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Post by James Michael Colburn on Aug 6, 2010 14:43:17 GMT -8
It had been a long day at college, and like most days, Jamie was beginning to wonder why in the world he had even decided to go to college. It felt like a waste of his time, and he wasn't learning anything that he didn't already know. He was one of those guys who was just brilliant. He could spend two minutes studying 30 pages of a textbook and know it all perfectly. Secretly, he was a huge nerd in that way, but no one would ever know it. He didn't come off as a jock though. He was sort of trapped in the middle between nerd and jock... but at the same time, he wasn't just your average guy either. There was something about him that was just unnatural. He could manipulate people with nothing more than that devious smirk of his, yet somehow he still attracted people and was always Mr. Popular.
Anyway, today the classes seemed to drag on longer than usual, and he had barely managed to drag himself from one class to the next. When the day was finally over, he was more than ready for a drink and something to get his mind off how much he hated school... aka a girl to get down and dirty with. After a quick stop at his dorm room to get his fake ID, he was off to the club. It was a college town, and most people there were underage... but no one really cared that much... besides, Jamie could pull off 21 quite easily... just another way he could manipulate people. The details of what went on there are certainly not needed, seeing as just about everyone does the same thing, and Jamie was very predictable in that way.
Just as he was about ready to leave with some hot blonde, his phone rang. He glanced at the caller I.D. which was flashing the name "Chuck." For a moment he almost ignored the call, but as it persisted, he finally picked it up. I'm kind of busy Chuck. He growled into the phone without any sort of greeting, but Chuck didn't seem to care. Jamie, it's mom...[/s] he said sounding like someone had died, which instantly got Jamie's attention. As much as he pretended he didn't care, he did love his family. What about her? he asked, still deliberately sounding like he didn't care. I think you need to come home Jamie...[/s] He said still sounding just as somber. Of course, this response didn't please Jamie at all, Stop beating around the bush Chuck. What's going on? He asked in a very annoyed tone, clearly displeased with the interruption in his night. She has cancer... inoperable. The doctors give her no more than a year.[/s] A long silence followed and continued for a minute or two as the news sank in, and he felt like his heart suddenly weighed a million pounds. Jamie are you okay?[/s] Chuck's voice came through the speaker, but Jamie didn't hear it. He was in shock and he felt trapped. She couldn't be dying, she was the only real family he had left. Jamie?[/s] Silence...[/i] Jamie?[/s] His eyes opened slowly as he came back to reality, an annoyed expression already on his face as the girl beside him shook him slightly in an attempt to wake him. What? he growled in that "I have a god damned hangover woman, leave me alone" tone. Oh I was just afraid you were dead... it's already noon.[/s] She said in an overly chipper tone. No, I was just hoping you were. he responded with a groan as he sat up slowly, running his hand through his hair. The girl just looked at him with a confused expression. Jamie decided against trying to explain, and got up, grabbing clothes and heading for the shower. Apparently he'd had more to drink last night than he thought, since he normally remembered all the activities of the night, but this morning he had absolutely no recollection, though judging from the girl it had been nothing more than what he normally did at night. When he returned, she was still there, and of course, that bothered him. Why are you still here? he asked, clearly not caring whether or not he hurt her feelings. Well I am your girlfriend...[/s] she started, but was quickly cut off by Jamie You are not my girlfriend. Call yourself a cab or start walking. With that he walked out and headed for the kitchen in search of coffee and aspirin. A few minutes later a taxi pulled up outside and he heard the door slam... she was finally gone, thank God. He was tempted to just go back to bed, but decided against it. He had better things to do... well, not really... but he could always pretend, right? It was around 2:00 in the afternoon before he finally got himself ready for the day and out the door. He was moving a little slower this morning, no doubt a result of last night's activities. He really didn't have anything better to do at this point, considering he was on an "extended vacation" and was working on his own schedule, but he felt like he needed to get out of the house and go do something today. So he clipped the leash on the dog, and headed out for the park just to go waste some time. For Jamie, his pets were the only living things that were ever shown any direct affection, and that too was intentional. He wanted to show more care towards them than the women he was around, because he didn't want any of them coming to the conclusion that they were in a relationship with him. His dog and cat were the only ones he actually cared about, end of story. Yes, he was a first class jackass, and he wanted it that way. When he got down to the park, he just leaned against the trunk of a towering old tree and watched the people out enjoying themselves. Even though he really wasn't a people person, there was something calming about this place. It was quiet and away from the big mess of the city... sort of reminded him of when he was younger and lived in West Virginia and the only thing he had to worry about was Chuck coming from out of nowhere and tackling him to "practice for football." Being an adult was so much harder than being a kid, and most of the time he really just wanted to go back to that age where nothing mattered, and that was why he almost always acted like he didn't care about anything. He was trying to get that feeling back... problem is, once you're an adult, that feeling never does come back. He was stuck here, no matter how he tried.[/center][/size] outfit: hereDog: here |
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Post by salem on Aug 7, 2010 17:33:16 GMT -8
 WHAT DID YOU DREAM? Her morning had proved to be anything but productive. After a long night of studying, Salem had been reluctant to even get out of bed. When that first ray of sunlight hit her face she had hissed and thrown blankets over her head like a vampire, unwilling to confront the day. As a fulltime college student, she found that the rigorous hours and courses was beginning to suck her soul away leaving little time for the horses (which was slowly driving her crazy). Perhaps she should have considered that portion of her life before accepting the ungodly amount of hours she had decided to take. If she could, she’d go back on her idea, but since she was paying for all of her classes, Salem found it a waste of her money.
