CHAPTER ONE

[perturbator]

[The video comes in rather unfocused at first, until some noisy fiddling brings a pair of 80s style Air Jordans into view.]

There's probably other things I should be asking first, but I only have two questions right now. One: How's the weather in California this time of year?

[If this place really is different, the forecast won't be nuclear fallout. People will be there again. America might be whole again.

Quickly, the camera shifts to a small coffee table with several different newspapers strewn all over it, but with a DVD copy of Terminator 2 on top.]

Two: How the fuck do you rewind this thing?

Comments

[slightlyoffchilt]

[That was much more likely the case.]

Mine is thematically different. But placement -- that remains the same, yes.

[perturbator]

So you have the bad Terminator future?

[Super dry and almost managing a joke, there.]

[slightlyoffchilt]

Oh -- no, no. Mine just has statistically more serial killers and mass murderers.

I anticipate that yours is recognizable, at least in comparison to this one we presently live in? Chronological difference aside.

[perturbator]

There's a whole lot more Russia where I'm from.

[Not even touching the mass murderer comment oops]

[slightlyoffchilt]

And you find this unfavorable?

[perturbator]

Yeah. I think anyone in Soviet Hawaii does, too.

[slightlyoffchilt]

Ah. That kind of outcome, I see.

From one war into another, that surely cannot pose any relief.

[perturbator]

Dunno. The toilet helps.

[slightlyoffchilt]

You really raised the bar with expectation, didn't you?

[perturbator]

Hasn't disappointed me yet. Anything I should be raising it for?

[slightlyoffchilt]

The opportunity for a new life with astounding superhuman powers is something worth note, I would say.

[perturbator]

[He's tried the new life thing before. Didn't really work out, though the opportunity here is better. Doesn't mean he thinks he can do much with it.]

You like it here better than where you came from?

[slightlyoffchilt]

I have reason to believe my immediate future is not a particularly forgiving one.

[perturbator]

...So your future already happened there? Or did someone tell you?

[Yeah, this shit is best left to David Cameron movies. That or this guy knows the frustration of portents, too.]

[slightlyoffchilt]

I had been informed. In pieces.

I cannot say that I prefer hearing my fate secondhand. Let us hope you never have to suffer the same.

[perturbator]

[Jacket actually laughs at that. An ironic, empty laugh.]

Yeah. Sounds like a nightmare.

[slightlyoffchilt]

[There's a brief pause -- of the many reactions he had anticipated, hollow laughter wasn't one of them.]

Ah. Do you like living alone?

[Based on the pizza boxes and general demeanor... Chilton anticipated that this youth lived alone.]

[perturbator]

[He can't be sure if the masked figures had merely been a delusion of his comatose state at the time or truly prophets. He's only sure that he'll never know.]

Easy to get used to again, yeah. Had someone at home, though.

[slightlyoffchilt]

Family member? Friend?

[He hesitated to inquire girlfriend -- or boyfriend, as the case may be.]

[perturbator]

Girlfriend.

[He volunteers, surprising himself, though it's still flat. No giving away how raw that hurt still is.]

[slightlyoffchilt]

Do you anticipate she may follow you here? Stranger things have happened.

[perturbator]

She died.

[He never even got the chance to scrub away the chalk outline from his bathroom floor. Or if he could have, maybe it would have felt too final.]

They said that doesn't mean much for the Porter but-- I'll believe it when I see it.

[slightlyoffchilt]

Ah.

[Well wasn't that awkward?]

Do you bear any responsibility for her death? That might get... Messy.

[perturbator]

Do you always ask sick shit about people you don't know right off the bat?

[Because Chilton's right-- even it was the rat bastard who shot her, he brought her into his world. And yet that's only part of what puts the sudden heat in his voice. Who the fuck was this guy?]

[slightlyoffchilt]

I'm a psychiatrist. Given that my clientele are exclusively imPorts -- yes, actually, I typically do.