Broke Bed Mountain

Brief Title:
Broke Bed Mountain

Characters:
Phantasm, Armand, Tanya

Scene Runner/Watcher:

IC Date:
06/23/12

Location:
Homeless Shelter - Chelsea

Summary:
Armand and Mike help sort through the destruction at the homeless shelter. Tanya drops off another guest

Social or Plot:

TS:
Yes

Log:
6/23/2012

A shelter in a storm, a respite from life in the streets, a home for those without one. Funded by the City Council and several large anonymous donations, this homeless shelter stands as a beacon for those who have lost all hope.

The shelter is divided up into three basic sections: a living area, a food dispensary, and a church/medical facility.

The living area is a large hall that contains row upon row of beds and is littered with people and their few belongings. There are two large bathrooms at the far end of the hall and two large economy washers and dryers used to clean clothes and bedsheets. Several folding tables have been setup in the far corners and people are off playing cards, chess or checkers to pass the time away before their next meal.

The food dispensary is pretty much just a large kitchen with a divider between where the food is prepared and where it is served. Several volunteers are constantly preparing food to be served to the massive numbers of people who have no other place to eat. For the most part, the only place to sit and eat are the living area beds.

Finally, the small church and medical facility that are housed in the third room of the shelter, are probably the cleanest and most respectable rooms in the entire shelter. The priest that runs the shelter, Father John Mackenzie, is also a trained physician capable of treating minor injuries and administering flu shots and such. While occupied with other things though, doctors from neighboring clinics often come to this shelter to volunteer their services to the city's less fortunate individuals.


After the chaos earlier this week, there is quite a mess about, although most of the bodies have been picked up by now, there's still a lot of damage to buildings. Some of the residential sort. While many may opt to stay with family or friends, others do not have that luxury and are forced to go elsewhere.

One of these elsewheres is in Chelsea. Despite the boarded up window near the primary entry, and the mess of the living area, the food dispensary, church, and medical area are untouched from the chaos. The church now hosts a few cots of its own to allow for the influx of people. Folded up and put to the side, there is a gathering of people in there, no mass going on. They just sit, and are quiet as Father Mackenzie busies himself in the medical area.

The living area is not being utilized for it's primary purposes, entrance to the room has been restricted to primarily to volunteers as they go through the process of sorting out the unusable from the usable. One of these people, is Mike. Dressed down in the dregs of his wardrobe. Knit cap and all.

There's another individual who's here to help out...Armand has his gold backpack but also has paper bags filled with whatever groceries and containers of baked goods he could get done and ready. His hair is hidden and tucked up in his own knit cap as he sighs softly, wearing a pair of dark jeans and his hoodie he looks around with a slow blink, moving to the living area and goes through sorting with a slow nod, answering tentatively.

If this was the result of some other issue, it could be baffling just how it is that only the living area was trashed. But considering the majority of beds have been stacked up against certain doors, it's quite possible those hanging out in here thought of the past few weeks as more zombie apocalypse than- whatever the hell it was. Shifting over to mount bed, a pair of volunteers find themselves having to hop onto a bed in order to reach the top most piece of furniture in the stack but there's another issue as they see just Mike walking over to help with the other half. Eyes shift around and one of the guys looks towards Armand. Finger extending in gesture to the other long haired man, the guy brings up his voice, "Hey! Can you help him with the other half of this bed?"

Armand is quiet as he nods and eyes the stack of beds before he jumps as he's addressed, carefully setting the bags down before he takes a deep breath and moves towards the bed and the guy with a shake of his head, grabbing the other half and he takes a deep breath. "At least...it is seeming they were trying to be well prepared..." He mutters softly.

With Armand's acceptance of his role, the man nods, "Alright. Better. Now on the count of three. One. Two. ThreEEEeeeee..."

Mike nods, a bit more focused on getting the bed down than who he's been paired off with for his half of the bed. Making sure he has a good grip, he works to help lower the bed. It's not until the bed safely gets lowered to the floor does Mike feel the need to give in his response. "Yeah, easier to replace beds than people."

Armand recognizes Mike for a moment and he ahhs softly. "Monsieur..." He murmurs softly and grits his teeth as he helps to lower the bed, taking a deep breath and dusting off his hands. "Unless its one of those fancy sleep number odd foamy bed tings...then you'd be better off cloning than replacing them..." He ponders before quickly shaking his head. "M' glad to see you are alive." That's all he's going to say about that as he turns to see if there's another mattress.

