RULES.  MUSES.

IF LAURA TRULY BELIEVED  there was a rat in her house,   she would be evacuating.     the simple fact that she’s still sitting on the stool,   calmly sipping her coffee,   is indication enough that she’s not buying into his excuse.     the dog in her arms won’t stop moving around,   so laura releases her once the floors are  mostly  clean,   letting her sniff curiously at the man’s ankles.

❝    it’s alright.    ❞      it’s not alright,   but laura doesn’t say it for two reasons.     one,   her need to be a good hostess,   which just means it’s román who’ll get an earful about this instead of job,   who’s essentially stranger to her.     and two,   she could tell quite quickly that román’s friend doesn’t have the same financial condition as they do.     making him pay for the pricy tea cups,   even if he was the one who broke them,   doesn’t seem fair.

❝    román is asleep.    ❞      nearly passed out from whatever he’d been doing last night;   laura has a pretty good guess.      ❝    has he offered you the guest bedroom?    ❞

         Even though Laura is considerably shorter than he is, even with him leaning low against the counter, he’s feeling kind of small next to her. Of course, it really was an accident, but he still feels like an idiot for it, especially when she barely knows him. Though, it’s probably an appropriate enough introduction to the sort of person that he is.

          Job doesn’t really acknowledge the dog sniffing around his feet, only glimpsing down at it briefly. He always feels like dogs are going to bite him or piss on his shoes, so his only reaction is shuffling back a bit.

          “No.” He still finds it absurd how some people are so rich they just have extra bedrooms lying around, in case someone comes over at some point. What a weird thing to invest in. Still, he’s pretty certain it’s got to be nicer than anywhere else he’s ever crashed, and he’s not going to pass up the opportunity to sleep anywhere other than his shithole apartment. Especially when it comes with the assurance that he probably won’t wake up to someone asking, “you’re still here?”

@beenpole​ asked:(JOB) 📣 MEGAPHONE - how loud are they? what do they speak like? got a voice claim? / 🍟 FRIES - do they order food often? or they prefer to cook their own food?

ACCEPTING.

how loud are they? what do they speak like? got a voice claim?

          his voice claim is also neil, and here’s an example of him speaking and singing. he’s also a lot younger than job is there. the key differences are in the way they speak. neil speaks pretty softly, and his brooklyn accent isn’t usually very noticeable. job isn’t exactly loud, but he can be, and he isn’t soft-spoken at all. his voice definitely carries. his accent is also very obvious. he also doesn’t enunciate nearly as clearly as neil does. his words kind of get mashed together, with things like “whattaya” instead of “what do you”, etc.

do they order food often? or they prefer to cook their own food?

@hammurabicomplex​ asked: 🤥 LYING - are they good liars? do they have tells to show they're lying? / 🎤 MICROPHONE - are they good at singing? what is their go-to karaoke song? (job!)

ACCEPTING.

are they good liars? do they have tells to show they're lying?

          he’s a good liar in that the way he says it is very believable. he doesn’t get nervous about lying, he doesn’t look away, or sound like he’s lying at all. someone would have to be pretty good at picking up on this sort of thing to be able to tell he’s lying based on delivery alone. i’d say his biggest tell is that he usually makes it a point to make eye contact, when that’s less constant when he’s telling the truth. it isn’t obvious at all, but someone really observant might be able to notice.

          now, sometimes the lies he tells are just too outlandish or ridiculous, or just don’t make much sense. this usually depends on how much time he’s had to come up with it, but sometimes he can come up with a good one on the spot, or a bad one when he’s had a while to think it over. overall, i’d say he’s a good liar, because even when the lie itself doesn’t really add up, when someone says something in a convincing enough way, a lot of the time that’s enough to sway most people.

are they good at singing? what is their go-to karaoke song?

          he’s very good at singing. it’s one of the only things he actually knows he’s good at, as far as skills and talents go. he once almost even had a music deal, but he screwed it up (which i’ll talk about in more detail in another post, someday).

@streetsofsecrets​ asked: 😭 jobikus

ACCEPTING. 

what makes them cry? do they cry easily?

          someone would have to say some really biting shit to make him start crying then and there. even then, he’s pretty good at bottling it up and saving it for later, but if something happened or was said that was just too much, yeah, he’d cry. a good example is when his mother was dying and told him how she’d always resented him and wished she’d never had him, and how much of a disappointment he’d always been. he always knew that, but hearing it said outright to his face, he couldn’t really hold it back.

Gnashing her teeth together, Marcie takes a deep breath through her nose. “Okay, perhaps my reaction was unwarranted. I’ve been told I lack a sense of humor.” Looking Job up and down in a clinical fashion, she sighs. “My apologies.” She’s going to blow this gig if she didn’t check her attitude - she can’t afford that, not right now.

“I’m, uh, sure others would have found it funny.” Her compliment isn’t very convincing. She’s fiddling now, thumbing her ascot - it was given to her by the pattern company she modeled for; almost all of her clothes was from modeling shoots. 

