[open]

[jailbreaks]

Who: George Wolfe and YOU!
When: April 24
Where: At the McDonald's near the library
What: Someone's working at the Ol' McDonald's today. Whether he's the drive through clerk, or the guy taking your order inside. He also has a confrontation from a girl he pissed off over the network.

This job is painful, the forced smiling, the "have a nice day"s, it's kind of too much for this jerk, but he puts up with it. In this world, you need to wear that facade to keep your job, especially a job that George has somehow worked his way up in. Outside of his job, he's pretty unreliable, but inside, he greets customers with a (fake) smile, seems like he actually means it and all that crap.

Today is no different, with high school lunch crowd coming, the college crowd, and the after school crowd... Rush hour really sucks, but it's also the only time that keeps him from looking at the clock the entire time, then BAM! He's off...

But until then, he's a slave at the ol' Mickey D's. He's in his uniform with the usual hat, his hair pulled back into a ponytail that actually nicely goes through his hat. A complete opposite of what a waste he looks over the network. It's amazing what you do when you need the money, how nice you make yourself look, and how much you hide how much you want to cuss out those damn high school kids trashing his restaurant. Then again, he used to be one of those kids.

So, welcome to McDonald's. Would you like fries with your order?

Comments

[astion]

Okay, so she is aware that George works here. Of course she is. But that doesn't necessarily mean she expects or means to see him when she pops in for a hot chocolate after work at the library. By now most of the other places are closed, so there isn't a lot of option.

She pauses at the entrance for a moment, watching him take someone's order. He seems so different at work. But that's probably because he has to be civil with the customers, she figures. She bites her lip, wondering if she should leave. Just go home. But....no. He's probably already seen her. Too late to turn around and walk out.

Besides. She should. Probably talk to him properly. Though she isn't sure if here at his work in public is the best place to do so. It's kind of harder talking to him on the network. She steels herself, walking over to the counter. It's not like this is her first time here. Just the first since she found out about the network and everything else.

"Hey. Can I please have a large hot chocolate?"

Ordering at least. Whether there is more to this largely depends on him and his reaction. She doubts she would be the first on the network to come here, but....well. Their interactions haven't been the smoothest, to say the least.

[jailbreaks]

You know, his day was going just fine. Really, he had his usual pile of shitty high schoolers, but he can get past that. Really, he can. By this time he's getting a little worn out, but he figures the next few hours can't be that bad.

Then... she. walks. in.

Fuck this day. Fuck this shift.

But still, he doesn't need to be written up, and he doesn't want to be yelled at by his boss so he forces a smile and greets her. A hot chocolate, does the little princess want a hot chocolate. Of course, his fingers gingerly tap over the buttons, trained at his job.

"One large hot chocolate. Will that be everything for you today, miss?"

The smile is still forced, but what's more is his tone and how natural it sounds. Three fucking years of working in this industry really teaches you how to hide your disdain behind a pleasant smile and attitude. But really, he's going on the chance that she'll take her order and go the fuck away.

But he gets the feeling he won't be that lucky.

[astion]

"That's all, thank you."

Stella waits for her order, aware that this is public. Aware he is at work and she is likely not the only customer. Though it is quieter at this hour at least. She's just not sure how to bring any of it up. If she should in such a public place where anyone could hear them.

She takes a deep breath, watching him and picking up on how fake it is. He's good, but she's perceptive enough to see through the smile and happy greeting. He is obviously not wanting her here.

"Look, I...I don't mean to fight with you. All of this is...way over both of our heads. But I can't help you if you don't let me and keep shutting me out."

It's vague enough that anyone that might over hear wouldn't necessarily know she means the echoes and network. Her voice is soft, quiet and neutral in tone that anyone might think she is just quiet, chatting or ordering from him.

[jailbreaks]

Shit...

You know, the way she makes it sound is like they got in a lover's quarrel. In fact, his manager comes up and raises and eyebrow, smiling because he probably has (very fake) blackmail material on him now. But really, it's a good fake for now. Talking about the network would be a no no, and he's pretty sure his manager would laugh at this and wonder why Locke City would choose a shift manager as a super hero.

"Listen, sweetheart, this isn't the time or the place to talk about it. My shift's up in an hour. Maybe after that we can have a chat. I promise to be more civil than I was last time we spoke."

His tone is creepily cordial as if he were talking to a legit girlfriend (or ex-girlfriend). It's a good cover for now, and really, he may as well face it head on.

He's been an asshole. Maybe he's been to harsh. But like fucking hell he'll apologize.

"Your total comes to $3.29."

[astion]

"All right then. I can wait."

