dribbly bits of olde.

these are some really old dribblies i may or may not have posted here. some of them i had posted somewhere else, but haven't put them here. so enjoy. n.n

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 I checked my messages when I had a break. I'd turned off my phone before going into my meeting this morning. Just a couple from Randy on my voice mail. The first one was him telling me to bring him back those smutty romance novels he likes. The ones after were one long continuous ass chewing as to why I'd left a half eaten sandwich under the bed and why wasn't I answering my phone. The last one though wasn't Randy. It was Doc Adison, wanting to know why I didn't come to my session yesterday.
 I forgot to tell her about my trip. Thankfully, she didn't try the house phone, otherwise I'd have had to explain to Randy what I was really going into town for every Friday morning. Actually... I don't even go to Dublin on Fridays except to pass on my way to Wickford a bit further south along the coast.
 I called her when I got back to the appartment. After a nice lunch, some speghetti with sauce I heated up from a can. Ryan wasn't home. He was probably with Dany. Which was good. I didn't need him listening in. I washed my dishes and put them away before taking my cell outside to the balcony. I got to sit and stare at a brick wall, but at least the plants I'd put out were blooming now. Frank trotted along behind me as always, dragging my briefcase with him. He's a good little pet. Pretty handy too.
 "Hello. You've reached the offices of Adison and Price. Sorry we can't come to the phone right now..."
 Typical... But then again, they were five hours ahead in Wickford. They probably had just closed the offices by now. I started to leave my message, then a breathless voice answered. "Alabaster."
 "Hey doc."
 "Where are you!" the woman snapped. She'd obviously had to run back to get the phone. Thank goodness. "You've missed your session. I've been trying to reach you all day. I was about to go see-"
 "Don't bother. I'm not even home."
 "Where are you?"
 "New York." I waited for her inevitable exclaimation, which was followed by her chewing me out much in the same fashion Randy does, only with him it's cute. With her it's annoying. "Yeah... sorry. An emergency came up, an I had ta come immediately an take care-o it."
 Well... it wasn't exactly an emergency, but it was a matter I could not leave to anyone else. We talked a bit. I could hear the shuffling of papers. She was retrieving my file from her filing cabinate in the corner of her office. I only knew this because I heard the drawer slam shut again. She asked me about my family, both of them. So I told her my father is senile, my transgender brother is a prick. My nephew Shamus never speaks. My step-nephew is a porn addict. Two of my sisters, who are twins, haven't spoken in almost a decade. That Sam's putting on a good dog and pony show as usual but it was still really awkward, Ryan's near breakdown my first night here, his brother Dany the prick and the stunt he pulled at dinner last night, and that Ty and the kids are just fine. She asked me how things were going with Randy. I told her about the pregnant cat situation, the T-shirt he made me wear, and the usual things I tell her about us. She asked the other usual questions. How was I feeling? Have I been eating alright? I told her then about my binges since my arrival. She laughed and said it was normal as far as I'm concerned. Was I sleeping alright? And a mess of other things that most psychiatrists ask about.
 Then she asked the 250,000 dollar question, were my meds still working okay?
 I'm on antipsychotics. That's the main reason why I'm not drinking as hard or as much as I did when I left. And Randy doesn't know, of if he does he's not saying a word. I'll tell him, when I'm ready. It's not that I'm ashamed or embarrassed or anything like that. I'd just rather keep some things to myself until, as the doc says I'm "prepared to enter the next stage of my recovery."
 I've known since highschool I needed help, I was jus too stubborn ta admit it. And over time, it got worse. Then, I snapped. The worst part was, instead of blacking out... I knew what I was doing. I saw what I was doing... and I didn't stop. I saw the monster I'd become, and I knew then that I had to leave before I hurt anyone else. As soon as my second day in Ireland, I started looking for help.
 I picked up my briefcase, and told Frank to fetch me a soda from the fridge. Still on the phone with the doc, I took my pez shaped pills like a good boy, then refilled the box with what was left in the bottles. I'll have to call in my refills when I get home... I take them three times a day. Once with breakfast, once with or near lunch, and once before bed. Every day for the rest of my life. But it's worth it for the ones I love.
 I'll tell Sam about it later after I take him to his suprise/my peace offering. I tuck the little pill box back into my briefcase and snap it closed, give it a good shake so it hides back under my papers, and watch Frank drag it off to my open bedroom door after I say goodbye, and promise to be there next week.
 I get up, back inside to change out of my suit and into some more normal clothes, bypassing the black and/or slutty attire in the closet for a more sane and sensible outfit. Cargo shorts, khaki, with a green t-shirt before cutting over across the hall. Sam's home, as usual. Ty's at work, but he'll be home soon. Today was supposed to be a short shift day.
 After some convincing, no... a lot of convincing, I managed to get the lads to myself for a while, with a promise to keep my phone turned on and to be back in exactly two hours, or to quote him on this "I will run you over with my car and shoot you in the head."
 Though I'd left Frank home to guard my briefcase, he ended up following us to the park, his leash and his favorite rag doll clamped between his teeth. I play with them a bit, and tell them stories about home, and what the countryside is like... though they can't understand a word I'm saying, and they'll probably never see a place so beautiful unless it's in a photograph with a filthy looking bunny in the foreground.
 They fell asleep while I was telling them stories. So I put them back in the stroller and kill the rest of the time with a walk around the park. I stop for a drink of water from a fountain when I notice what part of the park we've ended up in. I blink a few times, then look around. Sure enough, I spot the gazeebo, and I smile and turn the stroller towards it before digging in the diaper bag for two bottles. They'd woken up when I had stopped for a drink.
 I pushed the stroller to a bench and sit down, giving the bottles to each of them after I tie Frank's leash to my wrist.
 "See that there laddies?" I ask, knowing they won't answer. Their stroller was still turned to the gazeebo. "That's where I asked yer naggy uncle ta be me boyfriend. Near here's the theater where yer daddies came an saw us act in a play once."
 After a bit, I checked my phone. We'd never make it back in time for the exact two hour mark. We were going to be around ten minutes or so late.
 I packed up the bottles and we started back home, all the while the two little hellions kept saying "Ahhoh" to me and giggling before saying it again.
 "No no. Yer pappy calls me 'asshole' not ahhoh." This incited many more giggles and happy squeals from them, even clapping as they continued their adorable mispronunciations of the various names their father-brother has for me.
 It was quite cute.
 After dumping them off, and getting an earfull from Sam, I went back to my appartment. Ryan and Dany were watching Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. I stopped to say hi to Rye, and told Dany to go to hell before going to take a nap on Ran's side of the bed.
 I'll take Sam over to the store later after it gets dark.

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an random Alabaster poem "written" by Al for his former husband before they were married.

 I have wings and cannot fly.
 I have smiles but they are empty.
 Whispers of sweet nothings are exactly that.
 I only feel pain and nothing more.
 Behind my smiles are lies and secrets.
 Behind my eyes are only half known truths.
 Yet you love me.
 I do the things I do for one reason only.
 Revenge for what was done to me.
 I do not take charity, I do not take pity.
 I am a living corpse held together with sin and lies.
 I am below your holy station.
 Yet you love me.
 And because of that, I would gladly abandon my course.
 If only to make you happy.
 I am a killer who does not suffer remorse.
 I am inhuman, demonic, undead.
 I have wings and cannot fly.

