shades of grey */

[emmett arturo salaris]

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…for the first time since the earthquake had devastated the city of valkyrie, california... work was slow, or at least as slow as it was ever going to be. he performed one surgey in the morning that ended around noon, but that was basically all he had going for him. it was kind of convenient, in a way, to have some free time. he really hadn't had any since he moved to valkyrie, dealing with miah and his new job and all. he's actually been busy up to his ears. it would be nice to finally get some sibling time in. miah probably got on pretty well without him, she did mention that the doctors were extremely kind. he was selfish though, and as much as miah might not need him, his life depended on her. he had no idea in heaven or hell what he would do had he not been blessed with her. at this point in his life, there really wasn't anybody he loved as much as miah. she was his absolute best friend, and if she passed away, that'd leave him with a friend count of two and no will to do a damn thing anymore. it sounded rather pathetic, which was why he wouldn't admit that to a single living soul, but it was still one hundred percent true. so yeah, his plan for the night had been to hang out with his little sister. notice the had? he was enveloped into quite a different scenario instead.

…emmett was no the most sociable person on he planet. in fact he was quite possible the least social sentient being in the universe. it wasn't that he disliked people, because he found them fascinating, and he sinerely cared for the well-being of his patients, but he just didn't know how to act around them. emmett had alway been placed out of his comfort zone his entire life. however, as odd as it may seem, his discomfort became his comfort zone. he got over it and just continued on in life without worrying about having some sort of life outside of schooling or work. however, there was always people he would be acquainted with or work with. colleagues. they weren't friends though. emmett had two friends at this point in time, and it was really probably all he would ever had. one was leonardo perry, a guy he'd met back east a few years ago. and the other was zara bishop. she was probably his oldest friend he still kept in touch with. he'd met her hen he was a kid, ten years old, give or take a year. they were both young and brilliant, and they'd just kind of clicked. she was practically a sister to him, of sorts, and he hadn't seen her in quite a while. it wasn't like he ever went out of his way to visit her, as unfriendly as it might sound. it was just that emmett was basically a workaholic. he hated free time except for the occasional spare moment he could get in with miah, and so he never really would have had time to see her. and so he saw her on occasion when she'd be out east or something. zara was one of the few people he could not act professional around and who would understand him if he said anything more advanced than the mere mortals could comprehend. it wasn't like he spoke in scientific terms all the time, he just liked to be able to do that and to be understood while doing so. zara was one of his best friends, probably his best friend outside miah, simply because he'd known her so long.

…and she called. he'd just entered miah's room when his phone rang. it was like seven o'clock, and he was kind of surprised to hear his phone ring, and even more surprised to see "zara bishop" on his caller id. emmett knew she lived in valkyrie, and he really had planned on getting together with her eventually, but it was just hard with all the craziness going on over the past month. he answred the phone, listened to her offer, and debated it only for a second before deciding to decline. before he could reject it though, miah nosily asked who it was, he told her, and naturally she persisted to know what zara wanted, and emmett of couse told her, and then she told him he wasn't allowed to be in her hospital room anymore. "seriously, get out of my damn room emmett. i'm gonna call security and tell them you're not welcome. i disown you for the night. go hang out with your friend, you dirty man slut." a year ago he would have been appalled by her way of speech, but he was used to it now, and he knew she wasn't kidding about calling security. so he gave in and told zara yes. it wasn't that he didn't want to see her, he had just planned on hanging out with miah. however, he didn't really have much of a choice now. it couldn't be all bad though. in fact, as he allowed the idea to settle in his head he actually started to get a little excited to see her. he figured he may as well go with the flow if he was being forced into something, especially if it is something that won't be unpleasant.

…or at least he thought it wouldn't be... "unpleasant." after he left the hospital, emmett had gone to his house, showered, and changed, though it was utterly pointless. he ended up putting on an outfit which was practically and identical look alike to what he'd worn to work that morning. he really wasn't all too creative when it came to his wardrobe and daily apparel. but even though the garb he threw on wasn't much of a difference, the shower was necessary, so it wasn't a complete waste of his time. he couldn't think of much else to do, so he brushed his teeth and then left. basic hygiene was all he needed or called for. upon exiting his house, he got into his car and drove to the address zara had given him. he was supposed to meet her there at around eight-thirty, and being the punctual gentleman that he was, he planned on arriving at eight-thirty on the dot. he drove to downtown valkyrie, expecting a restaurant or something, but ended up seeing a building that didn't look like a restaurant at all. he parked his car, got out, and sauntered over to it a little suspiciously. a man at the door asked him for an i.d., which he revaled without much of a fuss. the bouncer didn't really seem to care though, and so emmett noticed he barely looked at it, if at all. he waved him through, told him not to cause any trouble, and then his wary self found it's way into something completely unexpected.

…the socially inept neurosurgeon found himself in a night club that looked all too familiar since it was similar to anything you would see in a movie. bright lights flashed about, glowing off the skin of the common folk, lighting up their eyes, egging on their promiscuous and perfunctory behaviors. he had honestly never even set foot in a place like this, and he knew that zara knew that. he didn't know if he was annoyed or actually mad. probably not the latter, considering his temper had never actually been a hot one. zara was the more... socially acceptable of them both though, and she was quite a wild card sometimes, so he really should have seen something like this coming. so the young man wandered through the club like a lost puppy, scanning the crowd for his friend. he couldn't see her though, and it worried him. what if this was the wrong place? if that were the case he felt like the biggest idiot on the planet, which was a feeling somebody could rarely accomplish to make him feel. he awkwardly made his way over to a bar. a girl popped out of nowhere and started to move her body in an erratic and demeaning way near his own. he hadn't an idea in hell what she was doing, he he brusquely pushed passed her with a curt "excuse me," and continued toward his destination. what was ths beast-like foolishness going on? it was like intercourse was being held on the dance floor. was that normal, or did he come on horndog night or something? finally arriving at the bar, he sat down on the stool. "what would you like?" the bartender called affably to him. emmett shrugged uncomfortably, "some water?" the guy nodded, "just water?" emmett looked around, "err, well, i guess so." he didn't plan on drinking, considering it wasn't really his cup of tea. now where the hell was zara? this place actually made him fear for his life.

