2024-12-09 - The Best Way to Make New Friends

The only thing Ari is thinking about as he stands at the elevator bank is the leftovers waiting for him in the fridge, four storeys above. Lunch seems like a distant memory, and the latte he had at the bookstore just doesn't count, okay? He's hungry.

He adjusts the stack of D&D books in his arms, wishing he had a bag for lugging stuff around. As he waits, he fishes his phone from one of the pockets of his blue-grey coveralls, which he's only half-wearing, the sleeves wrapped around his middle like a belt. His Spellbound Orientation (Holidays 2024!) shirt marks him as a recent addition to the park, and he frowns down at something on the screen.

A quick text to the Warner siblings group chat, and then the elevator dings. Of course it's the one behind him, so he takes a moment to turn and find the open doors, gratefully slumping against the wall once he's inside and has hit the button for the fourth floor.

Jett was coming in off the basketball courts; ball tucked under an arm pit and other hand holding a water bottle that he was actively drinking from. He was in Bermuda black shorts, with some chains hanging from a belt that kept up the shorts, skater shoes, and a black tank top. His accessories were limited probably because of the basketball to his piercings on lip, nose, and ears. His hair was half-up half-down with the short rat tail pig tail behind him. It looked like he got a good work out in since his hair was damp around the fringes of his face and wet clung there.

He briefly eyed Ari but it seemed one of those fleeting moments where you check out what kind of NPC was in your space before ignoring them completely. There were a lot of employees on the island and plenty that had apartments in Fox Run; he wasn't going to meet them all. Still he might have noticed the frown but he's not surprised that Ari is consumed by a phone; Jett is the odd man out in the world of the phone zombies.

Since Jett was looking up he saw which elevator was coming down first and moved in that location, so he was first on when the doors slid open after people flowed out of it. He quickly smacked his number, 3, which he totally could have taken the stairs but, whatever. He side steps and stands sort of to his corner. Ari might notice the bit of 'BO' wafting over from the corner despite the deodorant sometimes BO is just going to BO in tight spaces.

With all the social awkwardness of the introvert he truly is, Ari follows Jett in and then takes up his own corner, pressing himself into it. One hand grips the convenient railing at hip height while his other arm remains occupied with something like half of his total book collection. Yes, half of his books are D&D-related in some fashion.

He might as well be an NPC for how plain he seems in comparison to Jett, given he's still in his work uniform and is otherwise totally without accessories. Not even a watch. He even wears basically the same thing every day! His phone ends up pocketed again, and he lets out a quiet sigh, rolling his neck to free some of the tension from it.

The doors close, and the elevator begins to move. Overhead, the floor indicator moves from 1 to 2... and then the entire lift gives a big lurch, coming to a stop. Seconds pass, and the door doesn't open.

Ari eyes it with a growing sense of dismay. He waits for a beat, and then a beat more, as if hoping that he's just entered some kind of time dilation event, and things will return to normal shortly. But it doesn't, and he lets his head tip back to thunk against the wall. "You've gotta be kidding me," he mutters.

Jett might be side eyeing Ari a little bit because Jett is not someone who will literally ignore his surroundings completely; in fact it's the opposite. He has to take stalk of what's going on around him to feel a sense of security. So, he does clock the D&D text book collection which seems to put him in a vastly different category from Jett. There Jett is, with a basketball and sweating from a sports related activity versus the make believe games that come out of D&D. He's totally trying to catch a glimpse of what's on the covers if he can see any though.

Soon as Ari puts the phone away Jett makes a decision to glance away as he waits for the elevator to close and get them up to their floors. His black polished fingers tap on the basketball as he waits for it to go up, watching the number naturally as most people do. He might be the NPC to Ari's world for all that he's not really said much. It's awkward to say things in an elevator; social moments that make people do weird things - like steadfast determination to completely ignore the other people.

Then the lurch.

