In the Bunker
Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2013 4:29 pm(2:29:27 PM) Kalen MacLeod
Recovering was never easy and for someone who was always using his hands on his keyboard, three weeks was an eternity. The pain had eased off and the swelling was mostly gone but there was still a lot of issues with mobility of his fingers. Voice programs didn't move as quickly as he could type so Kalen had given up for a while. It was probably a good thing since Big Brother had found out that Kalen was not as dead as Big Brother had wanted him. He wasn't up to another attack so Kalen retreated further from view. There was a penthouse that was really just the top floor of an industrial building in a less posh area of the city. He'd gotten it a few years ago during a paranoid phase. It was his Bunker. Security had been installed with no expense spared. All glass in the windows was bullet proof. The building itself was made of concrete. All the doors were steel reinforced. And that went for the whole building from bottom floor up. Kalen owned it all but only lived in the top part of it. The rest of the building was empty. At the moment, Kalen lay curled in bed, a tablet on the pillow next to him. It displayed the security camera views for the whole site. Afternoon was bleeding into evening. Every so often his eyes went to the digital clock on the dresser across the room. Minutes seemed to be crawling by. His attention went back to the security camera views again. Kalen had shown David how to get in and had adjusted the security to let David enter the building. Only when they were both inside did Kalen relax. He never mentioned it but he had a fear that Big Brother would figure out who David was and try to harm him just as pay back. Kalen closed his eyes briefly. He didn't sleep when David was gone either. There was that worry nagging at him. His eyes opened again, scanning the different views.
(2:39:10 PM) White Rabbit
Work was still nagging at him; like a properly placed bug dead-set in the middle of his brain -- he wanted out, he wanted it out -- but there seemed to be no real end to it all. Even if he'd gotten closer with babysteps to not taking the chems provided; he had to at some point, just to keep up the appearance that he wasn't turning. Even if he was. He'd backed out of doing senseless jobs, in trade for staying put on repairs.
The day was no different, sans the fact that he'd finished early. What would've taken them days to complete, Rabbit had accomplished in a matter of hours -- six, tops, from the time he'd begun. From there, it was just a matter of letting Freidrich convince himself that he could go for the day, and no harm would come from it. It worked.
With that reasoning, David had left the facility, quick to pull the remnant of the dissolving, bitter, pill from the pocket of his cheek and drop it to the ground once he'd reached the large parking lot. It was clever, the way he made it look like a cough and then dropped a pen and accidentally stepped on both it, and the tablet before stooping over to pick it up. Cameras were everywhere-- and not just Kalen's big brother. Freidrich had one of his own.
Not an hour later, he was working through the security systems Kalen had showed him. Him and that infamous fedora that seemed so out of place with the brown, leather, jacket he so often wore. It took him all of ten minutes - something that could've been considered routine by then - to reach the top of the building. Yet, still, the quirky boy knocked and propped himself against the door jam with a light, unintentional, sniff. Like some cold that just wouldn't go away-- it was only a small price to pay though, granted the other effects dulled considerably the more he went through with not swallowing completely that pill.
(2:46:25 PM) Kalen MacLeod
He saw David's approach well before he reached the building and then Kalen watched as David made his way up to the top floor. As he approached the door, Kalen pushed off the bed so he could shuffle through the living area until he also was at the door, only on the inside. He used his elbow on the lock pad next to the door to release the lock. The door slowly opened, sliding aside to let David in. Kalen smiled and there was some relief in his eyes when David was right there, save and sound. "Welcome back." He winked and pushed away from the door. "Hungry?" He was going to head for the kitchen so he could try to get food inside David so they could relax. "How'd your day go?"
(2:52:17 PM) White Rabbit
When the door opened, he all but slid his way in thanks to the door frame, but he eased it closed behind him afterwards. Of course he was safe and sound; even if he was quirky, he was trained not to go down easily. Regardless of the situation.
"Thanks," and thus, Rabbit was following after the hacker with a light bounce in his step. The question concerning food though was all but brushed off. It always took a while. "It went okay. ..Just stayed in, fixed their bloody broken toys." It beat going out into the field and being expected to handle weapons the way they wanted. For no true reason, that he could've found-- without the pill. "What've you been doin', mate? Lazin' around here, ey?" He was poking fun at him of course, all while shedding off the leather.
