Thursday May 23rd - 3 h 30 PM

If Clark spends his days in Vil de Ville, archives library and one of the most impressives monuments ever created in Atmos, Jano chooses the route of sedentarism, working from home on his computer, harmed with a comfortable office in a secured room in the basement to chill while his housemate confronts this troubled world outside all by himself (what a chad). Clark deals in books, fossils, documents and archives (no way!) of all sorts. Jano tends to stay out of that business. Ignorance is bliss.

Every day is the same routine for Jano LeGrand. Get up; Prepare food; Wake Clark up in many o’ creative manners; Work; Physical training; work some more; dinner; watching one of his favorite TV shows in the same room as his office instead of the living room because Clark’s taste buds for fiction has apparently been dipped in acid and he wants nothing to do with what Jano enjoys; Repeat. No matter how many times you loop your favorite song, at some point you’ll really enjoy a different kind of banger. The same tune has been on the radio for over five months now.

If there’s one thing to not skip however, it’s definitely training. Every day for at least 30 minutes, no breaks, no pauses, no soundtrack, just the sound of his own voice that exhales all of the day’s stress. Jano is an avid martial arts practitioner, especially karaté. He’s learned it since being young and to even up ‘till now he puts all his heart into each session. A small gym has been installed in the basement, soundproofed and geared with high-tech workout machines. The gym is what tipped Clark to rent a room in the house. At the end of the training room resides a wood mannequin with wood blocks glued and screwed to the base at random. A martial arts school classic, Jano received it as a gift about four months ago from an anonymous source… who somehow found out about the address. The owner of the house has mysterious tendencies, never showing his face or making his identity traceable. Clark probably could figure that out, but that would need getting to know this guy on a deeper level then breaking his door like an asshole when he refuses to wake up (Jano has a stack of unused doors and doorknobs in his office by the way, just to clear that up). Jano uses this mannequin to high effeciency regardless. He’s quick, agile, supple and dedicated. That trance-like dedication gets haltered when Jano hears the ring bell.

“Ah, the infamous Clark Deschaines has returned!”

Jano walks up the stairs with a forced smile on his face and opens the door. Clark looks devestatingly bored.

“Good morning, Mister Clark! You came back earlier today!”

“To my upmost chagrin…” expresses the bald man, fatigued out of his mind. “There were little clients today and Geneviève took the rest of my worktime. More money lined up in her pockets I guess.”

“Woah that’s sweet! She seems kinda nice!”

“Figured that one out before you did.”

“... And you two aren’t going out because…?”

Clark grimaces. This is not the first time Jano sneaks in a snarky comment about Geneviève towards him and his current status as a bachelor. Clark has zero desire to keep this conversation going.

“I don’t date other employees. End of discussions.”

Silence.

Jano is socially inept when it comes to not making a joke.

“Uh huh… In that case, I'ma finish training. Call me if anything happens!”

“You already forgot about your stupid books?”

Jano stops himself from running away from the conversation, stars in his eyes. The effervescent joy that pours out of him annoys Clark to no end.

“Jano don’t say shit and just take them”, orders Clark while gifting him Jano the Adventurer volume four, five and twelve.

“They look stunning! How did you know I also needed five and twelve!?”

“L-Look, don’t ask dumb questions will ya. I had to deal with a case of mutants as well today so I’m not in the mood.

As Clark predicted before coming here, a switched flipped off somewhere as soon as his housemate hears the word mutations. If the librairian is invested into the transformations, Jano actively chooses to escape media that feeds any narrative about the mutants. He refuses to consume anything regarding Atmos politics for that matter. Clark knows Jano was born in a rural town past the Troposville barriers. All these stories of disappearances, normal citizens turning into powerful monsters without consent, innocent bystanders from their city caught in political crossfirings from other sectors of the country. Jano refuses all of these news, period. His capacity to remain as least informed as possible is impressive, but far from a quality for the black man looking for payback. Clark is even disgusted by Jano’s attitude, dramatic in his pursuit of ignorance, to the point of doing a 180 degree turn with books in hand and stating “Good for you and good luck dealing with that!”. Jano is desperate in his denial. Clark is this close to talking about how he wants him to grow a pair and get into politics. Something always seems in the way of that discussion. How convenient. 

It will mark the sixth month Clarks lives here by the start of June. These two barely know anything about each other, and Clark isn’t tempted to learn about his housemate. Jano is apolitical, distant from society, and acts like a clown with a makeup filled with hypocrisy. His supercilious customer-service like attitude, a smile and good mood attached as if people pleasing was a sickness with physically observable symptoms. It’s a lie, designed so Clark leaves him out of important societal confrontations. And Clark will gladly stay out of harm’s way.

6 h 25 PM

With the way their relationship has been handled you could imagine Clark’s surprise when this dude Jano LeGrand started, about a month ago, this bizarre tradition (in the sense that Jano clearly wishes it to be a tradition) of having a “Every-Two-Thursdays-Amazing-Dinner” (ETTAD for short). The dynamic is simple: Jano decided out of the blue he wants to know more about his dramatic housemate and Clark has so far refused to adapt to the change. The last two editions were short bursts of awkward silence, with the only noise accompanying the affair being their mouths masticating their food. This time, Jano puts on some acid jazz in the background, to Clark’s displeasure. He’s more of a heavy metal kind of guy. Other than their usual “good morning” and “you piss me off” kind of conversations, work related stuff and an aspiration or two being mentioned, Clark has remained apathetic to Jano’s ETTAD. Tonight however, Clark has a lot more on his mind.

