HALO – Life and Occupation
By The Aspergian Mind
A shorty comparing two different lifestyles. One that uses broads while the other uses brains, but the two are still reliant on using both.
A/N: More of an experimentation comparing the general social behavior between humans and the sangheili, before I get to work on bigger things I got planned for HALO. Open to the most brutal, honest, but constructive criticism. I especially want to know about the grammar and dialogue. Tell the truth for half of learning is realizing you mistakes.
The single room is a 50,000 square foot block. It's such a vast empty space and what does it get filled with? Nothing better than an ocean of cubicles for all to work in that equally shows vastness with the same, identical thing all across the plain. And there's another three just that make the 17th floor of the building. So this vast room is a fraction of the bigger whole.
Daniel was one out of twenty-six to have that name out of three hundred working in this one room. Though he never got acquainted with more than seven of them, he was always in his own personal box.
A slight tingle of discomfort befalls on his belly. His large hand reaches down for his plump fingers to scratch his big gut. Leaning on the obese side starting from when he got the job.
Hmmm. His head feels quite dreary at times. Runs his hands through his hair to massage the scalp. Stomach aches too. A good taste in the mouth would cover it. Doughnuts seem to magically do the trick.
He looks into the doughnut box, the variety pack. Hmmm, Frosted, creamy, or sprinkled? I feel more like having a creamy. Has an inner taste that comes entering in when you take the bite and then it gushes in.
Hmmm! This kind of 'hmmm' is satisfaction. A good taste in the mouth triggers good thoughts in the head. Then when good taste fades so does the inducing of the ears that capture all the buzzes of noises.
It all becomes numb when the noises of the office are constant and multiple. Daniel is not even hearing the stroking of the keys on the board, A thousand fingers at work, dozens of mouths talking, a printer or two humming, with hundreds of pairs of eyes watching their multitasking. All this going around and the sound from the big clock in the room is nullified, unhearable.
But while the noises of occupation and functionality of the office go in-and-out of his ear, these numbers on the screen have his utmost attention. The lines that follow the 'x' axis for time and 'y' axis for value. Readies himself for those who come in perfectly timing or those making a bad guess. Expecting the most buys at the bottom before jump back up and the most sales at the peak before the plunge. That's logical thinking, but it's been mostly chaos as people are doing with what they can with the excess material and the lack of consumers.
"These little guys need help to rise up to be the next-in-line big guys." He mutters to himself.
With the on the verge collapse of humanity, most companies are abandoned and the citizens going on welfare. Leaving the big guys to provide for the shattered remains. Though being the life of business is to have competition, there are the few stragglers that are pulling through with their deals and guarantees that differ from the larger companies.
Making sure not to make a mistake, for if he did, it'll cost the well-being and progress of dozens, if not hundreds, if not thousands of people who are connected to the business and it's stock that he's monitoring right now.
That much at stake, he has trained himself successfully to close himself from any distractions. Though there is one sound in all the rooms that snaps into Daniel sensors. The dinging bell at noon. It penetrates through all sounds, for it's loudness and also triggers subconsciously the sound that concerns everyone.
...And there it rings off from the distant walls.
Lunch break
Not quite yet for Daniel. He has to make a final check at the hourly updates. The most information packed updates are hourly, coincidently Noon is the exact hour for that, but most rather wait after lunch for that. That would make the time between lunch and 1 P.M. the most crammed hour. Though he tells himself, the guys in the 'Arena' are up to date with it by the second.
Now there's getting out of the seat. Plump hands grip the arm wrists. Legs at the ready. Gives straining grunts as his flabby arms try to lift the extra cargo that is his indulged belly. He could be at least ten pounds lighter if he gotten a job in 'arena' at the Stock Exchange. Would have him using his legs and arms more frequently, not just his hands and fingers.
Lunch break also means Mind break for him. His mind has been a bit sluggish, a lingering headache that coffee doesn't kick out one hundred percent still. But he accepts it as being apart in a meat sack. Existing in body is never painless or strain-less.
