Snippet #1789799

Asha Laken

Ash laid in bed, wide awake. He couldn't sleep, couldn't even bare the thought of shutting his eyes. This was probably the nicest smelling room and most comfortable bed he'd slept on in years, and yet he still couldn't force himself to drift off to sleep. Not yet. Not while his hands were throbbing and the boy somewhere down the hall was probably in even more seething pain than he was, and all over. Poor Kir... Ash was contemplating quitting. The first day on the job and here all this bad stuff was happening. With him around, there was no such thing as coincidence. He knew that. He grew up with bad luck, so he'd seen enough of it to be able to justly define the difference between something naturally bad and something abnormally bad. Today had been an abnormally bad day.

That morning had started off with that jerk and his crew jumping him and robbing him of all his cash, what little he had. This followed by the rest of his fellow Specs being totally out of line all over the place. Jerico seemed way too into his own little careless world for his own good and Kaili was just a whole 'nother list of issues altogether. All for what, really? That Kia kid? He was just a kid, wasn't he? Ash had no idea how old the other cases were, just Kir. He liked Kir, but he had self-control, at least. He might of also had pessimism, but this was just logical. This wasn't happy fun time. This was a job. And, oh god, he did not want to get fired from this job. Not again. He had horrible luck. Such horrible, stinking, rotten luck. And here he was infecting this facility and everyone in it.

Ash's thoughts took on a drastic turn. No, no, it wasn't Jerico's fault that he was so oblivious to everything. It's was Ash's for just being in the way. It wasn't Kaili's fault for being so impulsive. It was Ash's for not doing anything to help control him as a fellow co-worker should. It wasn't Kia's fault for being so innocently ignorant. It was Ash's fault for not explaining it to him in private, when the other two specs weren't around. It wasn't Jennifer's fault for being so ruthless... It was Ash's fault for not doing anything, for not stopping her in time before she...before Kir got hurt. It was just how Jennifer was. He couldn't blame her for that. No, of course not. You couldn't blame someone for being how they were. He was just thinking compulsively. Stop that. Bad thoughts led to bad actions. Asha was not a bad person and he would not be perceived as one. Of all the things people could see him as--an idiot, a wimp, a loser, a weakling, a clutz--one thing he refused to be seen as was a bad person. But it was true, wasn't it? Kir was hurt because of him and his stupid, dumb, horrible luck. He was like a disease, infecting those around him without even trying. It disgusted him.

As hard as Ash's distressed mind tried forcing him to stay awake, the weariness of the day's events eventually got to him and sleep won out. His last thoughts focused on how he could make it up to Kir before he drifted off into a peace-less unconsciousness..

Jerico Javey

The morning sucked, Jerico decided. He woke up in an early-morning daze, momentarily forgetting where he was. He didn't panic. No, he remained calm throughout the entire time that his mind tried to work out the details of the situation, but he was confused. The first thought that came to mind was the lack of a certain cat sleeping by his side. The thought almost worried him until his mind jumped to the question of who's room he was in, who's house, and what he might of done with them. He didn't recall getting drunk. He didn't feel hungover. Ohhhh. And then it all came to him--on his way to the bathroom. He was in the government facility. He was on the job, overlooking the case named Kia, a freak of a guy who could turn himself into a cat at will. Cute, but extremely annoying. Oh, and Kaili. Fucking Kaili didn't fail to reach his thoughts so early in the morning either. He washed his mouth out before getting dressed in new clothes and popping two pieces of gum in his mouth. He felt grossed out.

Jerico had woken up on the wrong side of the bed. He stomped down the hall, his hair still disheveled despite all his attempts to maintain it, which only proved to piss him off that much more. He looked back and fourth, looking for Kia mainly, but he dared that man-whore Kaili to come parading out in front of him. Jerico swore if he saw head or hair of that guy, he would rip that cocky pretty-boy smirk right off his stupid, good-looking face. He swore he would. Where the hell is Kia!? he shouted in his mind, going down this hall and that in his still half-asleep, though very much livid, state of mind. He eventually stopped in the middle of a hallway, resisting the urge to kick a dent in the wall--although, rationally speaking, that probably wouldn't of been the outcome. Where the hell am I?!

It was all the time with this place! He was always lost! Thump. Jerico's head lifted to the sound of some sort of noise. He tilted his head and looked back over his shoulder where, to his relief and annoyance, he realized the rooms were. He'd somehow circled the place and ended up where he started. His immediate anger was wearing off after the speed-walk of aggravation through the facility, but he was still feeling pretty cranky. He checked his watch and realized some of the others probably weren't even up yet, so he ended up going back to his room, slamming the door shut, and getting an extra ten minutes of shut eye to relax himself. By the time he woke up, there was another thumping noise--this time on the other side of the hall. The noise was starting to piss him off, but he was in a (slightly) better mood now.

He got up and opened his door, planning on figuring out the source of the sound so he could give someone a piece of his mind, but before he could even take a step out of his room, Jennifer was there. She ducked under his arm and simply let herself in his room. He glared at her halfheartedly, but it faltered when he yawned. Even in his half-asleep state, he still managed to keep up his suave, leaning against the doorframe and crossing his arms, looking the girl over suspiciously. She looked like she was up to something, but at the moment in the morning, he really couldn't of cared less what it was. “So Jerico, I didn't know you did drugs.” she said. He blinked at her, not understanding for a moment. When it came to him, he felt like an idiot, but she was already going on. “Also, I got a question. What made you want to work here?”

"Weird question," he replied bluntly. He looked her over again before deciding she was just being her usual weird self and that he might as well go along with it. He shrugged. "It was the only job that was mean enough to take me. My resume's not exactly the best. And I've been fired so many times that no other place would take me." He smirked, a little surprised in the back of his mind about how much he was speaking. "And it pays." He made a money sign with his fingers.

Thump. "The fuck is that noise?" he asked, feeling as if he were developing a twitch. He turned towards the door, but didn't trust leaving Jennifer alone in his room, so he slowly stopped himself and gave up on it for the moment. "You're awfully...messy this morning," he noted. A frown tugged at his lips, perhaps a hint of jealousy, although he could never figure out why. "Something...happen?" She looked nice. Messy wasn't the word to describe it. But she had that sense about her, that smell, that look. It didn't take a genius to figure these things out.