sameoldsong | A Clock Only Turns In One Direction

A Clock Only Turns In One Direction

Sean's place isn't much to look at but it'll do for now. The four-story tenement is squat compared to others on the street, low and old and not very well kept up. Someone divided the apartments up years ago to squeeze more money out of the building, so what they've got is a room and a half to themselves - a big bedroom, an okay sized bathroom, and a narrow kitchen with barely enough room for the ice box and sinks. No stove, but Sean's managed to get by without it for now, thanks to all the automats and restaurants nearby.

The bedroom's the best part of the apartment. It's got a window that looks out over the fire escape, and it's got a half-decent bed and a cot that Kyle can start out with and trade in for a real one, once they've got the money to get that sort of thing. Sean's got a small table set up in the closet and underneath it, there's a short shelf crammed full of pulp magazines with flashy and lurid covers. Most of it is crime fiction, but there's hero pulps too, and the science fiction and even a few of the romance ones tucked near the bottom of the piles.

It's a little strange getting used to having someone else in his space again, but Sean picks it up quickly. After all, he spent most of his life sharing rooms with family and falling asleep listening to the sounds of their breathing and snoring. And feeding two is as cheap as feeding one, especially when you've got two paydays to put together.

The biggest difference with Kyle is that he's got questions, and a lot of them. Sean's chosen to believe him, and it's probably good he did, because Kyle sure believes himself. It's a little funny answering questions about everything, because Kyle really doesn't know a thing about the world.

Well, that's not entirely true. He knows some things. You just can't ever be sure what he knows and what he doesn't. For one, Kyle's very handy with a gun.

It's clear he doesn't like the work they're doing but that's okay. So far they've gotten lucky and Sean's pretty sure it's just drugs they're moving, which is better than some of the other alternatives. They show up, they unload the ships in the dark, they get paid out and they take a trolly back home, just in time to get to the neighbourhood as the shops are opening up.

They get some fresh sandwiches and a few things to eat later and head back up to the apartment. It's warm, so Sean pops the window and goes out to sit on the fire escape with Kyle while they eat. The view's not the most exciting, but he still likes looking at it, just watching all the people head off to work or the kids go off to school.

"So what do people eat in the future?" Sean ends up asking, since it seems like Kyle isn't even a little picky about what food he gets.

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"Yeah, Liam fought in the Great War. The big one." He's tried to explain it to Kyle and it's been so hard to put it into words. Kyle seems familiar with the idea of the whole world gone to war, but in his version, they all fought on the same side against the machines. But... the World War was different. He'd tried to explain how it all happened, but the honest truth is that Sean's not even sure. An Archduke from Austria got shot in Serbia and somehow that meant that Ireland had to go to war alongside Britain. Sean had been too young for it, something he'd been sad about when the war started, then relieved as the time went on... then ashamed that he would feel grateful for anything when he lost Dylan and Niall, and dad.

Sean glances over at Kyle, and then away, not quite able to look him in the eyes while they talk. "He went over soon as he was old enough. My dad and the rest of my brothers were already there for about... six months? We hadn't gotten the letter about Niall yet, but that came shortly after Liam shipped out. Then we got dad's letter, and then Dylan's and... we thought that's it, that's it, all my brothers and my dad are gone, and soon as I'm eighteen, the Great War's going to take me and eat me up too, leave me rotting in a trench somewhere..."

"But it didn't. And Connor came home to his family, and Liam came back to ours. He's a tough bastard. You wouldn't have thought he was in the trenches. There's no ten mile stare in those eyes and he doesn't jump at shadows. He just... doesn't sleep soundly anymore." Sean can feel the mood dipping down, getting heavy and dark and he tries to pull them out of that black pit. "Oh, and he's got a plan for everything now. It's kind of funny. Eliza says that taking him shopping at the market ends up taking half the time, because he makes her write down what they're getting and the order it's being gotten in, and he makes her stick to it. Very in and out, no visiting."