Rolling over in bed she glanced at the clock and decided it was time to get up.
Embracing the day, she threw on a pair of shorts and a tee shirt. Kicking away some art supplies that lay scattered on her floor she fought her way to the door through a sea of books, easels, canvases, and paint sets. It was an easier said than done task, seeing that there were a few things she couldn’t quite chuck half way across her messy apartment. Finally making it to the door after what seemed like hours of trekking through uncharted territory she picked up a blank drawing pad and snagged her purse off the hook hanging by the door. It was a beautiful day, and she could not see spending her day off any other way but sipping coffee, drawing, and enjoying the park.
She was quite the artsy-fartsy type.
Stopping at Starbucks on the way to the park, Salem found it sad that the workers knew her by name and exactly what she wanted. A grande java chip frappuccino with whipped cream, extra caffeine was her usual, and due to the fact that she often needed an energy boost, the workers at morning and night quickly learned her name and desired drink. It was almost like family, but without the emotional baggage. Smiling as she entered the park she found herself a bench to sit on. Setting her drink down next to her she crossed her legs and placed her drawing pad on her legs. Looking around the park she looked for something to draw, discovering that for 2 pm the park was fairly dead, she settled on a tree directly in front of her. Ripping a page out and setting it on the pad she began to draw.
Noticing that there was someone with a dog leaning against the tree she decided to include him.
Sketching the base of the tree and lightly creating the form of the person against the tree she got bored and began to fill the top of the tree with leaves, covering the branches. Her hand moved in short, quick strokes as the tree on the paper began to bloom with life. Setting her pencil down and foolishly letting go of the paper to take a sip of her drink, she watched with wide hazel eyes as the sketch flew in the direction of the tree (and person). Horrified, knowing that most people did not take well to some stranger drawing them she abandoned her stuff on the bench and calmly walked to where the paper had landed. Standing a little ways away she glanced at the drawing that had calmly settled at his feet, as if Mother Nature wanted her to get yelled at today. Nervously running her hand through her hair she said,
Um…could you possibly hand me that sheet of paper?
o.612
notes;; -face plant-let’s see how this goes xD I couldn’t think of anyone else to bring in that would result in an interesting thread. SO HERE’S SALEM  my bible beaten child C:
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Post by James Michael Colburn on Aug 8, 2010 16:22:33 GMT -8
Jamie stood in silence for quite some time, the direction of his attention towards the open space of the park, but he wasn't really focused on or thinking about any one thing in particular. Mostly he was just thinking about the way things used to be way back when before life got more complicated and the biggest problem he faced was which crayon to choose. Occasionally he would catch himself and attempt to think of something less... nostalgic, like the script ideas he was working on... but no matter how hard he tried, his thoughts always slowly drifted back to his family before he ruined any chance he had at repairing his relationship with them.
As much as he wanted people to believe that he was just a heartless jerk who didn't care about anything or anyone except himself, there were times when the guilt for not being around the last year of his mom's life and the shame for disrespecting her in not going to her funeral were just too much for him to deal with. It had been six years since she had died, but even time didn't seem able to make this go away. It was all a lie, what people said, about things getting better with time. It had been twenty years since his dad had died, and he still got a horrible sick feeing in the pit of his stomach every time he thought about him and standing there watching him suffocate because of the selfishness of his grandparents whom he had long since disowned as family.
If anyone bothered to research into Jamie's life, they would find an interesting avoidance of all things involving death. In his scripts no one ever died, when he was working as co-director, he talked them into changing the plot line so that one of the main characters wouldn't die. When his last dog got to the point that it needed to be put down he brought it to the humane society. He deliberately went a round about way any time there was a cemetery between him and his destination so that he wouldn't have to drive by it. He would do whatever he had to in order to avoid the subject which might evoke some emotion in him and show people that he wasn't as horrible as they all thought he was. If anyone brought it up, he would just walk away. It wasn't something he wanted to talk about, and no one could force him to.
He snapped suddenly out of his thoughts at the sound of feet in the grass in close proximity to him, and turned to cast a bored and slightly annoyed glance at the intruder. The girl wasn't half bad... well, that was a lie, she was quite attractive, but Jamie wasn't going to say that, it wasn't his style. In typical Jamie style, he decided to completely ignore her and turned back to staring out at nothing. There wasn't much by entertainment out there anymore, so Jamie's attention being so fixated on the lack of anything at all interesting was a bit odd to say the least, but he had his reasons... well, not really.
