64
June 21, 2017 - 268 words
AVOID LIMERENCE
The electric neon sign pulsed blue and orange in the fading half-light of the misty urban hell, packed with pedestrians but incomprehensibly lonely. Poeloloel tried to ignore the flashing sign even though he didn’t. Hard to miss BLUE AND ORANGE in this dark downtown corridor of steel structures and disdain. The messages repeated themselves in a cascade of hypnotizing flickers across every black window screen, turning the damp street into a blur of complementary colors. If he didn’t look now the monitors would know. He had some marks on his file already and couldn’t afford any more. NOPE. Get sent to Reconditioning for too many marks. Read the messages when they come, that’s your only option.
AVOID LIMERENCE
K, got it, thanks. No limerence. Thanks. Got it. Must be another cycle. Poelelol didn’t keep track of when they started. New edicts came down, blasted out to the populace and then settled into their comfortable places in the back of everyone’s minds. Ideally they did. Who knows if it worked. Nobody wanted to ask anyone else. Not that he had anyone he could ask.
AVOID LIMERENCE
Poeleolo went back to his thoughts, his now decidedly very non-limerent thoughts. Less dreary than the blistering wet cityscape he was trudging through but not by much. He’d been struggling lately with the resurgent dramas of the past. He could feel his brain sagging under the weight of the psychic drain. When he got home he would have to look up the definition of limerence. Until then he would fill his mind with the scent of her hair.