It wasn't like when Tomoe first woke in Duplicity. There was no grogginess and no fuzzy-headed confusion. No, she became aware with a start and a strangled cry, eyes flying wide as she reached to claw at a ligature around her throat that was no longer there. It took her several long seconds to realize that she was no longer choking and that she was breathing perfectly fine, despite the terrible pain at her throat. It was then that she realized that she didn’t recognize her surroundings--she was no longer in North Park nor was she dressed in her own clothing. She stared forward at a train she was unfamiliar with--not the train that ran between the Up and the Down. She turned, looking around her, hand at her throat as the air wheezed through her abused windpipe, but there was no one else there.
What had just happened? Someone had attacked her--strangled her. She had pretty much been dead, she was sure of it. Her already scattered thoughts were completely derailed by the train’s horn sounding loud and long. She turned about again, seeing nothing that told her anything--aside from a the ticket in her hand. Was this another game by LIES? The same as the entire city shifting to Al Danahab or the arrival of the floating hotel… The horn sounded again and she turned back to the train. Should she board? She wasn’t sure. So much could go wrong so easily… had already gone wrong every time the setting had changed--and yet the longer she waited the more unease entered into her. There was a bag at her feet--hers? It must be. She paused a few more moments until her nerves couldn’t take it anymore. One hand still held protectively over her throat she leaned down to grab the bag and rushed forward through the doorway and onto the train, immediately feeling the unease lessen once she was aboard.
It doesn’t take her long to notice one very significant detail: everyone on the train is a Dominant. No matter how many people she sees, she doesn’t see a single submissive mark. Had she wound up in the wrong place? Was there a car somewhere on the train where the submissives had all been herded? If that was the case why hadn’t any of the Dominants she’d passed tried to force her that way…? unless they were all LIERs… regardless of designation most LIERs did not readily play along with Duplicity’s games… even so, it was insane that she had not seen a single other submissive by now. There had always seemed to be more submissives than Dominants in Duplicity…
She had slowly moved through each of the cars--at least the lower levels and corridors of them--until she’d gone as far forward as she was able to go. Still with no answers… but at the very least there didn’t seem to be anything untoward going on with the themes of the train. She had truthfully expected to walk in on scenes she wanted no part of.
Network… That was one thing that remained constant at all times no matter what shift the environment took on. The devices were always constant. She had reached the locked off engine car and doubled back through the stores and dining car, pausing in the following car, dropping the bag to the floor before patting herself down, feeling through any pockets she could find for the “phone”. Nothing. She knelt down to the bag, opening it and rifling through the contents that she didn’t recognize with no sign it. That didn’t make any sense. That was how LIES tracked them. How they spied on them. They wanted all LIERs to have it on them at all times, it didn’t make sense for it to be missing. The one single recognizable thing in the bag was her journal…
Her journal… with the proof of all that had been taken from her inside it… She’d forgotten again… with the attack and the setting change she’d forgotten all of the gaping holes. She dropped the book back into the bag, her hand coming up to cover her mouth, her mind spinning and trying to make sense of everything, but there was just too much. Too much information and too many holes between what she did have. She almost laughed then, at all of it. Instead she shifted, her back hitting the wall before sliding down the rest of the way to the floor, not caring that she was in the way of anyone trying to pass through.
WILDCARD >8U I LIKE EXPOSITION OKOK
What had just happened? Someone had attacked her--strangled her. She had pretty much been dead, she was sure of it. Her already scattered thoughts were completely derailed by the train’s horn sounding loud and long. She turned about again, seeing nothing that told her anything--aside from a the ticket in her hand. Was this another game by LIES? The same as the entire city shifting to Al Danahab or the arrival of the floating hotel… The horn sounded again and she turned back to the train. Should she board? She wasn’t sure. So much could go wrong so easily… had already gone wrong every time the setting had changed--and yet the longer she waited the more unease entered into her. There was a bag at her feet--hers? It must be. She paused a few more moments until her nerves couldn’t take it anymore. One hand still held protectively over her throat she leaned down to grab the bag and rushed forward through the doorway and onto the train, immediately feeling the unease lessen once she was aboard.
It doesn’t take her long to notice one very significant detail: everyone on the train is a Dominant. No matter how many people she sees, she doesn’t see a single submissive mark. Had she wound up in the wrong place? Was there a car somewhere on the train where the submissives had all been herded? If that was the case why hadn’t any of the Dominants she’d passed tried to force her that way…? unless they were all LIERs… regardless of designation most LIERs did not readily play along with Duplicity’s games… even so, it was insane that she had not seen a single other submissive by now. There had always seemed to be more submissives than Dominants in Duplicity…
She had slowly moved through each of the cars--at least the lower levels and corridors of them--until she’d gone as far forward as she was able to go. Still with no answers… but at the very least there didn’t seem to be anything untoward going on with the themes of the train. She had truthfully expected to walk in on scenes she wanted no part of.
Network… That was one thing that remained constant at all times no matter what shift the environment took on. The devices were always constant. She had reached the locked off engine car and doubled back through the stores and dining car, pausing in the following car, dropping the bag to the floor before patting herself down, feeling through any pockets she could find for the “phone”. Nothing. She knelt down to the bag, opening it and rifling through the contents that she didn’t recognize with no sign it. That didn’t make any sense. That was how LIES tracked them. How they spied on them. They wanted all LIERs to have it on them at all times, it didn’t make sense for it to be missing. The one single recognizable thing in the bag was her journal…
Her journal… with the proof of all that had been taken from her inside it… She’d forgotten again… with the attack and the setting change she’d forgotten all of the gaping holes. She dropped the book back into the bag, her hand coming up to cover her mouth, her mind spinning and trying to make sense of everything, but there was just too much. Too much information and too many holes between what she did have. She almost laughed then, at all of it. Instead she shifted, her back hitting the wall before sliding down the rest of the way to the floor, not caring that she was in the way of anyone trying to pass through.