The day after James tricked me, someone tried to get me to socialize with my ‘team members,’ but after cursory introductions I asked for their academic work to be sent to my digipad and then left them alone. None of them chased after me or tried to contact me afterwards. I then spend several days wandering the Ninurta Dynamics corp town, carefully figuring out how far I can walk before my collar starts beeping to…
Far Off Unhappy Things – Solitary Reaper Chapter 13: The Gray April is the cruellest month, breedingLilacs out of the dead land, mixingMemory and desire, stirringDull roots with spring rain.Winter kept us warm, coveringEarth in forgetful snow, feedingA little life with dried tubers. – T. S. Elliot It had taken Achlys a while to put Desdemona back together. She’d wiped most of her clean, but her shape- her outline- had survived the fight. Unfamiliar with…
We ride to New Canterbury on a Ninurta Dynamics heavy train. From the looks of it we’re heading northwest, which finally gives me a bearing on my position. Massive clouds from the ammonia factories billow over the land, cloaking this marshy area in a chemical haze. I look out the window, and wonder if there’s other stalkers out there, in the mist. “You’re going to like your team,” James says. “It’s very diverse. We’ve got…
I’m used to sleeping in strange places. My stalker body can wake up well rested after five hours of sleep. But I can’t find sleep in my cell. Every time I close my eyes I am afraid I will wake up restrained to a bed while strangers plan to cut me apart. I should not be afraid of dying. If I die, all that will be lost are the memories of this place. In that…
“She’s waking up.” “First strike, unprofessional conduct. Antropomorphization.” “It seems to be waking up.” Faces in surgical masks hovered above me. I try to struggle, but my muscles barely respond. What little movement I managed to produce does nothing to affect the restraints holding me down. “They are generally resistant to anesthesia, but should remain sedated enough to perform the exploratory surgery on without trouble. You can always give it another dose if it really…
Far Off Unhappy Things – Boys and Girls of the Reflective Age Chapter 12: Revolutionary Experiments Morana RosemaryHeaven restores you in lifeYou’re coming with meThrough the aging, the fearing, the strifeIt’s the smiling on the packageIt’s the faces in the sand – William Wordsworth From the balconies on the second and third floors of the Amsterdam branch of the Kerberos Society you had a perfect view of the national opera and ballet house, Sam thought…
Far Off Unhappy Things – Solitary Reaper Chapter 11: Luna How oft, when thou, my music, music play’st,Upon that blessed wood whose motion soundsWith thy sweet fingers, when thou gently sway’stThe wiry concord that mine ear confounds,Do I envy those jacks that nimble leapTo kiss the tender inward of thy hand,Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest reap,At the wood’s boldness by thee blushing stand!To be so tickled, they would change their stateAnd situation…
Far Off Unhappy Things – Boys and Girls of the Reflective Age Chapter 10: The Folded World Mirror, mirror on the wallTrue hope lies beyond the seaYou’re a damned witch, can’t you seeThe winds will changeTomorrow bears insanity – James Hogg Fleur stared into the mirror unblinking, carefully applying her makeup and face-paint. Black splotches evoking a moth covered a face she had painted almost perfectly white. Carefully she added accents with red and yellow…
Far Off Unhappy Things – Solitary Reaper Chapter 9: Hyacinth What are the roots that clutch, what branches growOut of this stony rubbish? Son of man,You cannot say, or guess, for you know onlyA heap of broken images, where the sun beats,And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,And the dry stone no sound of water. OnlyThere is shadow under this red rock,(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),And I…
“Far Off Unhappy Things” By “Far Off Unhappy Things” So that those things which have been shall all be againUnder the same bank in the same landA sudden glare of sunlight on the same spring dayShall bring the same daffodil to bloom once moreThe same child shall pick itAnd not regretted shall be the billion years that fell betweenThe same old faces shall be seen again, yet not bereaved of their familiar hauntsAnd you and…