2025-01-09 - Inventory and Protection

The holiday rush is over. Most of the public schools are back in action now. Coupled with a breezy forecast that drops the windchill to an unpleasant level outside of the park itself which, to those unfamiliar with the mystical qualities and 'warmth' of Spellbound, may keep some of the population away, making the park lighter population-wise than usual. Sure, management might not like that because it hurts the bottom line. But for the grunts? Well, it means for a quieter day. A day to maybe do a little bit of the work that always seems to get pushed to the backburner with priorities everywhere.

And today, that means that Zara and Michael are heading up the oh-so-important chore of inventorying security equipment. Aren't they just the luckiest? Some others have the joy of washing some of the ATVs that are used as quick response vehicles. A few are just as fortunate to have the task of cleaning the lenses and mirrors for the various cameras around the park. And many of those are exposed to the uncomfortable elements.

So while the task that falls to Zara and Michael might be the most tedious, at least they're warm? Zara has a clipboard on the table next to her and a stack of walkie talkie in various states of operation. Each one is turned one and checked with a test phrase to ensure that they're working. Only a couple are busted or need some more TLC than she's able to give and they're in another pile.

"How was your New Year celebration?" she asks and while it might have sounded uninterested, it's merely spoken in the way that coworkers do with each other while engaged in other tasks. Genuinely interested, but also distracted.

Michael has been counting backup vests and other light armor pieces and making notes of sizes and any damage or repairs that need to be done to them. The ones that need to be sent off for repair are in a pile while the others that are ready to go back on the shelves to be used are in another. He has his own clipboard in front of him and is making notes, one after the other.

Distractedly, he says, "Oh, it was alright. I didn't do anything. I watched the ball drop on the TV and then I went to bed." He'd even missed the park-wide light show that had happened after. He'd already been asleep.

"Lame," she offers with a half-smirk, still not fully focused. It's only offered thanks to time having been spent in the trenches together over the last few of months. "Surprised you made it to midnight though. Good for you." She thumbs another walkie that doesn't engage. And she can feel it, too. The mechanical switch beneath the rubber doesn't feel like it's being properly depressed. Into the 'repair by someone better than me' pile.

"Anything uh.." She cuts her gaze over to him and watches for a second. "..'change' with you when the year clicked over?" That flash of blue from her 'dream' and from the celebration is still fresh enough in her mind.

"I'm not that old," Michael mutters as he turns over another vest and checks it for holes and nicks or split seams. Then he plunks it down in the 'ok' pile and makes a note on the clipboard. "I can still make it to midnight most nights." Unless he has a particularly early shift. There's a glance up from where he's reaching for another vest and an arched brow. "Change? No. You mean like the folks who are getting fangs and scales and gills and things? Nothing. If anything's changed for me, I haven't noticed. You?"

Zara seems less than convinced, but playfully so, if mildly. "Hmm," she simply offers with a nod. That is part of the issue with their role, no doubt. Performers are only working in the hours when good citizens are up and functional. But security? Well, sometimes those graveyard shifts hit and there's not much to do about it.

She nods when he asks about the clarification. "Yeah, like that." She gets a little more serious. No change in Michael then. Alright. He turns the question on her and she shakes her head slowly. "Same, haven't noticed anything. Sure just opens the door for a hundred more questions, things like this, right?" And far more than the obvious of 'what' and 'why' this is all happening.

Zara wets his lips a bit and narrows her gaze as she stares at Michael for a long time. "You think the 'powers that be' are consider about outside...'intervention'? Nosy government organizations, that sort of thing?"

"Well, maybe it's like the magic itself. Some people don't get that right away either. Could be it's coming, could be it's not," Michael says pragmatically as he flips the vest in front of him and continues to survey it. Finding some holes, that one gets placed in the pile that needs repairs and more notes are made on the clipboard.

Both brows rise a little as Zara stares at him and then shrugs his shoulders, "I'm sure whoever runs the park is thinking about a lot of possibilities. That's what they get paid the big bucks to do. I get paid to ride around and make sure no one falls in a lake or tries to take home a capybara."

Zara glares and grumbles whenever he reduces their job to that trivial of a task, no matter how funny the image of it all might have been. "We do more than that. And we could do even more. I'm working on a plan to write to management about what sort of roles Security could oversee. Sure, they may have already thought of it. But in case they're new to this whole world...figured I better take the chance to let them know." Zara sighs softly and picks up her coffee to take a sip. "I think it here. Don't want anything to happen to it."

She works on the last of the radio devices and jots down a few notes and checks off another few boxes before counting several things out loud and beneath her breath. Tally marks are made at the bottom of the sheet.

"You're.. familiar with magical theme parks where people sprout horns and the guests get magical powers?" Michael asks when Zara lays forth her expertise on 'this whole world' that the management might be new to. "You hail from some other magical realm, Z?" He smile a little crookedly and finishes off the vests and begins to work through some hats and helmets and things. A new pile begins to form as he starts walking through them. "I know that we do more than that. I do work here, too. But I'm also not in a hurry to write to management and ask them to give me a whole new list of responsibilities. I feel like I'm pretty good at my job as it is. It's what I signed up for." He pauses, "Well, the mounted security part, not so much the magic part."

Zara stares at Michael with a deadpan expression that would have been convincing to give her a look of actual irritation, were it not for the slight curl at the corner of her lips to show her a little amused. "No, smartass." She gives him a faint, sassy shrug before turning back to her task on the task. "But I can see why you'd think that." That smile blooms a little more now.

