[IC][Story] There's Nothing Better!
09-07-2016, 10:44 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-14-2018, 06:30 AM by Black Aeronaut.
Edit Reason: General cleanup of typoes and glitches from the Crapatalk migration
)
09-07-2016, 10:44 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-14-2018, 06:30 AM by Black Aeronaut.
Edit Reason: General cleanup of typoes and glitches from the Crapatalk migration
)
San Antonio, Texas, USA
September 7th, 201612:34pm
The City of San Antonio. Home of the Alamo. The River City.
Others may turn their noses at the bustling urban center. It has neither the same je ne sais quoi as New York or LA, but it also lacked a lot of the same problems that plagued those cities.
For Benjamin Rhodes, this place was Home. Despite growing up so far away, it still resonated in him - in his bones it still felt like home. Maybe it had something to do with over fourteen generations of family history on the very soil he stood on. While he may be fond of other places, San Antonio will always call him back, like a gentle song on the wind.
That was why he was here now. He could have gone any place else, but he wanted to establish his own roots irrevocably in the place he felt in his blood he'd do best in.
Although at the moment, he was starting to doubt his choice.
He held the letter back up to reread it again, as though not certain that he was in the right place.
Westfield Apartments.
Job as building managers.
Good pay and benefits.
Ample budget for repairs, upgrades, and maintenance.
But the look of this place belied the letter. It was a wide, squat building - only two floors. All painted white with streaks of dirt and mildew and broken windows. The yard outside was a mess of scraggly weeds and the pavement was decades old.
"Well, at least we will be able to pay for the repairs."
Ben gave his brother, Jacob, an aghast look. "Dude, I think the cost to restore this place is gonna be an order of magnitude greater than what Mr. Phantomhive had in mind."
"Then he should've looked at the place before he had us fix it up," he sniped back.
"I dunno. That Sebastian guy looked WAAYYYY too sharp to me. I think someone else fucked up here. Well, wanna go see how bad it is?"
"Might as well, it is what we are here for after all."
"Hold on a sec," said Ben, putting a hand to his brother's shoulder, bringing him up short.
Jacob gave him a raised eyebrow, "Oooaky?"
"Don't look too hard, but this place has people in it. We got squatters."
"Well, fuckle berries, this just gets better and better."
"Yeah, let's just back away for now and make some phone calls. Police first and then Mr. Phantomhive."
The SAPD came, saw, and called for backup. Six cars, one of them a supervisor unit, and a patrol wagon all to handle the homeless and the squatters.
Benjamin and Jacob watched the proceedings from a distance, themselves watched by the Butler, Sebastian.
Sensing Ben's unease with the situation, Sebastian spoke up, nearly startling him.
"I do apologize for the inconvenience, Mr. Rhodes. As you suggested, it does seem that one of our servants was gravely mistaken in their estimation of the property. I assure you that not only will your budget be receiving additional funds, measures are being taken as we speak to ensure nothing like this happens again."
"I hope so, Mister Sebastian," said Benjamin as his brother nodded alongside him. "Although, if you don't mind me asking, do I know you from anywhere?"
"Oh no. I am simply one hell of a butler."
Jacob and Benjamin both raised an eyebrow at this and chorused, "Riiight."
Sebastian gave a knowing grin.
That isn't ominous at all... Jacob thought.
For his part, Ben simply let it go. Besides, the police were leaving so it was time to take stock of the damages.
The three went together into the courtyard through the entrance between the south wing and east wing.
"Oh man, what a mess!" cried out Ben once they entered the courtyard, while Jacob simply took a deep breath.
It was just simply bad. There was garbage and left over bedrolls from the encampments of the homeless people everywhere. There was a swimming pool filled with trash and foul smelling greenish-gray sludge.
"Oh MY GOD! They've been using it as a cesspool!"
For once, Sebastian's falsely pleasant demeanor was simply and utterly gone.
"I assure you, Mr. Rhodes, we will make immediate arrangements to have this taken care of. This goes far beyond Lord Phantomhive's expectations."
"No kidding..." Jacob muttered as he pointedly look away from the pool.
