a dracon beam. "What the..." What was going on in there?
Drake knocked softly twice before turning the knob without waiting for a response. "Are you ok in there?" He just hoped that Suji wasn't being attacked by controllers or something.
Suji:
"Yeah I'm fine," Suji replied, before sneezing again. Her eyes were watering a little, and she was standing in a pair of jeans and a simple, unicolor t-shirt. She looked down at the dracon gun in her hand. "Was using this to do a little cleaning. Figured we can't exactly part everything outside for the trash route to take it."
She stood aside for a moment, and noticed for the firs time that he was actually seated on a rolling chair. Suji blinked, arched an eyebrow, and then shook her head lightly. "Look what I found though. Can't decide if its junk or if we could actually get some use out of it." She gestured towards the record player on the ground. "What do you think?"
Drake:
"That thing looks ancient," Drake said as he got up to get a closer at the record player. "Even if it doesn't work, we could display it like an antique collector would. But we should definitely test it out." Drake looked it over carefully, trying to figure out how to work it, and resisting the urge to sneeze. His family had never owned one of these contraptions when he was growing up.
"Have you found any records for it? If we get some, I'm sure we could figure out how this thing works. Or maybe you already know. I've never even touched one of these things before." Drake was getting a little excited about playing some 'old fashioned' music.
Fin:
Fin was on a mission, and my target is about to be destroyed.
Fin crashed into Drake's rolly chair with his own moments after Drake got up from it. Fin, who was going fast enough to push a weighted chair a good distance down the hallway, now found himself flipping out of his own chair as it got caught up on the Drake's which had flipped over when he hit it.
Fin went sprawling down the hall, part of his body landing on the chairs painfully and the rest landing on the hard floor. Neither experience was very fun.
When he could speak he whispered out in a fake vengeful voice, "This game to you sir Drake, but I shall get you next time." Then he just decided to lay on the floor for a while until things stopped hurting.
Suji:
Suji laughed when Drake said that she might know how to work with this. "Unfortunately, I wasn't born like 500 years ago or whenever these things were in fashion," she smirked at him. "Before my time, by just a smidge." But she dug a little deeper into the pile of odds and ends, and stacked underneath something else where what looked like record jackets. She pulled them out (with a little effort), and blew away the dust.
Three out of the five record jackets held nothing but broken pieces of thin plastic, and there wasn't even that in one of them. The last had an intact record. She wiped away the dust over the title. Gospel music. She looked up to Drake, unable to hide the disgust in her expression, and held it up so he could see. No words were necessary to explain the revulsion on her face.
Just then another chair came crashing into the room. Along with a boy. Suji jumped backwards, though she hadn't really been in danger of being hit. Fin's landing was anything but graceful. She looked from the prone kid, to Drake again, and then shrugged, as if to say, 'Don't ask me.'
Drake:
Drake was about to suggest that they try out the gospel record when he was startled by the sound of a crash. What was that? He turned around and say Fin laying in some sort of heap on the floor. Drake just raised his eyebrows as a grin spread across his face.
"You don't know how to work an old record player, do you?" He didn't even offer to help Fin up. He would manage. "We got some gospel music you can listen to if you do."
Fin:
Fin jumped up. "Gospel music! I love Gospel music!" Fin turned around and saw the record Suji was holding and then he was paying more attention to Suji herself. "Hello, I don't think we've had the pleasure. My name is Glorfindle Larson." Fin bowed a bit. "And I do believe that all pain substained in my valient effort to take down this rouge," he said motioning towards Drake, "has healed at the sight of one of such beauty as yourself."
He looked back down at the record player. He dropped into a sitting position as easily as he had stood up and pulled the record player over to him. It was quite dusty but a brief examination showed that it was in fine working order. Leave it to some old priest to keep one of these things around. "It'll play I think. And I don't think Gospel is our only choice. There are some boxes of records stored in the choir room. I don't know how many of them are unbroken but I swear I saw at least one Luther Vandross record back there."
Drake:
"We should definitely check those out." It looked like they at least wouldn't have to listen to the same couple of songs over and over again. Then Drake snapped his fingers as a new idea came to him.
"We should go out to the city and see if we can scrounge up a collection of records. But where could we find them?" Drake did not have a clue where you would find records. "Maybe there would be some at a museum, or a retirement home. Oh! Or at a pawn shop!" Drake did not know that he could get so worked up over an old-fashioned sound-maker.
Suji:
Drake did not look nearly disgusted enough by the idea of listening to gospel music. Sure, they'd been living in a pretty musicless world since the invasion, but if their last options were silence and the hymns to a savior from the skies... well, Suji would pass. All that came from that big starry ceiling above was trouble. Besides, really, if it was going to be vocal music, people were going to be singing along to it. She didn't want it stuck in her head.
The other one, someone she might have seen but hadn't yet been introduced to (it wasn't so long ago that she'd been dropped off by Luce, hence the fact that she was trying to clean her room-to-be now), also seemed to be anxious to listen to the gospel music. One against two. And then he was being terribly (no really, terribly) cheesy and charming, and Suji was so surprised that she laughed out loud. "Unfortunately, in your attempt on said rogue's life, you overlooked the fact that I happen to be Maleficent-style femme fatale. Only with a less impressive wardrobe." Suji looked down at her jeans.
Drake snapped, and Suji looked back over to him. He was proposing a mission into the city, and instantly she was excited. Not only did it mean getting a feel for the layout, it would also mean not being trapped with the gospel record... a record she planned to accidentally-on-purpose smash to tiny, bitty pieces once neither of them were around. "There might actually be some record stores too--in New York they used to have them, at least in the Village. Though they could also have been torn down and replaced with something else since the invasion. Don't think entertainment, especially ancient entertainment would necessarily be on the list of 'Things Worth Keeping Now That We've Conquered the World'. But a pawn shop would work too. Those might actually be doing good business."
Fin:
Fin smiled. He was still bent over the record player so his smile couldn't be seen but it was there and it was genuine. He had missed making people laugh. Everything had gotten so serious so fast that it was good to do something ridiculous and be rewarded with other's pleasure for once.
He would have responded to her comment about Malificent-whatits but Drake had already proposed a mission to the city and Suji had already jumped on the bandwagon.
Fin's hands clenched on the record player before he forced them to relax and he was glad that his face wasn't visible because it had grown decidely less cheery at the proposal. He remembered the last time he had taken a trip into a yeerk occupied city for non-essentials and that had ended with him on a first name basis with an evil eye thing that looked ridiculously and felt like death at your door.
When he had control of his expression again he stood with the record player in his hands. "Guys, not to be a kill joy, but I'm pretty sure we have enough old junk around here to get rid of without adding more to it."
Suji:
Fin's body language had changed for a split second, but then he was back again, and Suji wrote it off as probably the beginning of sneeze. Then he stood, still holding the record player. He didn't want to go. Maybe he didn't want them to go either. And that was reasonable enough; they didn't really know much about Dallas, it was a new faction. But you didn't learn anything except from going out into the city. Even on simple missions like this (maybe moreso on the simple ones) there was always opportunity for scouting.
