Sunday Night Stats

[matrixrefugee]

I'm off to bed in a few minutes, since I have that infamous, *early* dental appointment at nine tomorrow morning (I usually don't get up till ten in the morning, not because I'm lazy: I'm a night owl by nature), so I'll give a run-down of what happened Sunday:

Chapter of HP 6 I'm up to: Chapter Seven. Is it me, or did JKR derive a lot of her inspiration from all the heightened security on account of the Al'Quaeda terrorist attacks? The cameo appearance of the Muggle Prime Minister (Tony Blair? What year(s) is/are the HP series supposed to take place in?) in the very first chapter gave me an ominous feeling, but I couldn't say why, until I got deeper into the book and started reading about all the preventive measures the Ministry of Magic have put out. Mr. Weasley's new post sounds eeriely like a position in the Department of Homeland Security. Is Voldemort the Wizarding World's equivalent of Osama Bin Laden? (Please, no jokes about Bush being Voldemort; I am sick of hearing it. It wasn't funny the first time, and it still isn't funny after three hundred repetitions.) Considering the fact that King's Cross was one of the stations involved in the terrorist attack in London, I don't doubt the crazies who wanted Blockbuster to withdraw movies involving the WTC and terrorist-style violence from their shelves and begged Infinity Broadcasting to pull a huge list of songs from the radio airwaves, will be yelling that the release of HP 6 should have been delayed.

Number of times I tried to get through The Pharoah's Tomb: Three

Number of pages I wrote in "L'Homme Fatal": Two

Number of anNOYing chatty old ladies I wanted to whack with my prayerbook because they kept talking during Mass at St. Francis's: Five

Number of headaches the Housparty caused me: Two. The first happened this morning, when Ref woke us all up by emitting a high-pitched scream of fright. I ran to her room to see what was up, only to find she'd been startled into full consciousness by the sight of her fella in his second Second Iteration form (2.5?) God, I can see why: I barely recognized him myself. He looked not much older than Ref herself.

The second happened at dinner, caused by an argument between Flood and Constantine over some left-over pizza. The demon-hunter doesn't eat much, but he'll eat most anything. Our Floodwatchman doesn't think much of food, especially American food, which he terms "coronary blockage du jour".

Constantine: "Yeah, well, you don't exactly have to eat since you're not human, so butt out, willya?"

Flood: "Very well, but you'll thank me when you're recovering from bypass surgery..."

C: "Hey, none of your damn business what I eat, okay?"

Fl: "As you so insist. I know you don't care how unhealthy you look, but if you start putting on weight --"

C: "That ain't gonna happen. I ain't got much appetite most of the time."

Fl: "Well, that's a relief." I could hear him thinking 'That's one less obese human I don't have to stare at...'

Me: "Hey, get that thought out of your head, Alban Flood."

tM: ::Listening, divines what Flood was thinking:: "Particularly when zere was a time -- albeit brief -- when you veered into zat territory yourself, M'sieu' Flood."

Fl: ::Going as red as a beet under his tan; I could also see him tightening his abdominals under his vest:: "You needn't remind me of that mortifying time..." ::Walks away::

Me: ::To the Merv::"Okay, you spilled that info, explain the cause to that effect."

Well, to make a long story short (Get the Merv talking and he's impossible to shut up...), Flood tried eating as part of his "I'm just another human, nothing to see here..." cover back in the Third Iteration, with some embarrassing results. Since Flood is a former climate controller (river levels and rainshowers, specifically), he has a low metabolism. Thus, when he tried eating, he ended up putting on a little weight; he gave it up when his pants started getting around the waist, and he hasn't touched anything solid ever since.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

That must've been a bit of a nasty shock. Poor Ref. As for head ache numero duo, vanity thy name is Flood (by the way I've just noticed how appropriate his name is, given his old function). The Rabble haven't been doing much lately. I got a mental image of Tel and Neil hanging out outside somewhere and I think Tel was doing his own unique version of people watching but that's about it. However, I've finally decided on names for all of them. In order of age, Telemachus Ambrose Jones (Tel), Neil Talbot Freer, Dana Louise McKane, Michael Darcy Traynor and Erica Renee Traynor. It took me weeks to come up with them so I'm feeling pretty accomplished.
~Weaver

[matrixrefugee.livejournal.com]

Oyy, yeah... sometimes I wonder why Ref puts up with her fella sometimes: waking up to find your paramour has suddenly shed twenty years in the course of one night is no joke!