"Woah," Jett narrows his brows as he realizes the elevator has come to a stop, he steps toward the button tree and punches the numbers to see if anything gets it working again. He glances back toward Ari and then toward the buttons, "Shit..." he mutters. At least there's an emergency button, which he also presses. Nothing happens.

He takes a step back from the button tree and tries to wait patiently for the elevator to just go back to life. It doesn't. "Someone will notice it's stuck.." he decides to say, more to himself then the other guy riding it with him.

The top book in Ari's arm is the Player's Handbook. 2014 edition, so it has a big scary giant on it being fought by a party of adventurers. It's the only one really visible, given the way he's holding it, but they're all clearly from D&D, that much is obvious from their spines.

When the elevator comes to a stop and Jett takes the initiative to start pushing buttons, Ari watches with a building pit of anxiety in his stomach. Or maybe that's just the hunger pangs. His stomach growls, so... yep, probably that second one. Either way he sighs and pulls out his phone, sending another text.

"Does Spellbound have its own firefighter unit or are we gonna have to wait until someone ferries over from the mainland?" he asks, despite being fully aware he should know this, having gone through orientation very recently. The corners of his mouth turn downwards as he grimaces, shoulders hunching as he stares at his phone.

After a perilous moment of inaction, he types something else out and hits send. "I let my brothers know. They, uh, are hopefully upstairs right now?"

Ari looks over at Jett and then his weight shifts from one foot to the next, before he just... slumps against the wall. Slumps all the way down to the floor, in fact, where he sits cross-legged, books in his lap. "Guess we just have to wait," he says, though his voice lifts at the end to make it sound more like a question than a statement.

Jett puts his elbows up against the railing in the elevator and lets his head slump down, resigned to his fate with an exhaled sigh that comes out of his nostrils rather than his mouth.

The question has him shrug, "Probably got some people on the island that can fix an elevator..." He squints, "Lady Sparks... her name is Kennedy, she does things with electronics. But firefighters? Eh. I don't know any off the top of my head. You could dial and find out." He looks to Ari with the phone, "You have our only access to the outside world right now." He steps forward after a moment, pushing off, to punch the help button again. Nothing.

Grunt.

He steps back and drops the ball at his feet, "Fucccck." And down he goes as well, squatting and using the ball as a seat for now while his hands are strung through his hair. His head hangs and his arms go out before him, clasped together, as he mutters, "What are you brothers going to do? One of them an elevator mechanic?"

The idea of waiting is not lost on him and he frowns at the floor, "I had shit to do..." he notes with an ill humored tone. He slowly looks over to Ari for a moment, and it clues in, "Hey... weren't you in that... coffee shop the other day?"

Ari blinks at the mention of the coffee shop, eyes narrowing behind his glasses, and then he says, "Oh! I was behind you in line, wasn't I?"

And then he opens up the phone app, but doesn't dial right away. Instead he swipes back to his family group text and frowns at it, contemplating his answer to Jett's previous question. "Well, Reggie probably knows the non-emergency number...."

But he realizes, after a second or two, that this is an emergency. They're trapped! So he dials in 911 and puts the phone to his ear.

The conversation goes like this:

"Hi, we're stuck in an elevator."

...

"Oh, right. Um. The Fox Run apartments, on Crescent Island? Elevator, uh," he looks over at the control panel, "Three."

...

"Yes. There's two of us."

...

"Arizona Warner, and," then he turns the phone half away, "Sorry, what's your name?" He points to his phone as if to indicate the person on the other end of the line wants to know, which was probably already obvious from context clues.

"Yeah I think so..." Jett was trying to place where Ari was between the twins and all the other goings on.

He considers what Ari's brother Reggie can do and he nods at the idea that the non-emergency number can be called. They weren't dying exactly so Jett doesn't contest it. He rolls his butt on the ball he's sitting on, sort of sitting there with his arms out, elbows on his knees, hands clasped and staring at the number tree on the elevator.