Not to mention a record player and some music might actually do a lot of good for them all. Not only would it boost morale, but it might make the process of junk-clearing a little less tedious and mind-numbing. Suji looked over at Fin. "Well, there's a difference between old junk you're using a space-alien's gun to destroy, and old junk that might improve the mood around your hideout. Besides, it will be good to get a feel of the city, whether we're morphed or passing as Controllers. We're going to be living here from now on: both here as in Dallas, and here as in this church."
She kept her tone light and gentle: she didn't want to sound like she was completely gung-ho about doing this, because she didn't want Fin to get defensive if he didn't want to do it. But she thought that it was a good idea. Low-risk, as far as anything went these days.
Fin:
Fin still acting nochalance he didn't exactly feel shrugged. "If you want you can go. Finding stuff in the city won't be the hard part I imagine, it's getting it back, especially if we go morphed. If we go the controller route we're still going to be humans going in and out of a place that isn't supposed to be inhabited."
He wanted them to listen to him but he wasn't about to show just how much he wanted it. He smiled at them. "Besides, I've got all I need to occupy me in here. I don't know about you but my room is full of toys and blocks and other brightly colored items. And I have this paper cranes collection I've been working on..." he trailed off, looking towards the door and his room with a worried expression on his face as if he was worried about his paper birds flying off without someone to look after them.
Suji:
"We'll have to set up entrance and exit routes or something," Suji said under her breath. It was true, the Temple wasn't supposed to be inhabited. But people had been arriving for weeks now, though she may have been the last one. "But we can't exactly stay trapped inside this church at all times. If we're careful and don't all leave at once, we won't draw suspicion."
She regarded him for a moment, an eyebrow raised. He did not want to go at all. Maybe he was frightened. It wouldn't be unreasonable. Still. They would have to get used to leaving and entering; it was the only way they were going to get necessities down the line. "If have to tend to your cranes that's fine," Suji said lightly, one side of her mouth curling into a half-smile. "Maybe we can find you some colored paper while we're out."
Suji looked back to Drake. "Actually, what do you think? I'm fine with staying put. But hey, I won't be held responsible if listening to the same few gospel songs over and over drives me to murdering one of you with the blunt end of a cross or something." She smirked. Really, if neither of them wanted to do this (Fin didn't want to go in the first place, and maybe Drake would change his mind even though he'd been the one to suggest it), then Suji wasn't about to fight for it. It would be a nice morale booster and an opportunity for scouting, but not nearly worth trying to force on anyone.
Drake:
This was starting to sound more like work than fun. "You both bring up good points. And I still want to go look for records, but I definitely do not want to stroll around as a human. Having my face known by controllers was not the least bit helpful in Vegas."
"However, not being human brings up a different problem. Do either of you have a morph that would be able to carry records?" Drake honestly didn't know. "I have a couple that could, but both would stick out like a sore thumb around here, with or without records being carried." He was talking about his giraffe and secretary bird morphs.
"Still, I think we could look for promising record-holding locations, while at the same time figuring out how exactly we can get stuff back to The Temple without being noticed. We will have to figure something out eventually anyway, if you ever plan on eating in." Food would be just as hard, or harder, to smuggle in than records.
Drake picked up his rolly chair again and plopped himself down. All this planning was too much work. "Hmm."
Fin:
He seemed to have gotten them to think twice about going and he felt only slightly bad about that. He didn't think it was especially a good idea to just go strolling around the city. He had done that only twice in Vancouver. The first time had ended in a car chase and the second time had ended in a kidnapping.
But was he speaking from experience or fear? Were the two separate? And Drake had made a good point. They couldn't just hide in here forever and they would have to figure out ways in and out of the Temple eventually.
Fin turned over the other rolly chair and sat down in it, feet splayed out. He looked out the window at the weak sunlight of the overcast day. "Why don't we go tonight instead? We'll have the cover of darkness if nothing else and I have a good night time flight morph to fly cover for you guys if you really want the records."
Suji:
"I've got a Capuchin monkey which actually might not be that bad if we go at night. Pretty dexterous, and I'd be able to climb well. Couldn't carry too many though--be able to carry more just as a human with a backpack." She looked back over at Fin, who seemed to be coming around. Maybe he didn't want them to think he was scared, or something, though Suji wouldn't mind if he was just the overly-cautious type. It'd be a nice change of pace from her last faction.
And Drake had voiced what she'd been thinking: this was a problem they'd have to work out anyway. And to be honest, Suji felt more secure about the idea of information gathering in conjunction with a 'trivial' task rather than a more critical one, like getting food. Both of them were sitting down while she stood with her hands on her hips, thinking.
"We could go out now and scout out some places, and then get the stuff later tonight? Or do you want to do it all then? I don't really like the idea of wandering around as a human at night, not knowing where I'm headed. That'll be more suspicious than doing the same during daylight. Never know the condition of street lights."
She walked over to the large desk that was pushed against one wall, and pulled open one of the larger drawers. She'd searched it earlier, and now pulled out a huge yellow phonebook. Plopping it down on the desk, she began to look for pawnshops. "If we do go, this might help narrow the search. Might not be up to date or anything, but could give us a good place to start." Suji turned, looking back at them.
Drake:
"I do not have any morphs that can see really well at night," Drake said as Suji started to look through a phonebook. He had to admit, that was smart thinking. It could save them a lot of time, too.
Drake spun around in a circle in his chair. "But the only morph that I have that blends in is my lizard morph. Well, my moth morph too, but that one will not really help us search. However, if you two can see in the dark, then I would rather fly. Being a lizard out on the streets is pretty stressful with predators and whatnot, and my bird morph can stay in the shadows at night time. I do not think there will be any problems."
Drake spun around again, then said, "We could even see if anyone else wants to come with. If we actually go into someplace, then the more eyes watching their back, the better. I have a feeling that this will be a good group bonding experience." A wide grin appeared on Drake's face.
Aubrey:
Aubrey was napping in one of the unclaimed rooms. She had needed the rest after traveling all the way here, and had ended up curled around her pack and leaning against a dusty wall. She didn't seem to be having a good dream--she was murmuring quietly and twitching, clutching her backpack tightly to her body. This was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a dracon beam going off somewhere in the building.
Blinking, awake now, Aubrey shifted from her spot against the wall and stretched. The pack slipped from her grip, and she moved over to push it against the wall. Was something going on? Or had she just dreamed that? She stood up, dusting her jeans off and sleepily rubbing her eyes. There was talking coming from down the hall, so she followed the sound until she was near enough to hear.
Looking half-awake, Aubrey inched around the doorway. "Hey guys." She hadn't heard all the conversation, but it sounded like they were going out somewhere, which sounded better than staying around here doing nothing. Or having dreams. "Hope I'm not interrupting. What's going on?" A smile was on her face. These were new people, and Aubrey loved meeting new people.
Drake:
Well that was a neat little coincidence, Drake thought to himself. He turned in his chair to see who it was, but he could not remember her name. No worries, he would find out eventually.
"We were just discussing about whether or not we should go look for some records for that thing," he said, pointing to the ancient record player. "Actually, to be more specific, we are trying to decide when to go look for places that might have records. I was just suggesting that we could see if other people wanted to go with. So, what do you say?"
