A Tisket, A Tasket, A Mystery Casket [closed & bendytimed]

[anwei]

The City looked like a cake that was starting to crumble around the edges; the dust of ruined buildings drifting in the streets like sand. Anwei coughed as she walked, and tried not to imagine what would happen if the City lost gravity. How many of these houses and temples and castles were being held together only by their own weight right now?

She'd been searching in a desultory fashion for a potential place to live, but so far every building that had looked promising either had no electricity or had been tagged by Maintenance for demolition. With no firm goal in mind, she let her feet steer her to Howard's warehouse. He might know what areas had electricity and which didn't, from his scavenging.

"Hello!" she called as she walked up. She didn't want to startle him. "Anyone home?"

Comments

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

He nods. In a way it's comforting to know that Anwei has that sort of perspective on things, and he has to agree - friendship is not a set of personality traits that happen to be compatible, but a shared history. Like what he has with Orc, or Zouichi, that could not be replicated without the circumstances that led to them. Or even what he has with Anwei herself.

He pauses, as if caught in the act of doing something wrong. "They must have gotten lost when the Terminators tore up the Med Bay."

It's a lie. He ate them all, once he was certain Anwei wasn't coming back. Once that sense of loss was replaced with a sense of opportunity, once his emotion was once again laid low by his self-centeredness.

"I should probably go."

[anwei]

She even has perspective on why she prefers AIs to people, sometimes: people die, and machines don't. You can't hold an AI captive, because they can just duplicate themselves. After how love had been used to beat her flat, she was determined to never let her heart be held hostage again.

"That's too bad, about the candy. I was hoping someone had found them and eaten them, rather than let them go to waste. They do tend to deteriorate, in all this humidity." She knows that he probably ate them. That's all right. If she hadn't come back, she would want him to have that last little taste of luxury from her hand.

"And I should go to chase around Engineering like a fool, looking for things. Howard, again, thank you so much for finding this!" She looks positively starry-eyed. "I hope it works, I - would so love for you to meet Horanckk."

And for Horanckk to meet Stacy. Befriend Stacy. Heal Stacy, and then...find out the truth of all things.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Hope it works too. For your sake, so you don't spend too many late nights staring at your computer screen. That's super bad for your eyes." He gives Anwei a little mock salute and disappears into the house.