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[zara]

VALKYRIE, CALIFORNIA, EVENING, BARE NIGHTCLUB, JANUARY 2012

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-----”i understand that the primordial ooze is still relatively thick in that chasm you call a brain but let me put this in the kind of verbatim you so narrowly reduce yourself to.” even over the phone speaking to her boss, zara couldn’t help but smirk. she did so love to defy authority and now she had the best excuse necessary to tell her dimwitted boss exactly what she thought of him. ”if he so much as looks at my ass one more time you will be slapped with a harassment lawsuit that i know your firm cannot handle. i’m a scientist. not some specimen to be groped at or ogled and if mister sarasson cannot get that through his head, it’ll be your ass on the chopping block for not doing something about it. your job as an administrator is to handle all disciplinary disputes and if you cannot do so and i have to take matters into my own hands, you will be sorry doctor grimaldi.” honestly it astonished zara how many people they would just throw doctorates at nowadays. presidents got honorary doctorates, rock stars got honorary doctorates, and apparently so did narrow minded sexist bastards. the list of the undeserving getting something they hadn’t earned was growing and it made the people who worked hard and deserved their diplomas all the angrier. how does standing up on a stage and gyrating to a cacophony of…melodious beats qualify a person for such a high honor? zara would tell you that it didn’t so fast it would make your head spin. for a child genius the one thing in this world that really didn’t make sense was just how many undeserving folk there were crawling about the surface of the planet with something they should have never received in the first place. what made models or celebrities so damn fabulous? absolutely nothing. you know what was to be admired? the ability of someone to rectify a long, daunting chemical equation or mathematical problem just by looking at a dry erase board and writing down a few numbers. you know what was amazing? the ability for someone to be able to add to a chemical compound and make a cure for cancer. that was something to be admired.

-----but genius was a burden. anyone with half a brain could tell you that. just looking at some of the primitive life forms popping up like viruses in the lower region of the united states, a person could realize that it shouldn’t surprise them that the state were producing some of the stupidest people on this side of the hemisphere. should it have surprised the politicians and people who studied mindless crap for a living that the intelligence of the population was gradually dwindling down to nothing? it shouldn’t have. china, japan, and even european countries put a kind of pride in getting an education. americans? oh they dreamed of being a celebrity or some neanderthal who was good at swinging around a bat or throwing around a ball. nothing mattered in this world nowadays unless you could do little work and make millions for it. now that was the definition of sad. it seemed like everywhere she looked people were doing anything they could in order not to push themselves. sure there had been an earthquake recently but that was no excuse. there was feeling sorry for oneself and there was laziness. what had zara done when she’d returned from a conference in berlin to see that the place she’d been staying at with her cousin had practically been demolished? she dug through the rubble, picked out the things she could find, and she checked into a hotel. what did she do the next day? she went to work. didn’t really sound like such a hard time for her because it wasn’t. she had no emotional attachment to the place she’d been staying. she’d only lived there for approximately two months and even then she wasn’t held down by material possessions. her cousin was fine. he had moved into his office and that had satisfied him. her parents hadn’t even called with concern.

-----all in all with the exception of waste buildup in the streets and some kind of illness going around, there was nothing to worry about. people really needed to just suck it up and move on with their lives. after all there were much more things to be concerned about, such as the things zara did for a living. working in a lab was dull and dreary but she got to play with chemicals, she got to solve worldwide problems, and she got paid the big bucks. see? you didn’t have to be some world renowned superstar in order to make money. go out there, get a degree, and do something useful for a change. it was better for the world and it was all around much more gratifying. this coming from a major world scientist. the funny thing was that unlike all of her primitive cohorts in the lab, she was the most human of the women that worked with her. the most ascetically pleasing as well apparently. the men she worked with had a nasty little habit of groping her ass whenever they walked by. she assumed it was because they figured she was grateful just to have a job in such a male dominated society. she was always happy to prove them wrong by accidentally spilling concentrated sulfuric acid on them or something equally poetic. of course that had only needed to happen once before most men got the point. the only one who hadn’t was hubert sarasson who liked to think her rear end was a pincushion ripe for his fingers. after the stern talking to she’d received after the sulfuric acid incident, zara had to go about things the administrative way and wait for someone to take action. after two weeks, zara was sick of waiting for action. funny thing was that she could carry a conversation like this whilst driving through valkyrie on her way to bare nightclub. see? the most human of her coworkers. would she ever lie to you?

-----she could be a devious little thing when she had the motivation to do so and after a days’ worth of harassment, zara really just wanted to hang out with someone familiar. so before her angry call to mister grimaldi, zara called up an old friend from private school. a genius similar to herself, emmett salaris, and boy was he in for a surprise. there was a reason why the only location she’d given him was a street address. she’d known that had she called him to say “hey come to a nightclub with me” that he never would have agreed to such a thing. she could just imagine the sheer terror on his face as he looked around, praying she hadn’t meant the building he was without a doubt still walking into despite his trepidation. oh the money she would have paid to see that face. she pulled into the parking lot outside of bare and noticed what she’s assumed was emmett’s car. it had been a while since she’d seen him but she would recognize his care for sure. you wouldn’t have even recognized her as a world renowned scientist until she’d opened her mouth, but in a form fitting little black dress she looked anything but like something you’d see stepping out of a major laboratory. she made it into bare with no problem. not even carded. like it would have even mattered. even from across the club she could see emmett meandering over to the bar, hiding there for solace. wouldn’t be that way for long. as she came up behind him she heard him ordering a water and she shook her head, rolling her eyes at the same time. ”screw that!” she shouted as she came around emmett’s side, motioning to the bartender. ”get this one a medori sour please. make that two.” zara looked over her shoulder at emmett as she leaned on the bar before finally standing erect and giving him a peck on the cheek. she was probably the only woman in his life who dared to do so. ”don’t be a puss. drink one real drink and then you can chug as many dasani’s as you like. besides, it tastes like candy.” she spoke up before he had a chance to berate her about her choice of venue. ”so long time no see honey. you miss me?” she said as the bartender made his way over with the two neon green concoctions. he smirked at her and she smiled back before turning to emmett. ”now pay the man then drink up. you and i are having fun tonight despite how much i know you’re against the whole concept of entertainment.”