He does turn an ear when Ari starts talking to dispatch though. The ask for a name has him add, "Jett Onaway." He shifts a little closer so he could hear dispatches voice coming through the cellphone.

The name Jett provides is repeated, and then there's not too much more of a conversation to listen in on, but the dispatcher says something about help being on the way and an ETA of no more than fifteen minutes before the call disconnects.

Which leaves Ari staring at his phone, having pulled it away from his face. "I always thought they stayed on the line with you," he says, brow furrowing. But then he laughs. "Maybe that's just for real emergencies, though."

So, fifteen minutes. Ari leans back against the wall, staring upwards at nothing in particular for the space of a few heartbeats. But then the urge to fill the silence rears its ugly head, so his chin lowers, looking across the small space at Jett. "So, uh..."

Floundering, he casts about for any kind of topic. "What do you do at Spellbound? I work at the Lamplight Amphitheatre, doing set builds."

Jett looks just as surprised as Ari for the call disconnecting, "Maybe that's if you're being brutally murdered they have to stay on to witness your screams." Imagine Ari's luck that he's trapped with someone on the elevator that thinks like that. The goth look is kind of imposing and yet it doesn't fit with the vibe he had the other day at the coffee shop; somewhat pleasant to be around.

He does not fill the gap after that sentiment. It's like some ominous dark cloud between them until Ari pops that like a bubble and breaks the eerie silence of a non working elevator. The creeks and groans aren't lovely to hear, especially trapped in the said elevator.

Dark eyes look over toward Ari when he breaks that quiet. The floundering has the corner of Jett's lips tweak up, "Game operator. It's a good gig; public facing though. You have to know how to schmooze people. It's a challenge but a good one. Tips are good too." He rocks back on the ball he's using for a seat, "Lamplight? Oh right, the very same one your brother made fun for me about mixing up with lighthouse." He chortles, then says sarcastically, "Your brother sounds like a fun guy." He notes, "Have you met Theo? He's my roommate. He works at Lamplight as a performer."

The phone goes on top of the stack of books now in Ari's lap, and now that he's chosen not to give it any more attention (at least until someone in the family group chat texts him back that they're coming to save him) he has no choice but to fully engage with the conversation. Which is kind of on purpose; phones can be a crutch, he's well aware.

"That sounds like a difficult job," he says, because to him it definitely would be. Some people are naturally outgoing and he is most certainly not amongst that number. As he reaches up to adjust his glasses, he adds, "But I bet if you like meeting new people it's a great way to do that."

His fingers press against the thin frames of his glasses, pushing them back up his nose slightly. Then he grabs hold of his opposite wrist, and tries to just... sit casually, without fidgeting. It looks like it requires effort, and his gaze pingpongs from Jett to the button panel and then back to Jett again.

Is he feeling the pressure of being trapped? Or is this normal anxiety? Even Ari himself has no idea.

The mention of Lamplight being Lighthouse only makes Ari blink, because he totally missed that, but he tips his head in mute acknowledgment. There's a beat of silence that follows, before he eventually decides on, "It depends on the brother," since he has no idea who made the comment. Thankfully there's something else to latch onto, as recognition immediately lights up his expression at the name Theo. "Yeah, we met after hours one night briefly. I still need to stop by and watch his performance, but things have been busy. It's on my ever-growing Spellbound to-do list."

"Yeah probably," Jett says to how difficult the job must be to listen to something like that, "but you must get numb of it all at some point. Same stupid assed people knocking each other out of this world eh? Accident or intentional." He's a cynical one. As for meeting new people Jett glances over to Ari, "I don't know about that. Probably half the people that use those service are cracked out of their minds and aren't nice people..." like he might have some experience, "and I figure if you were a good person all that bad shit would make you kind of a shitty person after a while. I saw it with the social workers; after a while you could tell they hated life."

Jett may notice the fidgeting but he's prone to do it himself, through rolling back and forth on the ball and the odd touch to one of his piercings.

