nobody knows

we went to the smsc. we were working for them when the empty city got us. we figured we deserved a bit of severance pay or something. 'cause we're definitely done working for them.

while we were there, though, i felt like i saw nothing but ghosts. everyone showed the symptoms of having been claimed by a fear. and everyone hid it. badly. a guy who pretended he slept fine and did not dream of eternal carnivals told us to wait in a small waiting room as he went to find a manager. we sat next to two others: a crazy guy with the newborn's pocketwatch in his hands, and a mellower guy who let the dying man in him come out when he thought no one was looking. we kept to ourselves until a manager came out and started talking to them first.

the newborn's pocketwatch was apparently broken. manager offered money to buy it off him for research, but he wasn't interested in money. he said he was looking for a way to summon the newborn, that he planned to fight it. i laughed a bit too loudly here and that's how we got involved in the conversation. apparently they're lonely hearts. i didn't realize they were still around anymore. not affiliated with smsc anymore, that much was clear from the way the manager spoke. their exchange went nowhere, but issy knew how to summon the newborn, so she told them, and we exchanged blogs. just in case we want to catch up. those guys were ishmael and bellman.

oh, and right before issy and i left (with smaller paychecks and bigger grimaces than we'd expected) the rest of the lonely hearts came in. including an exact clone of me. so issy shot her. told the smsc to clean up their damn nobody themselves. then we left.