He was nearly back into his thoughts again, when the girl's voice broke his thought process. Paper? In his determination to be the high profile too good for the rest of the world celebrity, he had failed to notice the paper blow over and stop at his feet. "Rhody" however, had and was staring at the material curiously as if he was completely confounded as to how it was possible that it had gotten there, and was so distracted by such "deep" thoughts in his simple canine mind that when the girl spoke the coward very nearly had a heart attack and leaped into the air, all four fee off the ground at once and spun around to face the stranger. He was bu no means wary of people he didn't know, but he didn't particularly like people "sneaking up on him," and looked at the girl indignantly.
Jamie's expression was definitely skeptical... but he supposed perhaps he could live with "degrading" himself to the level of saving her the littering fine. He reached down and picked up the paper offering it to her, but not before he'd unintentionally caught a glance of what was drawn on the paper. A smirk slowly crawled across his face as a result of his amusement. Needless to say he wasn't unaccustomed to "fan art" but he had a feeling this particular artist either didn't recognize him or else had been living under a rock away from the world of the silver screen and didn't even know who he was. You should to be more careful, he said in his signature smooth and naturally seductive tone, can't have you polluting the environment. Did Jamie care about the environment? Hell no. He had a private jet that he would regularly take from California to Las Vegas... which could easily be driven in a short time... and other such short distances just because he could afford it. He just liked being a pain in the ass to anyone and everyone whenever he possibly could, and if they were strangers, he'd take the most trivial things and turn them into a big deal, just because he could. [/size] |
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Post by salem on Aug 8, 2010 19:17:17 GMT -8
WHAT DID YOU DREAM? Her social life had always been small or completely non-existent. For the first part of her childhood, Salem could perhaps be considered a ‘bible beaten’ daughter. Her father was big into purity and with a daughter it was his goal to assure her innocence was intact up until her marriage day. This involved little social outings with other kids. In a way, Salem had grown up miserable and alone, but her father had successfully brainwashed her into believing that the bible was the only friend she’d ever need.
Of course, these views changed as she got older.
Midle school and high school were quite the different entities for Salem. The shock of going from a small home-town middle school with 36 kids in her class then being thrown into the ocean where there were 600 other fish in the water just like her was something that took her four whole years to get over. They say social skills cannot be taught, and Salem believed that quite seriously, with her as the perfect subject. Even though she’s now in college, Salem is still quite unsure of how to interact with others in a stressful or new situation. Once she’s gotten to know someone she’s quite relaxed, but like a cornered animal new people always brought out her more defensive, worried side.
However, unlike a cornered dog, she would not bite.
In fact, making Salem get ‘angry’ would be like provoking a sloth into mauling someone. It just didn’t happen. It was rare that she ever got upset with someone. Her patience was almost infinite with most people. When she made friends (on that rare occasion), she always shocked them with her odd ability to maintain a steady stream of calm patience in any situation with them. It was often that she was the designated driver, meaning that she was subjected to drunken antics that she often times hoped she’d never experience ever again.
But, such an occasion was as in evitable as breathing.
Smiling as the man’s dog jumped up all four feet in the air and spun around to face her she wanted to squat down and talk to the dog, but she knew better than that. Eyeing her paper as he slowly bent down to pick it up she felt her heart drop in horror as he eyed the paper. Almost immediately snatching it out of his hands (which she wanted to profusely apologize for) she thumbed the page and suddenly felt like she needed to explain why she had drawn him. Looking down at his dog she searched for a way to make the encounter as un-awkward as she could possibly manage, even though she knew her socializing skills were quite rusty.
Um…thanks…what’s your dog’s name?
If she could hit her head against a wall she would.
Interaction was most certainly not her ‘stronger’ point.
In fact, she found that art was the only media in which she could successfully communicate. Perhaps it was that reason as to why she was drawn to the stressful courses. It was also a great way for her to de-stress. Often times she would paint or draw when she felt upset about something. But on rare days like today she would simply draw just because her hands needed something to do. Looking back down at the sketch in her hands she frowned as she took note that his proportions were off. Unable to keep her mouth shut she blurted out,
I didn’t draw you just because I thought you were, I don’t know…’attractive’, is that what other girls do? But my point is, I just like to draw. I can’t sit still for very long…
Realizing what she had just said, she bit her tongue and held back the rush of a blush that wanted to flood her cheeks.
o.637
notes;; gah your long posts make me look so…bad xD and yes. Salem just accidentally tried to hide the fact that she does indeed find him attractive. FAIL.
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Post by James Michael Colburn on Aug 21, 2010 8:16:57 GMT -8
Well, well... if this wasn't a good way to turn a bad day good, then he just didn't know what was. Of course, Jamie was well aware of the fact that he was quite attractive. He wouldn't have the life he did, or the track record he had, if he wasn't... but for someone to make a horribly feeble attempt at making it seem like they didn't find him attractive and to fail that miserably... oh that just made his day, especially since this particular girl seemed so innocent and... fragile. Now don't get me wrong, Jamie was no sadist or anything like that, but he always enjoyed watching other people struggle in this manner. He didn't know why, nor did he care, but for whatever reason, this sort of thing sent him on a power trip of sorts... even though he was already sort of on one to begin with.
