"I bought a ticket to the...shit" (Charity)

[CASPAR CRANE]

Charity needed help buying music.

Well, it could be worse. She could need help buying corporate-sponsored, chemical loaded foods from one of those borderline-poisonous chain restaurants that were scattered all around the area where the Academy was. She could need help buying clothing from one of those sweatshop behemoth stores along 5th Avenue (Caspar always grimaced at the very mention of that godforsaken street) all made by the sallow hands of starving Nigerian orphans. She could…well, he could go on brainstorming all day. But the truth was that she needed music. And music…well, music, he could do.

“And so then I tried explaining to him that genocide, the deliberate, systematic extermination of an entire people, is really only the top of an iceberg, and everything else is building up to…well, it’s more like a pyramid, really. It’s the top of a pyramid, and right beneath it, you have your extreme acts of violence towards the individual, you know, murder, rape, arson, yada yada.”

He paused to take a large gulp of air, something he often ran out of on rants such as these. It was a sacrifice he was willing to make. ”But anyways, so as you get lower and lower down this iceberg, I mean, pyramid, you get closer and closer to the base, and on the base, what you basically have is acts of subtle bias. Stereotypes, jokes, rumors, you know. And right above that we’ve got your usual prejudice and bigotry, racial slurs, dehumanization, and it just keeps escalating up until, well, I said that already. But that makes sense, right? So I just keep trying to explain this to Scraplan, right, but God, it’s like he’s just making some conscious effort not to understand. Oh, and you know what the worst thing about him is? He’s totally not interested in minding the…“

This was what he loved about hanging out with Charity Clarke. She was quiet, but that was nice. She was the one person he could just let his mouth off on autopilot with. Anyone else he tried to tell about all these things would judge him like the close-minded little pricks they were. People could be so bigoted and exclusive sometimes. But not Charity. She was cool with whatever he wanted to talk about. She listened.

Caspar had never really had a friend before, but this wasn’t half bad. It was kind of nice to have someone who understood him, for once. Most of the people he’d met in his life were quick to stick a label on him, to write him off with such arbitrary abstractions as “stupid”, “lazy”, “slacker”, etc. God, the human race was just so dense.

Anyways. Right. Music stores. They’d finally turned the corner onto Avenue B, where the coolest and hippest underground music stores were hidden. Caspar led her through, taking his time so she didn’t have to rush with the crutches or anything. His eyes flicked from storefront to storefront, and he wrote off each one he spotted like a checklist. “Okay, so we’re not going to go to that first one, because…well, it’s a long story, but they were far from meeting federal minimum wage requirements before I got the Bureau of Labor on their asses. “ He felt himself swell smugly. That had been one of his prouder moments in life. ”Hokay, that one looks…oh, nope, they had a rug made out of bearskin last time I went in.” He rolled his eyes. ”The skin of a bear. To walk on. I ask you.”

They meandered further down the road, Caspar rifling through his prejudices against each one. ”Won’t sell the most recent Sigur Ros in vinyl because of homoerotic references in the album art….sells mass-produced non-organig chocolate at their counter…has a One Direction album in their store…manager actually tried to claim that oh-seven Arctic Monkeys was better than oh-nine Arctic Monkeys…” Crap, where could they go? Oh, here it was.

”Alright. Here we go, Chare.” The store was called “Chaos Rampage”, and sported a very large, neon yellow sign labeling it as such with the Anarchy symbol watermarked in the background in what Caspar sincerely hoped was red paint.

[CHARITY CLARKE]

Charity really did need help buying music.

She had just found a CD player at a thrift store for two dollars, but no CDs. They had none. Someone had just came in that mornining and bought them all up. But that was okay! She was sure they would enjoy the music as much as she would have, and the very thought of that made her content and happy to have missed the opportunity. It wasn't like she needed a lot of music, only a couple albums to get her started. She also considered getting a couple records for the record player back home, since all her family had were Christmas carols. Charity didn't mind listening to them all year-round, but she was sure her older siblings did.

Charity had thirty dollars to spend, part of the money she had saved up from selling jewelry and other crafts she made. The rest would continue to be saved, but she had a budget and she knew how to keep that budget. She wasn't sure how expensive they were, but if she could only buy one, then so be it. This wasn't a necessity and thirty dollars seemed excessive to Charity, but she didn't want to wind up not having enough for even one.

