Constant vigilance!!

Who: Nic and Lina.
When: Late morning/early afternoonish.
Where: Nic (and Dan)'s room.

The previous day, Lina had submitted an official request. By 'official', she had used the security computer, and said that she expected to be provided with these things if she was to continue trying to find a safer way of caring for the house. She hadn't been sure that would work, and to find her demands waiting for her this morning had momentarily made up for the rest of the bullshit flying around inside her head. As soon as she got some free time, she made a quick stop in the rec room, and headed up to the attic.

The first thing she saw was that Zhen was still on her vigil in the hall, meat cleaver in hand. Lina didn't even bat an eye or really even look at her much, just long enough to salute to the tiny chopready asian. Zhen saluted back, and let Lina pass to knock on Nic's door without giving her a second look.

Nice to see things were covered.

Nic was the one to answer the door, for Dan had gone to procure them food. Izzy had gone with him, for even if it was raining, the dog needed to go out at some point. Nic had taken the opportunity to shower and clean up, and had just finished getting dressed when Lina knocked on his door. "Hey," he said, opening it with a hint of a smile. That was when he noticed Zhen guarding their room for the first time, and he made a mental note to go visit her afterwards. "Come on in," he said, stepping back and allowing entrance. "How was the meeting yesterday?"

"Oh, pretty retarded." Lina answered, stepping inside. "But people are going to start watching out for newbies, so that's something." she said, shrugging. "I have something for you."

"Do you?" Nic asked, picking up the tennis ball off the floor as he offered her the desk chair. "The hard part about watching out for newbies is that you never know when they appear. It's all kind of random. I don't think the same people have resided in the house for an entire week since I've been here," he said, bouncing the ball on the floor then catching it.

"Well Bob and Janie are the newbie patrol now. They're going to check the maps every day and talk to every newbie - let 'em know what they're in for, point them to important journal posts, that shit. I'm quite glad to be rid of that job, actually." Lina sucked at the social part of things, and she never knew what the fuck she was supposed to tell people anyway. "But the scientists were good enough to submit to a demand of mine today." She pulled a small black rectangle out of her pocket. The rectangle looked something like a very weird electric shaver with no blades, and had a big red bow wrapped around it. She offered it to Nic. "That, my friend, is a taser."

"You put Janie on the welcoming committee," Nic said, a small, amused smile on his face. He'd never really met Janie, but he'd seen her around, and he'd read her posts on the journals from time to time. She wasn't exactly who he would have put in charge of making people feel welcome in the house, but that really wasn't the point of the welcoming committee, was it? "You got us a taser," Nic said, the small smile widening now. "You do realize you kick ass, don't you? I can't believe they gave it to you." He set the ball down now and reached for the tazer, turning it over in his hands. "Do you know how to work it, or am I going to have to shock myself first to figure it out?"

"Of course I put Janie on a welcoming committee. It's a step up from Hannah." Lina answered, actually grinning a bit. "She won't be afraid to tell the newbies they're doomed. After she traumatizes them, maybe the scientists won't seem so fuckin' bad." Lina snickered a bit and eyed the tazer, never actually using one herself. "I don't think they would have given them to me if I'd said I was going to hand one out. I got one of the gun ones that cops have for myself. I don't think you'd want to test it on yourself though, maybe take out some aggression in the meat locker." Though as Lina considered that some more, she shrugged. "I think police officers have to be tased once themselves if they want to use one. But I think if we tased ourselves Dave just might kill us."

Nic laughed aloud at the idea of Hannah as the welcoming committee. If she'd once held the position, it was no wonder things were fucked all to hell. "I wouldn't mind killing some meat," Nic said, looking from the taser up to Lina. "Yeah, I'm sure Dave would be thrilled to know they're in the house. He's got enough shit to deal with as is. Or, at least, it seems like it. Every other day there's a new trauma. I'm not sure how often people actually have to see the doctor." He knew that he put it off himself, and that Dan was even worse than he was. Nic wasn't sure Dan's fingers were ever going to heal, and even if they did, they didn't seem to be healing straight.

"It's better than bashing their skull in, or me having to pull out the real gun." Because she did have one. She didn't think anyone but Jason, Kaori, and now Nic knew that, but it was always on her person. "As long as you just shock them and don't hold the button down until they start, I dunno, bleeding out of orifices and shit. You know. Leave them alive enough to beat the fuck out of the good old fashioned way later."