Needless to say, however, even a guy like Jamie couldn't help but show the amusement at the situation. He decided to ignore her first question about the dog's name, it wasn't important, and instead dwell on her atrociously pathetic failure to hide her attraction to him. It was things like this that made Jamie so good at doing what he did. He was the rich famous guy who everyone fawned over, and because of that he was fully capable of getting just about anyone to do whatever he wanted them to do... but sometimes it just got old, and he enjoyed the occasional challenge. He had a feeling that this girl wouldn't be one of those ones to just do because he said... though there was a pretty good chance of her trying not to do what he said but end up doing so anyway seeing as how she seemed incapable of not expressing her thoughts.
Is that so? he asked with a smirk, every word he spoke just dripping with amusement and perhaps even a hint of sarcasm, Well if it wasn't just because you find me attractive, what other reason is there? Poor girl, she'd given Jamie a button to push, and like a little kid with at a counter with a service bell, he was going to keep pushing it until she felt the need to find something to strangle him with. If he couldn't infuriate someone, he would sure as hell do his absolute best to annoy them to death or at least irritate them to the point that they no longer saw any reason to continue conversation with him. Arguing or debating with Jamie was pointless. He was manipulative and cunning, there was no way around his brilliance, and it was essentially guaranteed that he would come out on top.
Of course, there were those who were stubborn and wouldn't give up on it, but for the most part after a long and tiresome debate they would eventually just give up and let him have his win because he simply wouldn't let it go. He could twist things people said right back around and make it come to haunt them, he could make you believe just about anything he said, no matter how far fetched or off the wall it seemed, he could get someone to think that something was their idea when it was in fact his to begin with. There was no end to the things he could accomplish with that brilliant mind of his... it was just too bad he was so determined to not use it for "good." People like to think that there is good in everyone, but Jamie was definitely proof that some people were just plain old not good people. He'd been this way since he was born... just a plain and simple evil child.
He honestly couldn't really remember the last time he ran into someone like this girl before him. He couldn't tell if she was nervous about talking to a guy she didn't know, if she was just so flustered that she couldn't think clearly, or if she was just plain old simple minded and couldn't function in a situation like this. Either way, he found it amusing and he wasn't afraid to show it. She was never going to hear the end of his now, and he was going to do his absolute best to make sure she never forgot this moment... that was just what he did. [/size] |
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Post by salem on Aug 21, 2010 8:59:18 GMT -8
WHAT DID YOU DREAM? Clenching her jaw as she realized she had just given him something to latch onto like a starving rat her socially inept mind began to rack up all the ways she could play it off. Of course, she didn’t have many escape routes picked. She could see that this man was not the type to let such a blundering mistake go. Salem assumed most people would probably back down when in the presence as someone like this, but she was fiercely determined to prove herself something more than what her childhood had molded her into. It was not in her constitution to accept defeat (if it was she would have dropped out of college and resorted to living on the streets a long time ago). Narrowing her eyes for a second she lifted her chin.
It was now or never to finally grow a steel pair of balls.
If she let this man walk over her, who knew how many other people just like him would use her inability to defend herself properly as a functioning member of society and turn her into a doormat, wiping their muddy boots all over her. That just wasn’t going to do. When he demanded another reason as to why she would draw him other than aesthetic pleasure she huffed and said coolly,
Well, clearly you’re hard of hearing, but since I’m a generally nice person I’ll tell you again, and I’ll say it slower this time. I am artist. I draw things for no good reason.
The adrenaline rush surged through her veins and made her light headed, she crossed her arms and glared at him. The field of anger was an entirely new one. Much like a racehorse with the gates wide open and nothing but a whole mile of dirt before her, she had no other option but to take it and run with it. It was almost like a high, and she wanted more.
Where the sudden rush of confidence had come from she did not know.
A good portion of her life had been spent obeying and bowing her head to those seemingly more powerful than her. It was always ‘yes ma’am, no sir’ for her. Mother and father said they knew best. A child blinded with love for her parents who was she to disagree that locking their only daughter in a closet with a bible hoping she’d learn it by osmosis was wrong? It had never been her intention to get off on the wrong foot with anyone, especially with someone who was probably far more learned in the delicate art of debate, but it was worth a shot. Raw emotion was sometimes the best to work with, and she had plenty of bottled up and raw emotions to fuel an entire mob.
Unfortunately, like any new experience the downside was lack of control.
While her more sensible, reserved side that had reigned her personality for years was screaming at her to put on the breaks and stand down, the machine of irritation could not stop. A juggernaut of all the emotions it simply overrode any restraints that she had developed after years of indirect abuse that her parents had claimed was all in the name of God. In the name of God her foot, her parents had created a defective atomic bomb with no means to tell others when it’d explode,
I know the rest of the narrow minded world, and you, might not be able to understand or grasp the concept, but not everyone has a reason for drawing a stranger. You just happened to be leaning on the tree I was drawing.