"The war to end war," Kyle says softly, remembering the book he'd seen bearing that title. It stuck with him, that phrase did, because of how perfectly it captured the way people in this day think. Forget the next Great War still to come, there've been wars since the 'Great' one even now, like the ones that happened in Sean's native Ireland. And yet the man on the street seems to forget about those wars just because they didn't happen here. Sean at least isn't like that, though he knows the other man still hasn't accepted that another war just as bad as the Great War is in their future. He's not looking forward to it. Regardless of how the last one happened, Sean's brothers told him a bit about it, and the stories the other man has related rival his own in horror.

He turns to face Sean, giving him the courtesy of his full attention without staring at him too hard (it's a habit he's been trying to break). Kyle never had brothers, but the rest of Sean's story is sadly familiar, people he loved and cared about who marched off to battle and never came back. He lost his own dad that way, and his mom to boot. It makes him glad the war ended before Sean himself got swallowed up by it, there's a gentleness to the man that he doesn't think could survive the battlefield, even if Sean himself probably could.

It's so characteristic of Sean to bring them both back from a dark place, and Kyle gladly takes the lifeline being offered him. "It's not a bad idea, having a plan for things even when they're as simple as shopping." He's been shopping with Sean just once, but he was almost overwhelmed in that once by the sheer number of products on display. "We should also think about developing an exit strategy for our current line of work. it's good pay but it is cocaine they're having us move."

Sean smiles a little. Kyle's like Liam in that way too. But that's not so bad. Liam lived through the Great War. Kyle lived through his. They both came out with clear, sharp eyes and a keen instinct. "Like Eliza says, the shopping gets done in half the time with a plan, even if it keeps her from hearing the good gossip."

The other half is a little heavier, but still lighter than war and night terrors by a country mile. "We should. It works for now, but neither of us are cut out for advancing, even if we made their requirements, which we don't. So, I suppose it's just figuring out what we can do..."

Factory work's an option, grim as it might be. There's other stuff too, working as staff at a store or a restaurant. Or maybe they could get on at the city government. And... there's another idea Sean's had floating in his brain.

"... what if we got into machines?" Sean brings up. "That'd be a way for us to keep an eye on things. And you know what they're like in the future and how they're built and made, and when they go from alright to being too dangerous. We could save up and see if we could either get in somewhere that builds them, or do it ourselves?"

Kyle chuckles and tucks into his sandwich again. Sean has an ear for things he doesn't: anecdotes, gossip, making connections. Street smarts, he's heard it called. There wouldn't be much for him to do with those skills in 2029 but here they're just what the doctor ordered. "Your family sounds like they're good, dependable people. It would be nice to meet them some day, if we ever get the money for that."

He wasn't sure how Sean would react to the other half, and lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding when the other man doesn't object. "Having an exit strategy doesn't mean we have to leave right away. We can stay a little while longer to build up our savings and get to know the operation better, that way when the time comes to take out the top man we know who to aim for."

Just because he objects to working for bad guys long term doesn't mean he can't see the short term value of it. And... Sad as it is to say, but he thinks Sean is happier with this sort of work than he would be at a store or a restaurant. Sadder still is that he suspects he probably is too. Much as he wants them both to get onto the straight and narrow, there's no escaping that the two of them share a certain skillset. Department stores and restaurateurs don't have much use for marksmen or guys who are good in a scrap.

"If we got into what?" Kyle's whole train of thought goes off course at that suggestion, and at first his expression is hard and angry, but it's just his knee-jerk reaction to metal, and as Sean goes on his face softens and he slowly nods, understanding now what his partner is suggesting. "... Well. That might be an option. You have to understand, though, I don't actually know how to build machines. I'm not a scientist. What I was taught was how to identify and destroy them. But I know they don't get dangerous right away, so it might be possible to get in on the industry early, hobble it so no one ever builds a self-aware system like Skynet. That would take more than just the two of us, though. We would need someone who knows machines, no, not just knows them but is a genius with them. Whoever the best mechanical mind of this period is. We would have to get to that person and convince them to go along with us, either willingly or through force."

