Prompt #10: Heady
“Some day you’ll see it with your own eyes, when you’re old enough to drink if we’re still profitable. Every surface is polished, there’s not a speck of dirt to spy from floor to ceiling. I’ve never owned such a clean space before. In the past, I would’ve taken great joy in leaving behind muddy footprints like a barbarian charging through a fragile palace on his way to kidnap the queen after breaking through her castle’s defenses.“
“When you live on the Steppe you get used to dirt. I barely saw it. Then I came to Eorzea... The change was gradual. People look at me and they see a degree of composition, but they don’t realize how paperthin that image once was. I was trash. I ruined everything I touched.”
“I moved three times in the past few years and never got the deposit back once. Cigarette burns on the wallpaper, stains on the carpet from spilled food, holes punched through wood; taking care of things wasn’t my style. Now I buff water rings out of a wooden countertop.”
“My clothing is no longer a lie. I’ve changed; gone a little softer maybe. If I went back to the Steppe I would complain about the heat and the bugs. Straw mats, simple food--no. Never again. I don’t spend my days dreaming of violence drunk off my ass with the stink of Kumis on my breath.”
“I don’t even need my mask anymore; prison broke me of the habit. The city smells like home now. I’ve traded in the fresh scents of the wilderness for the stink of too many fucking people and I’m better for it. I’m never goin’ back. And if I ever find out you went back east and crossed the Ruby Sea to visit the land where your old man came from, I will kick your fucking teeth in.”