"You've got a gun?" Nic said, brows rising. He'd asked before thinking about it, and now he still wanted to know. Just because... he actually felt better knowing Lina had it, so long as no one else had one. "Is it bad to say that I think that'd be too quick?" Nic said, cringing, though he was almost somewhat smiling. "Painful maybe, but tasering someone to death doesn't seem the way to go." Maybe if they were strung up nude and strapped to meat first. Maybe. "So, yeah, I'll practice so I just shock 'em a bit rather than full blown electrocute. I'm not for testing this on myself, so I'll just have to be careful."

Lina nodded. She had Everett's gun, which was still something that made her feel a bit weird. At least she'd never had to use it. "I'm not advertising that though. People knew about Everett having one, he announced it at a meeting, and I think it just generally made everybody really uncomfortable." People had practically done the wave in fidgeting. Lina wore a knife on her hip every day, and had for a long time, and no one said shit about it anymore. She was not stupid enough to think they'd do the same thing if they knew about the gun.

"I'm not uncomfortable with you having the gun," Nic clarified, allowing her to read between the lines on what might make that statement change. "But it's not something I'd advertise either. Though, don't blame me if Dan finds out." Because Nic didn't lie to him, not about anything. Lina probably knew that already, but Nic felt the need to say so, just in case. "Personally, I think everyone would feel better carrying a weapon of some sort, but that doesn't mean I'd advise it. There are plenty of people here I'd prefer not to have one, just in case they lose their temper and decide to chop everyone into little pieces."

Lina sighed slightly and nodded. "I don't think I can stop anyone from carrying something. I know a lot of people keep something in their room, if shit keeps up I wouldn't be surprised to see people walking around with weapons. I guess that's an issue we'd have to address if it came up. I'm not going to put the idea in peoples heads. Self defense would be a much better start, but we've been down that road before." Hannah's first self defense lesson was going to be tonight. So nice that she had that to look forward to.

"I attended the self defense class, when it was held. I suppose my issue is that self defense wouldn't have helped me either time," Nic shrugged, then smiled. "We got out dog though. Woke up this morning to find her in the bathroom, waiting for us." And while that part was creepy, Nic had accepted that that was the way the scientists gave gifts. He couldn't whine about their methods when he'd gotten exactly what he'd asked for. At least Izzy had been in the bathroom. If he'd woken up to find her on the bed, he might have freaked out just a bit.

Lina looked pretty pleased over that. She was. It was difficult to fuck with pets. She was guessing the only reason she didn't get fucked with more was because Coeus was so fucking loud. Maybe that was why people were starting to target fucking animals. Sick fucks. "A big dog, I hope?"

"A Golden Retriever," Nic grinned, very pleased with Izzy himself. "She's plenty big, and plenty smart. And I believe she's trained as a guard dog, so she'll bark at the door if anyone tries to get in. We named her Izzy." Lina was familiar with Nic's brand of paranoia, so he didn't mind admitting to it in front of her. Sleep had been hard for him lately. Hopefully it would be better from here on out. "Hopefully she'll will allow Zhen to sleep in a bed as well."

"How long is Zhen gonna stay out there?" Lina asked. Not that she minded, but she was betting that quite a few people in the house would be a little freaked out by the meat cleaverness of it all.

"I don't know," Nic said, glancing towards the door with a little smile. "I didn't even know she was out there till now. It can't be safe, but then... she looks awfully threatening." At least, she did in his opinion. He wouldn't be the first to mess with a little Asian girl with a meat cleaver. Lucky for him, he was one of the ones being protected.

"Yeah, she's really not fuckin' around." Lina said, shaking her head a bit. "Think she's taking this job damn seriously. This is probably the safest room in the house right now." And for good damn reason.

"I'm not sure I'd wanna fuck with Zhen," Nic said thoughtfully. "She's loyal. And one of the people in this house worth trusting. And a bit more handy with that meat cleaver than most people should be." At least, Nic thought it looked comfortable in her hand. He knew he couldn't manage the same, but he'd learned just fine with a 2x4, and was pretty sure he could do the same with a taser.

"I think it's pretty safe to say that anyone on this floor right now better either have a room up here, or haul ass for the greenhouse." And Lina wasn't going to do dick to stop it, either. Zhen wanted to play guard dog, she was welcome to it. She didn't think it was realistic to set up watches on all floors at all times, but if people wanted to take it upon themselves to do? Awesome.

Nic had to laugh. He couldn't help it. "Now I'm worried she's gonna chop someone's toes off," he said, rolling his eyes. "I'd do it for her though. If I wasn't busy freaking myself out." He'd checked on her a ridiculous amount after she'd been tied up in the woods. The only reason he'd dropped that was that his own fear got in the way. Of course, he'd only just found out she was camped outside his door. That worried him, at least for her own protection. "I'll talk to her about it later, but I can't guarantee she'll stop it."

