2021-06-09 - Doomsday Prepping

With the incoming storm, they haven't had proper time to find a better place to stay during their time in Gray Harbor. Thus, Caed and Ellery are preparing to hole up at the Murder Motel to ride out the inclement weather. This means they need supplies, but unfortunately at least one of them didn't plan on the fact that dozens of other citizens have the same idea.

"If this breaks out into pandemonium, you muscle your way in get the bottled water, and I'll be doing me best on batteries."

Dozens of other citizens who have fridges and chest freezers. They've got a motel room with one of those tiny bar freezers only good for a couple of bottles of wine, some beer and some milk for coffee. Which is why Ellery's got one of those styrofoam coolers in the cart. "Let's not forget ice, or we're gonna be hooped."

No one tell him people don't say 'hooped' anymore.

"I think we should lean towards the stuff that won't spoil if the power goes off. Oooh, shit. We're gonna need a can opener." He looks at the tins of stuff already in the cart.

"You know it's a good thing we both have the smarts to rely on context clues, otherwise we'd never understand each other. Hooped. To be out of luck." This made as a notation in Caed's notebook, which just happens to be in the margins of the shopping list he slap dashed together. "We need to get real food too, not just crisps. According to The Google, we should fill the sink with ice and the tub with water." He flicks a glance up at Ellery, a sliver of a smile there.

"We better hope that this thing doesn't last more than a couple days, or we're gonna have to choose between drinking water and smelling good. Though I think the bathtub thing is just for if your toilet won't flush with no electricity." Ellery ponders and looks around, leaning on the arms of the cart. "What about fruit that doesn't need to go in the fridge? It's not like we can do more'n boil water unless we wanna splurge on a crock pot or a hot plate."

"Wipes. For personal hygiene." Caed comments airily as he flips through pages to check an entry, "And the water for flushing is in case the utility pumps go out, aye. How can we use a crock if there's no ESB?" The Irishman grabs the end of the buggy to steer them towards produce. "Bananas, oranges, strawberries." A bit of guilty blush. "Apples."

"Peaches," adds Ellery. "Carrots. Uh...I dunno, man. When I was in the field overseas, we ate field rations. And I doubt this small town Safeway stocks MREs." He exhales. "Man. If we just had a damned barbecue, we'd be set. Well, a barbecue and a patio with..." he motions over his head, "...an overhang."

"Alright, let's both agree that we're bollox at prepping, grab a box of crackers and hope for the best. Oi, look at this garish monstrosity." Caed picks up a glass canister candle with a Virgin Mary wrapper. But in it goes to the buggy. "Tell me this is just a coincidence, right? Our arrival and the storm of the century."

"If you buy into the supernatural," Ellery shrugs, "...it gets harder to believe in coincidence. Ah, yesss..." he grabs for a small tabletop lantern that got shoved behind something else. "Score. Now you won't have to look at me by religion candelight alone." He looks at the cart, looks at Caed and shrugs. "I don't wanna blow the budget here, but we really don't know what we need and we're limited by what we can store and prepare."

"And if one were to believe in religion, there's such a thing as Hubris. Batteries not included." Caed reads off the tag. "Best be getting ready for a fist fight over a pack of C's. The truth of the matter is, it's only money, and what good is a vow of poverty if you intend to horde it. So let's splurge on an extra can of vegetables if it keeps us from going all Footie team stuck in the Alps, yeah?"

"There's miles of difference between hording and saving, m'friend," says Ellery. He reaches for a pack of cookies. He's going for the no-name Oreos, but then goes to the actual cookies. He holds them up, waggles them, "Big money," and then drops them in the cart.

"And steeped in nutrition." Caed says blandly as he reaches for the bottom shelf, where the bulk items are kept, grabbing a bag of mostly crushed vanilla wafer cookies. "You know we never did have our talk." He mumbles as he looks to the package under the ruse of reading the label.

"Our talk?" Ellery picks up a pack of individual applesauces, frowns at them, then sticks them back on the shelf. He peruses things, peeking through the picked-over cans and behind boxes just in case there are other hidden gems. "I was gonna say instant noodles, but that does us no good if we don't have hot water. Ooh, I wonder if we can get one of those thermoses that keeps water hot for days?"

There is a tight smile from Caed, "Never mind, wasn't important." Figuring Ellery is was too blitzed out to remember, he doesn't press it, only tosses the cookies back to the lower shelf among the others. "Bread and spread? I think it's one aisle over."

"Remind me," says Ellery as he pushes the cart towards the other aisle. "I mean, shit man, we have a lot of things we haven't talked about. This storm thing sorta put some of the catching up on hold. Oh, shit." Then he's abandoning the cart to grab one of the last loaves of bread on the shelves. Everything else is horribly picked over. "I hope you're into...seven grain with flaxseed."

Caed's hand folds on top of the loaf of bread, staying Ellery's shopping for a moment but the pause isn't from a disagreement about their daily fiber. "The bit about my prior profession." Then his hand slips away from the find, gesturing for it to be added to their loot.

"Ah, that. Yeah," Ellery chuckles and settles the bread in a place it won't get crushed. "It doesn't bother me, if that's what you're worried about." He grabs a thing of strawberry jam and one of blueberry and holds them up questioningly towards Caed for him to pick. "But it obviously bothers you, or you woulda told me sooner."

Ellery chuckles, and the color creeps up along Caed's collar, "Aye. That." He says, frazzled enough to snatch the jaw of strawberry from the other man's fingers and sets it right on top of that carefully placed bread. "This isn't something a man finds pride in, Ellery."

"Oh, I dunno. There's something to be proud of when it comes to kicking orthodoxy in the teeth. But then, I'm a hardcore atheist, so I'm bound for hell anyway, right?" Ellery swivels the cart around and points it back towards the way he came. "Did it have something to do with claiming ghosts and the supernatural are real, and the church thinking that was all poppycock despite the fact that Catholicism is steeped in mysticism?"

"That's pretty much spot on. So I didn't leave the Church, Ellery. The Church is the one that gave me the heel. Excommunication is a point of shame I tend to leave out of casual conversation." Caed's hand now stops the cart with a firm grip on the handle. "So just tell me I didn't make right bags of things."

"Caed," says Ellery as he steps up to the former priest. He claps him on the shoulder. "You got kicked out of a club I'm not part of and wouldn't want to be a part of. And no offense to your former...employer? Calling? But there's a lotta hypocrisy within the Church. So you falling out in their eyes gives me more respect for you, not less."

Caed's hand shifts from buggy to Ellery's elbow, a slight squeeze of mute thanks. "Well then, we best be getting back before the rains kick up. After, o'course, we find the liquor."

"An Irishman with his priorities straight," says Ellery with a tongue-cluck and a head-nudge. "C'mon. Let's get the last few supplies and hope we don't need any of this."