I believe that I am in Hell,

[Justin doesn't bother making a post. Neil has already articulated his thoughts on the door, and anyone who wants to find him will know that he's either at the Police Station or in Xanadu. (He would spend more time in the apartment, but the thought that Neil and Todd might end up separated if the door works is more distressing when he's around them.)

He has a bouquet of pink orchids with him. Homegrown, of course, and intended for one very specific visitor, if she comes. She has to come. If the door works, this might be his last chance to see her.

It might be his last chance to see anyone. Justin is, as usual, not optimistic about the outcome of the experiment with the door. At best, everyone with somewhere to be will leave. At worst--well, he's torn between worst-cast scenarios. Either the City could be destroyed and take everyone with it or the Anonymous Movement could force everyone out. (Okay, the first is worst, but the outcomes are equally distasteful. He would lose the only people he cares about either way.) Such lines of thought make Justin even broodier than usual, which is a significant achievement.

Maybe, for once, the worst won't happen.]


[COMMENTS]

What do you believe happens to the dead once they leave the City?

I won't contest religious beliefs.


[Flagged to Dean // Open to Police Force Members and Affiliates]
I'd like to request a few days off, assuming no one else gets murdered. Please.

[COMMENTS]

( Police Filter // Unhackable )

As anyone who has been watching the network likely knows, there has been another murder. If you're going to be out, please be cautious, stay alert, and try not to walk alone.

I'm alive again today. It's too soon for this to be another curse.

( Filtered to Euphie, Neil, and Todd // Unhackable )


[COMMENTS]

I hope that everyone has had time to recover from their experiences in the desert.

That was a strange curse, and strangely anticlimactic. I don't know what I was expecting, but it's worrisome--the sudden split, the apparent lack of control that the deities had over the event (but their amount of control has been brought into question before now), the abrupt disappearance of the desert. The City has an inherent instability to it. I understand that. I wish I understood something beyond that.

Someone--Rosella?--mentioned an hourglass. It seems like sand has always been making random appearances in the City (as far as I can remember) and everything seems to revolve around time: the Clock always (or almost always) ticks, the twelve apartment complexes are arranged around the center of the City like numbers on a clock face, most curses last twenty-four hours, other curses are so regular that they could be marked on a calender.

Sand and time. Did the hourglass get turned upside-down? Is there any significance to the fact that one City was sand and the other was glass when glass can be made from sand? How much control do the deities have and how much power do the other beings that we've seen before have? How much power do we have?

Not that it matters. The City exists whether or not we're here, whether or not we remember, and whether or not we care enough to worry about what it is and what its purpose is. Maybe the City isn't a sentient thing or a twisted experiment; maybe it's a world like any other where individuals don't mean anything. Maybe the Clock would keep ticking if we all vanished (if a clock works in a universe where no one can hear it, does it make a sound?). Right now, I'm inclined to think of us as grains of sand in relation to the City as a whole.

( Filtered to Neil and Todd // Unhackable )

( Private // Off Network )

[ooc: The triumphant return of mopey tl;dr that no one can read!]


[COMMENTS]