Archive of Our Own ^beta

ENDURANCE – You try to -- very professionally -- look at the corpse, but your stomach contracts. You manage to keep it in once...

ENDURANCE – The second time -- not so much. When the vomiting is done your cheeks are wet with tears.

1. "I think I don't wanna be a cop anymore..."
2. Spit and say nothing.

YOU – "I think I don't wanna be a cop anymore..."

KIM KITSURAGI – "Get a hold of yourself." You feel the lieutenant pat your back, rhythmically.

KIM KITSURAGI – "I've seen strong men turn themselves inside out for hours. You're facing tough odds here. Alcohol withdrawal makes it considerably harder."

1. "Why can't I keep it in if I've been a cop my whole life?"
2. "This is *bullshit*. I don't wanna do this anymore. I don't wanna be a cop."
3. "Can't we do something else? I think I want to solve something else now."
4. "Do it without me. I just can't keep it down."

YOU – "This is *bullshit*. I don't wanna do this anymore. I don't wanna be a cop."

KIM KITSURAGI – "Okay. You've said it. You needed to say it, and now that you have..." He withdraws his hand from your back and looks you in the eye:

KIM KITSURAGI – "You need to get your shit together."

1. "Okay."
2. (Shake your head.) "No."
3. "But I don't wanna get my shit together!"
4. "But my shit already *is* together!"

YOU – "But I don't wanna get my shit together!"

KIM KITSURAGI – "Then the world will turn away from you, and leave you behind."

INLAND EMPIRE – Potential gathers upon the streets of Martinaise. Moss upon statues. Dust upon photo frames. Ash, upon a playground. The debris of strangers, devoid of context, insists no obligation. But you can do the right thing. *Easily.* You cannot get the right thing *wrong.* Gather what has gathered so naturally already. Continue the cycle.

1. (Continue picking up tare.)
2. [Conceptualisation - Trivial 6] (Do.. something.. else?)

YOU – (Continue picking up tare.)

THE STREETS OF MARTINAISE – The shadows are getting longer. In each sliver of shade: cement-grit, intangible evidence of the sun having moved, and, most importantly, *tare.* Tangible, tangible tare.

MOTOR CARRIAGE – The body of a motor carriage gleams in the afternoon sun, its chassis crouched low upon the curb. Beneath it: shadow. The thinnest realm of the greatest possibilities.

1. (Kneel and point your flashlight beneath the motor carriage.)
2. "Kim, could you check under there for me? I want to see if there's garbage, and I have the knees of a man my age."
3. [Authority - Impossible 20] (Keep walking. You don't need it.)

YOU – (Kneel and point your flashlight beneath the motor carriage.)

PAIN THRESHOLD – Cartilage does not meet concrete as an equal. Your knees would scream, were they allowed protest. This is a war of attrition, and you are the last remaining troop on the side of tyranny. Withdraw.

1. *Attrition?* It's been three seconds. (Get that tare!)
2. (Give up.)

YOU – *Attrition?* It's been three seconds. (Get that tare!)

ENDURANCE – This is a fight you have been losing for a very, long, time.

KIM KITSURAGI – "Officer, your trousers.. please, get up."

MOTOR CARRIAGE – Once the bottle is safely in your hand, you do.

KIM KITSURAGI – His eyes linger on your knees. "Perhaps we should find less.. troublesome sources of tare. For your.. collecting."

DRAMA – For your *quest.* Collection has a too subjective end, but this! Oh! *This!* Yes.. THIS! PRESENTLY!

1. [Volition - Formidable 13] "I'm starting to think this is about more than the tare."
2. "It's okay."
3. "I'm not really thinking about it, it's like, raw animal instinct."

YOU – "It's okay."

DRAMA – Quotidian, sire. Nary a twitch of flourish within. Rest assured, given your dullardly delivery, it must INDEED be okay. Why, TROUBLESOME is what gets one moving! Trouble keeps us spry!

SPINAL CORD – And if you stop moving, I don't know what will happen after that. Sorry.

YOU – "It's okay."

KIM KITSURAGI – He blinks at you. "You... said that."

EMPATHY [Medium: Success] – He's worried you'll start repeating yourself again. In fairness, you were only stating a fact: Mr. Evrart is helping you find your gun.

LOGIC – Mr. Evrart *is* helping you find your gun.

THE STREETS OF MARTINAISE – The shadows are getting longer. The darkness is the stain of the sun – it was *there.* Within, cement-grit, ground smooth by your shuffling feet. You pass an array of benches, littered with papers and plastics. Upon the furthest is a bundle of clothes, with a head of hair atop.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) – A body.

