I believe that I am in Hell,

[Justin isn't a fan of talking out loud when typing will do, but this is video for a reason. That reason is a thin orange tabby who is curled up quite happily in Justin's lap, sound asleep and purring.

Does this cat belong to anyone? I hu--I... I mean, I found her. On my way home from work. Please message me if she's yours.

[The video feed ends, but Justin keeps talking in a rather melancholy monotone.]

This curse--many of the curses--are harmless, but no one in the City should become too... compliant. It's tempting to become accustomed to curses, to--to death. In a place where death is seldom more than a temporary and upsetting setback, we shouldn't be careless. We shouldn't assume that, if we die, we'll come back.

Not everyone comes back, not every time. Death can be permanent, even here. Some of you know that--maybe you've heard, or maybe you've been here long enough to see someone die and not return--but if you don't, keep it in mind. Be careful. Don't take unnecessary risks during curses or... or take the life that you have for granted. Even if you're dead within the City, you still have this existence; don't treat it lightly.

[There's a breath as if he's getting ready to say something else, but he evidently thinks better of it and ends the feed.]

( [Filtered to Police / Unhackable] )

( [Private / 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]