Jett doesn't remark further on the brothers and instead nods at Ari meeting Theo, "I think he'd like to know more people in his area you know?" He nods at the meeting briefly, "Seems to be the way of the park. Sometimes you get a longer interaction with another employee and sometimes you see a person once and never again." He considers Ari, "Yeah I had one of those in the beginning. There's a few places off limits to me still," he shrugs, "My fav ride is the gryphon coaster. Have you gotten to go on any yet?"

The cynical standpoint doesn't seem to catch Ari off-guard, or unawares. To a degree he sympathizes; if their positions were reversed, he can certainly see himself feeling similarly. So he just nods, and agrees with a quiet, "Yeah, probably." The corners of his mouth twitch downwards, but his expression smooths out, and he fiddles with one of the snap-closures for a pocket on his coveralls.

For a couple of seconds, at least. Until he realizes the repeated pop-snap is probably going to be grating on some nerves shortly, so he abandons it and goes back to forcibly holding his hands in his lap again.

"That makes sense. A lot of the productions, it seems like the cast gets really close-knit," he can definitely speak from experience on that one, "So it must be difficult to get to know people when you run your own show. But if he's your roommate then that means we're neighbors here, I guess? So we're all bound to meet each other again."

When he's asked after the rides, Ari shakes his head. "Not yet." For a moment he fails to come up with an excuse, because frankly he's just too tired after work to even think about going into the park for other stuff. At least when it relies on his own motivation and no one else to get him out. So he just says, "It's on my list too," with a laugh. "Mostly the stuff on the Boo'edwalk, though. Halloween is my favorite holiday." That makes sense in his head, at least.

Jett recognizes the awkwardness is growing with the quiet answers and his own cynical moment. The pop-snap fiddling going on over there by Ari is at least in some manner of distraction as he regards the panel of buttons again.

It's against the pop-snap of the coveralls that there's a mechanical groan that is troubling to hear. Are they going to fall? Is something trying to reboot? Are the wires starting to fray like that one movie?! Speed?!

Jett stands up at the mechanical sound and steps toward the doors, his fingers wedging in the doors and trying to see if he can push them open. No deal though. He takes a step back with an exhaled breath as if he has been trying to keep his panic down this whole time. The cool facade is starting to break. He nervously rakes his hand through his hair and looks back over at Ari, "Yeah some of those close-knit groups are hard for others to break into. Leaves you with less options I guess and less new experiences." He nods, "Yeah he is. We're at suite 300 if you ever want to pop by."

"It's a blast, really! The best one in the park, but then I'm biased. I've been on it like a dozen times," Jett decides to go back to his ball and put his foot on the top of it to keep it from rolling as he leans up against the elevator wall, "You have a growing list. There's a bunch of us that hang out if you ever need someone to cruise the park with."

Then as the elevator creeks again, Jett asks, "Any word on the rescue party?" He's not tensing his shoulders, not at all.

The mechanical noise has Ari tipping his head up, squinting at the ceiling, but unlike Jett he doesn't seem to be too bothered. So unbothered, in fact, that he feels comfortable saying, "Don't worry. Elevators are very safe, almost all of the accidents that happen come from people trying to crawl through the doors without the proper precautions, or falling in the elevator shaft without the actual elevator being there."

He doesn't move to check the door or the button panel, but he does eye the emergency button for a moment, wondering after what could have happened. Then he stretches out his legs, trying to arrange them so that they're not in Jett's way.

"We're in 403, same goes to you if you ever want to visit." Hopefully his brothers don't mind him making that offer! Though they'd probably just be surprised that Ari did so in the first place. "It'd be nice to have people to go do things with. Though I bet as a single rider it's easier to get on the rides."

And then Jett asks after the rescue party, so Ari checks his phone. Aside for some notifications for apps he should really delete, he has nothing, so he shakes his head. "I'm sure they're on their way, though!" he offers.