EMPATHY [Easy: Success] – A person.

KIM KITSURAGI – "Ah." He strides over to the nearest bench.

THE STREETS OF MARTINAISE – The corner of a newspaper flaps desperately in the breeze, trapped beneath a small, cardboard burger box. You 'follow' Kim, as dirt 'follows' the breeze.

KIM KITSURAGI – He picks up the burger box, tucking it beneath one arm, then, he plucks up the newspaper. Beneath: a plastic bottle.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY – A *cider* bottle. There's still some wet on the rim and pooling on the curvy bottom..

TARE BAG – It's tare. Tare, dropped amongst the rest by the grace of Kim's hand.

KIM KITSURAGI – He folds the newspaper up, tucks it into one of the gaps in the bench, where it sags, flaccid. "Let's go," he mutters.

REACTION SPEED [Medium: Success] – You may never see whoever-that-is again.

1. "If you say so." (Continue.)
2. "Shouldn't we ask whoever-that-is if they've, like.. seen.. stuff?"

YOU – "Shouldn't we ask whoever-that-is if they've, like.. seen.. stuff?"

EMPATHY [Easy: Success] – They have.

KIM KITSURAGI – Kim's eyes slide over to 'whoever-that-is', then back to you. He shakes his head. "No." After a few steps, he turns. With a flick of his wrist, the burger box sails into the garbage can, quick and quiet as breath.

SAVOIR FAIRE – Man. That was *cool.*

INLAND EMPIRE – The shadows have always been this long. Ever since you woke, the shadows have always been this long, and you have always sifted through detritus. There is no evidence to suggest your life has not been this way since birth.

LOGIC – There *might be,* but you're avoiding thinking about your life altogether.

TARE BAG – Instead, you are thinking about what is right in front of you. Within your grasp. Another bottle to save from its lonesome life on the cement.

THE TINY, GRATEFUL BOTTLE – It hovers tentatively above the rest, *grasped*. The label tells you, "I once held orange juice." The size tells you, "I was made to be held by a more innocent hand than yours."

INLAND EMPIRE [Heroic: Success]– The sun gleaming on its curvature asks you, "did they hold me? Were they satisfied?"

1. "Dunno. I've got you now, though!" (Put it in the tare bag.)
2. "Shh, shh. You're going to be with your family. *Don't you wanna know about the strangers like you?*" (Put it in the tare bag.)
3. "You were definitely *squeezed*." (Put it in the tare bag.)
4. "I need a drink." (Put it in the bin.)

YOU – "You were definitely *squeezed*." (Put it in the tare bag.)

THE TINY BOTTLE – The bottle is too small to make a sound as it falls amongst the others. And is incapable of hearing you, or appreciating wordplay.

KIM KITSURAGI – Kim, who is probably capable of both, says nothing.

TARE BAG – If you picked the bottle out and dropped it in again, he might notice, and say something? Or.. if you rattled the bag around?

KIM KITSURAGI – "So. What is this for, exactly?"

DRAMA – Aha! He cannot fool us! He DID notice! And now intends to measure the length of the quest you undertake. You, sire, are Sir Pellinore, and he is.. one of the many adjacent knights! SELECT WHICH, SIRE, FOR THERE ARE MANY! Or, bless him with an answer. Either shall determine --

AUTHORITY [Easy: Success] – The level of exasperation with which he endures these antics. Nothing more.

1. Why *am* I doing this?
2. No, seriously, there must be a why. A good one. Right?

YOU – Why *am* I doing this?

SHIVERS [Easy: Success] – A man picks up his husband's comb in a house where the wallpaper has never peeled. “Where does this live?” he calls. The answer will come, and the brush will be so placed. Against their double-glazed windows, the wind finds no purchase. All across the city, hands return objects to their rightful places.

1. Guess I'm just built different.
2. Right! Yes. This is a moral endeavour, this is *mercy.* Why put trash in its "rightful place", when it could go to a *better place?*
3. *Ohhhh.* So I should just chuck this into the bin.

YOU – Right! Yes. This is a moral endeavour, this is *mercy.* Why put trash in its "rightful place", when it could go to a *better place?*

TRASH, CONCEPTUALLY – Sure. Like the various spots of a dorm room that only a guy above average height could reach. That's the best end an empty bottle could dream of: joining the colonnade in the temple of reckless indulgence. Veneration incoming. In the eyes of The Lads, you'll be divinely ordained as the emperor of excess. The coolest guy in school. The Big-Dick Shit King.

