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Entry tags:
( OPEN ) i don't want a mental suplex, i want quality customer service
Who: Elliot Nightray (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
meriter) and you!
When: IC 11/25—11/27
Where: Residential District (primarily the CERES Gymnasium) + Shopping District (anywhere)
What: Elliot has a terminal allergy to common sense: a lesson in three (four) parts, comprised of psuedo-drowning, Machiavellian swindlers, and terrible book taste, respectively speaking.
Rating/Warning: None, probably.
1. INSERT SWIMMING PUN HERE (ceres gymnasium.)
2. CULTURE OF THE YOUNG AND VAIN (around, somewhere ...)
3. LMAO, SPOILERS (still around ...)
4. CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE (wildcard!)
meriter) and you!When: IC 11/25—11/27
Where: Residential District (primarily the CERES Gymnasium) + Shopping District (anywhere)
What: Elliot has a terminal allergy to common sense: a lesson in three (four) parts, comprised of psuedo-drowning, Machiavellian swindlers, and terrible book taste, respectively speaking.
Rating/Warning: None, probably.
1. INSERT SWIMMING PUN HERE (ceres gymnasium.)
- [ In reconciliation of every self-deprecatory impulse in his body, Elliot actually shows up for lifeguard duty for the first time in two weeks.
He'd been staving off the financial necessity of having real credits on hand to buy very real things for a long while (like microwave dinners, for one thing, considering he'd survived thus far on a diet of refried peas and mashed potatoes with the consistency of clumping dirt). Monetary gain: the true motivator of any stalwart teenager in these trying, trying times. It wasn't as if he was going to turn to his brothers in some prostrated act of weakness. Just because he'd been hairsplitting nebulous concepts like coming to the gym during his technical shift and maybe staying the whole period instead of flat-out leaving whenever it suited him didn't mean he was a stranger to manual labor. Not at all.
So. It's just another routine day at the swimming pool, and by the third hour he's sweating bullets attempting to get a grip over his genteel, strait-laced Victorian morals. There are just so many exhibitionists about in the afternoons, all in varying levels of undress, and he's blistering red up to his ears keeping his gaze trained at all the patrons without turning away at the sight of scantily-clothed bodies. Literal lingerie, at that — it was nothing short of incredible that Vessalius hadn't succumbed to utter debauchery, exposed day in and day out to water-slick forms and all manner of loosened morals. He'd always been a weird kid, anyway.
But his tension reaches a culminating point hits when someone's apparently spritzing out at the deep end of pool, an arm stuck out and frantically waving him over. Reluctantly, Elliot strips off his jacket and cravat and strides over, peering down at the swimmer in question with scrunched eyebrows a stare tipped toward palpable disdain. ]
Well, what are you waiting for? Hurry up and take my hand already, I don't have all day.
[ Too bad he doesn't have any sense of peripheral awareness to comprehend the rather peculiar grin he's shot with until the stranger's got their hand grappled around his, and then — ]
Gh — no, no, n-o-t again ... !
[ — he falls in. Panic briefly settling in his lungs, he spends a second or two in slantslide vertigo, water rushing around in some great, disorienting deluge before he kicks up, hard, breaks the surface with audible frustration. ]
I HATE THIS JOB!
2. CULTURE OF THE YOUNG AND VAIN (around, somewhere ...)
- [ When his mood considerably sobers, he takes his paycheck for a supermarket splurge to refuel his stockpile of frozen dinners and comes away with several plastic bags full of cheap, cholesterol-inducing foods. Normally he'd head straight for his apartment, but Elliot decides to take the scenic route and ends up finding the kitschiest merchant stalls known to man. One minute he's minding his own business, and the next he's surrounding by a copious amount of creams and lotions purported to rejuvenate youth, like he'd just been plunked in the middle of a health ad and was ethically obligated to spout off some hypocritical drivel about the losers who'd buy into such scams. Seriously.
Well, beggars can't be choosers. Elliot wastes no time forcing his way to the front to blithely jab a finger at one of the offending vendors in question. ]
What a load of crap! It's just like CERES to promote these kinds of underhanded ruses. They're a bunch of raving idiots. I'm surprised they can get anything accomplished.