Further investigation revealed that most of the units had been broken into and used as encampments - all of them completely trashed and graffitied with local gang tags. Not even the manager's office had been left untouched, but it being mostly windows it hadn't gotten much use. All the glass had been simply broken out, and the interior graffitied.
The only upshot was the truck that had been left on the premises - an old Ford F-350 dually-axle crew cab. Benjamin inspected it closely, revealing that it had a turbo-diesel engine, dual fuel tanks, and a fifth-wheel hitch. The registration and inspection stickers were out of date by over two years. The doors were unlocked and the keys were hidden in the visor.
"Idiot," grumbled Ben as he stuck them in the ignition, turned the key, waited for the glow-plug indicator to go out, then cranked the starter.
The engine turned over a few times, coughed, sputter, then rumbled to life while billowing pitch-black smoke in the air.
Jacob waved his hand in front of him, "So, how do you plan to deal with this?"
Ben shut off the engine and pulled the keys, pocketing them. "I gotta check out the State Laws regarding abandoned vehicles, but there's a pretty good chance we might be able to claim this bad boy. Probably need some work, but the drive trains on these trucks are built to last fer-fucking-ever."
"If you think we could, I guess..."
Just as he shut the driver's door, there was a sharp, gut-punching report from the direction of the Manager's Office. Something careened into the second level walkway of the east wing, then dropped to the ground with a crash.
"Fuck!" Jacob yelped and ducked.
"WHAT THE HELL!?" snapped Ben.
Even Sebastian, for all his composure, flinched at the sudden noise.
"Did a transformer just blow or something?" grouched Ben as he began to lead the way (carefully) to the site of the explosion.
"Did you see one in the middle of the complex!" Jacob snapped back.
"It could have been in the back of the manager's office. They do that sometimes."
"And we were expected to work there?!"
"Trust me, you'd know in advance if there was something wrong. We just didn't notice because it was in some sort of maintenance cab... bin... ette.."
They looked at the scene for a moment before Sebastian commented, only too pleasantly,
"Ah, it would seem that our first tenants have arrived."
"What do you mean by that?!" Jacob said slowly.
"Precisely what I just said. You may wish to knock on the door. They might be reluctant about coming out otherwise."
September 7th, 201612:34pm
The City of San Antonio. Home of the Alamo. The River City.
Others may turn their noses at the bustling urban center. It has neither the same je ne sais quoi as New York or LA, but it also lacked a lot of the same problems that plagued those cities.
For Benjamin Rhodes, this place was Home. Despite growing up so far away, it still resonated in him - in his bones it still felt like home. Maybe it had something to do with over fourteen generations of family history on the very soil he stood on. While he may be fond of other places, San Antonio will always call him back, like a gentle song on the wind.
That was why he was here now. He could have gone any place else, but he wanted to establish his own roots irrevocably in the place he felt in his blood he'd do best in.
Although at the moment, he was starting to doubt his choice.
He held the letter back up to reread it again, as though not certain that he was in the right place.
Westfield Apartments.
Job as building managers.
Good pay and benefits.
Ample budget for repairs, upgrades, and maintenance.
But the look of this place belied the letter. It was a wide, squat building - only two floors. All painted white with streaks of dirt and mildew and broken windows. The yard outside was a mess of scraggly weeds and the pavement was decades old.
"Well, at least we will be able to pay for the repairs."
Ben gave his brother, Jacob, an aghast look. "Dude, I think the cost to restore this place is gonna be an order of magnitude greater than what Mr. Phantomhive had in mind."
"Then he should've looked at the place before he had us fix it up," he sniped back.
"I dunno. That Sebastian guy looked WAAYYYY too sharp to me. I think someone else fucked up here. Well, wanna go see how bad it is?"
"Might as well, it is what we are here for after all."
"Hold on a sec," said Ben, putting a hand to his brother's shoulder, bringing him up short.
Jacob gave him a raised eyebrow, "Oooaky?"
"Don't look too hard, but this place has people in it. We got squatters."
"Well, fuckle berries, this just gets better and better."
