The Universe's Mixer

Except for the presence of Veronica, Logan hated the City. He had just gotten his first paycheck from work study, and he wouldn't have even bothered wiping his ass with a paycheck that small back in Neptune. But here, it was all the money he had coming for the next two weeks.

So, naturally the money had nearly burnt a hole in his pocket when he received the paycheck. He'd lived off the dining plan at school and done nothing but going to class, working, and seeing Veronica when he could. He was bored, and frustrated and felt like a mere shell of the person he'd been in Neptune.

The bouncer at the bar that was currently just off-campus let him in without even checking his I.D. and Logan proceeded to drink as much as his paycheck could stand. By the time he ran out of cash, he'd already nearly gotten into a fight and had been escorted out of the bar.

"Thanks for the crappy beer," Logan called at the bouncer as the door closed behind him.

He sighed and turned in the direction of campus, only to find out that the campus was no longer there.

"Well, thanks for fucking with me yet again," Logan shouted to no one in particular. Perhaps to the City, if he actually believed that a city could be a living, breathing organism. Then again, he hadn't been able to come up with any better explanation. Not that it mattered, because he was still pissed off, regardless of where it was directed.

When he'd first blacked out - not in the sense of losing consciousness, but in the sense of everything going black, really black, in front of all his eyes - Proginsokes had felt a brief flare of hope. Maybe he was going home at last, to the wide-open universe, away from the shadowed Earth and all of its dirtiness. Maybe he'd be free to Name the stars again, whittling away the eons.

But then he remembered that he had died. Or he had thought he had died. He had X-ed himself, after all, so he should've been dead. He had done what some human soldiers did, killing themselves before the enemy could kill them. By rights, he shouldn't have ended up here in the City. Perhaps this was just the universe's way of correcting itself.

The blackness didn't spin him around, or weigh him down, or drag him away. It just was, and Proginsokes was surrounded by it. He felt like he was moving, though there was no wind to speak of, and certainly no landmarks to judge his speed by.

And then, there were buildings.

Familiar buildings.

After millenia of staring at stars, Proginsokes could recognize buildings he'd seen before instantly. And ah, yes, there was the park, and the wall, and even that alley he'd first appeared in.

The eyes that flashed open were green and yellow, sharp and attentive, but not the sad, downturned eyes he'd had the first time he'd been here. Proginoskes knew, somehow somewhere, that the City wouldn't let one of its creatures go quite that easily, that the black void had simply been a temporary distraction. It looked as if some time had passed. He'd have to figure out what had happened while he was gone.

Jesse? he kythed loudly, the effect on nearby bystanders rather like hearing someone shout someone else's name without the ears as middlemen. Hello?