It's Only Life • •

[seth patrick laurell]

New York was definitely a change of pace for Seth. It was nothing like home at all and yet he felt like he belonged in the city that never sleeps a hell of a lot more than he ever could in Brattleboro. The fast pace here was more to Seth's liking and there were plenty of oddballs in the city without him feeling like he had a neon sign glowing over his head pointing him out to the crowds. Growing up hadn't been quite as torturous as that, but there were times when Seth honestly felt like people were out to get him just for the fun of it. When things changed in high school he embraced it, but he never let it carry him away. He always remembered that some of the people who were being painfully nice to him then were the same people who had bullied and clawed at him in middle school when all he wanted to do was trade Pokemon cards with his friends and maybe make plans to hit the arcade at the weekend when their allowances rolled out.

Not all that much had changed really. The main difference was that Seth knew now that he was right to ignore the bullies and be himself. His craziness and constant hyperactivity might grate on some but he liked to think of it more as he didn't belong in the lives of those people and vice versa. Luckily he had landed himself a job at Forbidden Planet not long after moving to the city. There everyone had similar interests to him and the customers were just as enthusiastic and fanatical as the staff themselves. It really did make the world of difference which was why Seth didn't mind picking up the slack of extra hours whenever he could. He loved his job there and would have been content to spend the rest of his life in the cosy store, surrounded by geek memorabilia and collectibles. Seth just didn't think his family or some of his friends would take the news all that well if he did go down that path. They all expected something from him even if he didn't know what that something was just yet.

Truthfully, Seth didn't care either. He danced about the cash register, chatting at hyper-speed to a regular customer who had stopped in to pick up a new manga that had been released the day before. Seth had his own copy bundled under the register, the receipt being used as a bookmark. It wasn't often that he caught a break, but there were quiet moments here and there when the staff were on top of everything and he was left with nothing to do other than read, play with things or dance around. All of which suited Seth just fine since he was in his element inside Forbidden Planet. Whilst waiting for the next customer to hit up his desk, Seth toyed with two action figures from two separate anime shows. He mimicked their voices and had them fake duel on top of the register. Seth was so caught up in his little showdown that he didn't even notice someone standing right there waiting to be served.

• • •

TAGGED! open!
WORDS! 537!
OUTFIT! Comic Critter!
LYRICS! Only Life - - Mike Doughty
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[Lilia Jayne Sterling]

Lilia had no idea what she and Seb were, they hadn’t defined anything. And she was oddly nervous about bringing up that conversation. She was over at his all the time, hanging out with him and his little brother, slowly getting better at the video games they both loved so much. She would never, ever get as good as the pair of Whelan brothers but she could try it. Matty said she was getting better but Lilia suspected he let her win a couple times just because she was getting frustrated with the game and it’s silly controls. She was pretty sure she would never actually get the hang of it but having Seb teach her was pretty fun so she kept messing up both on purpose and accidentally.

She thought they were getting pretty close which was why she was on her way down to Forbidden Planet. Matty’s birthday was coming up and she wanted to get him something. Not because she somehow felt obligated to get the teenager a gift but because she wanted to do something nice for him. He was a good kid and helped her out in trying to kick Seb’s ass in those video games. She hadn’t done that yet but she could pretend that one day it would happen. Tossing her coffee cup in the trash, Lilia opened the door to the store and blinked at the new world she’d stepped into. She wasn’t into comic books or superheroes, even though she did go see the latest superhero movie with friends. But that was mostly because hey, it was a night out and two, the leads in any movie are generally pretty to look at. Lilia liked looking and then discussing their general sexiness over drinks afterwards. Some weeks, it was her highlight. But other than those movies, the Scottish girl had absolutely no idea what was going on the comic books worlds. She couldn’t make heads or tails of it and was routinely being told the difference between this hero and that one by Matty.

