KIM KITSURAGI — The lieutenant’s expression is difficult to place as he ponders the mural.
THE NEXT WORLD MURAL — “TRUE LOVE IS POSSIBLE ONLY IN THE NEXT WORLD— FOR NEW PEOPLE. IT IS TOO LATE FOR US. WREAK HAVOC ON THE MIDDLE CLASS.”
INLAND EMPIRE — Right on.
CONCEPTUALIZATION — What a slogan! So many layers in so few words. Perfectly crafted to grab one’s attention and keep hold of it for long after you’ve passed by. You wish you’d thought of it.
“Truer words were never spoken.”
“What a fuckin’ bummer, am I right?”
“Not bad, but I like the one we painted in Martinaise better.”
KIM KITSURAGI — “You mean, the one *you* painted,” he says pointedly. “I had nothing to do with that.”
ESPIRIT DE CORPS — He did like your mural. He’s just never gonna admit it. He’s too committed to the bit.
THE NEXT WORLD MURAL — The words seem to tower over you as you and your partner take them in. Once again, you can’t help but wonder how the Belles Lettres managed to paint this monstrously massive mural without being seen.
VISUAL CALCULUS — Surely there must have been scaffolding involved, or some kind of machinery.
LOGIC — They were seen. Just not by anyone who would disturb their work, or sell them out to the police. Which, if the results of the vote are anything to go by, would be most of the people of Jamrock.
“What do you think about the part about true love, Kim?”
“What do you think about the part about the middle class, Kim?”
“Did you know there was a vote on whether or not to remove the mural?”
KIM KITSURAGI — “We did hear about it back at 57,” he admits. “It’s rare for your district to organize a vote like that. Or any district, for that matter…”
He frowns slightly, peering up at the embracing couple. “I’ll admit, when I heard about it, I had no idea how *big* this thing was. I’m surprised that they voted to keep it. You must be able to see it for miles…”
CONCEPTUALIZATION — Eight stories loud, painted over the corpse of a failed real estate venture. A reminder, a call to action, and a threat, all rolled into one. Constant and inescapable. Oh, yeah. *This* is good stuff.
EMPATHY — It makes the lieutenant uncomfortable.
CONCEPTUALIZATION — That’s the point.
YOU — “How would you have voted?”
KIM KITSURAGI — “I wouldn’t have,” he says drily. “I didn’t live here.”
“All right, fair enough.” (Drop the subject)
“Cmon, Kim. If you *did* live here, which side would you be on?” (Press him)
KIM KITSURAGI — “I don’t know that it’s about taking sides…” His sentence trails as he considers the mural.
PERCEPTION (Sight) — He glances at you for the briefest of moments, and then away. Almost as if he hadn’t meant to do it.
ESPIRIT DE CORPS [Godly: Success] — You make him uncomfortable in much the same way that the mural does. Representative of truths that he doesn’t know what to make of.
There was a time when he dreamt of things like true love. And heroic deeds, and brilliant discoveries, and aerostatic pilots. A home that belonged to him. A table laden with food and crowded with people. The future and the past were polar opposites in his eyes— one a painful collage of loneliness and ostracization, the other a blank canvas, and all the more beautiful for it. It could be anything.
It did not take long for the present to beat it all out of him. And then he blinked, and he was forty-three and alone, having spent twenty years of his life on stubbornness and spite, trying to prove himself to people who didn’t and still don’t care, at the expense of the people that he should have cared for. And he realized it was too late for him.
YOU — Too late for what…?
EMPATHY — To do or be anything different.
KIM KITSURAGI — “…I don’t know,” he finally says. His voice is level, but quiet. “But I can understand why people wanted it to remain.”
He tears his gaze away from the mural at last and looks at you. “What about you? How did you vote?”
YOU — “I can’t remember.”
KIM KITSURAGI — He grimaces slightly. “Right. Sorry…”
“But I think I would have voted for it to go.”
“But I think I would have voted for it to stay.”
KIM KITSURAGI — “That doesn’t surprise me,” he sighs. “I’m sure the part about wreaking havoc on the middle class especially appealed to you.”
“No, it was the part about true love being dead.”
“No, it was the part about new people.”
KIM KITSURAGI — He looks at you strangely. “…Oh? What do you make of it?”
“There’s no such thing as new people. We’re all the same, and we’ll always be the same, walking in the same old circles.”
“Fuck the new people and their new world that we’ll never get to see.”
“I think anyone can become a new person if they try. It’s a call to action.”
“Even if it’s too late for us to be new, I think we can still change. And we can still love each other.”
KIM KITSURAGI — He looks for a moment as if he’s going to say something… and then nothing. His lips purse slightly.
EMPATHY [Formidable: Failure] — It’s hard to say what he thinks of your little thesis. Matters of love are tough on him.
COMPOSURE [Legendary: Success] — But you get the feeling that *something* is happening within the lieutenant. There’s a crack in the dam that’s widening every day, and he knows it. He’s afraid to let it happen, but he’s equally powerless to stop it.
INLAND EMPIRE — You’re afraid, too. You’re both the same brand of coward.
VOLITION — You’re both a lot of things that you don’t have to be. It’s too late to have never been them. But it’s not too late to stop.
ESPIRIT DE CORPS — Stopping is precisely what he’s afraid of. He wonders what of himself will be left if he ceases to be *this.*
That’s selfish. We’re both so selfish.
It would be better if we ceased to be anything at all.
Whatever is left, I’ll still love him.
INLAND EMPIRE — How do you know he *wants* your love?
YOU — I don’t know. But he has it, anyway.
THE NEXT WORLD MURAL — A cold wind rushes past you, sending a chill deep into your bones. Unconsciously, you both step closer to each other. Seeking warmth.
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