A world without Dave.[self thread/ask to join]t

[Dredge]

They say office work is terrible for your body, that the human body just isn't made to sit at a desk for ten hours a day and type word documents. We evolved from hunters and gatherers who lived off the land and moved their bodies until it was time to sleep. What the hell happened? I used to be on a rowing team, I used to be an active person. Now look at me, a slave to this desk and this corporate system of infinite mediocrity. But here I am tied to this desk typing away at the Oscar Report.

I mean someone died, Dave, Dave died and everything just moves on like nothing happened. Hell they even cleaned out his desk and a Rodian is sitting there now, it's been three days and they already hired someone else. Does my job mean that little that I can be replaced as soon as I kick the bucket. As soon as I explode in a ball of fire like Dav-

"Smith!" Great, Edwards my boss.

From my haze of depression that was my life I lifted my head back almost lifelessly to see Edwards standing behind my cubicle. God I hate that word, cubicle. It's just another word for cell.

"Yes Mister Edwards?" I said in a voice that was near dead.

He stared at me for a bit, probably noticing the bags under my eyes. I have insomnia you know? That disorder where you can't sleep, long story short it sucks.

"My office in ten minutes please." Well crap.

As Edwards walked away I looked over to my keyboard and coffee mug debating if I should just break it over his head then slit my throat right then and there. But who am I kidding, I'm too much of a coward to do that.

Ten minutes. Joy.

 

[Dredge]

When you have insomnia minutes pass like hours, time itself is thrown out the window. You don't know if you've been sitting in that spot for five minutes or five days, everything is a wreck. I just sat at my desk looking at my screen saver, I always loved that screen saver. It was this kitten with sun glasses and a medal around his neck, and beneath that were the words "I Hung In There" cute right? I wish I could be like that cat, I wish I could just hang in there long enough to do something productive with my life. But that's all I've been doing my whole life, hanging in there.

"Smith!" Had it been ten minutes? Had I been hanging in there that long?

Looking over at my clock it was indeed ten minutes later. So I stood up with the grace of a new born horse and began to tumble my way to the boss' office. Once there I looked at Edwards with an apologetic face, he gave a sigh as he rubbed his temples and spoke.

"Smith close the door and sit down please." Great, this was going well. Maybe I was getting a mark on my record.

closing the door behind me I sat in one of the expensive cushy office chairs that was so much more comfortable than my own and felt like drifting off to sleep right then and there. But Edwards' annoying voice and face seemed to remedy that problem.

"Jack. As you know with Dave's untimely death we here at Everlast financial have been taking a good look at our workforce to make sure we are running at peak capacity since his loss. You of course know Dave was our best worker." He said in a firm tone that made me want to punch him.

"Why yes sir, I knew him for four years. Great guy." I said in response. To be honest I hated Dave.

"Well every quarterly evaluation he always told me and convinced me that there were key employees that I needed to keep around, even though they were on my firing list." I don't like where this is going.

"I see. What might this do with me?" I asked.

There was a long pause between us as he grabbed a file from his desk and looked over it.

"Your name is on that list, you're fired smith. Clean out your desk immediately." And that was the start to my world collapsing.

 

[Dredge]

Haduken. Straight to my face. I sat there for a moment wondering what had just happened, how I had just lost my job. Dave stood up for mr though? The Dave that I once plotted drowning in the restroom sink while on break? Without Dave, I would of been gone ages ago. I guess now it was my turn to be replaced, to fall out like a good soldier and just become another statistic of jobs lost this year under our supreme and glorious dark lord.

"Please leave smith, your services are no longer required." He said adding salt to the wound.

It was time to go. It was time to leave this prison, this prison that provided me with all of my property. My home, my car, my things. As I walked towards my desk I grabbed my mug and keyboard taking them underarm. I didn't cry sadly, maybe I was too tired, maybe I was too numb inside to feel sadness anymore. All I could think about was how wrong I had been about Dave this whole time, how stupid I had been.

I didn't even noticed that I had done the walk of shame, that moment after you've been fired and everyone stares at you as you passes them. Some of them with smug faces of arrogance and others of sadness. Some even plastered with fear knowing that they could be next, that they could be just like me.

So I popped out of the office building in the midsection of Coruscant and looked out to the cold air that was the subterranean city and sighed. I coughed a few times and began to walk over to wait for my bus to go home.

Bus stop twenty four dash seven Z, my favorite spot in the house. Sitting down on the bench that overlooked the drop to the next level I set my coffee cup and keyboard down as I stood up shortly after to look down at the drop. Climbing up on top of the safety rail I looked down and I wondered, how far would I fall before I regretted jumping?

 

[Dredge]

The wind of the air filtration units blew past me and rustled my hair as I looked down at the black void that was the undercity, I took another step up the safety rail as I continued to stare into the black void that was death. But who was I kidding, I was too much of a coward to kill myself. I was just too scared of what was beyond this crap life. God I'm pathetic, I couldn't hold my job, I can't get a girlfriend, and now I can't even kill myself. What a waste of an existence, what a waste of flesh.

