lights out!

[velveteened]

Date & Time: 4/20, all day
Location: the apartments!
Characters: everyone, tag yourselves in!
Summary: as detailed here, the power will be out from early morning to midnight this night.
Warnings: PROBABLY NOT? will update if need be.

[ catch-all log for blackout shenanigans! ]

Comments

in an elevator; open

[debtor]

[AND THEN SUDDENLY

with a violent shudder, the elevator comes to an abrupt halt between floors, at the same moment every light blinks off. Is it supposed to do that.

Allen's pretty sure it isn't, oh my god. He clutches the railing and stares unseeing at the panel where the buttons had been lit up a second ago.]

Wh— what happened!

[HELP...

Who else is stuck in here with him?]

[flamberge]

[Add one redhead to the stuck count. Kratos had been returning to his room to toss in a couple library books before heading out and doing productive stuff.

Then the elevator stops.

Kratos lets out a fairly annoyed sigh. Just how crappy can his luck be? Shame Allen can't see his face because it looks something like 8| this... Wait, that's pretty normal, actually.]

By the looks of it, either the elevator malfunctioned or the power went out.

[debtor]

[He looks in the direction Kratos's voice came from, blinking hard into the darkness. Even if Allen has better-than-average night vision, it's pitch black here, and it's terribly disorienting.

He just knew there was a catch to all this newfangled electric power.]

...When will it come back, do you know?

[whatsupcroc]

( Collette looks up at the equally dark ceiling and groans. )

My friend, we just experienced some major technical difficulties.

( She taps her fingers on her arm rest, then laughs. )

Geez, they could have had a back-up generator like any normal place would!

[debtor]

[Allen blinks, turning his head towards her voice.

Major technical difficulties? No back-up generator?? THIS SOUNDS BAD.]

Can the elevator be fixed?

[whatsupcroc]

When we get power back, sure! In the meantime, we're stuck.

( She sighs. This is not the first time this has happened to Collette. )

You're not claustrophobic, are you?

[debtor]

No... [he trails off, squinting at the doors, then up at the ceiling. He's not afraid of them, but he doesn't particularly enjoy being stuck in cramped spaces.

At least she seems fairly relaxed about it.]

Do you know if getting the power back will take long?

[whatsupcroc]

Not a clue! Usually it's not down for long, but in theory, it could be for hours. I wonder if they'll send a rescue team... probably not.

( She sighs. )

Do our tablets work still?

[debtor]

Hours? [He can't mask the slight whine in his voice. He's got things to do! Lunches to eat!! He doesn't have time for this, and he's sure she doesn't, either.

There must be another way out, if it comes to that.]

—Um, I'm not certain. [Good question—

wait. He looks down at himself, patting his empty jacket.

Drat.] I... hadn't brought mine. Have you got yours?

[whatsupcroc]

( Collette twists around to shuffle through the contents of her satchel. She ends up pulling out a book, two pens, nine marks, and a candle. )

Um... no. Man, I knew I'd forgotten something!

( There went the easy answer. She snorts... then starts laughing. )

Help, we're caught in an elevator and we don't have our tablets to call for help? Hahaha, when does this happen in real life? This is silly!

[debtor]

[He opens his mouth, running a hand through his hair, about to say something,

but then she starts laughing, and he pauses. It is silly. He usually brings his tablet with him, too! Of all the times... This is just his luck, isn't it (a shame she had to get caught up in it.)

He doesn't quite join in, but there's a smile on his voice now.]

Perhaps we could shout? Somebody in the halls might hear us!

[whatsupcroc]

( She giggles as she considers his suggestion. )

What if they think we're ghosts? The spirits who haunt the elevator shaft!

( Now how likely that is registers pretty low on the scale, but the idea is amusing enough. )

I wonder if this elevator has a service door... did you know half of them don't? You see all these escape routes in movies that don't exist at all in real life. It's a total gyp!

[debtor]

Escape routes in 'movies'...?

[HE'S HEARD THAT WORD BEFORE a while ago, and he still has no idea what it means.]

[imperfect]

Oh, this is great!

[Dammit, all Ed wanted was to take a shower and fall asleep in a bed now that he's finally back in a place he can find those things! Was that so wrong?!]

Useless piece of...

[Frustrated, he thumps the back of his fist against where he remembers the panel to be. Of course, in the dark, there's no guarantee that the panel is what he'll actually hit.]

[debtor]

Wait!

