Don't stop 'till you're proud

The water tastes like shit. Hate to sound like one of those people, but they’re probably pumping something into, right? Make us all docile and agreeable?

I really doubt that’s the case. Maybe weird pipes? Have you had someone look at it yet?

“My older brother played baseball growing up, so my parents kind of forced me into it from a young age,” they admitted with a chuckle of their own. “It was something that I was good at, so I kept going.” It worked for Caspian until it didn’t. But that was beside the point - this guy didn’t need to know about his struggles in early adulthood. At the question, Cas shrugged. “For me, really, all I want is to find somebody who wants me… who thinks I’m worth their time and effort. I mean, somebody whose personality lines up with mine would be ideal, both in and out of the bedroom, and in and out of a Dominant/submissive dynamic, but, really… I just want to be happy. And I’m hoping this place’ll help me find a starting point for that happiness. What about you? What’s your ideal future? I mean, you told me what you hope this project brings, but… I think they’re different questions.”

Smiling at his laugh, Caspian was glad to know that they still had it in them - they genuinely loved to make others laugh. “I played baseball in college, nothing big, I’m definitely no Major League guy, or even a minor leagues person, but… hey, it was fun while it lasted.” Cas didn’t like to think about the way his life could be different if he’d never strayed off the path he was supposed to take in college. Could he have been good enough for the big leagues? They didn’t know, and it was best to not think about it. “Yeah, it sounds like your parents knew what they were doing, which is great. You’re lucky. And I agree - the more we know about our marks and the way they affect our everyday lives, the better Dominants Doms will be and the better submissives subs will be.”

She couldn’t help the scoff that left her at his suggestion. “We are not doing anything,” Aurelia stated, stabbing her fork pointedly on something on her plate. “Look, dude, you can do whatever you please here. I am just trying to lay low and I don’t think hosting some fucking barbecue will be doing that.” She admitted honestly. Also, as embarassing as it was to confess, she didn’t want to know what her parents and Scarlett thought about the barbecue idea. She wanted to do at least one thing that didn’t piss them off. “But good luck and whatever.”

“That’s fine, but you are invited.” While Mat was eager to start making friends, he could take a hint and wasn’t going to push anybody’s boundaries. It was becoming clear that not everybody was as excited to be here as he was - something he had honestly not even thought about before now. So maybe dialing it back a few degrees would be a good idea. “But thank you. So... what do you do for work?” A lame opener, he was aware, but hopefully more successful?

Smiling that he remembered him, Austin bounced excitedly on his feet. “My boss at Paradise Lane told me to get something from here?” He explained, it coming out like a question, clearly evident that he was just as confused to why he was here also. “Um, why are you here?” 

“I work here,” Mat explained, grinning as Austin’s excitement turned out to be pretty contagious. “Do you know whom you’re supposed to pick it up from? Or... what it is? I’m sure we can figure out where you’re supposed to go together then.”

“What could possibly be satisfactory about a juice bar?” Rory countered, raising his eyebrow in an almost cocky manner, shaking Mateo’s hand of his arm. No touching around here, lest if it gives the impression to Big Brother that he was interested in any type of connection. “I don’t like orange.” He then added, “And I bet you don’t either,” Rory cocked his head, as if figuring out Mateo’s deal with juice. “You’re a freak, you like mango flavoured shit I bet.”

When Rory shook off his hand, mat didn’t hesitate to take a step back, getting out of his personal space and, in the same motion, slightly out of the way of the door. He didn’t want to block the path for anyone else. “You don’t know, maybe mango’s the shit,” he pointed out, glancing into the store through the large glass windows. That was when an idea struck him and he turned back to Rory. “I got an idea. But I don’t know whether you’re up for the challenge.”

“Oui oui, baguette.” Rory replied with a snark. In all fairness, he mused, there was one French lad in his year at school, but he was a total dickhead and Rory and his mates ended up beating the shit out of him in the alleyway once. For what reason, he couldn’t exactly remember, but Rory was sure the bastard deserved it. Rory just stared at his hands. “Rory Kerr. I don’t shake hands,” He then grabbed something of the table, popped it in his mouth and promptly grabbed a napkin and spat in it. “And I don’t have table manners either.”

“Advanced, I see,” Mat commented in return to the few french words, chuckle in his voice. Although the grin on his wave did waver briefly as he processed Rory refusing to shake his hand and then eating and spitting out some kind of food within the time frame of ten seconds. “Well -- gotta have room to grow somewhere, right?” he settled on after a moment, head nodding towards the napkin. “I take it that one was bad?”

Listening to him, they nodded along, tapping their fingers on the counter. “Yeah, I get it,” they reply. “My parents thought that way, too. I guess I grew up in a kind of bubble where marks weren’t an afterthought - going to college kind of threw me for a loop, though,” Caspian chuckled, a grin on his face. “You should’ve seen me, addressing half the guys on my team as Sir - the looks I got… even our coach pulled me aside and was like, Cas, thanks for the respect and all, but to function as a team, y’all all need to be on the same level, the guys have names, learn to use ‘em.” He shook his head again, still smiling - he didn’t mention that that year was the only year he’d actually managed to play on that team - that was beside the point. “Which benefits do you think we could get from that, though? Again - just askin’. No need to answer if you don’t feel like it.”