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status • finished
words • 1515.
tagged • zemmett !
clothes • here !
notes • --.

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[emmett arturo salaris]

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…emmett arturo salaris had never been the most socially exceptional organism on the sorry planet he called his home. it wasn't a recent effect either, it had been going on since he was but a child. even in naples where he had spent the first thirteen years of his life he'd never quite been mr. popular. when he came to the united states, all he was known as was the "freaky smart kid who talked funny." it had never disturbed him personally. the supergenius boy did his work and excelled in the ranks of education, became a man and one of the youngest neurosurgeons in the history of medicine. the social aspect of humanity never really hit him, well at least not until he moved to valkyrie. everywhere he looked, in every direction he averted his eyes, people were being... well, sociable. whether i was a positive or negative behavior, he couldn't decide. but for somebody who worked with brains for a living, he was fascinated to see the different personalities he'd meet, the different dramas his patients would share with him. how would they plan things differently with the frontal lobe slightly altered? exactly where would the temporal lobe have to be operated on to cure a lack of emotion? or to cease over active emotions? and then there was always the mystery of not knowing for sure. the most unnerving part, though, was wondering why he never felt more than a whisp of emotion? not many things were enjoyable to him. was his amygdala damaged? not likely, considering he had his fears. he was scared for miah. then again, there was always that mysterious possibility that everything he'd learned and been taught wasn't a hundred percent accurate. maybe nothing was wrong with him, maybe something was, but either way he was content and functional.

…valkyrie was full of intriguing specimens to study though. from die-hard criminals to torpid whores to the intellectual miracles who are yesterday's tomorrow. they all were different and in many more ways than they would ever bother wondering about. their brains were different, processing information in entirely unique ways, the left hemisphere stronger than the right, or vice versa, or maybe just a particular lobe had more development than the others. the human mind was emmett's passion, probably the only object he felt any passion whatsoever towards. how could anybody not find it absolutely captivating? the knowledge, the whole unknown anonymity of it all. it was like a drug, he could never get enough. there was always something new to read, something remarable to discover. it was astounding how the foolish organics of his time no longer cared to discern the infinite possibilities available and waiting to be found. before the twentieth century, the race of humanity had been preocuppied with inventing new things. civilizations hurdled forward into the world, and then came the world dr. salaris lived in on this present day at this present hour. it wasn't a world of discovery or learning. it was a obsequious time period, where the mere mortals simply circumvented about what's already been invented, trying to "improve" the already well known. where had all the inspiration gone? all the people in the world who's wits still worked at full capacity? the future would never arrive at this rate, because there were few people striving for it.

…that was probably why emmett only had a few true friends. two, to be positively precise. leonardo perry, zara bishop, and himself had all been friends for years. he respected them both for their intellect and ambitions, and that was probably why he'd befriended them. not to mention, the younger one is, the more maleable their minds are, and the more possible friendships seem. he just didn't understand how the common folk of today were able to withstand their relationships, whether they be romantic or otherwise. from little kids hitting each other and making up the next second, to teenage girls and they're gruesome "stabbed me in the back" metaphor, to adults who cheated on their supposable soul mates with somebody else they'd been friends with. it really made no sense at all to the man who's sole aspiration in life was to understand. why put in so much time an effort into something that doesn't work? especially when the person is quite aware that it doesn't work? he thought about this more and more so as he sauntered through the crowds of this nightclub as discomfited as you could ever see him.

…zara knew him too well, that was the problem. it wasn't that she didn't know him at all, that she didn't know he'd loathe being thrown into this sort of situation. no, that wasn't the case at all. zara bishop knew he would hate it, that he wouldn't have come if it weren't for the fact that she'd been cunning about the arrangement. there was really no good part about this set up. emmett felt totally out of place, like he was on a different planet or something. the last time he'd felt this uncomfortable was his first day of work at the hospital when he'd met dr. mancini. but before that, well it'd been even longer, longer than he could really remember. emmett was fine when it came to his work. he was never ill at ease around his patients, around those people he'd never met before. they would open their hearts to him, and while he may have not been the most sentimental, and empathetic person in return, he was sympathetic, and he did try. they seemed to like him well enough too, otherwise he wouldn't walk in to presents and thank you cards every so often. the mos awkward part about his job was when the inhabitants of his assigned hospital room hugged him with grattitude. he'd always find himself patting their back in a non-friendly way. he didn't mean to come off uncouth or discourteous, but they must understand. it wasn't like his being shook with sunshine and rainbows and kisses. he genuinely cared for their well being though, and that was enough to get the point across. but here in the public's territory? oh, he couldn't do anything in his favor. he was positive people were staring at him.

…now whether they were staring because of his god-like goodlooks or the obvious fact that he was out of his comfort zone, the doctor didn't know. it was not as though the reason mattered or bothered him really. he was used to being stared at, it'd been a daily occurence in his life from the second he was born as the heir to a famous winery, and onward through his gifted years. what made him feel truly out of place was the fact that the entire perimeter of this place was like a sin city all on it's own. it wasn't even the interesting sort of sins that made you question the human psyche. it was the stereotypical ones, the ones of the people who just wanted to fit into a crowd, the people who actually enjoyed intoxicating their bodies and minds and rubbing against each other like suffocating fish squirming in a net on the deck of a repulsive boat. how many of these people would remember this night tomorrow? or will get into drunken rages? how many of them were going to go home together? it was all so unappealing to him, it made him sick to his stomach. he really just would rather sit in an observation deck and watch their actions than be thrown into the chaos of it all. he couldn't comprehend how zara could stand it. she was the most normal supergenius he'd ever come in contact with, and the list of supergeniuses he knew these days was pretty short. he sat at the bar quietly, ignoring the prying eyes glued on his face. his fingers drummed impatiently on the counter, and then he heard an all too familiar voice.

