Hard Knocks Life (Patty & Aya)

Work sucked, but you had to do it. Or like, starve or something. But anyway work sucked, especially crap like customer service... which was kinda Patty's job. She actually liked customer service or like, the concept of it. Talking to people all day was fun and she had a few regulars that made the time go by. It was the shitty people that made the job hell and more importantly the stupid structure from her dumbass managers. Time cards were a freakin' pain in the ass, schedules were a freakin' pain in the ass, basically anything about selling cigarettes and beef jerky that wasn't about, y'know, actually doing those things. Customer service could be fun, it was all these dumbass people that made an easy job hard and often because they were jackasses with too much time on their hands.

But anyway it was another simple evening at her convenience store gig watching over the cases of beer and snacks and making sure people didn't steal shit. Sometimes. When she felt like it. Patty really didn't give enough of a fuck, she wasn't gonna get rocked or stabbed 'cause someone wanted to make off with a forty. Totally not worth $7.25 an hour and no benefits. But it wasn't all bad. She got to talk to people and the job was super skate. Except like right now when no one was coming in, so Patty was playing on her phone. Looking at social media and bored out of her skull. Kinda made her want to take something to make work more interesting but it wouldn't be worth it. She should probably be cleaning the bathrooms. Patty should probably be doing a lot of things she wasn't. The lanky chick sighed and popped another stick of gum in her mouth as she slumped over the counter and lazily thumbed at her touch screen. She wished it was midnight already. That's when all the drunks came in, they were funny to interact with.

Soooooooo phone games were boring when they were the only thing you had to do. You could only play so much Bubble Burst before you started to hate anything round like it shot your dog. Patricia drummed her emerald nails on the counter blowing air out through her cheeks as she flipped from game to website to app and back trying to kill the boredom. She'd gotten her hopes up when she heard someone come in, flitting her eyes upward. The door didn't have a bell on it but when it was open everything sounded different, the cars from the street came in louder, she could hear the rain clearer, all that jazz. But she didn't catch whoever it was in time to say or do anything, just some split ends under a ball cap and a loose shirt fading into the store. Which sucked. Like Patty was gonna say "hey" and talk to someone for 5 whole minutes so she didn't try making a noose out of the shitty counter jerky but she looked like a type Patty was familiar with. In a rush, being avoidant...

She was gonna be an impatient bitch, wasn't she?

Those were never fun, they never wanted to talk and they got snippy with like the 2 words they said to you. Whatever. The lanky magenta-haired chick rolled her eyes and slumped her fist into her hand with a deep sigh, moving to chew on her cuticles. Retail was hell. The shitty people she could deal with, the stupid mopping and stocking was okay 'cause she kept moving, but just standing there just to stand there? She'd rather get hit by a bus.

Booooooored so booooooooored! The junkie was tired of looking at her phone, nothing exciting was going on and even if there was something she didn't wanna know about it 'cause she couldn't go do it. All she had to do was wait out this boring ass shift for like...... 4 more hours. Fuuuuuuuuuck. The purple-haired chick took to play with coins from the tray instead to kill the boredom, spinning them on the counter and seeing how long they could keep spinning or spinning several at one time. Then getting them to fight. Holy shit she almost wished someone would try to rob the place, it'd be more exciting then NO-THING GAWD. Patty looked up when that one chick entered her periphery. Reflex. Just to make sure it's, like, not someone who will complain to her boss that she's playing with coins on the counter. But she smiled. Patty grinned back and waved. Okay, so like maybe she wasn't gonna be a bitch after all. That'd be nice. Patty wanted someone to talk to that wasn't gonna try to jump down her throat.

......know what? Screw it, she was gonna try to start a conversation instead of waiting for her to come up to the register. She was too freakin' bored.
"Wet enough for ya?" she asked, commenting on the rain. "Geez I hope it doesn't rain all day. I got stuff to do, y'know? Finding everything alright?"

