poly_chromatic | ♦ ♦ 12th Contract

~~A breach in the City's barrier?~~

[ He's noticed this population-influx in past Network entries. Tourists. Some leave with the weekend, taking Citizens with them. Others stay behind -- semi-replacements. A law of equivalent exchange -- something gained for something lost? ]

[ He doesn't know. ]

[ He's caught between observing the phenomenon up-close, or retreating Underground. But parsing his separate threads of choice, he decides to stay Topside. To, for once, maximize instead of satisfice. There might be familiar faces. There might be outsiders with answers. He wants to learn more about the City. He wants out. ]

[ And solving any problem is predicated on understanding it completely. ]

It's really crowded today, isn't it? [ Li sits in a bustling little caff, enjoying breakfast. He slices into the strawberries with a fork. The juice runs out, dark-red, like blood. He smiles at his device -- calculated, a perfect mix of innocence and sweetness. ] It almost reminds me of rush-hour in Tokyo. But hopefully there's no need for train-tetris or pushmen. It's sort of a Fact Of Life back home. But not everyone here would enjoy that, would they? [ He skates the strawberry around with his fork. Bites into it neatly. ] I wonder how many of these visitors have been here before...?

[OOC: Gimme all the trolling! Gimme! Just please avoid spilling his real identity over the Network :3 ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ 'Li's own is open and friendly, full of interest. ]

Really?

Can you count how many times?

It gets hard to keep track. Four? Five? Not counting living here.

You've lived here?

For how long?

Fuck, I dunno. Not too long, and it was... years ago. Everyone from then's gone.

Gone? [ Oh. His voice drops. ] That must be sort of lonely.

But the bright is, you're only stuck here for the weekend. Right?

That's life. And death, apparently.

[There's something like a short, humorless laugh.]

Yeah, right. Then it's back to being dead.

You're dead? [ Ouch. ] I'm sorry to hear that. [ Tentatively, ] Does this feel like an intrusion? Like the City's interrupting your rest?

It happens. [Death, that is. He pulls out one of the cigarettes he managed to bum off a local and lights up.] You know that saying, "No rest for the wicked"? City's not interrupting anything. These things are like smoke breaks.

Would you, um, classify yourself as wicked?

Well, yeah. Maybe not on purpose, but the good guys don't kill people, right?

[ He pauses. It's a statement that resonates too close to home. But his tone is perfectly modulated. ]

That depends on your definition of good.

Everyone has different circumstances they have to adapt to.

Whatever. Hell's hell no matter how you get there.

Hell?

[ He misses the cold comfort of atheism. ]

W-Was what you did really so bad?

Eventually. Don't believe in it?

I don't know what I did, but I figure hell's what I deserve either way.

Not really. It's too black-&-white a concept for me.

...Why would you think that? Especially if you're not sure what you did?

It's as real as anything. I've been there. Maybe I'm still there.

Being crazy's not a get-out-of-hell-free card.

Is it ...really as bad as they say?

What kind of crazy are we talking about? An off-my-meds type? An I-plead-temporary-insanity type?

Dunno. Who's they and what're they saying about it?

[paaause]

More a I-don't-know-what-the-fuck-happened-because-there're-two-realities-now type. Not that it matters. I ended up dead in both of them.

I'm, um, not sure. Sometimes I wonder if they know anything about Anything At All.

[ Because? They don't. ]

That's rough. [ Not the saddest story he's heard. But definitely the stranger ones. ] I guess this visit's more of a reprieve, then. Not much of one. But you take what you can get, right?

They don't... they just like saying they do.

Yeah, beggars and choosers and shit. It's a good excuse to get wasted.

♦ ♦ 12th Contract

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

Re: voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;