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Post by Hercules Straxios on Oct 14, 2016 13:27:11 GMT -7
Hercules found himself in front of the gates of the decrepit amusement park. His father had taken him here when he was younger and his father wasn't... ashamed of his only son. It had been a couple months since he returned to the boarding house with a gunshot wound in his shoulder and severe depression. No one had asked him really what had gone on after he had returned, and if they had he wouldn't have told them anyway.
He found himself pushing through the gates, past vines that had grown up around the fencing. He looked around the park, almost entirely empty except for the ancient ruins of amusement park rides of the past. He found a switch and flipped it to the on position, lights started to flicker on and distorted music began to play. He had a flashback to when he was a kid, a day at the amusement park with Achilles. His father had gotten him a cotton candy and popcorn.
He rubbed his finger against an old game booth, pulling it back to find dust on his hand. He remembered this booth. His father had won him a stuffed monkey. He wondered if the monkey was still back at the old house, long since condemned after spawning a brand new disease scientists couldn't quite identify.
He was just about to turn back and go home when he heard a small crack of a twig hit the ground. "Who's there?" He asked. Finding himself reaching for a phone that he had forgotten to replace... Dammit.
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Post by Gavin Micheals on Oct 14, 2016 20:03:24 GMT -7
Gavin's hands raised quickly, a toolbox in one and a screwdriver in another, as he was detected. "Ah, no one much. Just a mechanic, a broke one, looking for useful or decently valuable things. Mechanical vulture." It was the truth. Sometimes he needed extra parts for the business, but most of the time for his own hobbies and various projects. Upon deciding that there was no real quarrel to be had, at least not yet, he lowered his tools. The screwdriver was just slung into his jacket pocket. His attire wasn't anything fancy, just a warm enough leather jacket and black crew paired with simple blue jeans and tennis shoes.
"I come out here to pick apart and steal things, to be perfectly honest, but also because it's nice to get a break from the city. My name's Gavin, may I ask yours?" He approached with quick, long steps and reached out for a handshake. Although he wasn't particularly pushy, he was naturally very curt with his actions. "And, presuming it wouldn't be rude of me, I'd also like to inquire as to why you're here?" His tone was polite and friendly, but he was carefully examining the man before him. It wasn't exactly normal of people to go wandering abandoned parks unless they had a decent ulterior motive.
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Post by Hercules Straxios on Oct 15, 2016 16:24:29 GMT -7
Hercules nodded. Satisfied with the man's answer. He didn't care if someone was stealing from an abandoned amusement park. Hercules would do that himself if he had the need. But he didn't have the need, so yeah. "My name is Hercules, I am here for my 8th labor." Said Hercules proudly if slightly sarcastically, he liked poking fun at his own name. It made him realize that he was named after a great hero. And even great hero's can have jokes about them. "No, but seriously. My name is Hercules. I... Guess I'm out here to clear my head."
Hercules wasn't 100% on why he wanted to be out here in the first place, to be entirely honest. Memories of his father normally triggered bad memories. Maybe he just felt as though... He needed to be here. That if he was out here, he wasn't quite so lost. Looking up at the ferris wheel, he felt the need to ride on it. Not sure why that was, he just... Another memory flashed by, his father and young Hercules screaming... They had gotten stuck upside down on the roller coaster... For 3 hours they had sat themselves there, waiting for assistance. And suddenly, the magic was gone.
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Post by Gavin Micheals on Oct 15, 2016 17:19:15 GMT -7
The outstretched hand quickly returned itself to the screwdriver, as now there was work to be done. He started to approach the old control panel of the ferris wheel, as the ride had gotten Hercules' attention and was therefore a more outstanding target. Gavin still listened to the newly met man introduce himself, letting out a small irregular breath recognizable as a laugh. "Horses, I think, was the 8th one? I never care to remember myths. Could've been the lion or bull, too many animals. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Herc." Before he started to go to work on the panel, he spun the screwdriver in his palm and looked back, the last part of the statement seemingly catching his attention. "It's a good place for that, abandoned most of the time. I guess you meet the random odd stranger, but that's only ever happened to me once. Some guy out doing labors." It wasn't said like a joke, nor did it have any trace of sarcasm, but it clearly was one. Gavin came out here to steal, obviously, but it was a fairly relaxing atmosphere. He wasn't exactly a people person, but just talking to a single one wasn't usually a miserable task, sometimes almost the opposite. Though he wore a small smirk, maybe from amusement at his own humor, he was working quite quickly and the panel was almost open to him. Simple thing, just a knob that controlled the direction and speed of the wheel's rotation sticking out of an otherwise unremarkable, rusty box. Out of his toolbox, he produced a small crowbar, smaller than his forearm, to get the box open. "Something funny you realize about this place, you come here often enough. That ride," he said, pointing to the wheel before gesturing with the crowbar at a couple others, "And that one, and that one all meant something. Someone figured out their sweetheart was going to be their fiancee at the top of this thing. If the value of an object were measured by its significance to certain people, maybe these would be gold mines. Instead, they get to be plain old machinery in a state of disrepair." The sentence was punctuated by the sound of metal hitting the ground, and he got to the inside of the panel with wire cutters already in hand. He was a bit philosophical, but a bit more efficient with the more mechanical things.
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Post by Hercules Straxios on Oct 17, 2016 12:37:23 GMT -7
Hercules nodded as he listened to the man. He looked up once again at the Ferris wheel. "It was the horses, actually. Boy, if any place could use a river to clean it out... It'd be here..." He said thinking about it. Maybe someday... Maybe someday. For now, he listened to the man while thinking about his own past. "Yeah... Or fathers with their sons..." Hercules said under his breath. Almost every attraction in this park had a memory connected to Achilles. It hurt to think about, and thus decided to change the subject. "So, what are you working on, Gavin. That is if you don't mind me asking."
