Pick me up and take me to the ocean.
Leave me where the waves break against the rocky shore.
Go home and sit down at your desk.
And speak of us or love no more. 

I have been loved by something strange and it has forgotten me. 

Your hands are coarse, you have stars on your chest.

If that night in Berlin was the only thing I ever got from us, it would still be enough. I was weightless and you were the world. 

You never did read The Necrophiliac. I guess it was a strange gift to win over a new over with. Trust me, it really is a very beautiful book.

No one has been as beautiful to me as you, and no one has looked more like a monster. You appear to me as in visions, and we have walked together in myths spun while we moved, I still see the thread in your hands. You smell like a dying man, you know. Or one returned from death. Is that why you steal? 

"I never loved you," you said. But you see, I know that you did. 

It's my story too.

Naked in the dark

It is time for us to be brave.

I no longer dream about the end of the world, but of something stranger still; I dream that everything is well. 

by Marta Sokołowska, martaso.carbonmade.com/

A lot of us are only pretending. The truth is, once society became this patriarchal, there wasn't room for most men in it any longer. The military ranks have been reallocated and renamed a number of times. Currently the fourth link in the chain of command on any given ship in the Navy is Future Hero because there just isn't enough decorated officers left. The higher ups are constantly seeking to rid themselves of their rivals; thinking that, in theory, only the most powerful opponents are a threat, but quickly realizing that as soon as they've emptied a seat someone else is already shuffling to fill it. So, this island nation of ours has become a society of the old, the weak, and of women dressed as men in constant fear of awakening the jealous wrath of their superiors, but in greater fear of the farms we would otherwise have to live out our lives on. Led toward the final night of the nations by strong leaders, ultimate alphas, who are physically incapable of thinking of anything but their own glory in any given moment. The waters are waiting darkly, and I grab your hand, smiling warmly as we hide together in plain sight, hoping to wait out even this.

- dream of a flooded, global Pan-America governed by military forces and men who have become almost like animals after the spread of some testosterone-boosting disease.

We'd been wandering for a long time when we arrived here, to the After. Nothing ever ends up here unless it's already happened, and we've constructed a hut for ourselves out of broken glasses (they cut, but they shine prettily where the light is let through) and things-we-once-hoped. I've been trying to sleep at night. It was one of the things I could never do in the Before. But I still have trouble. You, however, have adventurous, colourful dreams. I wonder if you realize where we are. 

Venus

Maybe she is still there somewhere?

Choose your own adventure: The Relationship Game

Distraction
After the 5 hour argument you go out to do some shopping. You’re still hungover. For some reason or other you don’t see the car approaching until you're halfway across the street, but suddenly it’s roaring towards you at 200 an hour. It’s swaying, like the driver can’t decide what to do.

• Stop dead in your tracks, hoping that the car will have time to move out of its trajectory towards you. [the car is too close to you to avoid hitting you as you are standing there, frozen, in the middle of the street. The impact kills you. Not instantly, but close enough. You never get to say goodbye but at least you were thinking of him when it happened. Game over.] 
• Run forward, in the same direction you were walking. [you narrowly escape the horrible collision to find yourself panting on the sidewalk, a kind pedestrian asking “are you okay? That guy drove really fast!”] 
• Run back in the direction you came from. [get hit by another car and cause a series of crashes as you are still in traffic and several cars are approaching on this side of the street after the light has switched further up]