Standing in the store, Lilia was in way over her head and more than a little overwhelmed at her situation. She had no idea what the hell she was looking for. She had a small list of three or four video games and superheros she’d heard Matty and Seb talking about that she could go on; which was why she found herself in Forbidden Planet in the first place. It was a place to start, even if she left the store empty handed. And the best place to start in the store? The cash. Lilia stopped across from a guy, lost in his own little world of make believe and smirked at it. She played with the little dolls she or Theo had picked up for his daughter but her niece was a baby and dolls or action figures or whatever they were called when you weren’t a child were what she loved to play with, to toss around. Not wanting to interrupt the amusing show but really needing help with her predicament, Lilia, stepped closer to the counter. “Um, don’t mean to interrupt but could you help me out? It's definitely safe to say I'm completely clueless.” Lilia admitted with a chuckle.

Tag || seth patrick laurell
Words || 570
Clothes || Clueless Crusader!
Music || Not Dead Yet --Jo Dee Messina
Notes || <3!

[seth patrick laurell]

Seth lived and breathed video games and comics. He could give a history on just about everything in Forbidden Planet and that wasn’t because he worked there. He actually came to the job already knowing pretty much everything there was to know about everything the store stocked. He had rattled off quite a bit of that information during his interview and his boss told him it was one of the reasons why he was hired. They had apparently seen enough kids just applying for the job because it was a job and it became more hard work trying to show and explain everything to them as the months then went on. Seth came as an expert to begin with, and aside from being trained up on cash, and dragged through the usual training of every employee, he didn’t need to hear the rest. It was a win-win situation. The bosses got someone they didn’t need to worry about being clueless, and Seth got a job he could happily marry. If the idea of commitment wasn’t one that scared him senseless every time someone so much as brushed the subject. Even talk of his sister maybe marrying the kid she had been dating since she was nineteen was enough to have him feeling rather sick.

He liked what he had. He didn’t feel the need to fall in love and find some high paying job in the corporate world. People much older than him told him he needed it, but Seth didn’t understand why. They spoke about security and fulfilment, but he didn’t see why he needed one to achieve another. He was doing okay for himself in New York when he was just a student, so why couldn’t it continue? He knew he’d have to transition eventually, in just over another year, but it was so far off that he didn’t want to worry himself with thoughts of it now. He’d rather stick with the video games, hanging out at Forbidden Planet and just generally being the opposite of what people were telling him he had to be. He hoped to maybe prove everyone wrong with their expectations and grand plans, but he had no idea of how to do that and Seth wasn’t going to worry himself with that either.

There was another three hours left on his shift and then he planned on heading home to walk Doxy and Jones and to spend the night playing Tomb Raider, or perhaps Dante’s Inferno. He hadn’t quite decided what game held his fancy more right now. He had shelves full of them, for different consoles, and different editions, for his computer as well. Seth would play on everything and anything. Looking up when someone spoke up, Seth grinned a boyish grin and straightened up, re-positioning the action figures behind the counter where they were safe from theft if he needed to step away for a few minutes to help the woman. “Annnnnd, what is it you’re clueless about?” He asked, leaning against the top and smiling warmly at his customer.

• • •

TAGGED! Lilia Jayne Sterling
WORDS! 512!
OUTFIT! Comic Critter!
LYRICS! Only Life - - Mike Doughty
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[Lilia Jayne Sterling]

Lilia didn’t know what was going on in her own life lately. It was a little weird to wake up one morning and realise things had changed and she somehow missed it. Her brother in a wonderfully good mood was up before she was, dressing Issy for a day out in the colder weather, coffee made and talking about a woman who’d stopped by his dressing room after the performance. She rarely saw him with a smile on his face unless it was Issy who put it there and though Lilia wasn’t about to run to find this woman and thank her, she did think it was the attention he was getting from her gender that was bringing a small spark back to her brother. But for now, she would keep on thinking that it was more probably the fact that he was part of a new production and he was always more lively when he was, even when he was beyond exhausted. He was still somehow... Happier. So, Lilia was hardly going to complain about it!

If it did happen to be because of some attention, well, all the better for him as well! She knew he would never forget Jenny and she would honestly hit him if he ever did but the man had to see that he needed to get out there and love again. If Issy’s mom could haunt him or appear in front of him as an Angel or a ghost for ten minutes, she would spend nine minutes and thirty seconds gushing about Issy and the rest of the time slapping him around for closing himself off. It was no way to live life. But Theo needed to do things at his own speed, on his own time and there was nothing that would change that about him. So Lilia was forced to wait for him to catch up with what she’d known for a while now.

