New York: Allie's War, Early Years

I never liked New York all that much.

I know it's not cool to say that. I mean, everyone likes New York, right? I don't even tell most people that I don't like it anymore. Some of that's pride. I hate getting the cocked head and pointedly disbelieving look, like they think there's something wrong with me...or even an eye-roll, like I'm some corn-fed rube who can't handle a 'real' city.

But San Francisco, the city where I grew up, has been real enough for me.

New York just seems so...I don't know.

Mercenary.

Or a little too hard-wired into the material thing, maybe.

Maybe I just don't buy how cool everyone thinks it is. It seems like everyone's pretty hung up on money and status and looks in New York, which is the same thing (ironically, in my opinion) most New Yorkers complain is wrong with LA.

Or maybe it's just that every, single, solitary time I've gone to New York, something really bad has happened.

I think part of it is the seer thing.

The seer thing is genuinely depressing here. Not fascinating and yet appalling, the way it is in San Francisco and LA, but really out-and-out soul crushing. There's no way you can pretend it's not slavery after spending a few hours wandering around New York.

It's kind of like how zoos depress me, I guess. Looking at all those animals in cages, especially the smarter ones like the big apes and the elephants, always makes me uncomfortable. It did even when I was a kid. How the hell are you supposed to lighten up and enjoy yourself when you've got this intelligent creature staring you in the face, like, 'what did I ever do to you?'

The seer thing is a lot worse, of course. I mean, they look like us. Not a little bit, like apes. I mean, they look pretty much exactly like us...with a few minor details changed, maybe. Like a lot of them are really tall. Most of them have weird-colored eyes, and sometimes weird-colored hair. A lot of them look Asian, or have dark skin. But I've seen humans with most of those traits, if not in the exact same combinations.

They feel different, sure. In a way that's less easy to categorize, when you look at them, they don't quite feel like one of us. But you'd have to be able to do some pretty serious mental gymnastics to be able to dismiss them as animals, the way the news feeds try to, or try to convince yourself they're stupid. One look into their eyes, and you could pretty much tell they're thinking about stuff...more than a good chunk of people I know seem to think about things, honestly. And a lot more than some of those moron broadcasters they have on the feeds.