With Al set on its way, the culmination of Sai’s efforts rammed into its torn jeans, there was finally time for Sai to get on with the most important task of their day - Fishing.

Plan of action established, they wander through the house, past the desk in the hallway now precariously re-stacked with empty coffee cups and ink blotched papers.

They passed through the dimly lit living room, paused briefly to grab a hot pink scarf from the pile of hastily hidden detritus wedging the door open, and threw it in the hallway as they made their way to the bedroom.

From the bedroom a speckled tan waistcoat and a lone knee-high boot of bright yellow, found wedged behind the bedroom bookshelf joined the scarf in the vague pile.

The second boot still missing, Sai searched the house for the elusive left foot. Stacks of clothing and papers moved between corners of the room as they contemplated if the search for the second boot counted as tidying. With such herculean efforts the second Boot was soon discovered, its rubbery yellow form found poking out of the top of an otherwise empty box labelled “Shoes”.

Despite this, Sai is soon stood in the corridor, all items assembled save one. With excessive caution they reached behind the door hoping to find the last item, the crucial fishing rod. To their surprise, they found It immediately and began humming gleefully to themselves as they extracted the rod from its hiding spot.

Their elevation turned to horror as they read the note pinned to the polished fiberglass. “To Future Sai, plz FIX this I need for fishering, ID do butt IMA BIT dink – Love past Sai XXX”.

An inconvenient memory surfaced and in their minds eye Sai remembered their last fishing trip, a merry night of drinking with friends, a tumble, and the soft crunch of splintering fiberglass.

“Shit.”

In a single fluid action, the rod was swung round onto the hallway table in a spray of day-old coffee. Scrap paper, cups and takeaway pamphlets slid between table and wall as the amassed stack collapsed under the force of the encroaching fiberglass.

Laid flat on the table the damage was obvious; the centre of the rod was shattered, a splintered mess of fiberglass the displaced shards fanning out from the break like a peacock tail of sharp plastic.

Sai considered the damage for a second, cracked their knuckles, and unstuck a heavy roll of black tape from the edge of the desk. So equipped, the raspy Zip of unwound tape filled the corridor, and following a few swift turns, and the rod ruined.

The rod once smooth and elegant, was now permanently marred, an unsightly mass of sticky black tape deformed the guides, pinning the limp string in place.

Sai looked at the ruined implement, its repair now an undeniably bigger job than it had been mere moments ago.

In a moment frank self-awareness, they picked up the rod, underlined and re-affixed the previous label and placed it back behind the door for a future-future Sai to deal with.

A little later they are out the door, the heap of fishing clothes layered on and clashing enthusiastically with the neon green tartan of their skirt as they climbed the steep steps out to the street.

Out of habit Sai scanned the sky for the superimposed cities above them and rapidly located tower bridge, its silhouette so alien yet distinctive, an ever-hovering reminder of a world forever lost. And more importantly an indicator that today the Tan household was to the left.

As they walked, their shoes clicked and clacked against the street tapping an uneven rhythm as the surface switched between cracked concrete, worn tarmac and back again. Sai enjoyed these walks on the street, the inconsistent dreamlike nature of it and idly wondered what great force had created it; God? The Enemy? Or some lesser power that owed allegiance to neither?

The thoughts trailed off as Sai spots Li’s Door – The expertly maintained stained mahogany a vibrant solid red against the fluctuating weirdness of the street.

Sai knocked against the wood and took a step back, roughly combing through their hair with dark ink-stained fingers as they heard the tell-tale sound of Li’s uneven steps.

A weathered hand cautiously pulls the door open a crack, and a creased golden face framed by straight black hair peeked through shortly after.

Sai raised an eyebrow inquisitively at the unusually paranoid behaviour but managed to power through into an appropriately thematic response. Arm outstretched they point at em, arcing their spine they stab towards em with a single ink smeared digit.

“Li Tan, I summon thee! For a great evil has befallen my kingdom, ancient relics broken! Crucial Rituals Disrupted! AND THE END OF ALL THINGS GOOD IN THIS WORLD.”

They lapsed into an awkward silence as Li stared back, unmoved, and unsurprised by the dramatic plea. Li cleared eir throat with a soft cough and manoeuvred to look Sai dead in the eye as ey carefully blocked Sai’s view through the doorway.

Li cracked a smile as ey notice Sai’s ‘fishing clothing’ and marked lack of fishing rod. “You broke my spare rod didn’t you Sai?”

Visibly deflated Sai shuffled their feet awkwardly as they avoided Li’s gaze.

“Well, I … well to be completely honest yes. BUT I did try to fix it, I grabbed a bit of tape and…”

Li talked across them before they could continue.