Of course, the Scottish girl also didn’t know what it was like to even have a heartbreak like that. She’d been in love, or what she thought was love but it hadn’t worked out and that had been fine. She was a resilient girl. She bounced back from it rather well, she thought. And now she was all tangled up with Seb and she had no honest idea what the hell was going on there. But she knew she adored his little brother and wanted to surprise him for his birthday with something he would love. She had Issy to spoil of course, but she was still so young and innocent. Comic books, superheroes and video games weren’t part of her world yet, if ever. But all those things were loved by the teenager she knew. “Everything in this store?” She countered with a laugh. She hadn’t been joking, not really, when she’d said she was clueless and that she needed help. “It doesn’t help me in the slightest, but I have a list.” She said, pulling the loose piece of paper free from her bag and handing it over. The words on there meant absolutely nothing to her but they were things Matty liked.

Tag || seth patrick laurell
Words || 556
Clothes || Clueless Crusader!
Music || Not Dead Yet --Jo Dee Messina
Notes || <3!

[seth patrick laurell]

Oddly, Seth found his life to be amazingly simple. It had always been that way. He never really thought too much about it, but he had overheard his mother telling her friends that he was one of those kids who had been acting the same way since he was twelve. Even moving out and moving to New York hadn’t changed Seth in the slightest. He had become aware of responsibilities like bills and rent payments, but that all came out on the first of the month and took up the first part of his morning. After that he forgot about it until the following month rolled by and it was time to sign and confirm payments from his account again. He had always been a carefree kid, light hearted no matter what was thrown at him. Bullies had tried to get him down but he had never given them the time of day. Their satisfaction for torment was often found elsewhere because he wouldn’t cry or run away, but just dusted himself off and laughed at it all.

Plus, a summer changed everything. Or at least it would have had Seth lived in a cheesy movie. In reality the summer away from the halls of his high school had turned him into an attractive seventeen year old, but he was always the same old Seth. However, the dramas of high school saw him slapped by girls who had fallen for him without his knowledge, only for them to be heartbroken when he laughed awkwardly at their love confessions. He wasn’t a Casanova, he was just another geek who didn’t really want a relationship or to be in the running for prom king. Thankfully, Seth’s shameless nature managed to secure his inadequateness for the latter. He was still too weird to be cool, even if he was now far more attractive. High school seemed like a lifetime ago, but Seth hardly saw a difference between it and college. There were just more parties now, and it seemed that no one was after a serious relationship. That also suited him fine. Seth was terrified of settling down with anyone. He kind of liked his space and his freedom, but where that fear of commitment came from was still a mystery, even to him.

Seth was used to the customers coming in being familiar with what they sold. Or at least they knew an idea of what they were looking for if it was a gift. They weren’t like the department stores who sold just about everything, they were kind of a niche place that catered to the geeks and nerds of the world only. Still, he wasn’t a snob and this particular girl amused him. He liked something different breaking up his day. “Okay, well how about a price range? If we start with that, I can pull some items out for you.” He was already prone to creating awkward scenes without trying, so the last thing he wanted to do was grab the perfect collectible and have the brunette awkwardly explain that it was far too overpriced for her. His dark eyes looked over the list and he stepped out from behind the counter. “I can work with this. Don’t you worry!”

• • •

TAGGED! Lilia Jayne Sterling
WORDS! 545!
OUTFIT! Comic Critter!
LYRICS! Only Life - - Mike Doughty
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[Lilia Jayne Sterling]

Under normal circumstances, Lilia would never have even looked twice at the shop she was in at the moment. She was not the type of girl that would be found usually surrounded by comic books and little action figures, not dolls as she’d been told a hundred times by Matty when she was teasing him about his collection. She could be such a menace sometimes but she was the youngest in her family and the one constantly teased; when her brothers weren’t offering to fight her battles for her of threatening potential boyfriend’s lives that is. They’d been good brothers to her though, like Seb was to Matty and she wanted to celebrate that. It may have been Matty’s birthday she was shopping for but she knew whatever she got would be shared between the two because it was what they did.

