Claudio Global Moderator The Eos Guard member is offline
Joined: Jun 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 45 Location: California
Dry « Thread Started on Jun 25, 2007, 2:05am »
Shit.
Claudio frantically tears apart the small cabinets scattered about the employee's lounge. He does not care about the mess he is making, despite generally being a neat person. Because that empty can of Folger's slime sat there mocking Claudio.. forcing him to do this. Forcing him! Mocking him! He needed more of it. He'd do anything for more of it. It was untolerable not to have it--anything!
"Damn!", he blurts out, troubled by the third empty canister he found. But he needed it. A lifetime of avoiding illegal drugs, and all the while the most loathsome drug of all had laughed at him from plain view on his kitchen counter! But this coffee was his life now--his only source of water--and after a few weeks, he was dry.
This is it, thought Claudio as he sat down on the floor aside all of the things he'd thrown around that weren't coffee. I'm going to die.
No! This is irrational, he realizes and stands up. I can just find more coffee. But where? Claudio hadn't been to the Food Puma for weeks, but he assumed the looting must have left it bare.
But a little... if I could just find a little bit, it could hold me off for a while... After all, the nasty can of Folger's had lasted him several weeks. The coffee machine was Claudio's only source of water, his source of life, and in the past few weeks he'd grown so dependent on the caffeine that the mere thought of being without the stale fluid gave him a headache.
Realizing he needs to act now before his coffee headache becomes too severe, he secures his few possessions in a locked cabinet in one of the cubicles, locks the door to the small office (this is my place... mine and not for anyone else to find), and heads down the Tower's steps hoping to find an unlooted coffee shop. Maybe if he was lucky, he could find some real coffee beans to replace Folger and his sinister blend of stale coffee and poisonous sludge...
Claudio Global Moderator The Eos Guard member is offline
Joined: Jun 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 45 Location: California
Re: Dry « Reply #1 on Jun 27, 2007, 3:32am »
Claudio comes upstairs, rolling the 10-gallon water jug and putting it beside the empty water cooler in the lounge. This was perfect- he had at least ten gallons of water for now, and an empty 10-gallon jug for refilling. He realized he hadn't had much in the way of food, so he got one of the Spaghetti-O cans he found in the store and cracked it open.
He sets the coffee beans down beside the coffee maker. I won't be using these, if I can help it..., Claudio thought. He knew he had to cut his addiction. But he couldn't go cold turkey. He had to slowly decrease his dependency..
He had, however, just recently consumed several cups of coffee worth. And he didn't plan on sleeping tonight, even though he knew he should. Sighing, Claudio pulled out his guitar, a pick, and started strumming away.
Claudio Global Moderator The Eos Guard member is offline
Joined: Jun 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 45 Location: California
Re: Dry « Reply #2 on Jun 29, 2007, 5:38pm »
Claudio sighs. Two days. It's been two days. He drank three cups of coffee the day he ran out. Oh, and two cups before he ran out of coffee. So five cups that day. Yesterday, he drank three- no significant headache there. Today, he'd only had one cup, and his head was killing him.
What would I do for a nice, hot cup of coffee? Claudio didn't know. He had the beans- they were locked up in the drawer he usually reserved for some of his more expensive possessions.
Where is the key? I can't stand this anymore! He stood up, almost immediately falling back down. He'd thrown the key over the large array of cubicles- it could be in any of them. He sighed. The Starbuck's coffee was begging to be consumed. Begging! But Claudio knew that they would only bring him death if he didn't escape from their grasp.
He remembered the first time he had coffee--he was nine, and his parents were at an open house dealie. There was a platter of cookies, and a big container with coffee. He remembered being thirsty, and there wasn't any water left, so he poured himself some of it and took a sip. After nearly doubling its volume in creamer because it was too hot, and adding as much sugar as would dissolve because it was too bitter, he gulped it down. Later, in high school, he'd walk to school with a huge mug of coffee, have it finished by the end of first period despite not being allowed to drink in class, and run off to the nearby Starbucks to replenish his coffee before second period began. He even met his girlfriend of many years at that Starbucks where she worked weekends. His life had always revolved around coffee.
Seventeen years, he calculated. I've been addicted to this shit for seventeen years, and it's going to be the end of me. Before the shutdown, it wasn't a drug, though. It was an energy drink, a pleasure, something that empowered you and made you not need sleep. Despite being addicting, it was a drug that would never be classified as such- Starbucks' had too much power, and caffeine was destined to be the safest, most socially acceptable drug of all. Then the shutdown happened, and reality struck in. It was a drug! Is a drug! Claudio had become no greater than the junkies he loathed.
He wondered which he needed more- the caffeine itself, or the sweet pleasant smell and taste of coffee. For the past three weeks, it was only its being a readily available liquid. But he had water now, almost ten gallons of it, and it still haunted him.
He was--
SCREEEEEEECH.
One of the most annoying, shrieking things he had ever heard was making its way from his MacBook. Who the fuck put Avril Lavigne on my iTunes? Surely he would have found it before now in his library in the two years since he broke up with his girlfriend. And she didn't have that kind of taste, if it could even be considered that, in music. He had months of music on his computer, but it would have been seen since then anyway. Maybe it had been--
He didn't have a headache! It was gone! Had his addiction run out?
Claudio groaned as his headache quickly returned. Damn you, Avril! You brought my headache back after it went away! But after turning it off (and Secure Deleting all traces of her music from his computer, never to see the light of day again) the headache remained. Claudio realized it wasn't Avril's chalkboard-scraping voice that brought back the headache, but rather him remembering that he had an addiction.
Then it hit him. I just need to get my mind off of it, and I'll be okay.
He bolted out the door, heading for nowhere in particular, fleeing from his addiction and (hopefully) leaving his headache behind.
Claudio Global Moderator The Eos Guard member is offline
Joined: Jun 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 45 Location: California
Re: Dry « Reply #3 on Jun 28, 2008, 6:37pm »
Claudio returns from his daily (OOC: Year-long! ) run around the city, having neither seen nor heard anything interesting. The last few days had been hell, but he could now safely say his coffee addiction was a thing of the past. Almost. The splitting headache had still not fully subsided, and Claudio had spent the last few days literally running from his addiction.
Claudio had locked away the remainder of his coffee, and literally thrown away the key. From the top of the Bay Tower. Coffee's power was too great. It wanted a brand new skin, wanted Claudio's life for itself. But he had defeated it. The key buried now, far below the bay, its location to never be revealed.
Claudio had immediately regretted this.
Now, however, he was starting to feel better. He was starting to sleep again, and Claudio was surprised to find that it improved his reaction time, mental acuity, and general mood. Almost, in fact--but not quite--as much as coffee had done.
Claudio shuffles over toward his trusty MacBook, and turns on iTunes. After skipping a few depressing songs on shuffle, Journey comes on. Journey, of course, kicks ass; Claudio turns up the volume, throws himself backward toward the couch, realizes mid-fall that he had misjudged his location in relation to the dingy sofa, curses rather loudly, and bangs his head against the edge of the couch and the rest of his body against the floor.
Cursing his life, Claudio suddenly hears the strange, now-foreign noise of a telephone. In here? Yes, it was the office telephone going off.
Do I get it? Does anybody know where I am? When the hell did phones start working?
Claudio picks up the receiver, only to find no answer. The dial tone, however, was... oh wait, nevermind. The tone had faded away and was gone. Pity.
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) run around the city, having neither seen nor heard anything interesting. The last few days had been hell, but he could now safely say his coffee addiction was a thing of the past. Almost. The splitting headache had still not fully subsided, and Claudio had spent the last few days literally running from his addiction.