Another mattress? Why there's a MOUNTAIN of beds! The other two are already lining up to reach for the next bed. "When you have no place else to go, I don't think they're going to care that it's not a sleep number." Stepping up on the bed again, Mike waits for Armand to join them, "Nice to see you're still alive too, Armand. You live out of state now, right?"

"Ah." Mike grimaces, opting not to say where he stayed as he instead works on lowering the bed with the others. As one of the other pair walks off to the side to retrieve a clipboard, Mike moves towards the next bed, "You do have a bit of a killer commute."

"Oui, but it is better than being killed...all the teachers are scary." Armand offers as he eyes the next bed and grabs his end with a soft oof, blinking and nodding. "How is your music doing? I saw you play the other day...when I was having a nervous break down and everybody thought I was insane? Oui...that was odd but you were good I believe."

Mike's lips thin to a bit of a line as he bites back some commentary regarding the school. "Thanks... I saw your, dancing..." Mike doesn't lift until the guy comes back, throwing his clipboard down on a bed that was already retrieved. No point throwing out his back, "It was nice being back behind the set again. Kind of spend more time closer to where Rex was standing nowadays."

Armand laughs softly and then he sighs eyes the man throwing down the clipboard as he arches an eyebrow. "I wouldn't call it dancing exactly I just...was getting tired of answering questions about ah...well certain stuff. It was making me feel insane." Then he hmms softly. "How many instruments do you play?" He has to ask curiously. "My mother she...well she tried to pass on her love to me, and I enjoy dancing but I couldn't imagine wearing tights and male ballerinas well...you have to wear tights."

The answer to the question Armand gave is delayed. Not due to Mike counting instruments up but more due to him processing the rest of what Armand was saying. When the fourth man returns and does his countdown, Mike lifts as needed, helping the bed being lowered gently to the floor, "Uh, there are types of dancing that don't require tights." Looking over to the former Mt. Bed and finding none that require 'lifting', he plops down on the bed that his butt is conveniently located near, "As for the instrument thing it depends on what stage of the music we're at."

"Oui...there are...but Male Ballet dancers ahhh..." Armand frowns a bit. "Its complicated. But my father wouldn't have allowed it anyways." Then he arches an eyebrow, looking around for his paper bags before folding his arms over his chest and nodding slowly to Mike. "You ever consider teaching free classes or something to homeless or disadvantaged kids like every other weekend or something?"

Mike shakes his head, resting as it seems that the volunteers are taking a break from the bed moving, "Never thought about that actually. But, I do other things that are charity related. Generally if I'm asked, it's doable, and I think it's a good cause I'll make some type of arrangement. But, no one's suggested that one before." His head tilts in the general direction of the church area of the shelter. "A number of us connected with Golem Records do help out here a lot though since it's so close to what's left of the studio although, I generally don't get to work the kitchen side of things."

Armand hmms and looks a bit sheepish before giving a slow nod. "I tink it would be really popular...ya know...something to get people's minds off of...weird stuff. So much weird stuff, sometimes a little music helps." Then he shrugs at the mention of kitchen. "Oui. Well, if a little festival or event could be arranged and such...I could make some cakes...and could serve milkshakes..."

Mike's brow raises at the mention of milkshakes, "You really like those things, huh?" The musician glances back over to the other volunteers, watching as the one with the clipboard is looking over the beds that used to be part of Mt. Bed. Oh well, more break. He looks back over to Armand, "I'll have to consider that one. Once some issues get taken care of."

"And hotdogs. And food." Armand fidgets a bit, picking up a pillow and peeking inside the pillowcase thoughtfully before he nods slowly and worries his bottom lip. "Aye...lots of issues in this darn city...lots of issues..."

"Never boring." Mike agrees, giving a nod, "Always some form of drama going on somewhere." He frowns, "So, you stayed in a Pantry these past few days?"

"Non...only for the first night." Armand shakes his head. "At the bakery where I was working...I returned for a moment before everything happened however...then I ahh, found a van and then...well had a few run ins with scary demons and fought a bit and then took a break while helping other folks."

"Ah." Mike gives a small nod, glancing around, "Guess not many options on where to stay when your school's elsewhere..."

"Well..." Armand sighs softly. "I didn't tink I could've made it through the city allll the way to the hotel where I used to stay."

