RE: [IC][Story] There's Nothing Better!
09-12-2016, 10:34 AM (This post was last modified: 05-14-2018, 06:51 AM by Black Aeronaut. Edit Reason: Fixing typos and the like, as well as glitches from the Crapatalk migration )
09-12-2016, 10:34 AM (This post was last modified: 05-14-2018, 06:51 AM by Black Aeronaut. Edit Reason: Fixing typos and the like, as well as glitches from the Crapatalk migration )
September 7, 2016, 2:33 PM
The Westwood Apartments
San Antonio, TX, USA
With a sigh, the older brother turned to the younger one.
"Jake, let's go get the tools. We're gonna need to clear out what's left of that cage the soda machine was in so no one accidentally trips and hurts themselves."
"Joy..." Jacob muttered and then turned to Sabastian, "Any idea of what we're to expect behind that door?"
Ben spoke up, though, before Sebastian could. "That's the door to Washu Hakubi's lab."
At this Jacob gave the door a startled look.
"Which means," continued Ben, "someone's playing a very evil joke on us... or something very bad has happened." He then turned to to give Sebastian a meaningful look. "Just one hell of a butler, huh? Be glad that I'm not one of those Christians that's one beer short of a six-pack."
"Heaven forbid," said Sebastian sarcastically, but a grin on his face nonetheless.
Saying nothing, Ben went about his business, going to get the tools from his truck with Jacob following closely after.
##
Slowly, almost painfully, Washu began to become conscious once more. It was dark inside the lab, but a wave of her hand quickly brought the emergency lights online.
How could I have been so foolish, she thought angrily to herself. There had to have been variables that I failed to take into con-
She never really finished that line of thought because of the collection of people in her midst, all passed out on the floor of her lab. Sure, she recognized them. They lived in Tenchi's house, after all.
Just then, there was a knock at her door. A video plane appeared to her side, showing a disgruntled looking young man outside her door. He had dark hair that was long and just a bit messy, a handsome, somewhat narrow face bearing a goatee, eyes that seemed to be designed for both brooding and piercing stares, and a build that was just barely verging on 'husky'. A younger specimen stood next to him, quite heavy-set despite his youth, and looking very anxious. Judging by their appearance, they were quite clearly related, probably on the matrilineal side if Washu were to guess. In the background it looked as though a bomb had gone off.
Hmm, thought Washu. Judging from the apparent blast radius and where he's standing in relation to my door... Uh-oh.
Washu knew why he was knocking on her door, and even if she could handle a decidedly normal looking human adult, she didn't feel inclined to do so. She would have immediately started on getting her door back to where it belonged, among other things, but she was quick to notice the presence of a little girl.
The Lab's sensors told her that she was, physically, only twelve years old - a close match to Princess Sassami by Earth standards. However, the power readings she was getting were off the charts! And Washu had some pretty damn big charts to go by. Despite that, however, she was not going to allow herself to become intimidate by this... girl? Thing?
"Hi there," chirped the odd girl. "My name is Skuld and I’m from the Goddess Support Line. I'll be the caseworker assigned to your support ticket."
"Support ticket?" parroted Washu. "I never called for any technical support."
"No, you didn't," confirmed Skuld. "But in Heaven, technical support works a lot faster. You don't even need to make a phone call!"
"Hold on a minute! Just who are you and what are you really doing here!?"
Skuld dropped her cheerful demeanor at that and sighed heavily, as though this were something that she heard every day and was getting tired of hearing it.
"Look. The straight dope is that I am a Goddess who helps maintain the Yggdrasil Mainframe, the super-computer in heaven that helps maintain the Multiverse as you and I know it. What you did just rat-screwed the operating system and it's going to take weeks of debugging for the others to straighten it out. In the meantime, I'm here to lock down your little pocket universe before it causes any more damage to the space-time continuum and ensure that you and everyone else has a pleasant time here." It was rather disturbing, actually, how that little girl was able to stress that one word so menacingly.
Skuld suddenly went on, "Oh, and by the way, you may want to let Benjamin and Jacob in here. This concerns the both of them as well, since they certainly won't be able to lead normal lives for the time being."
Washu sighed. After a brief glance at the status display in her workstation she saw that pocket universe that her lab occupied was indeed in a state of flux and would not be going anywhere in the Multiverse until things normalized.