(3:05:04 PM) Kalen MacLeod
Kalen nodded as his shuffling steps took them toward the kitchen. At the very least he was going to get David a cup of coffee. It was on a timer so it hadn't turned on yet. It was waiting for when David was usually coming in. For today, Kalen pressed the button manually. "Good." He was glad that David hadn't been out in the field since that's where bullets and stuff could find a body. He leaned a hip against the counter and studied David for a moment, a smile tugging at his mouth at the tease. "Mostly, yeah. When I'm off the grid, there's not much for me to do except sleep and watch dvd's." Truth be told he plotted, planned and worried more than the sleeping and movie watching. But there wasn't any need to mention those, right? The coffee smell quickly began to permeate the kitchen. Kalen pushed away from the counter to get a mug ready to receive the coffee once the pot was done brewing it. He lifted his right hand. "Did the exercises that Doc said I should do." Doc being a friend who knew things rather than anyone in the actual medical profession.
(3:10:01 PM) White Rabbit
See, coffee he was good with. Food, not so much. Then again, he wasn't a big eater to begin with-- with the upset of the pills that was just barely starting to simmer down, that lack of appetite increased tenfold. ..Hey, he'd said he'd find a way.
"Psh. Video games." It was funny though; he had an uncanny ability to know that there was less of those and more of the plotting, planning, and worrying taking place. It wasn't any real different from him, even if he was at work. If you could call tinkering with broken things work, at all. It was more like a hobby, anymore. One with a violent, disgusting, setting.
As the coffee smell filled the kitchen, Rabbit hopped up and sat on the edge of the counter. "Good. Is't helping?" Odd. Unlike the usual, David wasn't fall-over-tired, or in a trance-like state (though his pupils were still huge).. he seemed almost.. hyper. "Gotta keep it up-- bet it'll be better 'n no time." -d
(3:18:58 PM) Kalen MacLeod
"Yeah, not even the local ones." He wasn't letting anything in this particular place. This was the only haven Kalen owned that honestly had no internet or way for Big Brother to get in. The Security was all internal and on a private frequency that read "Mister Joe's" if anyone did stumble across it's non-broadcasting band. A glance drifted over David and a quick grin flickered across his expression. He was relaxing by bits now that David was safe and sound. Odd how quickly he'd grown attached to the secret agent man. It was probably the endearing quirks and how David had saved his life. That was still something that caused nightmares.
The only answer to the 'is it helping' and 'keep it up' was a grunt from Kalen. He didn't like the slow progress and it frustrated him that he couldn't just type what he needed to type. He put out creamer and sugar as the pot slowly filled. "I swear to God, I'm going to make sure Big Brother gets his." There was promise in that tone. But he didn't want to dwell on it.
"You got any plans for the night?"
(3:24:33 PM) White Rabbit
The grunt of a response gained a half-cocked, kooky-type grin from him but he shook his head. "Yanno, typing might even help repair structure." Just a generalized, passing, thought. As far as Big Brother getting his.. that was a given. "And soon as you can, we'll get him, yeah?" Because frankly, Rabbit had taken it on as his own task too-- he didn't just shoot people for anything that didn't matter (well, now, anyway).
The next question made his shoulders roll in a light shrug, and he turned his gaze towards the slowly-filling pot of coffee as he mused over it. "Not unless you count sittin' here." In the fortified bunker-type deal Kalen had going. He hadn't even dropped in to visit the old lady first-- and apparently had no desire to leave again to do just that. It could wait.
"In short, no. Are you a plan?" And why the hell did he seem more like Tigger just then, instead of Rabbit, when he leaned forward with that question and crazy-like grin.
(3:37:00 PM) Kalen MacLeod
His eyes darted from the pot over to David at the 'we' reference to getting Big Brother. A quick grin again surfaced to roam across his lips. Kalen's head tipped into a quick nod. "Yeah." Hard to trust anyone and yet here he was all trusting David. Odd. But then again, not so much really. David was different than other people and Kalen knew it. Once the pot was finally full and the dripping eased off, Kalen filled David's mug. He nudged it toward David then reseated the pot in the coffee machine.