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Post by Gavin Micheals on Oct 17, 2016 19:20:00 GMT -7
Looking around him, Gavin decided that if a river were to wash through here it would definitely clean it, probably by washing everything into the ocean, but it would also ruin most of what he would like to salvage. He started swiftly snipping away with the cutters, taking as many long wires as he could but occasionally having to cut one short to salvage it. "Theoretically, with a sizable drill, one could create a river through HappyWorld..." he mumbled to himself mindlessly, but perked up when he heard something else said quietly by Hercules. Before an inquiry could be made, one was already on the way. "I'm just stealing so I can work on a variety of things, projects I have at home. More likely than not, the shorter of these wires will go to a specific collection of small mechanical critters. The longer will go to a re-purposed train set that goes with a Rube Goldberg machine. Hmmm..." Gavin drifted into a thought process before he began a bit of scanning around for something particular. "Got a story?" he inquired, with a slightly amused but almost concerned and mostly serious. It was a habit of his, wondering about people's well being but not frequently voiced because it seemed peculiar. The circumstances were already abnormal.
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Post by Hercules Straxios on Oct 19, 2016 23:31:09 GMT -7
Hercules didn't rightfully care that the man was stealing the items. The way he saw it, the man's worst crime was the fact that he was breaking and entering, but then again Hercules was also committing the same crime just for sentimental purposes. It was then that the man asked him if he had a story.
God above did he have stories. He could talk about how his father locked him in what basically amounted to a closet. He could talk about how everything he did always seemed to fail. He could talk about everything that had happened with that little girl. But instead, he just winced away and said, "No, I'm afraid not. What about you?"
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Post by Gavin Micheals on Oct 20, 2016 5:52:50 GMT -7
"Nothing too entertaining, I'm afraid. I've been fairly boring for m whole life, because I live simply. Probably a couple decent ones somewhere, but I have a tendency to forget." Sadly, keeping so many thought processes running just ruined a man's memory sometimes. Something tipped him off that there was a good reason not to inquire more, and although he wanted to there wasn't much of a reason to continue; morbid curiosity only made him go so far. Gavin just looked back around, examining all the machines about the park. "Guy came in with a radio once, actually. I can repair almost anything, not just vehicles. So, he came in and set it down on my car, while I was under it, and requested that it be fixed immediately. Being a good businessman," he said, gesturing to himself with false bravado, "I wanted to attend to his concern. The radio was damn near torn in half, and had a red pole sticking through it. Like he slammed it on a fence and decided it would be easier to carry as a shish kebob. 'What could you have possibly done to have broken it this badly?''I dropped it.'" Gavin shook his head and chuckled a bit. He knew it wasn't a particularly funny thing, but he remembered it fondly enough. The little things are what made running the garage so enjoyable. "There was a heated debate about how he had most certainly not just dropped it, but I fixed it up. Practically made the guy a new one."
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Post by Hercules Straxios on Oct 20, 2016 15:06:42 GMT -7
So, this guy could repair anything. That made him wonder if he could maybe assist him with something. "I hate to interrupt, but you wouldn't happen to know how to build music boxes would you?" He had been thinking about this for a while now. He wanted to give Nora something in appreciation of her letting him stay at the boarding house after his father died, but had never found anything worthwhile. But everyone like music, no? So maybe giving her a music box that was handmade would be good enough.
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Post by Gavin Micheals on Oct 21, 2016 8:44:20 GMT -7
"Yeah, it might take me a bit to get all the parts together, what with having to order them. But actually..." Gavin looked around, examining the park. "Actually, that may not be true. If you can help me find the materials to make the box itself, I'll get the more complicated parts. What do you want it to look like? Moving parts wise." It was going to take a while to get everything together, but the materials here could do it. Metal casing, easy peasy. Speaker, there had to be one somewhere. What they didn't find here he could take from his little projects, and what they did he could take home to clean. "Who is it for, if you don't mind me asking? It'd be easier to personalize. I would have it done by tomorrow, if not later today. Sorry for the barrage of questions and statements but I just kind of... Go." Whenever he had a task, it was easy to allow his single-mindedness to take over. The particular design had started to come together, from the mechanical, technical parts to the aesthetic.
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Post by Hercules Straxios on Oct 26, 2016 22:55:09 GMT -7
"It's for a lovely old woman who took me in, Gavin." He said smiling. "I'm afraid I cannot tell you more, but what I will ask is if you would be able to put in some sort of ballerina. Perhaps you could make it play something classy? Like mozart? I'm afraid I don't quite know what she likes but I feel like that sort of thing is pretty well universally well liked." He said. "I can assist you with finding the parts if you wish."
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Post by Gavin Micheals on Oct 29, 2016 11:55:06 GMT -7
"Ah, I see. How sweet of you, Herc the Hero." Gavin smiled, sarcastically and with a little bit of mischief. "I can practically play Mozart in my sleep. If I knew an instrument, of course. And the ballerina is also simple. What are the dimensions that you want? Like, I could make a pocket sized one, or one that's about a foot and a half long. That one would be more for like, a dresser. And I'll need some help getting everything together, but I know there's some parts here we could use. Some of this looks better than the rest, salvageable." After being told what size the box was meant to be, he would direct Hercules to look for some metal plates about that size and give him a flathead screwdriver to help.
After that, Gavin would go off looking for places where he might retrieve some circuitry as well as a speaker. A nearby enough attraction was the swinging boat ride, which had a smaller operation panel to get the smaller wires he needed. The Ferris wheel had longer ones, which would be of use but maybe not as much for a music box. He had a smaller flathead, but had taken the crowbar; the screwdriver he gave Hercules wold be suitable as a pry bar anyway. This would be a fun new thing to work on.
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