##
It had only taken Ben a few minutes with his electric disk grinder to cut away what was left of the security cage of the soda machine and Jacob just as long to clear the bits away as there were cut free.
Once that was out of the way, Ben set his tool, gloves, and safety glasses aside, and then knocked on the door.
"No one ever gets in here without knocking first," explained Ben. "Part of her security system."
Jacob nodded as they waited for a moment.
The moment came and went. "Now I know she knows I'm here," grumbled Ben as he knocked again.
This time, the door opened and a young girl stuck her head out, her hair a florid magenta and styled to resemble a crab perched on top of her head.
Either that hair is fake or... Fuck, Jacob thought as the girl stood guardedly behind the door.
"Well," said Ben at length. "This is a kick in the pants."
Washu stayed quiet for the moment, giving the two brothers the evil eye.
Ben sighed. "Washu-chan, I presume?"
Washu blinked. Few people, even those that knew of her reputation, ever called her by 'Washu-chan' upon first meeting her face-to-face. But even so, her expression only softened marginally.
"Who wants to know?"
"Benjamin Michael Rhodes. Manager of this..." At this, he looked around with a sneer on his face. "...fine establishment."
"I see," said the mad genius. "And what business do you have with us?"
"You're on the premises?" Jacob deadpanned, his face carefully blank.
Ben scoffed. "That, and if what I've heard so far is correct, you folks are my new tenants."
"Okay, so how do you know my name?" asked Washu a bit suspiciously.
"Oh will you get on with it!" snapped another voice from inside as Washu was suddenly shoved out the door, followed quickly by another girl.
She wearing a pink jacket that was like some cutesy child-version of a motorcycle jacket with red lining and trim, only long - making it look like it had an asymmetrical waterfall skirt. And because she was a proper little girl, she also had a pink pencil skirt underneath that. She had the most gorgeous and luxurious raven-black hair, and her perfect little face had three triangular markings - one on her forehead and the others at the peaks of her cheek bones.
"Hey!" snapped Washu sharply as Ben stumbled backwards to avoid accidentally glomping the tiny genius.
"You can't play dumb anymore," the girl snapped back. "He knows who you are and he knows who I am, too!"
"Awww shit," grumbled Ben.
"Fuck.." Jacob mutter at the same time.
"Hey!" barked Skuld, looking steamed. "Language!"
Jacob gave her a flat look, "Riiight and I'm to stay calm when I find out that I'm going to be playing host to a goddess and who knows what else? One that I know is fictional?"
Ben forestalled any further arguing by putting a hand on his brother's shoulder, causing the younger sibling to glare at him.
"Jacob," said Ben, ignoring the glare. "Take my wallet, go to the convenience store, and get some bottled waters. Ten should be enough for now." He then took out said wallet and offered it to his brother. "Go ahead and get something for yourself, too."
Jacob took the wallet from his brother's hand and quietly walked to the closest exit.
Once he was out of earshot, Ben slowly turned to the dark-haired girl.
"Yes. I know who you are. You're Skuld. But you hardly know us. He's the youngest in our family and has not had anywhere nearly the practice I've had at cultivating patience. I suggest you not wear on his, because I hate having to deal with him when he's upset. Do we have an understanding?"
"Fine," huffed Skuld. "But please don't curse. My sisters and I really don't like it."
"I'll try, but just bear in mind that I am a sailor, and my mother was a sailor's daughter."
"So, am I just chopped liver or something?" said Washu suddenly.
"Sorry Washu-chan," said Ben, a bit sheepishly. "Look, things are in a bad way. It's pretty self evident. Would you mind if we stepped inside your lab and get things straightened out? Probably a lot nicer in there than it is out here."
"Yeah," agreed Washu. "I think my air conditioning is a lot better than this."
I looked around and then noticed that someone else was conspicuously absent.
"Say, did anyone see where Sebastian went?" I asked.
"Who?" asked Washu.
"Tall guy, a young kinda ghoulish fellow, dressed up as a butler?"
"Ugh, HIM!?" said Skuld. "That guy was here!?"
"Er, yes. Showed up to personally oversee this situation. The place wasn't supposed to be a demilitarized zone when Mr. Phantomhive bought the place. Is this a... problem?"
"uuuhhhhg, just forget about it! The less I think of him the better I'll be."
##
Once Jacob returned, the four went inside Washu's lab and began to make sure that all the others were arranged more comfortably into beds that Washu provided.