Fin:
Fin stood up and walked over so that he could look over Suji's shoulder at the phone book. He glanced at it and then turned when another young woman entered the room. "Right now it is between going now or going later when it gets dark. I'm a procrastinator by nature so my vote is always for later. But I don't think we should all go in morph. Most of us are more vulnerable in morph than out of it," he said nodding towards Drake who had mentioned the hazards of being a lizard. "And not just to other animals but humans too."
He took a coin out of his pocket and began absently walking it over his knuckles just to give his hands something to do. He didn't like standing still very long and he tried to always have something moving, especially when he was thinking. "We're in a human environment so we should use the morphs that would blend in the best, in this case human. I can fly cover since most people don't look up and I guess someone else could go morphed, maybe. Does anyone have a cat or dog morph around here?"
Suji:
"I've got an owl morph, so I could definitely see well in the dark for searching, if we're gonna have everyone in morph just for a scouting run tonight." She answered while still paging through the book, and was inclined not to mention that she'd been nearly murdered while flying around as that little creature. Didn't exactly make for polite conversation, and she told herself that she had... moved past the whole Toby incident, though it was the first thing that came to mind every time she so much as mentioned morphing the owl. Maybe it always would. She really hoped not.
A new girl walked in (though Suji supposed that she herself was probably the last of the predetermined group to arrive, so maybe she was the 'new' one) and Suji glanced up to offer her a smile. "Not interrupting at all, other than maybe the rolling chair war. But I think they're at a cease-fire at the moment." Drake, who had been busying himself by spinning (Suji had to restrain the temptation to give him a forceful spin herself: that kind of silliness was generally reserved for people you knew better) asked the other girl if she'd like to go.
This was when she noticed that Fin had been reading over her shoulder, and she slid the phonebook closer to him so that it'd be between them, flipped to the businesses listed under pawnshops. "I agree with valiant sir-knight over here. My owl is excellent for scouting, even in more urban areas because it's small, but it's probably a better idea to have some people--or at least one person--going in human. A group of humans might feel like less of a security blanket, but it'd be a lot less conspicuous than a flock of birds." She turned so that she could half-sit, leaning against the desk, and face Drake and Aubrey.
"If no one else is comfortable trying to pass as a Controller, I have no problems with it. Though it really depends on what we're interested in doing with ourselves for the mission: just recon, or actually doing a pick up if we find some tunes?"
Aubrey:
"Oh? A rolling chair war? Sounds exciting." She said, laughing a small bit. So maybe that had been part of the noise that had woken her up.
Aubrey glanced over at the 'thing' Drake was pointing at. It was some kind of record player, and Aubrey resisted the sudden urge to go over and start messing with it. It looked old. "Oh! Cool. There's no records around here?" It seemed like it had been forever since Aubrey had heard any sort of music, human or otherwise.
Although, as exciting as it sounded to go searching for records, Aubrey knew there was still danger to walking around outside no matter what you were doing. Despite that, it still sounded like fun and she'd be able to get a feel for the city of Dallas. She hesitated only momentarily, then nodded at Drake. "Sounds good to me, I'm in."
She leaned against the door frame, listening to Fin and Suji. "So, night time then? I've got a dog morph." The smile had faded a small bit as she said this. "An Alaskan malamute. Does that work?" She wasn't sure how much her type of dog would be out of place around in Dallas, if at all. It didn't seem like Yeerks would care. And if worst came to worst, it was her best morph for doing any damage.
Suji mentioned going in as human and Aubrey shrugged. "It's up to you, I don't mind either way." Her experiences in LA had mostly centered around using their morphs against the Yeerks. The only time that she had really needed to pretend to be a controller had been with Sophie. They had been forced to do it when they needed to steal food. For Suji's last question, Aubrey glanced to Fin and Drake.
Drake:
Drake was happy that they had picked up another explorer to go along with them, but he cringed on the inside when they mentioned disguising themselves as controllers. It brought up the memory of the controller that he had acquired in Vegas, officer Douglas. He had used that morph in order to help take the man's place at work for the tree days it took to starve the yeerk out of his head.
Ironically, his human morph was his least favorite. It even ranked lower than his moth morph. It was just so unnatural to literally be someone else. Drake was sure that officer Douglas's unfit form did not help matters either. For this reason, Drake decided not to mention that he had a human morph. Ray knew about it, and it would probably be better if he kept its use for an emergency disguise anyway.
"I think you will be fine in your dog morph, um... Avery, was it? It will be dark, and I am sure we could make you look like a stray. As far as the goal of our little adventure. I think we should keep it a recon trip, but that does not mean we can not grab something if the perfect opportunity arises." Drake gave a little wink after that last sentence. "Just go with the flow, that is my motto. At least it is now."
Suji:
Go with the flow was a sentiment that, while Suji could appreciate the virtue of being adaptable, grated her nerves down to the core. She didn't like to hear it. Even other idioms of the same basic nature didn't bother her as much. Probably because the 'flow' as she saw it wasn't exactly ever in their favor. But she refrained from commenting on that.
"Going in morph sounds fine to me. If you're in," she gestured to the other girl, "Then we can split into teams of two. Cover more ground that way. But if we're doing that, probably best not to try to grab anything tonight--unless, yeah, a really, really good opportunity comes up." Suji looked between them all, and added: "Also... probably be good to go over names again. Just in case? I'm Suji." She offered a little wave.
Already she was thinking about if she did end up having to impersonate a Controller later, when they knew where they were going. This other girl could go as her dog, which might offer the best protection if they needed a fast get-away too. Tonight though, if they were only scouting, how should they split the teams? So far it sounded like there were three flying morphs, and a dog.
Fin:
"Not Avery Drake. Such bad form not to know the lady's name," he said in keeping with the knight Suji had named him. His british accent was even creeping into his voice. Vancouver had been invaded by Britons. Lukas had been British and so had Aida and Meredith had been South African. So Fin of course had decided that he needed an accent too. When he'd started it'd been quite bad but it was getting better all the time. "I'm Glorfindle," he said with a nod in place of a bow.
"Now, I agree that we should make it a recon mission mostly since we have all the good music we'll ever need right here," he said snatching up the gospel record and changing the subject at the same time to cover the fact that he also didn't know her name. "And if most of us are going to be morphed it would be hard to get anything back anyway. But we can check out this record store place, maybe go back another day. We could scope out a lot of places actually since both Ray and I like our technology and currently we don't have any as shown by our friend here," he said patting the record player lovingly as one might pat a dog.
Drake:
Drake spun around in his chair again. "My bad," he said to Fin. "I am Drake. Drake Blear."
"Whatever you guys decide for teams is good with me. The animals I can turn into are a lizard, fish, giraffe, moth, and secretary bird, if that helps." Drake had been counting of on his fingers, but he overlapped his hands and cracked his knuckles when he finished. Truth be told, he was getting bored with all of this planning. He realized it was necessary, but that did not make it any more interesting.
Aubrey:
Aubrey hadn't caught any of their names before, either. She grinned. Well, at least he'd gotten some of the letters right. "Not Avery. My name's Aubrey. Nice to meet you all." She looked to each as they said their names, trying to stick faces with names. There was still more of the faction to remember, but she had yet to meet the rest of them.
