Foster Van Denend (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
control_freak) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
lostcarnival2017-08-26 09:22 pm
control_freak) wrote in lostcarnival2017-08-26 09:22 pm
Entry tags:
MOPS AGGRESSIVELY [Open]
Who: Foster and you!
When: Day 151
Where: Carnival Grounds - Various
What: Psi has hits upon a clever way to get Foster's goat.
Warnings: Foster.
A. Taking Out The Trash
Anyone who generally takes notice of Foster at all will notice that the past week or so, he's been unusually... hardworking. Not with magic or other suspicious lurkings, but with cleaning. He's constantly busy--scrubbing walls, hauling garbage, mopping floors.
He's not just doing his job, he's pushing himself.
Why?
One word:
Papyrus.
Psi's solution to his disagreement with Foster was actually fairly clever: rather than confronting (or antagonising) Foster further, he'd simply assigned Foster to assist Papyrus in his janitorial tasks.
Papyrus? Thrilled.
He immediately cast himself as Foster's mentor, giving the necromancer a whirlwind tour of the job and peppering him with questions and reassurances and instructing him in the finer points of mop handling with an intensity of optimism and good faith that was honestly pretty repulsive--
Foster retained approximately none of it.
Which only seemed to motivate Papyrus to try harder, which drove Foster further into impotent fury, which inspired Papyrus to champion his achievements and potential more, which antagonised Foster even further, which...
Well. Anyway. The harder Foster works, the faster he can leave Papyrus behind, or so the logic goes. He's honestly taking his aggression out on the grime, but he's also trying--desperately--to achieve a level of performance that will shut Papyrus up.
Or at least end the ordeal faster.
...
Mind your feet.
B. Duck and Cover
Prior to the Carnival, Foster had never been gainfully employed in his entire life. This--his contract here, as part of the Carnival--is the most employed he's ever been. Despite that, he's been grudgingly cooperative with it. Until now. Obeying orders and performing thankless labour for no reward is somewhat gratifying to him, honestly. But this?
Papyrus is not just exhausting, not just grating, not just insufferable... he's relentless.
Escaping him as soon as their work is done is a challenge, because he never wants to let Foster leave.
And even once he's detached himself from the skeleton, Foster still takes pains to avoid him other times. Paranoia has a tendency to drive Foster to unnecessary extremes. Now even eating is to be done in odd corners of the carnival, lest Papyrus see him sitting in the open and sit down to enthusiastically strike up a one-sided "conversation."
A lot of his preferred retreats are kind of strange--instead of his trailer, for example, he can sometimes be found on the floor of ferris wheel carriages. Or hidden inside of the midway game stands, a trick he unwittingly shares with Papyrus' brother. Or in the barn's loft--which is cool, shaded, and hidden from view. Between the elevation, the lack of light, and the bales of straw... it's by far the best place in every way but one: getting a plate or bowl of food up a ladder is basically impossible.
When: Day 151
Where: Carnival Grounds - Various
What: Psi has hits upon a clever way to get Foster's goat.
Warnings: Foster.
A. Taking Out The Trash
Anyone who generally takes notice of Foster at all will notice that the past week or so, he's been unusually... hardworking. Not with magic or other suspicious lurkings, but with cleaning. He's constantly busy--scrubbing walls, hauling garbage, mopping floors.
He's not just doing his job, he's pushing himself.
Why?
One word:
Papyrus.
Psi's solution to his disagreement with Foster was actually fairly clever: rather than confronting (or antagonising) Foster further, he'd simply assigned Foster to assist Papyrus in his janitorial tasks.
Papyrus? Thrilled.
He immediately cast himself as Foster's mentor, giving the necromancer a whirlwind tour of the job and peppering him with questions and reassurances and instructing him in the finer points of mop handling with an intensity of optimism and good faith that was honestly pretty repulsive--
Foster retained approximately none of it.
Which only seemed to motivate Papyrus to try harder, which drove Foster further into impotent fury, which inspired Papyrus to champion his achievements and potential more, which antagonised Foster even further, which...
Well. Anyway. The harder Foster works, the faster he can leave Papyrus behind, or so the logic goes. He's honestly taking his aggression out on the grime, but he's also trying--desperately--to achieve a level of performance that will shut Papyrus up.