"There!" said Washu once the last of them, Mihoshi, was tucked in. "I've gone ahead and made sure that they'll sleep through the night. So, what happens next?"
As she was speaking, Washu summoned up a table and chairs for us to sit down at.
"Well," Ben began as he gratefully took as seat. "Mr. Phantomhive already relayed to me through Sebastian that he'll be making arrangements. What sort of arrangements, I don't know. But he strikes me as the type of person who's got that 'Whim of Steel'. Not the sort of person you mess around with."
"You're right, he isn't," said Skuld sullenly. "Phantomhive used to be human, but he sold his soul to hell for vengeance. Hild took an interest in him and sent one of her best agents, Sebastian. He liked that kid so much that he presented Hild with the idea of adopting him as a Demonic Prince and she went for it.
"Don't get me wrong, he's an excellent manager and he's probably perfect for this job, but he's as nasty as they come. He gets things done exactly because of that fact - if they aren't going his way, he's more than happy to show the people standing in his way the error of their ways. And we really can't do much about it anyhow because most of the people he deals with have it coming anyhow."
"Yeesh," said Ben. "I knew the kid was in a bad way... Well, whatever. For now, he's my boss and he says to run this place and keep the tenants in line, then that's what we'll do."
"And how exactly are we expected to keep them in line?" Jacob asked.
"I was wondering about that myself," said Skuld. "I mean, no offense, you guys are just baseline humans."
"None taken." Jacob said quietly.
"Well, you guys do seem to know us," said Washu thoughtfully. "In fact, you even called me Washu-chan. How do you know that?"
Ben shrugged and decided to go all the way on this. "Well, there was an OVA in Japan that was popular enough to make it to the USA call Tenchi Muyo. I think you can imagine what it's about."
"Wait, so you mean my theories on Transfictionality were true!?" said the mad genius excitedly.
Ben gallic shrug and Washu cackled gleefully.
"YES! I KNEW IT WASN'T HARD FOR THE MULTIVESES'S GREATEST GENIUS!"
Skuld gave Washu a flat glare. "Completely crashed the Yggdrasil."
If Washu's ego had been a balloon, Skuld was a tack that put a neat hole in it, causing Washu's ego to whine pitifully as it suddenly deflated.
Ben decided to deflect things.
"Okay, question: If Noike is here, then did the Chobimaru Incident already happen?"
"Yep, sure did!" answered Washu cheerfully. And then she blinked for a moment and got a far-away look on her face. She suddenly turned to Skuld and asked, slowly, "What did you do?"
"Please don't be angry!" said Skuld in a sudden panic. "It was Father's orders! We had to lock down your higher capabilities to make sure nothing really bad happened! Without it you could destroy the whole planet if you accidentally sneezed."
"I was doing just fine before without your limiters, thank you very much!" snapped Washu.
Ben just rolled his eyes and said, "Washu's Pore."
If Washu's ego had been a balloon, Benjamin was a tack that put a neat hole in it, causing Washu's ego to whine pitifully as it suddenly deflated even more.
"Look, you're not the only one," said Skuld placatingly. "As much as I hated it, I had to do the same thing with Sasami and Tenchi, too. Though I still don't know how you guys are gonna keep the likes of Ryoko in line."
Ben sighed. "I'll think of something. Everyone around here has their buttons. Myself included. I'll just have to figure out what to say or do to get Ryoko to settle down."
"Or rather, Washu will cook something up, right?" Jacob quipped.
"That's Washu-CHAN, buster!" Suddenly, Washu got all weepy eyed as she went on, "And besides, do you think I'd really do something so horrible to my very own daughter?" You could practically smell the ham coming off of her.
"I'm not expecting you to lock her up or anything, just to make sure we don't go splat!" Jacob retorted, resisting Washu's over-done expression.
Ben rolled his eyes and just slumped over the table. "Honestly, I don't think we're gonna have too much trouble. Can we just chill, please? I'm not looking forward to pitching a tent tonight."
Jacob groaned and thumped his head on the table.
Washu sighed. "Drama queens. Look, I'll set you guys up, but just for tonight."
"Thanks, Washu-chan," said Ben from his place on the table, giving a thumbs up.
Skuld sighed. "Well, I don't think I'm really needed here anymore. You guys gonna be good without me?"
"Nah," said Ben. "You're good. You gonna be back later?"
