found and fast friends [Walter]

[wrongintheworld]

The world Todd chose is like something out of a steampunk novel; maybe it even is. Trolleys lurch at alarming speeds through the streets, and tall smokestacks belch black clouds into the sky as people in oily greatcoats and dark caps hurry down the narrow, twisting lanes. The sun is invisible, or maybe just not there, and streetlamps sputter

Comments

[apocryphal_mind]

It's the sort of place Walter always figured he should live in- it would just make sense for him to be somewhere like this. Sometimes, right after the Shop hired him, he'd think he was where there was never any daylight, but there was plenty of fluorescence and neon, and everything seems shiny and dirty and dark. It's his place.

So his shoulders relax visibly as soon as they step into this world, causing his trench coat to hang better on his frame. "Nice world," he says appreciatively, following Todd at a near leisurely pace. He really should move faster, considering how hungry he is.

[wrongintheworld]

"Oh?" Todd shivers, tucking his hands inside his sleeves. "I guess..." It was the kind of place he would've written about before, but he doesn't really like it; a brighter world would be better, one with grass and people who smiled all the time. One with fewer edges.

He leads them through a twisting and confusing set of sidelanes to an almost hidden doorstep, and stops there, glancing around. "We, ah- you have to be good inside, okay? We have to be good or they throw us out and you can't talk."

[apocryphal_mind]

He stares closely at Todd, trying to figure out what he means by 'being good'. Ah, but then Todd reaches the end, and- okay, so they just can't talk. Walter nods. "I'll be quiet as a mouse, promise." He really will be, too- the Shop helped him be very good at that. He smiles encouragingly at Todd, noticing sadly just how hungry he is.

[wrongintheworld]

Todd doesn't quite smile back, but he tries his best, before turning the doorhandle and stepping into the dark, gloomy room beyond. That seems to be the theme here; there's a small possibility that none of this is even real, or maybe just a certain degree of real, but it's not important.

The hall is filled with the homeless of this world, some quietly dying of radiation poisoning sectioned off by themselves, and the 'healthy' taking up the bulk of the hall, silent save for the rustle of breathing and quiet sipping of soup. The hall is presided over by formidable looking matrons, and Todd slips towards the end of a line what leads to the main serving area.

The matrons also have electric shockprods. Oh dear.