"Maybe you just need to hang in there some more." I said to myself as I looked down at the void, my mind thinking to my screensaver.

As I stepped down from the rail and back to the bench my bus came by to get me, and just from looking I could see it in the bus driver's face that he saw me looking down and contemplating letting go. So I snagged my keyboard and coffee mug and entered the bus swiping my card along the way. I swear if the freaking bus driver was about to give me life advice I was going to take the wheel from him and crash the bus into one of those orphanages that was really a front to indoctrinate force sensitive children. Maybe that'll make me be remembered. #NeverForgetJack

But thankfully the orphans were spared today as he said nothing and I calmly took my seat in the mid section of the bus. Now that the wheels were in motion the speeder took off and headed towards my crummy little apartment on the east side. My bastion that would soon be foreclosed on me thanks to a lack of rent money and a job.

 

[Matthew Rei]

[member="Jack Smith"]

Sometimes, it was far better to use public transportation instead of walking or running, especially when in business attire. Matthew was coming home to mull over yet another case involving brutish thugs trying to scare and get tenants out of some old tenements. The circulating rumor was that the One Sith were behind the recent rush of renovation. They most likely wanted to tear down the lot and put in some new fancy building, like another one of those supposed orphanages. It was going to take more than strong arm tactics to prevent Matthew from stopping Sith from giving kids a "hard knock life".

He sat calmly in his seat when he heard something...new get on the bus with him. The man was covered in the thinnest of sweats. Not the kind that was sticky and laden with body grime, but the kind that was thin and slick...the kind that was caused by fear. Fear that stemmed from multiple things, but Matthew could guess a few: He had a close encounter with a gang, he was just fired and was trying to think of how to break the news to his wife, he was in deep debt to a criminal element, or he had just lost the kid, which he was supposed to watch, in this rather large city planet.

Judging by the rattling of keys on a keyboard, Matthew was inclined to believe that it had something to do with losing a job. Matt got up from his seat and walked over to the solemn man's position that he could sense. Upon reaching him, he tapped the chair to the man's left to see if it was unoccupied. He normally would have known and simply sat, since there were no signs of life. However, it paid to keep up appearances. With his shades on, he looked in the general direction of this man's face, but not quite at him. He was trying to think of something to say as he semi-stared awkwardly at the man.

 

[Dredge]

[member="Matthew Mar'Tin"]

I guess I won't need to take the bus down here anymore, I won't need to do a lot of things anymore I suppose. Adjusting myself in my seat I sat back and coughed again, there wasn't a lot to say. There was just a sinking feeling of failure that resonated in my gut, a pit of hopelessness that no matter how much stuff you filled it, it would never be full. So I just dropped my head back and looked up at the city lights that passed in my peripheral vision. Everything began to blur and soon I felt sleep coming on, maybe if I was lucky someone would take me to zeltros for the low low price of my kidney.

But then that fantasy came to an abrupt end as I felt the eyes of someone burning into my soul. I never understood that, that feeling where you know someone is staring at you without looking back at them. So with that in mind I lifted my head up to see some guy in a pair of glasses staring at me awkwardly. It made me feel uncomfortable, like really uncomfortable. So I adjusted myself again and began to slowly scooch my way away from the creepy guy who was staring at me, first a smuggler, then a mercenary, now a dude in sun glasses in a subterranean city where there's no sun.

"Um. I.. uh." Try to sound more like an idiot Jack, I bet you can't.

As my heart rate sped up I began to take deeper breathes as my social anxiety kicked up more and more. Today was really not the best day for this, what with being fired. I just wanted to get home and lay down on my couch. I should of just jumped when I had the chance.

 

[Matthew Rei]

Heart rate was increasing. His presence was causing a nervous reaction. Was my in debt to criminals a correct guess? Hmmm...Maybe. His response of um, I, and uh illuminated the man's current disposition: Hell'a nervous. He raised a hand in a placating gesture and said,

"Hey. Hey, hey, hey. Don't worry. I'm just another guy riding the bus. No need to worry...but then again, there does seem to be something wrong...something that you are, indeed, worrying about...."

He tilted away from [member="Jack Smith"] and sat back in his seat next to him. He quietly gathered his words and then was about to speak when something unexpected happened.

Spoiler

A young, harried, hooded man got on the bus and was walking by them when he noticed the distressed looking Jack Smith. He quickly turned to him, hands in his pocket and he seemed to be addicted to some kind of drug. Some spit came out of the man's mouth when he bent forwards a bit and said,

"What are you fething sweating bullets for, man!? You think your fething life is hard? Just chill the FETH out and get out of my face!!" Matthew responded by saying,

"Hey, man! You don't know jack! Go away and leave US alone!" After that, the man quickly stumbled/walked his way to the back where he curled up on a seat and started rocking himself back and forth. Some days, you just never knew what was going to happen...

