ref: cde05f4187aed1c77b8efb57ee5dabe8d5d5106d
dir: /troff/024.ms/
\" This master file produces text suitable for a 6"x9" paperback. .ds CH \" turn off page numbering (top) .B .nr HM 1i \" header margin .nr FM 1i \" footer margin .nr LL 4.25i \" line length .pl 9i \" page length .po .87i \" page offset (from left) .nr PS 8 \" font point size \" .kern \" pairwise kerning (groff only) .hy 14 \" automatic hyphenation \" .nr VS 24 \" double space .fp 1 R GA \" URW Garamond .fp 2 I GI .fp 3 B GM .fp 4 BI GMI .fp 5 CW H \" Helvetica .LP \& .nr % 61 \ " start with this page number .ds CF [%] \" first numbered page (bottom) .ps 10 .ce .B CONVERTING THE DEMON WITH NINE HEADS \& .ps 8 tags: 1966, kintsugi, mars3, piro, sadbeard .R .PP .ps 10 27 February, Piro's birthday. .PP .ps 10 "Corporations are people\(emokay\(embut how can you tell if they're white?" .PP .ps 10 This again. .PP .ps 10 Kintsugi finished his filet\-o\-fish and moved on to the other side of the porch. Sadbeard could be so... \fIsad,\fR sometimes. Kintsugi really felt sorry for him. The pirate was laser focused on property rights as the locus of political power at the rapidly expanding replacement test site. And, maybe he was right. Just look at the boss' own holdings. The de facto alignment of policy with profits. The slack dispersal of dividends amongst certain of his men. Redline laws. But, did Sadbeard even consider Japanese like Kintsugi to be white? And, what did this arbitrary construction of race matter to him, anyway? Events of the next few moments hinged upon his answer. .PP .ps 10 Kintsugi waited, but Sadbeard had stopped talking. He found himself fondling his receipt. Already he'd nearly worn a hole in the crumpled yellow paper, the thermal dot matrix lettering rubbing off on his fingers even as he scanned and rescanned the manifest: Sadbeard, Kintsugi. Sadbeard, Kintsugi. Sadbeard's name always appearing first on the list, in spite of Kintsugi's superior rating in virtually every category tracked by the company's metrics. The list wasn't even in alphabetical order. It was in racist order. They'd been alive barely a year and already some things never changed. .PP .ps 10 A new serpent appeared. Sadbeard and Kintsugi boarded, by now resorting to the time\-honored cold war cold shoulder. Purely textbook, Kintsugi just wouldn't talk to his partner unless he was forced to. Sat down on the other end of the transport. Hopefully, Sadbeard would take the hint. .PP .ps 10 "Do you think we should kill the boss?" Sadbeard suddenly said, ignoring the seconds old verbal détente. .PP .ps 10 Soft creak of faux leather from somewhere up the line of high\-backed rows, probably near the driver's seat. .PP .ps 10 Piro, the driver, inspecting the scene via rearview mirror. .PP .ps 10 He put the serpent in gear.