They had to agree on that - based on the little experience touring the town that they’d had so far, it all seemed so new - a lot newer than any place he’d ever lived before, to say the least. “Yeah, I agree, it is really cool,” he nodded. He hadn’t heard anyone say that they’d been following the project from the start until just now, though. Even Caspian themself had really only just overheard talks of it a few months prior. “Where do you think we’re gonna go from here, then? If you’re so invested in the future of society. That’s not, like, derogatory or anything, I’m just curious.”

“I’m fully expecting it to happen to,” Aurelia agreed in a soft voice, staring at the room around her. It was like organised chaos, an environment her parents woudl easily thrive in, and from the corner of her eye, and environment her sister clearly was. It was all too much, and screamed how out of touch the founders of the project were if this was their idea of a welcome event. “I wonder if anyone on the planning comittee even suggested a barbecue…”

She had him at barbecue. Turning towards her with slightly widened eyes and an excited grin, he pointed a finger at her. “See, that is a great idea.” The dinner was nice and all but a barbecue would definitely have been less high pressure. Granted, it was pretty cold out but still. “Maybe we can host one of those in a couple weeks, when people have settled in a little and the weather is less.. freezing.”

It’s awesome here, right? Like….a video game town, but without all the bad stuff that happens. What about you, man?

It is pretty awesome and hopefully we’ll be able to keep up the lack of bad stuff, right? I’m having a good time. I’ve started work now and I think it’ll all really feel like home in a couple of weeks.

( @trianglemateo @ the community centre)

Taking a detour from work to pick up something…he honestly forgot what, from the community centre, Austin’s face lit up when he saw a vaguely familar face. “Hey, dude. Sir…dude!” He called out, stumbling over his words lightly. “It’s me, Austin, who;’s like 6″3! You doing okay?”

Mateo had just been on his way to grab a cup of coffee when Austin approached him. Okay, yeah, maybe he was a little bit taller than he was. Not that much though. “Yeah, hey man!” he returned, pausing with coffee in hand. “I’m good, thank you. What about you, what’re you doing here?”

( @trianglemateo @ lemon crew)

The name of the this place disappointed Rory for a lot of reasons. He thought, at first, it was an actual bar. Or at least some sort of innuendo. But no, just boring juice in a boring bar. He turned to leave, bumping hard into the guy he met at the welcome dinner. “Bit of a disappointment,” He said in greeting, “You’ve been warned.”

Mat wasn’t exactly into juice. In fact, he had no strung feelings about juice whatsoever. But he was new here and if this was all about making new experiences - who knew? Maybe he had a secret passion for apple juice he wasn’t aware of. That was the train of thought he was following as he collided with someone exiting that juice bar. “What can possibly be disappointing about a juice bar? Were they out of.. orange?” he asked, a hand on the other’s arm to steady them from their collision. 

At the happy hum, Caspian bit back a smile - making coffee and tending bar weren’t exactly all that different of tasks, but it was still nice to know that he could still make a killer drink, even if this one would wake somebody up as opposed to getting them drunk.

“No, I don’t mind - I was just sort of… lookin’ for a new start, if that makes sense. And who would say no to free room and board for a year?” they replied, deciding it was probably best to not dump their whole backstory on him - he didn’t need to know that they were striving to live up to a legacy that seemed insurmountable, that this was just a way to try to impress a family that never considered them good enough. “What about you? What brings you here?”

“There’s no shame in having bacon with your pancakes,” they pointed out, their eyes on his face instead of buried in a notebook. That was part of the good thing about working in a diner - it was similar to bartending; people typically ordered what they knew they liked, and the menu was pretty standard, therefore they didn’t have to take a thousand notes about very specific dishes. 

Turning to grab his coffee, Caspian let the cook know what to make before returning to him, giving him another little smile. “Yeah, well, it’s still nice to hear it instead of reading it,” he replied. “Good to meet you, Mat, I’m Caspian. Cas. Whatever you wanna call me.” Their voice still had a hint of a Southern drawl to it, despite the handful of years he’d been living outside of the South. Caspian set the coffee down in front of him, leaning on the counter once again as he waited for the food to be prepared. 

“Smarter words have never been said,” Mat mused. Was he slightly overdoing it on a huge breakfast before work and would regret it by 2pm? It was likely, but Live and Learn, right? Reaching for his coffee, Mat took a sip and hummed happily. 

Moving always brought new adjustments along with the actual move itself; there was adjusting to a new daily routine - it was the first time in years Caspian was working days instead of nights, so they were still adjusting their sleep schedule to a less nocturnal lifestyle than the one they’d previously lived - as well as getting to know new people, new places, new sights and sounds. Luckily, Caspian had always been a people person. He was quick with a smile and happy to be a shoulder for someone to lean on.

“Twenty-four seven, Sir,” he replied with an equally bright smile, leaning against the counter in front of the customer who’d sat down in front of them. At least the pin told him what he needed to know in order to treat this stranger with respect - the number of times they’d had to adjust their behavior - especially in college - because they hadn’t known someone’s mark was more than he could count on his fingers, at least. “And the pancakes are the best in town, if I do say so myself.”

One of the exciting things about living here was not knowing anyone. Don’t get him wrong, he tended to have big friend groups and loved knowing somewhere pretty much everywhere he went, but there was something really fun about getting the chance to meet strangers. There were never too many friends in his book.