Was she aware that she was wading into a pit of argument that had no way out? Of course not, she was just a simple bible beaten girl with a pencil and drawing pad as her only way of emotional output. How the hell was she supposed to know?
So much for a peaceful afternoon.
o.663
notes;; om nom nom
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Post by James Michael Colburn on Aug 22, 2010 17:49:01 GMT -8
This girl was getting herself nowhere with her argument. In fact, she had just dug herself an even deeper hole with her defensive response. Jamie was carefully weighing every word she said for what it was worth, then swindling it into becoming whatever he wanted it to be. In this case, it wasn't hard. Oh no, he said his expression devious and triumphant, I heard you. So this girl was a fighter then? It was too bad she wasn't being more careful with what she was saying as she was only feeding him more and more ammunition. It was like she was throwing grenades at him but forgetting to pull the pin out first. Perhaps he would have to work this sort of thing into one of his scripts as it was quite amusing to him.
I just wanted to confirm that you lied at first. Everything he said was casual and laid back, sounding completely non argumentative as if he was just having a conversation with an old friend. See, you said you weren't drawing me just because you find me attractive, so naturally I would assume there was another reason, but since you've so clearly made your position clear that there is absolutely no other reason... he paused a moment, sure she knew where he was going with this and what he was going to say next. Oh the joy he got out of terrorizing other people. clearly it really is just because you find me attractive. He was quite enjoying this "conversation" though he was fairly sure she wasn't.
That was Jamie's problem, people didn't understand him. He wasn't really the way he was because he was mean... he was just a slightly twisted individual who had an odd sense of amusement. Once people came to understand and accept that no matter what anyone did he would always have the upper hand... then he was quite easy to get along with. Of course, you would have to not let his condescending comments get to you and just roll with whatever he said, but if you were to hang around him long enough you would get used to it and then when other people made attempts to insult you it was just that much easier to ignore. Truthfully, Jamie was the kind of guy who people would want to have around if they got past the emotionless and manipulative part. Heck, who wouldn't want to be friends with the rich guy who rarely ever said no to spending money on things? Besides, he had a lot of powerful connections who he could get to do basically anything for him. He was definitely a good person to know... but on the other hand if you weren't patient and thick skinned, he was a real pain in the ass.
All while he talked to her he didn't ever break eye contact. Sure, most guys were prone to deliberately check a girl out while talking to her... thus the commonly said phrase "I'm up here." Jamie though, he wasn't like that. Yes, he preferred attractive women to those who weren't... but if there was one thing he would admit to hating, it was dumb blondes who spent every pay check on another boob job or face lift or what have you. While it seemed most of his parents efforts to raise him right so he would turn out to be the perfect gentleman had failed, there were a few linger effects of them. One of those was his appreciation for normal and natural women. He could appreciate "average" girls for what they were, and all he needed to know about them was either spoken or shown in their expression. Perhaps that was the only thing about Jamie that people could say really was a good thing. Other than that, there were very few aspects of him that were in any way considered "good." [/size] |
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Post by salem on Aug 23, 2010 17:28:48 GMT -8
WHAT DID YOU DREAM? If she was a little more schooled in the way of social interaction, Salem would probably know when to stop, be able to successfully identify a lost cause. She’d know when to lay down the guns, halt the cannons and put up the white flag of failure. Hell, she probably wouldn’t have even lit the blaze beneath this man’s ass if she knew how to properly handle such a situation. But of course, being the deprived little monster that she was asking her to know when to back down and admit defeat was like telling a lion to stop hunting…obviously such a thing would never happen, as a lion had to eat and Salem had to discover the boundaries of other people’s patience on her own.
As she was discovering today, the world was a cruel place with a great deal of sadists and narcissistic fucks running around wild like drunk girls on spring break.
Not that she had truly believed that immovable people such as this man existed. In fact, she probably considered someone like him more akin to leprechauns, unicorns, and hobbits; fictional. Non-existent to her simply because she had never encountered someone who clearly found so much joy in the fight and fed off of frustration and anger. Like a vampire that fed off of fury instead of blood, he was going to drain her of every single ounce of fight she had in her then would simply leave her high and dry as she was kicked back into reality and punched in the face with a side of ‘don’t do it again’.
It was all about trial and error, right?
Standing there staring into the calm, collected gaze of the man she felt her anger and adrenaline rush subside, the heat of her fury cooling in the calm breeze of the afternoon. As quickly as it had happened, she was relaxing her stance and let her hands drop to her side; she suddenly found the situation tiring. How could people argue for hours on end? Well, maybe she just didn’t really get the finer points of arguing. She had never fought back against her parents like a sensible teenager would have, but she had never been ‘normal’ to begin with. It’s not like it was really her fault, in an attempt to keep their daughter from making the mistake they had done they locked her away from the rest of the world, out of reach of the poisonous fingers of liberal media and public schools.
