Pandora City {Origins}

[Fiery Firefly]

" I... I'm scared about my father. I was home alone when the sirens started. " Ayako explained, " He works at a factory on e other side of town. I... He can't die. Or I'll have no one."

[lovely corte]

"It's fine, kid." He said, squatting to her level before he eventually just decided to fall on his ass and sit on the floor, leaning against his backpack. He fished out the single bottle of Coca-Cola from his backpack, holding it out to her. "You want it?"

"He's probably fine." Eugene continued, unsure of what to say. "Maybe he's just making his way over to where he thinks you'll be."

[Fiery Firefly]

"Thank you," she said taking the bottle, "You have something to open it?"

" I... I guess I shouldn't worry. I just,.. I've already lost my mother, and that hurt enough."

She paused for a second, " My name is Ayako Fujima, what's yours?"

[lovely corte]

Taking the bottle off of her, Eugene quickly found an edge to crack the top against gently before he handed it to her once more, picking the cap up to play with quietly.

"Yeah." He said, rather awkwardly. It wasn't in his nature to be the consoling type. He hadn't been there for his girlfriend breaking up with him, nor his parents moving away. He rarely had to put up with it. "I-I know how it is. He's probably making his way over here now, though."

"Eugene Stabler." He said, bending the metal of the cap in his hands. "Just... don't even worry about it. He'll probably be at the safe zone."

[JW%]

"Got to wonder just how safe that zone is..." Jake mused. He wanted to say it was quiet outside again, that it seemed whatever was out there had moved on, but he somehow didn't feel ready to just yet.

[Fiery Firefly]

" Thanks Eugene," she said politely as she took the bottle and took a swig, " That doesn't console me though, with that monster out there. I don't want him to be eaten by a giant spider because of me."

[lovely corte]

"The military probably has their plan under control." He said, casting an off-sided glance at Jake before he placed the bottle cap in his backpack, sighing. "Probably the safest place you could be right now."

"I don't really want to get eaten by a giant spider as well." He shrugged. "But I don't fashion the prospect that the spider really cares either way."

[Fiery Firefly]

" I know better rhen to trust the military" Ayako said quietly

[lovely corte]

Resting his rifle against the wall so it didn't dig into his side, Eugene rolled his knees up slightly, laying back into his makeshift pack. He looked at her, cocking an eyebrow.

"Oh?" He asked. "Not a fan, I take it. I get it. What with the whole... Japanese thing."

[Fiery Firefly]

"Thats where my mother died." Ayako said softly

[lovely corte]

"Yeah, a lot of people died." Eugene said, in an almost a matter-of-fact fashion that gave the girl no sympathy, but gave her no insult either. "It's war."

[Penny Royals]

Mona moved over to sit against the wall, next to the girl who pronounced her name to be Ayako. She nodded, following along with their conversation, although barely. She was mostly in a bit of a stunned silence, now that the same silence had fallen outside, now that shadows rested where they may; and they, along with the deacon and the man in the fedora, were all sitting together on one drafty room.

"Father is..." the deacon thought about it for a moment, twisting the word over in his head. "Father is fine."

Father is fine. Mona picked up on that phrase, and let her head run with it. Daddy is just peachy. Mama's okay, too. And Presley. And Booker T., and Paulie. They're all gonna be okay, and so am I. That spider probably got full before he ever made it to my family. And even if not, maybe they were able to blend in with the shadows and get away. Everyone's fine.

"With this time we have together, I really must ask who all of you are," the deacon - now known as Father - piped up once more. "After all, we may end up spending at least a night together."

[Fiery Firefly]

" A war doesnt mean they can deny my mother care because of where she was born. They could of saved her, I know they could of. We were just as much Americans as the rest of you are,"

She looked at the others and introduced herself yet again at th Deacon's request, "My name is Ayako Fujima... If that's too hard to say, I'm sorry. I... I live in this neighborhood but I've never been in this church before. Or any church at all."