All of the tables, coffee makers, shelves, are to the wall, on the far ends of the wide open plain of squares.
In Daniel's corner, about 40 people sat at the tables or standing having conversations in their own circles.
"Excuse me." He said to a talking pair that so happen to block the coffee maker. The locations they sometimes pick to chat at with no awareness of where they are.
Picks the top Styrofoam cup in the pile and pours in the coffee. Always the first person gets to put in his kind that suits him while not bothered if it suits others. First come is first serving. Who knows what brand it's from or how strong or deluded it is? It's mystery black matter. All he could decide is the type of creamer.
Takes a sip. Gah, too strong. Well I got the kick I needed. In the stomach.
He's just in his own thoughts, thinking about what he left off back at the desk. Is this all my mind is now?
"Hey, Dan! How's it going?" Frank approaches, the third one with that name he knows in this block.
"Fine." Daniel entices.
"How's the umm...new construction company doing?"
"Off to the modest start. Though they could have started better if they had a better slogan."
"Yeah, that whole mentioning of 'glassing' is only than reminding the customers of the dreadful past instead of bringing the feeling of...uh..."
"Assurance in being in the company."
"Yeah, assurance. Assurance of their provider of such great contributions in their company. Yeah that's it. Trying to find a more eloquent word for that than just assurance you know."
Pause
"Well hope they reconsider so they can draw in more." And he walks over, and that's it with Frank. It is like he's time limited and assigned to have a chat with everyone in building, only superficially. Or is just searching for it, if only so brief to fill in the lonely time. That's about the entirety of talk here. He could of had that talk be about something more worthwhile, like about how the weather would be nice to hike in.
Silence
Everyone went quiet except for the lack-conscious printer still embedding the paper. Everyone's previously divided attention became universally attached to the one oddity entering the room. Daniel sees their faces looking past, so he turns to see what so unexpectedly has come to everyone's surprise.
It is an elite.
An elite has just entered through the door. No one expected an elite to ever enter in this kind of place. But seeing it's an ally now, you come to see that it's harmless curiosity not suspicion or crockry that brings it here.
Spirit-less objects continue like nothing has happened, even those automatic doors treated the elite no differently when he entered. One by one, everyone goes back to their discourse, seeing no harm from this alien, though they still stare. Daniel had no one to return to talking. The elite sees this and decides to initiate a conversation with that one human, no would ever like to be lost in the sea of another species.
"Hello." He made the first greeting. It's hard to take loud voices from big...lizards as friendly easily.
"Hey there. Are you lost?" Blunt question, but Daniel really is curious to find out why? An elite has never been back here. From what he knows about elites -being all warrior oriented and having the honor- they wouldn't bother to go to such a boring place, he willingly admits.
"No, I'm just using my spare time learning other species' lifestyles. My name is Makipav." Places hand to his palm that adds formality on the greeting.
"Mine is Daniel."
"Well, Dan-yi-ell. I am a captain of a battalion called The Justice League." Daniel chokes on his coffee mug, right when he tilted the mug higher. It all spilled down onto his chin and neck.
Makipav stops a moment confused at the reaction or tradition in taking in that fluid he doesn't know. He looked around to see people were given worried looks, as if they expected something from him. Any thing wrong that happens to a human that nears me, all eyes turn to me.
"Are you...?"
"Don't worry, I'm fine." He strainously says as he lets out the coughs and keeps in the laughs at the irony of that name in United States mythology has somehow passed into a different culture in other end of the galaxy.
He continues. "...We are doing our patrols behind the lines, to make sure they are not any strikes within."
"I've heard of those reports." Takes a napkin to wipe his chin. "Half of the our territory is mapped out and known to the Covenant so they are clear targets."
"And you are a..."
"Stockbroker."
Last one was a records keeper. "What does a stockbroker do?"