"Yeah, let's just back away for now and make some phone calls. Police first and then Mr. Phantomhive."
The SAPD came, saw, and called for backup. Six cars, one of them a supervisor unit, and a patrol wagon all to handle the homeless and the squatters.
Benjamin and Jacob watched the proceedings from a distance, themselves watched by the Butler, Sebastian.
Sensing Ben's unease with the situation, Sebastian spoke up, nearly startling him.
"I do apologize for the inconvenience, Mr. Rhodes. As you suggested, it does seem that one of our servants was gravely mistaken in their estimation of the property. I assure you that not only will your budget be receiving additional funds, measures are being taken as we speak to ensure nothing like this happens again."
"I hope so, Mister Sebastian," said Benjamin as his brother nodded alongside him. "Although, if you don't mind me asking, do I know you from anywhere?"
"Oh no. I am simply one hell of a butler."
Jacob and Benjamin both raised an eyebrow at this and chorused, "Riiight."
Sebastian gave a knowing grin.
That isn't ominous at all... Jacob thought.
For his part, Ben simply let it go. Besides, the police were leaving so it was time to take stock of the damages.
The three went together into the courtyard through the entrance between the south wing and east wing.
"Oh man, what a mess!" cried out Ben once they entered the courtyard, while Jacob simply took a deep breath.
It was just simply bad. There was garbage and left over bedrolls from the encampments of the homeless people everywhere. There was a swimming pool filled with trash and foul smelling greenish-gray sludge.
"Oh MY GOD! They've been using it as a cesspool!"
For once, Sebastian's falsely pleasant demeanor was simply and utterly gone.
"I assure you, Mr. Rhodes, we will make immediate arrangements to have this taken care of. This goes far beyond Lord Phantomhive's expectations."
"No kidding..." Jacob muttered as he pointedly look away from the pool.
Further investigation revealed that most of the units had been broken into and used as encampments - all of them completely trashed and graffitied with local gang tags. Not even the manager's office had been left untouched, but it being mostly windows it hadn't gotten much use. All the glass had been simply broken out, and the interior graffitied.
The only upshot was the truck that had been left on the premises - an old Ford F-350 dually-axle crew cab. Benjamin inspected it closely, revealing that it had a turbo-diesel engine, dual fuel tanks, and a fifth-wheel hitch. The registration and inspection stickers were out of date by over two years. The doors were unlocked and the keys were hidden in the visor.
"Idiot," grumbled Ben as he stuck them in the ignition, turned the key, waited for the glow-plug indicator to go out, then cranked the starter.
The engine turned over a few times, coughed, sputter, then rumbled to life while billowing pitch-black smoke in the air.
Jacob waved his hand in front of him, "So, how do you plan to deal with this?"
Ben shut off the engine and pulled the keys, pocketing them. "I gotta check out the State Laws regarding abandoned vehicles, but there's a pretty good chance we might be able to claim this bad boy. Probably need some work, but the drive trains on these trucks are built to last fer-fucking-ever."
"If you think we could, I guess..."
Just as he shut the driver's door, there was a sharp, gut-punching report from the direction of the Manager's Office. Something careened into the second level walkway of the east wing, then dropped to the ground with a crash.
"Fuck!" Jacob yelped and ducked.
"WHAT THE HELL!?" snapped Ben.
Even Sebastian, for all his composure, flinched at the sudden noise.
"Did a transformer just blow or something?" grouched Ben as he began to lead the way (carefully) to the site of the explosion.
"Did you see one in the middle of the complex!" Jacob snapped back.
"It could have been in the back of the manager's office. They do that sometimes."
"And we were expected to work there?!"
"Trust me, you'd know in advance if there was something wrong. We just didn't notice because it was in some sort of maintenance cab... bin... ette.."
They looked at the scene for a moment before Sebastian commented, only too pleasantly,
"Ah, it would seem that our first tenants have arrived."
"What do you mean by that?!" Jacob said slowly.
"Precisely what I just said. You may wish to knock on the door. They might be reluctant about coming out otherwise."