"Yeah, that'd be good! Once we've got the money, and time for the trip." It'll be years off, but they've got years, right? They're young, and there's plenty of time left for them to get around to it.

He's a little worried at first when Kyle objects but... he hears Sean out. And he's got a good point. Sean doesn't know the first thing about machines, and neither does Kyle. But, they can find whoever does. 'By force' makes Sean a little leery, but he nods all the same. "I'm great at talking to folks. And if we do it right, they won't even realize what it is we're doing, you know? We'll make 'em think it's all their own idea, then it'll stick no matter if we're right behind them or not."

Sean has another bite and chews as he thinks about it. Maybe they can find someone to teach them about machinery? Or maybe they can get a job where they can see how it works and learn that way? It'd be easier if Kyle knew how to build it, but it makes sense that in the future, they were more concerned with figuring out how to spot it and stop it-

"Hey, hey, I know-" He's got his mouth full and he has to stop, chew, and swallow before he picks up again. "I know you probably don't know much about the- your past, my future? Our future now, I suppose. But! We should write down what you do know. Maybe we can figure out a way to use that to our advantage, y'know? Like... maybe we can figure out the stock market? If we know what inventions or companies will get rich, we could put money on them and invest early while they're cheap, and cash out. It'd be a great way to get money, and that could help us get into stuff as like- as investors. Instead of having to make stuff, we could be the fellows who decide how stuff happens."

"The trip's a long one, isn't it?" Ironically enough for someone who's traveled through time, Kyle hasn't traveled very far in his own time. The Pacific southwest about encompasses his range of experience.

The truth is, when it comes to machines Kyle is perfectly willing to do whatever he needs to do to change the future. Twist a man's arm, threaten him at gunpoint, whatever it takes. But Sean once again has a better, more peaceful solution, and Kyle nods again, accepting it. "We'll do it your way first then. Find this guy, you talk to him, and if he doesn't agree then I'll take over. I'm not good at making people think things they think they came up with themselves, but if it comes to it I'll make sure he does what we say."

Kyle sighs and looks back out over the street. In spite of his tough talk, he's not looking forward to the idea that he might have to coerce a man to accomplish what they're setting out to do. He doesn't enjoy fighting people, or hurting them. But looking out over this street all he can see are hundreds of reasons, walking, talking breathing reasons, why it has to be done. He can only hope Sean's diplomatic approach works.

"Hm?" He looks over, and shakes his head, trying to hide a smile at the sight of Sean trying to talk with his mouth half of full. "That's... You're talking about a plan on a world scale, bigger than I think any plan in human history has been." But then, no humans have traveled through time before him either, have they? He takes a bite of his own sandwich, chews and swallows, then continues. "It will take me a few days, I'll have to sit down and write down everything I can remember. Or carry a paper and write it all as it comes back to me. What I know is mostly what I was told, like how there were two world wars before the war of the machines or that the company that developed Skynet was called Cyberdyne. There was other stuff too, things my parents told me before I lost them, but I'll need time to remember it all."

Edited 2018-12-18 15:07 (UTC)

"Very long, but it's getting shorter every day. We could take a train cross-country, then get on an airship instead of a ship and that would take weeks off the journey. It's just a lot more expensive so... we'll be saving up for a while." Maybe he'll start tucking money away, once they've gotten into a better place. Though it's a lot more tolerable living in this matchbox with Kyle than he thought it might have been.

Kyle takes up so little rooms and has no complaints, and other than his restless sleeping, he's better than any man Sean's lived with before. It's been nice being right for once, and having picked out a good person to hitch himself to. It's strange having to think about the future as a thing that must be changed and fixed, but honestly, he can live with that. Sean's always been good at having faith in things he can't see or know. This is just one more invisible thing that he can believe in.

