18 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
18 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
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# RJ Brewster --- 2114
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There was some draw, some appeal to Dr. Ramirez for RJ. At first, ey suspected that it was the quiet intensity of her confidence, the way she moved through the world with a hunger for knowledge that was at all times colored by the light of the desire to do right by the world as a whole. Then, ey thought that it might simply be that she was a good person. She was the one who believed hard enough and strong enough to follow up on the lost. She was the one who had actually tried, had actually moved forward at a pace that meant progress on the case.
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Recently, ey had been thinking that it was something more abstract than that.
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Ey had been lost for something beyond an eternity, for 'eternity' implied the existence of time, or at least a form of time that actually meant something. Ey had been lost for a day longer than forever, and had ey been lost for only hours, as Sasha had, it would have been longer still. Even then, the word 'longer' held far too much savor. It burned in the sinuses and left eir eyes stinging with tears.
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She had been the first one in more than forever that ey had seen. She had been the one who broke through the wall of eir solipsistic existence and encouraged em to reengage with the world. As the orbits of eir life grew smaller and smaller, they had collapsed into a wandering figure-eight around Sasha, the one who made em complete, and Carter, the one who tied em to reality.
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And so it was that, even beyond the meetings and interviews, beyond the panels and studies, ey found emself remaining in touch with her. Once a week or two, ey'd make the long walk from eir flat down to the cluster of UCL buildings and wait until she was free for lunch or dinner, or, had ey yet again forgot the meaning of time, wait for her to arrive at work early in the morning so that they could grab coffee together.
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She had not questioned it at all. Even that first time, after ey'd hunted down her office in the UCL directory and arrived, unannounced, outside of it to wait awkwardly until she pulled back from her rig. She had simply smiled, shaken his hand, and they'd gone out for an afternoon cup of coffee with no further discussion. It had simply become the thing that they did every now and then.
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Perhaps that was why ey liked her? Maybe.
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Today, at lunch, ey joined Ramirez and two of her coworkers, a Prakash Das and an Avery Wilkins. Vietnamese had been the order of the day, and each of them had consoled em in turn about the loss of eir dear Priscilla, the cat who had been the only other grounding factor in eir life these last two years. A sudden loss of appetite, and then a sudden loss of life, and now ey needed the comfort of friends --- or whatever it was that Carter had become --- and some noise other than quiet jazz and London streets.
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