…she was exactly how he'd remembered her. fiery and outgoing. emmett's eyes brightened as he turned to see her, "zar-" he began, but quickly stopped and glared at his old friend, "medori sour?" he questioned skeptically. he hadn't an idea in hell what that meant. but then came a peck on the cheek and her gregarious ways. it was hard to be mad at her, especially when she was one of the only two friends on the planet you had, "if you insist, but you better not get drunk off your ass and leave me to carry you home. i'm not a saint, i could just leave you here for the mortals to feed off of," emmett grinned slightly at her remarks, "you're quite the spitfire. shocker. but no, actually, i didn't miss you at all, love." he shrugged with nonchalance, "i bet you were just dying to see me again, though." the bartender came with a drink that didn't at all look like something mother earth intended to be enveloped by the human body. emmett's jaw flexed a bit. rolling his eyes, he pulled out his wallet and tossed his debit card on the table for the man to take care of the costs. just to prove her wrong, he took the shot glass in his hand and downed it. it took a bit off effort not to gag and send it flying out of the cradle of his throat, but he managed to keep it down, shaking his head vigorously. "no fun, eh?" he rasped, raising an eyebrow. he noticed some men smirking at him and obviously eyeing zara and grimaced, "doesn't it bother you to be the trophy in a race between thick headed neanderthals? they look at you like they're hungry."

status•finished.
tagged•zemmett!
comments• ---
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[zara]

VALKYRIE, CALIFORNIA, EVENING, BARE NIGHTCLUB, JANUARY 2012

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-----there was no doubt in zara’s mind that there was in fact something wrong with emmett, he was as strange and as awkward as they came, but that was why she adored him. emmett was a constant reminder to her that there were in fact people in the world who were just like her parents. edgar and ingrid were some of the strangest humanoid life forms that could be found on the face of the planet. they were the kind of people who were together, not because they loved each other, but because they felt it would deprive the world for two such highly intelligent people to not mate and produce and equally intelligent heir. zara wasn't so sure that was all in the biology though. yes, smarts had a tenancy to be passed down from parent to child. why else was the sperm of millionaires, doctors, or sports celebrities in higher demand than that of normal folk. of course half of that merely had something to do with the sperm, not for the sake of the actual child. but there were some people out there absolutely horrified that they were promised "smart sperm" and wound up with an average child. you know why they were average? because they didn't receive the kind of stimulus necessary for the child to live up to the potential given to them through their genes. it was like going out in public and saying that there was a gene that could distinguish race. not possible. the existence of humans themselves were young and as such had not evolved into different subspecies after migrating away from africa. didn't know that? you're of african origin. even the whitest person on the face of the planet comes from a line of descendants who were hunting and tracking somewhere in the vast expanse of africa. don't believe me? look it up. but i digress.

-----zara's parents treated life like one experiment after another, not that that was a wholly bad thing. a person had to admit that when it came to smarts zara was the best young adult suited for the job. she had been raised by scientists to become a scientist and instead of focusing simply on one, she had melded them altogether into a trifecta of smarts that had since of to her aid on more than one occasion. it was nice to know everything there was about all branches of the scientific world. after all how could a biologist or a chemist really see fit to make accurate discoveries if they didn't understand every aspect of what was going on with that reaction or that group of chimpanzees. ingrid and edgar treated their daughter similarly to what they would a tribe of aboriginals or some other kind of primitive group that they were trying to teach science to, as a child at least. they had given her programs and sat down with her to invigorate her mind and to spurn her way of thinking. there was no physical contact like one would see in a "normal" home. her parents didn't shout for joy when she got an answer right, they didn't smile either. all she was ever given was a simple reinforcement followed by the next task at hand. there was no warmth there, and not that zara had really missed it, but she would have liked to know what things would have been like in a family that actually acted like a family. the bishops...they didn't do familial acts unless they had to. they sat around a dinner table and ate organic, healthy slop together but they didn't sit around a television and indulge in a shameless hour of entertainment. they didn't sit around and talk about how they felt. everything they did, her parents at least, was just some incoherent time taken away from an experiment they could be doing. ingrid had hers, edgar had his, and zara would have had her own had she not found the whole cold, unfeeling act ridiculous and sworn herself to live as an intellectual being that wasn't so far from the human population that she was thought to be alien. she wanted to be like other people. she wanted to go out and have fun and to party and to just enjoy life while it was there. when she worked she solved the problems of the world. if something really struck a nerve with her because she wasn't understanding it then she sometimes took her work home with her, but once she clocked out at the lab, she was her own woman. that was something her parents couldn't say they did.

-----it was almost laughable that someone so intelligent, stemming from a pair of individuals who were, for lack of a better word, not aesthetically pleasing, to have been gifted with the looks she'd received. had she not had the smarts, zara would have likely been gawked at in the same way which she was on a daily basis. she didn't mind it. for someone who had had the possibility of looking like...well like they said in the verbatim "a dog" she had been lucky to be gifted with good looks. fairly symmetrical features, plump lips, long, dark hair, and a metabolism to die for. she would have been golden in this world had she been born a drooling imbecile. luckily for her, zara didn't have to rely on looks to get her through life. she didn't need anything other than a lab to work in in order to make a tremendous sum of money and she could have lived forever alone and having made a massive difference in the world, but she didn't want to live that way. truthfully she was glad and wholly grateful that she had been gifted with the ability to interact with "normal people." she liked being able to smile and laugh at flirt and just have an all around good time. that was why she was here was it not? that was why she had tricked emmett into coming to the club was it not? she had wanted to have a good time and truthfully she had wanted to try to introduce emmett to this life. to anyone who didn't know him really well, emmett was a stick in the mud. to anyone looking at him for the first time who didn't know the kind of miracles he was capable of or just how smart he was, they would only see good looks with an awkwardness underneath. didn't help that emmett did his best to make himself unapproachable. well zara had bad news for him, he was going to have a good time tonight if it killed her. that was a bold statement, but one zara could easily follow through with. you see not only was she smart and good looking, but she was stubborn as a mule and she could fight emmett tooth and nail until he gave in, and he would. no one could come up against zara and win if the match was stubbornness. and zara made it look effortless as well.

