Between the good and bad, that's where you'll find me, Reaching for Heaven

It's been a while since I wrote anything set in the DegSep universe, but it's still one that's dear to my heart, so when crowdog66 requested something from this alternate version of the Matrix 'verse, involving Neo and the Merovingian, I was at one in the same time fumbling for an idea and yet delighted for the chance to write about the One and the Red King of the Exiles. Then I was listening to Transsiberian Orchestra's song "Find Our Way Home", and this one came to mind...

On the Third Day of Christmas, the Matrix Refugee fanficced for ye:

One Chateau Christmas party,
One American Gods fic,
and An A.I. fic with David decorating his first Christmas tree.

"Desires of Christmas Past and Present"

by "Matrix Refugee"

Author's Note: Before I started playing the Matrix Online MMORPG, I was deeply involved in a fan-created Matrix RPG based on the "Degrees of Separation" series of Neo/Smith fics written by the incomparable Laure E. Smith. This series set off an intricate and quirky series of storylines bringing a wide range of epic fantastical elements and complex relationship geometries. This fic is set six months after the end of the Descent into Hell arc, in which the Merovingian was captured by demonic programs and hauled into the Matrix's equivalent of the Recycle Bin, from which he was rescued by a team of operatives, led by Neo and Smith, which included Blaise de Merovee, the Merovingian's almost grown half-human son and heir. Text in brackets [Like this] imply a mind to mind conversation.

Disclaimer: I don't own the "Matrix" series, its characters, concepts or other indicia, which belong to the Wachowski Brothers, Paul Chadwick, Warner Brothers, Village Roadshow Pictures, Joel Silver Productions, Burlyman Entertainment, Monolith, Sony Online Entertainment, etc.

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( Neo attended the Christmas party at the Chateau as a courtesy to the Merovingian... )

I spent much of the day resting and reading the manual for the MxO software (Note to the idiotic reviewers who claimed it "doesn't give you any time to learn the game": Did you think to read the frockin' manual?! Yeesh.). There's a reason for this, besides semi-wishful thinking: As of now, I'm looking at Dell computers and trying to decide which one would be the best. Their Dimension 4700 looks like it might work.

( Note to DegSep'ers )

In the meantime, I managed to get myself horribly addicted to this one little Flash game on miniclip.com, "The Pharoah's Tomb", which is a tricky little maze/adventure game where you have to guide this little Indiana Jones-type explorer (whom I personally dubbed "Illinois Brown") through a maze of passages and spiky-traps and monsters, while trying to collect all the little ankhs and things which open new doors and passageways... and try to stay alive long enough to escape. It's tricky: it requires a lot of really tight keystrokes with the arrow keys. I keep getting horribly killed by the monsters, which is kinda not great for my morale. I'm afraid I never really grew up with videogames, which kinda makes me a little nervous, considering what I have on my personal agenda... I hope I don't regret this...

And the Merv's bloodpressure goes through the roof...

( Reason why DegSep is *SO* much better than the MxO, number 101 )

YAY!!! Neil Gaiman will be in Boston sometime this year, promoting his new book "Anansi Boys"

http://www.livejournal.com/users/officialgaiman/195394.html

::Kicks Google for the gawdawful *SMALL* pictures of Lambert Wilson I kept finding when I ran my latest pic trawl a few minutes ago:: (Hey, I needed a Lambert luuurve fix...)

And I'm scratching my head trying to come up with names for the DegSep characters I'm shaping, namely, Persephone and the Merv's maddening sister- and brother-in-law (Perse's sister and said sister's husband, who are the reverse of Perse and the Merv: She's somewhat loud and bossy, he's a bit put-upon) and their brood of offspring (Three sons, two daughters; one of the sons hits on Ref at one point), who show up after the Maintainers start rampaging.

To quote the Fanfiction/dom Glossary:

jossed, Jossed -- As in Buffy creator Joss Whedon. A fanfic author's theories on what "really happened" in a canon plothole are "jossed" when the canon source provides information which contradicts those fan theories. Ie. all fanfics dealing with how Angel got out of Hell were jossed when his return was shown in an actual episode.

Wow... I never thought this would ever happen, much less from a series I love so much. But I was poking around one of the MxO sites, and I found these screenshots:

( The photographic evidence )

During my trip to Lowell and the usual duties at the CyberCafe, I downloaded some of the Matrix Online (hereafter "the MxO") trailers and attempted to burn them onto a CD-R disk. For some reason, only one of them would play back on my comp, and that was the "zion_1" trailer... and part of the Matrix-side urban landscape in that includes -- get this -- a billboard of the "Constantine" movie poster. Wierd.

And then as my mother and I were doing a little Bible study, this quote from Luke jumped out at me:

"They did eat and drink, they married wives and were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark: and the flood came and destroyed them." (Lk. 17: 27 Douai-Rheims translation).

Now, I may be playing Flood, the Merovingian's head goon/chief lackey, a canon character from the MxO, for Laurie's "Matrix" Alternate/Extended Universe RPG. And since the Brothers Wachowski are fond of lifting Bible notations and using them for liscense plates on various cars/identifying plates on the hovercrafts, I'm thinking of putting "LK-1727" on the silver-grey Mercedes which I imagine the Merv's stylish henchman drives when he's out running various menial tasks for his boss. Flood, as I understand from things posted on the MxO site, wants nothing more than to find a way to either get out from under the Merv's thumb, or toppling the Merv completely. For some reason, the first half of that verse kinda stuck out too: (possibly later on in our storyline) I'm playing the Merv as being a leetle distracted by his various pleasures, and therefore not *quite* so aware of the fact that his second-in-command is trying to pull the rug out from under him...