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An off-hand reference to Portofiro's colonial past.

Same place those old pilots came from, different reality.

The Tenantries of Saint Ulwen, re-annexed in the early 80s.

She was part of the trio standing in front of the Housing Campaign.

There's a lot of smog and granite cloud in Novessa... but you can see more stars than you might think.

Despite its reputation as an unfortunate star, every Luzian is taught to rely on Canopus above all others.

You were a full world away. Counting down days in cigarette stubs -- a thick curtain drawn over Novessa, watching a phone that never rang.

Famous for sterile logistics, tax-flexible exports, and a stunning aversion to political alignment.

Pia mater: the thin, almost transparent final membrane protecting the brain. On top of which you found the small controller.

A familiar tick. Like he's caught a glimpse of an alternate future and can't look back.

You never met Twitchitov, but you were always aware of his presence on some unknowable higher level.

You hear his words, then unhear them.

HOLOCENE has never once lied to you. As far as you know, at least.

Sixteen-years-old, physical education class. Mia Holloway climbing the rope ladder directly above you. Panties, constellation pattern, eking loose from sweat-damp gym shorts.

'What is this? Arrête! Get off me!'

The gaps in his remembrance are more detailed than most people's actual memories.

The iron artery that was intended to link Portofiro with La Luz, until the collapse of the Old Luzian Empire prior to Year Zero. The ruins became an infamous suicide spot in the 50s.

Flashes of HOLOCENE's red folder: 'MONSTROUS INTELLIGENCE'... 'HALLUCINATORY LOGICAL CONSTRUCTION'...

When you knew Eszti, she hated EMTERR but understood its lumbering bureaucratic movements. Seems she's put that knowledge to fine use.

You are reminded of certain religious teachers of your childhood, who wore traditional silk raiments all year round.

Education: University of Landau (Degree incomplete). Course of study: Modern economy (maternal pressure).

Preferred vices, mother: Nicotine, alcohol, 'diet shakes'. No known history of solvent abuse ('low-class').

No references found under 'mother' and 'abuse, physical' ('low-class'). 'Abuse, verbal' contains frequent references to 'withholding affection' and 'withering criticism'.

A name you recognise from your political theory training. A quasi-mythical figure, the first man to describe the ideology now known as techno-fascism, dead 150 years before the invention of the computer chip.

Somewhere, the sound of a bell muffled by a dishcloth.

Your mother once tried it to keep her breasts from sagging.

You already have a name for him, even if it's a fraudulent one.

EMTERR, a.k.a. L'Empire sans Territoire, a.k.a. 'The Bank'. Equal parts global development fund and spy service. Linchpin of the Developed World.

The words of your old double HOLOCENE come to mind. In the so-called Developed World, the whole political and cultural economy of a place is revealed through its sporting rivalries.

The local's local. Team of the working classes, with strong ties to the old silk industry.

Recreación is a money laundering vehicle for the profiteer class, those who've won the End of History by steering years of 'stabilisation packages' to their chosen enterprises.

However, due to a loophole in the city code, the canals aren't technically a part of Portofiro.

Your experiences are not universal.

More specifically, it's an onagadori -- an ornamental rooster bred for its long tail.

Unmistakable. Parsing through his near-impenetrable theatre reports could often feel like full-tilt hallucination.

... 'constitutes the single greatest tactical catastrophe in the Operant Bureau's history'...

Hold on, could it really be...

'Nestorismo' -- Nestor's personal brand of politics. It meant whatever he meant in that moment.

Even in this spectral form you recognise him -- Sweet Nestor, Portofiro's supreme leader.

Even in this spectral form you recognise him -- Sweet Nestor, Portofiro's supreme leader from the years 28 to 80.

Formal term for one of various conditions that up until a few decades ago were known collectively as dying of old age.

No matches found in the facial archives, and yet the voice...

This must be where Project OKEANOS was run -- a secretive EMTERR program, meant to breed dolphin-human hybrids.

You remember asking Doctor Kharlov to describe the sensation. He brought his lighter to a piece of paper and let it burn. 'That,' he said, 'But inside.'

The girl in the projected ad. The vision in purple.

You don't recognise the artist.

The Opera has unofficially been considered the last come, last served among the world three's leading intelligence agencies for at least two decades.

Roger Klaus Twitchitov, Director-General of the Operant Bureau from 58 until his untimely death in 87.

Eight hundred and sixty two.

You could make it longer by using the Old Calendar. According to the New Calendar, you were born in 61, but by the old method it was 2632.

517 skill checks - ZERO PARADES field manual - Page 8 of 11