The stunning, emerald-colored haired gal he briefly saw appeared like a beautiful butterfly and stung his heart like a bee. Love seems to be the question on the man’s mind at the moment. Jano just turned 21. He’s been working for about a year in this easy web design gig. Meanwhile, Clark, 24 years old, has been working for eight years, switching from multiple jobs until he landed five years ago at Vil de Ville out of request from Tayla McKenzie, specialising as a librarian. They are not in the same mindset professionally.

While eating his spicy fettuccine alfredo, the black man looks at his younger housemate with what seems like one subject they never brought to the table after six months of living together.

“Jano, you’ve been asking a lot about Geneviève recently. What does peak your interest about her? You’ve never met her.”

Jano replies by looking directly at his housemate, a decent portion of his dish in his mouth, cream dripping out while he looks surprised. He finishes his bite before answering as honestly as he can.

“Well…you showed me pictures of her, and on top of that, you talked a lot about her, enough that I think if we meet she’d probably be my type. Also, after five months, she’s the ONLY coworker you talk about to me. The rest of the time, you end up storming to your room and debating about stuff that’s not that appealing to me”.

It must be fatigue, but Jano’s honesty punches where Clark least expected. He welcomes this version where the mask is poorly attached and is about to fall off his face. 

“And that only means you and I are different. I want serious discussions, I want to talk about the state of this country and of Troposville as a city, and all your shenanigans are not appealing to me either.”

Jano sighs at the remark. Playing the nice guy drains him to no end.

“That’s also why when you keep bringing up me and Geneviève it’s annoying. If you actually find her attractive, that’s fair, but I don’t need to be reminded of someone I’m not interested romantically”, continues the young black man.

“Really Clark? C’mon, there’s gotta be a balance somewhere”.

“Start by practicing what you preach. I don’t need a guy who doesn’t have a girlfriend telling about not having a girlfriend.”

“You don’t know that.”

“... Wait you do !?”, yells Clark in disbelief.

“See, that’s what the ETTAD is for! We get to learn so much about each other! Also nah got you, I’m single”, retaliates the youngster while laughing his ass off.

“Alright, somebody’s a comedian out here.”

“I’m just joking around, fool. Your face is priceless though. Anyways, enough about me. If it’s not Geneviève you’re thirsting over, then who it could be?”

“I’m not thirsty over anybody, asshole…”

If Clark is the more intellectual mind between the two, Jano can spot a white lie from a mile away. Talking about the new woman sounds like an emotional chore he would work on with anyone but Jano. Alex is probably a guy Clark could trust more with his feelings, but his housemate has been consistent in his levels of annoying. He’s second-guessing about never inviting Jano directly to Vil de Ville.

Clark simply goes back to take a bite of his fettuccine Alfredo with this stern look on his face. When he looks back at Jano, he almost chokes on his meal.

Jano holds a small yellow note stuck to the back of the fifth volume of Jano the Adventurer. It reads: “Objective - Talking to the sweet princess of my dreams, Riana”.

“Pretty sure the adventurer doesn’t meet any Riana, especially not on Volume 5”, discerns the young Jano with a smirk printed on his face. Clark is raspberry-red. He forgot to get rid of the loving evidence before coming back.

“You can’t play hide and seek with your feelings, mister Clark. We’ll wanna discuss politics and dark triad times in Atmos, but we’ll actively keep under wraps an active love life?”

Sporting this victorious smile, Jano let’s Clark snatch away the paper at lightning speed.

“Don’t get too excited over this, you nosy punk!” shouts Clark, a mixture of anger and embarrassment running all over his consciousness.

“Listen, you got a new person to talk to me about: Full name, age, profession, all that jazz. Does she like jazz?”

“I HOPE NOT! and no I didn’t ask any of those questions, because I, hum… I don’t approach women at work.”

There’s a silence. Jano went from snoopy to disappointed. Clark can see the mask is finally off, and for once he’d like it back on Jano’s baffled expression.

“Dude, you look like you we’re sculpted out of a rock formation 10 000 years ago. People talked about historical figures that had the same physique as you. You’re dressed well, your suave, you got great skills at a librarian. So either you’re a gentleman, or you… gotta work on your game?”

“I don’t need to work on no games, Jano! She’s a client! We don’t seduce clients for crying out loud!”

“There’s always a good way to approach all this. I’m sure you can handle it!”

Jano is oddly encouraging here. Usually he’s pretending to be happy while slamming his housemate’s door. In retrospect, other then the trifecta of Geneviève Alex and Tayla, Clark believes he receives very little compliments outside of work, especially advances from women. He sometimes feels unlovable by the opposite gender. It’s something he’s been wrestling with since being a child. So when a fellow man shows support, Clark can’t help but try and pin point reasons to disprove trust against that individual and tries to distance himself by putting on his own facade. The message is fair. It’s the messenger Clark is worried about.

“Well, thanks…”, responds the black man with chill tone to his voice.

“Still, under any circumstances, do NOT call her a princess”.

The facade snaps in half.

“And why the hell would I do that!? She’s honest to God the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met in my whole life! Let me guess, Grandpa Jano the adventurer out here’s got some great seduction skills with women despite being single right? You pick up artist weirdo!”

Jano doesn’t smile anymore.

Clark’s huffin’ and puffin’ like he let a massive amount of frustration out of his chest.

“I mean, I do got some tips and tricks, not the pick up variety, but… At least conversation starters”.

Nonchalant. When Jano is not out here pretending to be this go lucky clown, he’s laid back and non threatening. ETTAD’s purpose is paying off, as Clark quietly switches from fuming his heart out to being cautious, yet curious.

“... You do?”, the black man simply asks.