Then she noticed Fin's accent. "Are you British?" There was a hint of excitement in her voice. Since moving here a few years back, she hadn't come across too many people that weren't born and bred in the United States. Her own Australian accent only popped up occasionally, and usually when she was trying to hide it. Or when she got frustrated.
"True, true. I agree it should be recon for now," Aubrey said. Better to figure this place out first. She shifted against the door frame, her back beginning to ache from leaning against it. "Alright, then. What will the teams be?"
Suji:
If Fin planned on playing that record, Suji had to plan on stealing it. No, she wouldn't smash it (though the thought was SO tempting) because the idea of destroying art in a world where art was temporarily put on hold seemed like a terrible atrocity. But she'd definitely hide it. She listened for the names. She hadn't known the other girl's either, and she hadn't been sure that 'Glorfindle' was really a name. Drake she'd at least known from her short stay in Vegas, along with Ray.
Aubrey asked if Fin was British, and Suji fought the urge to roll her eyes. Not out of real annoyance, but because Fin struck her as the type who would get a kick out of dragging out the accent for as long as he could, if he could convince someone that it was real. But he'd dropped it for a short while before Aubrey had come in, so Suji at least knew better.
But teams, yes, that was the matter at hand. And Suji had a strange feeling that if she volunteered her own suggestions for grouping people off, it would make her seem like some sort of psuedo-leader. While the direction came naturally to her, she held herself off from it. It had had dire consequences in Chicago, even if some good had come of it too. But she wasn't so ready to rush into that: especially not since they'd already completely accepted the splitting up thing. Don't domineer, she told herself.
"I'm not sure. I've got an owl, and we should probably keep at least someone with good night vision in each team, however it plays out. What was the nighttime air morph you were talking about earlier?" Suji asked, looking over at Fin.
Fin:
"Bat. Spectral bat. It's a pretty big morph and I wouldn't really have to worry about anything else in the skies which is good. I don't really like the idea of becoming owl prey." All this was said in his normal New England speech so when he turned to Aubrey to answer her question the answer was already obvious. Of course the accent was back in full force by then, already starting to try to adapt itself and slide to meet the Australian one.
"Nope, I'm not British, though a lot of my old faction mates were. Two Brits and one South African. And one deaf kid," he said slipping back into his home town speech as he said the last.
He looked back at Suji. "How big is your owl morph would you say? Would you have to worry about any natural predators?" Not that there were many in a city but better to be safe than sorry.
Suji:
Suji flinched. It wasn't much, but her jaw tightened and she quickly looked away--she'd been watching Fin as he spoke. It was out of place, though nothing terribly dramatic. Easy enough to overlook. She didn't look at him as she answered. "It's a pretty small bird, but owls don't naturally hang around cities, let alone Yeerk-infested ones. Personally I won't be too worried about getting attacked by any other birds, though I'll keep an eye out."
By the time she'd finished talking she was completely back to normal again. Her eyes flicked back up to Fin, calm as they had been, before turning to Drake. "So, you're thinking bird, right?"
Drake:
"Yeah, that is what I was thinking. But I could use one of my other morphs too, as long as I know someone else will be helping to watch for predators." The last thing Drake wanted was to end up as some raccoon's midnight snack.
"So pretty much my only two good options are lizard or bird. I suppose I could switch between the two, depending on the location." It finally looked like they were coming to a consensus, and Drake was glad for it. It is not like Drake really had anything else planned before sundown, but he still wanted to do something else.
"Well, if we got that all settled, then we should probably check to make sure the record player is actually working before we go through all this trouble. Fin, you said you thought you could get that gospel music working? Time to crank up the tunes!"
Fin:
"Sounds good to me, but hold on. We'll need teams. I think it should be you and me on a team Drake and Suji and Aubrey on the other one. Mostly because I don't want to deal with girly chatter," he said with a grimace though of course the real reason was that his night morph could protect Drake's lizard if needed while Aubrey's dog could protect itself.
"Alright, down to the music." Before anyone could object he slid the record out of its sleeve and stuck it on the record player, moved the needle into position and began cranking the wind up handle (yes handle).
Soulful, black gospel music began to come out of the golden horn.
Suji:
"Riiight. Aubrey and I will be busy talking about getting our hair styled and our nails painted." But it was probably the best way to divide the teams, and Suji was glad to not be the one suggesting it. Fin seemed to be quick enough to connect the dots, and Suji found herself wanting to breathe a sigh of relief. Besides, he'd been able to deliver it without sounding at all like he was giving orders. That was a skill she needed to work on.
The record playing did indeed work. Suji was glad to hear it on one hand, but on the other, she had always hated gospel music. Then again... it was nice to have music playing. She'd never been a music junkie or anything, but it felt somehow strangely uplifting to have even this. And not just because it was supposed to be: because it was human music, of human creation, and Yeerks didn't seem to have the same appreciation for it as their hosts. To go from a music-saturated world to a music-less one meant giving up something that even she hadn't realized how much she'd missed.
Aubrey:
"Ahh, I see then. Ooh well," Aubrey said. There had been a flicker of disappointment briefly on her face, but it was gone quickly. In its place was a faint smile. "I'm an Aussie, if you couldn't tell." Even if she tried hiding her accent sometimes, she still was proud of where she came from. She fell silent as they spoke about which morphs to use and then, finally, the teams were laid out. "Pfft, right. Sounds alright to me." The plans were coming together well, and Aubrey was feeling a little excitement now.
Fin popped the record on, and gospel music began pouring out of the old thing. There was a bit of surprise on Aubrey's face, as she hadn't expected the thing to actually work. But that was good news. Even if it was gospel music, it was nice to hear. It felt like forever since she had heard anything close to music. After a couple minutes of it playing, Aubrey looked up. "Seems to be working well."
Fin:
For the next hour or so everyone had the pleasure (except for Suji who was subjected to the experience) of listening to gospel music. The record player was actually able to reach a descent volume as long as someone was cranking it and Fin gladly took over that job.
He marched around the Temple blasting music though he resisted the urge to sing along. Not because he wasn't good, Fin had quite a good voice actually, but his singing was something he tended to keep private and he had only sung for those he truly trusted. He liked everyone in Dallas but no one really fit that description so far, except maybe Ray and he didn't think Ray wanted Fin singing to him.
Then again you never know.
Suji:
Suji stood up suddenly straight. It felt like her brains were on the verge of exploding out of her ears, like someone was driving Hot-wheels cars inside her skull, like, like-
"ACHOO!" She sneezed for what felt like the millionth time. It was dusty in the room she'd taken as her own, and she was sorting through piles of what seemed like pure crap: broken knickknacks, parts of chairs long since dismantled, even a desk drawer or two (that did not go to the relatively large desk she'd found pushed to one side of the room).
Suji had been systematically piling everything, and then shooting it with the dracon gun she'd had since rescuing Karl... what felt like ages ago. It was on disintegration intensity when she did that, which cleared the piles nicely enough. Then she switched the gun's focus back to its lowest setting, and repeated the whole process over again.
