The air here was acrid and sooty. I'd awoken to a gang of thugs ransacking my bike, and after trouncing them had decided that I wasn't going to leave it alone any time soon. Despite its obvious technological superiority to everything else I had seen, passersby were not giving it or me very much attention - I got a second glance here and there, but more often an "I've seen weirder things than that" indifference. Judging from the variety of the inhabitants, it was probably justified, too.
"Excuse me."
I turned to face the speaker, and I'm not sure what I noticed first: the the scar tissue that covered his gray skin so thoroughly that it looked like he'd lost a fight with a threshing machine, or the the belt across his bare chest that was studded with menacing spikes of bone and terminated at a multiply-oversized belt buckle made of uncarved bones. His ragged, irregularly-beaded black dreadlocks only added to the effect. "Have you seen a skull recently?"
"Why do you ask? Looking to complete your outfit?" I replied.
"Excuse me."
I turned to face the speaker, and I'm not sure what I noticed first: the the scar tissue that covered his gray skin so thoroughly that it looked like he'd lost a fight with a threshing machine, or the the belt across his bare chest that was studded with menacing spikes of bone and terminated at a multiply-oversized belt buckle made of uncarved bones. His ragged, irregularly-beaded black dreadlocks only added to the effect. "Have you seen a skull recently?"
"Why do you ask? Looking to complete your outfit?" I replied.