1. Well, no, more like what environmental activists do, obviously.
2. Well, no, more like *art*. Sculptures made of tampons, that kind of thing.
3. Well, no, more like what being a cop is all about!
4. Well, no, more like.. what a cool, normal person does. One with friends. Wait, yeah! Like the Big-Dick Shit King!

YOU – Well, no, more like.. what a cool, normal person does. One with friends. Wait, yeah! Like the Big-Dick Shit King!

TRASH, CONCEPTUALLY – Yes, your highness.

DRAMA – YES, KING! However bountiful your rattling plastic demense, sire, your subjects are lacking: Kim cannot be The Lads, for he is only one Lad. We must gather *more.*

ONE OF THE INNUMERABLE FACTS OF LIFE WHICH LACK INHERENT MEANING – You have no Lads. No roommates. No spouse. You do not know Kim, or yourself, or the body-person on the bench. No warm body cares a fig for where your things go, or how you're doing.

ONE OF THE INNUMERABLE FACTS OF LIFE WHICH LACK INHERENT MEANING – Kim asked you a question which you have not answered, and he does not seem to be bothered by your silence. He doesn’t seem to care about what you're doing. He only asked you *why.*

VOLITION – You’ve been silent for too long already. Focus on that which reassures, or go mad. You are turning trash into something better.

AUTHORITY – No friend, subject, or spouse-adjacent entity is needed to validate that. Your actions serve an ontological good:

INTERFACING [Heroic: Success] – The machine at Frittte. It beeps. The sign upon it did not say so, but you recognised it to be the type of machine that, firstly, will do exactly as the sign said: return money per bottle deposited; and secondly, will beep.

INTERFACING – One bottle, one beep, ten centims. Several bottles? Who knows? Maybe a number on the screen: your bottles times ten. The honesty and trust between input and output. The machine asks for one thing. Answer, and the response will mean *exactly what it says it does.* Ten centims per bottle deposited.

CONCEPTUALISATION – Regardless of how soiled your hands are. An altar to the one true faith. A font of mercy, passed over by the ignorant. You are a prophet.

RHETORIC [Medium: Success] – Why stop at prophet? Why stop at king? What if you innovated? Created your OWN faith, free of the shackles of reason? Something self-sustaining, so you never had to pretend "cops" or "kings" meant anything, ever again! What if you could do worthless things, insist they have value, and receive money in return?!

ESPRIT DE CORPS [Easy: Success] – Somewhere in Precinct 41, an officer is doing actual police work. Statistically speaking, paperwork.

KIM KITSURAGI – Meanwhile, here, a Precinct 57 officer watches as you slip away, eyes glazing. The consciousness that answers to whatever address he gives it is tumbling inward as he watches.

HALF LIGHT – He's letting you sink. He's betraying you.

KIM KITSURAGI – He tucks his hands into his pockets, and flicks his eyes from yours to the tare bag, and back. A silent, "well?"

VOLITION [Challenging: Success] – Resurface.

1. "The *why* is.. look, this is a good thing. I wouldn't do this if it wasn't."
2. (Ignore him. Continue.)

YOU – "The *why* is.. look, this is a good thing. I wouldn't do this if it wasn't."

KIM KITSURAGI – He begins to nod.

THE SILENCE – The continuing is because he's waiting for the next part. But there's nothing. The bag cannot speak for you. What do you have to say for yourself?

HALF LIGHT [Godly: Success] – Betrayals, all.

KIM KITSURAGI – The nodding slows, then stops. It's possible any agreement stops with it.

INLAND EMPIRE – The silence, having grown teeth, is silenced too. Busy chewing at the air between you both. The chance for comedic timing now lays somewhere in the digestive tract of existence.

1. Stare.
2. Stare wordlessly.
3. Stare wordlessly, but like, flutter your eyelashes a bit. Lighten the mood.

YOU – Stare.

KIM KITSURAGI – Sunlight gleams off his glasses.

REACTION SPEED [Easy: Success] – What was that?

EMPATHY  – The moment he realised this is getting serious.

DRAMA  – "This" cannot *get* anything you do not *give,* sire! Don't give THIS shit!

SAVOIR FAIRE  – Get this shit un-serioused. Shine it up - conversational alchemy like you're a magician, Hazza. Get sexy with it.