"Am I a plan?" Kalen actually chuckled at that question. "I guess I could be a plan if you have an idea of what you want to do with me. Is there something you have in mind?" He was teasing, of course. Or maybe he wasn't. Hard to say with the grin he wore and the glint in his eye. "BBQ on the roof?" There was an open balcony type floor on the ceiling set up with some chairs, a BBQ and a few telescopes to view the stars. Inside the building, although the floors were empty, there was one section that had some work out equipment.
(3:42:32 PM) White Rabbit
It was odd, though then again, it wasn't. David didn't trust too many people at all-- even the one he'd sought out to warn, and thus initially set him up with the tools he needed to get back at the mastermind, was kept at double-an-arm's length. David might've been different, but likely only because he had more will power than most who'd found themselves caught up in Freidrich's claws.
When the mug was nudged, he took it up and slouched a bit. "Oi, I don't know.." he trailed, seemingly completely oblivious to the tease even if he wasn't. Another half-grin had formed, even before he took a quick sip of the still-scalding coffee. BBQ on the roof? "There a hammock up there too, by chance? That would make a spot on plan." As far as spending the evening, hell yeah. Sometimes being outside was better than in; and being atop the roof, well, that eliminated the cause of watching over your shoulder rather closely.
(3:47:24 PM) Kalen MacLeod
"There's one of those swing chairs where the chair is more a netting than a chair." He wasn't describing it well but there was a frame and a netting, hammock sort of thing, attached at each end so in essence, it could be considered a hammock even if it wasn't slung between two trees.
Kalen got a couple of bags of chips and headed for the stairs that led to the roof. He was dressed okay for it since he was in sweats and a t-shirt. His feet were bare. "You want to change first, get comfortable?" He nodded toward the bedroom. "You can take a shower too if you want." Kalen opened the door to the stairs leading up and waited to see if Rabbit was going to just head up or do something else first.
(3:53:23 PM) White Rabbit
He cocked his chin up just slightly at the explanation of the.. swing-chair-thing, but in the end, slightly shrugged. "That'll do right." Who needed trees to have a hammock, anyway?
Was it that surprising that he had on a good three layers of shirts? ..Probably not. And the black gloves were always in place, that was a given. The idea of changing though, when it was brought up, seemed to make him muse around with the idea. "..Might. I smell like that place." He slid down off the counter without as much as sloshing the coffee, and lifted it for another, larger, sip before throwing his arms out to either side. "I'll do that first, yeah? Five minutes." Seriously. David could move fast when he wanted to; he just.. most often didn't want to. With that said though, he ducked around into the other room and clasped his hands, steepled his fingers in front of his chin, as if where he'd stashed the change of clothes he'd intentionally left, would return to his brain. Once he had it though, he shuffled over and swiped them out -- two shirts, a spare pair of jeans. The works. Then, he ducked in towards the bathroom.
(4:04:42 PM) Kalen MacLeod
Kalen winked. "Okay then. I'll meet you upstairs." He watched David head off to get more comfortable. Kalen then headed up the stairs to the roof. There was a railing that went around the building that was six feet tall and was concrete just like the rest of the building. The 'roof' was more like a floor without a roof or windows. The floor was concrete and just as solid as the rest of the building. One would have had to be on a taller building to look down on the roof but there weren't any in the area that were taller so the only other option would be to be flying overhead. There was an area that had shade but the majority of the roof was open to the elements. At the moment, the sun was easing down since it was nearing evening so there were long shadows on the roof.
Kalen shuffled over to a zero gravity chair and settled himself into it, face tipping upward to the sky. The warmth of the sun felt good and there was a little breeze yet. There were a couple more chairs like his zero gravity chair nearby and the chair that he'd described to David was also nearby. There were a couple of other chairs more like white resin lawn chairs set up nearby as well and all of them were in a half circle around what probably was a bonfire pit. That part was left by the previous tenants and Kalen had simply decided not to change it.
He did realize once he sat down that he'd forgotten his own drink. He sighed and decided to ignore it for now. There was a little fridge under the shaded part of the roof. He could get something in a little bit when he decided it was worth getting out of his comfy chair.
