[Evan Pen] Upgrades [GaiusGermanicusBloodsoak]

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Altair chuckled and shrugged once, shaking his head, "I guess I'm luckier than you... I don't know if you listen to a lot of music and or anything but you've probably heard about them, being all over the news, the band System Abuse used to play on the one platform, and there's something about being able to say that you crashed on the couch -- and to be honest, in the bed -- of the drummer of a band before they ever became famous. Only issue is that for every person who takes you seriously, four roll their eyes and scoff." Okay, so that was a bit more interesting, right? He hoped it was. He pushed his hair to the side, looking at Marcus carefully in an attempt to judge his reaction. Boring or not, he still seemed happier than before.
 
Marcus gave a thoughtful nod with his head. "Yeah, I think I've heard of them." was all that he simply said. "Can't say I'm not jealous." If the tattoo on his back was any indication, Marcus could very easily be called a metal head. Although that wasn't something that he felt to be entirely necessary to this conversation. "While I haven't ever slept with someone famous, I can't say my life in that regard had been entirely empty, but that's something for another time." Marcus wasn't exactly the kind of person to discuss his sex life with some guy he just met. "As much as I would like for it to be true, I can't say that the city's oddities have been confined to the subway. You're just as likely to see weird shit on the streets."
 
"Hm, I suppose, but sometimes you spend so much time around it, it just starts to seem normal," Altair ventured, looking at the beer in his hand that he had only taken one mouthful from so far. He wasn't particularly fond of drinking so he was going to make this last. Even the idea of two suddenly seemed a little much... "I mean, I'm out there every night, so maybe I'm just numb to it at this point." Marcus' comment about it being something 'for another time' made him wonder just a bit if he had interpreted the situation wrong. But he was probably just talking about, well, talking about that. Which Altair could respect. He just saw no reason to pretend he hadn't slept with people, since he didn't really form any sort of attachment from that act alone. Platonic affection, sure. Romance wasn't really his thing, though.
 
Before he spoke again, Marcus took another pull from his beer, doing his best to finish it so that it wouldn't just be a can sitting around. That being done, he set it down on a table beside the couch, then turned his head towards Altair. "You know, it's not right for a man to have to worry about where he's going to sleep for a night. That should be one of the things that he should be able to look forward to, not dread. A good nights sleep in a soft warm bed can be an incredible thing." He really didn't want it to seem like he was bragging, but hey, it was the truth. While Marcus wasn't going to just give a bed to a random homeless man each night, he did feel a little guilty when he saw one sitting on the sidewalk. Although, if it really came down to it, he didn't have to much of a problem letting Altair stay with him for a few days, or more.
 
Altair's mouth twitched, "We live in a world without enough beds, then." He was lucky, enough friends with enough money for apartments that he could sleep it. A floor inside was better than bench, or the subway platform. A couch was even better than that. And his body four a half hour was worth eight hours of solid sleep on a bed... "You're right though; it's not right, but it's the way of the world as great an injustice as it is... but I don't see anyone helping us, coming out and giving us food and a roof over our head and a nice warm place to sleep every night. And no one trusts a shelter unless they have to these days. They check your tech if you're unlucky, mark down whether it's legal or not and you can have the police tracking you while you just look for someone who still carries change." He swallowed suddenly and sighed, shaking his had, "I don't mean to go on like that, but it's a hard life and I've only been out there a fraction of the time some of them have... and I'm lucky. I'm young, I have friends and charm and looks enough to get me enough to scrape by. Life isn't easy for a lot of us and I guess that's the reason so many of us resent the government, corporations... I don't, personally but..." a small shrug of his shoulders and a swig of beer indicated that his feelings were different from many if not the majority.
 
"Charms and looks is right." Marcus thought to himself as he looked Altair up and down once more. While Altair didn't seem entirely anti-government, it was clear that he swung more one way than the other. Anyways, was there a way that he could swing this towards a more light-hearted conversation? He was having trouble thinking so, as with everything that was going on around them, light hearted didn't seem like it was going to happen. "I suppose there isn't a whole lot that can be done right now, but eventually... maybe then some change can happen. But I guess this goes to show how our priorities differ; I'm concerned about these random attacks, and you're concerned about simply making it by. I mean, I don't mean to sound like a prick, but..." He really didn't know where to go with that, so for now he fell silent.
 
Altair quirked just a hint of a smile, tapping his chin with his non-flesh fingertips in thought. "Well, that's true... I mean, I will be concerned, I guess, if this actually causes things to start falling apart-- I might not love the government, but I'm not an anarchist... I know we need the structure, I just hope that someday they'll actually start caring about those of us that don't have it made." He supposed he could have had a better life, with good grades, a scholarship... someone might have snatched him up but he had never really felt like that was the life for him. But the fact of the matter was that if that wasn't the life for you, anymore, there was no life for you. Marcus had probably gotten it good, and congratulations for him; Altair would be the first to admit that he could admire the work and effort it took. But he could also sit and resent the fact that to do anything anymore you had to have the skills and concentration for a certain sector.

(Sorry, school is bogging me down a bit so I'm going to be down to a few replies a week ^^;;)
 
(No problem)

"You have a point man. There has to be something that allows order, but things have gotten ridiculous. As much as I like to think that it would happen, I just don't see anything changing. It's gotten to the point where the unfortunate have been all forgotten." This all reminded Marcus of how much he had to work his ass off to get where he was. A few days after his 18th birthday, his parents had forced him out of the house and left him to fend for himself. Although he'd rather not think about all that right now. "Maybe one day, someone will start something, I don't know, like an organization or something that really and truly seeks to help the poor and rejected."
 
"For now, you can't really blame us for taking what we can, though... I mean, I don't think that -- if this is anything to do with the kind of people I know -- that hijacking peoples' tech is the right way to go, but I think it's ridiculous that we're blamed for where we are..." Altair trailed off a moment, trying to ignore the stories that invaded that back of his mind. Refugees, veterans, immigrants; people had come here for a better future and ended up selling their souls for a needle, an escape. He was one of the lucky ones and he knew it, even if he was a little envious of those who so obviously had it 'made' to his eyes. "Social assistance isn't even any good if you don't have a permanent address and you aren't even allowed to put down a shelter anymore, if you do go to one... it's ridiculous."

He felt odd because he hadn't come here to discuss politics or opinions. He had had his suspicions as to what Marcus wanted and fully expected himself to be right. He usually was. So Altair was confused and a little out of his depth here. He didn't even know whether or not he really wanted to go through with that if it turned that way, because somehow though this was different and he couldn't quite wrap his head around it, it was different and it was nice to talk about it all, vent to someone who couldn't just snort and tell him he was 'preaching to the choir'.
 
While Marcus really didn't want to be discussing this type of thing, but he did want to do was not just arbitrarily shut down Altair. He had come home to try and get away from all this. "Sometimes, I just don't know what to think in this fucked up world." hopefully that would change the direction of the conversation, to where, he really didn't know, but it was a change nonetheless. He sat there for a few moments in silence before standing up. "I don't mean to cut you off, but excuse me for a moment." that being said, Marcus walked off down the hall and into his bedroom for a couple of minutes before walking back out with what appeared to be a few old photo albums. "Sometimes I wonder what it would be like living in a much simpler time, when people had an attention span longer than three fucking seconds."
 
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