Category: Conspirators

August 24, 2005 /

I just said goodbye to Ian. He’s going to work for a month in Utah before heading on to Los Angeles. He beat me to Louisville, and now he’s going to beat me to California. He’s been taller than me for as long as I can remember.

Ian’s got a new used truck and everything he owns is in its bed. He’s let his hair get too long because he thinks it’s rock ‘n’ roll. Last night was the biggest Tuesday Night Basketball I think we’ve ever had–everyone showed for a sendoff to its lynchpin. We ordered so much food and Lisa made a cake. We played games.

Sometimes I wonder how much I damaged Ian, growing up, by expecting him to be my peer and treating him like an inferior. Then I realize I’m assigning myself too much influence. Ian’s his own man, smart and ethical and a past master of all the social skills with which I still grapple; he didn’t need me to teach him about jokes or girls or writing code.

Ian will say his Saint Michaels. He’ll be fine.

August 12, 2005 /

Wednesday night, in the process of moving, I applied 360 foot-pounds of torque to my upside-down foot and am now on crutches. Crutches suck. I knew something like this would happen eventually; I’m just glad it happened to me.

I’m pretty sure it’s a sprain, and it already feels a lot better. It’d be nice to get it x-rayed to make sure it’s not broken, but my health insurance doesn’t kick in for another 68 days. Thanks, guys!

Maria has been taking very good care of me, and last night, Lisa and Scott picked us up and brought us to their apartment and fed us poached salmon and showed us funny DVDs and took us home. All this when Lisa was sick herself! It is impossible to have friends as good as Lisa and Scott.

July 20, 2005 /

Wheeler came to visit us. It was fun! We played a whole lot of video games and some board games and ate high-quality vegetarian foodstuffs. He stayed with Lisa and Scott three nights and me and Maria for two, and did not hold me responsible for making him trudge all over Bardstown Road in the heat. Wheeler is, to quote Sumana, a good houseguest and a friend.

Lisa, Wheeler and I constitute three fifths of our weekly instant-messenger-based Nobilis game. Normally we play from our disparate locations in Louisville, Louisville, New Mexico, Georgia and Connecticut; this time the aforementioned three of us were all in my apartment at different computers, which was a neat if odd kind of synthesis. It’s easier to Laugh Out Loud at a joke when there are other people doing the same within earshot.

July 15, 2005 /

The sword Anne’s holding is also a guitar, and a magic wand.

It’s a sworguitwand.

“We got you surrounded, Moloney!” harshes the cop with the bullhorn. “Come out with your hands up!”

“You’ll arrest me?” Anne shouts back.

“Shit no!” The bullhorn catches the other cops laughing. “We just want an easy target!”

“This is it,” she mutters. “Live by die by, right?”

“Yea,” says Jesus grimly, unholstering his Desert Eagles. “When I was cornered, you gave me to cap.”

“Shit, Jesus.”

“Today I am your vengeance, Anne!”

They blow out the door, fire and bullets, wailing hard on high G.

FIGHT HIM DIE BY THE SWORD IM U

Rita and the Cold Man Timeline

July 9, 2005 /

Because I promised Will I would. Keep in mind that this is only my personal ordering! If you find another way to arrange these that makes sense to you, that’s equally valid, and probably better.

  1. Part 1
    1. The boy who will be the Cold Man sees people he shouldn’t.
    2. The man who will be the Cold Man is imprisoned and tortured for information. He negotiates his temporary release.
    3. He presumably goes to the Numismata, becomes the Cold Man, and returns to his captors with five of his new friends.
    4. According to one of the Numismata, the Cold Man leaves their order at some point hereabouts.
  2. Part 2
    1. Rita joins an elite squad of operatives composed of Tina, Sandra and Mary, directed by Lou.
    2. On a mission, Rita meets the Cold Man and discovers a little of what he can do.
    3. Rita and her squad go on a different mission, in Chile. At some point, they become separated, and she meets the Cold Man again. Together they hide in a foxhole and end up in a cave. They discover that Rita can see the Cold Man, just as the Cold Man could once see the Numismata.
    4. The Cold Man finds that someone’s learning to counter his abilities.
    5. He meets with an Ad Hoc, who extracts a work agreement with threats against Rita.
    6. Something goes horribly wrong for him, and Rita dreams about it.
    7. The next day she receives a pointless surveillance tape. She investigates, solo, and an Ad Hoc warns her off. She investigates further and discovers the Numismata.
    8. Rita undergoes the Numismatic ritual, giving up warmth and color vision–and maybe more–in exchange for power. She wonders if it’s worth the Cold Man’s life; what she intends to do with that life is ambiguous.
    9. Rita returns to her HQ, which promptly blows up. She avoids death with her newfound abilities.
    10. Rita takes on the Ad Hocs.
    11. Rita kills the Cold Man.

No, Slatt and the one with the Great Zaganza don’t appear in here. Yet!

June 28, 2005 /

I never talked about Sad and Happy Movie Day! Sad and Happy Movie Day was great! In attendance were myself, Maria, Lisa, Scott and Will; Maria’s brother Michael showed up for the second movie. We watched City of God and Shaolin Soccer, as was foretold by the ancients–first one subbed, second dubbed, but the dubbing actually worked really well for SS. It added to the goofiness of a film that takes its goofiness very seriously. City of God was appropriately poverty-stricken and filled with violence by and against children. The ending was not actually sad, but maybe that was for the best. We are still testing our toes in this format.

The next SAHMD will probably be in two or three weeks, whatever’s best for most of us. Hackers has been pretty thoroughly shot down, because all my friends are worthless Philistines, but I don’t think anybody objected to What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. Are there any strong objections to that? What about suggestions for happy movies? Information access protocol!

June 21, 2005 /

This was too good to leave to the mercies of Livejournal’s feed-comment expiration. It’s derived, by Will, from Jax.

Nina’s talk with the old Japanese man is quick, quiet and furious, but when they’re done they both look happy.

“Essence of what?” asks Jax, back on the street.

“Goth,” Nina giggles, and sprinkles a few drops from the bottle on her shirt. It turns black as pitch.

Jax is awed. “Let me try!” He sprinkles his arms, sprouting shredded fishnet arm-stockings. He tries his shirt and it turns dried blood red.

“You don’t need much–” Nina says, but Jax is drinking it, now. His face pales considerably.

“lets write about this on our livejournals,” Jax whispers. Nina shrugs assent.

June 16, 2005 /

OKAY SO. The first Sad And Happy Movie Day is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, June 25th, at… my apartment. Which needs to have a cool name for when it functions as a clubhouse. Maria, why don’t we have a cool clubhouse name for our apartment?

We hit play at 1 pm, so get there earlier if you want to kibitz. We will be watching (or, in Ian’s parlance, “reading”) City of God and Shaolin Soccer. Popcorn will be provided, but you’re on your own for drinks and candy. You may also want to bring one of those folding camp chairs, if you have one; as we discovered this past Tuesday, seating is limited.

You should come!

Possible lineup for the one after this: What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and Hackers?