Log:Good Times

Good Times
"So. What's it do? And I thought you said you'd never let the hobs on your boat again after the last time, when that one group made you stop and you got all those weird glass barnacles on the bottom and we had to scrape them off for like three days?"
Participants Leo and Maddox	5 June, 2017 Leo and Maddox reminisce while Maddox tests out some new modifications.
Location The Go Away
The boat is not unknown to Leo. Maddox found it not long after the three of them escaped and he's been attached to it ever since. He named it the 'Go Away', which is what Maddox generally wants people to do (other than the Motley, and even then sometimes). The Go Away is an old river boat, although some adjustments have been made to 'improve' it. Steam stacks and heavy machinery with questionable functions. A furnace filled with ever-burning coal and flame. It's a Hollow, but it chugs along at a slow speed, down the river that cuts through the Hedge, mirroring the one in the real world. Right now, Maddox is up on deck, his lower half all that's visible as he bangs around beneath some sort of engine-type thing that isn't the main engine so it's unclear really what purpose it serves. Maddox is cursing rather loudly, banging on things with his wrench, his feet kicking at the deck of the boat. "Motherfucker! God damned pierce of crap fucking radial electric piston strut!" Is that even a thing? It doesn't sound like a thing. It might not actually be a thing. Who really knows? "Leeeeeooo! Hand me a fucking 32 so I can show this fucker who's the boss." His voice is slightly muffled due to being beneath the machine. Leo certainly doesn't know if that's a thing. As much as he's worked with Maddox over the past seven years, and all the time he spent observing Maddox and figuring out what the man meant, there were times when Maddox' mad genius escaped him. And now was one such time. Leo had, in fact, wandered off from Maddox hours ago when he'd -started- working on this thing, and was only now back aboard the boat. Maddox' shout is responded to quickly though, Leo hopping up from his gameboy to dart over and grab a wrench. A second later the wrench appears on the floor within arm's reach. "Here ya go." he calls back at the man. Then he drops to the floor, his constellation hair swirling wildly with his confusion and interest. "You've been working on that thing all day." He says, tilting his head to try and get a look at the underside of the engine-shaped-object from where he was sprawled on the floor. To be fair, there are times that /Maddox/ doesn't even know what he's talking about. He knows what a thing is, what it's function is, how to apply it, but when it comes to what it's called? Sometimes he just makes shit up. And it's fully possible he does it just to mess with people, because he's like that. He accepts the wrench with a grunt. He knew Leo would come through. He doesn't even question it. From beneath the machine, mingled with the banging and grating of metal on metal, he shouts, "And I would be fucking done if those goddamned hobs hadn't gotten on board, complaining about some goddamned fire breathing eels or some shit taking over their fucking village! Goddamned hobs can't even take care of themselves, like I ain't got better shit to do." Yet, knowing Maddox, he likely ran off to help him. "There!" He pushes himself out from under the machine and tosses the wrench down with a clang. He's covered in grease, dirt, fleck of blood. Typical. He pushes himself up and hits some dials, cranks a level, then kicks the machine. It fires to life with a chug. Its purpose is still not clear, yet, but it's running. He adjusts some more dials. "Where the fuck did you go, anyway? You would have had fun." Maybe. Maybe not. Probably not. Things are usually more fun for Maddox than they are for Leo. Leo blinks, "Oh man, you got to fight fire breathing eels? Fuuck." He says, and knowing Leo, he was probably impressed. The little swirl and leap of the constellation in his hair signifying it as clearly as his voice. He pushes up as Maddox extricates himself from beneath the thing and scoots aside to allow Maddox over to the controls. His hands go in his pockets and he shrugs, "Eh, I went into town. They have a Wayhouse here? And, so like I went and met some people. Some dude named Logan, Lost made of gold, he's a Wayhouse recruit, so he was all being official and greetery. And some enchanted mortal named Max. -She- said there was a coupla summers from another Freehold that might show up and get aggressive, but we're supposed to stay chill and try to keep the peace. Samantha Whittaker and Marty, whose last name I forgot. Samantha is the one that's supposed to be bad." he says it all rapid-fire, before taking a breath. Then, a second or two after he's finished talking, he reaches over and thumps the machine, "So. What's it do? And I thought you said you'd never let the hobs on your boat again after the last time, when that one group made you stop and you got all those weird glass barnacles on the bottom and we had to scrape them off for like three days?" Maddox grunts at the mention of a Wayhouse, and /meeting/ people. He physically shudders at that. "Glad you had fun with /that/ shit." He makes it sound like he'd rather scrape his face off with a cheese grater. Leo is definitely the more social of the two of them. Likely of all three of them. Yet the mention of aggressive Summers catches his interest. "Aren't most of us fucking aggressive and shit? What exactly are they doing? And why are we supposed to be goddamned /chill/?" He's not real good at being chill. And then he's scowling at the machine, "Why the fuck isn't it..." And then Leo gets it a thwap. Suddenly, the floodlights come on, full force, illuminating the boat, the river around it (and the things slithering beneath the surface of the water), as well as the brambles along the side of the river. Eyes seem to turn towards the boat, glinting. "Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!" He lunches at the dials, frantically trying to turn down the dials to a more acceptable glow. He cranks the dial down /too/ low, however, and the machine sputters, and dies. He kicks it. "Don't remind me about the fucking barnacles." He grumbles to himself, kicking the machine again at the memory. "It's not like I /invited/ the assholes. Fuck, I gotta improve my wards and shit. They've been broken every since we crashed into that goddamned spider infested lighthouse. the one with the goddamned cuckcoo clock from hell." Literally, it kept calling out their doom, and their luck just went downhill, and downhill some more. That was a narrow escape. Leo nods a few times at Maddox, "I did actually. Everyone was pretty relaxed. Or at least the two I met. And I dunno dude, they just said to 'watch myself' as if I'd be in some sort of danger." That gets Leo to roll his eyes, the constellation flickering into a dull blue spiral temporarily to indicate sarcasm. "I guess they mean 'don't ruin relations between the two Freeholds' but I dunno for sure." He continues, with a shrug, his constellation once more almost-but-not-quite the constellation Leo. The thwap and subsequent lights cause Leo to leap up suddenly, curtains pulled from windows and tossed over lights with inhuman speed. Years of working alongside Maddox have trained Leo to react quickly and in the most 'fix immediately' manner when things of Maddox' go wrong. So the lights are fading when Maddox finally finds the dimmer and immediately shuts down the machine, leaving Leo standing on the roof just outside with a sheet. He drops back down and comes inside to listen to Maddox' explanation. He grunts and says, "I remember that. -That- was awful. Like, I'm actually really surprised we got out of there. That was -way- worse than the barnacles." he says before flopping down beside the machine, sitting and staring at it with a purse of his lips. "So is this supposed to attract stuff then? Because it was -real- good at that." Leo has also learned to rapidly get over failed experiments like this one. Maddox snorts at Leo's words, "Who the fuck can even be relaxed? It's like they can't see what we're up against and shit. Relaxed." He rolls his eyes. Then again, the Levinquick is never relaxed. It's possible that it's not possible. "And if some asshole jerk comes after me, I'm gonna give right back as good as I get. I don't play that fucking game." But then there's chaos for a moment. The lights do get dimmed, and then go ker-plunk as the engine dies. He's already inspecting it when Leo returns, a wrench in hand, a look of determination on his face. He's seriously going to try again. He shakes his head, "No, no. Just figured we could use some fucking adjustable lights, you know? So we don't run into any more goddamned lighthouses and shit." Is he making a joke? Is he being serious? This is where most people would crack a smile, or a grin, but Maddox does neither. He never does. Since there escape, neither he of Zoey have seen him smile. Yet, he's been a steadfast companion, and there's no doubt of his loyalty to the two of them, or to his cause. Which is his duties as a Squire, combined with his desire to build and Arcadia-capable seige engine. Oh, yeah, they'd have heard about that. He waves a hand at Leo, "And, fuck, it wasn't /that/ bad. Sure, it was fucking bad, but it could have been a lot fucking worse. Remember that time those Privateers fucking ambushed us and were shooting like, beams of ice and shit at us? And I got fucking frozen and you all hauled me out and threw me on the fire and shit? Thanks for that. But I snagged that fucking Token that led us right back? Fuck, that'll teach those fuckers to mess with us." Leo shrugs at Maddox, "I mean I offered to send 'em packing if need be. I figure if I couldn't do it, the three of us almost definitely could. Like, seems to me, trying to be like a big swinging dick or whatever in another Freehold is just weird and aggressive and awful. So.. yeah, like. I dunno, figured we could put the hurt on 'em." Leo's motormouth was sometimes repetitive. But at least he eventually got around to a point. "Anyway. I dunno. Figured if they think it's better not to engage then we shouldn't rock the boat in our first few weeks here." Leo just kinda slowly nods at Maddox' explanation. He'd been trying to figure out when the Levinquick was joking for almost seven years now. He'd been right