Her door was opened, as was the window next to her. It was the only way to circulate air in the room, though at least the window didn't face out to anything important. The sunlight that came in was bright and buttery, making all the dust floating around visible.
Suji found a strange lump of material underneath a few stacks milk crates. The crates she had tossed into the 'possibly usable' category of items she'd found (which was pretty small). This oddly shaped lump was covered with a cloth that had been draped over it. She tugged the cloth off (sending billions of dust atoms spewing back into the air), and it took her a moment to realize what she was looking at.
A record player. Equipped with big brassy horn and everything.
"Ah-ACHOO!"
Drake:
Drake was rolling down the hallway again, in one of the wheeled office chairs from his room. As he went past Suji's room he heard the tsseww of a dracon beam. "What the..." What was going on in there?
Drake knocked softly twice before turning the knob without waiting for a response. "Are you ok in there?" He just hoped that Suji wasn't being attacked by controllers or something.
Suji:
"Yeah I'm fine," Suji replied, before sneezing again. Her eyes were watering a little, and she was standing in a pair of jeans and a simple, unicolor t-shirt. She looked down at the dracon gun in her hand. "Was using this to do a little cleaning. Figured we can't exactly part everything outside for the trash route to take it."
She stood aside for a moment, and noticed for the firs time that he was actually seated on a rolling chair. Suji blinked, arched an eyebrow, and then shook her head lightly. "Look what I found though. Can't decide if its junk or if we could actually get some use out of it." She gestured towards the record player on the ground. "What do you think?"
Drake:
"That thing looks ancient," Drake said as he got up to get a closer at the record player. "Even if it doesn't work, we could display it like an antique collector would. But we should definitely test it out." Drake looked it over carefully, trying to figure out how to work it, and resisting the urge to sneeze. His family had never owned one of these contraptions when he was growing up.
"Have you found any records for it? If we get some, I'm sure we could figure out how this thing works. Or maybe you already know. I've never even touched one of these things before." Drake was getting a little excited about playing some 'old fashioned' music.
Fin:
Fin was on a mission, and my target is about to be destroyed.
Fin crashed into Drake's rolly chair with his own moments after Drake got up from it. Fin, who was going fast enough to push a weighted chair a good distance down the hallway, now found himself flipping out of his own chair as it got caught up on the Drake's which had flipped over when he hit it.
Fin went sprawling down the hall, part of his body landing on the chairs painfully and the rest landing on the hard floor. Neither experience was very fun.
When he could speak he whispered out in a fake vengeful voice, "This game to you sir Drake, but I shall get you next time." Then he just decided to lay on the floor for a while until things stopped hurting.
Suji:
Suji laughed when Drake said that she might know how to work with this. "Unfortunately, I wasn't born like 500 years ago or whenever these things were in fashion," she smirked at him. "Before my time, by just a smidge." But she dug a little deeper into the pile of odds and ends, and stacked underneath something else where what looked like record jackets. She pulled them out (with a little effort), and blew away the dust.
Three out of the five record jackets held nothing but broken pieces of thin plastic, and there wasn't even that in one of them. The last had an intact record. She wiped away the dust over the title. Gospel music. She looked up to Drake, unable to hide the disgust in her expression, and held it up so he could see. No words were necessary to explain the revulsion on her face.
Just then another chair came crashing into the room. Along with a boy. Suji jumped backwards, though she hadn't really been in danger of being hit. Fin's landing was anything but graceful. She looked from the prone kid, to Drake again, and then shrugged, as if to say, 'Don't ask me.'
Drake:
Drake was about to suggest that they try out the gospel record when he was startled by the sound of a crash. What was that? He turned around and say Fin laying in some sort of heap on the floor. Drake just raised his eyebrows as a grin spread across his face.
"You don't know how to work an old record player, do you?" He didn't even offer to help Fin up. He would manage. "We got some gospel music you can listen to if you do."
Fin:
Fin jumped up. "Gospel music! I love Gospel music!" Fin turned around and saw the record Suji was holding and then he was paying more attention to Suji herself. "Hello, I don't think we've had the pleasure. My name is Glorfindle Larson." Fin bowed a bit. "And I do believe that all pain substained in my valient effort to take down this rouge," he said motioning towards Drake, "has healed at the sight of one of such beauty as yourself."
He looked back down at the record player. He dropped into a sitting position as easily as he had stood up and pulled the record player over to him. It was quite dusty but a brief examination showed that it was in fine working order. Leave it to some old priest to keep one of these things around. "It'll play I think. And I don't think Gospel is our only choice. There are some boxes of records stored in the choir room. I don't know how many of them are unbroken but I swear I saw at least one Luther Vandross record back there."
Drake:
"We should definitely check those out." It looked like they at least wouldn't have to listen to the same couple of songs over and over again. Then Drake snapped his fingers as a new idea came to him.
"We should go out to the city and see if we can scrounge up a collection of records. But where could we find them?" Drake did not have a clue where you would find records. "Maybe there would be some at a museum, or a retirement home. Oh! Or at a pawn shop!" Drake did not know that he could get so worked up over an old-fashioned sound-maker.
Suji:
Drake did not look nearly disgusted enough by the idea of listening to gospel music. Sure, they'd been living in a pretty musicless world since the invasion, but if their last options were silence and the hymns to a savior from the skies... well, Suji would pass. All that came from that big starry ceiling above was trouble. Besides, really, if it was going to be vocal music, people were going to be singing along to it. She didn't want it stuck in her head.
The other one, someone she might have seen but hadn't yet been introduced to (it wasn't so long ago that she'd been dropped off by Luce, hence the fact that she was trying to clean her room-to-be now), also seemed to be anxious to listen to the gospel music. One against two. And then he was being terribly (no really, terribly) cheesy and charming, and Suji was so surprised that she laughed out loud. "Unfortunately, in your attempt on said rogue's life, you overlooked the fact that I happen to be Maleficent-style femme fatale. Only with a less impressive wardrobe." Suji looked down at her jeans.
Drake snapped, and Suji looked back over to him. He was proposing a mission into the city, and instantly she was excited. Not only did it mean getting a feel for the layout, it would also mean not being trapped with the gospel record... a record she planned to accidentally-on-purpose smash to tiny, bitty pieces once neither of them were around. "There might actually be some record stores too--in New York they used to have them, at least in the Village. Though they could also have been torn down and replaced with something else since the invasion. Don't think entertainment, especially ancient entertainment would necessarily be on the list of 'Things Worth Keeping Now That We've Conquered the World'. But a pawn shop would work too. Those might actually be doing good business."
Fin:
Fin smiled. He was still bent over the record player so his smile couldn't be seen but it was there and it was genuine. He had missed making people laugh. Everything had gotten so serious so fast that it was good to do something ridiculous and be rewarded with other's pleasure for once.
He would have responded to her comment about Malificent-whatits but Drake had already proposed a mission to the city and Suji had already jumped on the bandwagon.
Fin's hands clenched on the record player before he forced them to relax and he was glad that his face wasn't visible because it had grown decidely less cheery at the proposal. He remembered the last time he had taken a trip into a yeerk occupied city for non-essentials and that had ended with him on a first name basis with an evil eye thing that looked ridiculously and felt like death at your door.