-----she could see that he was happy to see her, and saw how equally quickly he wasn't. he should have expected something like this out of her. "you will drink and you will like." she said as he questioned her judgment. she smiled as he spoke. she? getting drunk off her ass? it was obvious that emmett hadn't ever been out to a club or a bar with her. "oh please, you love me and you know it. if i died you would be lost without me." she was overstating and she knew it, but she didn't care. "i could have missed you, but only if you missed me first." she smirked at him, her fingers playing over the cold glass and she spun her drink. she watched as emmett took the glass and downed the entire drink but it didn't surprise her. "yeah no fun. that's what i said." she egged him on, waving for a second drink and then downed her own. she hadn't noticed the horndogs standing around and looking at her until emmett had said something. "you know those normal folk. they gawk at things they can't have. consider me a corvette or aston martin. they can look all they like but even they know there's no chance in hell that they'll ever get anywhere near a test drive. they don't have the credit for it." car analogies. it would work for most men but emmett? she wasn't sure. "but forget about them. how's miah?" she asked as the bartender came by with round number two.

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status • finished
words • 1478.
tagged • zemmett !
clothes • here !
notes • sorry it took so long for a reply.

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[emmett arturo salaris]

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…it was nice, seeing zara again. it'd been a while, and neither of them could really help that because of the occupations they'd pursued in life. emmett wasn't so positive about zara, but he himself was always busy. always a new study to look at, a trial to consider, a patient to save, a technique to learn. miss an hour of work, miss something about a patient. miss a day of work, miss a new opportunity. miss a week of work, miss a new discovery. miss anything longer, and you're out of the game. or at least that was how emmett saw it. he'd always been a competitive one, and he just couldn't help it. he considered himself the best, or on his way to being the best. there was nobody who even compared to his skill, his natural ability in the opperating room. he wanted to work, it wasn't that he had to, but he sincerely adored it. it was the only temporal thing he really felt passionate about, and there were very few things that could get him to turn his back on his job, and since one of those things practically lived in his work place, it wasn't hard. sure, zara was basically his best friend, but she wasn't a top priority, not like miah. she was his friend, not his responsibility. he'd enjoy to have more time to separate for the friends he did have, but it just wasn't a realistic ambition for somebody like him with his personality. he didn't mean to sound like his work was more important than his friends, but in all honesty, in his mind, that was how it worked. one, miah. two, work. three, everything else.

…he wasn't unhappy with this lifestyle he'd chosen to live though. he was content with the isolationism and the loneliness. it never bothered him, never even occurred to him as something that should get under his skin. he'd always been quiet with that underlying cockiness. all that plus a brilliant mind had made him public enemy number one, or close to it, during his childhood, and even to this day sometimes when among his colleagues. it wasn't that he wanted to be unfavorable, but he just didn't care that he was. he was that kid who shined, but was quiet enough to where the teacher could mark him absent simply because she forget he was there. but he would brag and boast in his own silent way, causing the kids around him to seethe and sulk and just dislike him all together. he was still that way. at first you wouldn't catch it, but he really could be an ass. yes, he was socially awkward, but he wasn't one to allow himself to be walked all over. not the shy, nice, smart guy. he was the smart guy who knew he was better than most people, at least intellectually. and probably even morally half the time. he enjoyed being secluded from the rest of the population because he'd seen and heard the horror stories of betrayal and hurt. he witnessed it right there in his patient's hospital rooms. it was a crazy, derranged world out there, and he didn't want to be a part of it, for the most part. he was better than it, he could survive blissfully without partaking in it.

…as for the emotion of love, well, emmett didn't know much about it. he really had no belief in it, that it was just some sort of dream humanity came up with to make excuses for themselves. his mother had always worried about him as a child, and before her passing she'd expressed her fears that he wouldn't ever find somebody to take care of him. she'd often insisted that it would be zara, teased him even. she was, by all means, pleasing to look at. he knew she was what counted for attractive in the eyes of man, or at least that was what he'd percieved. his mother had talked about how pretty of a girl she was. he never agreed or denied it, it was just... words, really. but she'd been so determined, bless her heart. she'd ask him if he had feelings for her, if they should go out on a date. emmett wasn't sure what love was, but he knew certain kinds of the emotion, or so he thought. he knew what kind of love he had for his mother, his father, for miah. but the way he felt about zara, well, it was no different than the way he felt about his baby sister. that was a good way to describe it, actually: zara was like his sister. she was nothing more than a close, very close, friend, and he was sure she felt the same way. she was like a miah, only older and able to take care of herself.

…it wasn't necessary to feel awkward around his oldest true friend. and he didn't, he felt at ease, at least towardsher. the atmosphere, however? not so much. he shrugged when she spoke, grimacing, "i doubt i'll like it, but since i'm a bad friend i guess you can take charge tonight." eh, that was a lie. he really just didn't want to fight with her over it because he knew she'd win. he was stubborn, but she was even more so. he laughed mockingly when she continued speaking, rolling his eyes, "oh zara love, i'd be fine with out you, don't kid yourself." but then emmett gave in, "christ, fine, i missed you." he shrugged, acting like it was no big deal to admit it. it was true, but he was bad when it came to saying anything like that, to anybody. even his sister. the alcohol stung in his throat, making him want to drink a class of milk or water or anything, really. she pushed him on, taking her own drink with much more ease than he had, and taunting him with a second one. he thought about it, but then decided why the hell not. it was one night. so he took it, and it was a little better to swallow, but still took quite a bit of effort. zara proceeded to explain the minds of the lesser beings in the room, and emmett nodded. he wasn't a car freak, but it was terms he could comprehend. he may not be your typical guy, but he was still a guy afterall, "hm, well i think they should grow some balls and find a whore to undress with their eyes." he was talking louder than necessary, and staring at them. it was a little out of character, but that was the poison running through his body talking. it didn't take long to take affect since he wasn't a big drinker to begin with. he probably looked like a fool. and then zara asked about miah, and that immediately sobered him up a bit.

