Plastic Sea (DE) — What's Left, Page 31
By Inkroost · Published
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Transcript
Roka liegt auf dem Stahlboden und hält seinen rechten Arm von sich weg. Vom Ellbogen abwärts bis zu den Fingerspitzen besteht er aus glänzendem schwarzem Chrom mit ölig schillerndem Glanz und leuchtenden cyanfarbenen und magentafarbenen Linien. Auf seinem Handrücken hat sich ein rundes Auge mit cyanfarbener Iris geöffnet.
Image description
Roka sitzt entsetzt auf dem Boden. Sein rechter Unterarm ist nun aus schwarzem Chrom, mit leuchtenden Linien und einem Auge auf dem Handrücken.
About this chapter
In the dark at the bottom of the sea, something is counting. On Candyreef, a candy-coloured island of floating trash, Roka wakes to a water bag in the face from his street crew, lifts breakfast from the old woman who would have fed him anyway, and tells the kid who follows him that he doesn't owe anybody. Then the gulls lift all at once, and a Maw eats half the island. A day and a night alone at sea later, the Garden Ship fishes him out and orders him to walk its treadwheels for fish heads. Roka is nobody's slave, so he goes looking for something to steal instead, and breaks into a barnacled case dredged from the seabed. The silver dust inside climbs into his arm and says hello. It is polite. It is curious. It wants every human dead. And it has just started counting again.