Day 59: Sun Room
Erika stood back to survey her work, and she had no idea why no one seemed to care.
By 'no one', she was referring to the soldiers who were on guard, who should be looking particularly anxious due to the atmosphere of this place. It didn't make sense in her mind. Someone who just took up a large chunk of the middle of the Sun Room to build a ( Read more... )
By 'no one', she was referring to the soldiers who were on guard, who should be looking particularly anxious due to the atmosphere of this place. It didn't make sense in her mind. Someone who just took up a large chunk of the middle of the Sun Room to build a ( Read more... )
Sora had asked Harry a question, about how the two met, but it didn't make much sense to him; mostly because he didn't know what 'Stephen King' and 'Oxford' was. A place? It sounded like street names to him, so ... but wait, where was there a street in this place? Did Harry meet Venom before they were kidnapped? That made sense... he guessed. What the hell did romance have to do with it?
"You met him where?" Chipp asked, sort of looking down at Harry and Sora before turning back to Venom (or at least, where he thought Venom was, because he couldn't see). "And aren't you coming in? The rest of us are in here!" That sounded like a good enough reason to have Venom follow, right?
Reply
"The library?" he asked as he leaned back slightly, starting to get more comfortable. He felt bad that Chipp had to stand while the rest of them were relaxing, but at least he would know how to avoid getting into that kind of trouble in the future. Sora had managed it, and if he could, so could everyone else, right?
But the question had been turned back on him and for a moment Sora had to think. His first few conversations with Venom had been pretty run-of-the-mill, but they'd kept running into each other after that. Venom was an interesting guy to talk to, even if he was pretty grumpy. "I just talked to him over a meal one time, and we got to know each other better after that." They'd gone out together one night, although Venom had been pretty badly drugged at that point. There'd also been the time when they'd escaped the gas after that food fight... Yeah, he and Venom had been through a few things together, that was for sure.
Now, though, the guy was being a real spoilsport. Sora glanced over when Chipp urged Venom to come in, nodding along with him almost immediately. "Yeah!" He fell onto his side and then slid himself toward the fort's entrance, lifting up the sheet so that he could poke his head out. "There's still space!"
Reply
No.
It was because he shook his head that he managed to catch sight of the solider his business partner had taken to arguing with earlier. The guard's face read of quiet, silent disapproval (although that tended to be the expression everyone had when speaking to Chipp Zanuff), his eyes staring straight into that pile of blankets and immaturity. By the time the more relaxed members of the conversation looked back out of their next, the Guild Head's arms had already dropped to his side, his head tilted in consideration at that upset soldier.
...He wasn't doing this because they asked him to. He was doing this because he hated that solider--him and all the other ones. There was something altogether too pleasing about the idea of being childishly spiteful at every opportunity, enough so that he barely winced at the pain in his side as he knelt down to join the others. As a more crass man would say: Fuck them. They don't deserve my respect.
His expression remained blank even as he sat with them, one hand drifting to one of the items holding up the blanket. "Zanuff, help me flip this couch onto its side. That should give us more head-room." They also wouldn't be able to tell if the man was sitting afterward, though the assassin was only going to call that a side-effect rather than his being sympathetic to the other man's plight.
Reply
It was pretty comfortable inside here, though comfortable was something of a relative term. The thing was, this was basically...fucking weird. There was no other way to put it. Like, his whole life was kinda crazy? Well, maybe not his whole life, but definitely the past year of it, what with bodies in a shower and murder conspiracies that weren't really murder conspiracies. Then ever since he got kidnapped, it'd gotten weirder. Meeting Harrison Ford pretty much solidified that. You didn't go back from meeting Harrison Ford.
God, okay, that was a lot of recap exposition. Newcomers, take note.
Anyway, the point was, after a certain point, it was easier not to think that much about it, so he didn't consider how bizarre it was to be dressed like G.I. Joe inside a blanket fort with a kid and some guy trying to drag some other (much surlier) guy with an eye on his hair into said fort.
"Yeah, he seems like a pretty good guy," Harry said, looking over as Venom decided to make his entrance. He gave the blanket collapsing in on them a bit of a poke.
