It didn't matter. Not sure what else I can say.
Once I wrote you about the havoc caused by
Specimen Number 2016 and how we barely made it out alive. It is hard to believe that things could get even worse.
During my many misadventures through time, space, the dimensional inbetween, and the Edge of Beyond, my team and I have encountered numerous hardships and endured unspeakable evils. To put it mildly, friends: I've seen some shit.
But I write this now from the rain-soaked neon-lit rooftop of a long-abandoned hotel, broken and afraid, while what remains of my teammates surround me, eyes to the sky, waiting for an evac bird that may or may not be coming.
Our efforts to survive have worked, barely. Our attempt to dimension-hop home again failed. And all of this feels familiar. We'd once again jumped to a familiar-feeling reality that is not quite home. Again. Déjà vu. I've been in this place before.
I have spent the past year trying to come to terms with this twisted circle of hell and devising a way out. Our plans to build a time machine out of a car failed when we could not find the right model. The best we could use would've been an old hatchback, but our portable reactor would've needed tofu as fuel, and the time circuitry would've been linked to tire temperature. Putting the car into controlled slides to generate the right temperature was not a discipline we could nail down consistently. As our nights of fire turned into mornings and we felt the beat of the rising sun, we were no closer to home. Attack that corner at the wrong angle, and we'd go back too far. We'd find ourselves drifting into the '90s... which would've been preferable to this hellish year.
I look around this rainy roof, the glowing city below, and I cannot help but think of the insanity I've witnessed this year. I've... seen things you people wouldn't believe.
- Attack ships on fire off the Shoulder of Orion.
- Common sense grew increasingly uncommon.
- Millions of credits' worth of cargo ships vanish with the screams of 30,000 souls.
- The concept of self-improvement murdered by self-entitlement.
- I watched as tax-evading corporations squabbled with tax-evading corporations over profits.
- I saw the biggest ship expo in the galaxy turn into an underwhelming overpriced shitshow.
- Arguably the last remaining superpower on Earth continued its unstoppable decline to shitholedom, the sun having long set upon its empire.
- I saw people claim to want respect when what they sought was attention.
- I witnessed the entertainment industry's ongoing War on Redheads. A pox upon the entire industry, I say.
- I watched the public continue to give chances to companies that repeatedly proved they didn't deserve it.
- I lost loved ones, but gained a few along the way.
- I heard the incomprehensible ravings of a nuclear-equipped manchild and its cabal of international supervillains.
- I witnessed the continued activity of ethnoterrorist organizations and people's inexplicable reluctance to admit to themselves that is indeed what they are.
- I heard people express ridiculous fears about tracking devices, publicly posting the aforementioned fears from the tracking devices they keep on them at all times.
- A virological pandemic the likes of which we have not seen in our lifetimes reared its ugly head, yet people are too stupid to react accordingly.
- I watched helplessly as rampant unchecked capitalism increased its kill count.
- I saw questions, doubts, and desire for conversation dismissed as fear, hate, and other buzzwords.
- I heard underequipped would-be neuromancers bitching that their weak-ass decks aren't augmented enough to handle the latest softs. No one else's fault but yours if your gonk-ass wetware can't support the chrome. Delta outta here with that shit, choom.
- I saw people die who should've lived, and vice-versa.
- I saw the bad guys get away with it, as usual.
- I collect spores, moulds, and fungus.
- I lost The Game.
- I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.
All those moments will be lost in spacetime when my friends and I jump out of this torturous dimension and interminable year. Surely, things for you guys back home were peaceful, happy, and safe, with the world's power wielded by rational individuals who genuinely have our planet and its peoples' best interests in mind. I long to once again be with you all, to get close to you, to hug you, to share a meal and a drink, and to celebrate the New Year together, in a packed room of happy people with nothing but smiles on our faces!
Oh, how much I must've missed, being marooned here! I can't wait to catch up on what a great year 2020 must have been for all of you back home!
I'll be right there!
- Numbers
From the roof of the Bradbury Building
Los Angeles, January 2021
