cantankerous!!

[allvrcs-blog]

the sky is starting to turn. june understands that many people surrounding her question if it will be the last sunset they witness. june hasn’t really wanted to think deeply about things like that. she’s still on her own journey that she doesn’t want to hold herself back from finding more about herself. she will live to see the end of the world, be it tonight, or hundreds of years from now. the only difference is she’s choosing to be smarter than that, and not let it cloud her judgement.

observing is one of her favorite things sitting outside one of the roaring new york city restaurants, she enjoys having her drink in one hand, cigarette in the other. serves little purpose to her but she likes that it makes her feel wholly human, in some perverse way.

she then realizes her drink is empty. it’s the choice of staying and hoping a server comes to her, or getting another herself. she decides the latter and raises to her feet. she puts her cigarettes out and gets to her feet, going to the bar and getting another drink where, upon returning to her seat, she bumps into a shoulder, sending her drink across her dress. “well,” she sighs, not particularly upset, but merely analyzing the situation. “that’s unfortunate.”

[mccall-osterman-blog]

A warm night. The air’s been warm for a while, ever since the world heated up three degrees and the last Arctic Peregrine took flight. There were questions of mass calamity in years prior — whether we’d sink, whether the earth would cease to be inhabitable and our species would end. But if there’s anything true about humanity, it’s that it clings to life despite its errors, no matter who or what or how many it takes down, no matter what cost.

The restaurant’s too cold. Mccall wraps her arms around the goosebumps she shivers into, wills attention away from her as she plucks a cardigan from a stranger’s chair. It’s a nice number — earth-toned cashmere with suede elbow patches, and she drapes it over her shoulders, loops the sleeves in front of her chest and catches some passerby as she heads in. June — doing her own thing in a restaurant — grabbing a coffee for herself — just for the joy of it — a nice change. “Unfortunate,” Mccall repeats, but her lips quirk upwards. “Been a while. Tell me about how’ve you been and I’ll buy you another.”

[dogstreets]

Visit Original Link

[mccall-osterman-blog]

date & time: 8:00pm, a few days after the gala location: mccall’s house, upper east side availability: closed to @oztheinsecureandpowerful

Night: dull-starred and cicada-eyed. Ever since Tesla launched its first ad satellite in ‘32, logos speckle where constellations once swirled, leaving no escape from the noise and cluttered endorsements. “Buy our contacts, see the sky for what it once was!” an ad declares, its tech a fiberoptic coating that blocks ad-specific light frequencies. She knows it well — she finalized LensBloc’s patent, after all — and her stomach churns at having helped hide the night sky behind a paywall. But times have changed, or maybe they haven’t and Mccall’s just now noticing, or maybe she'd previously deluded herself in a heroic haze on who she fought for all this time.

She looks at Oz sprawled next to her on her sofa, a bottle of now-hollow cognac in his arms. She doesn’t ask him about Spain or why he vanished there. She doesn’t ask if he’s kept in touch with any of their old friends. She tries to feel in-tune with him but everything seems distant, now, inches apart on her couch but miles away. If she could ask him anything like an old friend again, what would she ask? The questions burning inside her? If heroes were good for the world? If they ever were? Her gaze flits to the one-star telenovela they started when they both first joined Legion: seven long-lost-sister reveals later and they were still watching it. She looks to Oz again. Looks back at the tv. Looks back at Oz. “Do you ever wonder,” she begins, speech slightly slurred, “if we did the right thing? By joining Legion in the first place? By leaving it — the streets — the city — behind?”

[jahanaras]

the secret history, donna tartt

[moku265]