The facts about accidents with elevators has Jett jerking back from the doors that he had been prying at; eyeing them suspiciously now as if they'd open up and toss him down the shaft. "Good to know," Jett mutters with some appreciation behind his tone, weary appreciation.

"Yeah I'm up on 4 a bunch so it's likely I could drop in," he does crack a little smirk, "If I did drop in what'd we do? Do you got video games or do you play ball?" he pushes the basketball around with his foot to indicate he was just out doing as much. As for a single rider he rolls his eyes a little, "Oh yeah I mean, you could probably do rides quickly being a single but I mean.. it's better when you can experience it with another person. Unless you're like me and pass out on Alpine Escape..." He groans, "I fucking hate that one and yet I will keep going on it..."

As for the rescue party, he nods, "It could be a while I guess." He looks over to Ari, "Do you have any snacks on you? I only got half a bottle of water left." He's totally taking stock of their food and water rations in case they get stuck all night or something.

Jett's reaction to the news about the doors makes Ari wince in sympathy, considering that he was maybe a little ill-timed with his attempt to be comforting. No surprise there, he's terrible at it. So he just nods and zips his lips against sharing any more niche engineering knowledge he has that relates to their specific situation at the moment.

Thankfully there are other things to talk about. "Uh, I don't really do sports, but... do you like board games? Or, uh, D&D?" His eyes lift skyward, the elevator's lights reflecting off the lenses of his glasses as he stares up at the ceiling with self-conscious unease. He sounds like such a nerd.

Which, you know... is true. He's definitely a nerd.

As evidenced by the contents of his pockets, from which he produces: a set of dark-tinted acrylic dice, a small notebook and mechanical pencil, a multitool, his keys on a keychain featuring a little LEGO man that is definitely meant to be Ari himself in miniature, and a copy of a woodworker's pocket reference. "Wait, where's my wallet?" he mutters, but eventually he finds that too, in another pocket. And no snacks, which is what prompted him to take inventory in the first place. "Sorry."

Jett tilts his head at 'Board games' which respectfully he doesn't answer immediately. It's the D&D part that has him squat back down using the ball once more as an impromptu chair, "Is that what that is?" He points to the book that had been on the top of the pile, "What is it? And is it hard to learn?" It's very unlikely that in any other scenario he'd be talking about D&D with someone but here they are! "I mean, you could show me and I could see if I like it? I'm open to new things," he says with some levity.

He regards the contents of Ari's pockets coming out, amused about the LEGO man but waits patiently while Ari checks his pockets for a snack. "Damn," he hangs his head dramatically as he then lets the ball roll out from underneath him and thuds onto the floor of the elevator. It could be a while!

Tapping the book stack, Ari nods. "Yeah. It's... sort of like, collaborative storytelling with a set of rules that helps you make decisions on what things happen. Have you ever heard of choose your own adventure books?" For some reason he winces right after asking that. "Totally fine if you haven't. But um, there's a DM -- a Dungeon Master -- who guides you through the story and you decide what your character, that you make up, does in the situations that the DM gives you."

As he stores everything back into his pockets, he cracks a grin at Jett's dramatics over the food situation. "I know, I'm starving after my shift. And I have a big plate of spaghetti and meatballs waiting for me upstairs." Ari's head thunks back against the wall of the elevator, and he tries not to clench his arms around his midsection, which chooses this precise moment to let out a growl.

"Anyway, uh, I'd be down to teach you if you want to learn how to play. My friend Nasrin said she'd DM."

Jett seems relatively interested in this collaborative storytelling game and gives Ari a little shake of his head for the adventure books mentioned, "I totally suck at reading." This is Ari's warning that if there's a lot of reading required Jett will struggle bus his way through it. "A dungeon master," Jett repeats with his expression turning impish - yeah that probably doesn't sit in his brain the way it's intended to sit in regards to D&D. He does try to reel his focus back in after letting that amusement sit on his expression, immaturely, "That doesn't sound too bad."

