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Post by Eric on Dec 10, 2005 11:20:41 GMT
Eric glanced up at the ceiling, trying to remember how many fish he did have. He counted them off on his fingers as he announced them. "Well, there's the columbian shark, the vast number of guppies, a few angel fish, I did have a siamese fighting fish but he may have fought with his reflection and commited suicide. It happens sometimes, they're weird fish by nature. There's some fishes with the neon stripes on them that i forget right now....And thats it. i think. So probably somewhere in the region of fifty. it's a big tank. And I don't have time for guitar. That and the e-string has snapped and I haven't bothered replacing it yet."
It was weird. To be talking about his "hobbies" to someone. He'd once shared them on a regular basis with a guy named Jim that used to work at DPS and quit about a year ago when the Max's mind games had fucked with his head too much. Jim didn't live in Zeshia anymore, had probably moved out to Cercia to stay with his family. Or something. Eric couldn't recall because he felt that if you wrote a letter to someone and they didn't write back, then it was a lost cause.
And everyone at DPS rarely saw that Eric was a person, other than a very effcient field ops agent or boss. Idly he reached up behind his head and scratched at it, finally pulling his eyes away from the ceiling of the elevator as it reached to a ping stop. There. He stepped out, and was already fishing for another cigarette and his lighter.
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Post by Johnny Delacroix on Dec 17, 2005 17:49:53 GMT
It was probably one of those work things.. Aside from the stupid gossip there wasn't a lot of friendly chat going on. Johnny stepped out carefully after Eric, glancing left and right before continuing on toward the door. It could have been because Eric's one intimidating fellow, too. Just by being his Eric-ey self. Johnny noticed, he was aware, but he didn't really care. Johnny didn't have a knack for looking at 'the person inside', but it was just as well because he didn't have a knack for looking at 'the person outside' either. Maybe it was just luck, or maybe only decent people bothered to stop and chat with him.
He'd either abandoned or devoured the rest of his candy in the elevator, because it was no longer on his person as he stuffed his hands into his pockets and glanced over at Eric with a mild grin. "You have a shark? That's cool. It doesn't go around eating all of the other little fishies? Do you have any gators?" His gaze turned away thoughtfully. He wondered if alligators came in miniature sizes. He'd seen people with baby gators as pets, but fuck if he knew what they did with them once they grew up. He decided to look it up. Hop on over to a pet store some time. Now a gator would be a perfect addition to Eric's little water-themed mini-zoo.
At any rate, as he reached the front door, he did one last check to make sure he had everything he needed before tugging it open and doing the 'after you, sir' motion to Eric with a wry grin. "Youth before beauty."
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Post by Eric on Dec 19, 2005 15:06:21 GMT
He laughed, pausing and lifting one hand, still gripping a ciagrette between fingers and flicked some hair out of his eyes. "Naw. He gets enough of his own food, and the meat he'd get off the other fish wouldn't be worth pickin' out from between his teeth."
There was an idle wave as they headed off down the corridor, one of the many people Eric kept a sort of, yea I know your name. Hows little -insert childs name here- now can I get some slack or some extra time on -insert something here-? Eric had a lot of aquanitences, but no actual friends. Which said something for his personality, perhaps? Or maybe it was all to do with deep rooted insecurities.
Or lack of social skills.
Anyway. He contimplated the 'gator question. "Naw, you can't get little ones. They keep growning and growing. Not enough room in the house for one." Quietly Eric wondered the same thought as Johnny. What did people do with them when they got to big? Somewhere in the back of his mind was a picture book story about a woman who had a pet one, or was it a crocodile? That kept on growing and eating everything in the house until it's tail stuck out one end and the tail the other. He blinked, shaking his head as they approached the door, pausing to eye the medic.
"You older than me?" He asked, genuinly surprised that this might be the case.
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Post by Johnny Delacroix on Jan 1, 2006 22:07:01 GMT
To Eric's surprise, Johnny responded with a bit of his own, endlessly spacey eyes widening slightly. "I'm almost thirty." He waited until Eric exited, before stepping out behind him, tucking a bit of hair behind his ear. As the realization of his statement just hit him, he shuddered a bit. "Jesus I'm almost -thirty-." His tone was that as if 'thirty' were something dirty and disgusting. Walking alongside Eric, he stared off thoughtfully. "You're twenty-one or twenty-two, right? Still in your prime and all. Do I really seem that young?" His gaze settled upon his red-haired co-worker with a thoroughly puzzled expression. "Is it somethin' I should be offended or complimented about?"
He glanced off to his left. And slowly sidled around so Eric was on his left. It was something so casual he didn't even make any face to indicate he didn't like the look of the monkey with Charlie Chaplain. He'd forgotten all about the gaters, and was pointedly not looking at the monkey or Mr. Chaplain. They were just weird. "Are you driving? Cause I walked here."