"I'm just saying that this can't stay a secret for long. I know that there's some..weird checks to somehow ensure that it doesn't last long outside of the park but..." She shakes her head and gets a little pensive. "I'm just worried about the worst that could happen. Not from inside, but from outside."

Zara hasn't been here long, but she has started to feel valued and as if a home could be made here. That's something she values more than anything and a threat to that security? Well..

"I'll make sure in my pitch to let them know that Michael Dawson wants to only do mounted security and that's it. That he's unable or unwillingly to stretch and learn new things." Again, she cuts her eyes over and grins playfully. The walkies are finished up and she moves on to a much smaller pile of less-than-lethal defensive tools. Mainly, pepper spray.

Michael raises both brows and then chuckles, "Uh huh."

"Wasn't aware that it was a secret. It's kind of in the advertising. Even if people don't believe it," Michael says as he checks out the helmets. They're a quicker check. There's not as much to them. One, two, three, all get plopped on top of each other, straps secure, structural integrity good. "You think people are going to nuke us from orbit?" he asks. "Just to be sure?"

Then he snorts and says, "Not what I meant. I just don't know what more you want us to do. We're already doing patrols, mounted and on foot, have drone patrols, have surveillance all over the park... what more do you want us to do? Install some kind of aerial laser grid?"

Michael's laugh has the residual effect of keeping her smile in place for a bit. But talk goes serious again. At least, in her opinion.

"Yeah, and I still think that's a mistake." That's as much as she can offer, doesn't get into why or any specifics. There's a possibility that she doesn't even know why besides it just being a feeling. He jokes playfully and then gets a sharp side-eye from her. "No. Lunatic politicians have a monopoly on those kind of theories." She scoffs and shakes her head, but again, there's a thread of amusement in stoic features.

"There's keeping people and guests safe, and then there's keeping the park safe. The first is pretty easy. We do it all the time, everyday. And we do it well, yeah. I just..want us to be proactive and figure out what the hell is going on with all this..light stuff and not be too fucking stupid to think that these sort of abilities won't draw the attention of those that want to exploit it somehow."

It's all half-formed theory, but that doesn't mean it's totally crazy.

"Think it's a mistake to put it in the advertising that the place is magical? I mean, people have cell phones and social media. If they didn't, everyone else in the park would anyway. I'm guessing they just want to get ahead of the narrative, choose how to frame it and not make it look like some kind of big coverup. Because wouldn't that seem way more suspect?" Michael asks as he folds his arms on the table, abandoning any pretense that he's going through inventory at this point.

"Sure, I'm not saying that I don't think it's going to draw attention. It's been happening for over a year now. Pretty sure anyone who was going to notice already has. The question I guess is, what are they going to do about it? What have they done about it already? Less if they're going to notice. Pretty sure there are plenty of folks who want to exploit it," he muses. Then there's a slight shake of his head, "But how much can we do to stop it if they do? Let's say for example, the U.S. government decides to repossess the land and kick us all out so they can build a magical research lab on the space instead. Some kind of magical military. We're a private security team with some pistols and tasers. Are we going to take on a military force? This is why I hate conspiracy theorizing it just... it's exhausting, mentally."

Zara shakes her head. "I don't know." It's true, she doesn't. She has opinions on it and sometimes those opinions change. She may be headstrong, but she's not blinded and unable to alter her thoughts with new information. "Cellphone and social media? Shit, that's about as reliable as 'factual' as...well, social media." She laughs softly, devoid of humor and shrugs again. "I don't know how to go about it. I'm just worried. You're probably right a bit, though. Hiding it would be suspicious."

Zara wets her lips when it seems like Michael's already thought about this and doesn't seem to care quite like she does. Is she in the minority here? "Look, I don't know...but you have to admit that this is...unique. And when people in power find something unique, they do everything they fucking care to exploit it for their own gain." She gets a little irritated and points a finger to her friend and coworker.

"And that's not a fucking conspiracy theory, that's a goddamn fact of humanity. Do I have any idea what is coming? No. Not a fucking clue. But you'd have to be pretty goddamn blind to the way the world's functioning now to think that something's isn't going to change." Is she right? Probably. Is she over-exaggerating a little bit? Also probably. But that's a little bit of fear, talking. The fear of someone who hasn't had a 'home' in a very long time and worries about the threat to it.

Michael goes back to finishing up inventorying the equipment in front of him as he listens, one piece after another sorted into the appropriate piles and then settled away to be picked up by whoever is going to do the repairs while the others are returned to their shelves and drawers and cabinets. His clipboard gets a few more tick marks, a few more notes here and there as he does so, glancing up and over at Zara every so often. He's still listening even if he's working at the same time.

"It is unique," Michael agrees. Its hardly that he doesn't care. He just seems tired. "And yes, they do. And if you've got some sort of plan to get ready for it, write it up, send it to management, talk to the security higher ups. Seriously, I'm not saying you shouldn't. I'm just not up for speculating right now."

He sets the clipboard into the container of them on the wall after taking his signed sheet out. "I'm going to go drop this off. I'll catch you later."

There's a bit of agitation in the way she looks at him. It's not that they have to share the same opinion, but Michael doesn't seem to be as concerned as she is. There's still the possibility she's blowing it out of proportion, but that's tthe thing about emotions and gut instinct: try logicking that out.

"Alright.." She leaves the topic alone and finishes up the count on her desk and gives him a little nod. "See you in a bit." She still has a great deal more to inventory and a few rounds to make.

That'll teach her to express concerns at the wrong time. Zara watches as Michael leaves and silent curses to herself. She hoists a large, heavy plastic tote and lays the lid aside. Time to count the reflective raincoats in their various sizes. Yippeeee...She flips the page on her clipboard and gets to work.