[PRP]Y O U D I E D [Oliver/Cass]

[demon_pachabel]

ＹＯＵ ＤＩＥＤ

It was fairly well known within the first few days of Cassandra working at The 4th Wall that she usually was there before or after her shift in the Employee Game Room making her way through about 10 years worth of horror games. Rather, she was still making her way slowly, but surely, through Demon's Souls. Anybody who had not been there since her shifts had started, however, would not have quite been as informed of the uh...


Long stream of angry screams that came muffled from down there every time she died for what she considered a 'cheap' reason. Like having four magic users shove glowing balls of energy up Ted (her character was named Ted, despite being a female)'s butt.

"A R E Y O U K I D D I N G M E???????"

She nearly tossed the controller before 'It's not yours' stayed her hand. She took a deep breath, set the controller down, and then quietly walked away from the game to head up the stairs, Ted standing dumbly in the Nexus as Cass took a much needed break from the madness. She had probably 15 minutes until her shift started anyways. Time to destress.

Time to regain her being as a not-angry-gamer Cass. HooOOoooooo boy. Her first step would be to find the person she was taking over for, thus she started wandering the aisles.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Ollie had heard that Cid hired a new employee. "She's great", he said, rattled off all sorts of compliments before rambling on about some new game or comic or thing that Oliver had no interest in. It made work interesting, if not awkward (especially with the customers, the ones who were like 'did you hear about this?', no he has a life ******** thank you).

Regardless, he had yet to meet said employee. His part time work was carefully woven around his school hours, and most of his shifts were shared with Jamie. Today marked mystery employee number 1, but he wasn't too worried. Push came to shove and it would just be some chick with far more interest in his job than he head. He was alright at keeping it amiable and professional. Besides, his shift was almost over.

The yell though, that caught him off guard. Had he been busy with a customer when she walked in? Was she already down there? He blinked slowly as he watched the door open over top of the aisles, watched it close, picked up on the footsteps with his keen were senses as ******** wheeled around the corner.

Which, frankly, left Oliver standing there awkwardly with as assortment of manga in his hands, since he was in the process of re-organizing (people needed to put s**t back where they found it, for ******** sake).

"I see." That was all he said in greeting.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Around another corner to continue her quest to find the only other employee in the store.

And there he was.

Coon boy.

The coon boy who turned into a real boy because of her chinese food. From the way he was holding things awkwardly, however, it was obvious in a moment: "So I guess I'm taking over for you here in a few." It made as much sense as his greeting to her had. If Oliver was awkward, however, Cassandra most definitely wasn't. It wasn't as though she'd said she was going to order lunch and had come to ask if he wanted to split some Chinese food with her.

"So." Looked like they would be seeing more of each other, but she didn't point out the obvious, "I found your wallet at my place and gave it to....Eli? Did that get back to you?"

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"So it seems..." he looked back to the Manga in his hands and debated his life over the quick course of a moment. This was somehow weirder than tripping into the void back in November. This was an entirely new sort of trip. The trippiest.

He could hear the sound of the trash can falling over. It was hard not to grimace.

"But yeah, it did." He patted his pocket for good measure, "Though I did get a lecture out of how I need to stop leaving my personal belongings in other people's houses." He looked... vaguely agitated, but waved it off. "Elliot can be overwhelming like that sometimes. I think he means well."

He shrugged. "Anyway, I'm guessing you were the one screaming in the basement just now?" Ollie raised an eyebrow. Sure, the basement had a tendency to shoot him out into the Otherworld, but that hadn't happened here with Cass. You don't hear the screams from the Otherworld.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

"I liked Pascal though." Oh, she'd loved Pascal. Belly rubs and everything. Yes, such a good dog.

She glanced back towards the game lounge then shrugged innocently. "Guilty as charged. Cid felt I have a lot of games I need to catch up on. He....he nearly had a fit when I told him I've had a media blackout since about 2008 - " okay, that meant about 8-9 years behind. That was actually significant, " and the last game I'd played was Dead Space....the first one I guess? There are sequels now?" Her inquisitive tone seemed to ask for confirmation even though the games were physically on the harddrive in the basement. She'd seen they existed. "So he kind of handed me a stack of things and told me I should get through them all."

Cass trailed off then shrugged, "So I started with 'Demon's Souls'. And I keep dying. A lot. Sometimes for reasons that are dumb." Which was her way of explaining that the screaming was her gamer rage she had never known she had kicking in. Cass handled fright easily. She'd be the person you wanted in the driver's seat while playing scary games.

She did not handle repeated frustration as well.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

The longer Oliver listened to Cassandra's explanation, the more his eyes glossed over. "I didn't ask for your life story." His tone was deadpan, making it hard to tell if he was being an a*****e or if it was just dry humor. Either way, he sure was a lot more of a d**k when he wasn't groveling in someones kitchen for Chinese food, wasn't he? "I don't know jack about video games I mean. I don't know what either of those things even are."

Pray-tell Oliver, why work at a store that sells video game merchandise? Or any sort of merchandise that dealt with things he had little to no interest in? He looked down at the Manga in his hands for a second time.

"I'm sorry your bad at them though." Was all that he had gathered from this conversation, "It sounds rather frustrating."

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

An almost sinister smile formed on Cass's face. "Oh, if I told you my life story, I'd have to leave you half gutted on a pig farm." She...she was joking, right? She held the expression for far longer than was comfortable at least. Either way, if she was meant to be offended by his comment, she just took it in stride.

Finally she just shrugged, the entire air of 'I could shank a b***h to death with a paperclip' leaving her demeanor in an instant. "The bottom line is I have a lot of required catch up on my plate at Cid's behest and some of it is a b***h." Though it sounded like Cid had made a special exception of this homework on her, since Oliver had no idea what she was talking about.

