10-25-2019, 08:01 PM
(Written with the help of Shen)
Bar on the outskirts of Usera
Today just hadn't really been William’s day. A long-drawn-out stressful day with his construction job, had given him 4 extra hours of overtime to put on his clock but it also took away as many years off the end of his life.
As soon as he was off the clock he had headed down to a bar. A local one that he has been going to for years. But it had changed a lot recently. The bartender that he had known for the longest time and ended up dead as a casualty of the war. The man who had replaced him only stayed there for a few months before immigrating deciding that there wasn't anything left for him in Lauchenoiria. And this new bartender was one of the silent types who just refilled your drinks and collected on your tab without really saying much.
The new bartender really wasn't much for company. Which annoyed Williams but the drinks were still so cheep that's a construction worker just decided to keep drinking here.
This night though, luck was on his side, a balance to his shitty day at work. There was a woman there. A rather attractive brunette in her late thirties. The construction worker and the brunette looked at each other and gave each other smiles. She scooted over and the pair began to talk. William didn't know how many hours he spent talking to the woman but when he determined it was time to go home she asked if they would take one more shot together which he agreed to. He hadn't had too much to drinking honestly, one more shot wouldn't get him drunk. So he had the shot with the woman before walking back out to his truck.
Climbing into the old faded pick out truck he ran his hands over the old and worn steering wheel smiling at the old girl less you started it up and it's spewed smoke.
Pulling out from the bar he started to make his way down to one way street. Using his cruise control to keep the vehicle steady as everything started to slow down.
The man to feel his reaction time rapidly slowing down. His vision growing hazy. The thoughts in his brain couldn't even formulate properly, they seem to get disconnected and garbled inside his own gray matter before they even had a chance to become anything more than a disjointed garble of disconnected phrases that couldn't even be registered as an intelligent thought. More like the insane ramblings of a drunk lunatic.
Just as he was trying to get ahold of his own brain, a white car pulled out in front of him. The sudden introduction of the white car forced him to slow down. Making him drive at a snail's pace to be altered mind. William started to get angry as he crawled along the pavement in his blue truck. Slowly spitting out every curse and slur he had ever heard directing them towards the man in the car. The man who wouldn't just speed up and let them go. Who wouldn't pull to the side and allow William to pass. Soon the disconnected words in his brain were replaced with pure emotion. Just anger and hatred and vitriol as incoherent and animalistic noises emerged from his mouth and were flung for word like spit at the wall.
The driver finally pulled to the side and let the trucker pass after what seems like an eternity. The man gave William a nod as he smirked at the trucker.
William was too pissed off to even give a damn. He charged forward, pushing down on the pedal with as much strength as he could. Like he was going to break the tiny piece of metal. He looked upward and saw the light ahead of him was green. Good, there wouldn't be anyone in his way. So he blitzed forward not even looking as another car pulled out in front of him.
In just a moment it was all over. The truck collided with the small green car obliterating it. William’s body was thrown from the vehicle and cast upon the cold concrete sliding across the rocky surface until it came to a stop. Paramedics would arrive minutes later long after they could have been of any use.
Two Twisted chaotic chunks of metal burning together.
The police tried to discover what had happened but none of it made any sense.
The eyewitnesses reported that both of the lights that turned green at the same time. That the green car had pulled out first just as the blue truck was thundering down the road making avoiding a collision impossible.
The patrons at the bar said that William was definitely sober when he left.
The only thing that was known that William McCarthy was dead. And he was now responsible for the death of Mr. Tacito Fierro, who had been behind the wheel of that green car.
*
Bar near Usera University
Jessica Cassidy was happy to have a night off from her activities in a dark, gloomy basement, especially since she’d started having doubts about the morality of her actions. Being back with her friends from the war, people who knew what she had gone through, always helped ground her and distract her from her job for a few hours.
“Want another drink?” asked Leonie Bennett, who was already pretty tipsy herself, having had a stressful exam at her university course that day.
“Sure! Just a beer for me,” Jessica laughed, and absentmindedly twirled the straw from her earlier cocktail as Leonie bounced (that was indeed her style of walking that night) off to the bar. Jessica turned back to the conversation she’d been having with some of the others, avoiding the gaze of Leonie’s university friends (that Veronica girl did not like her, though she didn’t know why).
