Eric Medina (ericthesheep) wrote in rrinitiative, @ 2013-02-05 15:38:00 |
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Entry tags: | charlie, charlie and eric, day eleven, eric |
A Friendly Swim
Characters: Charlie and Eric
Setting: Pool, early evening
Charlie had known in his heart of hearts that he was going to end up on the farm. He doubted that he would get governor, especially since he had felt the need to be honest with people (not a good start for what was essentially a politician, after all) and whilst he would have been more than happy with being in the entertainment team, well - there were only two people put forward for the farm and Wren had set her sights elsewhere. And Charlie had known that she would get the advisor role, and that she deserved to get that role. Which left him behind, in a role that he could do, but which he had no passion for. Still, Wren would get upset if the farm was neglected, so he would do the job he was given.
He had, in fact, spent the afternoon going over the small farm. He’d done some casual work there since he’d arrived, but now that it was his responsibility, he had gone into things in detail. What they were growing, what equipment they had, seasonal time tables. He wondered if he asked for it whether they would start sending him advance weather forecasts and more detail about the expected climate, since actually he didn’t really know where ‘here’ was, and what could be expected of the weather in the coming months.
By now he was tired and his head was spinning from trying to cram too much in. He needed to unwind and so he changed and headed to the pool. The water would help and he could swim off a lot of the tension and frustration of the day. That was the plan in any event.
After dropping off his little cookie gifts in the clinic, Eric had wandered over to B Block, figuring it couldn't hurt to waste some time playing in the music room again. It was a relaxing way to spend part the afternoon. It couldn't entertain him indefinitely, though, and after a while I decided he might go for a swim before dinner. Physical activity was a good thing, after all.
When he returned to his room, though, he thought he might a well check the computer, and it proved to be a good call. The voting results were in, and while he couldn't say he was completely surprised, he was a little disappointed. He'd really expected to be put on the cleaning crew, so that did surprise him, but it was Wu's appointment as Governor that disappointed him. He was nervous about it, and he'd really been hoping more people would vote for Charlie. But it was what it was, and he'd just have to roll with it.
With a shrug, he turned the computer off again, changed into his swim trunks, and made his way back to the other block, resisting the urge to poke his head in the clinic and see if Violet was around and maybe in need of a break. When he reached the pool, he wasn't really surprised or disappointed that it wasn't empty, and he grinned at Charlie before tossing his towel on a chair and kicking his shoes off. "Hey farmer man," he greeted him, though afterward he wondered if Charlie had had a chance to see the results.
Charlie was already in the pool, though he had only had enough time to swim a couple of lengths. He headed over to the side and pulled himself up enough to rest on crossed arms. “Hey there. You saw the results then,” he deadpanned. Charlie had caught them as they’d gone up, having been waiting for them to be published ever since he’d got back from the lunch that pretty much had added to the frustration of the rest of his day.
Eric snorted a laugh, nodding his head. “Yeah, I saw them. Not going to be surprised if people regret the way they voted down the road, though,” he commented, moving around the pool to the deeper end. He dove in, his form rather bad, though he didn’t really care how it looked. He swam about half the length of the pool under the water before popping his head back up and treading the water, turning to face Charlie again.
Charlie pushed off from the wall and flipped onto his back, half floating in the water, facing Eric, sculling lightly. “What do you reckon people are going to regret?” he asked, lightly. He had his own opinions on some of them, but at least one or two he wasn’t going to be making public. He knew very well the importance of keeping certain prejudices to oneself.
While he didn’t know the man and wouldn’t actually say anything negative about him, Eric did think Wu was a dangerous choice for governor. “Well, I didn’t vote you for the farm, that’s for sure,” he replied simply, arms stroking slowly over the surface of the water. “I could be wrong, though, things might work out just fine,” he added with a small shrug.
Charlie rolled his eyes. “That makes two of us that didn’t vote for me then - though it was always a done deal. Nobody else who can do it and Wren’s better somewhere else. That left me,” he said, with as much as a shrug as one could manage in the middle of a pool. “Congrats on the entertainment team - it’s where you deserved to be,” he said, honestly meaning that.
Well, at least he wasn’t the only one that seemed to have reservations about how the votes had gone. “Yeah, but my theory was if you were governor, she’d be your unofficial advisor anyway, so she could still work the farm. But you need any help with it? I wouldn’t mind getting my hands dirty once in awhile. Need to find more ways to keep busy around here, though I don’t really know anything about farming,” he rambled just a little. It wasn’t about the credits at all, it really was just a need to keep busy. “Ahh, thanks. I’m kind of surprised I got it, actually. Was all geared up to be on the cleaning crew,” he admitted with a crooked grin. “It’s where I voted myself.”
“I am definitely going to need help with it,” Charlie said with a laugh. “And, right back at you - if you need help with the whole entertaining gig, just let me know and I’ll be there. We can help each other out. And I can teach you something about farming. It’s not that difficult to pick up. I only started learning when I was eighteen anyhow,” he explained. Which was why Wren was better at it than he was - she had been at it since she was a small child.
Charlie ducked under the water and swam a little distance before resurfacing. “I was never gonna get governor. And honestly? I probably wouldn’t have been that good at it. Wren would have been, but she didn’t think people would listen to her, or respect her authority, so she didn’t want the role.”
Eric wasn’t really surprised that Charlie would need help with the farm, and he wouldn’t renege on his offer to help either. “Yeah, I’ll definitely let you know. I’ll probably send a message to Autumn and Pippa tonight or tomorrow morning, see if they want to meet up and bounce ideas or something. I don’t have any clue what kinds of things they might come up with to do, but it’s probably safe to assume we might need some help with things at some point.”
