Side Scenes of Tomorrow (Redux)

[Zelphas]

Always Tomorrow, Never Today

Spoiler: Opening Music

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Tomorrow City. It's supposed to be the city of the future, the city of bright lights and brighter people, where everything is getting better day after day. And if you're one of those brighter people, living up in the spotlights and neon signs of the town, it might really be like that. I wouldn't know myself.

Every bright light casts a shadow. And plenty of nasty things like to live in the shadows of the world's brightest lights.

The name's Trevor Gilliam. Most people call me Slapdash. When I was younger, my family thought I'd be one of those brighter lights in the city, but it turn's out my shine's a little... defective. And they can't have broken lights in the city of the future, so I live in the shadows instead, using my flickering bulb to root out the other nasties and expose their dark deeds.

I'm a private detective. The pay's terrible, the clients are worse, and I make far more enemies than friends, but it's something I can do. Something that needs doing. And every once in a while, you come across a case that makes it all seem worthwhile.

I could tell right away that this wasn't going to be one of those cases.

The way the case got to me was pretty standard: crying widow, middle of the day, lost wedding ring that she wants tracked down. She says that her former husband's death was an accident, but I've been through this kind of case too many times--it's never an accident. Anyways, I'll skip ahead to the interesting bits. After meeting with the widow and promising to take the case even though she couldn't pay me right away (they never can), I made my way from the seedy side street where my office is located to a slightly-less-seedy street closer to the big lights of the seedy, off to meet another light that shone a little too differently to be placed up there with the brighter people of Tomorrow City. On the way, I called a few of my other associates and filled them in on the newest case; I'd worked with them all before. I had a feeling in my gut that this one was going to be a headache, and I've learned to trust my gut.

"So, uh," I said, turning to face the group in Suzie Foreman's basement home-slash-laboratory after finally talking my way into getting the doorman to let me inside, "How's... how's everyone been?"

Spoiler: OOC

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Feel free to do what you like with this, everyone! I just thought it would be fun to write out, since it was still stuck in my head.

[Quellian-dyrae]

I was in my office/suite, Room 3 of the 33rd floor of the Heave, Inc. headquarters. As I always was at this time of day. Or pretty much any time of day, really. The Stalker was still out there, and security had to be maintained.

It had been so long since I had ventured into the outside world. You'd think it wouldn't bother me. As a high-ranking Heave executive, pretty much anything one could ask for was at my fingertips. Fine foods and drinks. An endless array of entertainment. Company, camaraderie, and friendship were all readily available among the company's many employees. The building had countless amenities and spectacular views. And on top of it all, I knew I was doing good work, even if few would ever really know of it. From the outside, it would not be unfair to say I lived in Paradise.

I had everything anyone could want, except the freedom to do what I wanted. People don't realize how much that matters.

My name? Well, that I think must remain my secret. Even among the Heave employees, that information is tightly classified. The Stalker has many connections, maybe even as many as I do. For a while I was just known as "the guy in Three on Thirty-Three". That proved...less than convenient to say. These days, those people who know I exist tend to call me Trinity.

Now, I may not have been able to engage with the outside world, down below the thirty-third floor, but that didn't mean I couldn't influence it. Like I mentioned, I have my share of contacts, people from all walks of life throughout Tomorrow City. They kept an eye on things for me, and in turn I kept an eye on them. Through a network of cameras and comms, I could pull information from a variety of people and places throughout the city, and feed it back to others who could use it.

Sometimes I liked to call them my Angels. What can I say, I felt a certain affinity with Charlie.

Right now, my attention was focused on three different perspectives of a particular meeting in a particular basement. Three of my best contacts had been invited there. No big surprise; one way or another, my network of information had proven occasionally useful to Mr. Gilliam's investigations, and though he might or might not have been entirely aware of it, my proxies had hired his services a few times before. As wide as my network reached, sometimes you could only get the answers you needed with a more hands-on investigation. There was more connecting these three than me; while they may have been raised - and lived - in very different places in society, the triplets still felt strongly the bonds of family between them.

Caleb was the first to arrive. The clean-cut young man was dressed in a smart grey suit and bowler hat, and greeted the others in attendance with firm handshakes. The young detective was a rising star in the Tomorrow City PD. The people who raised him, the notorious Marlone crime family, had been thrilled when he earned his position on the force - until he had used his new position and his years of knowledge of their operations to help the police bring them down in one fell swoop. He was my eyes and ears on both sides of the law.

Amy arrived shortly thereafter, with little smiles and tiny waves of greeting, her simple pink blouse and skirt still covered by her white labcoat. Amy was a doctor at a local hospital, putting the cutting-edge medical science of Tomorrow City to work helping those in need. But when not on call at the hospital, she also volunteered at free clinics throughout the city. She had a wealth of contacts in the medical community, and also significant connections among the less privileged members of the city's underclass.

Finally, fashionably late as always, came Nadia. Dressed to kill in a shimmering sky blue cocktail dress lightly adorned with sparkling jewelry, with her face and hair all done up, it seemed like she was coming from some high-society party or event of some kind (or possibly planning to go to one after this meeting (or actually, knowing Nadia, probably both)). She swept in with big smiles, friendly hugs, and cheek-to-cheek kisses for everyone. An actress and socialite, Nadia moved through the halls of high society like a fish through the sea. She was my first source for any important rumors and gossip from those lofty heights.

"Can't complain."

"I'm good, thanks. How have you been?"

"Oh, man, everything has been great! Rufina Sheenan was throwing a party two days ago and you would not believe..."