"Jesus, you've said it already but I just can't believe people are going to want to fight another. I can't believe that anybody would look at what we did to France and Germany and would want another dose of it. Millions of men died in those fucking things..." It makes him angry in a way nothing else does. He lost his brothers and his father, and Kyle's saying there's already going to be another, men lining up for a second dose of that nightmare. But... he makes himself take a breath and let it out. Nothing doing about it. At least, not right now, not right now. But, maybe in time, Sean and Kyle can see it coming and do... something. "I'll get you a notebook. You should have one anyway, they're handy as hell for writing stuff down in. You can make notes as they come. And I mean, it'll take us time to get money to have enough spare cash to throw into that kind of stuff anyway."

But, they've got a plan anyway. They'll work and make money for now, and then they'll make investments if they can, and they'll get into machines, and they'll find the men who are going to be the grandfathers of the metal men who bring about Kyle's nuclear war. Sean'll do his best to talk them into doing the right thing. And if not... Well. Kyle's right. They'll make sure those men do whatever they're told to.

"... you know, we should go exploring." Sean decides. They've already got plenty of plans for the long term, but they need a short one for now, something they can enjoy right now. "Like, one of the fellows was talking about the La Brea tar pits. They're not that far away from us, we could take a day trip out on Tuesday. What do you think?"

"I've never flown anywhere before," Kyle admits, brightening at the prospect. "Skynet controls the skies in my time. The trains, too. The trains of today should be a lot different, though." He leaves out that the 'trains' of 2029 were really more like cattle cars, jammed full of people Skynet captured and used as slave labor, him briefly being one of them. He expects the memory to throw its familiar cloud over him, but sitting next to Sean like this it's easier to push it aside.

Really, if he hadn't met Sean Kyle doesn't know where he'd be right now. Still sleeping out of that alley at the very least, and with no more idea of how to salvage his mission than he'd had the day he met him. It's funny almost, he's pretty sure Sean was only humoring him at first when he talked about changing the future, but now the guy's a believer. Or if not a believer in that, a believer in him at least. It's been a weight off his shoulders, finally having someone he can trust and who trusts him. Two people can always get more done than just one.

"If it wasn't for Skynet, we'd still be fighting each other. That's what my dad used to say." He'd believed it, but it wasn't until he traveled back here that he really understood what it meant, and even then he's pretty sure the worst of it is still to come. He's caught glimpses of it, hard looks people in shops give Sean when they hear his accent, one man muttering something about bog-trotters under his breath and Sean either not hearing him or pretending not to hear him. That made him angry, angry enough to start marching back towards the man, fists balled, until Sean put a hand on his shoulder and told him not here. Kyle's kept an eye out for that man, and has seriously considered waylaying him, but even if he did there would be others, he knows now. "I'll buy one with my share of the next pay, a cheap one. There's a lot we don't have in 2029, but we still have notebooks."

It's not exactly a vetted plan of action they've got so far, but it's a start. It's enough to move forward on, and Kyle's not even sure a more detailed sort of plan is possible when they're looking at a mission spanning years or even decades. It's a little overwhelming, because he long ago got used to thinking of life almost purely in terms of the present. Death was a constant companion all around him, one that could take him at any time, and that he's lived even this long is a miracle. But now he's looking at a mission that requires him to preserve his own life, and for as long as he is humanly capable of living at that.

".. Exploring?" Kyle's not opposed to the idea, not even remotely, but it does come out of nowhere. He glances at Sean, silently asking him to elaborate. As usual, he doesn't disappoint. "If we have the money for it, it doesn't sound like a bad idea. Tar pits were useful when we could find them, you could lure an HK out over one and light it up with a single thermite charge. Is there something about the La Brea tar pits that makes them more special than other tar pits?"

"Me either! I took a ship over, but I'd love to ride on an airship and see the world from that high up. So- we'll do that. Once we've got the money and time, we'll take an airship." Another thing to look forward to. It's good having plans of things to do, especially since the rest of their tasks are so grim.

