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[outtatime]

[ A » Action; 918 Bilko Boulevard (Morning) ]

[ Jeez it felt like days since Marty last slept. He probably could get away with sleeping all the way until the afternoon but a part of him was pushing him to at least pry one eye open. The last thing he remembers was taking the DeLorean back home with the Doc but everything else is just one huge blur in his head. Chalk it up to getting your atoms scrambled on a near constant basis. Maybe that's what he needed, sleep it off a little more. That subconscious of his seems to have the right idea, it really does feel like he's sleeping on a full size mattress fit for two.

Yeah... just a few more minutes.

But as he shifts from beneath the comforters, something feels kind of off. His eyes finally flutter open that this...is definitely not his bed. Now that reality has caught his attention, his eyes are now wide open and shoots up from bed. ]

[ B » Action; Bilko Boulevard ]

[ Okay so Mayfield, right? Now he just needs to get a date on this place. The newspaper was able to tell him that much but the full year is scratched off. Great. Nineteen fifty-what? Every page he flips, the printed year appears to be nonexistent. Like something purposefully redacted it from the print. Nah, it can't be right. He just needs to get his hands on a better copy. If you're up and about enjoying your daily routine, don't be alarmed if there's a kid near your front yard, opening your trash bins for old newspapers. ]

[ C » Action; Downtown Area ]

[ Well... here we go again. You're probably one of the newer residents, maybe even a pro-Mayfield veteran. Who cares! Marty sure as hell can't tell. So whoever you are, there's a wild Marty from behind yelling-- ]

Excuse me!

Comments

C - Downtown

[ooeeooahah]

Yes?

[outtatime]

Yeah. [ Hopefully this time, he didn't call out to another pod-person. What did they call them? Drones? Those guys. ]

Can you tell me where's here? I'm sorta new to town but I forgot what state...?

[ooeeooahah]

Sorry hon - we haven't figured that out yet, spatially or temporally.

[ She smiles at him, sympathetically. ] You just got here this morning?

[outtatime]

Yeah but- [ He looks up at her in confusion. ] How do you know?

[ooeeooahah]

[ She chuckles. ] I could say you have that "new resident" smell, but really everyone here asks a variation of "Where am I" on their first day.

However, I do have some useful information for you. [ Ilsa pulls an envelope out of her purse, which contains mimeographed copies of a map of Mayfield, out to the highway, the safe housing and medics list, the most recent edition of The Rose's introductory letter, and some other reports. ]

This has a good bit of the information you might want.

[outtatime]

[ ....Riiight. Well this woman sure has it down pat. He will happily take that envelope and skim through the introductory letter. ]

I'm... I'm stuck here?

[ That look of confusion still doesn't go away. He skims through the letter. Maybe he's missing something. Anything. ]

The hell kind of place is this?

[ A rhetorical question but something tells hims that he will eventually find out the hard way. ]

[ooeeooahah]

Not sure, the theories cover everything from shared hallucination to a simulation to keep psychotic patients entertained in a mental institution.

The ones that are capable of shifting dimensions, or whatever their terms for it are, haven't found a way out, yet.

[outtatime]

So the answer is there is no answer....

[ He stares back down at the piece of paper. ]

Heavy.

[ooeeooahah]

Or, there is an answer, we just don't know it yet.

[ She smiles, and changes the subject. ]

Anyone else aware in your house?

[outtatime]

My house...?

[ He needs to think about this one for a second. ]

You're talking about that place I woke up in? Can't say I'm well acquainted yet. Everything happened pretty fast as soon as I woke up.

[ooeeooahah]

Think of it as your assigned bivouac, if it helps. You're going to need to sleep on the property about every third night. Otherwise, you get put back in your bed, and you get droned for about a day.

[ She shrugs. ] But as I said, you just need to be on the property. I've got an apartment in the basement, from when my assigned husband was someone who couldn't stand physical proximity.

[outtatime]

So all I gotta do is just stay on my turf and I won't be turned into one of the pod-people. Yeah, sounds easy enough.

[ Man, just thinking about being turned into one those things just makes him cringe. ]

Jeez talk about sticking close to your family. I'm not even out of high school and they got me settled down.

[ooeeooahah]

Eighteen is the magic mark for most people here. Your assigned mate a drone, or aware?

[outtatime]

Pretty sure they're not a drone unless I'm missing something here. Those kids I saw on the other hand... I was trying to get out of the house but they kept jumping in front me yelling "Dad! Dad!"

They even asked me for a pony...

[ooeeooahah]

[ Ilsa winces. ] Yeah, there's still one drone child at my house. But it's easier to deal with the kids than a drone spouse.

[outtatime]

No kidding. I don't think I'm ready to come home to a drone wife with a pot roast in the oven. It's bad enough this town thinks I'm married. My girlfriend would totally kill me if she found out.

[ooeeooahah]

Tch, I occasionally do make pot roast, but that's because it's something I can ignore for hours while getting research done.

[ Ilsa chuckles. ] She might be angry until she realized it wasn't your choice, give her some credit. If it were choice-driven, my alpha mate would have been assigned to me after my first husband was droned.

[outtatime]

[ Real smooth there, Marty. ]

Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I think it's all the fake attention they give that's really [ He eyes one drone taking a light stroll down the street with a great big, cheesy grin on his face. ] weird... They just don't have one care in the world.

But you're right. It's not like I got some sort of warning. Not even one of those weird dreams like when you get abducted by aliens.

[ooeeooahah]

Depends on the aliens, doesn't it?

[ She snickers and goes on. ] Right now, everything is boring, even if a bit creepy. But keep an eye on the calendar, and be aware of the holidays. That's the only warning we have so far of things going haywire. Not everything happens around a holiday, but that's one of the indicators.

[outtatime]

Haywire? What- Like the higher drones marching down the streets to make sure we drank all of our milk?

[ooeeooahah]

Not that easy - they usually influence parts of the aware population to do that for them. Hm, next holiday is... erg, Mother's Day. Last year, the guys were under the influence to follow any orders given to them by women, no matter how ludicrous, dangerous, or erm... biologically impossible.

[outtatime]

No kidding? And here I thought this place was trying to play keeping up with the Jones.

[ He smirks. ]

Thanks. So how long have you been here for?

[ooeeooahah]

A year, as of the 15th.

[ She sighs, frowning. ]

In that time, I've died four times, had my personality or perceptions altered several times, and been under a couple instances of partial droning.

[outtatime]

[ His brows furrow, looking at her sadly.

Jeez, the kid just got here and already he wants to hightail it out of here. Imagine staying here for an entire year. ]

Man, how do you keep a straight face? I'd probably go nuts here with all that happening to me.

[ooeeooahah]

I got a support network, found my mate early, and just kept searching for a way out.