.......okay yeah she was one of the weirdos. But that was great! The freaks were fun and they passed the time. Unless, like, they were doing math equations in the restroom with their own shit on the walls. That happened once. It wasn't a very good day. Soooooo this was a gamble but whatever, it was better than standing there doing nothing. Alligators in the sewers, huh? Was it just weirdo speak or psycho babble? One way to find out.
"I prefer my alligators in a Chevrolet movie the-a-tre," she teased, sounding out the-AY-ter. It came from a stupid rap song but it was funny and kinda crazy.
"But if it rains too hard they'll drown and you don't have to. The sewers are dangerous anyway, yo did you hear what happened? I heard a gas line broke in the sewers and blew up a whole section of street in the Backlight! Isn't that crazy? Like can you imagine just... walkin' down the freakin' street and the ground blows up underneath you?"

Yeah, she knew the truth of what happened. Supernatural bullshit was involved. Cadets, terrorists, she didn't care which but it was one of'em. She made the gas line thing up, sounds like something people would believe. Patty didn't have anything to gain from espousing the people to the truth or championing for a cause or whatever and the less people were on their toes the better. It made it easier for her to do what she wants to do without people looking over their shoulder for masked murderous psychos or whatever bullshit the government spit out. She was just making small talk and this was the most interesting thing she could think about. Everyone was talking about it, it was news. Explosions don't happen everyday in the city. Well, except wherever she happened to be at night.

Terrorist. Yep. Heard that one, from a pretty damn reliable source no less. Patty was probably one of few people who actually knew what that was about or at least more than anyone else did. But that wasn't for everyone to like, know. She sure as hell wasn't gonna get a target painted on her forehead for acting like she knew as much as she did and it was stupid easy to act dumb and play along. Patricia was sorta starting to get what the Playhouse was preaching about truth and knowledge because most of these people didn't know jack about anything. Still didn't like their war and wasn't gonna be a part of it but eh, they were just too like self-righteous and junk. But she'd play along for now, at least playing the part of a skeptic.

"Ha! Like the terrorists are out to steal our own shit! What would they even want to blow up the sewers for anyway? .......Aaaaahahahahaaaaa that would make them literally turd burglars! Ahahahahaaaaiiieeee...!" The lanky girl cackled and wheezed over her own stupid joke. She had to wipe a tear from her eye.
"Aheh, ahehehehehaaa... okay but seriously, it just sounds like people are freaked out and making up rumors. Of all the places they could blow up why a sewer in bumfuck Backlight? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Like it sounds interesting but not really likely, y'know? Sewers blow up all the time, people throw cigarettes down manholes and boom. There goes the block." The skinny chick rested her elbow on the counter as she continued to talk.
"Like, I think people in Endymion are just afraid of everything and point fingers at the scary terrorists, oh so spooky! Like I'VE never seen one, have you? Well like except for on TV that one time but I mean, so what? Up until now it's just all been some drama-filled news story, like I don't see any reason to start caring now." There, that should do it. It wasn't really calling out the government nor was it agreeing with any one side of whatever the fuck conflict these costumed chucklefucks were fighting. And if she didn't have a Persona she might've believed what she was saying. Most people didn't encounter the freaky side of the supernatural fence, it was like the odds of getting shot to death in a public shooting. You hear about it all the time but like it never happens to anyone you know about.

Well...... fuck. She didn't even laugh at her joke. She thought it was funny, whatever dude. Guess she got really heavy there for a sec with the politics and it scared her away. Which sucked. Talking made the time go by, she didn't mean anything by it, now she wasn't gonna have anyone to talk to on her shift. The grungy chick just kind of mumbled and nodded at her like most people do. Why did she even bother? Couldn't anyone just be, like, cool for 5 minutes and talk about stupid crap with her? But nobody wanted to. Patricia frowned as Reiji left.
"See ya later, I guess. Have a good day, chica." She gave a lazy wave and went back to being bored. And feeling like dirt that she got brushed off for being stupid and talking about terrorists and scaring people away. The thin chick sighed loudly and dramatically, taking one of the pennies from the coin tray and going back to trying to spin it on the counter. Not freakin' much else to do but wait out the rest of her shift. Whatever. Screw it, she might as well go clean the bathrooms while she had a few minutes. Not like anyone else was coming in anyway.