Saturday, June 16, 2012

Shoot That Poison Arrow

penumbra . 25

Source unknown ~ via onlunar

Word on the street
Is that she’s is looking for something
Something for nothing
Something for free


Anna-Marie looks up from the book, the title of which appears to be Agufabu ~ The Decree unravelled. She feels the warmth of the room and is thankful for it. She is however, unsure how much of that has to do with John Smith specifically, or whether she would be thankful; no matter whom it is who it is providing the heat. She reasons that there must be something more – he appears to be gentle, and as far as Anna-Marie can tell; predictable and therefore offering no physical threat.
And yet he is recognisably the most slated man in the history of the world.
She wonders if there is more and she feels alive for the first time in forever.
She studies his face, profiled against the dawn orange-sky.

John, from the corner of his eye, can see her looking – the imprecise nature of this peripheral vision means that it offers no detail save a blurred impression – he sees her as she was, before brutality left its mark – she shines out at him with all her windows open.
John does his best, given this indirect line of sight, to gaze back.
He notices that there has been no delivery to the Great Station Hall for some time now.

Lost in his own reverie, DeSandro Bien slowly becomes aware that he has caught up with everything: no gears to grease, no meters to check. No bagging to supervise, no petals to load. The last batch to have been fed into the Saviour Machine will be released to atmosphere in... he checks the readout hanging inside the dome of The Great Station Hall ...240.639 minutes.

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4 comments:

Courtney said...

ABC. Great Eighties group and song title there! I love everything you guys post :-) ♥

Letitia Coyne said...

I wonder why I immediately assumed that was Jimmy Stewart. Hmm. Who knows?

Xlnt as always.
Lxx

Harlequin said...

i loved the image and the intriguing way the story works around these weird and yet somehow natural refractions... especially with the arrow reference in the title and all the neat mechanical interfaces .... really clever.
of course.

Garth said...

Courtney: yes! The Lexicon of Love is a great album.

Letitia: a subconsious connection perhaps - vertigo?

Harlequin: mechanical interfaces: the basis of all engineering :)

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