Recovering was never easy and for someone who was always using his hands on his keyboard, three weeks was an eternity. The pain had eased off and the swelling was mostly gone but there was still a lot of issues with mobility of his fingers. Voice programs didn't move as quickly as he could type so Kalen had given up for a while. It was probably a good thing since Big Brother had found out that Kalen was not as dead as Big Brother had wanted him. He wasn't up to another attack so Kalen retreated further from view. There was a penthouse that was really just the top floor of an industrial building in a less posh area of the city. He'd gotten it a few years ago during a paranoid phase. It was his Bunker. Security had been installed with no expense spared. All glass in the windows was bullet proof. The building itself was made of concrete. All the doors were steel reinforced. And that went for the whole building from bottom floor up. Kalen owned it all but only lived in the top part of it. The rest of the building was empty. At the moment, Kalen lay curled in bed, a tablet on the pillow next to him. It displayed the security camera views for the whole site. Afternoon was bleeding into evening. Every so often his eyes went to the digital clock on the dresser across the room. Minutes seemed to be crawling by. His attention went back to the security camera views again. Kalen had shown David how to get in and had adjusted the security to let David enter the building. Only when they were both inside did Kalen relax. He never mentioned it but he had a fear that Big Brother would figure out who David was and try to harm him just as pay back. Kalen closed his eyes briefly. He didn't sleep when David was gone either. There was that worry nagging at him. His eyes opened again, scanning the different views.
(2:39:10 PM) White Rabbit
Work was still nagging at him; like a properly placed bug dead-set in the middle of his brain -- he wanted out, he wanted it out -- but there seemed to be no real end to it all. Even if he'd gotten closer with babysteps to not taking the chems provided; he had to at some point, just to keep up the appearance that he wasn't turning. Even if he was. He'd backed out of doing senseless jobs, in trade for staying put on repairs.
The day was no different, sans the fact that he'd finished early. What would've taken them days to complete, Rabbit had accomplished in a matter of hours -- six, tops, from the time he'd begun. From there, it was just a matter of letting Freidrich convince himself that he could go for the day, and no harm would come from it. It worked.
With that reasoning, David had left the facility, quick to pull the remnant of the dissolving, bitter, pill from the pocket of his cheek and drop it to the ground once he'd reached the large parking lot. It was clever, the way he made it look like a cough and then dropped a pen and accidentally stepped on both it, and the tablet before stooping over to pick it up. Cameras were everywhere-- and not just Kalen's big brother. Freidrich had one of his own.
Not an hour later, he was working through the security systems Kalen had showed him. Him and that infamous fedora that seemed so out of place with the brown, leather, jacket he so often wore. It took him all of ten minutes - something that could've been considered routine by then - to reach the top of the building. Yet, still, the quirky boy knocked and propped himself against the door jam with a light, unintentional, sniff. Like some cold that just wouldn't go away-- it was only a small price to pay though, granted the other effects dulled considerably the more he went through with not swallowing completely that pill.
(2:46:25 PM) Kalen MacLeod
He saw David's approach well before he reached the building and then Kalen watched as David made his way up to the top floor. As he approached the door, Kalen pushed off the bed so he could shuffle through the living area until he also was at the door, only on the inside. He used his elbow on the lock pad next to the door to release the lock. The door slowly opened, sliding aside to let David in. Kalen smiled and there was some relief in his eyes when David was right there, save and sound. "Welcome back." He winked and pushed away from the door. "Hungry?" He was going to head for the kitchen so he could try to get food inside David so they could relax. "How'd your day go?"
(2:52:17 PM) White Rabbit
When the door opened, he all but slid his way in thanks to the door frame, but he eased it closed behind him afterwards. Of course he was safe and sound; even if he was quirky, he was trained not to go down easily. Regardless of the situation.
"Thanks," and thus, Rabbit was following after the hacker with a light bounce in his step. The question concerning food though was all but brushed off. It always took a while. "It went okay. ..Just stayed in, fixed their bloody broken toys." It beat going out into the field and being expected to handle weapons the way they wanted. For no true reason, that he could've found-- without the pill. "What've you been doin', mate? Lazin' around here, ey?" He was poking fun at him of course, all while shedding off the leather.