…oh, miah. what was there to say? she was fifteen years old. she had long blonde hair and silvery blue eyes. she barely looked related to him. she was too skinny and always had bags under her eyes. she was tall, but not so tall that it looked abnormal. she was negative and blunt, funny and charming, care-free and ambitious. she is fifteen years old. and she has leukemia, and it's bad. she's a good actress, but emmett was always worrying about her. the only fears she ever expresses are about losing her hair, and he already had a wig, a nice, expensive, practically identical to her natural hair, wig sitting in his home, waiting for when she needed it. she was always cold now, and in pain that she'd never express. the chemo would start soon, and she'd be throwing up and aching. he couldn't save her from any of that, he couldn't help her. his little sister had leukemia. zara was one of the few people who knew about miah's condition, that emmett's little sister had rapidly developing cancer and not a very high chance of survival over a year. she was one of the few people who even knew he had a sister, so it shouldn't surprise him when she aske him how miah was doing. it was a natural question, a logical one. she cared. but for some reason, that question always left him taken aback.

…emmett shook his head, opening his mouth, but closing it without saying anything. he didn't know what to say, exactly. "god, i don't know," he finally whispered, looking down and shaking his head. "she's not better, if that' what you mean," there was no point in sugar coating it, not around zara anyway, "it doesn't look good. they're trying though, and i guess that's the best i can hope for. she's positive about it all, she's not scared to d-" he refused to say that word, "to face it. she just wants to experience more things. i'm sure she'd like to see you soon, she'll probably be a little embarrassed after she starts losing her hair." he shrugged with a fond smile. getting all that out was usually the hardest thing, but it helped him loosen up a little with zara. he felt a little more comfortable, even with his surroundings. it was saddening though, thinking about it. he looked to the bartender, "something strong?" he asked. the guy chuckled a bit. the guy who came in just wanting water was now asking for something strong. the man brought over some florescent colored drink. emmett had no clue in hell what it was, he wasn't familiar with his drink. but he took it and downed it anyway, "and you said i wasn't fun," he grinned.

status•finished.
tagged•zemmett!
comments• sorry it took four and a half million years.
attire•yup.
credit•banner to melissa.

[zara]

VALKYRIE, CALIFORNIA, EVENING, BARE NIGHTCLUB, JANUARY 2012

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-----zara liked to consider herself somewhat of a social experiment. put an anatomically pleasing female into a family with two of the most uncaring, non-parenting figures and see what the outcome would be. zara wondered why people from other socioeconomic societies couldn’t end up like she did, but then again they weren’t likely as educated as she was. sounded snobby, but it was true. one of the main, if not the only, reason why zara hadn’t acted out and rebelled as a teenager was because she was intelligent enough to identify that her parents had had her out of obligation. two smart people would be stupid to not have a child in an attempt to pass on the smarts and bring into the world an advantageous child. it was a simple enough concept to grasp. and it was like ingrid and edgar had abused her. they didn’t just have a baby and leave it to fend for itself. of course not. they had molded and stimulated her mind to the point where at the young age when they’d weaned her away from their parenting in order to get back to their lives at around the age of ten, she’d been intuitive enough to realize that they’d given her the building blocks of life and she was the one responsible for continuing that and continuing on in her education. they weren’t like parents who were surprised with an intelligent child who hovered and watched like ants under a microscope to see what said intelligent humanoid would do next. her parents gave her to smarts then gave her the freedom to do with it what she would. it just so happened that she chose to continue on with her education. people from other socioeconomic societies didn’t necessarily have that option. a child left to itself with a father who was a drunk or a single mother who was never around because she had to work, wasn’t given the kind of building blocks as zara had received. they didn’t have the kind of education that would put them on a good path to a normal life. when they were given nothing, they turned to the people who had something as role models. those people usually wound up being thugs. men who beat on women and took charge over them, forcing them to sell their bodies to which they took most of the profit. or gangs of people who beat up those around them or sold drugs. in the lower levels of society you did what you had to in order to get on top. that meant getting money because money equaled power which equaled a better life. go figure.

-----the whole human experience in general was a strange notion. there was no other species on the planet that had developed means of dominating over one another with something so harmless as a sheet of paper with a deceased member of society printed on it. if you thought about it, the more and more you looked into the whole concept of humans, from birth to culture, to differences between cultures, etc., the more ridiculous things became. where else would you ever see frail, skinny, blond princesses regarded over women who could provide food for the family and give birth to healthy children. where else would you find paris hilton being regarded as a person of interest? in more primitive cultures, bigger, more experienced women were regarded higher over the thin and the weak of a society. in all honesty zara shouldn’t have been perceived as a gorgeous woman to whom which men flocked to because it a baser society she would have been looked down upon. but here in the states where people’s definition of culture was whether or not they had year-round passes to the local art gallery, well it really shouldn’t have surprised that zara would be considered someone worth drooling over. a pleasing and symmetrical face did not make a viable woman anywhere else but here. the most redeeming quality about emmett was the he didn’t feel the need to drool over her and that was a nice change. still, he had to admit that he missed her sharp wit, and eventually he did. ”see now was that so hard?” zara said with a cheeky smile as she watched him down the second drink. she would have to force him to clubs more often. this was amusing. ”stop paying attention to them. do you see me giving them the light of day? no. okay then.” men. most were pigs and the ones who weren’t were disgusted by the ones that were, as they rightly should be.

