Trooper Station, Thursday

[firstofitskind]

"So... we have a problem," Calvin announced as Liam arrived at the station.

"What, actually?" Liam raised an eyebrow. Problems that required police intervention here on the island were few and far between.

"All the potholes have gone missing."

"All the..."

"Potholes," Calvin supplied helpfully.

"Potholes, right," Liam said, resisting the urge to facepalm. Instead he was just going to sigh and rub at the bridge of his nose. "How does something like that even go missing." Did he even want to know?

"Why do you think I said we have a problem?"

Okay then. Apparently today was going to involve investigating how potholes could go missing. Because Fandom.

[ooc: so, so open. please entertain me as i run around doing all the last-minute pre-trip nonsense?]

Comments

[spectre_alenko]

After his run with Jono, Kaidan stopped by the station to chat with Liam. It was becoming a pattern - run round the island and stop in on all his friends, make sure Kanan wasn't trying to sweat himself to death in the park like an idiot, then head back to the shop.

"Hey Liam," Kaidan greeted, and then tilted his head, "Every time I come in here, you look like someone stole your coffee. You ok?"

[firstofitskind]

"I thought it was all the tea that had gone missing?" Only from one particular shop (and even then, it wasn't 'missing', just 'out of stock' temporarily), and that wasn't what Kaidan was actually referring to, Liam. Jeez.

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan grinned, "Oh, not all of it. Sparkle bought out one day's worth of Iris' tea, and Seivarden was oversensitive and dramatic about it. Seivarden's being a right pain in the ass to everyone lately, and the kid just had enough of her shit. I mean, really? There's like four stores that carry tea, and Sparkle's not that petty."

Yes he is, Kaidan. Yes. He. Is.

[firstofitskind]

"... Right," Liam said. He'd not met either Seivarden or Sparkle, and so couldn't really form an opinion on either. "I ended up just going to the mainland for mine." Since he was spending a lot more time in Verity's Baltimore anyway, these days, it wasn't like the trip was terribly out of his way.

[spectre_alenko]

"Also a reasonable action," Kaidan nodded, "So, since you have tea, or at least your coffee hasn't gone missing, why the face?" He mimed pinching the bridge of his nose and looking scowly.

[firstofitskind]

"Because you know what has gone missing?" Liam said with a sigh. "The potholes." Which Kaidan may or may not have noticed, during his run.

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan blinked. "The potholes.. have gone missing," he said slowly, trying to understand that sentence, "And this is a problem? It wasn't a public works project?"

He thought back to his run, and there had been less damaged pavement than average. Huh.

[firstofitskind]

"Well," Liam said slowly. "In and of itself, it does seem rather harmless. But," he sighed. "It wasn't a public works project, no. But this island does have a history of geographical changes as a symptom of a bigger problem, so," a shrug. They would need to investigate.

[spectre_alenko]

Kaidan processed that, "I've heard from a few people that we're overdue for an event of some sort. I guess the streets fixing themselves would be a bit worrisome."

[firstofitskind]

"Exactly," Liam nodded. Of course, this time the cause was not actually due to some sort of malevolent energy or entity, but he didn't know that yet. "Better safe than sorry, even if it just turns out that the raccoons have somehow mobilized themselves in to a road repair crew."

[spectre_alenko]

"Is that something that's likely for the trash pandas on the island to do?" Kaidan asked, frowning a little, "I know the squirrels are, well, more intelligent than the ones on the mainland admit to being. I didn't know about the raccoons."

[firstofitskind]

"... Trash pandas?" That was a new one.

[spectre_alenko]

"How have you not seen that meme?" Kaidan stared. He couldn't comprehend. This was a universal wrong that had to be fixed right away. He pulled up his phone and pulled up the list of memes and just shoved the phone at Liam.

[firstofitskind]

Liam just wasn't the kind of person who went looking for memes, okay?

"Huh," he said, as he looked at the image macro in question. "Which then leads me to the question: what's a meme?"

[spectre_alenko]

"A picture with an amusing caption?" Kaidan guessed, shrugging. He wasn't really sure, but that's how he'd always heard it used.

[died8yearsago]

"Hey," said Rosa, doing her best to ignore the whole pothole situation and the suggestion on the part of the troopers that she go out and find the missing potholes because she was the island's resident detective, wasn't she? Wasn't it her job? To which she asked if she looked like she worked for the Maryland State Department of Transportation, and then immediately after said she'd punch anyone who tried to answer that.

Besides, there were more important matters at hand.

"Did you get my email?"

Referring, of course, to the proposal about permission to shoot gremlins on sight that she'd whipped up and sent on Monday.

[firstofitskind]

"I did," Liam said with a nod. "Any reason in particular?" He'd heard the radio, yes. He just wanted to know if her reasoning went beyond being personally victimized by their venom.

[died8yearsago]

"Because they're a threat," Rosa said. "They could come out of nowhere and put the citizens in danger. Don't you care about the safety of our citizens, Kincaid?"

So...in other words...no, no good reason other than her own victimization.

[firstofitskind]

"They're also indigenous to this island," Liam pointed out. "We can't just go around shooting things because they're just trying to exist the way they always have."

[died8yearsago]

Yeah, Rosa wasn't going to get anywhere with this one. She sort of figured it wouldn't work, figured it wouldn't work, but digging too much deeper into it was just too much work. Still, she'd try at least one more thing.

"Even if the way they exist sucks?"

[firstofitskind]

"Even then," Liam said mildly. Yes, their venom was hallucinogenic, but it didn't have any lasting effects beyond embarrassment, and besides that, they weren't terribly hard to avoid. "Sorry," he added, trying to sound at least somewhat apologetic.

[died8yearsago]

"It's okay," said Rosa, even if she was actually pretty freaking disappointed. She'd written a proposal, Liam! With, like, work! And words! That was way beyond the normal level of effort Rosa was ever willing to put in. But she shrugged. "Figured it couldn't hurt to ask."

And, hey, just because she didn't have permission didn't mean she wasn't probably going to do it anyway. Then it would be her turn to try to sound at least somewhat apologetic.

[firstofitskind]

"It was a very... strongly-worded proposal," Liam said, diplomatically. "I appreciate that you took the time to write it."

Just don't shoot any gremlins where Liam could see you, and you were probably fine.

[died8yearsago]

If Liam was any good at reading subtle shifts in tightened jaws, he would be able to tell from Rosa's impassive face that she appreciated the diplomatic efforts on his part. And if not, well, then, that was about as expressive as Rosa was going to get.

"Just keep it on file," she said. "I wanna make sure I've got an 'I told you so' ready to go. Also, I need new earphones for my computer. Old ones are fried."

And she touched her ear briefly. She'd been doing a good job of getting used to the ringing, but she couldn't ignore it if she talked about it.

[firstofitskind]

"How- never mind," Liam broke off, shaking his head. He listened to radio, and also was aware of Rosa's habit of going over the broadcasts for the week during her shift. So he had a pretty reasonable guess. "I'll order some new ones."