“So I’ve been saying that we need to examine the situation more before we come up with solutions. We can’t very well just outlaw the Communist Party without dismantling the structures that make people vote for it first,” one of the women argued. “Else it will just cause another war.”
“I disagree, the longer they exist, the more risk there is that they will attempt another coup. This has already happened twice.”
“We can’t be complacent, I agree, but…”
“Here’s your beer!” Leonie interrupted, handing Jessica the drink. She herself had a glass of something red, which smelled very alcoholic. Jessica smiled and took the drink, nodding at the younger woman as Leonie went to sit with her university friends. She was socialising more and more with them these days, and less with Jessica and the others, but Jessica was fine with it. It was good that Leonie was managing to move on and have a normal life after what they all went through in Kerlile last year.
“No! We can’t just go around banning political parties! We fought for democracy, we must allow opposing viewpoints!”
“And if it gets us all killed? Or worse, invaded by Kerlile again?”
“Risk is a vital part of life…”
Jessica settled back with her beer, listening to the debate continue but refraining from joining in. She was hardly one, these days, to argue that democracy was sacrosanct. Yet at the same time, she did not agree with banning political parties. She knew her views and her activities conflicted, she was a hypocrite. But if it kept Lauchenoiria safe from Kerlile, she would do it.
*
Jessica Cassidy woke with a start, and puked all over the side of her bed. She blinked, shocked, and feeling like hell. She vomited again. Her stomach lurched a third time and she reached up to pull her hair back as she puked. She looked down at the vomit… and realised there was blood mixed in. She dropped her hair in shock, then screamed.
Clumps of her long, bright red dyed hair had come out in her hands. She stared at the hair and the blood in shock and then began to shake in terror. She didn’t know what was happening to her. Tears stung the corners of her eyes as she reached out to grab her phone and call an ambulance, though the movement had made her vomit once more.
“Hello… yes I need an ambulance… Flat 7, 55 Butterfly Avenue… I keep throwing up, there’s blood, my hair is falling out… I think I’m dying, oh God…”
Jessica felt the phone fall to the floor as she collapsed back onto the bed, having no more energy to sit up, waiting for the ambulance to come, and shaking as she remembered the last time she was covered in blood - following a beating by Kerlians while she was a prisoner of war.
Bar on the outskirts of Usera
Today just hadn't really been William’s day. A long-drawn-out stressful day with his construction job, had given him 4 extra hours of overtime to put on his clock but it also took away as many years off the end of his life.
As soon as he was off the clock he had headed down to a bar. A local one that he has been going to for years. But it had changed a lot recently. The bartender that he had known for the longest time and ended up dead as a casualty of the war. The man who had replaced him only stayed there for a few months before immigrating deciding that there wasn't anything left for him in Lauchenoiria. And this new bartender was one of the silent types who just refilled your drinks and collected on your tab without really saying much.
The new bartender really wasn't much for company. Which annoyed Williams but the drinks were still so cheep that's a construction worker just decided to keep drinking here.
This night though, luck was on his side, a balance to his shitty day at work. There was a woman there. A rather attractive brunette in her late thirties. The construction worker and the brunette looked at each other and gave each other smiles. She scooted over and the pair began to talk. William didn't know how many hours he spent talking to the woman but when he determined it was time to go home she asked if they would take one more shot together which he agreed to. He hadn't had too much to drinking honestly, one more shot wouldn't get him drunk. So he had the shot with the woman before walking back out to his truck.
Climbing into the old faded pick out truck he ran his hands over the old and worn steering wheel smiling at the old girl less you started it up and it's spewed smoke.
Pulling out from the bar he started to make his way down to one way street. Using his cruise control to keep the vehicle steady as everything started to slow down.
The man to feel his reaction time rapidly slowing down. His vision growing hazy. The thoughts in his brain couldn't even formulate properly, they seem to get disconnected and garbled inside his own gray matter before they even had a chance to become anything more than a disjointed garble of disconnected phrases that couldn't even be registered as an intelligent thought. More like the insane ramblings of a drunk lunatic.
Just as he was trying to get ahold of his own brain, a white car pulled out in front of him. The sudden introduction of the white car forced him to slow down. Making him drive at a snail's pace to be altered mind. William started to get angry as he crawled along the pavement in his blue truck. Slowly spitting out every curse and slur he had ever heard directing them towards the man in the car. The man who wouldn't just speed up and let them go. Who wouldn't pull to the side and allow William to pass. Soon the disconnected words in his brain were replaced with pure emotion. Just anger and hatred and vitriol as incoherent and animalistic noises emerged from his mouth and were flung for word like spit at the wall.