Stella nods. An hour isn't all that long to go. She can read in the meantime. When his manager raises an eyebrow to them, she's thankfully too busy counting out her cash to pay for the drink that she doesn't notice or catch the implication that seems to have arisen from the short exchange. Which is probably for the best, considering how well their conversations have gone over the network. But if they are to keep this up, she may need to pick up on it in order to play along.

"Here. Thanks." She says as she passes him the cash to pay for her drink, her free hand taking the cup.

[imbibing]

Misato's more of a Starbucks kind of girl, but when she needs her coffee fix, she needs her coffee fix. Where it comes from doesn't matter in times as desperate as these.

Times when her coffee grinder decided it didn't want to grind coffee. She should replace it, she knows, but there were some days where it worked perfectly.

Misato's only half-awake when she reaches the counter -- and she greets the cashier with a loud yawn.

"A large coffee, please."

[jailbreaks]

He honestly recognizes the girl instantly when she comes in. While she may have not seen him, he's seen her. And he remembers that really weird penguin thing. Well, at least she's not someone who might have a bone to pick with him, so he's not thinking too much of it. This is his job, and well, he'd prefer if people actually kind of didn't notice him.

"One large coffee. Will that be all for you today, miss?"

His tone is trained and kind, almost sounding sincere. It's pretty easy to fake it when you've been working for this long. Still, she's free to recognize his voice...

[imbibing]

"That's it." Misato's in the process of digging through her wallet for her debit card when she catches a glimpse of the cashier for the first time.

Her eyes narrow slightly on him and she frowns. Finally, she puts to voice exactly what she's thinking:

"Do I know you from somewhere?"

[jailbreaks]

"Your total will come to $1.69. Please slide your card when you're ready."

He looks up at her, knowing that look of recognition. If it's mutual, then there's no harm in it. Giving a slight shrug he tries to find a roundabout, but clear answer to her question.

"Yeah, we... met at the zoo while looking at penguins. Guess that left and impression on you like it did me."

Weird answer, but he feels it conveys what she wanted to know.

[imbibing]

"At the zoo? Penguins?" Already, she's mentally scrambling for the memory, but there's nothing she can think of. She can't even remember the last time she went to Locke City Zoo.

And then it dawns on her. She knows exactly where she knows him from. "Oh! Oh, yeah!" She smiles, then runs her card through the machine.

"So you work here, huh?" Not the most fabulous place to work, for sure, but at least it probably paid the bills. "You ever figure out anything about that pink tree of yours?"

[part_time_overlord]

If there's ANYTHING that can make the drudgery of fast food retail worse, it's having a coworker who not only does a fantastic and enthusiastic job, but also is able to keep up with the constantly changing advice from management.

That's right, the guy one register over not only has a real smile, but he just convinced a THIRD customer to sign up for a McDonald's credit card.

satan is his coworker... i laughed at this harder than i should have

[jailbreaks]

Yeah, well, fuck you. George couldn't give a crap about that. Still, an enthusiastic upstart does kind of piss him off. Honestly, he doesn't think he's anyone who seemed to care about his job in fast food as much as him. Okay, you take all the customers, George will just mosey along...

...and then get the yelling at for not meeting quota. Sorry he doesn't feel the need to sign people up for credit at a fast food joint?

"Pretty impressive. Keep it up!"

There's George's moral support... he did his job.

"Satan does this trivial, mundane thing. Everyone point and laugh!" That's it. That's the show.

[part_time_overlord]

"Thanks. It's not hard, though. You just have to pay attention to everything."

There was a brief lull in customers, giving Sam a chance to stretch the kinks out of his neck.

i love that show for that reason

[jailbreaks]

"Yeah well, you really have the talent for that. Not many of us do."

He took his hands behind his back to stretch his arms as well and pop a few of his fingers. Still, his comment was more of a way to press that kind of responsibility on him. Some supervisor this guy is... he can't even be a responsible role model.

preach it

[part_time_overlord]

"Well I don't like to brag, but..."

No one who says they don't like to brag truly dislikes bragging.

arthur is a lot more stable than i am when i do this

[knights_king]

With his hoodie up, Arthur just sort of oozed into McDonalds with an air of caution in his eyes. Most people who wore their paranoia on their sleeves would worry he was either drunk or out of his mind given his distant stare and semi-hostile posture and they would be completely right. Officially, though, if asked--he was stinking sober. He definitely didn't have six beers for lunch. Nah. He was just looking worried and semi-sedated because he'd been really worrying about something for the last two hours.

As he reached the counter finally after waiting for a painstaking ten minutes, he put his palms on the top and stared at George.

"George, I'm real hammered right now," Said by the young man who cleaned house on an empty stomach. He was nearly whispering despite the noise in the place. "I need a whopper."