"I don't know. This situation is pretty big, and your complex is just the first one to be setup. We got others going live over the next week, and because of what happened here we're going to be double-checking all the properties to make sure everything is as it should be. Fixer-uppers are okay, but not dumps like this!"
The Westwood Apartments
San Antonio, TX, USA
With a sigh, the older brother turned to the younger one.
"Jake, let's go get the tools. We're gonna need to clear out what's left of that cage the soda machine was in so no one accidentally trips and hurts themselves."
"Joy..." Jacob muttered and then turned to Sabastian, "Any idea of what we're to expect behind that door?"
Ben spoke up, though, before Sebastian could. "That's the door to Washu Hakubi's lab."
At this Jacob gave the door a startled look.
"Which means," continued Ben, "someone's playing a very evil joke on us... or something very bad has happened." He then turned to to give Sebastian a meaningful look. "Just one hell of a butler, huh? Be glad that I'm not one of those Christians that's one beer short of a six-pack."
"Heaven forbid," said Sebastian sarcastically, but a grin on his face nonetheless.
Saying nothing, Ben went about his business, going to get the tools from his truck with Jacob following closely after.
##
Slowly, almost painfully, Washu began to become conscious once more. It was dark inside the lab, but a wave of her hand quickly brought the emergency lights online.
How could I have been so foolish, she thought angrily to herself. There had to have been variables that I failed to take into con-
She never really finished that line of thought because of the collection of people in her midst, all passed out on the floor of her lab. Sure, she recognized them. They lived in Tenchi's house, after all.
Just then, there was a knock at her door. A video plane appeared to her side, showing a disgruntled looking young man outside her door. He had dark hair that was long and just a bit messy, a handsome, somewhat narrow face bearing a goatee, eyes that seemed to be designed for both brooding and piercing stares, and a build that was just barely verging on 'husky'. A younger specimen stood next to him, quite heavy-set despite his youth, and looking very anxious. Judging by their appearance, they were quite clearly related, probably on the matrilineal side if Washu were to guess. In the background it looked as though a bomb had gone off.
Hmm, thought Washu. Judging from the apparent blast radius and where he's standing in relation to my door... Uh-oh.
Washu knew why he was knocking on her door, and even if she could handle a decidedly normal looking human adult, she didn't feel inclined to do so. She would have immediately started on getting her door back to where it belonged, among other things, but she was quick to notice the presence of a little girl.
The Lab's sensors told her that she was, physically, only twelve years old - a close match to Princess Sassami by Earth standards. However, the power readings she was getting were off the charts! And Washu had some pretty damn big charts to go by. Despite that, however, she was not going to allow herself to become intimidate by this... girl? Thing?
"Hi there," chirped the odd girl. "My name is Skuld and I’m from the Goddess Support Line. I'll be the caseworker assigned to your support ticket."
"Support ticket?" parroted Washu. "I never called for any technical support."
"No, you didn't," confirmed Skuld. "But in Heaven, technical support works a lot faster. You don't even need to make a phone call!"
"Hold on a minute! Just who are you and what are you really doing here!?"
Skuld dropped her cheerful demeanor at that and sighed heavily, as though this were something that she heard every day and was getting tired of hearing it.
"Look. The straight dope is that I am a Goddess who helps maintain the Yggdrasil Mainframe, the super-computer in heaven that helps maintain the Multiverse as you and I know it. What you did just rat-screwed the operating system and it's going to take weeks of debugging for the others to straighten it out. In the meantime, I'm here to lock down your little pocket universe before it causes any more damage to the space-time continuum and ensure that you and everyone else has a pleasant time here." It was rather disturbing, actually, how that little girl was able to stress that one word so menacingly.
Skuld suddenly went on, "Oh, and by the way, you may want to let Benjamin and Jacob in here. This concerns the both of them as well, since they certainly won't be able to lead normal lives for the time being."
Washu sighed. After a brief glance at the status display in her workstation she saw that pocket universe that her lab occupied was indeed in a state of flux and would not be going anywhere in the Multiverse until things normalized.
##
It had only taken Ben a few minutes with his electric disk grinder to cut away what was left of the security cage of the soda machine and Jacob just as long to clear the bits away as there were cut free.
Once that was out of the way, Ben set his tool, gloves, and safety glasses aside, and then knocked on the door.
