Doctor Who_ The City of the Dead - Lloyd Rose [18]
'But see,' an earnest-looking girl was saying, 'tech is anti-death because it's so& well, beyond death. I mean, it does away with the organic completely, which means doing away with death completely. That's why the best music leaves out the human voice.'
'You're so full of it, Suze,' said the person in the beret. 'The definition of death is no life. No lifer The Doctor decided the person was male. 'Whether it's organic or inorganic doesn't matter. A nail is as dead as a bone.'
'But a human voice is living -'
'Not a recorded human voice, you imbecile. That's just as artificial as recorded computer-generated noise. You're arguing that a painting of sheep is more alive than a wall because it contains images of something that lives, and that's just bullshit. You tech freaks keep making these moronic distinctions.'
'If a distinction can be made, then there is a difference!'
'Oh, please, spare me Philosophy 101.What made you think you could think, bitty tits?'
'What!?' said the girl, outraged.
'Oh, now her iddle-widdle feelings are hurt. You're not tough enough to be an artist, Suze. You're not even tough enough to be a critic'
The Doctor probably would have intervened on Suze's behalf at this point if she hadn't charged the beret-wearer, who ducked behind a protective arm.
"That's right, reduce it to the physical. That's the last resort of mediocrities who can't - He broke off yelling as Suze grabbed his ear with her teeth. The Doctor was bumped to the floor. The girl with the chartreuse shoes said in his ear, 'Let's blow this popsicle stand.'
I'm not getting anywhere, he thought as he dodged the combatants to scramble to his feet. A few minutes later, crowded with the girl into a tiny tiled bathroom watching a boy throw up, he decided that he still wasn't getting anywhere.
'I thought there was H,' the girl said to another boy, who was sitting on the sink watching the vomiter dispassionately.
'There was,' he said. 'And it was good stuff. That's why Darin's upchucking his lungs out.'
Wrong about the drugs, too, the Doctor sighed to himself. He was off his game this evening. Perhaps he should just give it up for the night. A hand touched his arm.
"There you are,' said Swan.
'Are you learning anything?' Anji asked Fitz. 'Because I'm not learning anything.'
'No. The Quarter's sort of pretty at night, though.'
She had to agree. Except for the bustle of neon-lit Bourbon Street, the pavements were quiet. Flickering gas lanterns hung above the doors of many of the old buildings. A little mist curled around the curving iron of the balconies. 'It's very atmospheric'
They walked on in silence, each of them aware of how romantic the setting would be with another partner. He's awfully sharp and funny, Anji thought, and he really was sticking up for me back there, he sticks up for people, but no. She'll never see me as anything but an irritating kid brother, Fitz thought. How did I get to be everyone's bloody brother?
'When we pass somewhere with music,' she said, 'why don't we just quietly slip off?'
Fitz was for that, and there was somewhere with music on nearly every street. But when he and Anji stopped at a noisy door, Dupre, who had been at the front of his little flock, was suddenly beside them. 'What? Leaving so early? The worst is yet to come.' He smiled broadly at his own witticism.
'How much did you pay for those teeth?' Fitz asked.
'I'm just tired,' said Anji as Dupre's head started to swivel ominously towards Fitz. 'It was very interesting. Thank you. But I'm tired.'
He bowed. 'Then I will not keep you. But please, a token of my regard for your lovely self.' Seemingly out of thin air, he produced a long-stemmed red rose.
'Uh, thank you.' Anji took the flower. Dupre bowed again and stalked back to the others. When he was out of earshot,