But they've got the rest of their lives to work on this, don't they? 1984 is nearly a century away. That's time for airship trips, and sight-seeing, and good things alongside all the working they'll have to do. Plus, Kyle seems to really need it, since his first thought on a lot of things is how to use it to fight. Which, that's not a bad thing. Liam does the same thing...

"They found dinosaur bones in this one! One of those mammoths and I think a sabertooth tiger or something like that. Apparently it's been trapping all kinds of beasts for years in it. And I've never seen a pit in person, so I think it'd be fun to lay eyes on it. And we'll stay well away from the lip, so neither of us takes a dip in the tar." Sean checks to see if Kyle's still interested in going, even if he can't lure a machine in and set it on fire. Which honestly, that must have been a sight to see, though Sean's a little secretly relieved to know that he probably won't ever see the machines. God willing, anyway.

"We won't have the whole rest of our lives to do it, at some point coming airships are gonna get replaced by planes." He tries not to make that sound too grim, because he doesn't mean it to be. And if anything, the phasing out of airships is just more motivation to experience what being on one would be like before they go. He bets they've got a hell of a view.

If only he knew the actual date the phasing is going to happen. He should have thought to write the stories his parents told him down years ago, it would he saved them both a whole lot of time. But for stuff like this, he's pretty sure even his parents didn't know the exact dates. He and Sean will just have to guesstimate as best they can until he can remember any hard dates he was told.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure neither of us takes any kind of tar dip." Kyle promises this solemnly, but he's still very interested in going, having leaned forward with his face lit up when Sean mentioned dinosaurs and mammoths. He's thinking about it, deciding whether or not to ask, and then, "When you said they found mammoths and sabretooth tigers, did you mean entire skeletons? Or even bodies? Ma told me once that they found whole frozen mammoths up north somewhere, that back during the -- the 50s!" He exclaims it triumphantly, proud to finally have provided a date of some kind, "-- that back during the 50's there was even this great dinner in New York where rich guys sat around and ate mammoth meat. Not sure I'd wanna eat any meat if it came out of a tar pit, though."

"Oh really? Jesus, well, we'll have to get on that sooner than later." He knows that some people take planes, but it's odd thinking about airships getting replaced. They're so big and graceful... Are plans getting bigger then? They must, he supposes. Or else maybe they get faster? Well, he'll find out. That's half the fun, isn't it?

"Skeletons, yeah! But I think they only have full ones for some of the smaller stuff. But, there's a mammoth from there, and they pulled out a woman and a dog, and I think there's one of those ancient horses, and a bunch of other animals too." At least, that's what Sean heard from Ben when they were shooting the shit at work one time. He's more fascinated (and a little disgusted) by the idea of someone finding a mammoth with flesh still on it, and the rich choosing to eat it. "Jesus, same. I wouldn't trust any meat that old. The rich just... god, they have all the money in the world, and they use it on the stupidest stuff. I don't understand it. If I had that kind of money, I'd be eating well each day, not feeding myself fish eggs or snails."

And he gestures to his sandwich, which has been reduced to a stub while chatting and eating. "I'd get this sort of thing every day, y'know? Fresh bread, fresh meat, good sauce, made right as you walk in the shop. Or I'd get a cook who could do up the stuff my ma does, only with the better cuts of meat. Or oranges, God, I'd buy crates of oranges. I can't wait until it's the season for them again. They're so big here, size of your fist and twice as juicy as you'd imagine."

"I don't think it's going to happen right away, but it is coming." He'd just as soon it didn't, really. For almost all his life planes have been Skynet's weapons, with only a hardy handful of old military aircraft under the Resistance's control. Maybe if airships never get phased out lives could be saved, but they already have their hands full just trying to stop the rise of robotics. Adding aviation to the mix would be biting off more than they can chew, he thinks.