When he had control of his expression again he stood with the record player in his hands. "Guys, not to be a kill joy, but I'm pretty sure we have enough old junk around here to get rid of without adding more to it."
Suji:
Fin's body language had changed for a split second, but then he was back again, and Suji wrote it off as probably the beginning of sneeze. Then he stood, still holding the record player. He didn't want to go. Maybe he didn't want them to go either. And that was reasonable enough; they didn't really know much about Dallas, it was a new faction. But you didn't learn anything except from going out into the city. Even on simple missions like this (maybe moreso on the simple ones) there was always opportunity for scouting.
Not to mention a record player and some music might actually do a lot of good for them all. Not only would it boost morale, but it might make the process of junk-clearing a little less tedious and mind-numbing. Suji looked over at Fin. "Well, there's a difference between old junk you're using a space-alien's gun to destroy, and old junk that might improve the mood around your hideout. Besides, it will be good to get a feel of the city, whether we're morphed or passing as Controllers. We're going to be living here from now on: both here as in Dallas, and here as in this church."
She kept her tone light and gentle: she didn't want to sound like she was completely gung-ho about doing this, because she didn't want Fin to get defensive if he didn't want to do it. But she thought that it was a good idea. Low-risk, as far as anything went these days.
Fin:
Fin still acting nochalance he didn't exactly feel shrugged. "If you want you can go. Finding stuff in the city won't be the hard part I imagine, it's getting it back, especially if we go morphed. If we go the controller route we're still going to be humans going in and out of a place that isn't supposed to be inhabited."
He wanted them to listen to him but he wasn't about to show just how much he wanted it. He smiled at them. "Besides, I've got all I need to occupy me in here. I don't know about you but my room is full of toys and blocks and other brightly colored items. And I have this paper cranes collection I've been working on..." he trailed off, looking towards the door and his room with a worried expression on his face as if he was worried about his paper birds flying off without someone to look after them.
Suji:
"We'll have to set up entrance and exit routes or something," Suji said under her breath. It was true, the Temple wasn't supposed to be inhabited. But people had been arriving for weeks now, though she may have been the last one. "But we can't exactly stay trapped inside this church at all times. If we're careful and don't all leave at once, we won't draw suspicion."
She regarded him for a moment, an eyebrow raised. He did not want to go at all. Maybe he was frightened. It wouldn't be unreasonable. Still. They would have to get used to leaving and entering; it was the only way they were going to get necessities down the line. "If have to tend to your cranes that's fine," Suji said lightly, one side of her mouth curling into a half-smile. "Maybe we can find you some colored paper while we're out."
Suji looked back to Drake. "Actually, what do you think? I'm fine with staying put. But hey, I won't be held responsible if listening to the same few gospel songs over and over drives me to murdering one of you with the blunt end of a cross or something." She smirked. Really, if neither of them wanted to do this (Fin didn't want to go in the first place, and maybe Drake would change his mind even though he'd been the one to suggest it), then Suji wasn't about to fight for it. It would be a nice morale booster and an opportunity for scouting, but not nearly worth trying to force on anyone.
Drake:
This was starting to sound more like work than fun. "You both bring up good points. And I still want to go look for records, but I definitely do not want to stroll around as a human. Having my face known by controllers was not the least bit helpful in Vegas."
"However, not being human brings up a different problem. Do either of you have a morph that would be able to carry records?" Drake honestly didn't know. "I have a couple that could, but both would stick out like a sore thumb around here, with or without records being carried." He was talking about his giraffe and secretary bird morphs.
"Still, I think we could look for promising record-holding locations, while at the same time figuring out how exactly we can get stuff back to The Temple without being noticed. We will have to figure something out eventually anyway, if you ever plan on eating in." Food would be just as hard, or harder, to smuggle in than records.
Drake picked up his rolly chair again and plopped himself down. All this planning was too much work. "Hmm."
Fin:
He seemed to have gotten them to think twice about going and he felt only slightly bad about that. He didn't think it was especially a good idea to just go strolling around the city. He had done that only twice in Vancouver. The first time had ended in a car chase and the second time had ended in a kidnapping.
But was he speaking from experience or fear? Were the two separate? And Drake had made a good point. They couldn't just hide in here forever and they would have to figure out ways in and out of the Temple eventually.
Fin turned over the other rolly chair and sat down in it, feet splayed out. He looked out the window at the weak sunlight of the overcast day. "Why don't we go tonight instead? We'll have the cover of darkness if nothing else and I have a good night time flight morph to fly cover for you guys if you really want the records."
Suji:
"I've got a Capuchin monkey which actually might not be that bad if we go at night. Pretty dexterous, and I'd be able to climb well. Couldn't carry too many though--be able to carry more just as a human with a backpack." She looked back over at Fin, who seemed to be coming around. Maybe he didn't want them to think he was scared, or something, though Suji wouldn't mind if he was just the overly-cautious type. It'd be a nice change of pace from her last faction.
And Drake had voiced what she'd been thinking: this was a problem they'd have to work out anyway. And to be honest, Suji felt more secure about the idea of information gathering in conjunction with a 'trivial' task rather than a more critical one, like getting food. Both of them were sitting down while she stood with her hands on her hips, thinking.
"We could go out now and scout out some places, and then get the stuff later tonight? Or do you want to do it all then? I don't really like the idea of wandering around as a human at night, not knowing where I'm headed. That'll be more suspicious than doing the same during daylight. Never know the condition of street lights."
She walked over to the large desk that was pushed against one wall, and pulled open one of the larger drawers. She'd searched it earlier, and now pulled out a huge yellow phonebook. Plopping it down on the desk, she began to look for pawnshops. "If we do go, this might help narrow the search. Might not be up to date or anything, but could give us a good place to start." Suji turned, looking back at them.
Drake:
"I do not have any morphs that can see really well at night," Drake said as Suji started to look through a phonebook. He had to admit, that was smart thinking. It could save them a lot of time, too.
Drake spun around in a circle in his chair. "But the only morph that I have that blends in is my lizard morph. Well, my moth morph too, but that one will not really help us search. However, if you two can see in the dark, then I would rather fly. Being a lizard out on the streets is pretty stressful with predators and whatnot, and my bird morph can stay in the shadows at night time. I do not think there will be any problems."
Drake spun around again, then said, "We could even see if anyone else wants to come with. If we actually go into someplace, then the more eyes watching their back, the better. I have a feeling that this will be a good group bonding experience." A wide grin appeared on Drake's face.
Aubrey:
Aubrey was napping in one of the unclaimed rooms. She had needed the rest after traveling all the way here, and had ended up curled around her pack and leaning against a dusty wall. She didn't seem to be having a good dream--she was murmuring quietly and twitching, clutching her backpack tightly to her body. This was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a dracon beam going off somewhere in the building.
Blinking, awake now, Aubrey shifted from her spot against the wall and stretched. The pack slipped from her grip, and she moved over to push it against the wall. Was something going on? Or had she just dreamed that? She stood up, dusting her jeans off and sleepily rubbing her eyes. There was talking coming from down the hall, so she followed the sound until she was near enough to hear.