She had absolutely no idea what Forbidden Planet sold and she would bet he first to admit to it, too. She only knew of the place because Matty had mentioned it several times. In retrospect, she should have just brought him in with her, stolen him away from his brother for the day but they’d had plans and it was Lilia’s only free day. After this, if she didn’t have Issy with her, there were classes, volunteer hours at the hospital, four tests to study for, three papers that weren’t going to write themselves and prayers sent out to every single deity out there to get a placement in New York. Interviews and the like had already started but Lilia was hopeful they would think she was an asset because of her knowledge of the hospital already. Right now though, she could only wait and see; which was why she was keeping herself busy doing everything else she had on that ever expanding list of hers.

Doing something out of the norm was good. Lilia knew she needed to expand her horizons or whatever people wanted to say but she didn’t know if this particular expansion would stay. The only time she played video games or asked questions about any of this was when she was with Matty and Seb. Otherwise she basically spent her time working, playing with her baby niece or reading through her textbooks. There was still a lot she had to get through before she finished and headed off to the next step. Lilia blinked at the man behind the counter. She hadn’t honestly thought about a price range. She didn’t know what the costs of anything in the store were so she hadn’t really put a price on what she was willing to spend. “I, uh, hadn’t actually thought about it.” She admitted ruefully. She didn’t buy these sorts of things regularly so she had gone into the store thinking whatever and knowing if they had everything on the list, she would just pick one at random, probably one of the things Matty spoke of more often than the others. And then she would just tell Seb not to get that for him because it had been covered. “How obvious is it that it’s been ages since I bought a birthday present for a teenage boy?” She asked, grinning. The last teenage boy she’d bought a gift for had been Theo and he was older than her! “The last one was my brother.” She added because she’d thought it sounded a little dodgy to her own ears despite being completely innocent.

Tag || seth patrick laurell
Words || 620
Clothes || Clueless Crusader!
Music || Not Dead Yet --Jo Dee Messina
Notes || <3!

[seth patrick laurell]

Seth’s apartment resembled Forbidden Planet in many ways. He had collectibles and comics everywhere, not to mention an obscene amount of video and computer games that took up more of his time than they ever probably should. There were too many mornings to count where he woke up slumped over his keyboard with a ‘GAME OVER’ screen staring back at him because he had fallen asleep mid game and then been slaughtered by some big monstered that had come his way since then. If it wasn’t there it was on his couch, controller still in hand, and the characters on some video game staring blankly ahead at what waited for them next. They’d stare blankly ahead for several hours while Seth dozed, coming around in time to realise he had done it again and was going to be late for class if he didn’t jump in the shower right that minute. It was a lifestyle his parents had not entirely approved of, but they hadn’t been able to break him out of it when he still lived under their roof either.

Then he’d moved to New York City for college and ended up with a job at Forbidden Planet. He’d needed his own place for the amount of times he abused his staff discount! There was no way his family could have put up with all of his purchases back home. He had already needed to buy extra shelving units and find ways to display the things he blew his spare cash on. Seth would be in serious trouble if anything broke on him, like his car or one of his computers, because the money he tried to save up never lasted long when something amazing came into the store. If he could walk out and stay away then maybe it might, but Seth worked in Forbidden Planet four days of the week and the temptation was just too damn strong some of the time. Well, most of the time. Or all of it.

One day it might not be a concern at the very far corner of his mind. Seth didn’t exactly dwell on the what ifs or the maybes because that just wasn’t his style at all. He’d rather throw himself into a game until he forgot completely when things like that started to haunt his thoughts. Thankfully, it never happened too often. “Well, how about I just show you around then? I’ll point out some of the things we have from this list and you can see if any of them really just pop. And if it’s too pricey I’ll find a cheaper alternative.” They catered for all price ranges anyway, so Seth wasn’t worried about that being a problem. He chuckled warmly and waved it off in understanding. “I suppose some of us grow up eventually. Some of us, not all of us. I’ll still be fangirling over this stuff when I’m in my seventies.” He said with a boyish grin. Seth was certain of that much. He wouldn’t grow out of his love for geek culture. He was beyond it being some kind of phase by now.

• • •

TAGGED! Lilia Jayne Sterling
WORDS! 526!
OUTFIT! Comic Critter!
LYRICS! Only Life - - Mike Doughty
NOTES! <3 <3 <3