This avant-garde metropolis sat on a foggy planet, and we quickly discovered it had no help to offer us. Here, everything was consumed with an insatiable eagerness before being discarded and forgotten. The luxury was omnipresent and the poverty parked out of sight, out of mind. The VIPs of the night scarfed caviar off the tiny tatas of top-models, rented for the night. Maybe tomorrow these same girls will walk these men on leashes, in some sort of reverse-fortune. Flying cars hovered over the city-dwellers who stumbled, eyes glued to the screen of their new cell phones, the latest version just out this morning. Even the inhabitants seem not to touch the ground, hopelessly and obliviously lost in a cyber-reality.
Before leaving, we managed to get a good price for the books we had saved from the fire. Despite our best efforts, the writing remained incomprehensible. Fuel reserves filled and provisions restocked, we left before we were too tempted by the easy pleasures of this sinful planet.
To be continued on Thursday, October 20
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