[Inaudible]
PAA: Deputy? Are you all right?
JF: No, wait. I’m okay. I’m sorry. I just need to breathe for a second or two. Hold on.
PAA: Do you want a glass of water?
JF: [Inaudible] Just get on with whatever you’re going to ask.
PAA: Maybe we should arrange for another time.
JF: Do I look like I have time to spare? I’ve signed up for the next Embrace ceremony, you officious putz. Just finish the interview. Please, just ask whatever it is you’re supposed to ask.
PAA: Okay, then. Let’s see. Above average arrest records, substantial and noted commendations, etcetera, etcetera… Well, if it weren’t for several of your recent outbursts and the aforementioned medication indulgences, I’d say your career record is quite admirable and worthy of full termination benefits.
JF: [Inaudible] Nope—not fine. Not fine at all. Here it comes…
PAA: Excuse me?
JF: I said, do you have any tissues?
WHY SO BLUE?
In the diagnostic silos of Fogarty’s Medical Conditions and Diseases Index, the following brief synopsis is provided for Second Free Zone cases of the affliction known as Depressus:
Depressus (VAST D.),
n
.—a severe, stage-classified psychosis. VAST D. is a mental disorder affiliated with the liberalized citizens of the Second Free Zone confederacies (suborbital tracking orbits) characterized by abject downward mood swings, sudden bouts of misplaced rage, anhedonia, sleep disturbances, and feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness. The diagnostic criteria for VAST D. include the following: a depressed form, a marked reduction of interest or pleasure in virtually all normal behaviors, as well as occasional flare-ups of intense anger [
see
substratum Endogenous D., Exogenous D., bipolar disorder, also 2-79A Syn. Clinical depressive disorders.] According to the FG & SFZHO Depressus affects 5.5% of the liberalized citizens of the Second Free Zone, and the negative bearing on commercial interests is estimated at 16 trillion credits annually. The disorder is theorized to result from a genetic electrochemical malfunction of the limbic system aggravated by continued variance in high-altitude exposure in the Second Free Zone. Recent research has shown the number of glial cells in the subgenual prefrontal cortexes of people with familial VAST D. to be significantly dwarfed by those of otherwise mentally healthy citizens. Treatment with psychopharmaceutical agents (including tenth-generation tricyclic antidepressants, nano-selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors [NSSRIs], ancient monoamine oxidase [A-MAO] inhibitors) is ineffective for sustained control in most cases. To date, long-term stabilization of the disease is impossible, with affected persons opting for now-sanctioned mass-suicide events.
Ah, Depressus.
Quite the bitch, but it sure does thin the herd.
GOING DOWN
Koko rockets down the plummet chute.
It is greasy in the chute’s core. The inner funneling dimensions wind her around and around as though she’s being flushed through an industrialized carnival ride, and the tangy pong of runny garbage and dried urine is so intense it makes her eyes water. Knowing she needs distance, she tucks in her limbs for speed. How many decks has she passed? Thirty? Maybe fifty? How big is
Alaungpaya
anyway?
Soon a graffiti-streaked sign whips by overhead, indicating Koko is nearing the plummet chute’s bottom and approaching
Alaungpaya
’s main entertainment decks. Easing her rate of speed with friction points on her boot heels and chafed elbows, she readies herself and three seconds later is ejected out a set of rubberized doors with all the fanfare of a mechanical fart.
Koko lands on her back and loses her wind. She sucks and sucks and finally finds her air. Whipping her head around, she discovers she’s in another access tunnel and quickly gets to her feet. She straightens her soiled tank top, dislodges her shorts from the crack of her butt, and prepares herself for the bounty agent. After a full minute of
PAA: Deputy? Are you all right?
JF: No, wait. I’m okay. I’m sorry. I just need to breathe for a second or two. Hold on.
PAA: Do you want a glass of water?
JF: [Inaudible] Just get on with whatever you’re going to ask.
PAA: Maybe we should arrange for another time.
JF: Do I look like I have time to spare? I’ve signed up for the next Embrace ceremony, you officious putz. Just finish the interview. Please, just ask whatever it is you’re supposed to ask.
PAA: Okay, then. Let’s see. Above average arrest records, substantial and noted commendations, etcetera, etcetera… Well, if it weren’t for several of your recent outbursts and the aforementioned medication indulgences, I’d say your career record is quite admirable and worthy of full termination benefits.
JF: [Inaudible] Nope—not fine. Not fine at all. Here it comes…
PAA: Excuse me?
JF: I said, do you have any tissues?
WHY SO BLUE?
In the diagnostic silos of Fogarty’s Medical Conditions and Diseases Index, the following brief synopsis is provided for Second Free Zone cases of the affliction known as Depressus:
Depressus (VAST D.),
n
.—a severe, stage-classified psychosis. VAST D. is a mental disorder affiliated with the liberalized citizens of the Second Free Zone confederacies (suborbital tracking orbits) characterized by abject downward mood swings, sudden bouts of misplaced rage, anhedonia, sleep disturbances, and feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness. The diagnostic criteria for VAST D. include the following: a depressed form, a marked reduction of interest or pleasure in virtually all normal behaviors, as well as occasional flare-ups of intense anger [
see
substratum Endogenous D., Exogenous D., bipolar disorder, also 2-79A Syn. Clinical depressive disorders.] According to the FG & SFZHO Depressus affects 5.5% of the liberalized citizens of the Second Free Zone, and the negative bearing on commercial interests is estimated at 16 trillion credits annually. The disorder is theorized to result from a genetic electrochemical malfunction of the limbic system aggravated by continued variance in high-altitude exposure in the Second Free Zone. Recent research has shown the number of glial cells in the subgenual prefrontal cortexes of people with familial VAST D. to be significantly dwarfed by those of otherwise mentally healthy citizens. Treatment with psychopharmaceutical agents (including tenth-generation tricyclic antidepressants, nano-selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors [NSSRIs], ancient monoamine oxidase [A-MAO] inhibitors) is ineffective for sustained control in most cases. To date, long-term stabilization of the disease is impossible, with affected persons opting for now-sanctioned mass-suicide events.
Ah, Depressus.
Quite the bitch, but it sure does thin the herd.
GOING DOWN
Koko rockets down the plummet chute.
It is greasy in the chute’s core. The inner funneling dimensions wind her around and around as though she’s being flushed through an industrialized carnival ride, and the tangy pong of runny garbage and dried urine is so intense it makes her eyes water. Knowing she needs distance, she tucks in her limbs for speed. How many decks has she passed? Thirty? Maybe fifty? How big is
Alaungpaya
anyway?
Soon a graffiti-streaked sign whips by overhead, indicating Koko is nearing the plummet chute’s bottom and approaching
Alaungpaya
’s main entertainment decks. Easing her rate of speed with friction points on her boot heels and chafed elbows, she readies herself and three seconds later is ejected out a set of rubberized doors with all the fanfare of a mechanical fart.
Koko lands on her back and loses her wind. She sucks and sucks and finally finds her air. Whipping her head around, she discovers she’s in another access tunnel and quickly gets to her feet. She straightens her soiled tank top, dislodges her shorts from the crack of her butt, and prepares herself for the bounty agent. After a full minute of
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