Stanley: "Hmm."
Sheng-Ri: "…"
Mr Pravenat: "G-good?"
He said, pondering his passenger's thoughts.
Stanley: "Uh, yeah?" He turned his head to him, and the driver spoke fast.
"The main north road is blocked by cars… Can I make a turn just here? See where I'm pointing? Yeessss."
The taxi driver leaned forward on the steering wheel towards the passenger side and brought Stanley's head closer to his shoulder; it bumped against the car's console. Stanley:
"Uh, yeah…" he said calmly, but wasn't expecting to talk to him.
The car's horn beeping made them both raise their voices, shouting in a quiet place with no music anymore, since the radio was still talking about the speech from a few seconds ago.
Three cars down on the left side of the road was a street marked [Vincent St], and it seemed to be a route to escape the busy [Main North Rd].
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP HONK HONK BEEP BEEP!
Mr Pravenat honked in rage, screaming in a language Stanley couldn't understand, and Sheng-Ri couldn't either.
"MENOCHARANA!"
He switched back to English later.
"OI! MOVE IT! FUCK-ING MOVE. IT!" Mr Pravenat's voice dropped lower and got raspier; he leaned on the steering wheel and honked harder.
{Uh. Dang. He's like, really loud. Is Sheng-Ri fine with his rambling? I can't even tell; she's so distant yet comfortable, wow. Oh, did she look back at me? Should I nod or wave?}
Stanley leaned back and looked out the window. He turned back and looked at Sheng-Ri with interest. Stanley gently waved his hand with a cheesy smile, trying his best to show emotion instead of looking nonchalant all the time.
Sheng-Ri seemed surprised at first; her calmness was wiped away for a split second with a tiny smile, but it came back after she waved back and gave him a fist bump.
{Does she like cheesy? She'll like "cheesy", right? If she doesn't, she can't match me then. I do think I am cheesy.}
—————————————————————————————————————————
Mr Pravenat: "Here, Hotel Jeat. Very close to the airport, good sir. I recommend." He went back to speaking proudly and calmly before he raged at the traffic.
Sheng-Ri leaned from her seat, unbuckled her seatbelt, and gave two pats to the taxi driver.
"Thanks."
She then leaned back, opened the door, and stepped out of the small car to be greeted by a classic hotel skyscraper, rather than flashing adverts of neon everywhere.
[Pop!]
Stanley opened his door onto the road and walked behind the car and jogged swiftly up to Sheng-Ri, who turned to look back at him.
Stanley: "So, like. We did pay him rig-" He spoke calmly with his usual dull face.
Sheng-Ri: "Yeah?" She squinted at him with her one visible dull eye and bit her left cheek.
"Ah. You sure?"
She turned her whole body to him and responded in a curious tone.
"Duh? Where'd you get that idea from?" She then turned toward the entrance, and Stanley followed her, pacing herself to be nearly as fast as her, but side by side as they both went through the revolving silver doors with matte black carpet.
Not many people were around at the moment, most seeming to be outside, still vigorously chatting and making a ruckus in the city.
Three employees were seen visible, one at the front desk, mindlessly looking around at the computer, focused and clicking with a mouse behind a semicircular, marble-esque front counter.
Another was dragging trolleys of baggage up to an elevator, tired, and one more was waiting at the front as a valet driver. All three were in the hotel's brand colours of black and lime.
Stanley: "Uh, do I say anything or should I leave it to y-" he spoke as the two carried their small amount of stuff in one hand while they walked to the front desk.
PAT PAT PAT PAT PAT went their feet on the thin, warm carpet that heated their feet.
"Nah," said Sheng-Ri, staring head-on at the worker at the desk while fixing her tie smartly. Her eyebrows rose slowly, looking more tired the further she went.
{Aight, like, go ahead; that's all you. Not sure if PFH people like her get some passes or some shit like that.}
Desk man: "Hello, welcome to the Jeat. I can tell you and your assistant are 'important' people?"
As the two got close enough to start interacting, the man at the desk looked up, spoke with a smile, and went to shake Sheng-Ri's hand, leaving Stanley to the side.
Sheng-Ri: "Not really. Just two rooms, please. Maybe three." She spoke numbly and subtly, she did a big pause between sentences and nodded slightly when the desk workers reaction slowly shifted.
Desk man: "Oh. Sorry, Miss and Mister, I mistook you for something different. Your badge gives off the wrong 'vibes', Miss." His reaction changed into one of personal sympathy and personality, upon realising something about the two he had assumed before.
"Two, or three standard rooms?" He said, eyeing both of them with pleasure.
Stanley looked at both, switching back and forth to see Sheng-Ri's face slightly change at his attitude, and the clerk switch up like he had a grudge against them before.
"Stan? Like, you good with two? I don't get the money for three, and Trifon ain't even he-"
"Uh, yeah. I don't mind. easy done, Sheng."
