Log: Garrison and Callisto

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Callisto lends a hand with Garrison's used car shopping.



There were few things that Kane disliked as much as having to use the mansion's car borrowing rotation. It wasn't that they were bad cars. In fact, the communal cars were all relatively newer middle to high end models, expertly maintained by several talented mechanics in the mansion. It was just the nature of having to rely on a somewhat anonymous vehicle. Like most cops, Kane had fallen in love with the power under the hood of his cruiser the first time he'd sat in it, and even the best maintained vehicles lacked the kind of heavy suspension and smooth power he enjoyed in one. It had been the reason he'd bought his old Crown Victoria at auction the first time, caring little about it not being pretty.

Now, that car was junk in a scrapyard somewhere, and Kane was stuck with a copy of the local used car ad magazine, and an afternoon of looking at mediocre vehicles. As he reached the garage, he noticed Callisto was there, doing some kind of maintenance on one of mansion vehicles. "Hey. I'm taking one of the spare cars." He said, just incase there was one of them on some kind of planned service.

"Not the A4," came the reply, slightly echo-y from under the hood of a rather battered looking Jeep. Callisto straightened and turned, wiping her hands on her overalls. She nodded towards the station wagon, pursing her lips disapprovingly. "Something's fucked. Not sure what yet. It's in the electrics somewhere." Her gaze flickered briefly across Kane, as if trying size up whether he was the sort of guy who'd drive a station wagon. From her expression, she apparently wasn't sure.

"I don't need to carry anything back, so I don't need the space." Kane walked over to the rack and essentially grabbed one of the available car keys at random. He didn't really care which one he got. "Actually, you got some free time this afternoon?"

Callisto glanced back into the Jeep interior, as if it would answer for her. "Might. Why?"

"I'm looking at used cars. I'd take Scott or Forge, but they have the same fetish for cars that look like RC racers with finicky wussy engines, that crumple like tin cans if they get nudged. I could use someone who knows about engines that isn't going to bug me about buying some foreign roadster while I look." Kane said, folding the magazine and tucking it into his jacket. "Lunch is on me."

"Well, I don't make any guarantees about the foreign roadsters," Callisto said with a smirk. "I'm with you on Summers and his nancy-boy cock extension, but the RX8 is a great machine..." She dragged her fingers a little more decisively across her thighs, leaving black streaks in their wake "But I'll take the lunch."

"Good. Last time I bought a used car, it was from the government, which meant it required too much paperwork to try and screw me." Kane unlocked the car. "If you want to change I can meet you outfront. I'm good either way."

The smirk unshifting, Callisto unceremoniously unsnapped the overalls and shrugged them off, the vest and jeans beneath... at least a bit less oil-strained. She grabbed her jacket from a nearby worktop and ran a hand through her unkempt hair. It came away suspiciously less oil-covered - apparently dark hair had its advantages when you worked with cars. "I'm good to go."

Kane grinned. Non-fussy was good with him. "Excellent." He slipped into the driver's seat and thumbed through the magazine for a second as she got in, checked his map, and headed out. The first lot was only a ten minute drive, right on the edge of Salem Centre, but it proved to be mostly compacts or underpowered imports, and was quickly left. The second was all vans and trucks, and by the time they reached the third lot, Kane was mentally settling on buying a pink Vespa and checking his manhood at the door.

The third lot was smaller, obviously not associated with any of the major dealers, but it was clean and the cars looked well maintained. Kane got out of the car, looking over a range of mid-sized sedans and older muscle cars that were out for show.

"This looks a little more promising."

"Mm." Callisto, hands jammed in pockets as usual, scanned the lot, eyes narrowed, expression thoughtful. "So what exactly is it you're looking for?"

"Heavy frame, good suspension, and some power under the hood. It doesn't need to be pretty." Kane said, looking around at the vehicles.

Skinny shoulders hunched, the young woman shuffled past a battered (if servicable) looking Ford Taurus, nudging its wheel with her toe as though this would tell her anything about the car itself. She turned her appraising look back on Kane. "How do you feel about German cars?"

"If it fits the description, I don't care what language it speaks." Kane said, poking around the back, which seemed to be primarily light trucks. Certainly not what he was looking for. He mused that if this was a country song, there would be a mint Corvette or something hidden inside a shack waiting for him.