He makes a hungry growl at the mention of spaghetti and meatballs, "Oh fuck that sounds aammmmazing. Now I totally want that..." His arms do a little wrap around his stomach as he sits forward. They're like what twenty minutes into a survival situation and already drooling about food? They'd never survive in the wild.

The game talk diverts his food dreams, "Yeah. That'd be cool. I'm in. How many people are in the game?"

Oh, despite having the multitool in his pocket, Ari would immediately give up in a survival situation. Totally true. He nods as Jett shares his reading trouble, and says, "Once you make your character there doesn't have to be a lot of reading at all, and I can definitely help you make your character. We just have to figure out what kinds of things you'd like to do, y'know, like... physical versus magical combat, and then short range or long range, or if you want to be a healer or support...." He trails off and frowns, turning his head.

"Do you hear that?" he asks. After a moment, nothing seems to happen, so he shrugs. "Anyway, we have 2 players plus the DM right now so we could definitely use more."

Then the noise he heard comes again, and it sounds like knocking. Ari looks over at Jett, eyes widening, and then he sets his books aside so he can stand up and knock on the elevator's doors in reply.

Someone yells something on the other side, muffled, and Ari answers back with, "Uh, hello! We're in here!"

"Alright," Jett says with a grin, "It sounds like it could be a bit of fun. I know a few people I could ask around if any of them want in. Is there a limit of how many can be in a game?" He has no idea how these things run! As for the combat factor he chuckles, "If it's anything like some of the video games I've played, I'm always the rogue." Are we surprised? ARE WE? Then he tilts his head, "Or the necromancer." Even better and that's touching more on realism than otherwise.

Then Jett stops to listen at Ari's ask, pushing up onto his feet as he looks around the elevator as if the metal walls would tell him something he could not see. They don't. He nods at Ari's mention of two players, "I'd be a third?"

The knock is heard this time and he goes toward the door and gives a few bangs of his hand on it, "YO! We're in here!" He grins and seems relieved, "Hah. Looks like we won't miss dinner."

"Oh, uh, probably good to cap it around five or six to start with?" Ari frowns thoughtfully at that, not actually sure what the answer should be given it's not him that's gonna be DMing. But that seems a safe answer, and he'll run it by Nasrin later. Mental note made. "Rogue and necromancer are both classes in D&D, so that could totally work!"

What follows next is some very stilted conversation between two groups of people who clearly can't really hear each other, so there's a lot of back and forth, but eventually the idea of them moving away from the door is communicated across and Ari dutifully steps back, pressing himself against the wall opposite.

And thus, they are freed. The doors are pried open to reveal half of the floor below them, and several firefighters clustered around waiting to help them out. Even if Ari is terrified about climbing down he still does it with a brave face on for Jett's benefit, taking the offered hand of one of their rescuers to help in the downward drop.

Jett nods, "So it's half way full already." He thinks, "If anyone is into it I'll let you know." As for the classes existing in D&D Jett grins, "Oh. Maybe I kind of know a little bit how to play then!" Much can be gleaned from video games but the actual D&D model will still have to be learned!

But of course the next little while is sorted on trying to get out and working with the rescue team to get out. He does gesture for Ari to leave fist and follows kind handing out his basketball before he takes the offered hand when it's his turn... and looking back behind him to see the drop down the elevator shaft that Ari had talked about previously. He all but cat clings to the rescuers after seeing that!

Grateful to be out of that situation he waves to Ari as the rescuers do their thing in making sure both are not injured in any way and taking their information down.

They're saved. Nobody starved to death, and the firefighters don't even give them crap about being terrified of making the jump down. All in all, it definitely could've been worse.

Ari waves back at Jett as they part to give their info and follow whatever procedures needed before they're released, but then they are free to go.

And Ari finally gets his spaghetti and meatballs.