1. "This makes me feel like a functional human being who drinks eight glasses of water a day, knows what it means to be a man, or a father, and whether those are the same thing."
2. "You wouldn't understand this. You're not thinking big picture."
3. "Oh, this? I'm just cleanin' up the streets." (Wink.)
4. "Civilians respect a man of the people, Kim. When they see policemen, lowering themselves to such humble work, they’ll be inspired to talk to us."
5. (Ignore him. Continue staring.)

YOU – "Oh, this? I'm just cleanin' up the streets." (Wink.)

KIM KITSURAGI – "Ah. If that is the goal, then.. removing a dead body from a tree would be a significant milestone, no?" He smiles.

PERCEPTION (HEARING) [Formidable: Success] – A tone that usually carries, "grandpa, it's time for bed."

1. [Composure - Godly 17] "Oh, gosh, right! The *body!*" (Resist vomiting into the tare bag, and head off.)
2. "This makes me feel like a functional human being who drinks eight glasses of water a day, knows what it means to be a man, or a father, and whether those are the same thing."
3. "You wouldn't understand this. You're not thinking big picture."
4. "Oh, this? I'm just cleanin' up the streets." (Wink.)
5. "Civilians respect a man of the people, Kim. When they see policemen, lowering themselves to such humble work, they’ll be inspired to talk to us."
6. [Authority - Medium 10] (Ignore him.)

YOU – "Civilians respect a man of the people, Kim. When they see policemen, lowering themselves to such humble work, they’ll be inspired to talk to us."

KIM KITSURAGI – He raises an eyebrow. His nostrils twitch.

HALF LIGHT [Heroic: Success] – Revulsion, at the stench of the bullshit, spewed from your mouth.

DRAMA – But what magnanimous and magnificent bullshit, sire! Regal bullshit, well-befitting a not-policeman of your station!

KIM KITSURAGI – "I am the only one that has seen you doing this."

DRAMA – The *true* policeman speaks true! Indeed, indeed: what matters more -- the deed, or word of it? 'Tis but a few whispers of difference betwixt a lord who is known to gather tare and one who does. Let us declare it done, and move on!

1. "Trust me, Kim."
2. "Right you are! You're the only one who'll see me kill myself, by the way, how you feel about that one? Feeling good, huh? Feel like a big man?"
3. "Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you."

YOU – "Trust me, Kim."

HALF LIGHT – He won't. 

KIM KITSURAGI – He exhales. A warm puff dissolved frostily into the air. "I will trust there is a reason for this."

EMPATHY [Easy: Success] – He won't.

TASK GAINED: Earn Kim's trust, even just a little bit.

1. (Nod vigorously.)
2. "Fuck you. I should've said that earlier."
3. [Pain Threshold - Heroic 15] (Run. Run as far as your pathetic little knees will take you.)

YOU – (Nod vigorously.)

INTERFACING [Legendary: Success] – Each human body is a perpetual motion machine? Yours is of the same make and model: yes and yes. A job *well done.* Yes, yes.

SAVOIR FAIRE – Down it goes! Then up again! Dazzling is Du Bois' display of confidence in his joints! In this, he's never failed! He falls? No matter, for he! Has! Risen!

KIM KITSURAGI – "That's.. quite enough, Detective. Thank you." 

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT [Medium: Success] – Lucky you, you stopped. AND your head remains on your neck. The bad news, buckaroo: you remain inside it.

KIM KITSURAGI – Kim looks relieved.

AUTHORITY – Do not relieve yourself, in any sense. Brace. Tense, prepare. Then put yourself out there.

1. Like shitting?
2. Like breathing?
3. Like dating?
4. Like you-know-what?

YOU – Like shitting?

AUTHORITY – Like *getting shit done.* To complete shit, one must *create* shit. Think about it.

1. I'd rather put the fecal imagery behind me. (Continue picking up tare.)
2. [Conceptualisation - Challenging 12] (Think about shit, in a.. meaningful way.)
3. [Drama - Trivial 6] (Think about shit like the Big-Dick Shit King you are.)

YOU – (Think about shit, in a.. meaningful way.)

CONCEPTUALISATION [Challenging: Success] – Shit, man.

SHIT, MAN – Overeating is the picturesque ideal of gluttony. Unless one considers: within the bowels will occur a process. A magnificent process requires a magnificient amount of fuel. Sin all you like, Harry Du Bois, then *shit it out.* You will be clean, and perfect, and you'll have something to *show* for it.

1. I'd rather put the fecal imagery behind me. (Stop thinking about shit. Continue picking up tare.)
2. [Drama - Trivial 6] (Think about shit like the Big-Dick Shit King you are.)