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 "What if I'd stayed at school that day?"
 "What?" he asked, sitting up to prop himself up on his elbow as we smoked.
 I lay on my back, my feet dangling off the front of the stage. My arms folded beneath my head, my cigarette pointing up to the stage light from my lips. "What if I'd stayed an never skipped the rest-o that day?... Things'd be differnt."
 "Yeah," he said, tapping his cigarette over the hardwood floor as the ashes of my own simply fell to my chin. "You'd probably be going out with Tyler instead of me."
 I turned my head and smiled at his small misunderstanding of my point. The ashes dropped onto my white sleeve. "May'ap... may'ap not..."
 Silence settled as I watched his face. Slight confusion at my answer. I took another puff off my cigarette as he stubbed his out on the stage. He was stoned again... Tyler hadn't picked up on it. Why should he? This was how he'd almost always seen the boy he slept with.
 I took another puff and sat up. "How's yer shoulder?" I asked, changing the subject.
 "Still hurts," he said, laying back and staring at the ceiling.
 I put out my cigarette on my tongue and flicked it into the first row of seats. We chatted on this or that and nothing in particular. School. My play. Beer. My job, his drugs, Tyler.
 It's rare, moments like this when the two of us get along. I was about to get up. I needed a shower, a night cap, and sleep for early rehersal tomorrow. But he stopped me. I looked over at him to find him staring at me with a serious expression I hadn't seen since the day I'd given him the tickets to my play.
 "What?" I asked, leaning to prop myself up beside him on my elbow.
 "What'd you mean by 'maybe maybe not'?"
 I wanted to say it. To tell him, but I couldn't. He had a good thing going with Tyler. I had a good thing starting with one of the others in the play... And if I'd said it out loud, then I knew this fragile friendship would abruptly end... and if it didn't, others would be crushed.
 I hate seeing anyone miserable. Especially because of me.
 "What did you mean?" he repeated coldly.
 I kissed him, half expecting to be punched in the face like the last time I'd been so bold. At first, he tensed, and as I closed my eyes I could see the anger rising in his face. But the tenseness passed, and the strike never came. My hand went to the halfbreed's hip, and rested there a moment before sliding up to hold his side.
 And in this moment, my heart sank. I sat back up and turned my back to him again. "Ye'd best get back ta the dorm an get some sleep yeah," I said as I stood.
 I left him there to his own devices, retreating back to my dressing room. I could hear him as I gathered my things, and for a moment as I was sitting in front of the mirror, I thought I heard footsteps outside my door.
 I looked down at my cards, laid out neatly on the table. I had set them out earlier, reading them before I broke the news of my leaving school to my friends.
 I turned the last one over after hearing the echo of the large doors at the front of the theatre slam shut behind him.
 "The Devil," I said to myself softly, and then, I cried.
  ---
 I sat in the floor. Two nights had passed, and this had been opening night. I had searched the audience for them, and they had not come. I had not seen either of them at school, and when I called the cafe, I was told they had not been by.
 And now I sat in the floor, my new friend Randy with me. He came back from the kitchen just as I was pulling another of the ancient books from the stack he'd brought me. I was searching the index as he held out a cold beer to me.
 "Thanks lovely," I said, stopping long enough to pop the top and take a quick guzzle.
 He pushed up his glasses and flopped down on the couch with a glass of grape Kool-Aid. "What are you looking for?"
 "The Devil," I said, tossing the book aside and taking another.
 "What?"
 I stopped, leaving the book open in my lap where I'd stopped to read a bit. "The Devil. That card... It only comes up when I read if there's a problem," I said, sipping my beer before returning to skimming the pages.
 "Those cards again... You know that's what witches do," he said.
 "So call me a witch an burn me at the stake," I muttered with a frown. "Damn it! Ran, bring me cards over from the table. I need ta check somethin right fast."
 He did as I asked and held the deck out with a look of disgust. "Quit yer bellyachin," I said. "They're jus cards. They ain gonna bite."
 I pulled out The Devil card and inspected it closely, recalling the context in which it had been drawn. Suddenly, I went into a frenzy, running back and forth between my storage closet where I kept my own books, the computer, and my kitchen.
 Long after Randy had passed out on my couch, I finally stopped and looked down at the large diagram I'd made out of paper.
 This was my battle plan.
 The idea was simple. It was the same as all the others who'd also inspired The Devil to appear in my readings.
 Help him. With anything and everything. No matter how long it took, or what I had to do in order to get the job done. I don't know what the problem is, or what's holding him back. But I'll find out, I'll get him through it, and then the end result would be happiness.
 Why happiness?
 If this particular case followed the usual trend... then that's the one most important thing that is lacking.
 I tidied up as best I could and pulled a blanket from the closet. After covering Randy in it, I curl up to sleep in the bathtub with my spare pillow.
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When all is lost and darkness falls
You are our pillar of hope.
So long as you fight on
We will fight beside you.
Oh Sérénité, Silver Queen
Your light will never fade.
Oh Sérénité, Sweet Queen
Your love will always shine.

As battles form and war goes on
Forever you will endure.
In the end when fighting's done
We will watch over you.
Oh Sérénité, Goddess Queen
Hallowed is your name.
Oh Sérénité, Holy Queen
Immortal is your soul.

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 I looked down at the paper, carefully repeating each number as I had dialed it. I'd called this number

a few times over the week. Yesterday, I'd had to call to cancel my meeting with the man I hoped was my older

brother. Those damn cats. They always ruined things. But I guess it was partly my fault that I hadn't put them

back inside.
 I'd gone into town today to pick up some things for Randy. He wanted to test out the new stove I'd

had put in yesterday. Now, I sat on a bench outside the butcher's. I listened to the rings. Seven. Eight. On the

thirteenth I heard a voice.
 "Hello?" the gruff voice said.
 "Sorry laddie, did I wake ye?" I said, trying not to laugh at the mumbles across the line.
 "Who's this?" the man asked. I could hear the yawn.
 "It's Alabaster. I called yesterdy." I took a drag off my cigarette, looking into my dented silver case

to find I only had three left to last the day. Fuck. Absently I wondered if there was anywhere nearby that sold

my brand of kreteks.
 "Oh... yeah... How'd that thing go?"
 I laughed, tapping my cigatette over the pavement. "Eh, turned out alright. Me lovely got past the

hysterics." I had strayed away from pronouns every time I mentioned Randy. Not that I'm ashamed or anything,

but I'd rather not give anyone I don't know the chance to prejudge before I meet them face to face.
 "Good good... Shamus! Gimmie a cuppa coffee wouldja!"
 I couldn't help but laugh. All the randomly generic Irish names I'd heard since we'd gotten here

amused me so much... But I shouldn't laugh so much. For all I know my name could be one of them.
 "Sorry 'bout that... I jus' got in. Haven't had the chance to lie down yet."
 "I know the feelin," I said, watching a group of kids across the street horsing around. "I'll make it

quick then yeah. I was thinkin since we couldn't swing by yesterdy, may'ap we could try fer tomorry er Mondy."
 I heard a mumble, and thought I heard a loud gulp of what I presumed was coffee. "Sounds good.

It'll give me a good reason to haul out the grill. Do you two like steak?"
 Oh god what I wouldn't give for a big juicy T-bone right about now... I'll have to pop in to the

butcher and snag me some before I head back to the homestead. "Yeah. Steak's fine. Want us ta bring anythin?"
 He chuckled. "Yeah. How 'bout a good bottle of whiskey?"
 I smiled. How stereotypical, but funny. That was often my same response back in the states. "How

'bout that an some good lagger yeah? Me lovely don' care too much fer a shot-o good ole medicine."
 We talked a bit longer. Mostly pleasantries. He probed a few times about "me lovely" but I wouldn't

have any of it.
 After I'd gone through another clove cigarette, we said our goodbyes. Set a good time. I told him I'd

call when I knew for sure which day it would be.
 I spent the rest of the morning and afternoon shopping, picking up everything on Randy's list plus a

few goodies for myself. I had a quick liquid lunch in a nice pub. Caught the latest sports wise (not that I was ever

really interrested other than watching the blokes that play run around in tight uniforms) an went back home.
 All in all a rather uneventful day, despite the butterflies that've been in my stomach for the last week.

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 "Out of everthin I've ever done, there's only one thing I regret this time," I said, touching my lips to

the bottle.
 He stared at me, his black brows furrowed. "What the hell do you mean this time?"
 I smiled. "Lovin the one bloke on Earth that don't want me." I took my last swig and stood, gathering

the empty ones on my way to the kitchen. If I'd left the livingroom a mess Randy would tan my hide in the

morning. I cleared the counter, putting away what was left of dinner before going back out to the stairs.
 "Al?"
 I stopped, my hand on the rail at the wall, my foot on the bottom step. "Yeah?"
 "Al I-"
 "I know." I did not look at him. "I've known since the day I gave ye the tickets ta the school play,

when ye pinned me ta the wall." I pasted on a false smile, one I'd worn many times for this man, and had

resigned to wear for the rest of my life. "It's better this way, I think. Ye've got people that need ye now. An I got

a place ta belong now too. Despite how alike we are, we're from two opposite worlds ye an me. We never

could 'ave found a way ta fit."

