Mad Giggler on :
grrr. arrrgghh
Monday, August 8. 2005Tommy Xiang
Tommy started. "I'm sorry," he said. "What did you say?"
"Are you sure you're OK, Dr. Xiang? You're acting kind of weird today." "Yeah, I'm OK. Just a little bit worried about some things that are going on at home." "Oh. Yeah, I know how that goes. Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, we just can't manage to keep the different pieces of our life from overlapping. I guess that's part of being human, isn't it? Wouldn't it be nice if we could just have a place to escape? Someplace we could go that was unaffected by everyday life?" "That would be nice." Tommy sighed. You have no idea how nice it would be, he thought. I used to have that. But now it's all unraveling. It's coming apart, and all I can do is stand and watch it come apart. "You did it again." "Sorry, did what?" "Disappeared. It's like you're going off into some distant world. You're just not yourself today." Tommy rubbed his temples. "I promise you, I won't disappear again." I won't disappear for a few hours, anyway, he thought. "I'll stay here with you. I'm sorry that I let things affect me so much." "Hey, don't worry about it. We all have days like that." Tommy entered his apartment, closed the door, and, dropping his keys leaned back against the door with a sigh. His head ached. Bending to retrieve his keys, he walked into the kitchen. Opening his agenda, he stared, unseeing, at the last unchecked items on his To Do list. He turned away from them, and sinking into the chair in front of his computer, began connecting himself to the computer. They called it "the city." Fair_Weather_Friend's fix had repaired the flaw, but, as far as Tommy knew, neither Night_Watcher nor Fair_Weather_Friend had been back to it since the night of the rescue. That was too bad. It was a masterpiece, one of the best environments that Fair_Weather had ever created. Now, he crawled through the muck along the edge of the roof of a large building that overlooked the river. Just a few feet to the corner. From there, he would have a perfect position for sniping. He inched forward, and stopped to admire the view. The river curled through the mist, a silvered grey ribbon that reflected the moonlight through its sheen of sludge. He heard a soft foot fall behind him, and rolled over, firing as he did so. How had he been so stupid? How had he gotten so lost in his reverie that he forgot to keep watch? He watched in shock as his bullets ripped through her. She didn't just disappear like the AI entities did when they were shot. She stood, there, bleeding, tottering for a moment before she tumbled backward into the muck. Tommy jumped to his feet. She was trying to speak, but he couldn't hear her. He tried desperately to stanch the bleeding, but felt her life slipping between his fingers. This had to be Fair_Weather's girl. She did exist. He had to tell them. But what would he tell them? That he had shot her? He felt her pulse fade. No, he would have to tell them that he killed her. He sobbed, and stood up. Her blood felt sticky on his hands. Trackbacks
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Mad Giggler on :
grrr. arrrgghh
Ancient Of Days on :
Interesting choice to not tell us who the other half of the conversation here is.
Do the cops know about Macon and Tommy's involvement? They don't seem nearly as worried about them as about m...err, Howell. Johnny Elbows on :
At this point, I'm not sure whether the cops know about the others or not. Even if they did, though, they probably wouldn't be too worried about it.
Tommy and Macon aren't trying to create an environment that is "free from government intervention." They have entirely different goals, and since their goals don't threaten politician's jobs, the police aren't quite so worried about them. Ancient Of Days on :
It's not clear to me from the context of the existing story how the officers know Macon and Tommy's motives.
Johnny Elbows on :
They don't know what their motives are. Their motives aren't even clear in the story yet. They do know what their motives aren't, though. From all appearances, their motives appear benign when compared to Howell's.
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