Her ‘best friend’ had been a bible.
Taking a deep breath she shoved the crumpled up paper into her back pocket and calmed her expression. For a socially deprived bible beaten child, she wasn’t too bad at catching onto people’s games. Narrowing her eyes for a second she threw her hands up defensively and said,
You know, you go ahead and believe whatever you want to. Who am I to try to stop your ego trip?
She looked back at his dog, remembering that he never answered her question. And while she was sure he never would, she figured it was worth another try,
And now that I know you hear everything I said, I’ll just repeat my question to bring the issue to the forefront, what’s your dog’s name?
o.549
notes;; –flails-
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Post by James Michael Colburn on Sept 13, 2010 21:02:55 GMT -8
Life, for Jamie as a kid, started out pretty rough. His parents were very much in love, and definitely loved him, but when a car accident put his dad on life support when Jamie was only six years old, it felt like his world was suddenly turned up side down. Seeing as his parents weren't married, the decision on whether or not to keep his dad alive went to his dad's parents, and being rather selfish individuals, they chose to take him off life support, and thus end his life. They tried to talk Jamie out of being there when they did, but being the world's most stubborn six year old on the face of the earth, he downright refused to leave. It hurt a lot, and he never fully understood why they weren't keeping his dad alive anymore, but he stayed there with his mom and watched his dad die, which honestly sort of traumatized him, though he would never admit it.
A few years later, Peyton, his mom, got married to a man who had an adopted son and a daughter. Chuck was a year younger than Jamie, but the two of them caused more trouble than they were worth. Jamie adjusted to life with a new dad rather well, but there was something about him that just wasn't like most kids. He was far less interested in everything else that kids were interested in than the things the adults did and talked about. Some said it was almost scary, the way he would play along with Chuck's football fetish, but was obviously always up to something bigger.... something better.
When high school rolled around, Jamie was Mr. Popular, which seriously ticked off all the jocks who worked so hard to impress the ladies, and all Jamie had to do was walk in the door and they flocked to him. He, of course, enjoyed every bit of their "agony" and knowing he had that kind of power over the people around him. He was very persuasive when he wanted to be, and he pretty much always wanted to be. That was when it became more evident, what was so different about him. He enjoyed the suffering of other people. Not in a twisted disgusting morbid way, certainly not. He didn't enjoy seeing peoples lives ruined by disasters or anything like that... he just enjoyed taking stabs at people and twisting the knife every time he caught flesh. For whatever reason, it made him feel empowered, knowing that he could mess with peoples' emotions like that.
Not long after he graduated high school and headed off to college in California was when his mom was diagnosed with cancer and his life was changed drastically yet again. This time though, he hid the change behind all the snide remarks and his usual personality, making everyone believe that he had gone completely unchanged... making everyone believe that he really was a heartless jackass who didn't even feel pain at the death of the last real family member he had left. Of course, this was entirely untrue, he felt pain every day, that was his biggest reason for drinking as much as he did these days. The guilt about drove him mad whenever he spent nights alone, which was why he usually brought some girl home with him... to keep him from thinking about how horrible he was for not going home to see her and refusing to attend the funeral.
Again, today, he was simply hiding who he really was at this point in his life behind the facade of a terribly twisted individual... and unfortunately for her, she was the victim he was going to take it out on. Don't get so defensive, he said, clearly amused by her, it just makes this all the more fun for me. Wait... did Jamie Colburn just give someone a tip on how to make him less entertained? Why yes, yes he did... but don't you worry, it was just another step in his little game. His name's Rhody. he added casually, but that devilish look still in his eye and that impish smirk still splayed across his face. Sometimes, he got so into this character that he had created that he occasionally believed that he really was this person he pretended to be... but eventually, something would remind him of the real Jamie... and he would go right back to being miserable all over again. [/size] |
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Post by salem on Sept 17, 2010 11:23:08 GMT -8
WHAT DID YOU DREAM? School. Even though Salem had not been a prisoner in her own home, she had still not been very popular. Though in her defense, she had no honest clue on where to start when it came to making friends. She had no examples from pre-school experiences, nor had she even been given the typical ‘Hollywood’ stereotypes to dream of. She had no idea where a friendship began and where one ended. She didn’t even know how to really maintain a friendship. She was as clueless as a blind man in a dark cave who had been handed a flashlight and told to find his way out with his eyes
Just a fish out of water.
And the situation at hand was not helping her to prove that she was a little more sophisticated and less savage in the socialization world as she had hoped. Armed with a tiny, weak arsenal to get the man to back off his assault, she was taking the hits to the head and realizing that she was out of her league here. To have someone who had years and years of experience in the lucrative world of arguing, she stood no chance. He was holding a loaded cannon, she had a butter knife to defend herself. The entire situation was pathetic and a sign that she should probably quit while she was ahead before she dug her grave any deeper.
It was his bit of advice that caught her way off guard.