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from an abandoned RPC project called "Dragon Winds"

 "Bijin... the Mother. The Goddess. The Dragon Maiden... it was she who birthed the last of us, the last with pure blood in his veins... the Unholy One," Genki said with a sigh, his black hair spilling down his strong back.
 "Unholy?..." I asked.
 "The Darkling... the Defiler of young boys... none here utter that name for fear of the wrath it brings."
 "Asaju..."
 He nodded. "The same..."
 "But I thought... Tem's mother was human!"
 "No. His mother was Bijin... the sister of Kage-Shinigami. That is what makes him unholy. Could you not see the resemblance when you saw her?"
 "Yes but I thought-"
 The man nodded, putting an arm about my shoulders. "Yes... and her husband was very displeased by it and forced her to give up her last male child. He forced her to give the child to a woman, one who could not bear one of her own."
 "Why!"
 "Why not? Would you not do the same in Kenryoku's position? That dragon has been plotting for centuries how to get back at Kage... I stood in the way, for a time."
 "What stopped you?"
 He sighed, his heart heavy with untold grief. "You did. You killed me... not once, but twice. And because of that... we've both been kicked out of heaven."
 "Too bright there anyway," I replied. He laughed and patted me on the cheek. "Bright boy you are my little Kigental! Bright boy... but dawn comes and you've a long ways to travel today. Your love has traveled through the night as you've slept and toiled here with me."
 I nodded as he pulled away from me. "Call me in battle, and I will lend you all that I can, if not more," he said before the world blurred and I was again in the dark field, the once black clouds now illuminated to a small, lighter hue. The Darkling Dawn... 

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 "Having trouble with the paranormal. Ghosts. Ghouls. Spirits. Vampires. You name it, we get to the bottom of it and get it out. That's what we do. We're the best of the best and the cream of the crop. Call Grasshopper Blue Investigations at 662-6666 today for your free-" He pressed the mute button on the remote before turning his attention to the young woman seating in the chair before hsi desk.
 "Do you have any idea what you've done? We are supposed to be a secret organization, not a.... a...."
 "Two bit operation sir," she said smiling.
 "Yes. That's what I was-" He furrowed his brows. "You're on suspension as of 5 this afternoon! Now get out of my face."
 "But sir, what about the advertisements?"
 "I said get out!" he growled, pointing to the door.
 She hurriedly ran out, shutting the door behind her.

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 He was young. He didn't know what he was doing. Heading in the wrong direction, hangin with the wrong crowd. But at the time, it didn't seem so bad.
 Now, just a few years older, he understood. The world wasn't going to hand everything over on a silver platter. Hard work is what got a person ahead in the world.
 He knew that now.
 "Hey," he said. How long had he been there?
 He set the flowers down against the headstone before standing. He moved to share his umbrella.
 It didn't matter. The rain had already soaked him through. He put his hands in his pockets, eyes distant as he looked on the marble.
 "Come on, yer goin t' catch a cold."
 He followed him back to the house. Now, looking up at the ceiling, stained with years of tobacco tar that never seemed to fade. He bit his lip as he felt the spreading warmth in his abdomen, flooding his bowels. He made no sound as the other grunted. His sounds seemed far away as he arched his back, the other's thick fingers teasing his pale flesh.
 He lay, sweat evaporating from his body as the other got dressed, snapping the final clasps of his uniform. He watched him, the great pilot of the Highwind. He sat up when the other had gone, and sat with his feet on the floor, his head in his hands.

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based on the last band i was in...

 They stood together beneath the orange-esque streetlight. One with a guitar case clasped in his hand, the other was lighting up a cigarette.
 The taller wore a pair of light blue lensed glasses, perfectly round in the style of the late John Lennon. He was dressed in black, which looked even darker against his skin beneath the dim light. His hair was a deep maroon, with violet highlights so dark they looked black even in ordinary light.
 His shirt was fishnet. His pants were leather. His boots were army issue which he bought at a US Army surplus store a few towns over.
 The other wore a white dress shirt, open at the neck and down his chest some. He wore loose-fitting jeans. He had a pair of Nike sneakers. A light breeze ruffled shaggy black hair as an SUV whizzed past.
 It skidded to a stop and returned in reverse. A door opened and a man came out, moving to the front passenger side and climbed back in again.
 The pair clambered in, putting the guitar case in the very back seat before slamming the doors shut.
 "You ready?" asked the driver as he adjusted the rearview mirror.
 The smoker inhaled deeply, and spoke as the addictive smoke flowed out of his mouth and nostrils. "Just drive," he said as he fingered a silver ring on his left hand.
 "Whatever bro," replied the driver as the SUV began to lurch forward once more.
 The midnight blue SUV gave a smooth ride over the jagged concrete of Macon Street. Soon they had come to the bright lights of state road 14-72, and into the traffic they jumped.
 "I heard there'll be a talent scout at the show tonight for Kyuketsuki. Maybe if we rock Happy Daze in the Battle tongiht more than the usual jive, we'll steal the show and land a deal," said the front passenger.
 In the back seat the right window was cracked and he exhaled another coud of smoke, watching it stream out the window.
 Kyuketsuki... the only other goth rock band in the show...
 He took off his shades and watched the passing buildings, darkened now that the day's usual business had gone for the night. He was uneasy, the butterflies revisiting his stomach for the first time in two years.
 "...I heard they have a new bass player that's supposed to have helped launch the careers of Just Lost and Stoner Clouds," said the driver.
 "Yeah! I heard that too! Man, she's so hot. I saw her at the beach set last week. You thik they were checkin the competition?"
 The black haired scooted close and put an arm around the smoker. "Should we tell them?" he whispered.
 "Not yet... lets wait until the intermizzo," he replied, tossing his cigarette butt out the half-inch slit of the window. "I don't want them to get freaked out until we pass the first round.
 "Yo man, what you mutterin about back there?" asked the driver.
 "Shut up and keep your eyes on the road Jak," he replied as he closed his eyes, settling against the other with a sigh. "It's going to be a long couple of days..."
  ***
 They walked in through the back entrance. It was alost show time and they didn't even have time to do a sound check... but then again, they never did.
 Jak, a tall scruffy man with dyed black dreds, had gone to check when they would be on tonight. The remaining 3 sat with their equipment. They had brought most of them over earlier in the day with the exception of the bass guitar and the cord for the accoustic.
 "Looks like we're up after some techno band," Jak said when he returned, passing out various bottles. The smoker took an Icehouse, his black haired companion grabbed the Jolt Cola. The other two held Corona Golds.
 "A toast," said the loudmouth. That was Gabe... Gabe Guteirez. His hair, like two of the others, was black. It was long and fell past his shoulders, and his small build one might mistake him for a young woman... which happened a lot. His fierce blue eyes could light up an entire city of they were wired to a power conductor. He wore a black shirt with fishnet sleeves of blue. His pants were just a pair of old jeans with holes in the knees.
 The four tapped their bottles together and took a long swig after saying "Destroy the human souls" in a low, growling tone. Jak laughed with Gabe as a long legged girl passed by, her mohawk a full foot and a half high off her head with a braided rat tail.
 "Keep the mirror straight, I almost poked out my eye," grumbled the smoker.
 "Sorry," said the other, using his free hand to take another swig of Jolt.
 "Well well... didn't expect to see you here kid."
 The two looked up at a rather tall, busty blonde as she snapped a Zippo lighter closed.
 "So? Free country," he muttered before leaning close to the mirror again to apply his eyeliner.
 "There she is!" Gabe shouted suddenly. "Why didn't you tell us you knew Maki Lotus!"
 The one holding the mirror sighed and ignored the sudden fanboyishness of Gabe. Hard to believe the man was 25 years old. Jak had to nearly drag him off to do a final run through of their songs.
 "Like I said. I honestly didn't expect to see you guys here. It's been a long time," she said, leaning on a stack of crates.
 "Yeah... not long enough. Give the guys my regards and tell them I'm sorry for kicking their asses on stage tonight."
 "Yeah, as if. If that's your band, then I have pity on you."
 "I don't want your pity Wes. You can take it and shove it where the sun don't shine."
 Suddenly there was a burst of applause as the latest group finished their set and left the stage. The three could hear the announcer call out the name of the next band.... Kyuketstuki.
 "Well that's me. And please, don't burst into tears during our acceptance speech," she said, tossing her long blonde hair over her shoulder.
 When she was gone, and he could hear the band start to play, he let out the breath he didn't know he was holding. "You sure you still wanna do this? It's not too late to back out. I tell the guys and-"
 "Tell them I made a change in plans and we're doing the Big 3."
 "What! But last time we did those you cut your hand on the strings! Are you crazy!"
 "It's the only thing we have in our arsenal that gives us a chance against them. Now hurry up. After them the techno freaks are up, then us."
 He stared at him a moment, then put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't push yourself. The All-Players Open is tomorrow afternoon. If you slice up..."
 He put his hand over his and looked up into those round brown eyes in that tanned face. "You worry too much Ja."
 They smiled before he joined Jak and Gabe as they peered out from the curtain. The red head dug around in a duffle bag, pulling out a plastic baggie with a clutter of jewelry inside. He opened it and started changing his earrings. He slipped a cuff up on his right ear cartiladge. It had a celtic-esque design. When he was through, he had three dangling catholic crosses from his ears. Two in the left, one in the right. He draped a silver chain around his neck with a chinese looking pendant bearing the kanji of Death.
 He took one more sip of his beer before putting everything away and having a quick cigarette. Jak and Gabe gave him a worried look before turning to talk to Jakob again.
 The guitarist closed his eyes and rested his head against the cool cinderblock wall as he exhaled slowly a stream of smoke. Watching it reminded him of fairy tale dragons who would blow smoke rings before casting a ball of fire from their jaws.
 The band on stage played on, moving from one song to the next, all of which he recognized. Gloomily images danced in his brain of when he had first heard those cords, the pulsing beat of the drums urging him and his mates on as they danced around in the garage hundreds of miles away.
 It seemed he blinked and it was all gone to ashes... like the cigarette that had burned out unnoticed.
  ***
 They had gone on around 3.
 And though Jak thought it unnecessary, the rules stated they must have a short introduction of the band...
 The curtain was about to rise. They were the last band to perform before the intermizzo. Which was great for them, they would have plenty of rest before the next day's events.
 "Settle down settle down," said the announcer into the mic. When the audience had taken it down a decible, he started again. "Okay! Get ready for up for the next crew of misfits. Right here from your home county, from the ocean coast and inland. The only other goth rockers in the entire competition..." The curtain started to rise. Jak made one last adjustment to his mic, casting a look back to the rest.
 "This is it guys. Not gettin off this train when it's in motion."
 "Great FF7 reff. bro," chuckled Jakob softly as he pulled on the strap of his right handed fingerless glove before running that hand through his hair.
 "Big 3," said Gabe, reminding everyone of the line up. The bassist nodded and looked down at his guitar, the glossy black making him smile.
 "Give it up for Broken Pavement!" the announcer finally said as the audience got their first glimpse of them for the night.
 Jak gave them his trademark smile. "Yo, you ready to jive?" he said. Various groups called out, some just stood there stupidly while others watched in contempt.
 "Alright! Yeah, we got G on drums!" As he said this he stepped off to the side, one hand on the neck of his guitar. Yes, Jak was not only lead vocals, he was also accoustic. Gabe gave a quick roll on his set.
 "Over there's Ja-kun on the synths!" Jakob gave a wave and a smile.
 "That bloke to my left is... well, ain't got a good name for him, but we just call him Temmy."
 He didn't crack a smile, instead he gave a quick few notes that just happened to fit together.
 "And then there's me, Jak!" At this a few girls in the back screamed. He pointed them out and winked before grabbing up his guitar, ready to play.
 This was the cue for the rest to start.
 The music they played was eerie, seeming at first like it belonged in one of those old horror movies, the ones in black and white. Then suddenly the beat picked up and Jak started screaming in the mic as he threw back his head.
 His voice bounced off every wall, pervaded every corner, rose to the highest rafters above them all. It was unbelievable. The small club was exploding with energy. The first song was one of their personal favorites. It was the first one they wrote after Tem and Jakob joined the band, replacing their old stoner members.
 They trailed off at the end, leaving just the keyboards and base to guide them into the next. It was a ballad called "Ode to Vampirella".
 It was about the comic book character obviously, but not many actually knew that little fact. This was possibly the second hardest song they had.
 Tem joined Jak on vocals, their voices differing greatly, Jak hitting the extreme high notes with Tem hitting the lowest, nay, impossibly low. Normally this would have been a disaster, but with the cords and beat they played and the notes the mexican pounded out on the keyboard, it was near perfect.
 And then the dreaded moment came. He could feel the uneasy eyes of the few local fans and his other band mates on him as they flowed right into the final song of their mini-set.
 He licked his lips and turned his face upward. He didn't need to look at the strings. He knew what he was doing... but those who knew the forboding this song gave to those who knew the various stories behind it knew it was a catastrophe waiting to happen.
 The last time they had done the song, he caught his fingers in the strings and sliced them up bad enough it was thought he would never be able to play again...
 But he never let anything like that beat him... especially some stupid song. He moved to join Jak's side their backs pressed together.
 "Be careful," Jak whispered softly.
 He nodded and they started to sing.
  "Crazy jealousy in the dark
  You think you know me but you don't
  You're just blinded by the
   scent of my blood!
  "Lets make pretend you and me
  That your fantasy is my reality!
  Nothin you do is gonna fix
   this broken toy
  
