“Well right now we’re voting on a shelter leader. Someone to make the final decisions about important things. So far Ron is tied with another. In fact the only reason why I came to get you, was so you could break the tie.”
“Whoopie, I feel honored I can take an important part in this democratic process. So who’s the other person?”
“Oh, that would be Elliot. He was one of the later arrivals, but is very personable. Not that you’d know since I doubt you’ve even seen him given that you lock yourself in you room all the time.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know who he is, bald guy. So I take it you want Ron to win huh?”
“Well…I’d be lying if I said I didn’t, but Elliot’s seems like a good guy too, so I’m sure he’d make a good leader as well.”
“Why haven’t you run? I mean you seem to like to organize things.”
“Me? Oh no, I’m not a leader.”
“Well from what I’ve seen of Ron, he isn’t either.”
Nina stops you in the corridor.
“Damn it, stop being an asshole! At least Ron makes an attempt to get involved in things! You haven’t done shit since you got here except insult people and lock yourself away! Like it or not we’re ALL in this together! And you better start getting with the program and contribute!”
“What the fuck? I am contributing; I’m going to this goddamn meeting aren’t I? And you better watch your tone; remember I’M the swing vote for your boyfriend.”
“Ron isn’t my boyfriend! I mean…not yet…uh…”
“What? You mean he isn’t tapping your ass yet? Shit, he’s stupider than I thought then, because he’d be lucky to get someone who looks like you even if you are annoying.”
Nina stands and stares at you in disbelief.
“…could you possibly be any more vile?”
“Probably, but we don’t have time for that, I gotta vote for some dickhead.”
You continue to the conference room (with Nina no longer walking with you) and when you finally arrive everyone is there as if they’ve been waiting for you. You don’t even really care who’s in charge since more than likely no matter who you vote for is going to be an intrusive bastard wanting everyone to do something.
You can vote for Ron. As far as leadership material, you don’t really see him as one, though he seems to have some planning skills and friendly to people so maybe he’s got the stuff.
Elliot you barely know anything about, he also seems to be an organizer and friendly to everyone, but not to the point that it’s irritating. Though to you there’s something a little creepy about him.
Ah what the hell, you know this is something Ron wants more than anything why not give it to him? Besides he’s not very “strong” which means you can probably get away with disobeying him on a regular basis without causing a big scene.
“I’ll vote for Ron.” You say, Nina looks surprised and Ron jumps up and down like an idiot in celebration. You take that as your opportunity to go back to your room, Nina once again stops you in the corridor.
“I just wanted to say thanks for doing this; I know you don’t even like Ron…”
“I don’t care one way or another about him, if he wants the headache of running this place he can have it, he better just not ask too much of me, I did my bit. You can think of me as his kingmaker. See ya around.”
You go back to your room and that’s where you spend a majority of your time. You don’t really mix with anyone, and nobody really makes the attempt with you either. You’re asked to contribute to some “events” sometimes, but you always ignore such requests and nothing happens. Nina still hangs around Ron like a love sick school girl, but for god knows what reason he seems completely oblivious to the fact. And obviously she hasn’t told him how she feels about him. You watch this comical display replay itself over and over.
“Yeah, GZS really picked some excellent candidates to pair up to create families for the so called future, what a joke.” You mutter to yourself.
Time goes by and Ron goes about his duties which mainly consist of discussing pointless plans in the conference room. The idiot can’t do ANYTHING without talking about it with others he appointed as advisors first! If somebody’s shower is broken they have to discuss when, how and WHY it has to be fixed! Naturally everyone disagree about one point and they have to start all over again which usually means nothing gets done. A lot of planning and organizing of ideas, but no actual implementations of those same ideas.
The shelter starts falling into disrepair, a few fixes are made here and there, but they’re more jury-rigged ones more than anything. Nobody has perfectly functioning rooms from what you know…well except yours since you do nothing, but study the shelter manual all the time attempting to learn more about how it works giving you an edge in repairing your own room. (In fact you just permanently took a repair kit for yourself out of the equipment room) You really don’t understand why other people aren’t doing the same instead of waiting around for things to get repaired or complaining about needing things to get repaired. Everyone has the same damn operations manual. Read it!
About six months go by and finally you’re given an unexpected visit during the night. You answer your door. It’s Elliot and some other people.
“May we come in?” Elliot asks.
“What do you want?”
“Just to talk about the future of the shelter.”
“Yeah? Well you can talk to Ron about that, he’s the big shelter leader.”
“Yes he is, thanks to you. And that’s also why this shelter is in such bad shape. Ron is ruining this place with his ineptitude.”
“Oh no, don’t blame that shit on me, that’s RON’S fault, not mine. And besides MY room works fine. If you lazy bastards would actually read the damn shelter manual you wouldn’t have any problems.”
“Oh I’ve read the manual, I’m sure many people have. But surely you must realize most people don’t have the natural talent to fix thing that perhaps you have. Besides I’m sure you must also be aware that in a community each person has his own talents. For example Leon behind me used to be a bouncer. Don’t you think with his skills he’d make an excellent head of security around here?”
Leon folds his big black arms almost daring you to say “No.” before Elliot continues.
“My point is me and a few others are planning to take Ron out of office for gross incompetence. Did you know Fred and Greta are planning to have a baby? The first one to be born in here. The population in this shelter isn’t going to be stable forever. It’s going to grow and we NEED to keep this place running efficiently if we’re ALL going to survive. I know you’re a solitary person…I even respect that, but the time has come for you to choose between life or death. By joining our group, you’re choosing life. By remaining locked away in here, you’re choosing death not just for all of us, but for yourself. No man is an island.”
Elliot has a bit of duality to his speech. Part of him sounds genuinely concerned for the future of the shelter; he may even have a point. But the other part of him sounds like he’s politely threatening you. And you’re not sure of the whole “taking Ron out of office” thing. It almost sounds like he plans on taking over by force. You get the impression he and his little group are going to do just that regardless of whether you join or not.
- ID: 36433
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