"No one ever gets in here without knocking first," explained Ben. "Part of her security system."
Jacob nodded as they waited for a moment.
The moment came and went. "Now I know she knows I'm here," grumbled Ben as he knocked again.
This time, the door opened and a young girl stuck her head out, her hair a florid magenta and styled to resemble a crab perched on top of her head.
Either that hair is fake or... Fuck, Jacob thought as the girl stood guardedly behind the door.
"Well," said Ben at length. "This is a kick in the pants."
Washu stayed quiet for the moment, giving the two brothers the evil eye.
Ben sighed. "Washu-chan, I presume?"
Washu blinked. Few people, even those that knew of her reputation, ever called her by 'Washu-chan' upon first meeting her face-to-face. But even so, her expression only softened marginally.
"Who wants to know?"
"Benjamin Michael Rhodes. Manager of this..." At this, he looked around with a sneer on his face. "...fine establishment."
"I see," said the mad genius. "And what business do you have with us?"
"You're on the premises?" Jacob deadpanned, his face carefully blank.
Ben scoffed. "That, and if what I've heard so far is correct, you folks are my new tenants."
"Okay, so how do you know my name?" asked Washu a bit suspiciously.
"Oh will you get on with it!" snapped another voice from inside as Washu was suddenly shoved out the door, followed quickly by another girl.
She wearing a pink jacket that was like some cutesy child-version of a motorcycle jacket with red lining and trim, only long - making it look like it had an asymmetrical waterfall skirt. And because she was a proper little girl, she also had a pink pencil skirt underneath that. She had the most gorgeous and luxurious raven-black hair, and her perfect little face had three triangular markings - one on her forehead and the others at the peaks of her cheek bones.
"Hey!" snapped Washu sharply as Ben stumbled backwards to avoid accidentally glomping the tiny genius.
"You can't play dumb anymore," the girl snapped back. "He knows who you are and he knows who I am, too!"
"Awww shit," grumbled Ben.
"Fuck.." Jacob mutter at the same time.
"Hey!" barked Skuld, looking steamed. "Language!"
Jacob gave her a flat look, "Riiight and I'm to stay calm when I find out that I'm going to be playing host to a goddess and who knows what else? One that I know is fictional?"
Ben forestalled any further arguing by putting a hand on his brother's shoulder, causing the younger sibling to glare at him.
"Jacob," said Ben, ignoring the glare. "Take my wallet, go to the convenience store, and get some bottled waters. Ten should be enough for now." He then took out said wallet and offered it to his brother. "Go ahead and get something for yourself, too."
Jacob took the wallet from his brother's hand and quietly walked to the closest exit.
Once he was out of earshot, Ben slowly turned to the dark-haired girl.
"Yes. I know who you are. You're Skuld. But you hardly know us. He's the youngest in our family and has not had anywhere nearly the practice I've had at cultivating patience. I suggest you not wear on his, because I hate having to deal with him when he's upset. Do we have an understanding?"
"Fine," huffed Skuld. "But please don't curse. My sisters and I really don't like it."
"I'll try, but just bear in mind that I am a sailor, and my mother was a sailor's daughter."
"So, am I just chopped liver or something?" said Washu suddenly.
"Sorry Washu-chan," said Ben, a bit sheepishly. "Look, things are in a bad way. It's pretty self evident. Would you mind if we stepped inside your lab and get things straightened out? Probably a lot nicer in there than it is out here."
"Yeah," agreed Washu. "I think my air conditioning is a lot better than this."
I looked around and then noticed that someone else was conspicuously absent.
"Say, did anyone see where Sebastian went?" I asked.
"Who?" asked Washu.
"Tall guy, a young kinda ghoulish fellow, dressed up as a butler?"
"Ugh, HIM!?" said Skuld. "That guy was here!?"
"Er, yes. Showed up to personally oversee this situation. The place wasn't supposed to be a demilitarized zone when Mr. Phantomhive bought the place. Is this a... problem?"
"uuuhhhhg, just forget about it! The less I think of him the better I'll be."
##
Once Jacob returned, the four went inside Washu's lab and began to make sure that all the others were arranged more comfortably into beds that Washu provided.
"There!" said Washu once the last of them, Mihoshi, was tucked in. "I've gone ahead and made sure that they'll sleep through the night. So, what happens next?"
As she was speaking, Washu summoned up a table and chairs for us to sit down at.
