cardboard_journalism | Inbox [cerealia]

Inbox [cerealia]

"Sss, sss, sss.

You've reached the desk of Myriam Scuttlebutt.

If you're calling to submit a story to the Cerealia Times, please press 1.

If you're calling to inquire about employment with the Cerealia Times, please press 2.

If you're calling to make a complaint about a story in the Cerealia Times, you are free to hang up. Complaints will only be accepted as submitted letters to the editor, delivered in physical form.

If you're calling for any other reason, please leave a message after the beep."

[boop]

[if 1 is pressed]

"You've reached the extension for submitting a story to the Cerealia Times. Please describe your story after the beep. For reference, please include your name and contact information. You may also make your tip anonymously, or ask for anonymity. As a source, your anonymity is protected by law, and will not be revealed without your express permission.

Kahk-kahk... Keep in mind, you cannot be financially compensated for information you provide, for reason of journalistic ethics. ...no, really, journalists aren't supposed to do that."

[boop]

[if 2 is pressed]

"The Cerealia Times is in need of correspondents, reporters, photojournalists, and delivery personnel.

Correspondent: you are expected to respond to stories that break out in an assigned section of Cerealia, report the information at the scene, interview witnesses, and supply written stories. Mild literacy is required.

Reporters: you are expected to actively pursue assigned stories and conduct related interviews in a timely manner. Mild interpersonal skills a plus, but not essential. With approval, you will be free to investigate your own stories.

Photojournalists: you are expected to record newsworthy events on film. This may require taking shots under suboptimal conditions.

Delivery personnel: you are expected to transport, unload, and fold bundles of newspaper around Cerealia.

All of these jobs take long hours and are very demanding... but they're worth it. --Except for the delivery job, that's just busywork. Sss, sss!

Leave your contact information, desired post, and brief description of your experience, if any!"

[boop]

[action thread continuations can go here too!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[he's not even mad about the article. It's weird, but eh, whatever.]

didn't need an interview after all, or what? and just when i found a bar I like.

Sure I will. I just figured since you consented to an additional interview, what you told me to begin with was also fair game.

What bar and when?

there's a good place in the entertainment district down the block from the game center. [insert address here, he actually wrote it down] the Lazy Dragon. whenever you got time.

Gotcha! I'll be waiting at [INSERT TIME HERE] Look for the most inconspicuous person there.

[which meant her sitting in a corner at a table wearing her cardboard box]

Edited 2015-07-25 10:35 (UTC)

[yeah, sorry about the lateness Myriam, he got lost despite having the address. Or maybe because of it, who knows how this brain works.

He's quick to guess that the cardboard box is her, though, since everyone else looks like run of the mill colonists moping in their beer. He swings by to order a bottle of rum sent to the table and then plops down across from her.]

Incognito, I'm guessing?

Ah! Mr. Zoro. Glad you found me, congratulations!

At least we meet. Face-to-face!

[face-to-box, really]

Ready for our interview? Sss, sss, sss.

Yeah, well. I got my ways.

[like it's TOTALLY OBVIOUS but he can blame haki if he wants to. He waits until the bottle gets dropped off by his elbow before answering.]

I am now. Dunno what you want to know about pirates, but I guess I'm an expert.

I'm interested in whatever you have to say, of course!

[if he was planning on drinking, he'd likely become more honest as time went on, but he could also get more sensitive to insults and walk out if she waited until then to spring the attack questions on him... better to bring out the hard-ball stuff right away]

My first question is in regard to an anonymous shipmate of yours I happened to have the fortune of meeting the other day, he said you are...

[she flipped a notepad]

A, quote "shitty deadbeat," and implied indirectly that was the reason you were unemployed, as they say.

Do you have anything to you wish to say in reply?

[instantly chokes on his first mouthful of rum]

That asshole!

[excuse him a moment while he mops up, grumbling under his breath about a certain shit-cook who's going to get cut to ribbons when he gets home]

Don't listen to him.

You would say he was lying, then?

It's his opinion [insta-pointing] and it's personal. That's between crewmates, it ain't news so don't write about that. You don't see me asking about how you feel about your friends.

[harrumphs and takes a proper, non-sputtered drink this time]

He's just jealous about that thing you printed about Weiss. Which still isn't true, by the way.

Well, it's relevant to the article I wrote, isn't it?

[so far, so good!]

Oh? You suspect this crewmate of having feelings for Weiss Schnee?

No, how would it be? [oh right the deadbeat unemployed thing] We're roommates and crew, so how we handle things is between us, nobody else.

[yes let's shift blame onto the cook instead. Zoro snorts into his rum.]

Idiot has feelings for any woman. He's obsessed.

You read the article, right? Here-- Sss, sss, sss. Take another look!

[and her hands would retract inside her box before a copy of the latest issue of The Cerealia Times would extrude through the slot she'd been using to see out of]

[well that's different. He takes the paper, but only sort of half-heartedly]

Yeah, I read it. I still don't see the connection. Just because you wrote about me not having a job doesn't mean you gotta bring our personal lives into it. [he gives the paper a perfunctory glance and tosses it down] Besides, it's not like I didn't have offers.

On the contrary, your personal life is exactly the point!

The article frames it as you as the typical pirate, unable to adapt to wage-slash-salary life in Cerealia. A problem affecting pirates as a whole. However, the words and actions of your crewmate would suggest that it's less a structural problem that should be addressed by CERES and more a personal issue that should be addressed by you, Zoro, Captain's second.

Really? What sort of offers did you receive?

[for a moment, he actually smirks]

You were the one who decided it was CERES' fault, not me.

I don't remember the crappy options, the only one that mattered to me was dojo instructor. I turned it down.

Yes... Through information you provided to me. Sss, sss, sss.

What were your motivations for turning it down?

[shakes his head slowly] I didn't tell you to draw the wrong conclusion. Not my fault.

Anyway. I'm not a teacher, I don't have the patience for it. Most of the people here are too weak to keep up with me, I don't wanna hurt anybody who's just trying to learn the basic forms.

Maybe not directly... no.

I see. A sort of "I'm good at the thing, but I can't actually teach you the thing," sort of thing.

[slight pause]

How are you at lifting heavy things and then putting them down?

What, like lifting weights? I do it all the time.

[eye narrows suspiciously.]

Something like that! Sss, sss, sss.

What if I said I knew a job where all you had to do was walk around and lift heavy things once a week?

Once a week?

[hrm. He wasn't interested in getting a job but once a week doesn't sound like a "real" job. Totally down with that.]

What's the catch?

No catch! Well, no real catch.

Just one thing: your boss will be me.

Sss, sss, sss. Newspapers don't fall out of the sky, you know? Every week, I roll those things around on a hand-truck and hand deliver them. It's back-breaking work for a girl of my delicate stature, and not something I want to be doing after a night of writing and getting the presses rolling. Get my drift?

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