(no subject)
The following text is taken almost verbatim from my work this evening.
Scene: reasonably quiet petrol station of the multinational flavour, about ten o'clock. Staff: one (moi), young woman of the cheerful persuasion, willing to go the extra mile for her customers (some of this is a lie.)
CUSTOMER OF THE 30 YEAR OLD MALE PERSUASION: *walks in* Can I get a gas bottle* filled?
*I don't know what these are called outside NZ... LPG bottles? Anyway, you plug them into barbeques or heaters or small stoves. They contain a flammable gas. Filling them entails me leaving the store and going outside to the pumps (leaving the store unattended.) For this reason, many petrol stations won't fill after a certain hour. But my station is *special* and more concerned with sales than with the safety of its staff, so we fill them 24/7. This is not too bad as long as customers come at a quiet time, as this one did.
FRIENDLY LOCAL CREWMEMBER (hereafter FLC), IE ME: *checks forecourt; it's quiet* Sure, I can do that for you now, sir.
CUSTOMER & FLC head outside to the filling station, set up, etc. CUSTOMER leans on car, observes FLC.
CUSTOMER: So, how old are you?
FLC: (Mildly surprised, only slightly skeeved) Uh, 19.
CUSTOMER: Ah, quite young!
FLC: (Jokily) Oh, not so young!
CUSTOMER: Hm. Have you heard of Jesus?
FLC: (slightly more skeeved, but maintaining even tone) Ah, I'm sorry, I'm atheist.
FLC clearly expects this to be the end of the subject. And a note: CUSTOMER appears to be a foreigner, although his English is really pretty good; he sounds to FLC more like a first-language English speaker from a country where other languages are also spoken, like India or, I dunno, parts of Africa or Canada or something. His next remark is therefore surprising:
CUSTOMER: Ah, atheist. What does that mean?
FLC: Um, I don't believe in any god.
CUSTOMER: (Clearly warming to his subject)But don't you find that something of a risk? You know, it doesn't matter whether or not you believe in God; He believes in you!
FLC: (Thinking: so if it doesn't matter, why don't you shut up? But retaining polite tone, because I am an *excellent* retail worker) Um, it's a risk I'm willing to take, seeing as how I don't believe in him.
CUSTOMER: [something I've forgotten about heaven, etc]
FLC: well, you know, I don't believe in that. But I'm sure if he does exist and I die and I show up there, any good God will understand that I've lived a pretty good life. (This is true! Today I fetched water for an old woman in the haemotology clinic. Good deeds for all! ;))
CUSTOMER: (In the tones of one playing a trump card) Ah, but you see, that's not enough for Jesus!
FLC: (Shutting down LPG fill, which has finished; STILL with polite, even cheerful tones) Well then he's a pretty bitchy god.
FLC walks back to store, followed by CUSTOMER after he's put the bottle in the car and gotten his wallet. It is a measure of the extent to which the FLC is pissed off that she didn't put the bottle in his car herself.
FLC: (smiling) That'll be $19.50, thank you!
CUSTOMER: Ah, maybe I've tempted you a little bit, huh?
FLC: Um...
CUSTOMER: Well, think about it, okay?
FLC: (Thinking: NO. FUCK OFF. In tones of great finality:) Have a good evening, sir.
ARGHOMFG. Okay, look, there are a lot of religious people who I know and respect and love. But believe me this method of attempting to convert me wil not ever work and will merely confirm me as more stalwartly atheistic. It's also THREATENING. DON'T FUCKING DO IT. I'm a young woman working alone until 11 pm; I've left the store to fill your bottle; I'm actually kind of at your mercy. PISS THE HELL OFF WITH YOUR EVANGELISTIC CRAP, and oh, here's a hint, if someone identifies themselves as atheist, what they mean is I'm not interested.
*sigh* I should have just kept repeating "atheist!" in gradually riding volume until he got the message, I know.
Okay, really I just wanted to say? I love this episode a LOT. I downloaded it today because I basically felt like perving on Faith - I get this a lot, it's kind of like a sickness, but at least I share it with, like, everyone with eyes - but I realised halfway through that it actually has some of my favourite Wesley moments ever, as well. Um, not the crappy ones with Wesley breaking Faith out of prison - that's typical piss-me-off Wes - but the moments with Lilah's body. So he thinks Lilah's been killed by Angelus, so he has to chop of Lilah's head in order to make sure she doesn't go all vampy. And there's this really long scene that I actually kind of love where he's looking at Lilah's body and he starts hallucinating Lilah, chatting away at him about their relationship (and there's a signed dollar bill proving that's the right word to use, BTW). It's just... a good scene, and canon Wes in this period tends strangely to annoy me (or actually. I couldn't stand the characterization that wouldn't let him get over Fred, EVER. It ruined a lot of the dynamics of the later seasons for me, especially after this showdown with Lilah.) but I like this bit of him a lot.
Other things I like about the episode: okay, this is the fourth season, so we're about to plunge into the whole Evil!Cordelia Jasmine mess (this is also the episode where she tells Conner she's pregnant... god, I hate, hate, hate that subplot. Grrargh.) But I still like the bit where Faith puts the smackdown on Conner, and of course, Faith is a breath of fresh air, I think because she comes from *outside* of the total crack (and not in the good way) that is S4/5 Angel canon. She even comments on it, getting a kind of metatextual role that's really sort of fun and not the kind of thing Faith tends to get used for often.