{Surely I'm allowed to call her that? I'm literally mildly teasing her for her foreign-ass name. She literally just called me—Ah, yeah, thought so.}
She mildly turned her head for a brief second, stuck out her lips slightly and raised her eyebrows, then squinted.
Sheng-Ri: "Yeah, yeah." She quietly muttered.
Desk man: "Two, is it?"
Sheng-Ri: "Yeah, I'll pay with a body scan."
She stuck out her index finger, and the desk clerk took out a device from his desk, looking like a cylinder into which you stick your finger, with a rectangular base below it.
She slowly put it in, and a green circle, a jingle and the words [TRANSACTION COMPLETED] appeared on the clerk's side of the device.
Desk man: "ENJOY your stay!"
He politely bowed, and the two received two glasses of water and two pills. Secure Edition Idol Pills.
gulp!
Swallow!
The two quickly took their pills and started walking to the elevator, to the third floor.
She mockingly raised both of her hands and spoke in a lower, deeper voice to make fun of the man at the counter.
Sheng-Ri: "Oouuughh, I give off the 'wrong' vibes, and you didn't even get any negativity from the dude. What did his name tag say again?" The two were in the elevator and pressed the buttons to head to the third floor three.
She squinted at him while she was in one corner of the elevator and Stanley was leaning back near the buttons.
Stanley: "I don't fucking know. Harold?" He replied, doing the same mocking hand movement.
She nodded and tilted her head slightly to the right, her body language agreeing.
"Yeah, right. " Mm-hmm."
Sheng-Ri: "…"
Stanley: "…"
The two didn't feel like talking anymore.
Neither knew what to say.
The other was daydreaming at night.
Ding!
They both reached the third floor and walked out a bit slowly, with the two of them starting to feel the sleepiness of 1 a.m.
The thin, textured carpet of caramel brown and black mixed with lines and the smell of fresh 'urban' filled both of their noses.
Room 312 and 314. Side by side, just like she asked for.
Sheng-Ri stopped at hers first, pressing a button before it scanned her face with ultraviolet dark matter particle light. Beep! Green. [SHENG-RI PARANO]
Stanley: "Yeah, Night, I guess."
Sheng-Ri: "Night, Stan." She pushed the door halfway open, then leaned back out, slumpily, with a slight expression of tiredness and slight positivity.
"Tell Harold I said hi." Click.
The door opened again.
"Oh, and Oswald when he gets here. I'll do that messaging bullshit. Night. Final. Pf.'
Click.
{Ha. Okay. That was kinda good.}
Stanley stood in the hallway a second too long, staring at her door like it would say something else. It didn't.
Beep. Green. [STANLEY DANIEL KLEITOS]
His door shut behind him, and the room swallowed every sound from the hallway. It was a standard modern hotel room with sound-cancelling and a bathroom.
No horns. No crowds. No radio. Just the hum of the air conditioner and his own breathing. He leaned his back against the door and slid his bag off his shoulder.
{Who pays for our peace?}
Ciel's voice was still in his head, stuck like the chorus of a song he didn't even like or a jingle of an annoying advert.
{Unasked. That's what she called him. John. The kid who handed her bricks to see if he was human.} {…Am I unasked? Surely there's more going on with me? I know what I want. It's… to be fulfilled. That's the definitive goal of life. I suppose.}
He thought about home.
About walking out without saying anything.
About the hospital doors closing behind him, and his phone hitting the pavement in pieces because he didn't know what else to do with his hands.
Nobody told him to leave. Nobody told him to come here either. He just did.
{If someone actually asked me. Like, properly asked me.}
{What would I do? What the fuck, would me, Stanley Kleitos, do? Nothing? Some bullshit like that? No way. It. It, like, can't be, man.}
He didn't have an answer, or a thought that could explain it. That scared him more than he wanted to admit.
He slowly unwound. First time in a while.
And took in this situation.
How weird it seems from a third-person perspective.
An ex-music producer, now a part of a PFH group, a renowned one at that. A man who can only think of himself as a man, not as part of something larger than life.
He took off his clothes, threw them onto a small two-seater lounge, and tucked himself in a heavy white quilt and stretched his arms out.
Then started his usual breathing exercise to sleep.
Heavy breaths.
One.
Two.
Four.
Eight.
Fourteen.
Thirty-two.
And off to sleep.
Stanley reached deep, deep slumber again.
Peaceful drifting and thoughts.
He felt eternal in the bed.
Thaddeus: "Hey, Man!"
He waved at him politely, sitting stretched out again like last time.
Stanley opened his eyes fast and was greeted by a familiar-looking Asian human.
He grinned and returned a neutral, comfy face.
Stanley blinked.
Again.
Again, but harder.
And squinted, while arching his neck forward.
He was in his clothes from Sola Frechia, with his puffer and dress pants.
And back in White Space.
Thaddeus: "How ya doin'?"