"We keep track of the value of stocks." Takes his next sip of coffee cautiously. What is it with them keeping on track with stuff? It's only observing, using a brain, never doing, using your body.
Daniel takes a deep sigh. "You seem exhausted, yet you don't fight." Makipav says.
"It's my head. It went through a lot in the cubical. It's a repetitive job, looking at the numbers."
Makipav is frustrated at this. Is that all that they do? This is the eighth time he entered a human business center and they all work in this vast, of cubes. Out of all the humans in the galaxy, most are confined in the service industry. "Why do you humans condemn yourselves to those activities?"
"Because we need to see progress in the stock exchange."
"Why?" He likes to have the answers having witnessed just about enough with no explanation.
"Because I need to keep track of the businesses that propel the economy to fix itself again."
"Why?" Smiles at the gratuitousness.
He says gallingly. "Because our well-being depends how well the economy is running. Which effects how the war machine gets it's goods and much it can produce, that provides for the armies."
"You keep track of everyone else's progress in life. And it comes at the expense of your own." A tad in the extreme in sounding like it self-condemnation.
"It's a largely selfless responsibility that someones got to do." Takes a sip of the coffee.
"Why?" He likes to play with them at times. Daniel gives an attempting growl of agitation. Makipav just scoffs at that pathetic display. Like seeing a fattened Brute, too fat to swing it's club. They can make themselves truly pathetic at times. Though he can't quite condemn them either. Such an amazing distinction about humans.
"But you body must be agonized, stress, pleading for release." Eyes gaze down to the overloaded front gut.
"Hey, I'm not the physical type."
"You are in a body, you are in the physical world, so you are in the physical type."
"Yes, that is correct, but the mind is oriented somewhere else."
"I can't stand being situated in one spot for hours of the day, and days out of the year, and so forth. Combat is never the same in each situation."
"Yeah, but when there's no one to fight, then what? There, you see, the fighting comes and goes, but the mind never rests."
"But the body holds the mind. So the function of the body does determine the state of mind."
"How so?"
"To avoid strains in the muscles we stretch. Relieving the stress awakens the mind. Feel more exuberant."
"I got coffee. The caffeine gives the nerves a bit of a kick." Goes to the coffee maker and gets a mug. "Try it."
"If I am going to expect a rejecting reaction to this like you, then I decline."
"It was just accident I had. Went down the wrong tube, if you know what I mean."
Makipav takes his word for it and sips it and reaction has followed the instant after.
"Uuugggghhhh." Like a belching beast that has accidentally thrown-up as well. Couldn't help but gag his coffee in laughter.
"Gah. I guess it does give a kick. A kick in the stomach."
Daniel coughs to clear his throat for a hearty laugh at the irony.
Coughs. "Oh, stop it!" But Daniel can't stop, despite of a serious demand from a giant.
Other people surrounding them were starting to chuckle themselves. So that's what he did back then, hiding a laugh me and my comrade's unified name.
Makipav grabs him by the collar, and looks him square in the eye. "I...said...stop!"
Silence
Every one turned to him. They saw the power and strength of a single elite and it's individual arm alone lift an obese person.
He then realized how overly reactive he just went. He's been doing that to humans to tease their inabilities, but this was first done back. He's use to having any who mock should be dueled over the honor issue. Daniel was just returning the same sarcasm he played and he snapped at the same play done back at him. The swell of pride.
"I'm sorry." It comes off odd for him. He has only really observed humans and exam them, never embracing them as a being who deserves equal treatment that comes off for him hearing it from some other elites.
Daniel was scared, but the fear also strung him up with agitation, so he's more upset than scared.
"See, I may not be a fighter, but I still do my share at the home-front trying to fix what was broken by you guys and your previous friends." With added scorn. "It's stressing to make up for these loses."
Makipav sighs. Wherever he goes near these humans, he's always reminded of the pain he and all others have blindly caused them. There was no shame to it when thinking that you were just simply killing things called 'heretics' who have no divine connection till you realize you have just a lack of connection and uncertainty as them.