Or at least end the ordeal faster.
...
Mind your feet.
B. Duck and Cover
Prior to the Carnival, Foster had never been gainfully employed in his entire life. This--his contract here, as part of the Carnival--is the most employed he's ever been. Despite that, he's been grudgingly cooperative with it. Until now. Obeying orders and performing thankless labour for no reward is somewhat gratifying to him, honestly. But this?
Papyrus is not just exhausting, not just grating, not just insufferable... he's relentless.
Escaping him as soon as their work is done is a challenge, because he never wants to let Foster leave.
And even once he's detached himself from the skeleton, Foster still takes pains to avoid him other times. Paranoia has a tendency to drive Foster to unnecessary extremes. Now even eating is to be done in odd corners of the carnival, lest Papyrus see him sitting in the open and sit down to enthusiastically strike up a one-sided "conversation."
A lot of his preferred retreats are kind of strange--instead of his trailer, for example, he can sometimes be found on the floor of ferris wheel carriages. Or hidden inside of the midway game stands, a trick he unwittingly shares with Papyrus' brother. Or in the barn's loft--which is cool, shaded, and hidden from view. Between the elevation, the lack of light, and the bales of straw... it's by far the best place in every way but one: getting a plate or bowl of food up a ladder is basically impossible.
no subject
That was absolutely the wrong answer.
"Normal?" Foster echoes, somehow not mockingly. Yet. "Normal?"
It's not even next door to the right answer.
He starts laughing. Again. Only this time, it should be a lot more obvious what his laughter really means.
It's just so incredibly, pathetically stupid of Yuya, to believe that something like this is not connected--
No, how lucky it is for him, to believe that! How easily blinded, how innocent, how... how honest.
But then he stops, looks Yuya directly in the eye, and says
"..... no."
no subject
"It's as normal as anything can get in this place!" He grumbles, looking away sullenly. "I just noticed it, but it's not that important anyway."
Thanks for your ongoing patience <3
He doesn't pause for a reaction, though, sparing Yuya from any further uncomfortable misunderstandings. Instead, he has to face a different kind of discomfort, as Foster steps closer--directly into Yuya's personal space, his startling blue eyes locked with the teen's as he closes the gap between them.
"You might want to be careful about having a... connection to something like me," he says, then laughs--as though disquieted, as though insinuating, as though knowing.
O7!
"You don't make any sense." Maybe if he says it Foster will explain himself, or maybe he'll just continue to be an enigma to Yuya. "Are you saying that because you think you're trash? I can't take back getting stabbed."
no subject
Oh, Yuya.
It's a shame Yuya didn't ask someone besides Strange about the man he's inches away from right now, because that is a whole lot of very dangerous assumptions he is making all at once.
But not backing up was actually a pretty good move. Foster regards Yuya evenly for a long moment, his eyes lidded--he doesn't give Yuya any more space, but he does notice that Yuya doesn't try to make more. To try and escape.
.... interesting.
So he doesn't move back, and he doesn't lay a hand on Yuya, if that was a concern--but he doesn't bother to explain himself. Of course he isn't making sense. Yuya believes too hard in life, in ideas like 'he thinks' he's trash, in preserving his illusions.
"I wouldn't, to you." His tone is evenly contradictory.
no subject
He wouldn't what? Wouldn't make sense? That's the only part Yuya can make the connection between. He's not wrong that Yuya isn't understanding now, but he's trying.
"It might if you explain it to me? I want to understand, but I don't see anything wrong with having something in common." Because for Yuya that's all it was--some small point of similarity for them. For all the meaning Foster has applied to the marks, for Yuya... well, he's had enough people fawning over his decision, but he knows how selfish his reasons were.
no subject
Primarily, he just doesn't think Yuya has it in him to be worth the time. But peripherally, he's curious. Will Yuya give first, or will he wait? Either to back down or shove Foster away?
If Yuya just wants Foster to give him the answers, how quickly will he give up when he realises they aren't available?
no subject
no subject
Which is just going to have to do for now, because with that, Foster takes his mop and turns to leave.
no subject
He picks up the balancing ball to go return it to storage. He meant it when he said he's had enough hitting his head today.