A Clock Only Turns In One Direction

[sameoldsong]

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.

Comments

[chronosoldier]

"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?"

[sameoldsong]

"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.

[chronosoldier]

"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."

[sameoldsong]

"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."

[chronosoldier]

"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?"

[sameoldsong]

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."

[chronosoldier]

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."

[sameoldsong]

"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."