"Not to mention the security of those stocks. I try to prevent the stress of lacking financial welfare from spreading to others."
Makipav isn't sure if the conversation can go back on previous course. No time for debate or argument, even if it's just camaraderie that friends would do.
"Then it is a honor to endure it." Reroute.
"Then why are you saying that being all selfish is the best route?"
"I speak nothing of selfishness. I do combat not for entertainment, it's both an interest and a duty. But that doesn't mean I'm devoid of mind. One has to manage himself to the best if one is to be the best for others."
"Just keeping yourself occupied doing things doesn't accomplish much if you don't use you mind on how to do it."
"Human Dan-yell, we may us our bodies more frequently, we may be more warrior obsessed, but that doesn't mean we don't give any recognition on spiritual gain. What we accomplish through our acts is what make us who we are. And logically you need to take care of yourself in order to be adequate in caring for others."
"I'm better financed than most people, so I'm covered there."
"But, again I say, physically you are not in peak form, that what you could be that can accomplish and endure more." Daniel thinks back to the times where is was willing to volunteer to be a helping hand for extended hours, but was exhausted. If I was in better shape, could I have had the energy to do what I couldn't?
"I could being doing more active things, but I don't think it would add up to much. I loss fat, but would only gain it again."
"There is a saying, 'Life is most memorable at its peaks, so make as many as you can.'"
"If life is that eventful."
"Life is that eventful by you doing, not waiting."
Bell rings. Lunch is over.
Makipav's waist is receiving a beep. He reaches for a pouch from his hip to pull out a hologram. "I am reading."
An Elite Minor, second in command, appears. "A raid has occurred in the neighboring system. They have been reduced, but their current retreat is really going to be another attack on the lighter defense. They'll be heading here and we need to be set."
"I will be right over, start readying now." Once I was the destroyer, now I'm the defender. "Duty calls, as called by the Marreens." Emphasis of the matter dragged the 'ee.'
He concludes. "Alright, we each have different things to do. You do what you do best, I do what I do best."
"Right, you keep track on their numbers, while I keep track of these numbers." Daniel pointing at the screen. "Take care."
Backs turned toward each other, feet guiding them opposite directions. Both wondering if there will be again a time their feet will lead toward each other and their faces meeting again.
Walking back to his desk. He realizes that being in his seat has made this kind of a back ache just by seated and leaning ill-properly.
Daniel grabs his hands and reaches them up to the ceiling. He feels his shoulders stretch. A bit uncomfortable, but once he stopped and got his back to his resting position he finds his shoulders a bit relieved. Pushing them to the limits that create a bit discomfort now made regular status a relieve.
He then sees that stretching his frame has gotten pulled his tucked in shirt out of his pants, exposing his big gut and hairy belly button. He tucks it back in.
A twist with the neck has actually created a few creaking sounds. Sounds like the head could pop off. But while not quite decapitating, that release made his head more comfortable in regular stance than ever.
Daniel gets back to his desk and throws away the doughnuts. Might be good tasting for the mouth, but toxic for the rest of the body. And thinks about taking the stairs instead of the elevator for once. Little things first.
So can he change himself to a better fit person entirely? No, but just because he's not the physical type, doesn't mean he has to let it go. Whether our occupation in our lives are more using brains or more using muscles, both are required to back each other. Occupation in which ever life requires both to function.
Now that was a really productive conversation.
Gives himself a pudgy smile.
A/N: How was it? I don't know how the office space would evolve in 500 years, so I just put all the same details. They don't show it, though how would it be entertaining to see a desk job in a such a high acclaim sci-fi action game series?
Spent a lot of the time reworking it. I don't know if rewriting is always the best route because the next day it suddenly doesn't sound right and then randomly go to something to change it for sake of it. Oh, well, this is the final version so I'll live with it.