YOU – (Think about shit like the Big-Dick Shit King you are.)

DRAMA [Trivial: Failure] -- Let us not dwell on vulgarities, sire. Whatever this 'shit' is, you are *above* it.

LOGIC [Medium: Success] – You're not the Big-Dick Shit King.

DRAMA – No, no, you are! You are! IT'S *HUGE,* SIRE!

LOGIC – If it were *huge,* someone would have remarked on it during the hour in which you wore no pants. You are an emotionally impoverished human being with no knowledge of what numbers are associated with your manhood, or your bank balance.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Easy: Success] – The *average* length varies on the region, but it's not entirely relevant to your partner's enjoyment, so long as you listen to them and know what you're doing. Historically, you don't.

1. But I want to be something important. (Continue picking up tare.)
2. But.. I *want* to be the Big-Dick Shit King. (Continue picking up tare.)
3. But my bank balance could be four reáls and ten centrims, at *least!* (Continue picking up tare.)[]

YOU – But I want to be something important. (Continue picking up tare.)

AUTHORITY – You can be. You can be where shit *gets together.* Kim told you to get your shit together. You heard his tone. Sounded important, right? Shit getting together *is important.*

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Medium: Success] – Without a colon, you'd die. Whether it was removed or you were just born without one, both are.. pretty fatal. Without medical intervention, that is.

AUTHORITY – See?

1. Sure. I'm a colon. (Stop picking up tare.)
2. I meant important as in, *cared for and not considered gross.* (Continue picking up tare.)

YOU – I meant important as in, *cared for and not considered gross.* (Continue picking up tare.)

AUTHORITY – Ah. Then you're a lung, beneath the caress of the stethoscope. Breathing in air, and breathing out carbon dioxide. The 'shit' of the air. The waste.

INLAND EMPIRE [Godly: Success] – A drowned lung. Giving up, and going home, to the water of the womb. Keep breathlessly digging through the garbage. Garbage is a painless inertia.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Challenging: Success] – A collapsed lung reduces your chance of surviving the next 10 years by 30%. Alcoholism does not reduce your chance of surviving the next 10 years by 100%. 'Harry Du Bois' is not a fatal wound upon a body so lovingly made.

ONE OF THE INNUMERABLE FACTS OF LIFE WHICH LACK INHERENT MEANING – You don't know if your parents loved you, or eachother while making you. Or if there's a God. Your parents named you Harry, and nobody calls you The Big-Dick Shit King. You cannot be a lung, because you are a human being, which you continue to deny. Whether you "will be alright", or "have been better", you're presently neither.

ONE OF THE INNUMERABLE FACTS OF LIFE WHICH LACK INHERENT MEANING – What you are is this: walking in circles, pretending you can't stop. A person fed up with you to an extreme point - such as leaving your life forever - might say, "look at yourself, Harry." And you can't do that either.

THE STREETS OF MARTINAISE – Your feet move over the damp pavement with the unsteady grace of a man recently hoisted up from falling on his face.

ONE OF THE INNUMERABLE FACTS OF LIFE WHICH LACK INHERENT MEANING – You know why that is.

KIM KITSURAGI – "Detective. I am concerned that you're not.." He pauses.

EMPATHY [Formidable: Success] – Not due to being at a loss for words. Too many words would fit there.

KIM KITSURAGI – "I am concerned you're not alright."

1. (Ignore him. He's getting in the way.)
2. "I think you should do the case alone. I am a garbage man and need to be with my garbage."
3. (Reassure him you're perfectly aware of whether you're alright or not, and that he can trust you.)
4. (Shrug coolly.) "What a week, huh?"
5. "Oh, you. I'm so alright. All right, like, fascistically speaking. I've been feeling a lot better since I attributed this misery to my Societal Masculinity."

SAVOIR FAIRE – The toss of your shoulder is real casual. Proper casual. Oxymorons are your bitch.

YOU – "What a week, huh?"

KIM KITSURAGI – "Detective, it's Wednesday."

1. (Ignore him. He's getting in the way.)
2. "I think you should do the case alone. I am a garbage man and need to be with my garbage."
3. (Reassure him you're perfectly aware of whether you're alright or not, and that he can trust you.)
4. (Shrug coolly.) "What a week, huh?"
5. "Oh, you. I'm so alright. All right, like, fascistically speaking. I've been feeling a lot better since I attributed this misery to my Societal Masculinity."

