InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "You just lost the game."

Markus (jericholeader) wrote in somerealityrpg,
@ 2019-10-31 01:13:00

Entry tags:

inactive: connor, inactive: markus

Who: Connor and Markus
Where: Their Apartment
When: 30th Oct
What: Catching up with added pumpkins
Status: In-progress
Warnings: TBC

It had been a long day at work and though he was enjoying teaching his pupils about the origins of superstitions surrounding Halloween in his English Lit lessons he hadn't expected to come home to a demonstration. Markus had been hoping for a quiet evening preparing his lessons for the following day and instead it seemed as though the apartment he shared with Connor had been taken over by pumpkins.

And to make it more curious, they had faces.

Markus frowned and moved towards the kitchen where he could hear frenetic activity and the occasional grunt. He looked around the door and spied Connor up to his elbows in pumpkin seeds and mush. "What did the pumpkin patch ever do to you?" he asked curiously as he looked at the disaster scene the kitchen had become. "Should I take you to Morgan and get your programming seen to, because I'm starting to think something's gone wrong, Connor. Explain," he said in amusement as he watched his friend.

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rkprototype
2019-10-31 01:58 am UTC (link)

Connor didn't even hear Markus come in. Honestly, he wouldn't have heard anyone come in. He was so focused on digging the guts out of the current pumpkin. It wasn't the first one, that was evident enough by the pile of pumpkin guts on the counter and there were quite a few pumpkins with faces already carved into them.

He stopped what he was doing and looked up when Markus made himself known. "It hasn't done anything to me," he replied a little confused about the question. "Why?" he asked as he let some of the pumpkin guts slide off of his hand and into the pile. "My programming is fine," he told Markus. "I wanted to see why people seem to enjoy carving faces into these things."

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jericholeader
2019-10-31 02:23 am UTC (link)

Markus could count at least ten pumpkins that had had the Connor-treatment, including the one that he was currently disembowelling. "Are you certain everything's right with your programming?" he asked a little uncertainly as he took his school-bag into the living room where he'd grade the papers later. "So this is a Halloween thing?" he asked Connor as he slipped out of his coat and went back into the kitchen to see what his friend was attempting with the current pumpkin.

"I thought people carved them so they could put lights in and scare away evil spirits," Markus said taking up his place leaning against the door-jam. "Something tells me that's not quite what you had in mind, though," he said with a smile. "So, what have you discovered about pumpkin carving?"

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rkprototype
2019-10-31 02:58 am UTC (link)

The pumpkin that Connor was working on was the last one. Every other one already had gone from plain pumpkin to jack o' lantern. "Yes, I am sure that everything is right with my programming." He glanced back into the pumpkin to make sure he had gotten all of its guts out and he had. "It is a Halloween thing. One of many."

He grabbed the permanent marker and started to draw the face onto the pumpkin. "They do, but they also do this because it is fun." He was still waiting for the feeling of fun to show up. So far, it hadn't. "It is very messy." He grabbed the childsafe knife and started working on one of its eyes. "Would you like to do the other eye?"

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jericholeader
2019-10-31 03:13 am UTC (link)

Okay, so Connor seemed to be clear on being glitch-free, which was a relief and Markus examined the previous pumpkins he'd worked on for clues to why his friend had gone through quite so many. "Is this supposed to be my face?" he asked as he examined it more closely. "And this is Hank. Right?" Maybe Connor was going through some kind of crisis and was taking it out on the pumpkins?

"Yeah, I'm aware. I've been teaching Gothic literature most of today," he answered with a small smile. "If you want a lecture on Sleepy Hollow or Mary Shelley, I'm fully programmed," Markus told him with a tap to the side of his head.

He was curious as Connor started to draw in the features of the pumpkin and moved to watch his deft strokes. "And is it fun?" Markus asked curiously. He could concur on the messiness, it was truly a scene from a horror movie - though possibly one set in a pumpkin patch. "Sure, I'll give it a whirl," Markus answered with a nod as he stepped into the fray and started in on the poor pumpkin's eye. "Who's this one going to be?" he asked, still a little taken aback by the whole experience but deciding he'd go with the flow as he'd wanted to talk to Connor anyway.

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rkprototype
2019-10-31 03:36 am UTC (link)

Connor glanced up when Markus asked his question. "Yes." He said yes again to the next question. There were a bunch of different pumpkins. Some carvings were more intricate. Some were just normal stuff like bats and different jack o lantern faces.

"Then why were you asking me if it were for Halloween?" he asked with a glance over at Markus. If he was teaching about it today, then he should have known. "Sleepy Hollow is the one with the headless horseman and Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, correct?"

