Hello Sunshine

Placeholder Thread for OnnaStik's Solo.

 

Three hours ago you got a call from a very well-respected nature and science magazine, saying that their usual photographers were all on assignment, and the one that they had earmarked for a flight tomorrow morning had just come down with pneumonia, and are you interested in heading to Mojave?

Needless to say, your suitcase is now open on the floor, half-packed, and... well. The apartment is far more of a mess than it was less than ten minutes ago, when you realized you had absolutely no idea where you'd left your bottle of high SPF sunscreen.

Your childhood best friend, Lee Charlot, is smiling at you, chin propped on one hand and the half-checked-off list of packing essentials on the table with his pen set next to it. "You know, we can just go and grab a new bottle from the store?"

 

Corrie freezes, just a moment, crouched next to the half-ransacked cabinet.

"Well, obviously we'll do that if I can't find it," she concedes. "But that's how you end up with like a dozen different travel-size deodorants when you didn't need one, so hopefully- here, let me just finish checking-"

Out come a couple more towels, a boonie hat (which gets tossed frisbee-style toward Corrie's bag, since that's also on the list), and a bottle of what turns out to be hand sanitizer, leading to a vaguely disappointed sigh. "Okay. Fine. Gonna have to go in for trail food anyway. Buy a new one it is." And, because she doesn't actually want to come home to a complete wreck, she shovels the still-half-folded towels back in and shuts the door. "At least you can check off the hat. Next?"

 

Lee chuckles, shaking his head and nudging the hat into the suitcase with his foot. "Well, since you brought it up..." He checks the hat off the list.

'Travel-size deodorant. Two, just in case." He eyes the cabinet, making a mental note of what had been in it, and what he remembered Corrie planning to have in it, and wonders why she had the kitchen towels stashed in the pantry, anyway. "...bathroom?"

 

Hey, it's not like someone who spends almost as much time out of town as in it needs a lot of pantry space for pantry things. If Lee wants an actual puzzler, he should wonder about the hat.

Corrie perks up at the next item, because she's all but certain she remembers putting that where it actually goes. "Yeah, I'll just grab that..."

It's not much of a walk over there, and... well, while a dozen is a slight exaggeration, there are more travel bars of deodorant than would seem reasonable. Three of them are sitting out by the sink, for some reason- oh, it's because two of them are basically empty, she'd better throw them away while it's on her mind- so she snags the third, and another from out of the medicine cabinet. "Check!" she calls down the short hallway.

 

Lee knows better than to wonder too much - things happen, and you roll with them, and the ride goes on. It isn't as though Corrie didn't have a lot of crazy schemes when they were younger - the last few years have mellowed her out. He almost misses the days he'd get a phone call at three am, when he'd left at one, requesting backup in order to get home. Almost.

"Soap! Shampoo! Conditioner!" Lee calls back, eyeing the list, then googling the Mojave and adding 'several gallons of water when you arrive' to the bottom, along with 'that thing that kills bacteria in water when you run water through it' just in case.

 

Yeah, that's more than Corrie's going to be able to hang onto with just her hands. Luckily, the medicine cabinet also contains a little toiletry bag!

When she opens the bag, another little bar of deodorant peeks out at her. This one hasn't even been used. She could swear the things breed. Anyway- in go the little half-full hotel bottles, and then she could swear she had one of those "wilderness wash" things somewhere around here... Ah. Yes. There it is. In that goes as well. "Got 'em! Hey, would you mind grabbing my Camelbak? Should be on top of the fridge..."

 

"Yeah, will do." Lee stands, meandering over to peer atop the fridge on his tiptoes, reaching up to swipe the camelbak and examining the nozzle, crossing over to the sink to pop it off and give it a quick wash. ...oh, hell. Low on dish soap. That was... probably on the shopping list. Welp.

He eyes the filter in the camelbak, then glances towards the hall, calling to Corrie. "Do you have any spare filters? When did you change it out last?"

 

Wait, what? "What filter?"

She comes trotting back to the kitchen to see for herself. Oh. That makes sense. She should probably have been more specific.

"Not the bottle, sorry, I meant the pack," she explains. "Was it not there? It better be there. That's not a just-get-another-one thing."

 

"Oh. Uuuuhm." He frowns, then looks back on top. "Pack. Pack... like. Backpack?"

He sets the bottle back in the sink and moves to the hall closet, pulling the camelbak pack from within it. "You mean this?"

 

"Yes!" Corrie beams. "Thanks. Don't want to need more hands than I've got, right?"

The toiletries bag is still in her hands, so she pulls the drawstring tight and drops it into the suitcase with a rattle of plastic. "So- 's that everything we don't need to go to the store for? After double-checking the camera case again?"

 

"I think so. Going to be a long night if we can't get this done quick, right?" He smiles slightly.

 

Corrie leans over toward the table to get a quick look of her own at the list, just in case. Yeah, check, check, and more check... and, clearly added after the initial pass, a "thing that kills bacteria in water".

"Uh, Lee? ...where exactly do you think I'm going that there's going to be water lying around to purify?"

 

"I googled it, apparently there might be some water out there. Just in case something goes wrong, Corrie?" He chuckles a little self-consciously. "Better to be over-prepared than under-prepared, right?"

 

"Oh, sure, occasionally. We outdoorsy types call it a 'flash flood' and if one of those happens, getting away from the water is going to be my priority." Corrie grins, for her part, affectionately teasing. "But I actually am ahead of you there- there's purification tablets in the first aid kit. I promise I'm not going to get dysentery or anything like that."

 

"Well, Google did say there might be some groundwater..." he hedges, then throws a crooked smile back, one cheek dimpling.

"Good. I don't want to have to fight to keep a straight face during your Eulogy, you know. Dearly beloved, we are gathered to mourn the passing of Corrie "perfect shot" Macpherson, who pooped herself to death," he snorts, shaking his head. "Nothing less than saving three kids and a box of kittens from a burning building, that's the rule."

He pulls the first aid kit over and holds up a small pack of tablets. "...these? Are they going to be enough?"

 

Lee really is sweet. Corrie would hug him if he weren't on the other side of the table and with his hands full. As it is, she grins widely and shoots back "What if there aren't any kittens, do I need to rescue an extra kid? What's the child-to-kitten-box exchange rate here, is what I'm asking..."

The question refocuses her a bit. "Oh yeah, more than enough for all the animal-poop-filled streams I'm gonna run into. They're each for... I don't remember exactly how much water but it should be printed on the packing. Plenty to get me back to camp, anyway, if there's anything to use them on."

 

"Well... I like kittens more than kids.... but I suppose from a standard size ratio.... one whole child under five, and maybe half a child under ten?" He hums thoughtfully, then nods as she gives him the details on the tablets. "...huh. Okay. Good. That'll do, then. So. Store? Do you want me to drive?"

 

"Uh, sure, your car's better for in town anyway," says Corrie. "And I can review the assignment on the way, too."

To that end, she snatches her phone back up off the charging stand. How did anyone ever survive without email?

 

"Alright." His keys jingle as he pulls them out, quickly pocketing the list. "I think the big box is the only one open at the moment?"

The assignment is rather simple: landscape photos, and lots of them.