"Apparently the game is known for it's difficulty level and I'm just being greedy with my progress."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Oliver was fairly certain he hadn't been spared the "special homework", just that he had already completed it. Rather, the him from this universe had completed it and probably gave a whole hell of a lot more damns than he did currently. Maybe video games weren't bad, but he didn't have the time to juggle it between school and magic and what not.

Anyway, he was pretty sure he just got threatened. Should he go to Cid about that? The cops maybe? He remembered Jeremiah cornering him in the alleyway and calling him out and shoved that thought away immediately. No cops. Cops were homewreckers and jobwreckers and magic-peace-of-mind-wreckers.

"Well that's lovely imagery." The threat was so over the top to him that he didn't take the aggression in probably the way he should have. It was more the principle of the matter. "You can keep it to yourself then."

He put the last of the manga away on the shelf, his eyes glossing over the rows of books. At least they were manufactured to be easily organized, god bless Japan.

"I do hope you can overcome your Cid-imposed trials, though." Today was a good day, but screaming on a migraine day would probably make him freak out. "All the screaming can't be good for your blood pressure."

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

She laughed when he told her she could keep her story to herself. Of course she could. "I technically have to," she said, then easily dropped the subject entirely.

"To be honest, a lot of what I do probably isn't good for my health," like feeding wild animals. She watched him as he sorted books, a mild look of interest on her face. She'd probably be doing something similar in a few minutes herself, once her shift was actually started. Yet it was obvious that her presence just made Oliver uncomfortable. Hmmm, what did she do about that. . . .

She decided she didn't care. The two weren't exactly friends in the first place and it wouldn't be the first time she renegotiated a conversation in her head to distance herself from it. "I'll just head back to the front desk then," it could have been considered startling how quickly her attachment drained from her voice, "let me know if you need anything before your shift ends."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Well that certainly was a one-eighty. Oliver's head tilted to the side as she grew aloof, threw the conversation away, stopped caring. It wasn't that it bothered him, because what reason did he have to care himself? It was just... strange. Or maybe he was actually bothered, and he just wasn't sure why or what for. That was an unfortunate emotion. He didn't like it at all.

"You don't have to." He said after a moment, his gaze nonchalant. In truth, he wasn't feeling very nonchalant at all, but Cass didn't have to know that. "I mean, I don't really care. I'm just reorganizing." He spotted another out of place book and moved to fix it.

"I won't pester you about your mysterious past if that's what it is." He huffed.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

She'd detached herself from so many people in her life that the skill to just let go was perhaps one of her more practiced ones. She'd simply made the guess that this was the course of action now needed. The beautiful novel that would endear all lo mein loving children to raccoons would never be written.

Cass looked at the shelf with a bit more interest, idly reading the titles of the section.

"It's not mysterious. I'm a fairly normal person, I just have things I'm not allowed to talk about. I'm sure you have your own." Her voice was still flat, but she'd at least somewhat re-engaged in the conversation.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Sure I do." He said with that same nonchalance. The biggest one was definitely the events in the void, and since Cassandra wasn't magic, it was likely she had no knowledge of it at all. "Everyone does. I thought I already said I wasn't askin' for it." He continued to shuffle around. Even if something didn't require the reorganization, he was messing with it anyway. It was something to keep his hands busy.

"Do you actually know anything about any of this stuff?" He was talking particularly about the manga; Cass had already proven she knew more than enough about video games, or at least shown enough interest in them.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Cass shrugged. "Not most of these sections," she admitted, tossing the previous topic aside. They both had baggage, she'd ignore that it had ever been something they'd glanced over. None of either of their businesses. "I'm more of a horror junkie myself. Anything I'm really reading up on is because Cid had a heart attack when I said I hadn't."

So much Sailor Moon.

"Most of this stuff doesn't really look interesting when you read the back covers anyways," she pulled a volume of something-or-other off a shelf and browsed the back of it. Her expression remained impassive.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

He nodded slowly, "I don't know anything about anything in this place. Makes me question why I really work here sometimes." His eyes narrowed, but not in an accusatory or angry way; it was more like he was thinking. "I've just never really been into any of this? Don't have the time. Don't have the money either." He didn't seem to bothered by it. "I mean, ten dollars for a single one of these is a little ridiculous."

Sure, he had an employee discount, but it didn't really matter much when he had no interest in this sort of thing.

"I just know some people are super into it." He shrugged again. Small talk was really... weird, and kind of hard to maintain. He was reminded of why he didn't try to pursue it all that much. Maybe a topic change? What was he good at talking about? Music... his cats...

His cats! He perked back up, "Did you meet Chai and Nosey whenever you dropped my wallet off?" His expression held a renewed interest, "Oh, I guess Pascal too, he must've been there." He looked a little sheepish, "He follows Eli around like a leech."

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

"Yeah, they're a little pricey. This one's like $8, but that's still $8 for something that takes me 30-40 minutes to read." Cass agreed as she slid the volume back into it's place. "At least I can just...read stuff while I'm here and not worry about having a stack of books, this tall," she implied a height with her hand that was up to her neck, "that I need to find places for."

She had like 6 actual books to her name and she still barely found space for those (and one was only there because she'd read one enough times for the cover to fall off).

Cass perked up when Oliver mentioned what seemed to be pet names. "No! I met Pascal," by 'met' she meant 'if I hadn't been handed coffee I would have just pet that dog for about six hours', "though. Lil' guy nearly bowled me over to get some attention. Awww man, I missed out on more fuzzy faces?"

She was legitimately disappointed.

Melancholies