PARADISA

[Dictated]

Some of you have really absurd names, you know that?

It's weird enough that some of you just have ridiculous hippy names like "Howl" or "Cloud" or "Vicious" or "Firethroat" or whatever but then there's all these pretentious names that are really titles. Not just a doctor, The Doctor, and there's a Fifth and a Tenth but who knows what happened to the others.

And then there's not just some guy named Lorax, but he's The Lorax. What the fuck is a Lorax in the first place? Fuck if I know, but maybe I should be honored to live up the hall from not only a Lorax but The Lorax. He sounds like a cleaning product mascot, like Mr. Clean.

I almost wish the castle had kept my nameplate Dog Eat Dog just so I could have a ridiculous name plate. I mean, mine doesn't even include a last name normally. Or maybe changed it to something smoother: Queen of Boston. The Queen of Boston.

[Tess has heard the warnings, but frankly, nothing ever stops her. Curfews were always a horrible part of living in the Quarantine Zone, and you could only skirt around them so much before you risked getting caught, but she still defied them. Nothing could keep her in her apartment for more than she wanted to be, just like how nothing could keep her in certain zones, just like how nothing could keep her inside the walls.

As a result, she's out and about, kissing or no kissing. She's not too concerned, given that she has a gun and her own two fists should anyone get up in her space without welcome. No castle is going to overpower her.

So there's Tess, reading in the library. She's sitting on a couch in front of the fire, idly thumbing through books with her feet tucked up under her.]

Been a long time since I've seen a proper Christmas. It was weird enough getting to taste pumpkin pie and real turkey again, so it'll be good to have gingerbread, and eggnog, and candy canes. Fresh ones, not stale ones.

Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes… I only ever had a few but it was the best taste ever. Or just Starbucks in general, such a waste of money but so good. Fuck.

[She's definitely drinking one now, though.]

Crazy to me that the castle even recognizes brand names, too.

( Public, but contains spoilers for The Last Of Us. )

When she opens her eyes, they settle immediately on the window across from "her" bedroom wall. More importantly, they settle on what appears to be a distant city basking under a summer sun, and for an instant she thinks of being a teenager again, when she dreamed of backpacking across Europe. There were lots of pictures of little French cities all over the Internet, back then, cities that could still feel like quaint little towns despite their sprawl.

For a moment, she just stares in silence, and then she says:]


Couldn't pick a nicer fucking place to die, huh...