Craning his head, Kyle looks off down to the road in the direction of downtown as Sean grouses about the rich. "Maybe this will make you feel better about them: when J-Day happens, the rich were the first to go. They all fled to their private bunkers, thought they could wait it out, but what none of them counted on was Skynet controlling the life support systems in those bunkers." He smiles mirthlessly. "Something tells me they don't think too far ahead today either, but who knows, maybe fish eggs and snails are just really good." He shrugs, not even remotely grossed out by the prospect of eating either of those things. He's survived on worse.

"Is there any fruit that is in season right now?" He can't help but sound hopeful. "I haven't had any since I was a kid. I remember oranges because you had to peel them before you could eat them. Bananas too, but my favorite was apples. You didn't have to peel those, you could just sit right down and eat one." He squeezes his own sandwich, which is a stub of exactly the same length as Sean's because he's been eating in time with him, holding himself back from the gorging he did in those first few days. "Even if there's not, I'd be just as happy having these. The people who make them are good people, and the girl always puts on extra when she sees you. Is she a friend of yours?"

Kyle does get a little snort out of Sean when he hears the rich didn't get away with things this time. "Christ, I know it's a sin to wish death on anyone, but I'm not going to cry too many tears at the thought of them abandoning the rest of us and going first because of it. Serves them right. Maybe if they'd stuck it out with us, it wouldn't have ended up that way."

Sean's not sure about fish eggs or snails, but Kyle has a point. Maybe they do taste good. Maybe he'll find out one day, if things work out for them. But that's all forgotten as Sean realizes that Kyle hasn't had fruits in years. "There is! All kinds of berries and melons! We'll get a watermelon tomorrow for sure, or a nice ripe honeydew! And absolutely a big basket of raspberries or blackberries or- or maybe we can get some strawberries. You're going to love them all, you can pop the berries right into your mouth and chew, and they're just bursting with juice. Melons have a rind on them, but it's easy to cut that off and get into the insides, and they're crunchy but still so juicy- it's wonderful, you're going to love them."

He pops the end of his sandwich into his mouth and as he chews, he laughs and shrugs. "Sorta? I'm friendly with her since she's nice, but I'm pretty sure we get extra because she's sweet on me."

That snort relaxes Kyle, softening his smile into something a little more genuine. "That's about how I remember my dad's friend who told us feeling about them. Never met rich people 'till I came back here, but early in the war there were collaborators, people working with the machines, who got special treatment and privileges. They acted about how the rich people do now do."

The raw enthusiasm Sean works up gets more out of Kyle than a smile, it gets an honest laugh, along with a half-amused, half-bewildered look, like he's not sure where that laugh came from but enjoyed it all the same. "Don't forget, we've got to keep some of what we've got put away for the future. But I'd love to try all of those, I haven't even heard of half of them." Some of them stir old memories, buried glimpses of a childhood he had to leave behind quickly. "I think we had -- yeah, we had blackberries a few times, me and my ma. I didn't know I remembered that much, that was right before we were captured by the Luddites."

Finishing off his own sandwich, he gives Sean a bemused sidelong look, dangling his feet from the fire escape the way a kid might. "You're a good guy, not taking advantage of that. Most guys would, that's one thing that doesn't change between now and then."

"Oh we'll have plenty of money for fruit and the future, don't worry too much about it." Sean just beams and... he's been trying not to think about it, but Kyle's got such a lovely smile. He's handsome, anyone with eyes can see that, but it's the way his face lights up that makes it shine through him. Sean wants to keep Kyle smiling. "We'll find blackberries again. And no Luddites. I'm... not sure what they are, but I feel pretty safe promising you that we won't find any here."

He also snorts a little. "Hey, hey, I've got six sisters, if I took advantage of anybody, they'd all know and come halfway across the world to scold me." Sean sighs, and shrugs. "You're right though. People are the same no matter what. But, I wouldn't do that to that girl. She's sweet. One day, she's going to make someone a wonderful wife. But, she's a protestant, so she won't be mine."

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A Clock Only Turns In One Direction

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