rickitikitarr: (a good boy mister guillam)
Ricki Tarr ([personal profile] rickitikitarr) wrote in [community profile] reverienet2018-06-08 07:12 pm

voice: un: thomas

Being here reminds me a little of the time I spent working in Kowloon. The walled city is an old Song military outpost in Hong Kong, that everyone poured into some centuries ago. Instead of sprawling out the town went dense, some thousands of refugees pouring their way in and cramping in tight up against one another. I was there in '63, well after the fires and before the police started bothering the cathouses and opium dens.

[Ricki's voice is low, and close to the communicator. The hour is late, and he sounds tired, like he's sitting alone with a drink. His accent is fuzzy, too, British-Australian via Penang, Singapore, others. Indistinct, impossible to place, and cultivated over the years into something level and hypnotic.]

There were thirty thousand people in less than three hundred buildings, piled so tall and crisscrossed with laundry and walkways so thick that sunlight seldom reached the lower levels. You stepped from single cobblestone to cobblestone or else splashed through shallow puddles by the light of the few flourescent bulbs that had been wired in to light the lower market stalls.

[There's pause, and then a quick breath, like he's shaking himself out of it. He doesn't quite chuckle, but you can hear that it's a near thing.]

I'd take that over this if I could. We're just as flourescent and barely lit, but the food was better. My Cantonese is shit, I can order tea and apologize sincerely, but I still think I understood more there than I do here. Better bars, too.
donkeyballs: (eyebrow raise)

un: rocipilot , but not Amos using his comm this time

[personal profile] donkeyballs 2018-06-08 02:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Sounds like Earth and half of the Belt, and yeah - I'd rather be there than here, too.

Well most of the Belt. Our air filters still seem to be working, so there's that, at least.
why_me: (ch: cover model sword)

un: garion

[personal profile] why_me 2018-06-08 02:14 pm (UTC)(link)
That is what happens when there's more than one. Though the bar here is at least... here.

[ A slight pause before- ]

Why did they do that, if you don't mind me asking? Why build up and pack so tight instead of spreading out?
Edited 2018-06-08 14:16 (UTC)
marineris: (pic#12309247)

un: gunny

[personal profile] marineris 2018-06-08 02:35 pm (UTC)(link)
I've been to a slum on Earth like that. Not built up high, though—everyone was cramming together in tents. It looked miserable, but at least I'd know where I was.
setpoint: (pic#12015096)

un: mori

[personal profile] setpoint 2018-06-08 02:37 pm (UTC)(link)
The Walled City? It was demolished decades ago. It's a park with a monument now.
solarcharged: (43)

voice

[personal profile] solarcharged 2018-06-08 08:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Sixty three? As in, nineteen sixty three? [ Apollo huffs a little at the thought, mildly impressed. ] You've come a long way, traveller.
boazjachin: weeknd ( dw ) (♛ finally escape)

un: niijima.m

[personal profile] boazjachin 2018-06-09 02:56 am (UTC)(link)
I've only lived in one city, but even at its most oppressive it didn't feel haunted in the way this station does.
Edited (that is not the word i meant) 2018-06-09 02:57 (UTC)
dumbstruck: (before the lions take their share)

voice; un: topCHOIce

[personal profile] dumbstruck 2018-06-10 12:44 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, the alcohol is pretty awful here...

Though hey, are you a novelist or something? You kind of sound like one with how you were describing everything.
wingstosee: (idlethoughts)

voice; un: aphrodite

[personal profile] wingstosee 2018-06-10 03:36 am (UTC)(link)
The food's better... I guess that's really not difficult, haha. But at least it's not crowded here? Like, we've got plenty of room to walk around and sleep, so that's- something. At least, I think it is.

[ her voice is soft, and fairly low - a high tenor, maybe, just on the verge of androgyny. but it's with a kind tone that she says her words, and asks: ]

If we get the food machines fixed, how much of the problem would that be?
bu773rfly: (Default)

un; hudie

[personal profile] bu773rfly 2018-06-11 10:06 pm (UTC)(link)
I spent a lot of time in a place called Kowloon. It was named after the city. Probably because of the atmosphere - it was a run-down place the authorities didn't bother with. But it also had a lot of imagination. When everything's a little run-down, people act a little more like themselves. Places full of junk bring out the people who think of ways to turn that junk into something useful.

Sometimes I wonder what the value of reminiscing is. Not whether it has any value, obviously it does, but what we can do to turn it into productive action. How to offset feeling bad about what you don't have anymore.