"Where did you learn about cars?" He said offhandedly. He didn't know much about Callisto, past the rough information they'd had when she came to the school, and the woman was almost a ghost on the campus most of the time.

"Can I see under the hood of this?" Callisto directed suddenly, not at Kane but at the guy - more of a kid, really, pasty and bad-skinned - who was hovering at their perimeter. He had the air of someone left to watch the place while the boss was away - probably why they hadn't been swooped upon with a 'hard sell' yet. The kid shrugged and disappeared off somewhere, leaving them alone with the dark red Toyota Camry to which Callisto had referred.

"Worked in a garage for a while once," she said now, crouching to examine a small rust spot. "I pick things up pretty fast."

"I can do the normal maintenance, but never really got any more indepth than that." Kane said, noting the sharpness of her scrutiny on the vehicles. He believed she knew what she was doing. "Just always liked cars, or end up with a car nut and got it through osmosis?"

"I dunno anything about osmosis," Callisto replied, sounding out the word just as Kane had said it, clearly not familiar with it. "I guess you just get to... appreciate something if you spend that much time around it. It's like you... soak it up."

The kid came back to pop the hood, but Callisto had barely taken a glance before she tutted and shook her head. "Forget it. Let's take a look at that VW over by the fence..."

They wandered around for a bit, checking cars and engines, while Callisto made judgments on the state of various vehicles. The ones in the best repair were little more than family sedans, and the ones that appealed to Kane were riddled with shoddy repairs, old parts, and potential disasters, pointed out by Callisto's careful eye.

"I think this place is going to be a bust." Kane muttered, although paused at the end of the line of cars, near one of the maintenance sheds. There was a wreck off to one side; a relatively newer police cruiser from the New York State Troopers service. It looked like it had been attacked with a sledgehammer, side and door panels crumpled, lights smashed. "That is a shame. Must have been one that they bought for their offensive driving courses, and beat the shit out of." Kane said ruefully.

Callisto glanced over and shook her head. "I dunno, the way it's beat-up it looks more like one big fuck-up, maybe gang-bangers or something..." She'd already looked away before she finished the sentence, but something seemed to occur to her and, eyes narrowed in a way Kane was beginning to recognize as her 'serious thought' face, she turned her attention back to the messed-up car, her feet seemingly directing her there of their own accord, hands lifting out of their pockets.

"It's a wreck alright. I think-" Kane paused as Callisto approached the car. "Um, am I missing something?"

"Dunno..." She didn't even have to ask the kid to get the keys for this one - the hood was so bashed in it just lifted up, making a nasty scraping sound at the hinges. Thoughtful pout in place, brow furrowed, the young woman surveyed the interior. Then she glanced over at Kane and tipped her chin at him to invite him over.

Up close, it became more apparent what had happened to the cruiser. The bashes were pretty small individually, obviously done with blunt impact from bats and pipes and so on. One side window was smashed, and there was a dark stain down the back of the headrest in the front passenger seat. All the tires had been slashed, one almost to ribbons. But the engine...

"What am I supposed to be looking at?" Garrison said. The engine looked, well, fine to him. It was a bit of a surprise considering the state of the rest of the car, but he wasn't a mechanic. For all he knew, the engine block could be cored out beneath the new looking fixtures at the top.

"Nothing," Callisto said simply. "I mean, it won't start right now, needs a some parts replaced, some cleaning and tuning, couple of dents bashed out, but... this engine is fine. She's fine. Looks way worse than it is."

"You mean this thing could actually be repaired?" Kane was a little incredulous. The car looked like a wreck, pure and simple.

"Pretty much. Won't be pretty without a whole new body, but with a few new parts and a new hood I could make it run."

Garrison was silent for a long moment. It was a wreck, body dented, windows smashed, seats ripped and bloody. The lights on top had been bent into a vee shape, and it looked like the thing would need to be brought back to the mansion on a flatbed, since the tires were too ruined to even be properly towed.

And yet.

"You know, considering that someone ended up rebuilding me, I guess I can't turn down a car that needs the same." He said, and flashed a white smile against the darkness of his beard. "If it can take that kind of beating and not be a complete write off, it's the car I want."

Callisto pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows, shrugging and sticking her hands in her pockets. "Then I guess it's a bargain."