How could IIII make a workerrrrrr out of YOUUUUUU

[lazygurl]

Man...Karina wanted something cool, like fashion model or one of those guys you see standing still like in downtown New Orleans. Or a mattress tester. Not what she basically did back home. Though part of it was automated, so that was better. Sort of.

Unfortunately, their mindsets were still backwards. Like when Karina suggested they work to empower consumers in order to do everything themselves? Shot down. Nonetheless, She took a job at the checkout isle, given that she couldn't (or wouldn't) do much heavy lifting. There was much pouting as she scanned their groceries. Silent, parenthetical pouting. They even had a computerized option where people could scan their own items, but nope! Her bosses stressed the importance of customer service and how people liked interacting with other people, and would it kill you to smile at people instead of snore, and some other stuff she didn't really listen to.

Naturally, they wouldn't have put in a position at the job fair if they weren't understaffed, so people were using her aisle. A lot. Or at least, some of them were, until the hecklers let them off that the only reason her line is so short is because she takes so long. Karina is, of course, happy to direct them to the automated option should they find her customer service less than satisfying.

If one more rube puts a dang watermelon on the belt, she is sooooo trying her luck again. Tomorrow. After a nap. Maybe.

Comments

[mouth_breather]

"Uh..." Wow, she looked so hopeful. What a strange girl. "It's a little hard, being on this side of the counter, you know? But I'll tell you what, how about I hand them to you?"

There was something to be said about the value of teamwork, right?

[lazygurl]

Yeah, how about you make her do her job. What an idea. *sigh* Begrudgingly, she dragged the things across the counter, scanning the barcodes one by one. Apparently, it wasn't meant to be. Might as well prolong it as long as she could with conversation.

"Yeah, teamwork (I hate half of that word). So...what brings you here?"

[mouth_breather]

"Oh, well..." He passed her a loaf of bread. "It's been a while since I've had a chance to eat anything that didn't come from a replicator." A package of lunch meat followed. "Not sure if you're familiar with those or not." It was hard to tell. Her clothing was unusual, but it wasn't exactly archaic, and she did seem to be working a cash register with little difficulty.

[lazygurl]

Karina's ears were always attentive to the thought of new technology. She wasn't what one would call scholarly, but she did know that tech was all about saving time on menial tasks, something which interested her greatly.

"Replicator..." Karina browsed her mental dictionary to guess what that meant without putting forth the effort of asking. "So like...could I put myself in there, and then another Karina would come out, and then I could make her do your groceries while I stayed home and slept in? (it sounds too good to be true)"

[mouth_breather]

"Ah, you're probably thinking of something more like a cloning machine, but it's a good guess," Jim chuckled. "It's a recycling system most ships are equipped with in order to manage long voyages in space. Matter molecules are rearranged to create food and drink for the crew. You tell the machine what you want to eat, and it makes a copy of it. It's pretty close to the real thing." But there was always something just...'off' about it. Not bad, but it just didn't seem quite real.

[lazygurl]

He made her work, then laughed at her crushed dreams. There was but one thing left to salvage. Karina didn't really expect Juane to make her cook, given that she was good at making only rice balls and nothing. But even so, taking the labor out of the kitchen sounded nice.

"You don't happen to have a spare, do you?"

[mouth_breather]

"It's not really portable," Jim smiled, finishing up the last of his groceries and moving to pay for it with his credits. "But they might have something similar in Nova City. The stuff they have there is more in line with the technology I'm familiar with."

[lazygurl]

That does it. Karina swipes the card from his hands and into the reader, finishing the transaction without ceremony. With barely restrained frustration, she says "Thanks you for shopping here. Have a nice day."

Then she folds her arms and buries her head in them. Just once she'd like to meet a magician or a space man who could actually make life easier. But no...