YOU – (Reassure him you're perfectly aware of whether you're alright or not, and that he can trust you.)

COMPOSURE – You approach him, just as casually as you'd shrugged, and tip your chin down. You look up into his eyes, sans The Expression. This is a new expression. One that can stop whenever it wants to. One Kim can trust.

YOU – "Kim. Kim, Kim, Kim."

KIM KITSURAGI – "Detective."

EMPATHY [Trivial: Success] – Is he worried you'll start repeating yourself again? *Again?*

COMPOSURE – You smile. It's a good smile. It's a smile that says, "I'm not going to cry, and you can't make me."

COMPOSURE – You're killing it today, slugger.

COMPOSURE – You slap your hand down on Kim's shoulder, like the comrade you are.

YOU – "Kim." "I don't remember a lot of my life. Who does, right? But trust me. This? This is its lowest point."

KIM KITSURAGI – "Oh." His brows raise.

LIMBIC SYSTEM – Your hand casually slips from Kim's shoulder, and you casually turn back to squint at the street until your eyes strain. Matter settled. Whatever you are, you're not alright.

SUGGESTION – What's left?

VOLITION [Challenging: Success] – Continuing. Sometimes moving forward, even on broken knees, is the only victory we can claim. It doesn't matter how many times you fall. It matters that you get back up. Why it matters, or who it matters to, is less clear. But it matters. Vapour particles in the fog of sentiments such as "feelings are valid", and you are "real" -- it "matters" that you are "standing on your own two feet".

KIM KITSURAGI – "Well... it is five in the evening. How long do you intend to do this?"

1. "Just until I get my bearings."
2. "Evening? Ha! Afternoon, my good man! Five in the afternoon! There's a whole third of the day left! We can squeeze in solving a murder, easy!"

YOU – "Just until I get my bearings."

INLAND EMPIRE [Trivial: Success] – What is applicable to magnets is not applicable to man. Your guiding point is the same as the most ancient of explorers and the newest of humans: that which shines brightest. Abandon hope of a true north, and believe this alone: nobody cares where trash *ends.* Not even you.

KIM KITSURAGI – "Could I take a moment to check on my motor carriage? I wouldn't be long."

1. "Without me?"
2. "Do you hate me? No reason."
3. "Sure! When you come back, you're gonna be like, woah, I barely recognise you. Your shit's so together."

YOU – "Sure! When you come back, you're gonna be like, woah, I barely recognise you. Your shit's so together."

KIM KITSURAGI – He blinks.

DRAMA – Oh, this situation calls for mimicry! Few do. But this does. Mime the vomiting from earlier, sire, jog his memory!

REACTION SPEED [Easy: Success] – No need. He just got it. Do not do that.

KIM KITSURAGI – "Ah." Recognition slides over him as naturally as other people's glasses slide off their nose.

SAVOIR FAIRE – (Not his, though.)

KIM KITSURAGI – "Getting your shit together, yes. That.. would be good."

KIM KITSURAGI – He nods his head, once, puts his hands in his pockets, and turns on one heel.

SAVOIR FAIRE – This guy is so cool. Not "superstar" cool. No, no. This guy is "executive producer with a ton of money and zero allegations" kind of cool.

KIM KITSURAGI – "I'll see you at Frittte," he calls.

THE STREETS OF MARTINAISE – You are alone.

ONE OF THE INNUMERABLE FACTS OF LIFE WHICH LACK INHERENT MEANING – Kim left you alone with yourself.

TASK COMPLETED?: Earn Kim's trust, even just a little bit.

1. WHOO! I'M JUST AS FINE AS I'VE ALWAYS BEEN!
2. Oh, Kim trusting me didn't make me feel good.
3. He's supposed to trust me in a "take a bullet for me" kind of way. (Reverse the completion, question mark.)

YOU – Oh, Kim trusting me didn't make me feel good.

ONE OF THE INNUMERABLE FACTS OF LIFE WHICH LACK INHERENT MEANING – Nothing can *make* you feel anything. You make yourself feel things.

VOLITION – Kim trusts you to do what it is in your nature to do: walk in circles, pick up garbage, and long for the beep of the machine at Frittte. Is that a trust you want?

1. Well, yeah, because it's Kim's.
2. Well. HA! Well. WELL!

YOU – Well, yeah, because it's Kim's.

ESPRIT DE CORPS [Easy: Success] – But you could earn his trust another way. As many possibilities as exist in the universe, you have that many avenues of earning Kim's trust. In some of them, it will *feel earned.*

1. Oh, yeah. I totally could. (Continue picking up tare.)
2. I'm kind of in the middle of something, here. (Continue picking up tare.)

