He liked the feeling of glasses perched on his noise. It didn’t much matter that White had far better sight than any Kine, the cool metal on cold skin had a harmony to it. He had started the evening with some light reading on the difference between strongly and weakly labeled combinatorial objects for his class on analytic combinatorics. When the barest hint of a voice caressed his ear. Casually placing down a bookmark White observed his surroundings -- empowering his hearing.

It was quiet in the park. The grass was yellowing from lack of rain and the air had the tang of acrid smoke resultant the proximal thoroughfare.

It came again, but this was no voice. It was raw, ragged, and worthy of investigation. With the satisfying snap of paper on paper White clapped his textbook closed; slipping it into his backpack, and setting out at a jog. He heard the sobbing first, from a nearby alley. The cutting cries of the hysterical. Concern filled White until the heady smell of blood washed over him. A man sat sobbing ugly fat tears in an alley of depravity. Discarded needles, the main decoration; the odor the evening: urine. With an act of focus White cleaves perception and reality apart, allowing the night to cover him. White, a rift in thought, glides through the alley, a rift in civilization. A moment of observation made it clear the man was suffering from withdrawal. The blood had come from the man clawing himself with his own ragged nails.

Internally White sighed even as he checked for passerbys. But, this man was as hidden as White to the world. He knelt, gently giving the man the Kiss, he shuddered, and gave in almost immediately sighing as White pulled back. White took off the heavy coat he did not need, knelt once more and draped it over the man.

From one rift to another, may we both survive the nights ahead.
Good luck.

White turned, and strode out of the alley feeling the chill numbing claws of desolation clutch at his gut. With the memory of the dirty shaking man alone in the alley. Covered by a cheap heavy coat, alone.

White knew what that was like.