"Well," Ben began as he gratefully took as seat. "Mr. Phantomhive already relayed to me through Sebastian that he'll be making arrangements. What sort of arrangements, I don't know. But he strikes me as the type of person who's got that 'Whim of Steel'. Not the sort of person you mess around with."
"You're right, he isn't," said Skuld sullenly. "Phantomhive used to be human, but he sold his soul to hell for vengeance. Hild took an interest in him and sent one of her best agents, Sebastian. He liked that kid so much that he presented Hild with the idea of adopting him as a Demonic Prince and she went for it.
"Don't get me wrong, he's an excellent manager and he's probably perfect for this job, but he's as nasty as they come. He gets things done exactly because of that fact - if they aren't going his way, he's more than happy to show the people standing in his way the error of their ways. And we really can't do much about it anyhow because most of the people he deals with have it coming anyhow."
"Yeesh," said Ben. "I knew the kid was in a bad way... Well, whatever. For now, he's my boss and he says to run this place and keep the tenants in line, then that's what we'll do."
"And how exactly are we expected to keep them in line?" Jacob asked.
"I was wondering about that myself," said Skuld. "I mean, no offense, you guys are just baseline humans."
"None taken." Jacob said quietly.
"Well, you guys do seem to know us," said Washu thoughtfully. "In fact, you even called me Washu-chan. How do you know that?"
Ben shrugged and decided to go all the way on this. "Well, there was an OVA in Japan that was popular enough to make it to the USA call Tenchi Muyo. I think you can imagine what it's about."
"Wait, so you mean my theories on Transfictionality were true!?" said the mad genius excitedly.
Ben gallic shrug and Washu cackled gleefully.
"YES! I KNEW IT WASN'T HARD FOR THE MULTIVESES'S GREATEST GENIUS!"
Skuld gave Washu a flat glare. "Completely crashed the Yggdrasil."
If Washu's ego had been a balloon, Skuld was a tack that put a neat hole in it, causing Washu's ego to whine pitifully as it suddenly deflated.
Ben decided to deflect things.
"Okay, question: If Noike is here, then did the Chobimaru Incident already happen?"
"Yep, sure did!" answered Washu cheerfully. And then she blinked for a moment and got a far-away look on her face. She suddenly turned to Skuld and asked, slowly, "What did you do?"
"Please don't be angry!" said Skuld in a sudden panic. "It was Father's orders! We had to lock down your higher capabilities to make sure nothing really bad happened! Without it you could destroy the whole planet if you accidentally sneezed."
"I was doing just fine before without your limiters, thank you very much!" snapped Washu.
Ben just rolled his eyes and said, "Washu's Pore."
If Washu's ego had been a balloon, Benjamin was a tack that put a neat hole in it, causing Washu's ego to whine pitifully as it suddenly deflated even more.
"Look, you're not the only one," said Skuld placatingly. "As much as I hated it, I had to do the same thing with Sasami and Tenchi, too. Though I still don't know how you guys are gonna keep the likes of Ryoko in line."
Ben sighed. "I'll think of something. Everyone around here has their buttons. Myself included. I'll just have to figure out what to say or do to get Ryoko to settle down."
"Or rather, Washu will cook something up, right?" Jacob quipped.
"That's Washu-CHAN, buster!" Suddenly, Washu got all weepy eyed as she went on, "And besides, do you think I'd really do something so horrible to my very own daughter?" You could practically smell the ham coming off of her.
"I'm not expecting you to lock her up or anything, just to make sure we don't go splat!" Jacob retorted, resisting Washu's over-done expression.
Ben rolled his eyes and just slumped over the table. "Honestly, I don't think we're gonna have too much trouble. Can we just chill, please? I'm not looking forward to pitching a tent tonight."
Jacob groaned and thumped his head on the table.
Washu sighed. "Drama queens. Look, I'll set you guys up, but just for tonight."
"Thanks, Washu-chan," said Ben from his place on the table, giving a thumbs up.
Skuld sighed. "Well, I don't think I'm really needed here anymore. You guys gonna be good without me?"
"Nah," said Ben. "You're good. You gonna be back later?"
"I don't know. This situation is pretty big, and your complex is just the first one to be setup. We got others going live over the next week, and because of what happened here we're going to be double-checking all the properties to make sure everything is as it should be. Fixer-uppers are okay, but not dumps like this!"