Johnny absently lifted his hand to his mouth to nibble at the end of his right pointer finger. It was a habit since he stopped biting his nails, and knew he couldn't smoke -all- the time. He thought absently about what he would do with his equipment when they got back to his place, which made him suddenly grab his bag, letting out a sigh of relief. He never forgot it for the simple reason he was always afraid of losing it. The sun was nice and bright, though. Almost too bright. Or was it a street lamp? Right! He was still walking with Eric. He looked over at Eric to make sure he was still there too.
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Post by Eric on Jan 2, 2006 22:27:30 GMT
"Really? You're that old?" A pause, and then a frown. Eric had seen young men become old before their time, mainly because of some of the things they had to do and see, but it made sense. As far as he could remember, Johnny was so heavily qualfied that he probably had half the alphabet after his name. You didn't get that many letters after a few years of study.
Shrugging he followed a little behind johnny, loathing walking side by side because he'd never walked side by side with anyone. It was simply an odd sensation. As Johnny slid around to his opposite side, the redhead raised an eyebrow but made no comment. It must be odd, he conceeded, seeing things that either distubed or amused or were just plain weird all the time. Must be mighty colourful though.
Eric shook his head. "Naw, no point driving around in Medias. I mean, whats the point? Who'd spend their tokens on gas when the public transport network is free, or practically." An idle shrug, taking a long, lazy drag on his cigarette as Eric slipped into the ol' "follow the guy in front" mode. Which left his mind free to speel over higher activites.
"So, had any field practice? Or all the people you've dealt with been indoors?"
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Post by Johnny Delacroix on Jan 5, 2006 9:04:45 GMT
'Colourful' was a very accurate term, actually. Colourful and bizarre. Johnny had stuffed his hands in his pockets again, it was something of a habit when he didn't have anything to hold onto or tinker with while walking. His feet did most of the directional work, though Eric most likely would have known the direction they were going very well. He lived in the building right next door, after all.
"Never had any official field practice. I was taught how to shoot one 'o them hand gun thingies and I ain't too bad at it, but I don't like hurting people. I guess it goes against my Hippocratic oath. 'Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life. This awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.'" He tilted his head slightly, staring into nothingness with that far-off gaze as he prattled off that part of the oath he memorized in school.
"I guess in one sense killing people for the sake of justice and order is like playing God. The bible does say it's God's job to judge the wicked. If you were to believe in that kind of thing. In another sense, who else is going to keep the peace while we're still stuck on this planet with all the other human beings? It's a tough thing to think about, huh." His brow furrowed slightly as he looked back over at Eric. "Personally I don't wanna go killing or hurting anybody unless I don't got any other choice. I know enough not to do what I can't handle, keep my head down when it's needed down, help who I can without gettin' anyone else put in danger. I was taught that round when they taught me how to shoot the gun."
Johnny looked ahead again, his hand falling into his bag to fish out his cigarettes, which he just held in his hand for the time being. He was talking a lot, sure. But it kept his mind from wandering. There was really nothing else to do while walking but let one's mind wander and end up crushed under the silence. "To be completely honest with you, I don't wanna be anywhere in sight of that Maxwell guy. I don't want a situation to arise where I'll have to be anywhere in the same building as him, since it's unavoidable being in the same city. The guy's dangerous, he'd kill me easy. He'd probably kill a lot of you easy, and that's another thing I don't want. I don't wanna be the one dissecting you or Revvie, or anybody I pass in the halls every day. I don't even like the thought of those stupid Stoneage kids dyin'. Half of them don't know any better. Doesn't mean I won't do what I gotta, but who really wants that shit?"
He turned his head and therefore his gaze back to Eric with a sincere look that was completely unlike his usual inattentive expression, and would probably pass at any given moment anyway. "What about you? What do you think about all this? Do you think violence is the only way to stop violence, or are you just doin' your job? D'you got anything you'd rather be doing? Or wanna do when this whole thing is over?" His expression faltered for a second, and he looked ahead, laughing. "Damn I got all serious there, didn't I." He shuddered a little. "Creepy. Question still stands, though."
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Post by Eric on Jan 5, 2006 19:36:29 GMT
A slight smile. Eric had heard these kind of speeches before. He completely got where people were coming from, but he also knew a lot about the nature of men. Man was an animal, a pack animal so if there wasn't territory disputes, there could always be disputes about women-folk and who has the rights to mate with who. You just needed to sit back and look at the animal kingdom for a while and watch them. Animals fought all the time.
Course, then the argument was that animals didn't cause the mass distruction that a humans could cause, but then if they were given the chance they probably would. Most animals fought to the death, or to the point of injury where having a jugular ripped out was preferable to slowly starving to death or dying of infection.
"I never had much of an option. I was trained to be in the military. From the get go, the moment I was picked up by the DPS. We all were, back then, and because I've always been physically good they decided to train me up properly and give me enough of an education to have a good mind to go with it."