[He hears Ed's fist knock into the metal wall, and reaches out blindly, only brushing against him.]

Don't hit anything! [YET...

They're suspended several stories up in a broken metal box!! Who knows what thumping it might do.]

[imperfect]

[Ed shoots an entirely pointless glare over his shoulder in the direction of the voice, and taps the same patch of wall a couple more times just for the hell of it.] Then what do you think we should be doing, genius?

[Apart from climbing out through the top, but can Ed even reach the ceiling in here without giving himself a boost and potentially causing the floor to give way? Stupid box.]

[debtor]

[After a long pause...]

I don't know.

But I don't think knocking it will help. [UGH what can they do, he doesn't know anything about elevators!] What turned it off in the first place—?

[imperfect]

[Here's another thing conveniently covered up by the blackout: Ed rolling his eyes.]

A place like this, I gotta say I'm surprised we don't get more outages.

[He sighs, shrugs his coat off and drapes it over his left arm, not particularly caring if it hits whoever's behind him in the process. When you're an alchemist without a clue about the chemical makeup of the box you're stuck in, there's one fairly obvious thing to try and figure out next, and bashing his head against it in the dark won't do that for him.]

But if you want a debate, save it for when we're out of here. You're not hurt or anything, are you?

[debtor]

[Outages...

He can hear rustling, and he thinks he sees movement, just a few feet(?) ahead. When the coat brushes past him, he jerks back, pulse jumping—

the dark's put him more on edge than he'd thought. But he collects himself a second later, re-gripping the railing as his expression flattens out.]

I'm unhurt.

What are you doing?

[imperfect]

Getting us out of here. But first... [He claps his hands.] Let there be light.

[With a rush of energy that could be mistaken for a breeze, the cover of Ed's automail from his elbow to his hand flares bluish-white - not as bright as a flashlight would be, but still an almost painful contrast to the pitch darkness of a moment ago. The metal continues to glow after he takes his other hand away, casting rippling shadows against the elevator walls.

There. Just a minor but unnecessarily complicated structural adjustment that should take a few minutes before he needs to change it back. He can't remember if he's ever had a reason to deliberately transmute something as slowly as possible, but hey, at least his mechanic isn't here to complain. And if she were, they wouldn't still be trapped inside a damn broken-down old box, so it's all good.

It takes a few more seconds before Ed can open his eyes without immediately scrunching them back up, but once they've adjusted somewhat, he turns to squint around the elevator. The quiet but persistent crackling noise of the ongoing transmutation is already annoying him.]

Yeah, probably an outage. If there was major damage to the outside, you'd think we'd notice something...

[He pauses. ...Who is he stuck here with, anyway?]

[debtor]

[Allen takes another step back and shuts his eyes— opening them a split second later to blink hard at the space just left of Ed's arm as his eyes grow accustom to the light. When it no longer hurts to look, he gives Ed a once-over, raising an eyebrow at his right arm. He saw this guy as he entered the elevator. Another teenager, looks a bit older than he is (and vaguely, vaguely familiar, although perhaps he's mistaken.)

The glow isn't unwelcome, but the sound it's producing is worrisome.]

Is your arm all right?

[imperfect]

Should be. It's just the cover. [Which definitely explains everything.

In this light, Ed isn't sure if this kid's face rings a bell, but either way he can't put a name to it. Well, never mind. Even if it does, that's no reason to leave the guy by himself in an elevator unless he really starts being a pain. Better get on it.

He starts to walk past Allen towards the doors, but stops.] Actually, hold this a second. [And then all but flings his heavy coat at him.]

[debtor]

[THAT EXPLAINS

nothing at all, yeah. But he'll take this guy's word for it.

He grabs the coat and slings it over one arm. He doesn't really appreciate being used as a coat rack, but Ed seems to know what he's doing, and Allen's more interested in what that might be. He doesn't say anything more for now, just watches curiously...]

[motioned]

[There's a gasp, a moment of fear, and she presses her hand to the buttons again, squinting for a second to read them, and then pressing the number of the floor she wanted to get to again as if it'll do anything. Then she sighs, squeezing her eyes shut, a moment of annoyance. She hasn't paid much attention to the boy in the elevator next to her before then, but she does now, speaking after a moment or two.]

I think it's just stuck... Are you alright?

[debtor]

I'm fine, thank you. [Squinting hard, trying to pick out her shape in the darkness,] Are you?