Nanowrimo Day 2: Current status: 1259 behind

(Note: my wordcount goal will not advance on Mondays and Tuesdays. To compensate, I'll try to put in four hours of writing a day, the rest of the week.)

"Fine, thanks." A host of questions flashed through Elaine's mind. She knew the answer to most of them, though. "What do I do now?"

"Now? You survive."

Later, they walked down the streets together, finishing up Ken's rounds for the day.

"My biggest complaint about this place is the atmosphere. It's just a little hard to handle."

"The barren desolation of a city that grows to accomodate a non-existant population?"

"No, I meant that it's mostly helium."

"Oh... that."

"Am I getting you down? I'd hate to be a burden."

"No, it's no problem. You don't have to do much to pull your weight down here, just—get back!"

Dull clunks echoed down a sidestreet. After far too long, their source stepped into view. The first thing Elaine noticed about the man was that her eyes couldn't stay on him. Some aspect of his being was so aggressively non-descript that the effort of seeing what was so unremarkable made her tear up.

The man spoke, in a voice just like Ken's (hopefully, she would learn to distinguish voices once she got over the falsetto effect). "So, Ken, you got yourself a girl from the new shipment of meat. I never figured you'd go for brunettes."

"Easy, Layton. She's new here. You don't want to scare her, do you?"

"Maybe I don't, and maybe I do. Either way, I don't see what you care. Shouldn't you be on the phone somewhere, ass-kissing the high-and-mighty?"

"You sick voyeur, where have you been spying on me from? I thought those moments I shared over telepresence were private and special."

Layton and Elaine stared and Ken uneasily. "Umm..."

"It was a joke. Honestly, is there some rule that says I'm not allowed to have a sense of humor, just because my job is keeping people in line?"

Layton shifted uncomfortably. "Okay, honestly... I was going to rough you up for fun, but now I'm too disturbed to do anything like that." He stalked off, the chains that supported his clothing clunking as he went.

"Who was that?"

"Elaine? What do you think of me?"

"Well, so far, you've seemed honest, reasonable, an odd sense of humor... Is that wrong?"

"Most of the guys down here, and the women as well, would like nothing more than to bash my face in. They've decided that fun is more important than order. You're going to have to take a side, too."