Morning Coffee And Sweet Surprises (Closed to Poprockz)

[Drobabes]

"It's just a bad bump, I think I can manage cleaning it with a mirror. But if it needs more than that, yes, I would prefer Sabastian take a look at it."

She listened as he talked about the burn on Damien's shoulder. The comment about there possibly being some splinters confirmed something she had been worried about. The thought of any of Angelique's people trying to peel the top layer back to clean it made a fire burn in her belly. Cora knew Damien wouldn't be comfortable with anyone touching him like that, let alone with something painful. And she doubted they would be gentle with it.

The sudden black out made an involuntary gasp leave her lips, and without realizing it, Cora reached out and gripped Ricks arm in fear.

"What's going on? Maintenance? Don't they check the elevators to make sure they're not being used?"

 

[Poprockz]

“About that,” he started dryly, “I know it’s difficult, but suspend your disbelief for a moment and picture a world where not everyone appreciates my sharp wit and bleeding heart. To break it down, some chucklefuck out there probably thinks this is hilarious.”

He seemed to consider something else for a moment before one could hear the slight sound of his feet shifting. “Well, that is if this is maintenance. It’s always possible that the fuse blew on the generator. Alright… let’s see what we can do about it though…” The zombie led her over to the side of the elevator so he could replace her hands from his arm to the railing. He then turned to the doors and started to try to pry them open with his tentacles. With a grunt, they started to give and allow him to pull them back, but something on the door scraped against something outside and caused a small spark to light up the darkness.

Immediately he let go of the door and flinched backwards, resulting in a large metallic clunk as it slammed back to a closed position. The man wiped his hands and tentacles on his clothes before letting out a tense breath.

“Aaaaallrighty then. Since I’m much more happy as a zombie than a pile of ash, we’ve got two choices. Either we wait here for maintenance-slash-repair to end which is probably going to be about thirty minutes. Probably. Option two is that you and I go out of the elevator from the top hatch and I climb us up to another landing that I can actually open. I would promise not to drop you as long as you didn’t take the opportunity to feel me up, tickle me, or recite poetry.”

 

[Drobabes]

A prank? At a time like this? Cora had half a mind to turn into a full Karen when they got out of here and demand that the Angelique extend the game longer because of all the bullshit hoops she had had to go through during the last thirty minutes.

Once her hands were safely on the railing, she gripped them furiously. The cold metal beneath her fingers simultaneously grounded her and made her stomach flip, and she simply hoped that Rick could get them out of this situation quickly.

"Careful!" she involuntary shouted, knowing how dangerous a simple spark could be. She didn't want to watch the man be burned alive, he certainly didn't deserve that.

"...or recite poetry."

Cora actually managed a small chuckle despite the circumstances.

"I'll do my best, but I do love my sad poetry. Alright, let's do that. You uh...may want to just hold me with one of your limbs...I can't promise I won't panic and some point and scratch you by accident trying to climb up."

 

[Poprockz]

“Alrighty then, prepare to be wrapped up like a Crunchwrap supreme.” Though she may not have been able to see it, a tentacle went toward her and started wrapping itself around her legs like the strip in a candy cane. It was set to go right across her butt, but he shifted it a bit higher to pass over it instead. It also managed to avoid going across her breasts, but did firmly hold her arms down against her sides. As he did this, he continued to chat casually.

“Although, I would think you seem more like a super nacho sort of gal myself, you know? Little bit of everything in there. I guess you could wrap that all up if you really wanted to, but the tortilla would have to be really big.”

Her body was lifted from the floor of the elevator and pulled towards him, though instead of holding her like a princess or even like a sack of potatoes, he held her so that they were back-to-back to enable his hands and legs with a full range of motion.

“Oh, it would also have to be pretty thick, come to think of it. Otherwise, the sharp bits of chip would stab through it and ruin the whole thing. Not sure how anyone would eat that sort of thing without stabbing themselves in the mouth, but there are people out there who like to eat dangerously.” The man blabbed on as he opened the upper elevator hatch and pulled the two of them fluidly through it with the help from two other appendages.

