//------------------------------//
// The Slacker - Lime Gaze 
// Story: Spectre Squad: Ghosts of the Past 
// by NPP6 
//------------------------------//

CLOUDSDALE
THREE MONTHS AGO
Lime Gaze was wandering aimlessly. While this was an apt metaphor for his life, he was also literally wandering aimlessly through the streets of Cloudsdale. 
He didn’t really feel like going home right now. Not with what he knew was waiting for him. He had just lost job number twenty-seven, this one with the weather factory. Same story as all the others, they didn’t feel like he was putting enough effort in. He couldn’t fault them; it was difficult for him to get excited about something so… mundane.
And so two weeks’ pay was in his saddlebags, along with a letter talking about how the factory didn’t feel they were meeting his needs. He supposed he’d better start looking for job twenty-eight, but… honestly he just didn’t want to.
The script was tired by this point. He would go home, tell his parents. Dad would roll his eyes and lock himself in his office. Mom would give him the same lecture on responsibility and diligence and setting a better example for Crescent Moon, citing every last favor she had to call in to help him get this job. He would search for a day or two, then Mom would hand him another job application, already filled out, along with a list of every favor she’d called in for this one.
He was sick of it.
He wouldn’t say anything – he had tried on round four, he really didn’t want to see that pained look on his mother’s face again. He couldn’t go anywhere, he didn’t have the bits for an apartment. He was getting a reputation too, along with being the only blank-flank adult in Cloudsdale, he couldn’t hold down a job longer than two months, despite his parents’ social status.
They weren’t even wealthy enough for him to be an irresponsible playcolt.
His wanderings had taken him into an older part of town, relatively close to the flight school. He remembered the place, taking a seat on a park bench he replayed memories of it, the last time he was truly happy with his life. He watched the park’s empty playground in the moonlight for a while before a newspaper blew into his face. He peeled it off with some effort, snorting when he noticed that it was the “Help Wanted” section.
He tossed it into the wind, shaking his head. Somepony upstairs had a twisted sense of humor, sending him a – he spun around, trying to get the paper back. Too late, the breeze had carried it away. Darn, I would have just loved to see the look on Mom’s face when I told her I got a new job before she even found out I lost the old one.
He was about to turn and leave when he noticed that one building still had its lights on. Including the spotlighting on a poster in the window, as old as the rest of the neighborhood.
“I Want You.”
It wasn’t quite “Help Wanted,” but it was close enough.



“Name?”
“Lime Gaze.”
“Age?”
“Twenty-one.”
Date of birth, parents, medical history, address…
“Emergency contact?
“My brother, Crescent Moon. Same address.”
“Coat color?”
“Blue-grey.”
“Mane?”
“Red and purple.”
“Tail?”
“Same.”
“Eyes?”
“Dichromatic. Left green, right yellow.”
“Cutie Mark?”
“None.”
“Special Talent?”
“None.”