034 || written;

[workaphilic]

[It's some ungodly hour of the morning when a note appears in the journal, for fellow insomniacs or information gluttons who like to read new entries first thing. There's barely any ambient sound recorded; just faint bubbling from a nearby experiment, and the scratch of pen on paper.

(Whether that's out of respect for sleeping residents or something else, well. It's not that hard to say, with him.)]

What are you getting out of this arrangement?

If your first instinct is to say 'nothing,' don't bother. You obviously haven't been paying attention, and I'm not interested in being subjected to your blather. Keep your ignorant bliss to yourself.

The rest of you: there must be something. Paradisa wouldn't bother with you otherwise. If a portal appeared in the lobby tomorrow, ready to whisk you back to your world, your time, your life -- what would be the thing that kept you from stepping through it?

Don't be boring.

SH

((Tags will be slow! Thanks for your patience, everyone.))

Comments

[workaphilic]

The end result isn't what I care about.

Not much in way of friends back home?

[whichwayyoulean]

They all left.

[workaphilic]

You think the same won't be true here?

[whichwayyoulean]

[There's a pause before he replies. It's not that he's thinking about it, not really, he's already accepted it as a face that Everyone Leaves. That's just the way his life goes. It's just never pleasant to let the thought cross his mind]

No. They'll go eventually, too.

[workaphilic]

[He doesn't write anything else for a while. Long enough for him to have gotten up and wandered away from the journal, because that's exactly what he did.

When he comes back, his response is hurried and slanted.]

Always a possibility you'll go first.

[whichwayyoulean]

[Well, that's weird. Still...]

Maybe, but not likely. It doesn't work like that.

Not for me.

[workaphilic]

Spare me the gratuitous self-loathing. There's nothing to say that the probability of leaving isn't hte same for all of us.

[Yeah, that might have struck a nerve a bit.]

[whichwayyoulean]

[Oh please, gratuitous self-loathing is what the Once-ler does best]

There's nothing to say that it IS, either. Unless someone here is an expert in magical, sentient soul-eating castles.

[workaphilic]

Nothing in my research suggests any significant risk factors.

[whichwayyoulean]

Your 'research'? What have you done? Taken questionnaires? Population samples?

[workaphilic]

Among other things.

[whichwayyoulean]

[...Sherlock why do you have to be a massive creeper]

Other things?

[workaphilic]

My research is ongoing.

[whichwayyoulean]

And do your 'subjects' have anything to say about it?

[workaphilic]

They all volunteer, if that's what you're concerned over. [Usually.] Like you did.

[whichwayyoulean]

Usually 'volunteering' means you're made aware you're being used in a study.

Just an FYI there.

[workaphilic]

You're volunteering information in a public forum accessible to hundreds of people.

Forgive me if I'm not too concerned.

[Also, IRBs are for squares.]

[whichwayyoulean]

Wow and I thought I was good at being a jerk.

It's always nice to know there are people better at it than you.

[workaphilic]

I do try my best.

[He is Jerk Master Level.]