But Charity realized she didn't know anything about music or who to listen to or anything. She knew just who to call upon for that though! Because who knew more about music than her very best friend Caspar?

Caspar had been her first real friend at Baum. They met while Charity had been volunteering at a fundraiser. She hadn't been wearing her crutches, as they really only got in the way during these things, and she could handle the pain as long as she was careful not to strain herself. Now, she couldn't go without them, but no matter.

Caspar was really nice, and was still friends with her even when he found out about them! He was very smart, too, and supplied most of the conversation. Sometimes, Charity heard things about Caspar that she couldn't possibly believe! With all the things Caspar knew about society, who could think he was "stupid"? That was rude and uncalled for, if you asked Charity, though she probably wouldn't say anything out loud.

She had to admit, though, some of the things Caspar knew about frightened her, but she knew that it was good of Caspar to warn her about these things! Why, what trouble could she have gotten herself into at a chain restaurant if it wasn't for Caspar telling her about all the horrible things they did? She was very grateful to have him as a friend.

So there they were, walking (or shuffling) to Avenue B, some place she had never been to before and had only heard about from Caspar. She listened closely, wide-eyed at everything he was saying. Genocide? Murder? Bigotry? Oh my! She gasped at some of the things he said, but didn't want to interrupt with any commentary. This Scraplan didn't seem like a very nice person, or maybe he just didn't understand things like Caspar did, like most people.

Sometimes, Charity didn't even understand, but she figured it was because she lacked the capacity to understand. So she just avoided big corporations and things of that nature based on Caspy's word.

When they finally got to Avenue B, she wowed at all the nice looking stores! But they weren't all nice, it seemed, because he had something to say about almost all of them. Making a mental note not to visit the stores he mentioned, she gasped at the bearskin rug. "That's not very nice at all," she murmured, as it was so awful she had to say something.

After what seemed like a billion other stores, they finally found one that wasn't so bad! Though, some of the things Caspar mentioned didn't sound as horrible as the bearskin rug... but she wasn't going to argue with Caspy, he knew better than her. And she wasn't one to argue with someone who didn't know better than her, or even one who knew the same as her. So even though she wasn't sure what the sign in the front meant, she trusted him.

Charity made her way into the store, looking around at all of the fancy things they had, wowing. She waited for Caspar to lead her futhur in, as she didn't want to get lost or do anything wrong. Golly, what would she do without him?

[/justify]

{ outfit }

[CASPAR CRANE]

”No, no, it’s not nice, not nice at all. You’re quite right,” he agreed, leading her into Chaos Rampage. The building was a tall black tower, fronted by two large windows displaying what Caspar was pretty sure were sex toys disguised as baby dolls. Shit, that was probably going to scare her. Caspar hated scaring Charity. He always felt so bad when he did anything to harm her, like he was sending her one step closer to…no, shit, that was the most ableist thought ever. He wasn’t even going to let himself think that. Ableism was not cool. Nope.

”Now, I know this is going to seem off-putting at first,” he began, as they began to walk through the first few aisles. ”But I promise, the sex toys are only in the first few rows, and once you get past the shelf with the Sesame Street-themed dildos, it’s smooth sailing to the—oh, hey, Vask.”

He waved to a tall, skinny man in the corner as they passed by, with white spikes of hair protruding from his scalp and metal dangling from every orifice. The man waved back, slender fingers black with tattoos. ”That’s Vask,” he explained, for Charity’s benefit. ”He’s the man. Gives me discounts on my por…ridge. That I…sometimes…buy here.”

Whoops. Wow, he needed to actually hang out with people more often. He was so out of practice at this conversation stuff.

”Anyways, here we are.” They’d reached the back of the store, where the racks of CDs and vinyls stood like rows of steel soldiers. ”So, are you looking for any like, specific occasion? Party, event, person, thing? Or do you literally just want, like, the stuff I’m into right now? I’m flexible.” He grinned, cracking his knuckles. This was going to be fun.

outfit (he claims he stole the watch)

[CHARITY CLARKE]

She had to admit, the building was kind of intimidating, and she hadn't even really noticed the items in the window. It was safe to say that Charity definitely wouldn't have gone in there on her own, but with Caspar, she was willing to go pretty much anywhere because she knew he wouldn't take her any place that was dangerous. She was a little scared but Caspar was there so she was okay. Though she did do her best to move as close to him as she could without hitting him with her crutches, just in case.