Looking half-awake, Aubrey inched around the doorway. "Hey guys." She hadn't heard all the conversation, but it sounded like they were going out somewhere, which sounded better than staying around here doing nothing. Or having dreams. "Hope I'm not interrupting. What's going on?" A smile was on her face. These were new people, and Aubrey loved meeting new people.
Drake:
Well that was a neat little coincidence, Drake thought to himself. He turned in his chair to see who it was, but he could not remember her name. No worries, he would find out eventually.
"We were just discussing about whether or not we should go look for some records for that thing," he said, pointing to the ancient record player. "Actually, to be more specific, we are trying to decide when to go look for places that might have records. I was just suggesting that we could see if other people wanted to go with. So, what do you say?"
Fin:
Fin stood up and walked over so that he could look over Suji's shoulder at the phone book. He glanced at it and then turned when another young woman entered the room. "Right now it is between going now or going later when it gets dark. I'm a procrastinator by nature so my vote is always for later. But I don't think we should all go in morph. Most of us are more vulnerable in morph than out of it," he said nodding towards Drake who had mentioned the hazards of being a lizard. "And not just to other animals but humans too."
He took a coin out of his pocket and began absently walking it over his knuckles just to give his hands something to do. He didn't like standing still very long and he tried to always have something moving, especially when he was thinking. "We're in a human environment so we should use the morphs that would blend in the best, in this case human. I can fly cover since most people don't look up and I guess someone else could go morphed, maybe. Does anyone have a cat or dog morph around here?"
Suji:
"I've got an owl morph, so I could definitely see well in the dark for searching, if we're gonna have everyone in morph just for a scouting run tonight." She answered while still paging through the book, and was inclined not to mention that she'd been nearly murdered while flying around as that little creature. Didn't exactly make for polite conversation, and she told herself that she had... moved past the whole Toby incident, though it was the first thing that came to mind every time she so much as mentioned morphing the owl. Maybe it always would. She really hoped not.
A new girl walked in (though Suji supposed that she herself was probably the last of the predetermined group to arrive, so maybe she was the 'new' one) and Suji glanced up to offer her a smile. "Not interrupting at all, other than maybe the rolling chair war. But I think they're at a cease-fire at the moment." Drake, who had been busying himself by spinning (Suji had to restrain the temptation to give him a forceful spin herself: that kind of silliness was generally reserved for people you knew better) asked the other girl if she'd like to go.
This was when she noticed that Fin had been reading over her shoulder, and she slid the phonebook closer to him so that it'd be between them, flipped to the businesses listed under pawnshops. "I agree with valiant sir-knight over here. My owl is excellent for scouting, even in more urban areas because it's small, but it's probably a better idea to have some people--or at least one person--going in human. A group of humans might feel like less of a security blanket, but it'd be a lot less conspicuous than a flock of birds." She turned so that she could half-sit, leaning against the desk, and face Drake and Aubrey.
"If no one else is comfortable trying to pass as a Controller, I have no problems with it. Though it really depends on what we're interested in doing with ourselves for the mission: just recon, or actually doing a pick up if we find some tunes?"
Aubrey:
"Oh? A rolling chair war? Sounds exciting." She said, laughing a small bit. So maybe that had been part of the noise that had woken her up.
Aubrey glanced over at the 'thing' Drake was pointing at. It was some kind of record player, and Aubrey resisted the sudden urge to go over and start messing with it. It looked old. "Oh! Cool. There's no records around here?" It seemed like it had been forever since Aubrey had heard any sort of music, human or otherwise.
Although, as exciting as it sounded to go searching for records, Aubrey knew there was still danger to walking around outside no matter what you were doing. Despite that, it still sounded like fun and she'd be able to get a feel for the city of Dallas. She hesitated only momentarily, then nodded at Drake. "Sounds good to me, I'm in."
She leaned against the door frame, listening to Fin and Suji. "So, night time then? I've got a dog morph." The smile had faded a small bit as she said this. "An Alaskan malamute. Does that work?" She wasn't sure how much her type of dog would be out of place around in Dallas, if at all. It didn't seem like Yeerks would care. And if worst came to worst, it was her best morph for doing any damage.
Suji mentioned going in as human and Aubrey shrugged. "It's up to you, I don't mind either way." Her experiences in LA had mostly centered around using their morphs against the Yeerks. The only time that she had really needed to pretend to be a controller had been with Sophie. They had been forced to do it when they needed to steal food. For Suji's last question, Aubrey glanced to Fin and Drake.
Drake:
Drake was happy that they had picked up another explorer to go along with them, but he cringed on the inside when they mentioned disguising themselves as controllers. It brought up the memory of the controller that he had acquired in Vegas, officer Douglas. He had used that morph in order to help take the man's place at work for the tree days it took to starve the yeerk out of his head.
Ironically, his human morph was his least favorite. It even ranked lower than his moth morph. It was just so unnatural to literally be someone else. Drake was sure that officer Douglas's unfit form did not help matters either. For this reason, Drake decided not to mention that he had a human morph. Ray knew about it, and it would probably be better if he kept its use for an emergency disguise anyway.
"I think you will be fine in your dog morph, um... Avery, was it? It will be dark, and I am sure we could make you look like a stray. As far as the goal of our little adventure. I think we should keep it a recon trip, but that does not mean we can not grab something if the perfect opportunity arises." Drake gave a little wink after that last sentence. "Just go with the flow, that is my motto. At least it is now."
Suji:
Go with the flow was a sentiment that, while Suji could appreciate the virtue of being adaptable, grated her nerves down to the core. She didn't like to hear it. Even other idioms of the same basic nature didn't bother her as much. Probably because the 'flow' as she saw it wasn't exactly ever in their favor. But she refrained from commenting on that.
"Going in morph sounds fine to me. If you're in," she gestured to the other girl, "Then we can split into teams of two. Cover more ground that way. But if we're doing that, probably best not to try to grab anything tonight--unless, yeah, a really, really good opportunity comes up." Suji looked between them all, and added: "Also... probably be good to go over names again. Just in case? I'm Suji." She offered a little wave.
Already she was thinking about if she did end up having to impersonate a Controller later, when they knew where they were going. This other girl could go as her dog, which might offer the best protection if they needed a fast get-away too. Tonight though, if they were only scouting, how should they split the teams? So far it sounded like there were three flying morphs, and a dog.
Fin:
"Not Avery Drake. Such bad form not to know the lady's name," he said in keeping with the knight Suji had named him. His british accent was even creeping into his voice. Vancouver had been invaded by Britons. Lukas had been British and so had Aida and Meredith had been South African. So Fin of course had decided that he needed an accent too. When he'd started it'd been quite bad but it was getting better all the time. "I'm Glorfindle," he said with a nod in place of a bow.
"Now, I agree that we should make it a recon mission mostly since we have all the good music we'll ever need right here," he said snatching up the gospel record and changing the subject at the same time to cover the fact that he also didn't know her name. "And if most of us are going to be morphed it would be hard to get anything back anyway. But we can check out this record store place, maybe go back another day. We could scope out a lot of places actually since both Ray and I like our technology and currently we don't have any as shown by our friend here," he said patting the record player lovingly as one might pat a dog.
