You made us because you thought you had to.You made us because you thought you had to. You had to hold up a promise, and in holding up that promise you didn't make what was wrong... you didn't make it right. And before you make one more move, you should ask yourself why you made Karri. Because until you know that, you're not fit to be Vatare'." She rose slowly. "I'll be going." And with that she walked off slowly. The piano in the far corner of the bar tinkled slowly, the player taking his time on a rather long and depressing piece I recognized as something by Sakamoto. It fit my mood perfectly as I sat in the selfsame booth P'nyssa had sat in all those years ago in when I had had to go in and drag her out. I wasn't in a suicidal mood; I was far too angry for that. It was time to get drunk, to get stinking, falling down, ralfing drunk. To overwhelm the nanotech scavengers and saturate my cerebellum with enough ethanol to stun a good-sized Centaur. I was well on my way when a finger tapped me on the shoulder. "Hey, you," the finger said. I followed the finger up the hand, arm and shoulder to look into the eyes of Carroll Lewis. "Hiya," I said, the world taking on a distinct counter-clockwise spin as I tried to focus on her. "Can I take a seat?" "Ish a free universh." The slur was far more pronounced than it should have been. My diction is perfect until the point of unconsciousness. But people expect drunks to slur their word to the point where speech is one long vowel movement. She settled to the floor next to the booth, her Centaur bulk providing a wonderful barrier to keep me in. "What's up?" she asked in that playful voice she reserves for occasions like this. |