Or they could put up a couch. That too.
He scratched the back of his neck, a belated realization occurring to him.
"Wait a minute, did you say you were running for President?"
Reply
Hence why he was pleased when Harry asked him if he really was running, nodding to answer the man's question.
"Yeah, that's right. I have to become President, and then I'm going to start changing this country to make it better." Nevermind where "this" country was, Chipp figured any country that let this sort of shit happened still had to be changed. Seriously, kidnapping people? The idea that someone would even allow that was kind of sickening to him. "So I need to get enough votes to become President. That means you better vote for me."
Let it be known that Chipp had yet to refine his campaign for votes.
Reply
"Hey!" he greeted as Venom ducked inside, waving to the man before glancing over to Chipp. They were going to prop up a couch? Well, that would make it a little easier for everyone to sit in here and actually have some space above their heads. Not that Sora needed it that much, but he wasn't going to dwell on his shortness right now.
Instead, he listened to what Chipp was saying about how he was going to run for president. A president was someone who was in charge of stuff, right? Kind of like the mayor of Halloween Town, but even more important.
"How are you going to do that?" he asked the man once he'd finished with his explanation. Sora thought that it sounded like a great idea -- when was making something better not a good thing? -- but he wanted to know what exactly Chipp had in mind. It didn't sound like it was an easy job; Sora understood that better after running the Arts and Crafts club.
Reply
Once it was finally put into place, the Guild Head slid to the floor. In regards to Zanuff's Presidential aspirations (...had he even decided which country to run in?), Venom stayed silent. He could answer that himself.
Reply
(At this stage, Harry had yet to discover dimensions or Second World or any of that shit, so he was still pretty solidly convinced he was in America. Where else would he be? They all spoke English and no one had affected Russian or German accents and he was certain he smelled bacon one morning. This was obviously set in America.)
Harry scratched behind his ear. Possibly, the guy was kidding. Harry wasn't too sure about that, but he decided there was no reason to get down on someone for their chosen life goals. He'd had a lot of assholes tell him he couldn't possibly be the best magician since Houdini got appendicitis, and hey, look how that turned out.
...
...Okay, this required some rethinking. Hang on.
In the meantime, he scratched behind his ear. "Oh, yeah, sure, I'll vote for you."
When he planted his palms on the ground to get more comfortable again, he felt a blunt edge and immediately yanked his hand up again. Oh, hey, was that-
"Hey, look." He held the button up and squinted through the holes that were too small to really see through. He turned to Sora. "Wanna see something cool, kid?"
Reply
"Yeah! You won't regret it!" It was funny how something so simply cheered Chipp up so much. Yeah, one vote! That was the first of many, a big step forward! Damn, he felt good right now. Since he was in such a good mood, he obviously had to try for more, right? This campaigning thing was easier then he thought. He looked down at Sora, after Harry had offered to show the kid a magic trick. Was Sora old enough to vote? Well, in the meantime....
"Kurae! And what about you, Venom? You're still voting for me, right?"
Reply
That all felt so long ago now. That had just been for fun, while Sora was guessing that Chipp meant it more seriously. He said he wanted to change things for the better, so that sounded like more than just a silly game.
However, Sora was then distracted by the whole subject by Harry asking him a question. He took note of the button in his hand and realized it must have come off of one of the blankets, pillows, or pieces of furniture during all the shuffling around. Still, what exactly did Harry mean? "Huh? Like what?" the boy asked.
Reply
A huff of air left the assassin's mouth in response, something too exasperated to be a laugh yet too short to be a sigh. Would he vote for him? The short answer was "no." The long answer was hardly that; it was three words at most. Criminals couldn't vote. That was always how it was and unless he found himself pardoned, that was how it was going to stay. Someone with the political aspirations Chipp did should know that by now.
It was also worth mentioning that, criminal or not, campaigning for votes in a place like this was particularly pointless. He could have vocalized that thought. He most likely should have. In the end, Venom only shook his head and turned his attention to whatever Harry was doing.
There was just something about the blaring optimism around him that was keeping his mouth shut. Maybe he didn't feel like ruining it.
Reply
Leave a comment