Nerves [Mitch/Public]

Posts : 42 Join date : 2011-05-27

He returned. Grudgingly. But only after the copiers were fixed.

It had been a couple of days now that he'd been back to work, and it felt like the machines were running slower than before (in actuality, it was probably his imagination). Every extra second he spent waiting for them to spew out papers was another second he spent inwardly cursing the person who'd caused all this. Stupid goop-woman. He still didn't know what her deal was, or why she'd chosen to make his job all the more unbearable.

He knew this particular day was going to be particularly intolerable, too, because when he'd walked in that morning, he'd found (to his dismay) several boxes of blank envelopes and a few letters to be mass-distributed waiting for him. Envelope-stuffing. The most sadistic form of torture ever invented. Fold a letter into thirds, put it in the envelope, lick it shut, put a label on it, put it back in the box. Repeat a thousand or more times. The first and only time he'd done it before, he'd ended the day bored out of his mind, with sore fingers, aching shoulders, an openly bleeding paper cut tongue, and no saliva left to speak of.

Didn't they have machines or something to do this? In this day and age? One person having to do such menial tasks seemed absolutely ridiculous. He didn't, however, question why they didn't have some grunt doing this work. Although he didn't like to think about it, he knew: he was the grunt.

Presently, he'd just scanned the mail, and was waiting for the copies. Upon lifting the lid and removing the original letter, he caught sight of his own reflection in the glass of the scanner. His face was in the early stages of necrosis--spots that looked almost like very raw pink and red sores (though with clear edges, which made them almost like shallow holes) were starting to open up in patches of various sizes across his skin. They weren't black or putrid yet, but...it was only a matter of days.

At least it didn't always hurt. Usually, he was so accustomed to it that it didn't bother him, but at the same time, he was sure a large part of it had to do with his nerves just being shot in his 'dead' areas. The sensitivity in those parts (and not just to pain) had been dulled by a kind of numbness. And while this may have seemed less than favorable to some, it was a hopeful sign to him: his body was capable of adapting. Anything that made him more like a naturally-born human was a good thing, in his opinion.

Mulling over this as he zoned out to the sounds of the papers being spewed out one by one, he jumped slightly when the phone rang, interrupting his reverie. Frowning, he picked it up, knowing that nothing good was going to come out of that receiver.

"I'm faxing over a--"

He heard enough. Promptly slamming it back into it's cradle, he crossed his arms and glared at it, waiting. Sure enough, it only took a couple of moments before it began to ring again. Disgusted, he disconnected it, rendering it silent for good. He had a full day of work ahead of him already; he'd be damned if anyone was going to shove more off onto him. If they took issue with it, they were free to confront him about it. He was open to any distractions from the task at hand.

((I used to be the letter-stuffer in office aid. Can you tell how much I hated it. :I))

Posts : 21 Join date : 2011-06-02

Allie, for one, welcomed her new corporate overlords. She had so much to be thankful for since she died, which was pretty strange considering she worked in what was basically Hell. Her blessings ranged from having a stable job to simple things like floating or not feeling pain anymore. Being a ghost, more specifically the noisy kind, had its token ups and downs. Allie missed a lot of the habitual things that the living did like eating food or having dreams, but the ectoplasmic woman was always readjusting her rose-colored glasses.

"Knock-Knock! Heads up- or down!" The apparition hollered into the copy room where she had received an order to survey the copiers that were damaged in an accident involving some of her fellow newbies. Allie didn't know the names on the list, but she figured now was as good a time as any to mend bridges as well as machinery. It must have been a startling sight to anyone who was working in the room, having hopefully survived the hefty, firetruck red thrown across the ailse before crashing into the wall. The technician appeared soon after out of seemingly nowhere, gliding through the air until she reached the copy machine. Needless to say, she had her work cut out for her beforehand: wires frayed, bulbs shattered, and ungodly amounts of dark gunk oozed out of every conceivable panel. Apparently some of the gunk still remained plastered inside, but it was no biggie. Allie had removed more gruesome residue from the mudflaps of old Fords back in her day.

While Allie's attention remained glued on removing the otherwordly crust, she reached for a chisel, but instead grabbed a phone from the opposite table. Glancing at it in confusion, the poltergeist momentarily abandoned her first task and placed the receiver against her ear- no dial tone, the line was dead. Said line was her next object of curiousity as she grabbed the untethered cord and traced it back to its host phone. Nothing outwardly appeared to be wrong with the device, but the sour expression on the (rotting?) letter boy said otherwise. "Is something wrong with this here phone, pal?"

Posts : 42 Join date : 2011-05-27

The homunculus jumped nearly a foot in the air when a resounding crash came seemingly from nowhere, and a mass of red hair appeared. He still wasn't used to spirits, having previously kept to the monster floor--in the somewhat secluded alchemy department, no less. Silly though it was, seeing people phase through walls and whatnot continued to unsettle him a little.

However, all was well if she was there for what she seemed to be there for: fixing the stupid machines. Thank. God. She was getting that black shit off of them. He didn't know what it was supposed to be, and he was quite sure that he didn't really want to know. But it continued to reek even after most of it had dried up, and he was getting tired of constantly trying to sit as far away from the ammonia smell as possible.

