A certain not-so-abandoned warehouse - Tuesday

[badassprodigy]

Progress on the sub was making headway. Luckily most of the electronics and weapon systems had been installed before Barry started getting hit randomly with ice water from an unknown location. As a result most of the installation work was now being handled by some robotic devices in order to prevent damage to the sub and also because Barry didn't feel like mopping up water and ice cubes off the floor. Given the pace though, it was on schedule and subject to an initial test run this weekend.

If Barry didn't get distracted by the ice water.

"This shit couldn't happen earlier in the summer when it was fucking hotter?" Barry grumbled as he toweled off for the second time today.

That distraction might happen.

[Open! Note: That Celia visited Barry is okay to broadcast. Content of their conversation is NFB]

Comments

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

Celia had been invited to visit Barry for the explicit purpose of putting her mind at ease about the thing that was going to take them down to Rapture, so after she closed up the Magic Box for the day, she wound her way through town until she found this...warehouse of his.

She wandered in just in time to catch him after his second dousing, and greeted him with a sympathetic, "You, too? It's a damn epidemic. I'm half-tempted to just start carrying an umbrella."

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. I'm thinking of a fucking poncho myself," Barry muttered. "How's it going Celia. You here to take a look at the sub?"

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"Exactly that," Celia agreed with a small smile. And since the sub was fairly hard to miss, she nodded to it, wide-eyed. "This is it, huh?"

It looked like it'd house...well, certainly more than just Eleanor herself. And that was the important bit.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"We'll, that's her," Barry said waving at it. "I could throw a bunch of fucking technical talk about how it works but I'm not sure how that would make you feel better about the damn thing. You can crawl around inside if you want as long as you promise not to touch anything. "

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"She's watertight?" Celia checked uncertainly, wandering over to run her hand alongside the sub, and correcting her pronoun use.

(Why were vessels female, anyway? That had always seemed so odd.)

"And when you say not touch anything, do you mean the floor, as well? Because I can do that."

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"She's watertight," Barry assured her. "Unless whatever it is dumps water on top of your head. You can touch the walls and the floors and open any doors just don't touch anything electrical or any buttons."

He tossed the towel over a chair and waved for her to follow him up the ladder. "Oh, fuck it. Just follow me and I'll give you a tour."

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

Celia gingerly climbed the ladder, half-tempted just to levitate herself up but figuring she ought to stay the course and follow his lead on this one. "I wouldn't know what to do with anything electrical, anyway," she admitted. "No worries there. I'm intimidated enough to stay away on my own."

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"Well that's good. But if you see anything you have questions about, feel free to ask. I got nothing to hide and if you feel comfortable the whole thing will go smoother," Barry said as he reached the deck of the sub and continued down a hatch into the sub itself using another ladder. "I'll warn you it's a little cramped. Just remember there's enough room in here for about ten twelve people and there'll be enough provisions in here to last you for a month. You shouldn't be gone that fucking long but I'm not skimping on anything."

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"You really think we can convince Eleanor to bring eleven people beside herself?" Celia asked, floating gracefully down from the ladder and immediately clasping her hands behind her back. She was very pleased so far with what she was seeing -- Barry clearly knew what he was doing, technically, and thus far he seemed to firmly reside with her in Camp Practicality.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"No. Probably not eleven," Barry admitted. "But I'm betting it's going to be more than four when it's all done. And it's not like this is a house where we can build an extension when it's done. Plus who knows if we'll need a sub down the road."

He took a breath and pointed to some of the smaller rooms. "There's not a lot of room for privacy here but what we have is a conference area which doubles as a bunkroom. Medical area. Latrine. A small galley and of course the helm which has room for Joker and a co-pilot."

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"You sort of thought of everything," Celia said, admiringly. "Where in the world did you find the time to put this together, Barry? Seriously. I couldn't conjure something this intricate and big if my life depended on it."

Small and intricate, sure. But this? No way.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"I'm not big on sleep," Barry admitted with a small grin. "And most of this was prefabricated elsewhere and shipped here for final assembly. The ship and all it's components all had to come from different distributors. Getting the logistics in order was probably the more difficult part for me since I can't always control that. After that it's... well if you ever played with Legos that's how the rest of this is for me."

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"Those are those funny little blocks, right?" Celia asked, leaning over to peer at a few knobs and switches. (Without touching! No touching at all.) "What do you still need in order to get it done? I'm not one for the...technical aspect, but I'd like to help, as best I can."

Thus far, her greatest asset in this trip was, 'can sort of imitate splicer powers, if you squint.'

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"Well right now I'm just doing a shakedown on the fucking components," Barry said. "But if you want to save me some time? The walls and ceiling are just a fucking grey primer color. Does your little ability allow you to change paint color? Because this place would look a little less grim with some white walls."