The driver finally pulled to the side and let the trucker pass after what seems like an eternity. The man gave William a nod as he smirked at the trucker.
William was too pissed off to even give a damn. He charged forward, pushing down on the pedal with as much strength as he could. Like he was going to break the tiny piece of metal. He looked upward and saw the light ahead of him was green. Good, there wouldn't be anyone in his way. So he blitzed forward not even looking as another car pulled out in front of him.
In just a moment it was all over. The truck collided with the small green car obliterating it. William’s body was thrown from the vehicle and cast upon the cold concrete sliding across the rocky surface until it came to a stop. Paramedics would arrive minutes later long after they could have been of any use.
Two Twisted chaotic chunks of metal burning together.
The police tried to discover what had happened but none of it made any sense.
The eyewitnesses reported that both of the lights that turned green at the same time. That the green car had pulled out first just as the blue truck was thundering down the road making avoiding a collision impossible.
The patrons at the bar said that William was definitely sober when he left.
The only thing that was known that William McCarthy was dead. And he was now responsible for the death of Mr. Tacito Fierro, who had been behind the wheel of that green car.
*
Bar near Usera University
Jessica Cassidy was happy to have a night off from her activities in a dark, gloomy basement, especially since she’d started having doubts about the morality of her actions. Being back with her friends from the war, people who knew what she had gone through, always helped ground her and distract her from her job for a few hours.
“Want another drink?” asked Leonie Bennett, who was already pretty tipsy herself, having had a stressful exam at her university course that day.
“Sure! Just a beer for me,” Jessica laughed, and absentmindedly twirled the straw from her earlier cocktail as Leonie bounced (that was indeed her style of walking that night) off to the bar. Jessica turned back to the conversation she’d been having with some of the others, avoiding the gaze of Leonie’s university friends (that Veronica girl did not like her, though she didn’t know why).
“So I’ve been saying that we need to examine the situation more before we come up with solutions. We can’t very well just outlaw the Communist Party without dismantling the structures that make people vote for it first,” one of the women argued. “Else it will just cause another war.”
“I disagree, the longer they exist, the more risk there is that they will attempt another coup. This has already happened twice.”
“We can’t be complacent, I agree, but…”
“Here’s your beer!” Leonie interrupted, handing Jessica the drink. She herself had a glass of something red, which smelled very alcoholic. Jessica smiled and took the drink, nodding at the younger woman as Leonie went to sit with her university friends. She was socialising more and more with them these days, and less with Jessica and the others, but Jessica was fine with it. It was good that Leonie was managing to move on and have a normal life after what they all went through in Kerlile last year.
“No! We can’t just go around banning political parties! We fought for democracy, we must allow opposing viewpoints!”
“And if it gets us all killed? Or worse, invaded by Kerlile again?”
“Risk is a vital part of life…”
Jessica settled back with her beer, listening to the debate continue but refraining from joining in. She was hardly one, these days, to argue that democracy was sacrosanct. Yet at the same time, she did not agree with banning political parties. She knew her views and her activities conflicted, she was a hypocrite. But if it kept Lauchenoiria safe from Kerlile, she would do it.
*
Jessica Cassidy woke with a start, and puked all over the side of her bed. She blinked, shocked, and feeling like hell. She vomited again. Her stomach lurched a third time and she reached up to pull her hair back as she puked. She looked down at the vomit… and realised there was blood mixed in. She dropped her hair in shock, then screamed.
Clumps of her long, bright red dyed hair had come out in her hands. She stared at the hair and the blood in shock and then began to shake in terror. She didn’t know what was happening to her. Tears stung the corners of her eyes as she reached out to grab her phone and call an ambulance, though the movement had made her vomit once more.
“Hello… yes I need an ambulance… Flat 7, 55 Butterfly Avenue… I keep throwing up, there’s blood, my hair is falling out… I think I’m dying, oh God…”
Jessica felt the phone fall to the floor as she collapsed back onto the bed, having no more energy to sit up, waiting for the ambulance to come, and shaking as she remembered the last time she was covered in blood - following a beating by Kerlians while she was a prisoner of war.
LIDUN President 2024 | she/her | Puppets: Kerlile, Glanainn, Yesteria, Zongongia, Zargothrax