-----miah…she was a good kid and the most undeserving for what had happened to her. it would have been one thing to be laid up in the hospital with a broken leg or something from the quake but cancer? in someone so young it was unfair, even despite how much the scientific part of zara’s brain berated her for caring. bad part about science was you had to be indifferent. you couldn’t care about your subject otherwise you would never poke at a rat or do testing or anything like that. you couldn’t afford to care so much. bad part about being human was the innate need and ability to care. it was like two opposing forces waging war inside your head. ”you’re doing all you can emmett. i won’t make you some false promise and tell you she’ll be just fine. if she makes it out of this her whole life could be skewed. just keep her feeling human and that’s about all you can do.” it was difficult to tell a medical professional that there wasn’t much medically that could be done that he wasn’t already doing. emmett was trying but he was too invested. then again that was the whole side of family zara had missed out on. that whole caring for people because you shared a blood bond…thing. ”i’ll stop in to see her. i didn’t know how backed up the hospital was the quake and i didn’t want to take up room in a crowded hospital if i didn’t have to. but yeah i’ll go see her.” she watched as emmett struggled internally for a moment, ordering up a drink on his own accord and downing it. ”why don’t you get me a biopsy sample and i’ll see if a new pair of eyes don’t come up with anything new.” she was after all a trifecta of scientific wizardry. if there was anyone who could see something that someone staring at a sample couldn’t spot, it was her.

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status • finished
words • 1,140.
tagged • zemmett !
clothes • here !
notes • --.

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[emmett arturo salaris]

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…it wasn't that emmett was necessarily a negative person. he wasn't doomsday and death all the time. in fact, he was usually pretty positive when it came to his patients. it wasn't often that he lost them, and when he did it was usually due to some sort of uncurable dilemma that he couldn't have prevented from happening. otherwise, overconfidence played a grand part in is optimism. he was usually the doctor saying, "no sir, everything will be fine," or "no miss, your daughter is not going to die." and people typically believed him. he was cocky, yes, but emmett had a right to be. he'd always been talented with a scalpel and scopes. emmett was the guy people flew across the country to have him operate because they knew their chance of survival was higher. he was just brilliant, and worked based of instinct, instincts that were always right. those unwaverin instincts, however, were what made him so jumpy and worried when it came to his baby sister. if he was never wrong, how could he be wrong about her?

…while he may be very talented and "the glass if half full" kind of a guy when it came to medicine, emmett was very logical as well. if he had a patient that he knew didn't have much of a chance for survival, or one he knew was going to die or who would never walk again, well he didn't hold back. dr. salaris had never been the type of fellow to sugar coat the outcome of a surgery or any sort of medical situation. if somebody asked, he would do them the justice of knowing. that way they could have their chances to say goodbye and settle their dealings. if he lied and said "yes ma'm, everything will be a-okay," well, wasn't that unfair to the patient? he knew other doctors did it though. they told little white lies to keep family members from going berserk or to keep a patient interested in participating in the surgery they werer going to offer that had a ninety percent mortality rate. some people figured doctors never lied. they played god, after all, so how could they ever commit any degree of sin? well emmett knew the truth, and while the intentions behind it were good ones, he refused to have it happen to him and miah. well, maybe just him.

…the young man had made it very clear to miah's oncologist. he wanted to know everything, and the reality of everything, not the comforting "truths" they told their patients until the terminal illness sentence was. he wanted to hear it straight. because dr. john delainey is a colleague, emmett figured he meant it when he promised to tell him everything. however, despite the fact that he wanted everything black and white, he didn't mind if dr. delainey sprinkled some hope and rainbows on whatever he said in front of miah. the poor girl was already so pessimistic and blunt when it came to her demise that emmett couldn't stand to hear somebody egg her on. it drove him up the wall when she did it alone. even with the little white lies, miah always negated him by saying something like "so, i'm gonna die." when all the doctor said was "we're starting you on chemo tomorrow." she was quite the brutal minded little creature. emmett always encouraged her to knock it off. he'd tell her everything straight when it was the right time, when there was no more time, which he prayed to the divine being above that it would never happen.

…listening to zara speak was surprisingly consoling, maybe because she was the closest thing to family he had outside of miah. he shrugged as she spoke, "i'm the epitome of medically scientific brilliance, you'd think i should be able to fix her." he shook his head, "maybe you are intellectually superior to me, though i'll never admit it. but if you are, then sure, i'll get you a copy of her charts to look over. anything goes..." he raised his eyebrows, the poison settling into his system quickly. "and good, she'll be elated to see you walk through those doors, if we're lucky she might even kick out the blonde barbie doctor doll for you." it still freaked him out a bit that allegra and miah were... "friends." he looked around the club, still a little astounded that zara had ever gotten him here. it was a wonder that he still had his brain after all the erratic scandalous pranks she'd pulled on him to get him out and about after all these years.

…looking to the bartender, emmett snorted, actually feeling like letting loose a bit, "couple more shots, pal?" he said in his faded italian accent that was barely noticable anymore. he looked at zara, "why don't we get crazy," he gushed, not feeling at all himself. too much alcohol. the bartender dropped it off and emmett down everything, pushing some towards zara. he had to be drunk to go from a serious miah-talk to a lively fun guy in a matter of moments. hell, maybe he was just tipsy, but like he even knew the difference between the two. emmett jumped up from the chair, dashing out to the dance floor like a little kid hyped up post-halloween. jumping into the middle of the fray, he put both arms up, each of his hands resting on the back of his head. his hips popped in this and that direction, his teeth biting his lip with an expression on his face that was similar to somebody sucking the fluids out of a lemon. "come on, zara!" he crooned over the crowd, ignorant to the people slowly backing away, creating a little space for his unnatural dancing. he was basically just doing moves he'd seen mike meyers perform throughout his austin powers trilogies.

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status• finished.
tagged• zemmett!
comments• sorry for the megawait!
attire• yup.
credit• banner to melissa.

