Fixing Arkadia

[Alex Horan]

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Alex laughed. He was just fixing some electric lines with the head of engineering close by when he heard the tell-tale sound of someone getting a nice little shock by accidentally touching a low current – aka the current running through the lines for him to manage to find the lines that were still there. He was still trying to fix cables and the likes, which meant he needed to be able to find the ones working and the likes. He usually worked alone on Tesla, so he wasn’t actually used to having people around. His low running current had probably given Sinclair a little shock, but he couldn’t bring himself to not laugh as he lay there, tinkering on a line also running on low current.

“Sorry.” He finally announced from the floor. “I possibly should have pointed out that I have the lines still hot.” But he didn’t, because that was how they worked on Tesla so far. Especially him. “It’s just a low current, but that must have stung quite a bit.” He sat up to look at him. If he had too much current running, the guy might have actually gotten some burns, but he was sure the current wasn’t that bad. “You thought I turned all electricity off, didn’t you?”

[seren2]

Sinclair had reached out to touch a wire only to recoil when he’d received a small electric shock, shaking out the affected hand, he stared at the wires in confusion for a couple of seconds before hearing the man that was working beside him laugh. He stared down at where Alex was on the floor, looking for an explanation to why he was laughing and more importantly why he’d gotten a shock in the first place, he’d expected the electricity to be off or he wouldn’t have thought to touch the wires. “That’s probably something that you should’ve done, yeah” Jacapo agreed when Alex suggested that he should have pointed out that the lines were hot. He didn't know how people in Tesla worked and although it wasn't enough of a shock to cause any lasting damage, he would've preferred to avoid getting a shock at all.

He nodded when Alex mentioned that it must've stung "it did, but only for a second" he was not unfamiliar with getting small electric shocks like the one he'd just received, he just hadn't been expecting to get one at that moment. "I did expect you to have shut it off completely" he admitted to the other man "is that not how you guys work?" he figured that it wasn't really dangerous if the shocks that could be received were only minor but they were distracting to say the least. "Thanks for the warning though, whenever I work with you in future I'll ask before I touch anything" he didn't want to receive a larger shock next time he was caught working with the other man.

Alex Horan

[Alex Horan]

Alex grinned. Yeah, it was quite amusing to him to see how this man reacted. It was adorable really. Alex didn't have much time with other workers of other stations. Tesla was safe. Tesla was what he loved and adored and what was slowly killing him. Earth made it better, but he had the feeling it was just a speed bump. Things would change again. Peace was an illusion in this world. And he hated that illusion more than anything. Eventually he would leave this world and he would leave his girlfriend behind. It hurt him more than he could tell.

"Actually, no." Alex replied. "We couldn't work like that even if we wanted. Imagine us turning everything in Tesla off. Everyone would have died. I once had to climb and fix a live generator. THAT was fun." And he was admittedly strange. But there was no way to work on Tesla and not work with electricity still running. "We have protective gear for this usually. Down here I can have the luxury of turning things off - or slightly. I kinda like knowing where the current runs. It's just a matter of working." As he said that he had to cough. Luckily it was really just that.

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[seren2]

Although Sinclair didn’t appreciate the idea of getting shocked every time he had to work with Alex, he could appreciate that it was the way that he preferred to work and was what he was used to. “Oh, yeah… Ideally you don’t want to kill everyone” Jacapo agreed, that was the opposite of what they wanted to do whenever they were doing repairs or maintenance checks. He looked at Alex in surprise as he told him of the time where he once had to fix a live generator “A live generator?” he asked, looking for clarification “I’ll bet it was” he definitely didn’t envy the other man having to do that.

“I guess I’ll just be more careful next time I have to work with you” Sinclair chuckled knowing that they probably would have to work together many times in the future and he didn’t want to get a shock each time they did. If that happened he felt like some people might get too much amusement out of it and he thought that it could probably become embarrassing for him after a while. “Bad cough” he observed “you should watch that” it was none of his business really, but the last thing anyone needed was for people to start getting sick. With limited medical supplies and everything else that they currently had to worry about, they really couldn’t deal with an epidemic. It was just a cough, probably nothing, but Sinclair worried about people, especially those that he had to work with, it was natural to him.

Alex Horan

[Alex Horan]

He smirked at that. "Well, yeah, given how we had to work, a bit of carefulness never hurts." The electrician agreed. He was, one of the last of his people to survive after all, so working with him might become difficult at times. Especially since he knew of his on expiration date already, or a rough estimate of it. Unless there was a way to cure him, after all. He doubted they would find time for that, with the constant wars going on and stuff like that. No nobody would be able to even look into it. They had an entire population to look after. He was just one soul, with almost invaluable knowledge, yes, but data in Arkadia could provide them with the essentials and he still had time to teach someone.

"Trust me, bud, the docs have more important stuff to do than to look after a stupid cough." he pointed out. "Like making sure we all survive. It's just a cough." Well this was, it was not a primary symptom of his defect, so, that was that. "And lucky me, the wires won't get infected and shrivel by being coughed upon, so work is a safe place to be. Then again imagine Alpha Station coughing. That would be a sight to behold. So...you are the overall boss her now, right?"

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[seren2]

Jacapo ideally liked a job where he didn't have to worry about getting electrocuted, of course given how hands on his job was, there was always an element of risk. Luckily, he'd never experienced any severe injuries in the workplace... Yet. Still, he liked to play it safe, never wanting to risk an unnecessary injury. Alex seemed used to working with more risks than he was and he couldn't fault him for that, it was necessary in his line of work, Jacapo would've just preferred a warning before receiving an electric shock.

The man stopped what he was doing to watch Alex work when he seemed to wave off his concerns so casually. "That may be, but you never know... What starts out as a cough could develop into something more serious" he told him, he didn't like to see anybody not taking their health seriously and if somebody caught something serious, it could spread through Arkadia rapidly given how close they were all living to each other. "They'll have a harder time keeping us alive if they have to deal with an outbreak of some mystery sickness too" he muttered, turning back to the job at hand so that he couldn't be accused of slacking. He'd never been one to get distracted when he had a job to do... But the situation on Earth was quite different than it was on the ark and because of this, it wasn't as easy to keep focus. "Er..." Jacapo looked up once again as Alex continued speaking to him, trying to keep his focus on the task at hand "I guess... I'm just overseeing the repairs because I'm one of the most experienced people down here" there were others who were as capable as him, but they hadn't made it and so the responsibility had been left to him. He'd been the chief of engineering back on the ark, so it wasn't like he didn't have the qualifications, he'd been responsible for a larger workforce whilst on the ark, but it still felt different than what he was used to.

Alex Horan
ooc: Sorry if this is a bit all over the place, I'm trying to get back into the swing of things.