"I think she'll be okay." Lina said. She'd thought about it a lot since having the conversation with Jason over arming her in the first place. "Kales and I split up checking on her, he handles the late nights and I'm up at five. If anyone wants to hurt something they'd be smart to stay away from this floor for a while."

While it made Nic feel better to know that Lina was checking up on Zhen, he wasn't sure what to think about Kales. He'd spent little time talking to the man, but plenty of time observing him as of late. For being the known murderer in the house, it seemed slightly odd that he'd be Lina's right hand man. "You put a lot of trust in him," Nic said, watching her closely. "Kales, I mean."

Lina was honestly a little surprised. Yes, she did put a lot of trust in him. Without thinking twice about it. It was just automatically done, and it should have dawned on her before now that people would pick up on that. This must look interesting. Lina tilted her head to the side, and opened her mouth to explain. Several times. That didn't work so well. So finally she just sat down and nodded. "I probably should have realized that people would pick up on that." And possibly freak out. "But yeah, I do. That freak you out a little?"

"I'm not sure everyone's quite that observant," Nic said, leaning back on his hands. "Nor do I think most of them are intelligent enough to read back on the journals and see who they're living with. That's why you get idiots at the meeting wondering why things are the way they are." He bit his lips as he considered her question, not sure what the appropriate answer might be. "A little. Not as much as it would have a few weeks ago," Nic said. "He helped find Zhen. And he's worked with Dan on the alarm shit. Not that I like leaving Dan alone with him, but I've come to accept he's not gonna go helter skelter unprovoked."

"He's not." Lina confirmed. Which wasn't to say that he wouldn't kill someone if they had it coming. Especially not the way things had been going lately. "For what it's worth, of the few people here I actually get along with, he's one of the fewer still that I would trust with my life." She paused. "Though he would really hate it if he knew I told anyone that. He's of the opinion that his friends should not publicly be his friends. Which obviously doesn't work. When shit goes down he's good to have around."

Nic nodded slowly, accepting that only because he had the evidence to know so. He'd seen Kales in action enough to know she wasn't making it up. Hell, Kales had led his group into the woods when they were looking for Greg's body. He had to have been put in charge for a reason and he'd done a decent job at it. "I've never really talked to him. I've never really wanted to talk to him, honestly, but in a crisis he seems like one of the more sane people in the house, which was something I wasn't expecting. But Dan's friends with Emma and he says she's nice." Not the sort to date a murderer, at least. Nic shrugged. "I trust you. And if he's someone you trust, then I'd go along with it. Because I know how hard it is to trust people here, and how you have to choose carefully."

Having someone put that much faith in her was a little unsettling, but this probably wasn't a great time to nit-pick, was it? Really. Is my word really enough to trust the murderer? Unfortunately, Lina knew it probably was. She and Nic were friends, or at least she thought they were - taser gifts were the sort of thing you did for friends - but even without that, she'd done enough around the house for old-timers to trust her as an authority figure. And someday it's all gonna blow up in my face. "If he ever hurt someone it'd be because they had it coming." Lina confirmed. And I may or may not be going tag-team with him.

"If I ever have it coming and I taser him, then who's to blame?" Nic asked with a small smirk, hoping that it would never come to that. Jason Kales was not a man he wanted to mess with. "I'll trust him. Not with my life, but maybe enough to hope he won't kill me, which seemed entirely plausible earlier on. That works for him though. Dan and I were just discussing that it would be nice to have people fear us. Then maybe they'd leave us the fuck alone." At least, that was a hope. It didn't mean that would actually happen. "We're not exactly fearsome creatures."

That was just a horrifying thought for Lina, and she was going to just tell herself it was a joke and would never actually happen. She couldn't actually see anything that Nic or Dan would ever do to piss off Jason, though. "Well, I suppose you could give people reason to fear you if you wanted, but it's probably not advisable. Or even very likely." She'd seen Dan. Even running around with a bloody wrench, he had not been intimidating.

"It's not really my style. I'm not even sure I could accomplish it if I wanted to. And while I'm sure Dan could accomplish 'scary', I don't know that it would be in a fear-some sense," Nic said with a little smile. He couldn't actually see anyone staying away from them due to fear of Dan. "I think we're better off with a dog, and a taser... and Zhen sitting outside our door with a meat cleaver. Because if you can't be scary yourself, get scary friends."