Although he didn’t really want to think Charlie was right, he’d had a feeling it was a long shot, but he’d still voted for the guy. “That sucks that she thought that. I mean, people listened to her at the stocks, right?” So he didn’t really understand where she’d got that thinking from, but what could you do? “I don’t know, the alternative just makes me nervous. Not really sure what a guy like that will do with that kind of power, but we’ll see how it all goes.” All he knew was that he fully planned to try to stay out of Wu’s line of sight.
“At the end of the day, it’s what the people wanted, right?” Charlie said, not offering his own opinion on Wu. That was one thing he had no intention of doing. He didn’t think that Wu was the right person for the job, yet he knew very well that when someone like Wu got in a position of power, you had to be crazy to try and go toe to toe with them when you had none. “And Wren got the advisor position she was more comfortable with, so she’ll still be involved. And she’ll take that seriously - she’s been doing it all her life.” And yet still everyone they had known was dead.
“Guess so,” Eric replied, oblivious to the fact that Charlie hadn’t actually stated his own opinion on Wu. He was okay with letting it go, though, because he was wanting to relax in the pool, not start stressing out about whatever might happen here. “Yeah, it seemed like she’d probably take it seriously. I’m just waiting to see how it all plays out with people in their new roles and all. And I’m looking forward to seeing what kinds of things they’ll have for ‘sale’ in the shop thing,” he added, thinking they might get onto lighter topics with it.
“Yeah, that’ll be interesting. As long as some people don’t decide to start helping themselves to whatever. Then again, I guess we have a police force to deal with that kind of thing now, hmm?” Which he still hadn’t formed an opinion on. The whole power thing worried him, yet at the same time, it made sense. He figured everything would end badly, given enough time, no matter what they did. He couldn’t see any other way.
So much for lighter topics, Eric thought with a mental shake of his head. “Yeah, guess we do.” Though the person he hadn’t wanted on that had gotten voted into it as well. Oh well, it wasn’t like he’d talked to many people here. He figured those that were voted into those positions probably had talked to more people. And it wasn’t like he’d wanted to do the job, so it wasn’t like he had room to judge who did. “Seeing as how we’re a group of cons, though, I’m guessing there’s probably going to be some hiccups along the way. Hopefully we’ll come through them unscathed.”
“Here’s hoping,” Charlie agreed. He always hoped. Plan for the worst, hope for the best. He was as cynical as they came a lot of the time, but he wanted to try and make things work right. “You been and looked at any of the new areas at all?” he asked. He’d seen the additions on the map, had walked through the basement level, but not really looked into any of the new places.
“Nah, I haven’t looked at them yet. Noticed they were there on my way back and forth between the blocks, but I didn’t stop to explore. I think a lot of them are locked with the QR things though,” Eric speculated. He hadn’t really stopped to check out the locks either. “You?”
“No - walked through the basement a couple of times, but didn’t stop to pay much in the way of attention,” Charlie admitted.
“Ah, so same boat, then,” Eric commented as he swam lazily toward one end of the pool. He thought he might do a few laps soon, burn off some energy.
“Seems that way. I suppose that the people who got their access behind the magical locked doors will be doing some investigating at the moment,” Charlie said, keeping pace with Eric at the other side of the pool, easy enough distance for conversation.
It took Eric a moment to process what Charlie was meaning by that, not having been quick on the draw for quite a few years now, but when he did, he grinned and nodded. “Yeah, probably. I’d be if I were them. Kinda interested to see what kind of setup they give for the new bar. Should be interesting to have it underground.” Drinking wasn’t as fun for him than other vices, but he’d take what he could get here, and at least he wasn’t a violent drinker.
“Maybe that should be your first move for entertainment,” Charlie suggested. “Suggest over the journals that people head down to the bar tonight for an opening night party.”
“Yeah? Maybe I will,” Eric said at the suggestion, thinking that it wasn’t a bad one at all.
“It could be good - and not too much of an effort on anyone’s part. Well, except maybe the bar staff,” he chuckled. Having quite a few people on the first night maybe would be a challenge, but he figured it was the type that most people would be up for.
Eric chuckled at that. “It’ll be a good chance for them to get to know their working environment.” He did think it would be fun, anyway, though there was no telling how many people would actually show up for it. There seemed to be a lot of shitty things going on, especially if the doc’s post from earlier in the day was anything to go off of. And he was more than glad that he had a solid alibi for the blackout, even if no one here knew that he was in for rape on top of the drug charges. “Autumn seemed like she had a lot of ideas for entertainment, though, so I’m definitely gonna still message her and Pippa about it, maybe see if we want to do an entertainment committee meeting tomorrow or something.” It sounded so high school when he put it like that, which just made him laugh again.
“Wouldn’t expect anything else, man. Figure entertainment’s going to be an ongoing thing. Not like we have anything else here. Stave off the cabin fever,” Charlie said. He had no experience of what actually being in prison was like, having come here straight from the courtroom. All of his ideas of what was involved pretty much came from the TV or movies, but this place wasn’t that big. Sooner or later the term ‘stir crazy’ was going to be very apt. Or so he thought.
“Right, yeah,” Eric agreed. He’d figured it was going to be an ongoing thing too, hence the wanting to get together with the girl’s to come up with more ideas. He pushed away from the side of the pool and started doing a lap, not stopping until he got to the other side. It felt good to push himself through the water, but when he reached the other side, he started treading water again, running a hand through his hair to keep the water from dripping down his face.
Charlie followed him, surfacing not far away. “You want to pace each other for a bit?” he suggested. He had nothing planned for a while, and the exercise would do him good. The mindless plowing through the water would be good for him as well - hopefully it would help clear his mind a little more.
“Yeah, sounds good,” Eric replied with a grin. It would be a good workout and a way to burn off some energy and get his mind off other things.