[ You know, because there's nothing wrong with waxing poetic on insurrection to the merchants. With this kind of bullheaded mentality, Elliot's lucky he isn't get his ass hauled away by security guards right this minute. ]
3. LMAO, SPOILERS (still around ...)
- [ Wayward hellion of paltry exasperation that he is, Elliot Nightray can't get by without self-gratifying himself on one of the finer things in life. Namely, literature. So he makes a habit of scanning the shelves of the bookstore with a probing fixation at least once a week, turning up his nose at the YA section and heading for the classics to spend hours turning through the pages, scouring the contents for answers, or maybe just a quick read.
Only — today it's different, because he's currently engaged in some kind of weird, heated argument with the cashier. On closer inspection, it's composed mostly of angry, one-sided outbursts, like: ]
It's a clear ripoff! This isn't the series I ordered at all. DON'T YOU KNOW ANYTHING?!
[ Or: ]
What do you mean, you don't have any copies of Holy Knight IN STOCK?! What kind of blasted establishment is this? I demand to speak with your higher-ups IMMEDIATELY!
[ If nothing else, bystanders can at least pick up on the fact that there's a very frustrated fanboy hogging the front desk to blather on and on about the most emotionally bloated, self-indulgent novels to ever grace the Latowidge Academy library. ]
4. CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE (wildcard!)
- other than that, he'll be roaming the residential and shopping districts because
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... What's that for?
[ Bypassing a completely reasonable request with yet another trivial inquiry: Elliot Nightray, an intellectual in the making. ]
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.. okay, no. He's not exactly that rude or that temperamental - thank god it's Heung Soo Elliot is dealing with here and not his best friend in that regard, really. He more just looks annoyed in a defeatist way, as if he's seen all of the terrible things in the world already and doesn't feel like putting up with them anymore. ]
What do you think? [ No, seriously!! He doesn't hesitate to give a slightly rude quip in return to a question like that in this situation. ]
This is my job.
[ Unfortunately.. ]
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Heung Soo's a saint, most likely. Lesser people would've tossed Elliot in the dumpster where he rightfully belonged, but it sure is inspiring to see people who aren't deterred so easily. Too bad all those nuances are lost on Nightray's all-encompassing egotism. ]
You should've picked a better one, then.
[ He cursorily squints down at the package before lifting his gaze again. ]
Is it going to take long?
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[ Okay, yeah, now Heung Soo is just being a sassy prick. It's what kdramas are good at, after all, but it's more just that he also has his limit in dealing with morons, and he sure is about to hit that right now.. what's next, does he want to know what's in the package? Does he want to have a conversation about his backstory? And into the dumpster Elliot goes, at least verbally.. ]
Aish, is it really that hard to let another person just do what they're supposed to do?
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[ Arbitrary hierarchy of needs and all. Books just happen to be more important than his compulsion to be polite to every sentient stranger spewing words at him (then again, if he's mentally referring to everyone else as background noise, it isn't exactly a good indicator for sanity, among other things). Insulting kdrama is right down his alleyway, so he shoots him a particularly disparaging stare, hands going untucked from his pockets. ]
My thoughts exactly. This won't take any longer, so why don't you merely wait in the meantime? It can't be any longer now, and then you'll have that package processed shortly afterwards.
[ Wow, he's getting pretty good at lying to his teeth (in his opinion, anyways). Look, Elliot just doesn't want to admit he's partially still in to watch other people lose their wits. He's had enough of being the only crazy one around here. ]
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Especially since he knows what the implication is here - this guy is telling him to wait for him to finish first.. yeah, screw that noise. If it's like that, he might as well have turned around right away and come back hours later and the end result would be the same. ]
How are you so sure it's not going to take much longer? [ Since his shouting match with the clerk didn't seem to be at a close before... ]
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So yeah, he has every intention of making the guy wait for a reason that doesn't even matter as much as the altercation anymore. Still, in a possibly fortunate bid of luck (or rather a jinx in Elliot's case), he moves to the side to allow free access to the spot everyone would probably shiv a man for at this point. ]
Why don't you give a go at asking the clerk for yourself? This obviously won't be resolved through my own effort in the matter.