In the elevator shaft, the only lights came from the glowing red service lights on the side of the tunnel, and a few green ones on the opposite side that presumably marked where an elevator opening was. He could see just fine though, so he started climbing the elevator cables without issue, his voice echoing as they ascended.

“Now if I had to pick a taco-type of food for myself, I think I would end up being a Baja blast with a side of mexi-fries. The mexi-fries obviously being Fred and the Baja blast being myself. What do you think?”

 

[Drobabes]

She had expected it but it still made her flinch when the fleshy appendage made contact. Perhaps if she had been able to physically see it coming it would not have caused her to startle, but no matter.

Cora didn't particularly like the feeling of being held down in the manner that she was, but it was appreciated that he hadn't tried to do anything creepy to her while she couldn't move her hands or legs. Once they were out of the elevator, she was able to take a bit of a deeper breath. The darkness was still engulfing and the red and green lights did little to provide her regular human eyes with much beyond the small shadows near them, but just knowing that they were no longer stuck in a metal box was relieving.

"Uh...about the nachos?"

Truth be told, she hadn't been paying that much attention to what he was jabbering on about. However, trying to jog her memory of what he had just said was, admittedly, providing her a distraction from their current stressful situation.

"Well I guess you could put nachos in a burrito..." she said, trying to keep her voice even.

"But like you said, if might cut up your gums. If I had a choice I think I would just go for a taco seasoned pizza, with all the toppings, and then use the chips to scoop up the toppings that fall off onto the plate as I eat."

 

[Poprockz]

“That would probably be the wiser choice,” he mused as he climbed, not letting on whether he noticed the distracted nature of her reply. “But then it wouldn’t be all wrapped up.”

Though the climb was made significantly easier by the use of tentacles, the man moved with practiced ease as though rope-climbing had been a hobby of his at one point. Whether that was true or not was anyone’s guess, but the man seemed completely unfazed by their journey upwards.

“Now I want you to picture something in your mind- you can even close your eyes if you want to. Picture a painting of a plump blonde woman in a sexy red dress wearing long black gloves. She’s holding five playing cards in her hand, but one of them is turned towards you. It’s the one in the middle, and it’s the ace of hearts. She’s giving you what I would definitely describe as a saucy wink. Maybe she’s flirting, or maybe she’s dumber than a box of rocks for showing you one of her cards as a joke to get into your pants. Who knows? Anyway, do you think the frame of the picture should be gold or black?”

They were getting nearer to the next floor up, and as they became parallel with a door he paused to hear her answer.

 

[Drobabes]

"Fair point" she mused, trying not to let the sensations of everything around her run wild. The darkness felt heavy. Suffocating. Or perhaps that was just that his appendages were gripping her securely. Maybe it wasn't the darkness at all, but instead just her limited ability to take a full and deep breath right at the moment. Yes, perhaps that all it was. And while she was having this thought she also reminded herself that this was temporary, that Rick was infact trying to get them out of the elevator shaft, and that if he had wanted to do anything with her supple body he would have done so already.

They had been stuck in an elevator after all. Alone, in the dark where her limited human vision was of no use. He had had ample opportunity to take advantage of her with absolutely no consequences, but he had not. So she just had to breath through this; it would be okay. She didn't even have to fear a sudden jolt and possibility of falling because the man behind her was obviously very confident in his climbing abilities. Or perhaps that was simply the zombie strength making the task easy? Either way, it was comforting.

"Gold, definitely. You have to have a beautiful frame that won't draw away from the women's own beauty-but if you use something plain like black, then it's almost like an insult to the art. Why even bother to have such a beautiful piece if you are not going to treat her with the respect she deserves? The only way I could see black working as a frame for that art, is if the frame was intricately designed. A lot of texture, deeply carved in and artistic shapes, and definitely a glossy finish."

She paused for just a moment, seemingly thinking of something before she shared it with Rick.

"If I were to do it, I would have small flowers, something with a lot of petals, and then a very light coating of gold paint just barely touched on the petals, so that you only really see the color as you walk near and the light hits different angles. That way you are not detracting away from the women's beauty, but simply framing it properly."