(3:05:04 PM) Kalen MacLeod
Kalen nodded as his shuffling steps took them toward the kitchen. At the very least he was going to get David a cup of coffee. It was on a timer so it hadn't turned on yet. It was waiting for when David was usually coming in. For today, Kalen pressed the button manually. "Good." He was glad that David hadn't been out in the field since that's where bullets and stuff could find a body. He leaned a hip against the counter and studied David for a moment, a smile tugging at his mouth at the tease. "Mostly, yeah. When I'm off the grid, there's not much for me to do except sleep and watch dvd's." Truth be told he plotted, planned and worried more than the sleeping and movie watching. But there wasn't any need to mention those, right? The coffee smell quickly began to permeate the kitchen. Kalen pushed away from the counter to get a mug ready to receive the coffee once the pot was done brewing it. He lifted his right hand. "Did the exercises that Doc said I should do." Doc being a friend who knew things rather than anyone in the actual medical profession.
(3:10:01 PM) White Rabbit
See, coffee he was good with. Food, not so much. Then again, he wasn't a big eater to begin with-- with the upset of the pills that was just barely starting to simmer down, that lack of appetite increased tenfold. ..Hey, he'd said he'd find a way.
"Psh. Video games." It was funny though; he had an uncanny ability to know that there was less of those and more of the plotting, planning, and worrying taking place. It wasn't any real different from him, even if he was at work. If you could call tinkering with broken things work, at all. It was more like a hobby, anymore. One with a violent, disgusting, setting.
As the coffee smell filled the kitchen, Rabbit hopped up and sat on the edge of the counter. "Good. Is't helping?" Odd. Unlike the usual, David wasn't fall-over-tired, or in a trance-like state (though his pupils were still huge).. he seemed almost.. hyper. "Gotta keep it up-- bet it'll be better 'n no time." -d
(3:18:58 PM) Kalen MacLeod
"Yeah, not even the local ones." He wasn't letting anything in this particular place. This was the only haven Kalen owned that honestly had no internet or way for Big Brother to get in. The Security was all internal and on a private frequency that read "Mister Joe's" if anyone did stumble across it's non-broadcasting band. A glance drifted over David and a quick grin flickered across his expression. He was relaxing by bits now that David was safe and sound. Odd how quickly he'd grown attached to the secret agent man. It was probably the endearing quirks and how David had saved his life. That was still something that caused nightmares.
The only answer to the 'is it helping' and 'keep it up' was a grunt from Kalen. He didn't like the slow progress and it frustrated him that he couldn't just type what he needed to type. He put out creamer and sugar as the pot slowly filled. "I swear to God, I'm going to make sure Big Brother gets his." There was promise in that tone. But he didn't want to dwell on it.
"You got any plans for the night?"
(3:24:33 PM) White Rabbit
The grunt of a response gained a half-cocked, kooky-type grin from him but he shook his head. "Yanno, typing might even help repair structure." Just a generalized, passing, thought. As far as Big Brother getting his.. that was a given. "And soon as you can, we'll get him, yeah?" Because frankly, Rabbit had taken it on as his own task too-- he didn't just shoot people for anything that didn't matter (well, now, anyway).
The next question made his shoulders roll in a light shrug, and he turned his gaze towards the slowly-filling pot of coffee as he mused over it. "Not unless you count sittin' here." In the fortified bunker-type deal Kalen had going. He hadn't even dropped in to visit the old lady first-- and apparently had no desire to leave again to do just that. It could wait.
"In short, no. Are you a plan?" And why the hell did he seem more like Tigger just then, instead of Rabbit, when he leaned forward with that question and crazy-like grin.
(3:37:00 PM) Kalen MacLeod
His eyes darted from the pot over to David at the 'we' reference to getting Big Brother. A quick grin again surfaced to roam across his lips. Kalen's head tipped into a quick nod. "Yeah." Hard to trust anyone and yet here he was all trusting David. Odd. But then again, not so much really. David was different than other people and Kalen knew it. Once the pot was finally full and the dripping eased off, Kalen filled David's mug. He nudged it toward David then reseated the pot in the coffee machine.