Once he cut out the first triangled eye he handed it over to Markus. "Noone." The black markings already showed that it was just a normal jack o lantern face.

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jericholeader
2019-10-31 04:00 am UTC (link)

Okay, that was just weird, seeing his own and Hank's face carved into the orange vegetables. "They're really good, Connor," Markus said after a little consideration. "They're a good likeness and actually quite clever," he told his friend with a smile. "You even managed to give Hank a little smirk," or perhaps Markus had imagined that.

"I was more wondering why you were indulging in folklore I know you don't believe in," Markus answered. "I don't think you're going to be attempting to ward off evil spirits anywhere in the apartment, at least," he said with a soft chuckle. "Though keeping the Entity at bay wouldn't be your worst idea," he reconsidered momentarily. "Correct," he replied. "You just passed Gothic Lit 101, as I hope at least most of my class has," Markus said with a smile.

"At least you saved me an easy one," he said flashing Connor a small smile, "thanks. I'm not sure I'm quite up to your carving standards yet." Markus could probably manage a simple triangle. "This thing doesn't seem to want to be carved," he said as he chipped away at the markings to the best of his ability.

"So," he said taking a deep breath before plunging into the conversation that was well over-due. "I think I met a girl," Markus told Connor. "I definitely met a girl," he said shaking his head in case Connor took him entirely literally. "I like her."

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rkprototype
2019-10-31 05:16 am UTC (link)

"Thank you," Connor said a small smile crossing his lips. "I thought I would try different techniques." And the array of styles and pumpkins was proof of that. "I don't think these pumpkins will keep the entity at bay." Or anything else. "Do I get something for passing?"

He scooted the pumpkin over so Markus could take a stab at the whole carving thing. "There is some resistance. No one said it was easy." He smiled this time.

Okay, this conversation was going in a direction that he hadn't been expecting. "What about North?" he asked. He knew what I like her meant.

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jericholeader
2019-10-31 11:29 pm UTC (link)

He could see, now it had been pointed out, that the techniques were all varied and the results were interesting in their differences. "You really went full-force on this, didn't you?" Markus asked Connor with a smile of approval, "it's quite a collection. Perhaps we should offer them to the other residents or decorate the hall with them?" he suggested, feeling they were going to waste simply hanging out in the apartment where no one but they could see them. "Where the Entity is concerned, I think that ship has sailed," he said with a chuckle. "You get this," Markus said handing him a pumpkin seed as though it was a gold coin. "Congratulations on your pass."

Markus was able to get more purchase now that it was closer but it still rather confused him. "You'd think they'd use tomatoes or something softer," he said as he managed to cut out the eye, without stabbing himself in the process. "And they let children do this?" he said as he handed the knife back to the expert.

Connor went straight to the nub of the issue, the heart and soul of which he knew had to be addressed. "I'll always love North," he said hanging his head a little, "but I'm a different person here. I'm not a rebel leader or a freedom fighter," Markus said looking at his friend. "I'm just a man who likes a woman who, I think, likes me too," he said softly. "Life is different here. I'm different," Markus said with a frown.

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rkprototype
2019-11-01 12:20 am UTC (link)

"I did." Connor thought about what Markus suggested for a moment. "We can do that. Someone is bound to enjoy them." He looked at the pumpkin seed and then back at Markus. "And here I thought I would get something better."

Connor listened as Markus spoke. "A tomato wouldn't last very long if it were cut up like this." He nodded at Markus' question. "They do." He took the knife back and then the pumpkin.

"So, do whatever you feel is right." He didn't have any experience in this sort of thing. But it was like any other situation, right? Do whatever feels right. That was pretty much all the advice he could give on this sort of thing.

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jericholeader
2019-11-01 12:39 am UTC (link)

Markus went over to the Hank-kin and picked it up and smiled, "I think this one stays here, don't you?" he asked Connor as he lifted it from the floor and displayed it on the living room table. "He looks good there. He might even approve to watching over us from inside a pumpkin," he said looking over at Connor with a smile.

"It doesn't need to last too long. Just the evening and it would be a lot easier to cut into," though Markus suspected it wouldn't quite hold its shape the same way. "Maybe an apple would be better?"

What was right? Markus couldn't begin to unravel what that meant. "When I'm with Morgan it feels right," he told Connor with a furrowed brow, "and when I don't see her, I think about her and replay the time we spent together." He looked at Connor and shook his head, "she's human and she accepts me for everything I am. How could that be wrong?" he asked quizzically. "I don't want to loose her. I know that. And I don't want to go home," he said feeling as though he was betraying the world he'd helped create back at home.

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