[jailbreaks]

It didn't take George a half a second to know that Arthur was hammered, even before he admitted it. Just what the hell was he doing before he got here and how the hell did he manage to get here? Still, he's here to help a buddy. Who can't even remember which burgers belong to which joint.

"I think you want a Big Mac, and you get cheese on it regardless."

He quickly typed in the order then bent down to him to speak. As a new friend, he feels like he should at least protect him. "Listen, this is on the house. You owe me money for nice liquor for this, okay? Then again, with as plastered as you are, I doubt you'll remember."

Is this what friendship is like? Because it's been a long time since George felt like being friendly like this.

[knights_king]

All Arthur could do was look at George with a puzzled expression for a bit. It was a mixture of, 'Wait, don't you work at Burger King?' and 'Holy crap, you're the nicest guy' all at once. Arthur stood there, swaying back and forth a little bit, trying to get a fix on the guy's face. It wasn't working.

"Oh. Shit, that's cool. Yeah, I'll do that... Uh... Do you get off or get a break soon?"

Really, he wasn't interested in going home at all.

[jailbreaks]

"I can take one now, if needed."

Haha, what is following his work schedule as he just logs off his till and gets a glare from his manager after taking an unscheduled break. How on earth do assholes like him get supervisor positions and keep their jobs? (Spoilers: it's because of assholes like him that this kind of joke is the only job they can really get and these establishments take advantage of it.)

So out he goes with Arthur's order with a parfait of his own to eat while on this 'break'.

[knights_king]

Arthur took a solid minute to get his soda. Battling between the consideration that he could forego ice and just refill threw him for a loop, since he wasn't sure if it would be rude to get up mid conversation with George to do so. He went with ice in the end, figuring he didn't need to down the whole soda in the end. Life was hard.

Finally, he sat down and looked at the tray brought him, giving George a weak little thumbs up. Buddies.

"Thanks, man. Hey, uh--"

Arthur peered from George to his manager behind the counter. "Who's the guy that's grillin' you?"

[buildyourworld]

He doesn't normally grab anything from fast food joints because for the price he pays for them, he could get a whole lots of other things elsewhere. Provided that he has the time to make them into something edible, but time is something he doesn't have now. Between the Gundams and his studies, he's pretty much tied up in work and more work. So cooking has been close to impossible, which leaves him surviving mostly on day old breads, whatever cheap and filling as well as food given to him by his friends. But today, he has to feed himself and that's why he's here, with a hoodie pulled up to cover his very purple hair.

He goes straight for the $1 menu because he can't really afford anything else.

"One McChicken and 2 pies to go, please." Depending on the lighting, it might be possible to notice his hair or red eyes that he hasn't bothered getting contact lenses for. He doesn't have money to waste on them. He'll live with this, one way or another.

[jailbreaks]

There's enough freaks in Locke City that they could be wearing contacts and dyeing their hair just for kicks. In fact, before he was introduced to the network, that's something he would have thought. However, the hoodie and the way he tries to hide himself is almost telling to George that this isn't something he wants to show off. At least, that's what he thinks when he gets a glimpse of those red eyes.

It's almost eerie.

"Will that be everything, sir? Your total comes to $3.21."

Gosh darn tax ruining everything.

Still, he can't help but continually glimpse at him. George has no defining features that he's a Numbered, but this guy... he has to be one. Or a guy pretending to be one.

[buildyourworld]

"That would be all, thanks."

He grabs his wallet and fishes out the bills and coins to pay for his meal, all the while making sure not to stand out too much because he doesn't have time to deal with people making all sorts of stupid comments about his appearance. It doesn't help that most of them are kids who assume he's one of them because of how young he looks now. It's a bother to deal with them, especially the persistent ones.

Which is why when the cashier keeps looking at him, it annoys him, though not enough to make him react negatively. With a raised brow, he returns the look, red eyes and all.

"Do you need something?"

It hasn't occur to him yet that this might be another Numbered...

[jailbreaks]

"You really stand out." It's really the only way George will answer. He's not thrilled being 'one of them' himself, so he tries to keep himself in check. Maybe he should consider himself lucky that all he has right now are memories and not special powers. Or blue hair. Or weird colored eyes. God bless that.

"Don't they have cheap disposable contacts for people like you?"

'Like you' meaning the Numbered who have strange physical qualities. George is obviously not being hostile, but still his tone is indifferent.

[buildyourworld]

He's really tempted to roll his eyes but he'll rather not piss off the guy before he gets his order since he's already on limited funds and he's in dire need for food.

While his tone isn't anything to shout about, Eugen notices almost nothing negative from him which could mean either of the two things. He's being called out for being a Numbered by someone who's amiable to their existence or this guy behind the counter is also one.

"Why would I waste money on that when I can't even afford your basic value meal?" Feeding himself is much more important.