"Okay, point." Mike accepts, "Hell, I wasn't even at my place during all this. I ended up crashing with friends due to placement issues."

"Well it matters not /where/ you stayed just that you stayed...safe for the most part." Armand shudders as he has a flashback to the images and memories of the last few days before he looks back to Mike with a shrug and a grin. "It is good to have friends."

"Yes it is." Mike replies, head tilting, giving what he hopes is a meaningful look, "Just make sure they are GOOD friends."

Clipboard guy no longer distracted by the task at hand, he lowers the board to look back to Mike and Armand, "Okay, The beds we can use will be moved over to the other side of the living area, and the ones we can't use will be stacked over by the door."

There's a brief bit of silence before another volunteer looks at him, "Stacked? We just finished UNstacking them! Can't we just put them in an orderly line?"

Armand eyes Mike for a moment and actually looks a bit sad for a moment. "One day I'll know what those are." A wry smile and then he looks back to the volunteer clipboard coordinator and at the instructions he just stares and places a hand on his hip as he points a finger. "Shouldn't we strip them first? Put stuff in the wash as others work on...moving mattresses and such, we need to get functional not just pass the time...oui?"

There's a perhaps, odd sound coming from outside the homeless shelter. That sound was the rattle of hooves on pavement. And then a voice shouting "Is anyone in there? I need some help here!"

The clipboard toting man looks over to Armand and then to the others before sighing, "FINE." He gestures to a few locations, "Sheets there, Matresses there, and bedframes here. IF they're considered unusable beds." There's a grumble coming from the other volunteer at this as he dredges over to get started. Oh Yay! More Work.

At the shouting from outside, Mike springs up, moving over towards the doorway, "What the fu-?"

Outside there was a female mongolian-esque cape, on a somewhat battered mongolian horse near the doorway. Across the back of the horse behind the rider was an unconscious... drunk was the best way to put it. Though he seemed hurt too. ".. This man I found unconscious. He needs help. You were closest." She replies to the man who emerged.

Armand nods politely to the clipboard man. "Alright, you'll need to-" Then he hears the shouting as well as he moves to the door curiously, peeking out of the door with a slow blink and he just stares. "...is...that a horse...with a drunk?"

Tanya glances sharply to Armand, and states flatly "AND a rider."

Mike steps out of the building, looking curious to the rider and then to the person draped on the back. "Uh I think he was talking about what's behind you." He starts to walk towards it the trio, turning his head to glance back to Armand, "Hey Armand, could you tell one of the other volunteers to grab one of the unused cots out of the church area and set it up in the living area? I'm not about to have this guy puking on one of the beds or in the church."

Armand just eyes Tanya. "...that is obvious...oui..." Then he's back to peering at the drunk man before nodding and he turns to duck back inside. "Alright then! Need a cot from the church area, gonna set it up here...so there will be /no/ bed stacking..." He goes to direct drunkard transport.

"I know. That is why he said 'and'. And then I added to it." replies the tired mongol as she braces the horse to help get the man down "I do not think he will throw up again though. He's rather dried out." she remarks, the horse holding perfectly still as the two men pull the man off. "Thank you as well." she adds to them

"I'd rather not risk it either way." Mike comments, lifting his arms up to help the unloading of the unconcious man by basically catching him. "Shelter's enough of a mess as is and we're trying to figure out how many of the beds can be used and how many can't be for tonight."

Armand hmms softly and turns to help direct the man into the shelter, pointing to the unused cot. "Easy now...we can be getting him settled safely I am sure." He tsks softly. "...stupid demon invasions..."

Tanya nods at both of them, and then relaxes the horse as the unloading was done." May I get a glass of water please? " she asks, sounding exhausted.

Mike nods, as he already passes off the drunkard off to another volunteer, before lifting a hand in a half wave as he turns towards the dispensary, "Yeah, sure. Think I know where the cups are..."

Armand chuckles and nods, making sure the drunkard is tucked in just right, brushing some hair out of his face before turning to face the door as Mike goes to get the water.

Tanya climbs off the horse, stumbling a moment before shaking it off stiffly "Thank you. Its been a long night. I will hopefully get some rest now." she explains to both, smiling in gratitude

When the rider dismounts, Mike glances over to Tanya, "Oh if you're actually coming in, there's a water fountain if you want it faster." Not checking to see if she's following, Mike continues his path into the kitchen area and starts to look through cabinets.

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