Nightshift

[Grey]

OCTOBER 9TH 2016
A GAS'N'GULP IN THE NEVADA DESERT
11:47PM

You all carpool in Jerry's 1994 El Camino, parking out behind the station.

It's dark but the sky is clear, just a huge deep blue velvet blanket across the heavens, studded with stars. On the horizon to the south you can see the dim glow of Vegas' lights. Beyond a single streetlight either side of the forecourt the highway fades into darkness and the desert spreads around you forever.

The station has a couple of small sheds out back, with the emergency generator, some tools, that kind of thing. Surrounded by chainlink.
Bathrooms are on the south side. Inside is the main room full of shelves and fridges and shit, with a storage room and loading area on the east side. Staff room and employee bathroom are behind the counter on the south wall. Pete has a little security booth out on the forecourt near the road, opposite the front doors.

You pass Zeke from the dayshift heading to his car; he hands over the keys and says goodnight.

There's already some work to do; shelves to restock, and some asshole dropped a case of Bud Light near the back of the shop. Possibly the same asshole who puked on the blacktop right outside the front door.

 

[ValkyrieRose]

Piper groans as she heads into the store, already exhausted and bit looking forward to her shift tonight. Nevertheless, a job was a job

She goes over and picks up a mask from the back closet and pulls out a mop and soap. First the cleaning, then the slacking.

 

[DreamingBlackbird]

Jerry takes a few moments to stretch in his car while the others exit, giving a small exhale as he cracks his knuckles and neck in preparation for the night's work. Truth be told, though, he simply wanted a few seconds of freedom. Three, two, one, then out of the car he was, taking his phone out of his jean pocket and plugging in his earphones. Zeke from dayshift passes by, offering a goodnight that Jerry casually answers back--albeit in a nonverbal way that involved a lot of airguns and grinning. It takes him a moment to turn round back to face the store, which so far already looked like a mess on the outside. Specifically, there was puke on the front door. Ah, crap.

"Hey, Zeke?" he calls out, hoping the guy hasn't driven off yet. "Have any idea who dumped a big one on the front door?"

 

[MAROON QUILLNEST]

(I never got notifications for this so I had no idea it started)

 

[Grey]

Zeke slows down as he pulls out from the back of the station, peering out of his window, past Jerry, like he's seeing the mess for the first time.
"Whoa, beats me, dude," he lies, smiling brightly "never saw it happen. Peace!"

He drives off into the night. Now it's just the three of you.

Spoiler

(I never got notifications for this so I had no idea it started)

That's okay, I linked it in the OOC so you'd see it eventually.
Just post whenever you're ready.

 

[DreamingBlackbird]

Jerry watches the car speed off, its fumes lightly brushing at him before completely dissipating. Unbe-fucking-lievable, he thinks to himself, shaking his head and storming towards the store entrance. He makes sure not to step on the big puddle of vomit, gingerly opening the door and rushing inside as fast as he could. "Hey, Pipes. There's some puke out front, and I'm betting ya ten bucks Zeke got trashed on duty." he calls to his co-worker, who was currently holding a mop. Whelp, just my luck then. He liked the mop, but with the mess out front today didn't seem like a good day to use it. Instead, he heads for the storage room to gather materials for restocking the shelves.

 

[ValkyrieRose]

"Ya, sounded like it." Piper says, beginning to clean it up. "Can't say I blame him though. Not like anyone actually cares enough to come around here. Might open one myself ..." She was already looking forward to going barhopping after this shift was over

But first, puke cleaning.

 

[DreamingBlackbird]

Then again, did it have to be at the front door? Jerry still feels miffed at Zeke, but figures it isn't something to make a big deal of. "That's a good point. Dunno why this place is even still open." he says as he kicks the storage door close, lowering a box of potato chips in front of the first empty shelf. "Open one yourself? Girl, ya talking about a station or a bottle?"

Not-too-quietly, he takes a bag of potato chips and tucks it under his arm, planning to open it later if he could.

 

[Grey]

A red convertible rolls onto the forecourt and stops at a pump.

A tall, dark-haired man in a black shirt and white jeans gets out and starts filling the tank. A blonde woman in shorts and red blouse gives him a tap on the shoulder and walks into the store, browsing. She gives Piper a bright smile as she walks by.

 

[Ghosts_and_stars]

Pete approached Jerry from behind and peeked over his shoulder. "Yuck dude. That blows." He patted Jerry's shoulder and started walking towards his booth. He stopped dead in his tracked and turned awkwardly before entering the store front. "But first, snacks". He made a beeline towards the chip aisle and gazed upon the options. "Heyo! Piper! I'm grabbing some of these." He said as he made his selection.

 

[DreamingBlackbird]

Seeing Pete grab some chips of his own makes Jerry grin and only encourages him to take some more, but before he could even grab another bag he is interrupted by the door opening. A woman, the first customer of the night, walks in and begins browsing. "Customers this early? That's a miracle, I tell ya," Jerry remarks, whispering to Pete as he furtively grabs another bag and heads over behind the cashier's counter, putting his loot on one of the counter's shelves.

 

[Ghosts_and_stars]

"Huh? What?" Pete murmured as he turned his head and spotted the woman. "oh.." he chuckled to himself "she's probably an alien or something" he whispered back with a smirk, only half joking. "If you need me, I'll be in the cave" he said with a slight waveof the hand as he headed to his station.

 

[DreamingBlackbird]

"See ya then," Jerry gives Pete a half-hearted salute, grinning. After seeing to it that his potato chip was tucked safely in a shelf, he approaches the customer browsing around the store. "Looking for something specific, miss?" he asks.

 

[Grey]

"Just browsin'," she drawls, mildly. Favours you with a half-glance and faint smile while looking over a row of canned food. Sounds Texan, maybe. "Y'all got any of those travel cushions?"

You do. Right at the back of the next aisle.

Outside, the man filling the gas tank doesn't even look in Pete's direction.

 

[Ghosts_and_stars]

Pete gets settled in his booth. There were some papers sprawled across the desk with random doodles of aliens and some scribbles expressing the inner workings of pete's mind. He gently tosses his chips to the side and he takes out a small box he had hidden in the back of the bottom drawer and lights up a joint he had stashed away. After smoking about half of it and put what was left of it aside. "This is the best job over" he said to himself as he opened his chips and kicked up his feet. He looked at the t.v monitor and watched his co-workers on the screen.