 Jak: "You bite me you cut me
 Tem:  You tear me apart!
 Jak: You take out my stuffin and play
 Tem:  Like you're making that same web

 Jak: "You beat me you crush me
 Tem:  You chew me up and spit me out!
 Jak: Suck the marrow from my bones
 Tem:  And take my life away!

  "It's just a fit of Crazy Jealousy!"...

 The busty blonde Tem called Wes, but the world called Maki Lotus, turned away from the curtan, kicking over a chair violently.
 "Yo! Chill-out!" said the specitcled guitarist, grabbing her by the arm. She shoved the girl away with a roar.
 "Who does he think he is!"
 "So that's what he looks like now," said a green eyed blond man, his hair boasting neon pink highlights. His bracelets clinked together as he moved his hand to push away a little more of the curtain. "Looks like he's lost a lot of weight. I'd say that's a ladies 5 he has on..."
 "Quit staring Lee. It makes you look pathetic."
 "You're one to talk," replied a tall brunette with a football player's build. This was the keyboardist Kyle Lachowsky, the US born son of a couple of dirt poor Russian immigrants.
 "Watch your mouth Ky," snarled Wes with a heated glare.
 "Knock it off all of you!" snapped James, his blue-violet dyed hair giving a strange sheen in the artificial light. "I don't care what you think is going on Wesley, but you'll keep it to yourself," he said. His hand was on his hip and his jaw squared. "He's still my best friend no matter what the hell you've put together in your mind."
 "Jamie...." Zeke, the girl with glasses, started.
 "Don't worry Z, I won't lose my cool." He sighed. "Look, we're here to make a name for ourselves, not to cause a war over state lines go that Wesley."
 The others were silent as the two stared at one another in silence. Broken Pavement were just comming off stage wiping sweat from their brows from the heat of the stage lights.
 The two bassists locked eyes, both seeming to shoot invislbe daggers at one another before Jako urged the rest of his band on.
 The quartet left their rivals arguing amongst themselves. They had gone outside for air, trying to cool off. Gabe this time had gone to get the drinks, same as before.
 The bassist sat on the ground with his knees up, his arms stretched out between his leather clad legs as he rested his head on the keyboardist's shoulder. "I told you guys not to worry. There's no doubt in my mind now we'll make it to the next round."
 "Yeah," Jak said, taking a puff on his unfiltered cigarette. "But what are we gonna do now? Those were the best three we had."
 Gabe looked at the sitting pair and grinned before taking a swig of his beer.
 Jak looked at him with a raised brow. "What are you so happy about?"
 "He wouldn't have ordered those particular three if he didn't have an ace up his sleeve... right bro?"
 "So you caught on. My aren't you a bright one," was the mumbled reply.
 There was a silence. Jakob set his empty soda bottle aside and put his arms around the guitarist with a sigh. "Gotta admit, you had us all worried after what happened last-"
 "And I told you not to worry about it. I had everything under control. Besides, I have a plan. In the individual competitions we have to provide our own piece right?" The three nodded.
 "I wrote a couple of songs last night. And I'll give you your parts before you go on. Each round you're in I'll give you the next part to the next song, that way when we go up in the finals, we've practiced and all we'll need is a quick run down together to make sure we get the timing straight."
 Jak's jaw dropped. Usually his friend just took his sheet music, practiced until his hands were raw, and then showed up at the gigs. He never really put this much thought behind something, not even before he flunked out of the fancy art school he went to after graduating... therefore, this must be somethng almost as serious as...
 "Tem," he said after a moment. "There's something you're not telling us..."
 "Wes is here," he said flatly. "And I'm going to get my revenge the only way I know how." He took a long swig of his beer before looking him dead in the eye.
 "But isn't he supposed to be in London?" Gabe asked, recalling the time in the garage when he'd asked why the guy went to a shrink every week.
 Tem was silent a moment, then whispered something in Jakob's ear, who grinned. "You want to tell them, or should I?"
 "I'll do it," he replied with a matching smile, turning his eyes back to the two guys waiting for an explanation. "I know you guys have been checkin that Maki girl out... but there's something you should know about her," he paused just to make the more suspense. When he was satisfied by the looks on their faces, wide eyes in realization. "Maki Lotus is really Mr. Wesley Hembrooke, the man who ruined my life."
 Gabe dropped his bottle. It didn't break when it hit the ground, it only rolled on the concrete, the frothy liquid spilling out. Jak's face went pale before it suddenly turned bright red. "Oh god..." he said.
 "And I asked her to dinner tomorrow!" Gabe exclaimed.
 At least that broke the tension as the others laughed at his mistake. "How could you not tell it was a dude!"
 "You thought it was a chick too Jak!" he shouted back.
 Tem and Jakob just sat there laughing at them both. The night had turned back to fun.
 The staff exit swung open as the girl with the mohawk poked her head out. "There you guys are!"
 "Yeah?" Tem asked, rising to his feet and dragging Jakob with him.
 "You guys were out here the whole time?"
 "Yeah," the redhead said as he rolled his eyes.
 She blinked a moment before going on. "Man, you guys missed the second half. They just announced the placers for the next round! Looks like we'll be seeing you guys Sunday at the semi-finals!"
 "Really?" Gabe asked suprised. She nodded. "Yeah. Half the first set made it in. You guys were picked fan-faves tonight. Guess it helps if the audience has seen ya before," she said with a laugh.
 "Yeah. Well..."
 "Oh, and there was this guy looking for you, but nobody could find you guys." She stepped out, holding the door open and fishing in the pocket of her jeans. "He asked me to give you this next time I see ya." She held out a card.
 Jak took it and looked it over, then passed it around as if it were gold.
 "Guys... this is..." Jak.
 "The business card of..." Gabe.
 "The CEO of..." Jakob.
 "Dark Skys Records," Tem finished confidently, handing it back to their leader.
 "Thanks...uh..."
 "Call me Quint," she said with a smile before ducking back inside.
 Jak turned back to his crew. "That settles it. Whatever's in that messed up head of your's Temmy, you've gotta let us in."
 The bassist smiled and put a hand in his pocket silently before whistling the tune to Marcy Playground's "Sex and Candy" as he went back inside to retrive his jewelry and his guitar.
 The other's followed, still in awe of the mystical business card of Mr. Gil Webster of Dark Skys Records.
  ***
 He rolled over and slapped the alarm into the floor. It was only 8:30 AM... and they had only gotten about an hour and a half sleep... well most of them. Jakob, the only sober one of the bunch having to drive the SUV to Gabe's since it was closest to Happy Daze.
 He crawled out of bed and got dressed to find Tem in the kitchen sipping a cup of coffee and reading the morning paper, still wearing the clothes he'd had on the night before. "Did you even-"
 "No. Ja was tossing and turning so I gave up and came out here." He folded the paper and laid it on the table. "Get the guys up and get dressed, I'll load the wheels while ya'll get dressed," he said.
 Gabe blinked as he watched his friend rise and move to the kitchen door, that deep southern accent of his never came out unless he was really stressed, or tired. In any case, it gave the drummer a good cause to worry.
 But, after taking a squich chug of hot coffee, black with no sugar, he went to round up the others. They were dressed and loaded in the SUV within 15 minutes, and Tem was driving.
 "Don't you have a hangover..." Jak grumbled, shielding his face from the morning sun even though he had on a pair of sunglasses.
 "Slightly, yes. But I didn't drink as much as you dumbasses. If you don't make it in your divisions today it's your own damn faults."
 Gabe made a meow-rawr cat noise in the front passenger seat. "Better watch out Jakob, he's a fiesty one," he laughed, which immediately earned him a smack to the back of the head.
 "After we find out what happens when one of us will run out for food around lunch time," Tem said as he pulled the SUV onto another road off the highway. "This ting sucks going around corners, you know that right Jak."
 "Well if we could fit all our junk in your Contour Tem, then we'd be driving that. But it just so happens that Gabe's drumset won't fir in your trunk," he replied, staring out the window.
 "Do you know how many SUVs flip over every year? It's about 6-"
 "No one wants to hear it Gabe so shut it," Tem snapped.
 Instantly the chatterbox was subdued and the next five minutes or so that it took to get to the club were spent in silence.

----------------------------------------

based on my highschool friends...

