[Michelle]

[center]Percival Talks to Himself
Two[/center]

Aside from remembering what it’s like to you know… hold her, what I miss the most is surprisingly the routine, which in reality isn’t so surprising when I think about it because it’s like that normally. We get used to every-bloody-thing, such as wives going to the market and making breakfast with that cheese which is a probable close relative to paper externally, but is surprisingly more internally akin to butter…
I mean, when I wake up now… sweet fuck all to do apart from dither about town. It’s fundamentally a perpetual succession where I’m skint because I can’t bookbind, and I can’t bookbind because I’m skint and can’t afford fucking… tools, or materials.

…

I got out of the jungle… you know, eventually, when I thought I was going to become dusk supper. I, by some means managed to find the mining camp and had to swim across this lake to get there. Sometimes you don’t really fathom out how deep the water is until you get in. When you’re looking at it, you see that it’s deep, but when you’re in…

…

I met this woman named… Fuck, I’ve forg- Marty, well her name’s Margretha but she tells me to call her Marty, so of course I do. What I notice about her is that she has these… complicated little patterns tattooed into her skin, and you can just see them when she moves her head a little to the side. Reminds me of my father, who had a few on his arms, and that’s when I sort of suss out that she’s… fairly old. She says she’ll carve some stone tools for me if I bind her a book, so she’s saving my arse of course, because unsurprisingly I’m fucking useless. Every-fucking-one’s always saving my fucking arse.

When you’re in the water, it’s as terrifying as anything I’ve ever seen. You go back up to the surface of course, and the idea that you actually ever thought the water wasn’t that deep seems… asinine. It’s a tad embarrassing, frankly.
How did I think I could just wade my way through it?

…

There’s an election for mayor happening at present in town, and initially I thought that would get me into shit, but it feels like… no one really cares, or they’re not going on about it because I’m a new face. I’m not whinging, but what actually got me in strife was, in actual fact, a fucking egg.
It was… a bit dodgy and I don’t want to be too cruel, but somehow it was concurrently burnt and raw, as well as slimy and gritty from eggshell. Something like dirt and blood, which was a bit…
And I tried to eat it, really I did, but it was… you know.
It was dog’s arse.

I keep thinking Captain Lapis will come after me, which is stupid but there was another man behind the bar – kind of a brewer – and he seemed to know her well… and he did not want to save my arse. So either he’s a bit of a wanker or she’s… no one could actually be that offended… yes?
Sod it. I’m not going to sleep tonight...

They wanted my story.

…
…
…

They wanted my story, and that’s the first thing I learnt about the people here. They have stories, and that’s why they’re here. I had no fucking idea what to say, so I just… got around it. What was I expected to say? Just… fuck.
I’m trying to fucking hold my self together. My skin, and the very… whatever’s left, but there’s a lurching in my stomach and there’s a fucking… hole...
There's a hole running right through my throat.
How did I think I could just come here and fucking be invisible?