“Please Sai, please just stop. Even you can not make fixing my fishing rod with tape sound reasonable. Judging by your lack of mutilated fishing implements I’m assuming you came to borrow a new one?”

Sai nodded their agreement sheepishly and Li sighed and ducked back behind the door. For a second the door swung wider, and Sai’s caught a glimpse of Li’s husband Charlie, sat cross legged and nude in the next room wielding a set of knitting needles as they clacked away furiously. He seemed to notice the breeze and looked up meeting Sai’s gaze. Predictably, Charlie gave a cheerful, unabashed wave and continue knitting undeterred.

Clearly mortified Li quickly grabbed a narrow bag and practically threw it into Sai’s arms before swinging the door shut in Sai’s face. The dull thud of the door being slammed shut punctuated by an ethereal whistle as Li’s & Charlies house shattered into fractals and vanished, replaced by a rough corrugated wall of steel and a burst of drift as the street reorganised itself.

Already off balance from the sudden weight and struggling to hold back their laughter Sai was completely unprepared for the drift as the street moved and a burst of gravity hit them at a right angle and knocking them onto the street.

Sai considered the new skyline with a grimace; the drift had worked against them. The new skyline shifted such that the marker for the “Fishing Hole” was now at far end of the street a half hour’s walk assuming that that drift stopped acting against them. It was true that the drift had moved the skylight marker for their house much closer and yet… Sai really wanted to get some fishing in tonight.

Depressingly the drift worsened as Sai marched towards the fishing hole, they struggled on as the high gravity made each step a momentous effort and the constant shifting drift caused them to repeatedly pass the same houses. Undeterred they arrived at the cloud of roiling steam, that marked the entrance to the fishing hole some hours later, only to find that Li had beaten them to it.

Li turned to face Sai smiling smugly as ey lounged across eir chair and footstool combo and gestured silently at its significantly less comfortable twin. Sai wadded over cautiously stepping between the ominous triangle of milky grey light and Li’s carefully outstretched leg.

With a grunt of acceptance Sai slumped into the offered chair and, breathing hard from their exertion turned to Li: “I didn’t expect to see you again today Li, never mind you to get here before me! This street really sucks sometimes. But at least you can tell me; is the fishing any good today?”

Li waved eir good hand in a so-so movement. “It has been quite good, I might head back soon though all things considered.” Ey gestured at a bag of smouldering fish cooling on a nearby patch of tarmac.

Sai nodded in return and pulled themselves out of the chair to stand before the glowing grey triangle. Without ceremony they unpackaged the fishing rod and braced themselves for the most dangerous of tasks - fishing.

It was not long before they had fallen into the quiet meditation of fishing. The quiet simmering of the grey triangle of light the perfect backing to Sai’s meandering thoughts.

As they often did, Sai idly pondered the shifting nature of the fishing hole. Never the same ocean, rarely the same Earth, a place of flux and change. And yet, undeniably a place of peace and tranquillity. Its constant bubbling giving the small pond a sense of quiet almost meditative stillness.

So quiet and meditative that Sai barely registered their friend pressing a note into their hand as ey left. Instead it takes minutes, or perhaps hours for Sais quiet meditation to be broken, snapped back to reality by the fervent tugging of the hook.

Instinctively they pulled on the rod crumpling the note as they reel in their first and only catch of the night– A strange ball of silvery mesh caught upon the tungsten hook.

Sai looked at the orb for a second and then shrugged, pushing it into the case with the rod as they noticed the sinister purple glow that passed for Sunset. It was a Curiosity, but one best dealt with at home rather than in the dusk of the fishing hole.

Satisfied that all was packed away they uncrumpled the note, reading the elegant handwriting by the fey light of the fishing hole.

“You did that zoning out thing again, could not snap you out of it, was nice seeing you though – By the way you owe me sixty quid to replace the rod you ‘fixed’.

A small smile broke out across Sai’s lips as they leave the fishing hole, it was SO Like Li to leave a note rather than disturb someone – How such a shy individual managed to get a tattooed hunk like Charlie they’d never know.

Vagly inappropriate musings of the nude knitter filled Sai’s thoughts as they take the uneventful path home. The warm duality of the suns’ light, replaced instead by the soft nightly luminescence of the streets many angular openings.

In the soft glow of the night the warped wooden door of their own abode came into focus suspiciously quickly.

Sai grinned to themselves as they arrive home and paused to give the rough concrete of the wall a friendly pat as they passed through.

“Apology accepted street, just don’t do it again.”

The door pulled shut behind them Sai carefully set the bag next to the broken fishing rod, the mysterious silvery mesh forgotten as they head to their bedroom.

The night passed and Sai slept. And as they did the mesh unfurled, its silvery threads slithering free of the bag, duplicating, and separating as they began to spread through the street.