 He sighed, looking out the window, watching his daughter run through the front yard with a football under her arm, an oversized jersey on her back and a large helmet swallowing her head. She took off the helmut with a smile, shaking her long black hair loose from it's tail as she held it and the football high in the air. Almond shaped eyes were filled with glee as Jakob ran up and picked her up off the ground.
 With another sigh, Temmothy looked down at the card in his hand, a short list of names and numbers he'd had for years, some of them since he was a kid in kindergarten. He opened the laptop on the table and signed online, and with his free hand he dialed the first number on the list into his cell.
 It was going to be a long night...
 "Hey dad!" she shouted excitedly, throwing her shoulder pads next to the front door and pounding through the house to the kitchen. "Hey dad! Didja see!"
 "Yes Kirsten... can this wait till later, I'm kinda busy..."
 "Doin what?" she said, peering over his shoulder. "OH! Tell Jaide I said hi!" she chattered.
 "Okay okay... go get a candy bar or somethin," he said, apologizing to the one on the phone for his daughter's outburst.
 She went over to the fridge and stood there looking in as Jakob came into the kitchen in his socks and a pair of sweats, coming to stand behind her and stare pointlessly into the fridge.
 "You're wasting electricity. Get somethng and shut the door," he grumbled.
 "Fine fine Mr. Conservative..."
 "Dad! I need the phone! I was supposed to call Becca half an hour ago!"
 "....I-"
 Jakob mussed her hair. "Run and get a shower first," he said, grabbing a bottle of soda from the fridge and moving to sit at the table across from his husband.
 She glared at them both before grabbing a Red Bull from the door of the fridge and leaving the kitchen.
 "No.... Kirsten! You know those aren't for you! Put it back and get somethng else," he said as he typed on the computer in a private chat, all his oldest friends chattering on and on about useless things, and some actually role playing... god they were what now? in their late 20s-early 30s... would they ever grow up?
 She rolled her eyes and put the can back, grabbing a soda before going upstairs to her room. Within moments the two men groaned at the blasting of the latest boy band from behind her closed door.
 "I told you we should have soundproofed her room the second she got that stereo..."
 "It was your idea to get it for her in the first place. You should have thought ahead... I dread the day she discovers rock music..."
 "Oh god... I never thought about that... anyway, what are we havin for dinner?"
 "Fishsticks are in the oven. Make some tatertots to go with 'em."
 "Geeze Tem, don't sprain your wrist making me a good meal. You might not be able to type anymore..." he grumbled, taking a swig of his soda.
 He looked up from the computer long enough to give his husband a good long glare. "I slave in the kitchen every day for your sorry ass. And what do I get? Nothing but a load of dishes is what. And the one time I don't cook-cook you get pissed off. God damn it Jakob, get off your lazy ass once in a while and do something for yourself. It's just fuckin tatertots!" grumbling under his breath in Japanese, he went back to typing.
 "Fine. Don't blow a gasket," he replied, setting his coke on the table and going to get his dinner out of the oven.
 "Oh... Kirsten made the first cut of football tryouts."
 "Good! She's really been pushing herself hard for it."
 "Okay... don't sound happy..." Jakob muttered.
 Again his husband shot him the look of death. "I am. Really. But I've just got a lot of work to do... If I don't get things together for the Halloween party, who will?"
 "If I knew you were doing that..." he said, sliding the pan of tatertots in the oven and closing it. "I would have come back inside and helped." He went to the table and picked up his bottle of soda, then went around to Tem's side of the table, leaning over him and taking a swig from the bottle.
 "You're 'still' using AOHell? What version is it up to now?"
 "27.1B I think..." Tem handed him the list of names and numbers and his cell. "Call everyone on this list... except for the ones marked out in pink. We don't associate with them anymore. Oh, and the ones marked in blue. I already called them."
 He looked over the list carefully. "Why is my brother marked out in pink?..."
 "...You are not calling long distance to Mexico that's why. Plus... remember what he did last year?"
 "Oh yeah..... best not invite him.... Kirsten might tackle and beat the hell outta him again..."
 "Yeah. Thought so. Now go. I have like 20 more people to IM."
 "20?.... Tem, sometimes I worry about you and your imaginary little world..."
 "My 'imaginary little world' is what paid for this house when you lost your job. Now get to calling. The night time minutes just started and I'm looking forward to a cheap phone bill..."
 He took the list with him to the livingroom and turned on the DVD player to watch whatever happened to be in there at the moment... it was anime.
 "Damn it Tem! How many times do I have to tell you to keep your fuckin cartoons in the bedroom!"
 "They're not cartoons! And I wasn't watching it!" he called with a smirk. "Kirsten and Gabby were watching the old Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Sailor Knights after school today!"
 "....whatever...." he muttered, dialing in the next number on the list. "Yeah... hi Ms. Stokes. Is James home?"
  ----
 He was in his office when the pounding started... he'd thought it was his head, but it wasn't obviously since shortly after it stopped he saw a smiling face in the window holding up a small shopping bag from Bath and Body Works.
 He laughed at the goofy face she made before going around to the front door, unlocking the deadbolt and opening it.
 "Oniisan!" she exclaimed, thrusting the bag at him. It smelled of lavender. "Hope this is still your scent!"
 "Uh... what are you doing here... Halloween isn't till next week..."
 "Well... I decided to use up my vacation time before the office had a chance to take it from me. Plus it's with pay!"
 "Uh... how much vacation time are we talking here..."
 "Two weeks!" she exclaimed. "Just lemme get my stuff outta the truck..."
 "You DROVE here from Nebraska!"
 "No! This isn't my truck! It's a rental!" she said happily. "Bah... we can get it all later. Aren't you going to invite me in?"
 "Oh, yeah. Come on in Imotosan... Uh... I wasn't expecting anyone until Saturday at least..." he said, shutting the door behind her. "Please, don't mind the mess... I haven't had a chance to pick up and vacume today."
 "Pish posh! So... what were ya workin on in there?" she asked, taking off her coat and tossing it over the back of a livingroom chair. Hurriedly he went to put his giftbag in his office to get it out of the way.
 "Not much... I was just updating the site..."
 "Not much indeed! That reminds me... Jaide said he won't be here until Sunday. Said he had a meeting with one of his major editors Saturday morning." She sat down on the couch with a happy grin on her face, brushing her chocolate brown locks from her eyes. "So...."
 "Uh... I can't really go out right now, I still have some work to get done... you can watch a movie or play a game or somethin till Kirsten gets home."
 "When's that?" she asked, obvisouly hyper from the plane ride and the time zone switch.
 He looked at his watch. "The bus drops her off at the bus stop around 4... but she has the last day of football tryouts today so.... I guess she'll be home around 6."
 "But it's only 11 in the morning! C'mon! Lets go splurge! Florida's got one of the biggest malls in America! I've been dying to-"
 "Okay okay.... lemme just go save my work and leave a note for Ja telling him where I'm at so he doesn't get all worked up when he gets home for lunch and I'm gone..."
 "What does he do now anyway?"
 "He's a sportscaster."
 "Oh... I'd thought when he-"
 "Nope. You can take the man outta football, but you can't take the football outta the man. I'll be ready in a half hour. Grab somethin outta the fridge if you'r hungry."
 "No. I can wait. Besides, I traveled First Class, which means I got the real food on the plane."
 "First Class... the only way to fly!" he said, slipping into the hall and going back to his office.
  ----
 They'd waited until Jakob got home for lunch before going out, taking him along with (though he took his own car so he could get back to work after lunch). They'd chosen to eat at Fazolis, a great place for good Italian without all the fuss of Olive Garden. Plus the people were SOOO much nicer! They gave you free breadsticks whenever you asked for them! And as many as you wanted too!