He paused for a second, flicking away the end of his cigarette into an ashtray atop a bin, and stared at it for a few seconds as he gathered his thoughts. This was the deepest conversation he'd had in a long while, and sometimes you wanted to express yourself clearly.
"Like. You're standing there and a wild lion is coming at you tooth and claw, you don't think about running away because you know it's faster than you, and you don't think about talking it down because you know it won't listen. It eventually just boils down to you, or the lion. I don't think there is a human being on this earth that would chose the lion. And if it was the other way around I don't think there's a lion on this earth that would chose a person. "
"People like Maxwell Conner, they know how to use violence. They know how to use death and Max isn't against the idea of trimming down the herd and leaving the smartest, the strongest and the fastest to survive. And I have to stand back and declare that I agree with him on that point. If there was less stupid people able, less people would get hurt because they'd know their limits. Course, my definition of stupidity is different from Conner's. In the end, he won't try to bring down the system by using violence. He might use violence to distract us while he does whatever it is he's got it in his head to do, but he's not going to make a massive bomb and blow us all to bits. He knows that would never work. But when you get people like Conner threatening to bring an established world down and plummet hundreds of thousands of innoccent people into abjective poverty and into an envrionment in which they could never survive, you've got to take them out completely, else they'll just get back up and try again. It case of it boiling down to decisions. Him or Me, Me or Him. I chose me. I *like* me, and if I have to use violence to defend me, I will, because I know there's an eighty percent chance I'll be better at it than whoever it is threatening me."
Another shrug, and he let out a gentle sigh, kicking at an invisable stone. "All I want is out, Johnny. I want to be somewhere else."
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Post by Johnny Delacroix on Jan 13, 2006 20:32:09 GMT
"You wanna survive, so you will. That means you'll eventually get outta here, too." Johnny paused at the crosswalk to watch the little red hand across the street sitting on it's crosswalk pole giving him the finger as vehicles passed by. He was tempted to give it the finger right back, but kept his hands obediently in his pockets. Snooty crosswalk signs.
He kept his gaze affixed on the crosswalk light, as if a little transfixed by it. Not seeming to notice the traffic or anything else at all, though he was aware of it. "I have this mobile home trailer kinda gathering dust n' rust in a parking garage about half a mile from here. She was in pretty good shape the last time I used 'er, before I was kinda banned from driving. You can have 'er whenever you decide to leave, it's not like I have anymore use for 'er, she's probably gettin' lonely in there. If you want, at least." He shrugged absently before glancing over at Eric with a mild grin. "She's got shag carpetiiing." That last bit was spoken in a singsong tone, as if shag was a selling feature.
As he noticed the light turn to the little walking man, he stepped off of the curb and started across the street. "Maxwell scares me. And I don't get scared easy. Little shits like that running around in the world just doesn't make it all that pleasant to live in. I don't even wanna think about it. So where will you go when you've got your ass out from under somebody's thumb?" He smiled as he hopped up onto the opposite curb, turning his gaze to Eric again. His eyes always had a habit of wandering off elsewhere, as was probably noticeable when directly after looking at him his eyes turned away again, wandering around the street to make sure they were going the right way still and turning to continue along said path.
"I can kinda see you livin' in a cabin somewhere far off in the woods without electricity and shittin' in an outhouse like nature intended. Makin' friends with the forest animals, and havin' a trusty grizzly bear companion." He chuckled quietly.
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Post by Eric on Jan 14, 2006 13:48:07 GMT
"I want out the country Johnny." He said softly, tongue flickering over his lips as he watched Johnny carefully. Unlike Johnny, Eric only glanced at a street once, and he saw *everything*. It was a trained gaze, a gaze which learnt to look at the foregrounds and the background, and spot what was lurking in neither of them. Idly he shook his head and sighed softly, eyes slipping shut for a moment as they both stepped up onto the curb.
"But thanks for the offer. Shag carpeting is appealing, but I doubt I'll ever manage to get her, and me out of the country."
At the comment abot him living in the forest and shitting with bears, he laughed. It was a loud, clear, crystal sound and Eric paused, eyeing a tall building briefly. They were deep into the living quarters now, and his building was just over there, so that meant Johnny's must be this one. For a brief moment he eyed the secruity door, and then fixed his eyes onto Johnny.
After all, it was only polite to let the man open his own front door.
"There's a country. To the south. It ain't nothing but plains and forests and rivers and lakes, and..." The voice took a wistful look. "And it's totally wild, you know? People can't live out there because, because thats where like, the magic is. All sorts of crazy creatures. Dragons, Centaurs, vampires. The reason all the cites around the edge of the world is because thats where those creatures don't wannna live. Iona. I ain't going to live in anyone place, you know? I'm gonna travel. Just...Just keep walking, you know? See as much of the world I can see."
He made a decisive nod, and then frowned, shook the thoughts away and reached for the cigarettes in his pocket, pulling out the pack and gesturing to Johnny in offering.
<topic moving to Johnny's apartment, whenever your ready Johnny.>
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