Turning back to Jack, he said,

"As I was saying, buddy, you've hit a milestone in your life. You've been slammed with a life-shattering event that's rocking you to the core. Your little niche in life isn't there to keep you anymore. Your life has gone down the drain..."

"Fifth and main" said the intercom. Matthew got up and held onto a ceiling strap. It looked like he was going to leave, but then he stopped and angled his mouth to Jack to say,

"...But, then again, perhaps this is a blessing. Maybe some higher power is trying to get you off your butt so that you can do something...crazy! Something different. Besides...what have you got to lose."

Matthew finally noticed something that he hadn't sense before. The pounding of veins, the high amount of stress, the unresponsive attitude. This man had a sleeping problem. A numerous amount of small factors that he was picking up pointed at a large build-up of adenosine. The bus stopped and the doors flew open. Before walking off that bus and out of this man's life, he said to him,

"You need to catch some sleep. Stress is a major cause behind sleep loss. I suggest looking into melatonin supplements and chilling out."

 

[Dredge]

That was just the single most dumb two minutes in my entire life, just the train of events that had happened left me dumbfounded on what the hell just happened. Some tweaker came aboard talked some crap then glasses Mgoo gave a motivational speech then left, the whole thing was really weird and was just super stupid. So I just kind of sat there in my seat and did my best to make sure my heart wasn't going to burst out of my chest during the whole ordeal, and to make things worse I was simply too nervous and caught up in a panic attack to even know what the guy in the glasses was saying. To me it was all muted garble that came through a tin can attached to a string.

"Twenty fourth and Cable." The bus driver said over a static filled microphone.

I took a few deep breaths and sighed as I stood up clutching my coffee mug and keyboard. Exiting the bus for the last time I got out and coughed at the smog the bus left as it passed by. I was back in familiar territory, the noodle shop on the left and the various late night stores on my right that wouldn't be open for a few more hours. This was it, my home and I knew that everything was going to be ok as soon as I got home.

Taking in a deep whiff of air I approached my apartment complex dodging past various people on the street. Looking up at its symmetrical beauty I smiled to myself and felt that even though I had just lost my job, everything was going to be ok.

BOOM!!​

And then everything went black.

 

[Dredge]

I couldn't tell you why I answered my phone to this day, maybe it was just a comforting sense of familiarity that made things seem a little less frightening. So as my body laid out in the dirt and ruble of the explosion my phone began to go off in my pocket. Besides me was my coffee table, the cute one with the little light side dark side symbol plastered on it. I always loved that table, but I continued to cough my phone rang until I picked it up out of my pocket and answered it's demanding ringtone.

"*cough* He-hello?" I said with a throat as parched as Tatooine.

"Yes this is Green leaf medical institution, this is Doctor Blufghor calling for Jack Smith." The doctor said in a very cold detached manner.

"Speaking *cough cough* what can I *cough* do for you?" I said as a flaming piece of end table fell from the gaping hole that was my apartment.

"Yes well it seems that we have a bit of bad news on your test results. Do you know that cough you've been having lately?" Great bad news, as if getting fired and losing my house wasn't enough.

"Yes, I am aware." I said coughing again breathing in the dust of the settling explosion.

"Well there's no easy way to say this but it's lung cancer." and then my world froze.

Everything around simply slowed and the bottom of my stomach dropped out. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong, I lost everything and now I was going to die.

"We've caught it early and that's good, hindsight is twenty twenty what's important is that we move quickly. Your benefits from work should cover your tre-*Click* Went the phone as hung it up and dropped it besides me.

I don't know why I called her, maybe it was because I had nothing left. Maybe it was that they were the only person who knew I existed anymore. So I got on my cell and I called up the one person who I didn't want to see again ever. [member="Nyx"] the mercenary. The phone rang and I sat back waiting for her to pick up.

 

[Nyx]

She hit the ground hard, the breath exiting her lungs as she impacted with a smack that echoed throughout the alley. Nyx gasped for breath, her eyes wide, and adrenaline pumping through her veins.
The Rhodian's foot sped for her face, and she barely managed to roll out of the way, the alien's foot slamming into the spot where she was just a moment before.
With a deep breath, she sprang to her feet, spitting to the side, her saliva tinged with red.
She lunged forward, her fist sailing towards his head, and when it impacted, alien blood splattered onto her. The Rhodian stumbled, and she saw her chance.
Her fists slammed into him again and again, until the Rhodian stopped moving, and her fists were bathed in blood.

She didn't have a reason for fighting the alien; she almost never had a reason for fighting anyone she fought. The only reason she needed was the rush the fight gave, the high that came with it.
But those thoughts were interrupted by the sound of her phone ringing, and she took it out of her jacket pocket. She glanced at the incoming number and found she didn't recognize it. She considered just letting it go, but decided she had little better to do than answer.

She accepted the call.
"Nyx speaking."

[member="Jack Smith"]​