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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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Nice will just keep staring in an almost neutral way, but he will start fumbling with his headphones absently at this point. He's not really used to standing in one place for so long, but that's ok.]
My version of honest tends to make people lose respect for me. [It doesn't really sound like a complaint; his voice doesn't change through this because it's just a fact.] I don't really care what most people think of me at all -- only one person matters when it comes to that.
[And that person isn't here, so.]
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But he picks up on the fidgeting, and tucks his hands in his pockets, all signs of mild petulance on the rise because he really wants to get back to ... needlessly insulting people ... ]
Respect is something you have. If it's like that, then it doesn't really matter what I tell you or what you tell me, does it? It's a matter of perspective.
[ And then, bluntly: ] Do you care about anyone else besides that person to begin with?
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He thinks about it, looking off to the side briefly. He even looks a little thoughtful, but that's replaced by his neutral expression quick enough because he doesn't!!! Miss people!!]
Maybe. [He's sure not thinking about Art, Murasaki, or Hajime...not at all. While he cares about what Hajime thinks of him he cares about those other two losers too!!] It'd be lonely if I didn't, wouldn't it?
[Wow it wasn't an asshole statement for once...]
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HE'S ON TO YOU THOUGH, MAN. Elliot misses people too, like the whiny, attached dweeb he is, but whatever limbo they're in now has to be better than
Skynet Centralthe world of Tellus ... ]Then you care about what they think of you. You wouldn't want people you miss thinking badly of you.
Is there anyone you know from where you're from here now?
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Wow.]
I know they won't think badly of me, so that's why I don't care what they think.
[His...ego is so big I'm so sorry.]
Nope. Haven't been the entire time I've been here.
[
sorry you're obscure Nice]no subject
[ This is kind of sad. It's a little hilarious in that kind of mutually fucked-up way, but mostly depressing because he keeps getting war flashbacks to every way he's disappointed the people he actually gave a shit about. ]
It's probably for the better. It doesn't seem like CERES is even that coordinated about bringing people over in the first place. It'd be better to find a way out of this place first.
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[Besides, his friends have been way worse than he is lately...!! Going off the deep end, beating each other up, etc. He's the one doing the
ignoring that it happenedforgiving back at home.]Well yeah, obviously that's always going to be best. But it'd be helpful if I had my partner, honestly. We'd probably be able to figure out how to get out then.
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[ Like, isn't that obvious, though. Just because your friends decide to jump up off a bridge doesn't mean you automatically follow in their stead out of a desire for conformity ... right ... ]
There's no point in wishful thinking. From my experience, having people you know from home here isn't in your best interests. They could be used as leverage against you if — and when — things go south.
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[And he's moving his hand as if he's dismissing the idea, because Elliot just doesn't understand!!
Well no but only one of his friends would be dumb enough to jump off a bridge in the first place. He normally is the one jumping out of things...and his friends are the ones cleaning up his messes. Whoops.]
Murasaki wouldn't let that happen to himself. [He has. So much faith in his partner...] How do you know that the same thing won't happen to people you get close to here?
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like him.Anyways, those are just digressions obscuring the fact that Nice is likely the kind of guy that accidentally gets himself killed. He just strikes him as recklessly self-destructive. ]
Just be they wouldn't stand for it doesn't mean it won't happen. [ A ringing scoff. ] You can't be so simple-minded and assume that the status quo will remain intact the whole time. This colony is a powder keg waiting to burst. I wouldn't be surprised if everything fell into anarchy tomorrow.
[ Elliot didn't even reply to the question, but his omission likely tells enough of an answer, regardless ... ]
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All Nice is getting from Elliot that he's loud and kind of cynical, but that's a lot of people.]
I'm not saying it won't explode eventually. It probably will. To be honest, it'd probably be more entertaining if it did.
[Don't say things like that, Nice.]
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You wouldn't want to see your friends die.
[ A presumptuous accusation, not a question. ]
I can't say I misunderstand, but there's no way in hell I'll allow that to happen. If you're going to stand by and wait for the end to come, then you're just like the rest of them.
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Who would want to see their friends die?
[WELL NICE, YOU SEE...THERE'S THAT ONE GUY YOU KNOW.]
I'm not really like anyone else. But I don't think anybody really is, right? Isn't it the point that nobody actually thinks the same way as the next person? [Your point...??] What if someone thinks that things should change, but don't have the means to help? Would you judge them too?
[He's not speaking from experience but he's just setting up an example. Because he can.]
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I don't know, you tell me. If you happen to be a sadomasochist, it doesn't seem unlikely.
[ Or a sociopath. Look, half the people he knows in his own canon are so hyped up on their own derangement that they'd kill each other for petty disagreements. Or nothing. Sometimes it's nothing. ]
Then it works in everyone's best interests to be honest instead of willingly deceiving others, but that's not what happens at all. People can't always see eye-to-eye. [ Case in point: them. ] Probably. But I wouldn't judge them for who they were, but what they did. Or in your example, what they didn't do.
There's no such things as futile effort. Every bit counts.
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Nice kind of takes it all in, scratching at his bandages now as he thinks about it. He sees Elliot's point, he really does, but he still just likes to play devil's advocate about everything ever.]
I think there is. But I don't think there's much point in arguing about that right now...
So, what're you going to do about getting out of here?
[Since Nice just got yelled at for being lazy...]
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His life is like some playwright's schmaltzy wet dream, complete with a more than charitable dose of melodrama. Honestly, being civil to someone for this long deserves a trophy. ]
Before you decided to interrupt me, I was planning to scope out the research tower in this area.
[ His scowl's bordering on demented, probably. ] Are you planning to intervene with that as well?