[ TAKE THE CHANCE, HEUNG SOO. Or not, because Elliot's staring at him with renewed intensity for any telltale signs that he isn't actually working for his benefit because obviously the world revolves around Nightray's particular needs only. ]
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He has to take it. He can't bear waiting around here waiting for first world problems levels of people trying to resolve their conflicts that obviously just aren't going to be resolved. He has work to do, okay, he has a bastard waiting at home and if he's even a little bit late without indicating he'll be late, shit will happen, Elliot. Do you want that on your hands.
So Heung Soo is totally going to take the chance here. He walks past Elliot like he doesn't even care, puts his package down on the counter and holds out the form for the clerk to sign without saying a word.
Are you just going to let this happen, Elliot.. are you. He's totally stealing your spot in line here, you know, even if Heung Soo thinks this sort of action is well justified by now for dealing with this guy for longer than five minutes, a horrible fate he wouldn't wish onto most people he knows. ]
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He's staring at Heung Soo, really looking at him, but it's only thirty seconds in when he gets the distinct impression that he's getting duped, which is kind of crazy, since this guy obviously offered to scapegoat himself for the noble cause of book inquiries, so of course he jumps into the wedge himself between the cashier and that traitor, forcibly pushing him back and — ]
Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing? I thought you were going to ask if they had the book stored away in inventory, not sign off your package. Can't that wait when there's more pressing issues to attend to?
[ COMPLETELY REASONABLE. ]
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Heung Soo can't even believe this is happening for a moment or two. He's just staring at Elliot with a look that does say he can't believe it. Would anyone really go this far just for the sake of a book. Really. Really. ]
There's nothing pressing about that.
[ PLEASE JUST.. ACCEPT THIS, WILDLY INTENSE GUY ABOUT BOOKS. Wildly intense guy about everything, apparently. He just can't believe how anime this is getting, his answer is only half-Done With Everything, since it's also just half-disbelieving that this is an actual thing that is actually happening in his life. ]
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Elliot's all about to go ballistic and maybe start foaming at the mouth like the rabid dog he probably resembles right now, which is about as luridly cartoonish as you can get. There's a slapstick joke for this somewhere — maybe a pun about idiots dying beneath a deluge of fire and brimstone, because he's ready to roast Heung Soo in the depths of hell.
See you in the pits, bro.
As it is, he flusters, straightening to his full height. ] What the hell are you insinuating? It obviously supersedes delivering any other package. Do you go back so easily on promises you make with everyone?
[ Melodrama that goes ad infinitum, basically. No one hold you accountable if Elliot met a tragic end, Heung Soo. Do your part for the community and waste this obsessive nerd. ]
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Elliot actually managed to hit a slightly sensitive thread there.. because Heung Soo never goes back on his promises when it's about things that actually matter. He mostly has a very specific one in mind thought when Elliot says it, and it's why his eyes are a little wider when he turns to look at the other.
Be glad he doesn't have his best friend's temper problems or you'd be lying on the floor right about now, Elliot.. instead it's just Heung Soo looking like he's daring the other to say that again. ]
Do you always try and bother other people in the middle of their business like that? At that rate, you're going to get into trouble.
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And it's like Elliot boosts his own ego on ideals of his own superiority when contrasted against the general public. He registers the surprise, but it doesn't occur to him that it's anything particularly meaningful. All he sees is some overwrought delivery guy with a snappy mouth who falls back on PA like it's going out of style. As such, Elliot responds in kind. ]
Like you're one to talk. Are you always so dishonest with everyone you meet, or is that an aspect you reserve for people who bother refuting you? I came here first, so either properly wait your turn or leave.
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.. which, granted, Heung Soo is pretty glad for. He'd rather just get out of here than cause trouble, especially since he's matured a little from his punk days. Elliot will get what's coming to him thanks to someone else sooner or later, he's sure..
]
Sure, I'll leave.
[ WAVES THE FORM... he got what he wanted, don't mind him if he's quick to turn on his heels and hopefully walk out of here unless he gets accosted by this guy again. ]
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Oi! You better watch your back! I won't forget this!
[ Too bad he can't ... actually leave this spot without risk of losing ... come to think of it, he doesn't even know the guy's name (he hadn't bothered to glance at the employee name tag once when he was chatting with him), but he's pretty sure his blistering rage will sustain him until their next encounter. Or something. ]