Glancing at the first aisles, she was... well, she was thoroughly confused. She had no idea what any of this stuff was, and she would have had no idea had Caspar not pointed out the fact that they were..."Oh." oh dear. Her eyes widened and she looked away, blushing. She didn't want her eyes to find anyore of these things, so she just looked at Caspar like a deer in headlights. Which was pretty much how she always looked at Caspar, but she didn't notice. If she had, though, she would have stopped.

It's not like she cared that people... but it was just kind of embarassing to see... yeah, no, she just started blushing more. She knew nothing about these things, so she couldn't really fathom what... no, she couldn't handle this train of thought. Charity turned to look art the man Caspar greeted. He also seemed intimidating, but Charity was sure he was a nice man and his fashion choices had nothing to do with his character. "Hello, Vask," she said, though her voice was very quiet and meek sounding. That was so frustrating sometimes, her likeness to a church mouse.

She nodded, unsuspecting, when Caspy mentioned something about porridge. "That's very kind of you, sir." Charity smiled and followed her best friend to the back where the music was. Her mouth formed a little 'o' at the stacks and stacks of music. It was lucky she had Caspar, or she would have never been able to decide where to start! "I just bought a CD player, and I just wanted a little bit of music to listen to when I have free time... or when I'm studying... or something like that." She was so hopelessly lost, how did he put up with her?

[/justify]

[CASPAR CRANE]

This was literally the best feeling. Nobody ever asked Caspar for his musical opinion. Every time in his life he could think of where he’d taken it upon himself to share his opinions about anything musical had ended with his being yelled at, scoffed at, or ignored. The people of today’s world just had no appreciation for genuine music anymore. All this boy-band corporate rock bullshit that American society was being fed these days had really corrupted the general public’s tastes, in Caspar’s humble opinion.

But the fact that people like Charity existed, people who were willing to listen to Caspar’s voice of reason, a voice untained by modern financial behemouths, a voice that could show her truly good music. Man, she really gave Caspar hope for this corrupt human race he was almost always ashamed to call himself a part of.

Oh, and look, she didn’t even mind Vask! That was good. Vask had mailed something to his house once, over Thanksgiving break, and his mom had gone completely berserk just from looking at the name. Like, okay. ‘Vask’ was kind of a weird name. But Caspar could think of at least seven worse things that his name could have been.

But Charity wasn’t like the rest of them. Charity had an open mind. See, look! She was complimenting him. She wasn’t quick to put a label on him based merely on appearances. If only there were more people in the world like them. This world would definitely not be as bigoted and perfidious as it was.

"I just bought a CD player, and I just wanted a little bit of music to listen to when I have free time... or when I'm studying... or something like that."

CDs. Okay. Well, Caspar tended to find CDs a bit…commercial for his tastes. But he wasn’t going to judge her for that. Whatever. He could work with that.

”Free time. Studying.” Okay. He began to wander through the stacks of music, humming tunelessly to himself. ”Oh, these guys are good for studying. Nice like, technical music. You probably haven’t heard of them, they’re pretty like, deep underground. They’re called the Jet Book Real Estate Guitars.” He reached up to tug a large envelope down from the top shelf.

The cover art was simple, featuring a nondescript black dot on a sky-blue background. ”Look, this cover’s really cool. I like to think of it as like, the blue is society, and the black dot is like, the geniuses. Not like the math whiz geniuses, because then it would probably be a square or something, but like, misunderstood geniuses. That’s why it’s so like, ambiguous. Because we’re ambiguous to most of the world, you know? But it’s also round, you know what I mean? Because circles have no end, just like, genius has no end. So it’s like, super thematic and symbolic.”

He frowned. ”Oh, but this is a vinyl, isn’t it? I doubt these guys make like, actual CDs. They’re a little too like, hip for that consumerist shit, I think.” His expression brightened again as a thought occurred to him. ”Oh, but you could still get it anyway and like, display it in your room! I mean, I don’t even know what a record player looks like, and I have probably over sixty vinyls at my mom’s house. I feel like it makes you cooler just to own them, you know? Because they’re so like…vintage.”

Resuming his humming, he continued down the aisle. ”Hmmm, alright. Free time and studying. What else do we have here?”