"Am I a plan?" Kalen actually chuckled at that question. "I guess I could be a plan if you have an idea of what you want to do with me. Is there something you have in mind?" He was teasing, of course. Or maybe he wasn't. Hard to say with the grin he wore and the glint in his eye. "BBQ on the roof?" There was an open balcony type floor on the ceiling set up with some chairs, a BBQ and a few telescopes to view the stars. Inside the building, although the floors were empty, there was one section that had some work out equipment.
(3:42:32 PM) White Rabbit
It was odd, though then again, it wasn't. David didn't trust too many people at all-- even the one he'd sought out to warn, and thus initially set him up with the tools he needed to get back at the mastermind, was kept at double-an-arm's length. David might've been different, but likely only because he had more will power than most who'd found themselves caught up in Freidrich's claws.
When the mug was nudged, he took it up and slouched a bit. "Oi, I don't know.." he trailed, seemingly completely oblivious to the tease even if he wasn't. Another half-grin had formed, even before he took a quick sip of the still-scalding coffee. BBQ on the roof? "There a hammock up there too, by chance? That would make a spot on plan." As far as spending the evening, hell yeah. Sometimes being outside was better than in; and being atop the roof, well, that eliminated the cause of watching over your shoulder rather closely.
(3:47:24 PM) Kalen MacLeod
"There's one of those swing chairs where the chair is more a netting than a chair." He wasn't describing it well but there was a frame and a netting, hammock sort of thing, attached at each end so in essence, it could be considered a hammock even if it wasn't slung between two trees.
Kalen got a couple of bags of chips and headed for the stairs that led to the roof. He was dressed okay for it since he was in sweats and a t-shirt. His feet were bare. "You want to change first, get comfortable?" He nodded toward the bedroom. "You can take a shower too if you want." Kalen opened the door to the stairs leading up and waited to see if Rabbit was going to just head up or do something else first.
(3:53:23 PM) White Rabbit
He cocked his chin up just slightly at the explanation of the.. swing-chair-thing, but in the end, slightly shrugged. "That'll do right." Who needed trees to have a hammock, anyway?
Was it that surprising that he had on a good three layers of shirts? ..Probably not. And the black gloves were always in place, that was a given. The idea of changing though, when it was brought up, seemed to make him muse around with the idea. "..Might. I smell like that place." He slid down off the counter without as much as sloshing the coffee, and lifted it for another, larger, sip before throwing his arms out to either side. "I'll do that first, yeah? Five minutes." Seriously. David could move fast when he wanted to; he just.. most often didn't want to. With that said though, he ducked around into the other room and clasped his hands, steepled his fingers in front of his chin, as if where he'd stashed the change of clothes he'd intentionally left, would return to his brain. Once he had it though, he shuffled over and swiped them out -- two shirts, a spare pair of jeans. The works. Then, he ducked in towards the bathroom.
(4:04:42 PM) Kalen MacLeod
Kalen winked. "Okay then. I'll meet you upstairs." He watched David head off to get more comfortable. Kalen then headed up the stairs to the roof. There was a railing that went around the building that was six feet tall and was concrete just like the rest of the building. The 'roof' was more like a floor without a roof or windows. The floor was concrete and just as solid as the rest of the building. One would have had to be on a taller building to look down on the roof but there weren't any in the area that were taller so the only other option would be to be flying overhead. There was an area that had shade but the majority of the roof was open to the elements. At the moment, the sun was easing down since it was nearing evening so there were long shadows on the roof.
Kalen shuffled over to a zero gravity chair and settled himself into it, face tipping upward to the sky. The warmth of the sun felt good and there was a little breeze yet. There were a couple more chairs like his zero gravity chair nearby and the chair that he'd described to David was also nearby. There were a couple of other chairs more like white resin lawn chairs set up nearby as well and all of them were in a half circle around what probably was a bonfire pit. That part was left by the previous tenants and Kalen had simply decided not to change it.
He did realize once he sat down that he'd forgotten his own drink. He sighed and decided to ignore it for now. There was a little fridge under the shaded part of the roof. He could get something in a little bit when he decided it was worth getting out of his comfy chair.