"Is something wrong with this here phone, pal?"

"What?" He'd been working on biting off a particularly stubborn hangnail on his left thumb, zoning out, when she spoke up. He immediately shook his head, frowning, "No, it's fine. I'm just sick of it ringing all the time." He was sure that after a few months, give or take, he'd lose his mind in here. "Do you know if these things will work faster after that stuff is gone?" He pointed at the black goop. "...Or if it'll stop smelling like piss, at least?"

Posts : 21 Join date : 2011-06-02

The poltergeist listened to the young man with the mottled skin, nodding in sympathy as he summarized his current situation. "Don't blame you one bit," she said while she twirled the phone line absentmindedly. "I just milk the whole 'intangibility' thing for such an occasion. Allie dropped the abused phone back onto the desk, narrowly toppling a stack of letters.

The worker then asked about the condition of the jammed copier. Allie scratched her head through the heap of curls and groaned. "Dunno, but I'll take a crack at it." Being one of the more physically capable spirits, Allie had no problem wielding objects like her tools or office supplies. Ducking into the copier headfirst, Allie swiveled around to survey the damage. "Eew, this is kind of funky." She crinkled her nose as reemerged from the machine. "I wouldn't use it for a while, but maybe all it needs is a good pressure-washing- or exorciscm," the ghostly woman chuckled, " better keep an eye out or it might grow a brain.". Allie was by no means a miracle worker, but it didn't seem right to leave the guy hanging. Digging through her box of scrap and miscellaneous machine parts, Allie retrieved the only humane option for the defiled copy machine: a tiny paper pine-scented conifer tree. She was fond of the air fresheners as they had a therapeutic effect for pent-up negative energy, which was quite unstable for a poltergeist.

After placing the scented tree with all the care and consideration of a kid decorating a Christmas tree, Allie glided across the room to the other curiosity. "I don't believe I properly introduced myself," she shook his hand, somewhat grimacing at the bitemarks on the visible parts of his hand. "Name's Allie, resident repairsghost, and you are...?"

Posts : 42 Join date : 2011-05-27

He chewed on the side of one finger as she dropped the phone, but didn't make any response other than to nod. She had no idea how much he envied powers like invisibility and intangibility and whatnot. Technically, he had certain...'gifts' (other than vomiting up skin--) that he could have used, as well. But they were only available through transfiguration, which was a part of the alchemical studies he hated so bitterly.

...That, and he wasn't fond of the idea of setting himself on fire or boiling himself just to change into something else.

"Exorcism?" He immediately looked highly skeptical, "That stuff doesn't actually work, right? It's all hokey--" In his opinion, anyways. Any sort of pseudo-science was subject to his disdain. After all, science was the one truth in the universe (nevermind that he spent every waking moment surrounded by other similarly supernatural beings), and as pseudo-science (including the process that had created him) was literally 'false' science, it didn't merit recognition of credibility. ...Although, if it was the only thing that was going to get that goop off, then perhaps it was time for him to start considering a more open mindset. He found himself staring with some dismay at the air freshener she'd offered. Admittedly, it did help a little, but it was merely masking the scent. He wanted it gone entirely.

(On a side note, if air fresheners helped with pent-up negative energy, then he could have used about a dozen of them.)

"Thanks," he mumbled, taking a second to wipe his hand on his shirt (irritating the torn skin) before accepting the handshake. "Mitch. ...Resident grunt worker." He said the last bit with a snort, looking decidedly displeased with his rank. Then again, he didn't know who wouldn't be.

Posts : 21 Join date : 2011-06-02

She laughed at his expression after she mentioned an exorcism. "Nah, man, I was just kidding." Allie leaned back in the air, quite unconcerned with the task she had originally been given. The pine freshener would do her job for her for a short while, but it wouldn't last forever. That seemed to be the primary flaw with air fresheners, as well as the majority of things. "I've never administered an exorcism, but I have been the target of some once or twice," she wiggled her fingers to emphasize her ghostly nature, "not that it was successful. I think the priests must have thought I was some sort of 'unholy esscence,' not that I've ever done anything to harm anyone. I guess people just freak out over anything they don't have control over."

Allie smiled when mail-worker Mitch finally introduced himself. "Nice to meet you Mitch," she waved enthusiastically. Mitch, however, didn't seem to pick up on her unnaturally, overflowing enthusiam. In face, he seemed a little more focused on gnawing his flesh. Did he have some sort of condition or something. Instead of shying away, Allie found herself drawn to the morbid sight. Settling back like she was in an invisible chair, the ghostly woman tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Say, Mitch, any reason you're chowing down on yourself? It's not like that it horrified her or anything (her stint in the Underworld had desensitized her pretty quickly), it just seemed to be...what's the word? Unhealthy. "For that matter, why is your face melting? You under a curse or something?"

» It's Better than Janitor [Mitch/Public]
» Mitch, whose name is not long enough to satisfy the length requirements for this topic title
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