Roaad Trip In Nowhere

Last Gas Station and Garage

Sylvia entered the garage to find her sedan and two other vehicles parked in the repair bays. Mortimer has the hood of her sedan over, fiddling with something in the engine and wearing a pair of gloves. He looks at her and grabbed a bandanna, trying to wipe the grease from his hands. “Howdy, Miss Fisher.” he says, wiping harder. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but looks like a hydraulic line broke and the engine took a lot of damage due to the lost fluid. I might patch it up enough to get you running this evening, but you really need to get some parts replaced. The nearest town that would have those parts is Uroborosville. If you don't mind waiting a couple of days I can see if I can get the parts in, and that'll give me time to work on those other vehicles. Or there's a private air field at Uroborosville, you might see if you can hitch a ride there with someone flying North.”

All night diner

As Tito and Jeremy enter the diner, two couples are leaving. One of the men nods to Tito and Jeremy, but his wife and the other couple ignore them. Entering the diner, Tito and Jeremy see several tables and booths, the booths upholstered and cracked vinyl. Several of the chairs look a little different from the others, as if the furniture was originally from two different restaurants. You are greeted by a waitress dressed in 50s style, complete with a beehive hair do. “Welcome to the All-Night Diner.” she says, chewing on a stick of gum. “The soup of the the day is tomato. Do you want a table or booth?”

edited 22nd Mar '18 11:54:13 PM by Nodrog

Tito shrugged. "I don't know, I'm cool with wherever."

The waitress leads you two over to a small table and hands you two menus. The restaurant is surprisingly empty for it being close to lunch time, the only other customer currently here is a man slurping soup noisily sitting at a counter and a couple in one of the booths, talking quietly to each other. A jukebox, playing in the corner, is playing the song "If I Could Save Time in a Bottle". The song reaches its conclusion, and the song starts playing again.

The waitress flips open an order pad. "Can I start you with drinks?" she asks.

edited 23rd Mar '18 6:05:43 PM by Nodrog

"Actually, could we, uh..." Jeremy trailed off slightly, holding a finger up for a moment before lowering it in slight defeat. "I guess there's no big rush at the moment. Not like a broken car is going to drive itself away" he muttered, taking a seat at the table.

"Order whatever, just as long as it's less than fifteen bucks" Jeremy told Tito, as he glanced at the jukebox and listened to the song for a moment. "What kind of sodas do you have?" he asked the waitress.

Day 1, Springfield, Garage

Silvia blankly stares into space for a second, the mention of air travel was making her thoughts go all over the place unexpectedly. "I don't like planes, especially small ones. Would you mind writing up a contract for me to pay you at a later date? I wasn't expecting this long of a stay here. But I will make sure to take care of it as soon as I possibly can."

Silvia was unsure why the mechanic thought she would care about the rate in which the other cars were repaired. What a strange fellow.

All-Night Diner

The waitress shrugs. “Cola, diet, and root beer.” she rattles off. “You want any of those, Nick? If not, we’ve got tea, coffee, milk, or juice.”

She goes and scribbles their drink orders down.. She doesn't seem inclined to talk much, but will answer quick questions.

Garage

Mortimer cocks his head. “Sorry, phone lines are down and unlike the hotel, I can’t really extend credit.” He scratches his head. “If you can’t pay now, I’ll have to bump your car down my list and work on a customer who can pay me now. If you can arrange payment, I can get your car working in a couple hours. Even if you could leave today, I wouldn’t advise traveling alone. There’s a lot of empty spaces between towns, with a lot of wild animals and… well, wild people out there.”

edited 23rd Mar '18 8:00:54 PM by Nodrog

Garage]

Wild people? What was this guy talking about?

"So. There's a camping family that got stranded." She gestures at the RV. "They must be having a hard time. Hope the kids aren't to young."

edited 23rd Mar '18 8:00:02 PM by Yam

The Garage'

Mortimer turns. "The VW Bus?" he says. "That's mine. Haven't used it in awhile, but when I was younger I'd go out every summer and spend a couple of weeks just wandering around." He scratches his head, thinking for a bit. "It still runs, but I'm getting a bit old to spend the night out by the open road."

He thinks for a few minutes. "If you don't want to worry about paying for repairs, I'd be willing to trade vehicles, but I wouldn't feel right about letting you travel alone." he holds up his hands. 'It's not because you're a woman... well, not just because you're a woman. I'd advise a man also about traveling alone... even the most vigilante person can only be looking one way at a time."

Mortimer points to the diner. "When I have to travel out of Springfield, I usually go by the Diner first and see if anyone else wants to go and ride along with me."

edited 23rd Mar '18 8:10:01 PM by Nodrog

"I'll take a cola, then" Jeremy answered simply, making sure to check the menu for how much that would cost, then taking a look through the breakfast options.

Diner

((Ok, the prices are low enough so that meals with soda are in the $9 - $15 range.. If you can order it at a Denny's or an IHOP, feel free to order it here. This is not a fancy restaurant. ))

The waitress, after getting Tito's drink order, leaves and comes back in a few minutes with Tito's drink and Jeremy's cola. She takes two straws from an apron pocket and sets them by the cups.

Garage]

She half crossed her arms in frustration. Her car wasn't great but it was certainly worth more than an old hippy van. Also it was suspect that he keeps insisting that she takes other people with her. Unless. Was this guy trying to use her as a drug mule? That does explain him trying to get her on a small plane despite the fact that he would be out of the money he would get from repairing her car.

She could probably get a good bounty on his accomplices if she were to find a town with better utility management than this one. And for all she knew the police were involved with the drug trade as well here anyway.