Narrowing her eyes at him she lifted a curious eyebrow as he told her that if she didn’t get so flustered over the whole thing, he wouldn’t be able to pick on much. This intrigued her and made her wonder why would he tell her, of all people, such an important secret. Salem was sure it wasn’t because he felt comfortable in confiding with her, if anything he should just dig at her even more. Perhaps it was simply because she posed no threat to him, actually, that was probably the entire thing. Looking down at his dog she said,
Cute dog. And I suppose I’ll take your word for it, I will work on not getting so…flustered in the future. You’re quite the interesting person, if I have any room to speak about interesting personalities.
o.383
notes;; WOOHOO SHITTY POST!
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Post by James Michael Colburn on Sept 17, 2010 19:30:23 GMT -8
Oh if only she knew. "Interesting" didn't even begin to describe Jamie's personality. He spent hours almost on a daily basis simply watching people and studying how they interacted with each other... people of every sort. Prima Dona's, Ghetto trolling gangsters, mothers with children, dads trying to discreetly sneak off with a lover, old people, young people... every sort of person he saw, he watched, and he studied down to the very last detail of how they reacted to everything. It was an important part of his job, and something he felt most actors and writers had underrated and needed to bring back. The reality of how things happened was what Jamie liked to include in everything he did that involved the screen. It was what made him so incredibly good at what he did, even if it was at the expense of others.
On the other hand, there as another reason he was so keen on watching the interactions of people. He wanted to be nothing like them... and after all the years he had spent figuring out how exactly to be nothing like anyone else, he had become an expert. Secretly, Jamie was brilliant... but he knew that most people with brilliance like his would become doctors or scientists or lawyers... so he was going to "throw it away" in Hollywood. He knew that with the way he looked he could have his choice of any number of girls practically begging to be with him... so he went after the ones who ignored him. Anything that any normal and decent human would do, Jamie wouldn't. He didn't want to be just another clone in a world of robotic freaks who were controlled by society.
The more her apparent inability to defend herself and her inability to know how to respond to him showed up, the more he was fascinated. Most people he ran into just kept trying to get him to react the way they wanted him to, but she seemed totally lost. She was Gretel, and not only had the crumbs been eaten, but she had also lost Hansel somewhere along the way and was no hopelessly lost and doomed to be eaten by the evil witch... the witch in her case being the big bad world... and for whatever reason, he wanted to fix it... to make this clueless girl his project... to make her into someone who could be more confident and be able to say "I made her who she is" when she eventually became very successful, because we all know anyone under the direction of one of the youngest self-built millionaires would end up being successful eventually.
"The whole world is filled with god damned carbon copies, there's hardly such thing as an original anymore. I want no part in that." He responded to her comment about him being an interesting person. Of course he was interesting, he was too good to try to be anyone else. "I'm Jamie Colburn, by the way." he added, the condescending tone gone. He seemed almost half-way pleasant now, a complete turn around form the sly and manipulative person he'd appeared to be just a moment ago. He was an actor, and he was damn good at it. [/size] |
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Post by salem on Sept 18, 2010 10:14:35 GMT -8
WHAT DID YOU DREAM? It seemed that the majority of today’s society was simply created from a cookie cutter mold. No longer were original molds broken when someone developed a new style or personality trait. It was getting harder and harder for one to look around and find the uniqueness that all humans had, the thing that set them apart from all other mammals. Hair styles, clothes, personalities, friends, enemies. All shared, it was turning into a world where no one was dependant, each human codependent on the next. For the most part, this was mostly seen in the peer pressure ring of teenage friendships in America. Very rarely did you see someone trying to break out of the box.
To be fair, Salem never had a box to get in or break out of.
Forced to a life of solitude, her personality and habits still remained as empty as an unfinished book, very few revisions and a lot of pre-editing writing to go. Slowly but surely though she was gaining experience, one day she might even be as prolific a debater as the young man that stood before her. If anyone was to be friends with Salem simply to build her into something that could potentially be successful, it was more likely than not that they were wasting their time. At most, she’d be a well known artist around town, but Salem did not truly strive for fame, she wanted to just be happy.
Something that so few people tried anymore.
Once again, it goes back to the fear of breaking the mold. White collar workers stuck in a 9-5 job with a boss from the black lagoon was no life for her, a true artist. In a world where diversity was beginning to become the Achilles’ heel of anyone, a world where happiness was subservient to success and pain, Salem really just wanted to be happy. And who could blame her? She wanted nothing to do with it. As Jamie spoke to her about uniqueness she offered him a soft smile and shrugged,
Yeah, I guess. I don’t know, I just want to be happy with whatever I do since you rarely see a truly happy person anymore. I don’t wanna live with a lifetime full of bad decisions and mistakes that I would be left to dwell upon in my last hours. I want to be able to ask myself the question that if I had to stop all of the sudden with my life, would I be happy where I left off? And answer with a resounding ‘yes’.
Wasn’t she just the little hippie? When he introduced himself finally, Salem felt the slight personality change and was mildly drawn back from this, worried that he was about to unleash a torrent of new real-world evil that she wouldn’t be able to handle,
Salem Tansen. You been in town long?
