Being far away from the wild fire area means life goes on on the Red Clover Hotel. Staff comes and goes while the few customers are around and about doing their tourist things. Meanwhile, behind the main counter in the reception area is Ben, the new assistant manager to the hotel. A middle-aged man with a very few friends face that puts all staff back in their places just with a glance."No. I don't want excuses. I want that bathroom fixed by the nightfal." He says coldly to a very young staffer that was maning the counter.
Olivia steps in through the front door, looking a little bit bleary-eyed. It's distinctly possible she was out all night, possibly hung over. She could probably use a hot bath and something to eat. Her guitar case is slung over her back, strapped across her chest and leaving her hands free. She puffs out a small breath and peers over at Ben, catching his tone of voice as he addresses the young staff member. "If he's got a good excuse, leave the poor guy alone. There is no 'fix the bathroom' magic wand, last I checked."
Ben turns when he hears someone talking to him and for the second before he recognizes another of his family, is eyes carry a very intimidating look."Oh. It's you, Olivia." He says and takes a deep breath as his intimidating look unveils itself to reveal a tired man with a few plots of ashes on his suit's shoulders. He leans forward over the counter and lowers his voice before continuing talking. "The boy was using a dating app after I politely asked him to call the handy man." He murmurs and glances over the boy that was, in fact, poking at his phone again. That receives a roll of Ben's eyes and a sigh."My shift is done anyways. Do you want to head to the dining room and have something to drink? Coffee, maybe?" He asks and he straights up again.
"Then confiscate his phone and institute a policy of 'no cell phones during working time,'" Olivia says, lifting one hand to lightly rub at her eyes. She peers over at the kid as he starts tapping on the phone and raises her voice. "Hey. Do your job or you won't have a job. Put that away." She doesn't technically work her. She can be more mean. Olivia looks back over towards Ben and nods in agreement to the suggestion of coffee, stepping back so she can head towards the family room. "Definitely coffee."
Leading the way up to the Family Wing, Ben opens the door and waits for Olivia to go first before heading in and closing the door behind him."Coffee is always good. Specially in these busy days." He comments as he heads toward the nearest coffee station."Do you heard about the wild fires?"
Olivia casts him a sideways look at the question of the wild fires, almost suspicious. "No," she says a bit flatly. "What about the wild fires? I just got back like... two days ago. That was NOT me." She unshoulders her guitar, setting it down carefully and stepping over to retrieve some coffee for herself.
Ben laughs as he pours coffee in a mug and offers it to Olivia."Wild fires. They started a few days ago and are running toward the farms outside town. Lots of volunteers are there helping the firefighters with the fire and with saving the animals and crops. The spring fire season started early this years." He comments."I was there this morning. Helped a horse farm. The fire almost got more than 50 horses dead."
Two hands reach out, both curling around the mug as she draws it close to herself to sip the coffee carefully. "I mean... I could probably help with that a bit. It'd just uh..." Olivia glances around the room, assessing how much her voice carries. "It'd just expose me a bit, I think? Not that that's a terrible thing here; everyone is a bit weird. How big has the fire gotten? If nothing else, I can probably reroute it away from the important places."
"I'm not sure. I was busy dealing with other things and I didn't watch the news just yet. But back at that farm, it was pretty bad. If you can, you should try and give people some help. If not for charity, do it to improve our family visibility." He says as he pours coffee in another mug. This one, though, he holds to himself.
Olivia lets out a long, drawn-out sigh and tips her head back, closing her eyes. "Goddammit I came back to try and learn to be more normal, not more burny," she mutters, straightening up her posture and drinking the coffee some more. "Well I don't have a car. So I'm not sure how I'm supposed to get out there." Excuses, really. "I also generally don't do charity. Visibility is good, though."
Something on the last few words of the girl make Ben grins."Well. I can borrow you my car. If you promise me you'll not set it on fire." He offers before sipping briefly from his drink."Besides. I'm curious. How was your time out of town? And, hell, I though you'd never come back."
"I wasn't planning to come back, but y'know, the rest of the world gets a bit suspicious when you're around fire a lot. It was attention I didn't want. So I had to let things cool a bit. Metaphorically speaking." Olivia gives him a somewhat dry look at the mention of borrowing a car and she sighs. "Fine, I'll go take a look. But just because I don't get burned doesn't mean my clothes don't get burned, so I'm going to have to get changed first."
Ben arches a brow to the girl."Are you planning on going out to take a look at the fire right now, Liv? And use your thing in plain daylight?" He asks looking a bit worried and hesitant.
"Fire has light too, you know," Olivia tells Ben before shaking her head. "But no. Just a general blanket statement. But I'd rather scout out the area or something. Maps would help. And anything that can show me the damage so far. So I can figure out a plan of action before I get there."
"Oh. Right." Ben murmurs before relaxing and sipping once more from his coffee. For a brief moment, he glances at the horizon, as if he was pondering on their options."If we get to the Hotel's roof we can have a 360 degrees view of the fire. I have the keys. What do you say?" He asks when he returns his senses to the room focusing his eyes on Olivia.
"That should work," Olivia says, nodding. She lifts one hand, gesturing for him to lead the way. "I'm not sure how helpful I'll be, but I should be able to get the worst of it away from the most populated areas."
Ben was about to turn around when he gives up and turns his head back to the girl."Are you saying you can control the fire from here?" He asks looking in disbelief for a second before resuming his maneuver and starts heading to the nearest stairs."It's a really huge area, I heard."
Olivia peers at him with a confused look, shaking her head slowly. "No," she tells him. "I'm forming a plan, Ben. Not everything is literal." She pokes at his ribs with one hand, urging him forward. "Go, or I'm gonna light your ass on fire."
Ben shakes his head and hurries up as if he's really worried of getting his ass on fire. When they finally reach the rooftop, he sighs and looks around, worried."Take a look and tell me what are you thoughs on that." He says as he steps aside so the other Utridge can have a clean view of the wild fire's destruction in the far distance, to the northwest and up in the mountains to the west of Tamarack. The fire can't be properly seen, but there are pillars of smoke in that said direction.
Olivia climbs up onto the rooftop, Ben's backside remaining very unburned. The coffee is set aside briefly so that she can pull back her hair into a messy, but effective, pony tail, keeping the strands out of her face so she can see the area more clearly. The coffee mug is retrieved and she moves over towards the edge, looking out towards the smoke. "It's hard to say with smoke," she finally says, sipping her coffee between phrases. "There is a lot of smoke, which indicates a fair amount of damage, or a fair amount of stuff that just generates a lot of smoke. But you can see the rough span of it, based on the way the wind is blowing. Just trace it back." One hand rises, gesturing towards the mountains. "I might just have to wing it."
Ben remains silent, sipping from his coffee while the pyro expert does her analyzis. When she seen to be done, he nods."Just don't do anything too explicit, alright? We don't need that kind of attention." He murmurs as he tries to track the fire back to its initial point."I assume it's just a natural event, right? No one caused it on purpose."
"I have no idea," Olivia says with a shrug, setting her now empty mug to one side and crossing her arms loosely in front of her. "Wildfires are often made by people, albeit accidentally. Sometimes they're made by nature. I'm not a forensics expert on that." She glances over towards him, looking faintly amused. "And I don't want that kind of attention either, so you don't need to worry."
"Good. We don't need even more bad reptuation to us right now. We need people to see us as philanthropist so we can rise our popularity and get our hands in a good political position." Ben says very seriously. There is no shame on his words. Just the coldness that comes with ages of political strategy."What do you think?" He asks after a brief moment of staring to one of the smoke pillars.
Olivia lifts one hand, waving it about slightly. "I'm not a politician. I'm a musician. Sex, drugs, alcohol, blah blah." Troublemaker, basically. "I think that I might be able to mitigate some of the damage to property and life, but it's too big to handle on my own in its entirety. And if I'm not drawing attention, then how are people supposed to use this to think well of the family, hm?"
The older Utridge makes a face of unsurety."I think I was trying to say we need to gather the good kind of attention only. People can't see you controling the flames. Otherwise they'll start saying you started it on purpose so we could get the credits for helping the victims." He says before sipping longly from his mug of coffee to turn it dry. When he's done, he turns to Olivia and ponders for a second before keep going. "By the way, how much of it you can control? A small cottage in fire in size?"
"I didn't START it," Olivia mutters, looking a little disgruntled. "I put out my own fires." She crosses her arms, looking a bit indignant. "It really depends. It can be a little unpredictable. I'm planning to start small and go from there. I haven't really tried to do anything with something this size before, so... I don't know."
"Calm down. I'm not saying you started it, girl." Ben says calmly and grins to the younger Utridge."I was wondering how much of the fire you can control and contain at a time. Nothing else. But, well. I guess this is a good opportunity to go out and practice a lot, hm?" He asks as he finds a place to sit."I can talk to the others and we can come along. In case you need someone to shut you down." He offers.
Despite his reassurance, Olivia still seems a bit grumpy about the whole thing, and she huffs quietly. "Yeah, I guess it is. I don't generally go out seeking wildfires when I'm playing music." She bounces slightly on her feet and shrugs at the suggestion of sending someone along. "I mean, you can. But I'm not sure it'll make much of a difference. It won't hurt, though. So long as they don't get too close."
"That's a plan, then." Ben murmurs as he turns his attention from Olivia to stare at the horizon."It's good to have you back, by the way. I'm pretty sure everyone will he happy to see you here." He says and smiles to no one in particular."You should sing to us one day. As you used to do when you were younger. I'd like that."
[Continues...]
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