"Fine, I will take it. I'll give you some time to change the licence plates while I talk to people at the diner. How long do you think you will be?"

Tito, spacing out for a moment, simply responds, “Water’s fine.”

Once the drinks are received, Tito looks at Jeremy. “So, you want out of here too then?”

edited 24th Mar '18 12:42:00 PM by TacoBadger

Garage

Mortimer nods. "I should have that done by the time you get back. Tell you what, order whatever you want for lunch and tell Mabel at the diner to put it on my bill."

"Thanks. I'll take this french toast breakfast platter" Jeremy said to the waitress, pointing to a menu option that had french toast, hash browns, small sausages, and bacon. "And I don't want the bacon too crispy, please" he added, before turning his attention back towards Tito as he handed the menu to the waitress.

"That's what I said, didn't I? I need to get back on the grid to get in contact with my friends and family, then figure out a way to get home" Jeremy answered Tito with a slight shrug.

Diner

Mabel takes the menu from Jeremy. "Phones are still out, Nick. Usually takes a week or so from the phone company to get 'em fixed. If you really need to call someone, you might try going over to the next town over." she says, then goes over to Tito.

edited 24th Mar '18 5:35:49 PM by Nodrog

"Uh, I'm not that hungry," Tito answers. Waiting till the waitress leaves, Tito tells Nick, "I was supposed to go to a funeral, and I ended up here. I say we find our way to another town somehow. You got a ride?"

Garage]

As they finished the paperwork for the trade, Silvia thought to ask what Mabel's last name was but decided against it. "Okay, I will see you in a half an hour." Puts her half of paperwork in duffle bag and turns to leave.

As Silvia exits from the garage, she almost bumps into the sun-glass wearing deputy from before and a thin, gaunt man with papery white skin and pink eyes. The man with the white skin is wearing a dark black hat and suit, the brim of the hat unusually large.

"Hello, you must be Sister Silvia." the man in the hat says. "My name is Reverend White. I understand you're the latest visitor to our town of Springield."

"She was asking questions, Reverend." the deputy says, his attention still focused on Silvia.

"Well, we all have our faults. I just wanted to ask if you were coming to services on Sunday. My understanding from talking with Brother Mortimer earlier was that your car would be broken for awhile."

The deputy makes a snorting sound at the last sentence.

"Yes, well... " Reverend White says, nodding to the deputy. "I admit Brother Mortimer is a bit... lax about concerns of the soul. Still, as the good book says, If we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. If there is one good thing about Springfield, it's that we all have plenty of time to wait."

edited 24th Mar '18 8:59:26 PM by Nodrog

"Right, something like that" Jeremy said to the waitress, then looked to Tito after she was gone. "I've been spending the last few days speaking with that mechanic about it, but there's some issue about not enough spare parts" he explained, placing the notebook onto the table and grabbing his pen, but pausing for a moment.

"At least I think I have. The last few days have been hard to remember. That's something else I'm trying to figure out" Jeremy mentioned, and started the process of writing down all the information he knew about Springfield into the notebook.

Diner, Inside

Mabel (the waitress) goes to put your order into the kitchen then goes around to the other diners, setting some napkins next to the guy slurping soup and then refilling the couples drinks. Oddly, she does this without actually talking to the other customers, and the man with the bowl of soup reaches and picks up one of the napkins without even looking at it.

edited 26th Mar '18 7:06:47 AM by Nodrog

"Are you sure you don't want anything?" Jeremy asked Tito as he was writing. "Seriously, it's not a..." he trailed off, clenching his eyes shut for a moment, then opening them wide and staring at nothing on the table for a few moments. Jeremy then glanced down at his foot, and shut his eyes again, letting out a shudder.

... He regained his composure quickly though, as now he needed to do something. He flipped the notepad to the next blank page, and quickly started writing down information about... A cliff face, namely identifying features, so he would know if it was the same one if he saw it in the future. Soon as Jeremy was finished, he remembered that Tito was there. Glancing up at the older man, Jeremy flipped back to his original page where he was writing down what he could remember about how he got to Springfield, and slid the notebook across towards Tito. "Hey, read this, and let me know if you... See anything" Jeremy asked, his voice hesitant since he knew how crazy this probably sounded, but also serious.

edited 26th Mar '18 4:45:30 PM by FirockFinion

Outside of Garage]

Heh, she haven't been inside a church since she was a child.

"Mortimer does seem a little- Intense. But we have reached a mutually beneficial agreement for the both of us. I will be leaving sooner than Sunday I'm afraid." It stuck her as strange that she was referred to as the latest to arrive there. "Did you have any other visitors heading home from a wedding pass through here?"

Outside the Garage

Reverend White tipped his hat. "Well, I am sorry to hear that you're planning to be passing on, Sister Silvia. I'm afraid the only two other visitors we have are at the restaurant. I don't believe they said anything about having recently attended a wedding" He glanced at the garage. " It appears that Brother Mortimer may have been... unexpectedly resourceful. It was my understanding that the parts he needed to repair your vehicle were not available."

"Want me to talk to him, Rev?" asked the deputy. "Lying to a holy man... well, that's sinful. Sort of like lying under oath, and I know I can arrest people for lying under oath."

"Now, Brother Sonny, I'm sure that won't be necessary." Reverend White. "I'm sure it was just a misunderstanding between us. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

Reverend turns and walks over to the church. The deputy bends down and starts looking around for some rocks.

edited 26th Mar '18 11:47:02 PM by Nodrog

Tito, confused, took the note and examined it.

Outside of garage]

Well it was worth a shot, she thought, back to trying to find those drug traffickers the mechanic . . .

"Did you loose a contact lens Officer?"

edited 28th Mar '18 8:28:13 PM by Yam