(no subject)

[serialized]

[ Hey, check it out, a second person chain-smoking all over the podium. Nate kind of looks like he needs it, though. He's got one arm tucked tightly against his chest and the elbow of the other resting on top of it, so the cigarette doesn't have to get very far from his mouth. And he's not real big on eye contact right now, though to be fair, impromptu public speaking in a piazza full of masked hooded figures can do that, plus: hangover sunglasses. ]

Looking for some vacation suggestions. Needs to be not on the North or South American continent, should either be a densely populated city or somewhere difficult to access. Like a seafaring cult cruise ship. But not... a seafaring cult cruise ship.

[ Excuse him while he million-mile-stares into the distance. ]

I don't think I'd like that.

[ Another moment of hollow-eyed contemplation of the air. ]

Also I need to leave like, now.

Comments

[serialized]

[ He's starting to feel bad about his shitty geopolitical grasp of the world. ]

Does that fall under the densely populated category, or the difficult to access? Or both?

[peratic]

[ that is literally the only answer she has because her family is from the caucasus, ok. ]

Both, at least in the city. It's a pariah state near Russia, close to Sochi, but not so expensive. Sometimes tourists who can't go to Sochi go to the Abkhaz capital. I've never actually been, but I always really wanted to go; unfortunately, having a Russian or American visa is probably the best way in. And mine is Swiss, so I'm not in luck.

It's pretty. I don't know if that's a selling point for you or not.

[serialized]

It's. Not a minus.

[ Yes, envision this mopey-looking motherfucker wandering around staring expressionlessly at beautiful places. ]

What did you want to see there?

[peratic]

Novy Afon — 'New Athos'. It's an old cathedral adjacent to a massive karst cave that goes down about a million meters. Which is not hyperbole, it is actually about a million meters.

No idea if I'd be brave enough to go inside it, though. Caves freak me out a little bit.

[serialized]

[ His shoulders relax a little, allowing the one arm some laxness against his chest. Apparently that sounds nice to him. ]

That sounds really interesting. Do they let anyone go down? Like in tours?

[peratic]

[ she notices, in an off-hand kind of way, and decides this is incentive to pursue it. ]

Oh, yeah. There's even a metro for reaching the upper levels, it's that popular. I don't know if it or Voronya, the other big cave over there, have ever been fully explored, though.

I'd want to drop a coin down. Can you imagine? I'm sure they don't allow that, but...

[serialized]

One of those — paper things, that spin when you drop them. Which, yeah, littering. I hang my head in shame.

[ He still has a bit of a middle distance stare. This one seems less fraught, though. More gentle imaginings of floaty things, less whatever that all was about earlier. ]

There are caves like that in China too, aren't there? It is a little freaky to think about.

[peratic]

Are there? I'm not surprised. But yes, it is, a bit. I don't know, you spend all this time walking around on this gigantic lava bomb covered in rocks and water, floating in space, but 99.99% of the time, that never occurs to you, that under your feet there's whole abysses and buried cities and just —

[ With a self-effacing chuff of almost-laughter, she waves a hand, breaking off. ] By that general 'you' I obviously mean 'me'.

[serialized]

Hah. Yeah. I think that's true for most people. Or people who aren't geologists or archaeologists, I guess.

It kind of makes those old timey "hollow earth" people and the mole men and all that seem more sympathetic, too.

[peratic]

Those still exist. I've seen the websites. They're leading an expedition soon!