by Arghast 5th May 2018, 7:03 am
His plan to get here early was not, it seemed, entirely an original one. Laid out on the docks in front of him was a snaking queue of agitated and impatient people.
Arghast joined the queue as soon as he could discern where it currently ended, loathe to wait until the queue was any bigger before thinking his way through it.
It helped his cause that he was glowering whilst he searched for the end of this serpentine line of people as some of the more easily cowed citizens shuffled around him in order to keep their distance. This resulted in him unintentionally skipping a good quarter of the queue before taking up his position in brooding silence.
As the queue moved slowly on the people around him autonomously shuffling forwards, Arghast found himself caught in the jostling flow, the people packed so closely to him to make room for the ever expanding queue behind them that Arghast could feel and.... Smell how warm everyone had become.
Though he resisted the temptation to check he was sure that he himself was starting to produce something other than a sweet smell.
Before he could evaluate his options Arghast needed to find out how long the queue had been going before had joined it. Steeling himself he reached out and tapped the shoulder of the man in front of him. 'Excuse me sir could you tell me how long you have been waiting already?'
The man turned round and turned a steely glare upon Arghast, flexing his muscles menacingly he sneered 'Buzz off, ya wait as long as ya haff to'
Taken aback by this Arghast remained silent shocked that someone would answer so callously. Still sneering the man turned back to his friends who had begun to laugh. The group were obviously tough guy bullies, all dressed in leathers and chains with various hair styles ranging from completely bald to moulded hair spikes of varying numbers and heights. The man who had originally spoken to Arghast was completely bald with various chain piercings.
Undaunted Arghast tried again perhaps they would respect persistence?
'Aw what now I told ya already wait as long as ya haff to, or do we need to move ya to the back?' Baldy took a step towards Arghast clenching his fists.
'This is not how this conversation was supposed to go, now what?' Arghast thought hurriedly to himself not wanting to cause a scene or do anything that may inflame the situation.
'Look I don't want trouble I was just asking a question'
This didn't seem to help the situation at all as the rest of Baldy's gang seemed ready to back up their leader. Luckily the queue had begun to move again with shouts of 'They opened another one!' heralding a split in the queue as presumably another office had been opened to deal with the slowly lengthening queue.
Arghast managed to duck into the other queue before a fight erupted.
'Thank the Swarm they opened up a new office booth, a fight would have seen me hauled out of here with that one and I would have been back to square one for a passport'.
The queue took most of the rest of the day to dwindle until finally he was at the front.
A bored looking man in a blue shirt and jacket with a tie the colour of ketchup looked up at him and handed him a form.
'Full this out please and I can issue you your passport.' He told Arghast who could clearly see that this man would rather be elsewhere.
Nodding he did so as quickly as he could manage.
Finally after what seemed like an age Arghast had a passport! The world could open up to him! However for now Arghast was tired and left the docks pleased with what he had accomplished.
Word count: 781/500