[zara]

VALKYRIE, CALIFORNIA, EVENING, BARE NIGHTCLUB, JANUARY 2012

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-----it was interesting just to watch emmett's mind working as they sat there talking to one another. zara knew more about just how stubborn and dedicated to his work he was and just how hard it had to be to sit there alongside his ill sister and not know how to fix the problem. zara knew all about not being able to solve problems. sometimes you were just faced with an issue that you didn't know how to overcome and it drove you nearly to the brink of insanity. at least for zara that was the case. she was the daughter of two significantly brilliant minds raised to be yet another brilliant mind and to come across and issue that couldn't be fixed was the kind of reality check she never wanted. zara liked thinking that she was superhuman. she liked being in possession of the kind of power that other people were jealous of and other people envied her for. she loved that. she loved being unique. best of all she was smart. she loved that she had a brain underneath the no doubt pleasant appeal of her attributes such as her physical features and her body. not only was she attractive in the literal sense but she was smart too and intelligence was something she greatly appreciated, oftentimes more so than looks. true people would often hear her saying something about her coworkers to the extent that they were "skinny, gutless neanderthals who couldn't identify einstein from dr. suess" but that usually only happened when she was frustrated with them or when things just went to far. she wasn't some spineless woman to be shunned, told to abandon her mind for a life behind the stove with a fetus in her uterus because that would simply never happen. she respected the men that she worked with because of their minds but she certainly didn't respect them for the way they treated her. was it something she could stand? oh of course, and her defense mechanism was to call them out for the swine they were. still the people who she depicted as such, the neanderthals, she did so because she'd worked with them long enough to see their true colors. they were nerdy, unwanted men who hid behind their brains in an attempt to have something for their own. they didn't like women because most women didn't like them and as such they acted like as the stereotypical male would when their world was "invaded" by someone they didn't understand. take zara for example. she was a walking contraction with her looks and brains. it was a combination the men she worked with pretty much couldn't comprehend.

-----still zara couldn't imagine what it was like to be forced to sit back and watch your family suffer while you couldn't find the answers. that didn't mean that she couldn't at least try to help him for miah's sake. with two such brilliant minds working together there had to be something to be done for her. zara wasn't usually one to take on more work when other experiments went unfinished but she liked that kid and she had a particular fondness for her brother too. zara wasn't attracted to him in a physical way, though that wasn't to say that he wasn't attractive from the visual perspective, but she'd known him for a significant portion of her life, way before pubescent hormones had kicked in so she’d long learned to think of him like a brother. under that same assumption is was only logical to see his sister miah as a pseudo-sister for herself. zara never had much for family so it was safe to say that when she had someone near and dear to her heart that was in trouble she’d do anything to help them out. even if she did have too much on her plate as far as work, miah meant the world to her and taking on her case from a completely investigative means was the least she could do. it was worth it. it was also near and dear to zara’s heart to do things and perform experiments that would benefit the greater good. it wasn’t just something to try to make new elements or do something else that would further scientific advances, that was all well and good, but zara liked for her work to make a difference and something like this, studying miah’s disease and attempting to find a cure was something that would not only benefit one person, but had the ability to effect many others. she did experiments all the time involving the environment with water pollution and whatnot but nothing compared to the direct effect she could have on people’s lives. it always made he feel better when she could initiate a change.

-----she wasn’t sure why but she was surprised when emmett took to pouring on the drinks himself. granted she was pleasantly surprised and she was glad he was doing this around her instead of all by his pathetic drunken lonesome, but that didn’t mean that this sudden change didn’t worry her. he had a lot pent up. he had a lot to worry about as well as a lot to handle and when you tried to do things like that on your own bad things happened. it was a shame what was happening with miah, it really was, and if she’d had a sister she was even remotely close to it would have affected her. miah, she was emmett’s entire world and to see him suffering from something that medically he couldn’t control yet? it was hard. that was part of the reason why zara was here today. it wasn’t just to get him out of the house and to get him out of his own head for a few hours. it was to be there for her best friend and to see if there was any way she could help out. apparently she had come around just in time. he looked so wound up zara feared his head might suddenly zip off his neck and go careening into the crowd of club goers. so it was nice for him to be taking a break from life and just getting away. she could support that just about as much as she could support him going out and getting laid. lord only knew how much he needed it. ”i’ll do anything to help and you know that.” she said with a smile. she looked over at him as he brought up a female doctor he worked with. well that was strange. it wasn’t very often that emmett mentioned someone at work, in fact zara couldn’t recall a single occasion in which he had. this blond barbie doll must have really gotten under his skin which was something that simply brought a smirk to her lips. maybe she didn’t need to get him laid after all. she hid her surprise at the fact that emmett was ordering more drinks. this was what the boy needed and until he was finished she was going to stick around. zara may not have many friends but she wasn’t the duck and run type to leave someone hanging, especially her boy emmett. funniest part was that emmett was already halfway there. this? this was a familiar scene for zara. she hit the clubs and the bars on a more regular basis than emmett ever would and as such her tolerance was much, much higher than his. she could already tell that his inhibitions were on the outs but at the same time she was nowhere even near a buzz. all in all that may work out better in his favor. she wouldn’t be as equally wasted when she needed to take care of him. she shot him a devilish smirk as he talked about getting crazy. ”you know it babe. bring it on!” she palmed a couple of the shots, downing one after the other. all of a sudden he was mobile. zara watched over her shoulder as emmett bolted for the dance floor, beginning to gyrate in a manner that was totally unfitting of a nightclub. still he was having fun and that was the best place to start. she chuckled as she saw her name on his lips, dipping her head to the bar for a moment and letting it hang in the air before she hefted herself off the bar stool. as she walked she could see the many eyes who’d been glaring at emmett were now staring in awe at her, something she was more used to than any person should be. she smiled, letting her hands float up in the air as she twisted this way and that, her hands intertwining before she brought them down to tousle her hair, her body swaying this was and that with the beat. ”you’re insane you know that?” she said over the blaring music but couldn’t help but smiling. at least she could say for a short while that she had watched him have fun. he’d probably be miserable tomorrow but who cared. right now she was watching him let go and let loose and that was all that matters.

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status • finished
words • 1,571.
tagged • zemmett !
clothes • here !
notes • --.

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