Drake:
Drake spun around in his chair again. "My bad," he said to Fin. "I am Drake. Drake Blear."
"Whatever you guys decide for teams is good with me. The animals I can turn into are a lizard, fish, giraffe, moth, and secretary bird, if that helps." Drake had been counting of on his fingers, but he overlapped his hands and cracked his knuckles when he finished. Truth be told, he was getting bored with all of this planning. He realized it was necessary, but that did not make it any more interesting.
Aubrey:
Aubrey hadn't caught any of their names before, either. She grinned. Well, at least he'd gotten some of the letters right. "Not Avery. My name's Aubrey. Nice to meet you all." She looked to each as they said their names, trying to stick faces with names. There was still more of the faction to remember, but she had yet to meet the rest of them.
Then she noticed Fin's accent. "Are you British?" There was a hint of excitement in her voice. Since moving here a few years back, she hadn't come across too many people that weren't born and bred in the United States. Her own Australian accent only popped up occasionally, and usually when she was trying to hide it. Or when she got frustrated.
"True, true. I agree it should be recon for now," Aubrey said. Better to figure this place out first. She shifted against the door frame, her back beginning to ache from leaning against it. "Alright, then. What will the teams be?"
Suji:
If Fin planned on playing that record, Suji had to plan on stealing it. No, she wouldn't smash it (though the thought was SO tempting) because the idea of destroying art in a world where art was temporarily put on hold seemed like a terrible atrocity. But she'd definitely hide it. She listened for the names. She hadn't known the other girl's either, and she hadn't been sure that 'Glorfindle' was really a name. Drake she'd at least known from her short stay in Vegas, along with Ray.
Aubrey asked if Fin was British, and Suji fought the urge to roll her eyes. Not out of real annoyance, but because Fin struck her as the type who would get a kick out of dragging out the accent for as long as he could, if he could convince someone that it was real. But he'd dropped it for a short while before Aubrey had come in, so Suji at least knew better.
But teams, yes, that was the matter at hand. And Suji had a strange feeling that if she volunteered her own suggestions for grouping people off, it would make her seem like some sort of psuedo-leader. While the direction came naturally to her, she held herself off from it. It had had dire consequences in Chicago, even if some good had come of it too. But she wasn't so ready to rush into that: especially not since they'd already completely accepted the splitting up thing. Don't domineer, she told herself.
"I'm not sure. I've got an owl, and we should probably keep at least someone with good night vision in each team, however it plays out. What was the nighttime air morph you were talking about earlier?" Suji asked, looking over at Fin.
Fin:
"Bat. Spectral bat. It's a pretty big morph and I wouldn't really have to worry about anything else in the skies which is good. I don't really like the idea of becoming owl prey." All this was said in his normal New England speech so when he turned to Aubrey to answer her question the answer was already obvious. Of course the accent was back in full force by then, already starting to try to adapt itself and slide to meet the Australian one.
"Nope, I'm not British, though a lot of my old faction mates were. Two Brits and one South African. And one deaf kid," he said slipping back into his home town speech as he said the last.
He looked back at Suji. "How big is your owl morph would you say? Would you have to worry about any natural predators?" Not that there were many in a city but better to be safe than sorry.
Suji:
Suji flinched. It wasn't much, but her jaw tightened and she quickly looked away--she'd been watching Fin as he spoke. It was out of place, though nothing terribly dramatic. Easy enough to overlook. She didn't look at him as she answered. "It's a pretty small bird, but owls don't naturally hang around cities, let alone Yeerk-infested ones. Personally I won't be too worried about getting attacked by any other birds, though I'll keep an eye out."
By the time she'd finished talking she was completely back to normal again. Her eyes flicked back up to Fin, calm as they had been, before turning to Drake. "So, you're thinking bird, right?"
Drake:
"Yeah, that is what I was thinking. But I could use one of my other morphs too, as long as I know someone else will be helping to watch for predators." The last thing Drake wanted was to end up as some raccoon's midnight snack.
"So pretty much my only two good options are lizard or bird. I suppose I could switch between the two, depending on the location." It finally looked like they were coming to a consensus, and Drake was glad for it. It is not like Drake really had anything else planned before sundown, but he still wanted to do something else.
"Well, if we got that all settled, then we should probably check to make sure the record player is actually working before we go through all this trouble. Fin, you said you thought you could get that gospel music working? Time to crank up the tunes!"
Fin:
"Sounds good to me, but hold on. We'll need teams. I think it should be you and me on a team Drake and Suji and Aubrey on the other one. Mostly because I don't want to deal with girly chatter," he said with a grimace though of course the real reason was that his night morph could protect Drake's lizard if needed while Aubrey's dog could protect itself.
"Alright, down to the music." Before anyone could object he slid the record out of its sleeve and stuck it on the record player, moved the needle into position and began cranking the wind up handle (yes handle).
Soulful, black gospel music began to come out of the golden horn.
Suji:
"Riiight. Aubrey and I will be busy talking about getting our hair styled and our nails painted." But it was probably the best way to divide the teams, and Suji was glad to not be the one suggesting it. Fin seemed to be quick enough to connect the dots, and Suji found herself wanting to breathe a sigh of relief. Besides, he'd been able to deliver it without sounding at all like he was giving orders. That was a skill she needed to work on.
The record playing did indeed work. Suji was glad to hear it on one hand, but on the other, she had always hated gospel music. Then again... it was nice to have music playing. She'd never been a music junkie or anything, but it felt somehow strangely uplifting to have even this. And not just because it was supposed to be: because it was human music, of human creation, and Yeerks didn't seem to have the same appreciation for it as their hosts. To go from a music-saturated world to a music-less one meant giving up something that even she hadn't realized how much she'd missed.
Aubrey:
"Ahh, I see then. Ooh well," Aubrey said. There had been a flicker of disappointment briefly on her face, but it was gone quickly. In its place was a faint smile. "I'm an Aussie, if you couldn't tell." Even if she tried hiding her accent sometimes, she still was proud of where she came from. She fell silent as they spoke about which morphs to use and then, finally, the teams were laid out. "Pfft, right. Sounds alright to me." The plans were coming together well, and Aubrey was feeling a little excitement now.
Fin popped the record on, and gospel music began pouring out of the old thing. There was a bit of surprise on Aubrey's face, as she hadn't expected the thing to actually work. But that was good news. Even if it was gospel music, it was nice to hear. It felt like forever since she had heard anything close to music. After a couple minutes of it playing, Aubrey looked up. "Seems to be working well."
Fin:
For the next hour or so everyone had the pleasure (except for Suji who was subjected to the experience) of listening to gospel music. The record player was actually able to reach a descent volume as long as someone was cranking it and Fin gladly took over that job.
He marched around the Temple blasting music though he resisted the urge to sing along. Not because he wasn't good, Fin had quite a good voice actually, but his singing was something he tended to keep private and he had only sung for those he truly trusted. He liked everyone in Dallas but no one really fit that description so far, except maybe Ray and he didn't think Ray wanted Fin singing to him.
Then again you never know.