Jamie Colburn. Where had she heard that name?
o.487
notes;; ok, ok, not bad I can do this xD
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Post by James Michael Colburn on Oct 11, 2010 10:28:37 GMT -8
Jamie's expression changed from amused to... well, there isn't really a way to define what it was but it clearly displayed what he was thinking when she started going off and being all philosophical about why she wasn't like most people. Those thoughts were none other than "Seriously? I don't care." Jamie was rather insensitive to other people and what they had to say. He just had this thing for not caring what anyone thought or did or said or anything... he was determined to not care about anyone or anything other than himself... at least that way he wouldn't end up hurting when the only thing he cared about died. Of course, he was in denial of the fact that he really did care about his family and other people who somehow or another managed to get close to him... but that was besides the point.
So rather than listen to her deel well-thought out reason for being the way she was... he went off into his own mind, studying her in a rather non-discreet manner. She seemed like the shy sort who wasn't really all that functional in public when talking to people she didn't know... no doubt a result of over-protective, strict, demanding, and somewhat nazi-like parents. Her apparent need to justify her difference from everyone else in such a long string of words which she had clearly spent some time thinking about in order to say them in such a way indicated that she was, at least at some point in her life, a member of some sort of religion. He had found that no matter what religion someone was a part of, they always had to be deep about things. Rather than just saying things bluntly like he was so prone to, they would work their way around it so as to make themselves feel better about why they were the way they were. She was incapable of holding her own in an argument... at least not to someone of Jamie's caliber, and he was guessing not with anyone else either... which meant her parents or perhaps boyfriend was oppressive and if things weren't done their way, she would regret it. She was an artist, but felt the need to explain why she happened to have been drawing what she had been, which no doubt meant she had very strong opinions about a lot of things and wanted to express herself in her art, but she was afraid of what might happen if anyone was to find out what her opinion really was.
Of course, there was always the chance that he was completely wrong about some or even all of that... but he didn't care. When you worked like Jamie, all that mattered was the fantasy created in your mind about people that he could then include in his scripts and whatnot. He was fascinated by people, and making conjectures as to who the person behind the name and behind the mask really was. He was generally quite good at it, since he had been doing it for so long... but unless he felt the need, he generally restricted the appearance of that talent to his writing and rarely, if ever, told people what he thought they really were. I suppose in a way you could say that was one good thing about him. A lot of people didn't want anyone to know who they were and if he were to call them out on it, well there would probably be some sort of scene.
"Not long..." he said in response to her question, choosing to simply ignore everything she had said before that... since he hadn't really hard most of it anyway. "If I'd been here longer you would have known." Yeah so he was a little vain... but he was a relatively well known Hollywood actor, director, and writer... and he was only 23... he had every right to be vain about it. [/size] |
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Post by salem on Oct 18, 2010 10:32:39 GMT -8
WHAT DID YOU DREAM? If she were a bit more versed in the ways of socialization, she’d realized a long time ago that this Jamie character was beyond her threshold of ability to handle. If she had stored the previous verbal beatings he had thrown at her she’d have tossed in the towel a long time ago and walked away, but Salem was no such person. Her reasoning abilities were severely underdeveloped and perhaps on the level of a toddler’s. Every day was a new day for her; at least she could say she was learning.
As she droned on, she could tell that she was losing her audience’s interest.
Salem was obviously no public speaker, at least this moment in time was helping her come to such a conclusion, at least she was learning. She liked this Jamie person, he was providing her insight to her own habits and helping her fix them even though he clearly had no desire to do such thing consciously or subconsciously, but a naturally opportunistic person, she was recognizing the chance to learn and was going to stretch it as far as she could before he figured enough was enough.
At least she was attempting to right the wrong her parents had done.
At least she rarely refused to feel sorry about herself, even though most of her art reflected a more dark side of her (a side she could only seem to come to terms with when applying artistic talent to artistic medium). Though so willing to learn and tell people about herself, she was still reluctant to let people inside, unwilling to divulge in risqué behavior such as truth or dare or 20 questions. To do that would be letting a little part of her rest in someone else’s hands. In the event that she was uncomfortably placed into such a situation, she’d merely lie.
It was the easiest way to avoid an entirely different onslaught of questions that she’d be equally unwilling to share.
A thin plucked eyebrow was raised as he arrogantly declared that if he had been in town longer there’d be no reason she wouldn’t know his name. Crossing her arms she tilted her head to the side and dismissively said,
Isn’t that how everyone is here?
Addison seemed to be full of famous, partially famous, and famous wannabe’s. They were all scratching and clawing at the fickle surface of attention for their fifteen minutes of fame. In her eyes, they were all the same; all still as faceless and nameless as they were when they got here. How they viewed the sleepy town as a breeding ground for potential recognition she did not know, but that was not for her to ponder.
She had her own things to worry about.
o.460
notes;; WHAT, A POST? WTFFF? Haha. It sukks, but oh wellz.
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my bible beaten child C: