It is beyond our specific control

Instinctively we must go on, yes?

Love is the world's modus operandi

limited

Dogtown
𝔐𝔪𝔪, 𝔚𝔥𝔞𝔱 𝔥𝔞𝔳𝔢 𝔴𝔢 𝔥𝔢𝔯𝔢?

In and out, the breathing continues. Slow. Steady. What began as a simple biomon emergency activation, keeping vitals going, blood pumping to brain, evens out into a more controlled breath. The eyes still stare out into nothing. The body inert, besides the simple in and out of gentle chest compression. The left hand singed, fingers burnt, and would be blistered, if the blood had continued pumping through the extremity. But the body, save the critical path from brain to heart, remained on. Remained active. Remained... Alive?

"He's breathing, but the pulse isn't traveling through his wrist. He's got no pulse."

"Check his neck."

The press of bare fingers to the Carotid gives that steady pulse of blood to brain, the sign of all life.

𝔚𝔥𝔢𝔯𝔢 𝔞𝔪 ℑ?

The gunman who came when Gary the Plug-den proprietor fled outward from the labyrinth, abided to the protection money Gary forcefully provided them every week. There were three of them, and they looked less like Corpo hitmen and more like denizens of a punk-rock show in Dogtown.

Skuzz, the one with his hand on Felix, turned to Geezer, his elder and higher import companion.

"What, we leave him? Gaz said guy in here was trying to jack-in raw"

Geezer spat. "Boy's braindead like 4 hits of Soma to the noggin. Empty his pockets and let's look for the blond lady."

It was interesting, the way cheap aural augs take so long to reboot. But they had, and the information came in, and instead of traveling through tympanic nerve clusters to the Auditory Cortex, the augs rerouted it towards the chip.

𝔐𝔪𝔪𝔪... 𝔑𝔬𝔱 𝔳𝔢𝔯𝔶 𝔫𝔦𝔠𝔢 𝔱𝔬 𝔤𝔬 𝔱𝔥𝔯𝔬𝔲𝔤𝔥 𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔫𝔤𝔰 𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔱 𝔞𝔯𝔢𝔫'𝔱 𝔶𝔬𝔲𝔯𝔰.

The eyes on Felix blink. the lids scraping against the dehydrated sclera, almost audible in their friction.

Schoolo, the third member of the group, was already moving off down the hall, checking rooms for evidence of this blond woman Gary was so sure was here.

"Nnnnghhhh." Felix said.

"Holy shit, Gonk's still talkin'! But, it looks like your limbs are useless, friendo, so I'm gonna take the stuff outta your pockets. Not like you need 'em."

ℌ𝔬𝔴 𝔯𝔲𝔡𝔦𝔪𝔢𝔫𝔱𝔞𝔯𝔶. 𝔉𝔬𝔯 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔰𝔲𝔭𝔭𝔬𝔰𝔢𝔡 𝔪𝔞𝔰𝔱𝔢𝔯𝔰 𝔬𝔣 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔭𝔩𝔞𝔫𝔢𝔱, 𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔰 𝔢𝔩𝔢𝔠𝔱𝔯𝔬-𝔰𝔦𝔤𝔫𝔞𝔩 𝔰𝔶𝔫𝔞𝔭𝔰𝔢 𝔰𝔶𝔰𝔱𝔢𝔪 𝔦𝔰 𝔭𝔢𝔯𝔳𝔢𝔯𝔰𝔢𝔩𝔶 𝔰𝔦𝔪𝔭𝔩𝔢.

With Skuzz leaned over Felix, the distance his left hand had to go, from limp against the ground, to jamming the charred end of his data-link cable into Skuzz's neck was deceptively short.

𝔓𝔢𝔯𝔳𝔢𝔯𝔰𝔢𝔩𝔶 𝔰𝔦𝔪𝔭𝔩𝔢.