a handful of times at this point. Above his head, his stars lazily swirled in their reflection of his confusion before they snapped back into his personal constellation. "So let's like block the lights next time, before we throw the switch yeah? Then we can make sure it's all good before we light up the place. Or pull in somewhere safe while you work? Or we work? If you wanted a hand?" He huffs at the last part, "Don't remind me. You were -so- heavy dude, like. I dunno if you're aware, but water is like eight pounds for ever gallon, and you were pretty much all the way frozen solid and surrounded by like two feet of water, and I could probably figure out the mass based on the volume and give you the weight of it, but fuck that. You weighed a billion pounds. Glad you got out and all, but no more ice beams. Or barnacles. Or cuckoo clocks. I mean unless we have to. Or like it seems interesting. Or there's something cool. Or whatever." Leo always needed a justification to do something, but it was usually pretty easy to find one that satisfied him. Maddox grunts at Leo's words, growling, "See, that's the correct fucking response." And that electrical charge around him, the snapping and cracking, increases a notch as that Mantle flares. "You give a little, they take a fucking mile. I mean, I ain't for waging war and shit, I'm just saying. They're causing trouble, you say 'No.' and put your fucking foot down." Maddox isn't much of a diplomat. He shakes his head. Another grunt as Leo suggests covering the lights and he looks at the other Lost like he's out of his mind, "How would I know if it's fucking /working/ right, then? How the fuck would I know how to adjust the dials, the connections, amp it up or down and shit?" He shakes his head, "That's just fucking crazy talk." Says Maddox, made up of crazy talk. At the mention of the other incident, he just waves a hand, growling, "Live and learn and shit." He has nothing more to say about that. It was rather embarrassing, even for him. Sure, he has a notebook filled with the experience, effects, and struggle in general, but he'll never share it. It's for science. He snorts, "Fun? We do it because it's our fucking job. We got nothing to fucking lose, unless it's easy other, but we're all goddamned prepared for that. That's what we signed up for. That's why we work together and shit. But all those other ignorant assholes? Fuck, we're their best shot." A frightening thought. Leo nods at that, "I agree, but like I said, we don't make the rules. Still Spring anyway, maybe the Wyrd'll get wise and pick you or something when Summer rolls around." he says, helpfully. He stands up from the floor and starts to wander around the machine, "We could like leave one uncovered, and in here, so we could see." Leo says, as a last, desperate attempt toward sanity. He leans in, the sclera of his eyes spinning as his pupils dilate to expand and cover his irises. Leo's way of squinting and looking hard at something. "Hm." he says as he examines the machines innards. Then he says, straightening up, eyes reverting with a soft whirr to normal sized pupils. "I mean. That's why I'm here. Gotta stop this from happening to anyone else. Gotta free the people we left behind. I'm onboard. I dunno how we get them to listen though. Except be super badass awesome and great all the time, like we are." he says, circling around the machine. "It can still be fun. Remember during the Ice Beams Incident when that one dude tried to use that gun that shot an avalanche, but I leap up and skipped over the rocks, and you just like basically teleported out of the way and knocked the everliving fuck outta him with your wrench, after we tracked them down again?" When Leo mention's the Wyrd choosing Maddox, Maddox looks at Leo with a horrified expression. And then it shifts into angry. Not at Leo, but just in general. "It fucking /better/ not. I got shit I need to get done. I got a job to do. I got a crapload of moronic assholes to save and shit. I don't got time for that crap. You just take that fucking /back/!" He glares at the man, his own eyes flicking with electricity. He gives a growl, then snorts, "Yeah, that's why we're all fucking here. I mean you, me, Zoey. We know. We fucking get it. We're aren't just covering it up with whining, or acting like it never fucking happened, or trying to embrace that shit. No, we're fucking /fighting/ it. As it should be." His tone mellows, just a tiny bit, as Leo talks about being badass. He grunts, "We're fucking something." Then he's grunting again, relaxing, "Yeah, fuck, nothing hits like a goddamned wrench does. I mean, I prefer fists, because you can feel that cracking first hand and shit, but a wrench, it's a got a nice, solid feel to it." He gives the machine another kick, then moves away from it, towards a cooler chained to the where escape boats would normally be. Hell, if you need an escape boat /here/, you're already screwed. "Beer? Well, maybe beer. Hobs gave it to me for taking care of the eel and shit. Haven't tried it yet. Where the fuck do you think Zoey is?" And then there is a call. the Harvestmen are meeting. Leo drags Maddox along and whatever else will just have to wait. Maddox is grumpy about it.