IJ study archive

natural and kind of free, under the red balls

quote

Orin had exited his own substance-phase about the time he discovered sex, plus of course the N./O.N.A.N.C.A.A.-urine considerations, and he declined it, the cocaine, but not in a judgmental or killjoy way

Context

The first sight of Joelle ingesting, under the little Kentucky Xmas tree's red balls, framed at the recreational stage before it becomes the freebase love-affair — "natural and kind of free," the phrase that reads as innocent here and as terrible foreshadow against 058/062. The seed of the arc is planted in a scene where nobody minds anything, which is exactly how the cage opens.

In anthology