Do you have a penny to spare when you've so recently arrived here? [ dostoevsky meets gogol's eye. the street and its inhabitants are irrelevant in this moment—how he feels to be in hell, derailed from his mission though not defeated is complicated and yet simple. the only way to move forward is one step at a time. ]

That was a trick question, of course. You do not. [ after all, fyodor had learned more than a few games from gogol, ones that he throws back in the other's face now. ]

Come back when you do.