Scene: reasonably quiet petrol station of the multinational flavour, about ten o'clock. Staff: one (moi), young woman of the cheerful persuasion, willing to go the extra mile for her customers (some of this is a lie.)
CUSTOMER OF THE 30 YEAR OLD MALE PERSUASION: *walks in* Can I get a gas bottle* filled?
*I don't know what these are called outside NZ... LPG bottles? Anyway, you plug them into barbeques or heaters or small stoves. They contain a flammable gas. Filling them entails me leaving the store and going outside to the pumps (leaving the store unattended.) For this reason, many petrol stations won't fill after a certain hour. But my station is *special* and more concerned with sales than with the safety of its staff, so we fill them 24/7. This is not too bad as long as customers come at a quiet time, as this one did.
FRIENDLY LOCAL CREWMEMBER (hereafter FLC), IE ME: *checks forecourt; it's quiet* Sure, I can do that for you now, sir.
CUSTOMER & FLC head outside to the filling station, set up, etc. CUSTOMER leans on car, observes FLC.
CUSTOMER: So, how old are you?
FLC: (Mildly surprised, only slightly skeeved) Uh, 19.
CUSTOMER: Ah, quite young!
FLC: (Jokily) Oh, not so young!
CUSTOMER: Hm. Have you heard of Jesus?
FLC: (slightly more skeeved, but maintaining even tone) Ah, I'm sorry, I'm atheist.
FLC clearly expects this to be the end of the subject. And a note: CUSTOMER appears to be a foreigner, although his English is really pretty good; he sounds to FLC more like a first-language English speaker from a country where other languages are also spoken, like India or, I dunno, parts of Africa or Canada or something. His next remark is therefore surprising:
CUSTOMER: Ah, atheist. What does that mean?
FLC: Um, I don't believe in any god.
CUSTOMER: (Clearly warming to his subject)But don't you find that something of a risk? You know, it doesn't matter whether or not you believe in God; He believes in you!
FLC: (Thinking: so if it doesn't matter, why don't you shut up? But retaining polite tone, because I am an *excellent* retail worker) Um, it's a risk I'm willing to take, seeing as how I don't believe in him.
CUSTOMER: [something I've forgotten about heaven, etc]
FLC: well, you know, I don't believe in that. But I'm sure if he does exist and I die and I show up there, any good God will understand that I've lived a pretty good life. (This is true! Today I fetched water for an old woman in the haemotology clinic. Good deeds for all! ;))
CUSTOMER: (In the tones of one playing a trump card) Ah, but you see, that's not enough for Jesus!
FLC: (Shutting down LPG fill, which has finished; STILL with polite, even cheerful tones) Well then he's a pretty bitchy god.
FLC walks back to store, followed by CUSTOMER after he's put the bottle in the car and gotten his wallet. It is a measure of the extent to which the FLC is pissed off that she didn't put the bottle in his car herself.
FLC: (smiling) That'll be $19.50, thank you!
CUSTOMER: Ah, maybe I've tempted you a little bit, huh?
FLC: Um...
CUSTOMER: Well, think about it, okay?
FLC: (Thinking: NO. FUCK OFF. In tones of great finality:) Have a good evening, sir.
ARGHOMFG. Okay, look, there are a lot of religious people who I know and respect and love. But believe me this method of attempting to convert me wil not ever work and will merely confirm me as more stalwartly atheistic. It's also THREATENING. DON'T FUCKING DO IT. I'm a young woman working alone until 11 pm; I've left the store to fill your bottle; I'm actually kind of at your mercy. PISS THE HELL OFF WITH YOUR EVANGELISTIC CRAP, and oh, here's a hint, if someone identifies themselves as atheist, what they mean is I'm not interested.
*sigh* I should have just kept repeating "atheist!" in gradually riding volume until he got the message, I know.
Okay, really I just wanted to say? I love this episode a LOT. I downloaded it today because I basically felt like perving on Faith - I get this a lot, it's kind of like a sickness, but at least I share it with, like, everyone with eyes - but I realised halfway through that it actually has some of my favourite Wesley moments ever, as well. Um, not the crappy ones with Wesley breaking Faith out of prison - that's typical piss-me-off Wes - but the moments with Lilah's body. So he thinks Lilah's been killed by Angelus, so he has to chop of Lilah's head in order to make sure she doesn't go all vampy. And there's this really long scene that I actually kind of love where he's looking at Lilah's body and he starts hallucinating Lilah, chatting away at him about their relationship (and there's a signed dollar bill proving that's the right word to use, BTW). It's just... a good scene, and canon Wes in this period tends strangely to annoy me (or actually. I couldn't stand the characterization that wouldn't let him get over Fred, EVER. It ruined a lot of the dynamics of the later seasons for me, especially after this showdown with Lilah.) but I like this bit of him a lot.
Other things I like about the episode: okay, this is the fourth season, so we're about to plunge into the whole Evil!Cordelia Jasmine mess (this is also the episode where she tells Conner she's pregnant... god, I hate, hate, hate that subplot. Grrargh.) But I still like the bit where Faith puts the smackdown on Conner, and of course, Faith is a breath of fresh air, I think because she comes from *outside* of the total crack (and not in the good way) that is S4/5 Angel canon. She even comments on it, getting a kind of metatextual role that's really sort of fun and not the kind of thing Faith tends to get used for often.