YOU – Oh, yeah. I totally could.

ONE OF THE INNUMERABLE FACTS OF LIFE WHICH LACK INHERENT MEANING – You totally could.

1. Oh, yeah. I totally could. (Continue picking up tare.)
2. I'm kind of in the middle of something, here. (Continue picking up tare.)

YOU – I'm kind of in the middle of something, here. (Continue picking up tare.)

GARBAGE CAN – Yes. You know exactly where you are. Because this garbage can has a bottom. You're probably near the end of ALL this nonsense, because who says you'll even find more garbage?

LOGIC – You've still got time to get your shit together before Kim finds you. It will take thirty minutes.

ONE OF THE INNUMERABLE FACTS OF LIFE WHICH LACK INHERENT MEANING - You've spent longer than that putting it off.

1. Oh, yeah. I totally could. (Continue picking up tare.)
2. I'm kind of in the middle of something, here. (Continue picking up tare.)
3. (Continue picking up tare.)

YOU – (Continue picking up tare.)

HALF LIGHT [Godly: Success] - You are hiding from yourself inside the garbage can. You accept the idea that you are something which once had a use, that is now wasted. You will not accept that you are a coward. You are not living. You are fleeing, on repeat.

1. (Continue.)

YOU – (Continue.)

FRITTTE – Kim and you stand outside Frittte. The sign on the door reads, "CLOSED."

INLAND EMPIRE [Medium: Success] – Many flip such signs, before going home, and moving through a routine, which reminds every cell in their body: the day is done. Dimmed lights. A fluffed pillow. Cleansing water trickled across their face. The world, flipped to soft, cool darkness. If they are lucky, their dreams hold no fear of the morning.

FRITTTE – You, stood outside Frittte, decide nothing but what the foggy, wet shapes on the sign mean. Who knows what Kim is deciding.

1. (Wrestle Kim's gun off his belt.)
2. [Composure - Medium 10] "Oh, they closed early."
3. [Composure -Impossible 20] (Leave.)

Composure [Impossible: Failure] – Look at what you did.

1. (Wrestle Kim's gun off his belt.)
2. [Composure - Medium 10] "Oh, they closed early."

Composure [Medium: Success] – Words are just wet shapes in your mouth. They don't need to mean anything.

YOU – "Oh, they closed early."

KIM KITSURAGI – The lieutenant sighs. "It would appear so."

TARE BAG – In your hands rests restlessness, clattering, rattling. Tunesome as a cheap jingle. An advertisement: Desperate Men, In Your Area.

TARE BAG – The anthem of the bottom-feeders.

COMPOSURE [Formidable: Success] – Your hands are shaking. That's all it is. You can stop whenever you want.

KIM KITSURAGI – "We should return in the morning."

FRITTTE – Below the sign on the door, which reads, "CLOSED," there is a smaller sign, which reads: "you should return in the morning."

A VARIETY OF TIMES, BLURRED BY YOUR WET-EYED GAZE – Pretty much, anyway.

INLAND EMPIRE [Heroic: Success] – Upon the putrid carcass of reality gathers the maggots of consensus, feasting on what once seemed immutable. You could wake up tomorrow and the world decided to turn its clocks forward three hours, "screw-your-hopes-and-dreams" savings time could be an unspoken social norm rotted away in your hindbrain, alongside so many others.

INLAND EMPIRE –Who says Frittte will ever open again? That the sun will rise? That sand will fall from an hourglass? When someone promises something is "just a matter of time", is that any guarantee at all?

RHETORIC – Good thing we're building communism.

1. Right on?
2. Wait, but I'm the Big-Dick Shit King. How can I be a communist?

YOU – Wait, but I'm the Big-Dick Shit King. How can I be a communist?

DRAMA – You are a FIRST among EQUALS, sire!

RHETORIC – Sort of. Look: within "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need", there's wiggle room.

RHETORIC – Words that pretend they're fencing out any wiggle room are: *'working hours.'* Those black squiggles on that sign are no more than accomplices to the phrase, "too much free time on their hands". That sign is an attempt to determine when HARD-WORKING MEN are allowed to redeem the shit-heap of their labour for a few clinks at the bottom of a machine.

RHETORIC – That sign is trying to say, "between These Hours, it's unacceptable to clink coins against the bar in return for sweet oblivion. Spend your shift looking forward to that, instead."