She had been so focused on not focusing on the scary things, that she had not even realized Rick had come to a stop. Once it dawned on her, she turned her head quickly around and in an almost comically excited tone, asked, "is this our floor?"

 

[Poprockz]

“That was a very good guess about the painting. I think it would be gold as well, but unfortunately it wouldn't have the flowers you so tastefully suggested. What it would have instead is probably texture, like where you could grab the lady's boob and turn it like a doorknob. Think Chicago-style pizza- deep dish painting style? You wouldn't want to eat it though. The shit they put in paint would make you so sick you'd be tasting the rainbow for days." He chuckled, the noise turning into a grunt as he leaned forward from the elevator cable and used two of his appendages to pry the landing doors open, spilling the elevator shaft with natural light from a nearby window. With that, he carefully pulled them through the opening and stood there brushing off his hands for a moment.

"Whew! It's nice to retire my 5-minute career as Spiderman. Oh! Shoot, let me just let you down." Her feet had been dangling above the floor, though the carpet was reachable if she stretched her feet to her tippy toes. She was gently lowered and the tentacle around her released her from its grip. "To answer your other question, we’re on the floor above. We had almost arrived to the floor we needed when things shut down, so we’re just going to pop down to the lower floor to join your friend, who's definitely not about to burn the place down."

She was given a big, comically unconvincing smile, and two thumbs up. At the same time, he lifted each of his four appendages and curled them to make them look vaguely like upward thumbs as well.

 

[Drobabes]

Cora's face scrunched before she rolled her eyes. Of course the man would want a feature where he could play with the women's boob. She was going to answer him about eating paint but the sudden blinding light after being in the dark for an extended period, had her squinting and blinking.

Finally! They were free of the elevator.

The relief was short lived though, as she was reminded of having gotten separated from Sabastian. She couldn't imagine he was happy about the circumstances, possibly thinking that the other guy had pulled him away simply as a trap to kidnap her. She only gave an awkward smile to Rick's display as an automatic response before hurriedly nodding in agreeance.

"Yea we don't need him doing that. Can we please take the stairs though?"

Cora didn't care that her legs still burned from her other journey, risking the elevator again was simply not an option.

 

[Poprockz]

"We were born with two good legs for a reason, so I don't see why not," Rick shrugged, leading her to a nearby set of stairs that went both downwards and upwards. Of course he started going downwards, expecting for her to follow behind him as he went. As they neared the landing for the floor below them, voices became more apparent. An argument carried its way to them, the voices becoming more heated by the minute.

...

"Come on, just- damn it. Just give me like, ten more minutes and I'll figure something out. Like I said though, I didn't grab a walkie talkie and I can't just leave you up here alone, so we could try to go down to-"

“You said to give you twenty minutes to see if she came back or if somebody would find her, but it’s been like twenty-five minutes! Twenty-five minutes! The lights went out too, which is suspicious as hell. Where the fuck is she, Artemis?!” This snapped question was punctuated with poking his finger into the redhead's chest pointedly. Sabastian was glaring daggers at the other zombie, all of his tentacles out and writhing in agitation.

For his part, Artemis looked frustrated by the situation as well, holding his hands up in what he probably hoped was a somewhat placating gesture. “It's probably just maintenance. Look, I don’t know where she got off to, but there’s-“

He was cut off with a sharp “Stop dicking around and tell me, fuckface! If you really want to apologize to me about what happened back in the day, you’ll tell me where my goddamn friend is!”

Artemis was trying very hard not to lose his own temper, but a bit of his exasperation was starting to leak into his tone. “Tee, listen to me! I really don’t know where she is! You have to believe me on that! We don't-“

“I don’t have to do SHIT. I will tear this fucking place apart!" Sabastian raged, "And if you try to stop me, I will cunt-punt you so hard out the fucking window that people will think you're a bird migrating south for the winter!"

It was possible that the slightest of snorts could be heard from Rick, though perhaps it was just the sound of the stairs as they got to the landing.