[Adlai Stevenson]

"Hail hail," Abe piped up, tapping out the ashes of his cigarette into a half-full (or half-empty, given the present circumstances) ceramic mug, the contents of which had been brewed and poured by the Deacon, thus belonging to him. The poor holyman probably figured his cup of joe was safe when he placed it on the table by the corner to focus on his ham radio. "looks like the gang's all here."

As Abe rose, he dragged the wooden chair he had been sitting on noisily behind him, legs scraping against cracked cement flooring. The Deacon scurried over to his drink to discover its newly-added condiments, balling a trembling fist, but shaking his head in silent, passive defeat as he left to presumably find himself another cup.

"And what do you know, under God's roof, I did have some company. A couple o' odd couples, a rag-tag gang of their own. Certainly no fearsome foursome. A pair of broad-shouldered fellas and a pair of fella'd up broads. The gals were young, at least younger-lookin' than the guys. Colored, but I don't have a bone to pick with that, I'm no square. Pretty faces, too. Figured I oughta introduce myself, lest things start gettin' hokey all over again."

As if he had said absolutely none of his observation aloud, Abe shot out a hand to the nearest one - the younger guy with the Garand, if only to placate any sense of outright hostility of the most physically harmful kind. "Figured I oughta introduce myself," he said, tipping his fedora casually. "the name's Abe Habersham, Private Eye. Call me Honest Abe. Or only if you really need me."

[Fiery Firefly]

"...Nani?" Ayako was so baffled she forgot to speak English for a moment. She nervously played with her hair for a moment before asking, "Mr... Honest Abe, why are you talking like that?"

[lovely corte]

"War was shit for all of us." Eugene said, voice evidently dripping with dejection of recurring memories. He turned to the rifle at his side, before he sighed shakily and pulled out another cigarette, lighting up and taking a drag. "Nobody ever gets excited for war. Save the politician."

"Hey, uh... how you doing?" He said, turning from his rifle to look at the man. He clapped one calloused hand onto the man's own, squeezing and shaking his hand. "Eugene Stabler."

"You're real optimistic with a giant spider outside our door." He said, letting go of the man's hand to take another drag of his cigarette, blowing the smoke from his nose. "Might be the only one, really."

[Penny Royals]

Mona looked up as the man who narrated his life story moved over to talk to them, complimenting her and Ayako and shaking hands with the military guy - who introduced himself as Eugene Stabler.

"Mona. S'short for Ramona Alicia Randall."

[JW%]

"Jake Weir." Came the reply from the man watching the windows. He seemed to be trying to get a good angle to see up and down the street, and up onto sky. "I run the garage about a mile and a half up the road." His replies were distracted as he was listening.

The sound of shelling had stopped, and there weren't any other unnatural noises that he could hear. Of course, he wasn't sure if that meant anything or not.

[Adlai Stevenson]

"Like what?" Abe asked. Before he could consider an actual answer to the question, Abe nodded, reaching to shake Jake's hand as well. "Pleasure to make all your acquaintances."

Abe smirked at Eugene's comment. "Optimistic? Not at all, I'm just a nice fella. Soon as . . . whatever those things are come a'knockin, it's exit, stage left."

[Fiery Firefly]

"Well I never thought detectives actually talked to themselves like that," Ayako said, playing with her hair nervously, "I thought they only did that in the radio shows. Though you're the first detective I've ever met, so maybe I was wrong."

[Adlai Stevenson]

Abe took a puff of his cigarette, blowing smoke out the opposite side of his mouth. He was entertaining a lady's company, after all, he'd save that kind of treatment for perps. "They don't, sweet stuff," he replied, seeming just as confounded by the notion as she was. "Dime store pulps and penny dreadfuls against the real, bonafide deal? They can't compare."

Abe turned his back to the group to the group of survivors for a brief moment.

"The dame was hearing things; that's just peachy keen. Delirious, without a doubt. Can't say I blame her, what with what's crawling around up there, doing God knows what to God knows how many people. Poor schnooks probably didn't know how to wrap their noggins around it. Hell, I still don't. I'd have to ask them if they had a plan - a longshot, I know - but in an insane world, it was the sanest choice."