"Vanity, thy name is Flood" -- I like that line, because it's so bloody true; ::Pointing up:: that's him in my usericon for this comment, BTW. I'm actually not sure *what* his original function was; the MxO describes him as a former system submanager during the First Matrix, but doesn't say what kind of submanager. Based on his name -- since the name of every "Matrix" character seems to tell you a little bit about them and who they are -- I deduced that he *might* have had a role in managing the climate of the Matrix. The fact that he's the Merv's second in command gave me another hint that he probably had a very key position in the system: no mere program in charge of something small could have gotten *that* high up in the chain of command for the King of the Exiles; and what could be more integral to maintaining the illusion of the Matrix than maintaining the climate....

Ain't fan-speculation fun? I'm tinkering with a few ideas on how the first Despair in the "Sandman" might have died, but it's an idea I almost don't dare work much on at once, lest I should tempt the second Despair to come along and poke me with her hooked ring....

[(Anonymous)]

This from the girl who went after Desp with a big stick.*grin* Speculation is part of being a fan and half the time the fan theories are better then the offical explinations. There haven't been many discussions as to why DespairI made a one way trip to her sister's realm, and so far the theories are pretty lame. There are a lot of theories as to how Del lost it. One of the more interesting ideas is that whatever happened occured where Gotham is, which is why there are so many fruitcakes in that area. I to am mistified as to why Ref puts up with his Smarminess but that's mostly because I don't like him. The way he carries on, I wouldn't be suprised if a certain yellow eyed menace knew him very well indeed.
~Weaver

[matrixrefugee.livejournal.com]

Funny you should connect Desire with the Merv (If I've guessed the identity of the "yellow-eyed menace" correctly): in "Degrees of Seperation", aka "DegSep" the "Matrix" fan-created RPG I'm part of, our game-master, Laurie E. Smith (a professional comic book artist/colorist) created a character, Eros, who's very like a cross between Desire and the Oracle (from the "Matrix" series), though he/she is considerably less nasty than Desire is. We've envisioned that the First Matrix was a fantasy-like realm (I've personally described it as being somewhat like Tolkien's Middle Earth), which we've populated with all sorts of fantastic beings (including but not limited to, dragons, unicorns and Elves). Eros was one of seven programs somewhat like the Endless, while the Merv was one of another group of seven master programs put in charge of the seven regions of the Matrix. Needless to say, Eros had a hand in, er, sensually awakening the Merv, who's sort of his/her younger brother, which certainly helps explain part of the reason why he's such a male slut...

One of my theories as to the first Despair's one way trip into her elder sister's realm was that a man whose only daughter had committed suicide had gone after 1st Desp, accusing her of causing his child's demise... I'm still tinkering with the finer details of this: someday I'll have it fully fleshed out.

[(Anonymous)]

Yep, you guessed right. You've got to admit, it's pretty accurate. I've got quite a few nicknames for Desire, most of which aren't very polite, but that's one of the better ones. "Beware the yellow eyed menace that doth mock those it preys on." Like the idea as to how Desp I met her end, although the general concensus seems to be that Desp died before humans came along.
~Weaver

[matrixrefugee.livejournal.com]

Ahhh... I'd wondered about that... Hmmm... I'll have to think of a way to twiddle with what sort of being went after Desp 1, then... An Elf, maybe?

BTW, have you read Neil Gaiman and Yoshitako Amano's follow-up to the "Sandman" series, "The Dream Hunters"? It's a different format from the comics, but it's a breath-takingly beautiful re-working of a Japanese folk-tale which Neil ran across when he was running research before he undertook writing the English-language dialogue for Hayao Miyazaki's "Princess Mononoke" (Not sure if I spelled that right...). He himself said the original folk tale sounded eeriely like something from the "Sandman" universe.

[(Anonymous)]

Elf would definatly be original. As far as I know they haven't been used in Sandman fanfics at all (unless you could LotR crossovers).
I haven't read "The Dream Hunters" yet, in fact I haven't read most of the original series yet. I read "The Wake" (didn't think to check where it was in the series), P&N and "Endless Nights" (which I think is under-rated) at uni since the liberies round there had a very good selection of graphic novels, unlike the ones back home. For some unfathomable reason they have some of the series but they don't have "The Doll's House". Since I don't want to mess up the series anymore then I already have, I'm waiting till I go back in September. I've come up with some more random stuff about the Rabble but nothing story shaped yet except for what I mailed you a while back.
~Weaver