Neil

Neil bleached his eyebrows to match his color stripped hair. He wanted the spiky, white blond cyber punk style he could set off against a black duster. His hair was thick and wavy, so the best he could do was comb it through with gel so it made a stiff plasticine shell. The shade wavered unevenly from a watery green yellow to a burnt orange. His hair and eyebrows both set on a bedrock of his natural brown as the roots grew in, making the ridge of his brow seem furrowed and pronounced.

He had an analytical, engineer's manner. He wasn't great with people, his patience seemed to run short, treating them with the same fairness he would a pair of component cables. He felt all things had the responsibility to act in the way that was expected, and when they defied this logic he got frustrated. He could curse and throw a piece of hardware, but Neil found it much harder to manage his frustration with the people he so often could not understand.

Neil worked at Radio Shack, managing other peoples inconvenience. They needed to hook up a TV or stereo, some chore that preceded recreation, and he had to facilitate. He worried they looked at him with the same disdain, that he was the boring guy who knew all about all the hassle jobs. It was important to Neil to demonstrate his personality. He wore a studded belt, his heather gray shirt tucked into it over his belly. His ear was pierced with sterling tribal thorns, and sometimes he painted his nails. His car looked like a Japanese sneaker, the windows were always down with the stereo up. One side of his laminate was his Radio Shack ID and the other was covered in stickers for video games, and bands. It struck him as his best avatar.

Neil liked the people he worked with, they had slightly tone deaf conversations about the things they liked, and the ways they disagreed about how to like them. Sometimes in the mid morning, when things were slow, it was like his job was to bullshit with people just like him, who didn't realize how aggressive their opinions could be, and didn't mind rampant one-upsmanship. It was then he least hid how annoyed he was to interrupt lecturing his co worker on how Slaughterhouse Five was good, but Cat's Cradle was better, to explain yet again how to wire a DVD player.