Skuzz's left hand, holding his pistol, straightens it out wide to his left, and dumps the magazine of 9mm into the torso of Geezer in an explosion of rapid gunfire.

titsi has started a new game with the following players:
titsi

" S T A R T G A M E : t r u e "{ " g a m e I d " : " 1 7 1 9 6 3 6 3 7 8 " , " p l a y e r L i s t " : [ " t i t s i " ] , " r o l l N u m b e r " : 0 , " c u r r e n t P l a y e r " : 0 , " d i c e " : { " f a c e s " : [ 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 ] , " r e r o l l " : [ t r u e , t r u e , t r u e , t r u e , t r u e ] } , " s c o r e 0 " : { " 1 " : n u l l , " 2 " : n u l l , " 3 " : n u l l , " 4 " : n u l l , " 5 " : n u l l , " 6 " : n u l l , " p l a y e r " : n u l l , " u p _ t o t a l " : n u l l , " b o n u s " : n u l l , " 3 k " : n u l l , " 4 k " : n u l l , " s s " : n u l l , " l s " : n u l l , " f h " : n u l l , " y a h _ t o k e n " : n u l l , " y " : n u l l , " c " : n u l l , " y a h _ b o n u s " : 0 , " b o t _ t o t a l " : n u l l , " g _ t o t a l " : n u l l } , " o w n e r " : " t i t s i " , " s t a t u s " : " r e a d y " , " r o u n d " : 0 , " l a s t P o s t " : 1 7 1 9 6 3 6 3 7 8 }

~

Apartment
"Yeah, mom said you were—j-just… you know how moms can be. Cringy as fuck."

A shrug preceded a glance around the place, given the knee-high perspective of a toddler. Wow, electrical sockets were really just at eye level, no wonder they had to be childproofed.

Her phone came sliding back, gently, across the carpet. Baked goods, which twitched her lips as she tried not to betray the fact that it was adorable just the way your sensibilities were aligned.

"Were you always into baking, or did you start that during lockdown like a bunch of other people — including Julie — did?" Still, it was your apartment and whatever smells you wanted. She opened another app, and threw some items to be delivered next-day, sliding the phone back your way as a secondary, parallel conversation on devices.

She had the dumbest things in the basket already, for you to add to. Scented candles and kitchenware. The rare Domestic Holly, at least peeking in from the periphery, shyly from around the corner.

"Alright. It might not be outta reach, but it might ask that you make some sacrifices. If I were Elodie, the most important thing is that my sense of stability is broken. That my understanding of your motivations and decision-making betrayed me. I'd have a hard time building confidence in you again. If I were Elodie…" Holly settled back on her palms after she slid that phone over, her posture broadcasting calm even if she were opining over existential issues for them all.

"…I'd have a hard time grasping this new adventure of yours, or why you decided to embark on it. And that's curving the important part of feeling like you betrayed me, right? I don't have a solution for that one, that's deep within her — buried like a fragmenting bullet. I can't speak on that. But… well maybe she'll want to know why, and if there's space for her, and if that space is something she can be happy with."

It was an… Optimistic viewpoint, but they weren't about to nix anything based on odds.

"Allies, you'll find them at Sodom. It's primarily a gay male club, but they welcome allyship of all sorts. Might be a bit of a strong move if you're not ready to come out as Enby, yet, but you can back-pocket it. My friend V is full of great advice, though. I can put you in touch. Oh speaking of which, did you reach out to Lilly Thorpe?"

Yes, she was speaking a mile a minute. Holly, encouraged into solution-seeking, will just go like a cruise missile until you tell her to stop.

"…Brix, I can't make promises. Like I said, he's… we're… I-I mean the thing is—"

…

Holly grew a little quiet — not perturbed, not curling inward on herself like you may. She simply sat laboring over the self-edit a few times.

"Communication is an effort. I'm working on it."

walks into the bar with some free time

Is where or when to concede...

The only consideration to contemplate here...

Getting a rum and coke and sitting down

There is no individuality in this.

I say... we all need love.

To each their own they say...

Definition

Sensuality is a dearly shared experience....

Sexuality is an individually set measure

The combined profound nature they share...

damn those are nice images