Turning around, the 'detective' took another puff of his cigarette, repeating the same process he had before. "So, you folks seem like some upstanding citizens. Any of you happen to have had a plan on getting the hell outta Dodge? Starting to think sticking around here might not be the hottest idea."

[Fiery Firefly]

"I'm not hearing anything, you're doing it again!" Ayako said. She turned to the others, "Its not just me right?"

[Penny Royals]

"No, I can tell it too. Mister Honest Abe, have you been drinking?" It was somewhat of a tease - the only way she really knew how to present something like that, since she'd learned it all from her mother and father...

[JW%]

Jake watched the interplay and gave a little groan.

My garage isn't that far away. I could make the walk easy... assuming nothing attacks. I'd have a car there, I could drive out of the city...

No, that wouldn't get him much of anywhere useful, and would probably be more dangerous in the first place. On the other hand, given the company that he had to work with here, he could be in just as much danger. The guy with the gun looked military wannabe, waving his weapon around like that and with the wide eyes. The national guard that had taken Old Man Henderson's truck had been more professional than that. Then the drunken narrator, two children, and...

Well Jake wasn't sure what to make of the deacon.

[lovely corte]

"Abe, buddy. I'm not the type of person to just lie to a man and I'll be brutally honest when I say this to you." Eugene started, looking up at the man to stare into his eyes, scratching his head. "I can barely understand a word you fucking say out of that motor mouth of yours, running it a thousand miles per hour."

"It's all of us, Ayako." He said reassuringly to the girl. "I can understand every word in ten. I get the gist of it. Kudos."

[Adlai Stevenson]

Abe raised a brow, confused, but unperturbed. "Listen, little lady: I don't drink on the job, and I especially don't drink with these Universal creature features stomping around upstairs."

The detective dabbed out the ashes of his cigarette onto the cold floor, grinding them to soot under his heel. "Look, I can pick up what you're all puttin' down, there's no reason to ruffle any feathers about this. You're frightened, and that's just rational, but we need to pull it together if we want out of here,"

Abe turned his back to the others again. "I tried my darnedest to be gentle with the folks, at least to ease some tensions; they were all hearing things, and this basement was getting smaller and smaller the more things wore on. The last thing I needed today was a whole church fulla turkeys havin' a conniption fit. I'm not even an Evangelical."

He turned back, once again, as if he hadn't in the first place. "So," he said, popping his cigarette back into his mouth. "are we staying, or are we going? Somebody's gotta have a plan, right?"

[Fiery Firefly]

"I... I don't know," Ayako responded, " I've never really had to make a plan before. Ask them..." Honest Abe was beginning to worry her a bit, and while part of her knew it'd probably be safer to stay, she also didnt want to be stuck with a narrating lunatic.

[lovely corte]

Listening to the man speak, Eugene took a deep breath and went over to the radio, gently inspecting it to fill the time before the man was done with his theatrics. He pulled the chair away and took a seat, looking at the girl, Ayako, pinching the ridge of his nose.

"Look, I think we need to stay here until the sun rises." He started. "That way we can leave at dawn and push through the woods. There's too many of us to go now, at night, with those things."

"We've got... one weapon between us, as far as I know." Continuing, Eugene stood up, stretching out. "We don't have enough firepower to even make a dent in one of those things, so we'll have to go through the brush and run."

[Fiery Firefly]

"Wait "one of those things"?" Ayako asked a bit nervously, "I thought there was only one!"

Ayako looked around "Do we have things like food and blankets for the night? I have a bunch of food with me, but I don't want it to all be gone in one night"

[lovely corte]

"It's only one night. Although, I'd advise you to ration your food. We might need it if we get holed up somewhere outside." He warned. The prospect of starvation rarely affected him anymore, fond memories of the Battle of Guadalcanal still ever-present in his mind. "And I assume there is more than one. The military wouldn't react like this if there was just one."