RHETORIC – That’s what the Man doesn’t want you to know: the big sleep starts with a pint after work.

KIM KITSURAGI – The lieutenant clears his throat. “So. You intended to exchange it at the machine.”

EMPATHY [Medium: Success] – Said like a man who knew all along you intended to exchange it at the machine. A man that considers such a thing to be beneath you, for some reason.

LOGIC – Because he is that man.

AUTHORITY – You should be that man. Or get as close as you can. The lieutenant's got a cool head first, and a cop’s head second, and he uses them both *at the same time.* He’s even got more in him; he's not just a cop and a cool guy. Kim Kitsuragi is everything about Kim Kitsuragi, all at once.

He's a lot more than, ‘not alright’ and ‘coming back tomorrow’.

1. I don’t want to be any of that. I want a handful of shiny coins.
2. He’s got one head. It’s on his shoulders. You can't trick me!
3. Kim's Kim, though. I'm.. whatever me is.

YOU – I don’t want to be any of that. I want a handful of shiny coins.

ONE OF THE INNUMERABLE FACTS OF LIFE WHICH LACK INHERENT MEANING – And you want to die with your mother and father holding your hands, telling you how well you did, and what a brave man you've been.

KIM KITSURAGI – "Detective. Why is it a good thing to exchange these at the machine?"

1. "Why do you even care?"
2. "Because I wanted money."
3. (Shake your head, meaningfully.) "You wouldn’t understand. This is bigger than you. Bigger than me."
4. (Ignore him.)

YOU – "Because I wanted money."

KIM KITSURAGI – "Because you wanted money."

AUTHORITY – Oh, no, the repetition got to him too. Help him out.

YOU – "I wanted free money."

KIM KITSURAGI – "It.. is not free."

1. (Ignore him. Clearly he's just jealous he didn't think of this first.)
2. "Kim, have you ever considered that money isn’t real?"
3. [Encyclopedia - Legendary 14] Explain the economics of value to him.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Legendary: Failure] – Money can be exchanged for goods and services. Bottles, universally, cannot. Not even for free refills -- they're bottles. Not cups. Anyway, you had stumbled upon the one machine in the world that turns worthless garbage into money. Kim probably wouldn't *get* all of that, but he'd understand.. like, gesture and smile, or something? State the obvious.

YOU – "These are free. I can get ten centims for them."

KIM KITSURAGI – "And if it takes you an hour to find two?" He sighs. "You are paid a salary."

RHETORIC – Ah, but a salary is *fixed.* Tare is endless! It appears where you least expect it! It accumulates, right there in your hands! You are creating an economy divorced from the rigid constraints of labor - you alone dictate its growth. Who cares if you're a 'cop' with a 'salary'? That doesn't need to mean anything! You don’t need to get your shit together to look at corpses, or even yourself! You just need to get back out there, and into the bin!

1. "What else would I do?"
2. "I’m probably not a cop, though, this whole thing is probably a misunderstanding."
3. "I’m probably not a cop, though, this whole thing is probably a misunderstanding. Can we still hang out?"
4. "So I’m actually DOUBLING my money?"
5. "Right, but.. it.. adds up."

YOU – "Right, but.. it.. adds up."

KIM KITSURAGI – He leans towards the saggy bag pinched in your gloved hands --

ANCIENT REPTILIAN BRAIN – Tell me, Harrister -- when was the last time you pinched and probed yourself for signs of creeping death? You know. All those delicate, doughy spheres so easily reshaped to malignancy?

YOUR BODY'S CONTEXT WITHIN SPACE, TIME AND ITS OWN STATE OF HEALTH – You shift away from Kim, suddenly very aware of your body's context within space, time, and its own state of health. Knowing you - which you don't, because you forgot about it - you're overdue for one of those Exams nobody mails you a letter about when you turn the right age for them. Knowing you, you knew, and forgot about it.

KIM KITSURAGI – His eyes flicker up to yours. "And what does it add up to?"

1. [Empathy - Challenging 12] (Try to figure out the question *behind* the question.)
2. "How long is a piece of string?"
3. "How big's my dick?"
4. (Leave.)

YOU – (Try to figure out the question *behind* the question.)

EMPATHY [Challenging: Failure] – He might think you’re a homophobe? Or autistic. The two aren’t connected, but, listen to me: he thinks you're making things awkward.

ONE OF THE INNUMERABLE FACTS OF LIFE WHICH ALLEDGEDLY LACK INHERENT MEANING – You are.