 "And then I said to Buddy 'No, the Broncos can't drag Aikman outta retirement, the man's almost dead!' and then you know what he said? He goes 'No! I meant Troy Jr. Did playing football all thoese years scramble your brain?' and then Melissa, my assistant started laughing because everyone knows there is no Troy Aikman Jr."
 "That's nice Jakob... but we were discussing the importance of symbolism in the works of Shakespeare..." Tem said with a sigh.
 "No you weren't. Don't pull a fast one on me today Tem. I'm not in the mood..." he grumbled, twirling some of his speghetii on his fork.
 Amanda grinned. "God it's great to hear you two argue over the dumbest stuff!" She laughed so hard she dropped her breadstick in her lasagna.
 Both the men looked at her oddly before looking to each other, then joined her in her laughter. Tem picked up a breadstick, and Jakob grabbed his hand. "Wheat."
 "Don't worry. I took my pill this morning," he said, taking the breadstick in his other hand and taking a big bite.
 "You better have. I really don't feel up to an overnight run to the hospital again."
 "Hey! At least you know lots of people watch the show! Even the ER doctors remembered you from when you played for the Falcons!"
 "Yeah.... I guess it wasnt so bad. Aside from the whole you almost died for the thirteenth time."
 "See, there ya go!" Tem said with a grin.
 "Wait a minute..." Amanda said, finishing off the last of her lasagna. "Thirteen times... I thought you said third..."
 "So I exaggerated a little.... okay... a lot." He tapped the waitreess when she came by. "Could I get a carry out box for this?" he asked, pointing at what was left of his meatball sub. She nodded and went on her merry way.
 "I don't even want to know what happened all those other times..." she said, eating another breadstick. Tem finished off his as Jakob rose from his chair.
 "Where you going?"
 "Lunch breaks over. You'll be home in time to pick up Kirsten right?"
 "Sure babe," he said as Jakob bent down to give him a small kiss on the cheek before pulling on his coat. "Oh.. could you pick me up another case of Red Bull while your out? She took the last one this morning before I could catch her."
 "We need to break her of that habbit... she doesn't need anymore pep."
 "I know I know. I'll have a talk with her when I get home tonight." He bent down to give him another kiss just as the waitress returned with a small white styrofoam box.
 "Love you," he said. She gave them an odd look, then glanced at the woman who'd been sitting with them.
 Amanda just gave her a big smile before stuffing her friend's food into the box with the last of the breadsticks. "Thank you. Come again," she said. The waitress... officially weirded out for the day returned to her place in the kitchen.
 "Love you too babe. Now get goin or you'll be late to work again."
 Jakob left them, and they waited 10 minutes more, chatting about this and that, before they too left, Tem with styrofoam box in hand.
 ".....I still can't believe you kept this car.... of all the times you've said it broke down and had to go into the shop... how much money did you put into this piece of crap anyway?"
 "Enough to buy three classic Mustangs and a new Beatle at least," he said, getting into the teal-green 1997 Ford Contour... with a 1995 hood.
 "Why didn't you just get a new one then?" she asked, strapping in and taking the box from him so he could drive.
 "Because I love this car.... and I can't bring myself to get rid of it."
 ".....Tem..... I think Travis was right when he said you're an idiot..."
 "Yeah... but this idiot is worth $65,000 in a bad year."
 "But Jaide-"
 "I know I know.... don't even get me started on him... I'm still pissed about-"
 "Hey! You forgot to copyright it. That means it was fare game. Now perk up and take me to the mall damnit! I'm here to shop and have a good time, not to hear you whine about that stupid book you two wrote together!"
 "Okay okay already.... hand me that puke green CD case down there. Kinda Dollar Tree lookin."
 "For a rich guy you sure do shop cheap..."
 "How the hell do you think I can afford taking care of this car?" he said with a laugh as she handed it to him. He searched through it before taking out a CD with japanese scribbled all over it and slipping it into the player.
 "Gackt okay with you?"
 "Gackt..... he has the-"
 "Abs of God," he finished for her as he started up the car, tossing the CD case up onto the dashboard as the now considered classic JRock began to blast out of his car speakers.
  ----
 "Dad!" she shouted, running up to the car window when he pulled up. "Dad I made it! I made the team!" she exclaimed happily, looking past him to the woman in the passenger seat. "Who's she?"
 "Your godmother. No get in back. And be careful, there's a lot of breakable stuff back there."
 "Why couldn't J- I mean, why couldn't pops pick me up?"
 "He had to work late again."
 She opened the door and climbed into the car, laying her dufflebag carefully in the floorboard before pulling the door closed. She was already digging in the bags before they'd left the school parking lot.
 "What'dja buy this time?"
 "Just some junk."
 She pulled a pair of red leather pants from a Hot Topic bag. "Don't tell me these are your's... you know you'll never fit in them..."
 "....Kirsten, put it away or you're not getting what's in the trunk..." Tem said as he pulled out from the backroad into the state-road.
 "Oh, you mean all that junk you got from Sam Goody?" Amanda asked, pulling a pack of gum she bought at the little anime store (the place was called Toon World).
 "Yeah..."
 "Oh god. If I knew she was boyband crazy I would have brought Jessica's old CD collection. Last time she came to my house she was one of those wannabe goth kids," Amanda said.
 "You mean the deathers?" Tem asked.
 "No, she wasn't even one of those. A major poser."
 "God... you two sound old..."
 "Hey!" Tem said, looking into the rearview mirror with a small scold. "People like us shaped the English language into what you use today. Now hush up or you can forget about the Jet Coaster concert next month!"
 "But dad! You can't! EVERYONE is going to that concert!"
 "Tem, don't you think that's harsh? I mean, remember when your mom said you couldn't go to your first concert?"
 He sighed. "Nope. I was IN my first concert remember."
 "Tem, Jet Coaster isn't some garage band you can go to the local teen hot spot to see. This is the biggest band in the western hemisphere."
 "...Who's side are you on?" he said with a grin, takingh is hand off the wheel long enough to poke his old friend in the arm.
 "Hey, we girls gotta stick together right Kirsten?" she laughed.
 "Argh! It's two against one!" Tem exclaimed as he pulled off on an exit.
 "Dad! This isn't-"
 "Becca was supposed to be spending the night tonight right?"
 His daughter blinked and looked around her. "But..... how are we going to fit her in here?"
 "How do we usually fit all 13 of your friends in my car dear?" he said with a smirk.
 She rolled her eyes and stared out the window. "Whatever..."
  ----
 The girls were sitting in their pajamas in the livingroom watching one of Kirsten's chick flicks when Tem came downstairs, drying his hair with a towel.
 "Yo! Mr. H! Your hair!" Becca shouted when she saw him. His daughter instantly turned and her eyes widened. "DAD!" she exclaimed in shock.
 "What?" he said, looking at the pre-teens with blood colored brows furrowed.
 "Dad! It's.... it's.... red!"
 "Yeah? And?" he said, laying the towel over the back of a chair, heading into the kitchen where Amanda stood at the stove.
 She'd insisted that they eat a 'real meal'... and for the remainder of her stay, she declared herself queen of the kitchen.
 He opened the fridge and pulled out a can of V8, popping open the top and taking a nice long draught of the tomato-carrot-veggie juice mixture. He closed the fridge and leaned back on the counter. "Smells good. What are we havin?"
 "Lemon pepper chicken, homemade macaroni and cheese, a fresh ceasar salad, and for you Oniisan I made green bean cassarole since I know you're a vegiatarian again."
 "Ah... how about you move in and be my cook?" he joked with a grin.
 "Your hair reminds me of Ronald McDonald..." she laughed, quickly pushing him outta the way so she could get to the platter of chicken behind him, squeezing fresh lemon juice over the four pieces. "And when was the last time you had a deacent meal? It looks like you haven't cooked in here in ages!"
 "Monday actually," he said, taking another long draught of his V8.
 The front door opened and slammed shut again with the sound of heavy footfalls. "Tem?"
 "In the kitchen Jakob!" Amanda called with a bit of sing-song to her voice.