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

Celia raised an eyebrow at him, but reached out to touch the wall, concentrating a little. White bloomed out from her fingertips, spreading across the walls to coat them in a sheen of glossy white paint in seconds.

"Better? Or would you care for something a little more subtle?" She smiled, and the gloss faded, leaving a duller, simpler white.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

Barry grinned. "Shit, considering the hours you just saved me waiting for paint to dry you can make the fucking walls glossy yellow and I wouldn't give a shit."

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"Color's kind of a specialty of mine," Celia admitted with a grin. "Not an especially useful one usually, so it's nice to actually do something with a purpose aside from just showing off." She looked around, smiling a bit, and added, "It's positively homey in here."

She'd just keep telling herself things like that, in order to feel less nervous about this whole thing.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"Next time I'll build one with a fucking fireplace so we can make s'mores," Barry joked and waved to her to follow him. "You want to check out some of the gear I put together for this little shindig?"

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"As long as you don't mind dumbing it down to my technological level in your explanations," Celia said, eagerly following after.

That would help her to feel less nervous, too, at least about the traveling bit.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

It wasn't far. Just a few feet. Barry pushed a button and a weapons cabinet opened up. No weapons had been stocked yet but there were empty places for rifles and handguns.

But what Barry was more interested in was what looked to be a hybrid between goggles and google-glass along with what appeared to be a black bracelet.

"Here. Put these on. This is what's going to help you and Joker when you're on the ground. The bracelet will transmit your location and your vitals back here so Joker and I can always keep track of you. The goggles will allow us to see what you are seeing and in return we can send you visual information regarding other people's locations and a general lay of the land."

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

Celia was staring at him, but carefully took the offered goggles and slipped them on, along with the bracelet. "What do you mean by vitals?"

The rest of it she'd followed just fine -- her goggles were a sort of camera, the bracelet tracked her location.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"It's your basic health monitor. Heart rate, temperature, etc. It also allows me to do this," Barry said as he walked up to a console and pulled up the GPS and camera controls. He pulled up a schematic of the ship which had a blue dot where Celia was standing. There was also a smaller screen showing Celia's point of view. "Now I can see what you are seeing and know exactly where you are. And if I do this right a schematic of the sub showing you and your relative location will appear showing you where you are."

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"Incredible," Celia breathed, peering closer at the schematic. "And you can tell that's me and not, you know, Eleanor or whoever? You'll be able to distinguish us from one another?"

Incredible.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"Each person gets their own bracelet and their own dot," Barry explained. "So we can track everyone as long as they are in range of the sub."

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"And Joker will be able to see the dots, as well?" Celia asked, adjusting her goggles. "Not that I'm not pleased that you'll have our backs, but he'll be rather closer, you know?"

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"He'll see everything I do," Barry said jabbing his thumb in the direction of the cockpit. "He'll be the fucking man from on high giving you all sorts of direction. No worries on that account. Only wish I had the room for a teleporter so you guys wouldn't have to rely on the airlocks."

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"Eleanor can probably do it, in a pinch," Celia decided, glancing towards the cockpit. "Barry, this is incredibly impressive. Truly. I hope you don't mind that you just officially became my go-to person if I ever find myself in need of...oh, I don't know. A spaceship or something equally mad."

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"Are you kidding?" Barry said with a laugh. "I live for this shit. Only thing is outside of a spaceship I'm not sure what I could do for you. You've got magic. That shit defies magic most of the fucking time."

[pasunereveuse.livejournal.com]

"I'll find something, believe me," Celia said, waving a hand at him. "Magic's nice, but I've my limitations. I can make pretty things. You can make useful ones."

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"Somehow I doubt that," Barry said as he shook his head. "You think changing the color of the wall or your clothes is a simple trick? There's chemical changes that took place just by you willing it. What I'd like to know is what you could do if you put your fucking mind to it."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy hadn't been by to see Barry much recently, so she figured that she ought to stop by and say hello. She also brought a bunch of takeout from town. When was the last time Barry had eaten, exactly?

"Hello?" she called, peeking inside. "Barry are you in here or am I gonna have to dodge security again?"

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"If my security was on you'd already be shot," Barry called out. "The door is open."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Can we do something about that?" Kathy asked, strolling in. "I'd really prefer not to be shot repeatedly if I pop by sometime and you're on a date or somesuch."

[Sorry! Remicaid all but killed me the past few days]

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"We'll you could always fucking knock or call ahead to see where I am," Barry suggested. "Besides I doubt Elsa and I will have a date here after the last time. We had more privacy watching a movie in the common room."

[spin_kick_snap]

"That's no fun at all," she said, sitting down and pulling out her laptop. She'd signed up for a slew of AP courses and needed all the time to study she could, what with her night job. "Will the promise of food make you change your mind? I brought extra to share."