“I actually think puppets are pretty cool.” 

          “You think puppets are cool?” Now, this, this could be seen as a mean reaction. From the look on his face and the way he asks, it’s clear that he disagrees. “I mean -- sorry. They’re fine.” He really doesn’t want to dig a deeper hole, here.

           “I need to finish my spring cleaning.” Eve blatantly lies, if Job traveled up the stairwell he would know that the bedrooms, bathroom, and closets were utterly immaculate. “I didn’t know you wanted to keep discussing the topic,” she admits - honest enough.

        Eve takes a deep breath. Her sigh seems like she is annoyed at the matter Job doesn’t get what she means, but in all actuality, it was to calm her nerves as she tries speaking to a man she usually only exchanges three to ten words a day to.

          “I mean that children who are born into money don’t have to watch shows like this. And to be frank, they likely have enough around them to learn how to be upstanding citizens. This is, for better or worse, all low-income children have. And what are they learning through songs? The importance of not stealing cigarettes?” Eyebrows arched, a small frown on her lips, Eve averts her eyes. “I don’t know. It feels like children are being encouraged to be, at most, average. But perhaps less than average with songs so trivial.”  

      Eve is not worried about Bianca or Louis taking these messages to heart because she does all she can to install a strong sense of self. Sal actually does, too. However, she knows this may not be the case for a family that lives down the street. After saying all of this, Eve feels somewhat flustered. Instantly, she decides to turn her back on Job. To provide the illusion of having something to do upstairs. 

          “I think it’s got a deeper message, see? Like, don’t steal. But kids can relate more if it’s kinda specific. I think.” Truthfully, he doesn’t know a damn thing about kids, but he’s honestly doing his best. He did take the gig thinking it was stupid and just a way to make some money to get his own apartment again, but he did find himself trying to put out something that would help.

          That, and he’s found he interacts pretty well with them, Eve’s own children being a prime example. He never expected them to have much interest in him, especially the longer he stuck around, but the opposite has proved to be true.

          “What else is there for kids to learn about?” It’s not meant to be dismissive, nor does it sound that way, but a genuine inquiry. What sort of things did kids need to learn in order to not turn out like him? If he knew, maybe he’d be a different person. This leads him to the realization that he probably should have nothing to do with teaching kids anything.

            “Please don’t swear in front of me.” Eve promptly orders, soft but stern. “I just think the songs could have more…meaningful substance.” She’s thought about this for a while, honestly. However, she refrained from giving her judgment as she did not know how to vocalize all the negative thoughts in her head. “The program is for children who are…disadvantaged, is that right?”

          “Sorry. Anyway, it ain’t exactly for just them, but I figure they’re the only ones watchin’, since the show is sh-- ... it ain’t too good. I mean, it ain’t that bad, but you can tell there ain’t a whole lotta money goin’ into it. I feel like rich kids wouldn’t dig it. So, yeah, I guess.” It’s clearly a low budget project, and some of the puppets are downright off-putting, even in his adult opinion.

WITH A DEEP SIGH,   laura turns to the coffee machine,   allowing herself a moment of calm before the storm.      she focuses on the coffee machine rather than the shards of glass on the floor,   on the vases and tea cups her parents had brought her from france that are now ruined,   on the earful she’ll give román about letting others inside their home right before he falls asleep.

when her dog walks over to them,   starting to sniff the broken glass on the tiles,   laura is quick to crouch down and pick her up.      ❝    marianne,   no.     ❞      holding the lightweight,   fluffy dog on one hand,   the other finishes up adding cream and sugar to her mug.

❝    a rat  on top  of the cabinets?    ❞      clearly not convinced,   she takes a seat over one of the bar stools by the kitchen island.      she considers telling him to leave,   but her instinct to be a good host always speaks louder.      ❝    there’s coffee in the pot if you want some.    ❞

          “Yeah.” He takes his time replacing the broom and dustpan into the closet he saw her retrieve it from. She doesn’t sound like she’s buying it, but, maybe if he sticks to it for long enough, she will. “A big one, too. Right up there.” He points to the spot directly above where the carnage happened to all of her fine dishes. 

          Suddenly he worries that she’ll expect him to pay for all that, which would just mean avoiding Román for a few months. It shouldn’t be too hard, they weren’t that close. Still, if he couldn’t get her to forgive him through boldfaced lies, maybe just hanging around and talking a while might do it.

– @noiralley​

          “I…” a brief pause, “don’t think the songs you sing on that show are appropriate.” 

@beenpole​ asked: “that is not an appropriate question to ask a lady you’ve just met.”

          “Oy. ... I’m sorry.” He looks to his feet, a bit sheepishly, but not quite as much as he probably should look. When he’d asked Marcie if she “fell in” after coming back from the restroom, he had thought it would be funny, but the look on her face is telling him he’s screwed this one up pretty badly. He does honestly feel a little bad about it, but it’s still kind of funny.