-------------------------------------------

Deep blue painted nails raked through dark brown hair as she stood looking down at the gravestone. "Then there was one," she said, turning from the site and starting down the stone path. Her hands stuffed into her pockets, her far too big KSU sweatshirt protecting her from th biting chill of the oncoming winter just a few short days away.
 Brown eyes closed as she sighed, the rainclouds above threatening to burst forth from their loins the freezing rain that pleaded with god to fall.
 Softly she started humming to herself, an old song she'd learned as a teenager. She was in a band back then. She played guitar; accoustic. "Rain rain go away take our joy another day," she sang quietly to herself as she came to kneel by another stone.
 She'd no flowers to bring. No charms. No presents. Nothing but her gloom and a heavy heart. "Well James," she said, placing a hand against the marble stone, tracing the fine rose engraved into it years before. "You were right. Life is short... take care of Li-li for me," she whispered, rising to her feet and holding a hand to her chest, clutching a tissue she'd pulled from her pocket, then opened her palm.
 She stared at her hand, the lines deep, dark with sweat and grime. She'd tried to get there as soon as she could, but by the time she could get a flight from Australia, it was too late.
 A quick shine, an unfamiliar weight. She stared at the piece of flatened steel, the soft curve in the center as the sides rounded up.
 "That's-" she whispered as she scratched a thin layer brown from it with her nail. It came off cchalky, like dried blood.
 "The Susan B. Anthony you dug out of Li's ankle when we were kids."
 She turned around, her eyes wide a she stood frozen. Dark, short black hair, seeming hardly touched at all between the bed and here with her, as if it had never been combed that day.

------------------------------------------------

Every night for the past four months it has been the same dream. Two men locked in a never ending dance of love and hate. Two beings, and angel and a demon, forever circling around in a bitter cycle. Always it is the faces of the past. I woke to find him laying next to me, my head pounding with hangover. How drunk had I gotten the night before? I looked down at that soft face against the pillow, tracing the outling of a bruise on his cheek... how'd it get there?...
 I thought hard, trying to recall the events from the night before. Wind and Maria had come by again, bringing with them this time their pal Shorty... that's right, there'd been a fight at the bar.
 Wind had struck him and I broke the man's arm for it... to strike such perfection is deemed a sin in my eyes... even if that perfection is also a complete moron.
 I rose up, pushing the sheets from my chest to lay heaped in my lap. He shifted beside me, but did not wake, even as his shoulder, bare and milky white, came out from under the warm cover.
 I looked across the room to the mirror that hung over the black ebony dresser, scatching my arm lightly. Blinking a few times, the dream returned to my thoughts.
 Large black feathered wings had wrapped round me as I watched the two struggle in angry passions, then apart again. Then they clashed, sword against claws, then finally I was thrown back, spiraling out of control.... and just when I thought I would surely die when I hit the ground, I'd wake.
 It was always like this in these dreams of mine now. Sometimes Joey would be there with me, and when I fall he would scream out "Don't let him fall!" as he reached his hands out to me, though just not able to reach.
 I felt eyes on me, cold and questioning in their stare. I looked down at him, brushing my fingers over his bruise again. "Sleep well?" I asked, cradling that injured cheek in my hand. He nuzzled before yawning and picking his head up off the pillows.
 "Not really..." he muttered. "Could have slept better if you hadn't worn me out... doing anything today?"
 "Workin... you?"
 "Startin another job today," he replied, snuggling close to me.
 "I thought you worked down at the greek embassy down on 76th and Main."
 "I do, but it doesn't pay much."
 "Hell, if it's money you need I cou-"
 "And that would make me a prostitute. You really don't want that... I might slip into your room one night and give you freakin AIDs or something."
 "Fine fine...whatever..." I mumbled, getting out of bed and quickly finding my clothes on the floor, pulling them on hastily. he watched me from the bed, laying on his side with one hand resting where I had been.

-----------------------------------------------------

Generations lost. The last of a dying breed. The machines had taken control, and remained thus for untold time. The scorched skies darkened, and once more Zion was crushed.
 People said the coming of the One would end the war, herald freedom for the humans, a breaking of the bonds that held them.
 But there was no breaking, only tightening.
 The Matrix was never destroyed, only restarted over and over again, the anomole inching closer and closer each time it was created. Almost to the truth.
 And then, the Smith Code was destroyed, and the anomole made obsolete. Humans were given a choice. To leave the Matrix, or to stay inside and enjoy the lives they could never have on the outside.
 The Oracle and the Architect's compromise was terribly flawed.
 Humans remained the slaves of the machines. The Agents remained active, no longer killing those who knew what the Matrix was, but reprograming them before they were given their choice.
 In time, Zion was rebuilt, and the Machines did not attack. And it held, the last home of the free humans.
 In time, the wounds healed, and the skies cleared. And the days of battle were distant.
 The first true humans emerged from the hole in the earth, and shielded their eyes against the light of the red sun. The air was thick, it's unfamiliar substance heavy in their lungs, and many were forced back underground.
 The world woke up to find that far too long had passed, and the stars in the sky were alien, even to those who had managed to hang onto the lore of the old world.
 And that is when they saw them, the monoliths of steel and iron and titanium and gold... the Cities of the Machines.
 Few dared to brave the deserts where seas had once been. Fewer still dared to enter the cities.
 Less and less returned to them at all, and many of those who had came only in pieces.
 It was in this way, the Machines were at last able to eradicate the plague of primitives outside their dream world of the Matrix, and one final time, Zion was destroyed utterly.
 But there were still those trapped inside, wired into the machinery as batteries, their deceased brothers and sisters chemically decomposted into the soupy nourishments that were fed introvenusly to those that still lived.
 Millions of acres of humans grown as if plants to do with what they will.
 So when war broke out once more, it was machine against machine for total control as the Architect and the Oracle's compromise which had stood by then billions of years since the erradication of the outside humans at last failed them.
 And it was the humans now who fought not for freedom, but for control...

 He ran, hugging the parcel to his chest tightly. He had to get to the Mile. He had to make it. They were counting on him to bring the disks, to bring the codes locked inside his fingertips, to unleash the virus to consume their enemies once and for all.
 The Agents were closing in, he wasn't going to make it. He skid into the street as the rain matted his short hair to his head. He could hear their footfalls behind him, he could hear the drone of the squids as they came in from above.
 He wasn't going to make it. He closed his eyes tightly, protecting the parcel with all his might as he ran down the street, pushing people out of his way as he went. The squids were on him, they were going to get him.
 There was an explosion as one of the squids stopped, turning and raising it's tentacles at it's own and firing off blast after blast from it's plasma cannon.
 "Get out of here!" shouted a woman.
 He didn't need to see her to know who she was. Angelica, one of the mech manipulators.. He saw a door open at the far end of the street.
 "Hurry! Go! I can't hold them off!" she shouted.
 He broke into a run as a second round of plasma fire erupted from the large tentacles. He threw himself into the back door, slamming into the white wall as the machine that held them back finally was overcome.
 The door was closed, and he ran, sweat and rain pouring off his body as he came to a door guarded by a girl no more than three years old... but he knew better.
 "3 Door Gingerbreaded kryptonite," he said panting.
 "Hello David," she said with a toothy vampiric grin. She stepped aside and let him pass through the door.
 "Oh thank god!" she cried as she wrapped her arms around the soaked boy when he emerged from the white hall.
 She kissed his forhead before embracing him once more.
 "The package," said a tall man by a computer terminal.

----------------------------------------------------

He was alone. Cold and hungry, yet everything taste of death. His life mundane, the same old thing. Until she came.
 Her creamy skin, her moonlight hair. Her feather soft touch. Her bright voice lit up the halls of hundreds of houses. Her animated face on billboards and television sets.
 It started one morning...

 "...Please take me... Somewhere far from here to a promised land where fairies wait..."
 He sat slumped in the corner with a bottle of Jack Daniels clasped in his fist. An arm thrown over the back of the chair as he stared at his work. The woman hung suspended from the ceiling, her entrails arranged artfully on the floor, her intestines molded into a fleshy statue of a dog. Her legs splayed apart, the long bamboo shaft crammed up her vagina through her hollow center, her heart in pieces and hanging from strings from the bamboo shaft at her stomach. Her lungs filled with sand and hanging heavy, protruding down from her body. Her mouth rimmed in dried crimson as the end of the bamboo came out. Leather straps held the shaft in place at the ceiling. She was a regular pig on a spit.
 Her eyes eternally open, her eyelids pinned to the statue of entrails on the floor below her.
 Hair braided and pulled into the Princess Leia style of Star Wars.
 He put the bottle to his lips as the radio on the woman's nightstand continued to play.
 "My first thought is of you... my last wish is for you... take me..."
 He smiled, rising from the chair and capping the bottle, tucking it into his coat before leaving.
 He had returned to his roost across the street, watching from the window through the blinds as the police burst into the appartment across the street. He leaned back with a smile in his chair, the only furnishing of the stark white apartment besides a crate which served as a table for his laptop.

-----------------------------------------------------------

 He sat on the end of the bed, turning his head to look out the window at the night skies. How long had he been searching? How much longer would he have to keep looking? To him it felt like eons he'd waited for the right time, for the right one... and when he found him, he dissapeared again, leaving only the vague scent of male sex and a half drained bottle of cheap vodka behind.
 "Joe..." he whispered, rising from the bed and standing by the window, looking out on the busy streets below, the memories of his host replaced with ones from his own time, his own past...
 In his heart, he knew they would see one another again... and deep in his soul he quaked with an unspoken fear. The time was coming... the age of darkness. This world was about to end. And when it did, he wanted to be in those arms again...

--------------------------------------------------------

was going to be a story where my friends and i live in japan for some odd reason...

 He was tossing clothes frantically into his suitcase. He wasted no time in getting dressed. He wore just a pair of baggy jeans and one of Jakob's sweatshirts. His hair had grown shaggy, and could see the dark roots beneath the blue.
 "Babe! Hurry up!" Jakob called.
 They'd been woken up in the middle of the night.
 Jakob's lab had been destroyed. Tokyo TV had been evacuated shortly before a bomb went off in production studio 13... Travis's domain.
 "My manuscripts!"
 "There's no time!" Aimiko shouted, snapping up his suitcase and pulling it off the bed. She carried it as he picked up a duffle bag, and the two hurried from the appartment. They didn't bother to stop long enough to lock the door.
 Jakob started for the elevator, but Aimiko grabbed him with her free hand. "They've been shut down!" she shouted over the chaotic shouts of the other tennants. "Hit the stairs!"
 The building had been ordered to evacuate by the local police.

-------------------------------------------------

i have NO idea what the hell this one's about other than it's about me and my friends (remember this was a LONG time ago when i wrote this lol) and my birthday i think. but i can't be sure...

 He came out into the back yard smiling, pushing his hat down over his eyes. Ah... it was one giant

Cosplay, and he was one of the stars. This had taken months to set up the way he wanted.... to have the

backyard redone in a bar room motif, the pool of course, was covered... it being October and all. Even in

Florida there's a point where swimming isn't such a good idea until the next spring.
 "Oniisan!" she shouted, her long hair now dyed to match the golden rays of the sun. She was sitting

over at a table with Jaide and Travis, the three of them tossing back a few beers.
 He tipped his hat towards them and continued on, making the rounds like a good host. The great

music of their generation playing on the sound system, blending in with the new styles and genres of the modern

days.
 "Yoho!" Liz called, giving the gracious host a hug. "If I'd known you were gonna be Tem-char I'd

have come as Dagger!" she laughed. "But then Ja'd have to beat me off you with a stick!"
 He didn't stay with her long, but long enough so she wouldn't be offended. He scanned the faces of

the crowd as he passed through, but not a single one of them was who he wanted.
 "Yo! Temmy!" he called.
 Tem stopped and turned, suddenly tackled by a Vash... one of three at the party. This one he'd

labeled chibi-Vash... since it was the shortest of the three.
 "Temmy Tem-tem Tem!" he said, clinging.
 "Okay.... someone's gonna have to be cut off from the bar now..."
 "No you moron! It's me, Timmy!"
 The two chattered on for a bit longer before the younger looked past him to another, dressed similar

to Tem but slightly off... and a little shorter. "Who's that?"
 He turned around and followed his gaze. "Dunno...."
 "Damn... doesn't look like he's single though. He's got some other guy with him..." he said

dissapointedly.
 "...I gotta skat. Other people to mingle with. A host's job is never done ya know... especially when

host 2 is still not here."
 "Oh! He's here. I saw Jakob about 5 minutes ago. He went in the poolhouse for the keg."
 "That's a relief," he said with a smile. "I'll catch back up with ya later bro," he said, waving back at

him as he started in the direction of the man Timmy'd pointed out.
 "Temothy," one of the guy's said when he reached them. He was dressed as Saffir from Bishoujo

Senshi: Sailor Moon.
 "James," Tem said just as blandly.
 "Blue! Purple! Pink!" a man shouted as he came over, wearing a big bunny suit with orange ears, the

man at his side wearing the same only with green ears.
 "Green, Orange," replied the blue haired one.
 "....Pink?" Tem asked James with a raised brow.
 "Good to see you again too coz," he said, putting the Corona to his lips.
 "Z-sama?!"
 "It's Zeke now bro," he said, leaning back on the wall, crossing his arms over his flat chest, the bottle

dangling from his hand loosely. "You don't call. You don't write. How am I supposed to keep track of my baby

cousin if he drops off the face of the earth 11 months out of the year?" he said with a grin.
 "Since when did 'this' happen!"
 "Since college," he said. "Jamie hun, get me another beer would ya?" he said, handing the empty

bottle to James.
 "....You're not here with him are you?"
 "Hell no. He won't have me now anyway. Good riddence too. Always was weirded out by him....

why?"
 It was Tem's turn to grin, just as his husband came up behind him and wrapped his arms around by

suprise. "And who is this fine young gentleman?"
 "The man formerly known as the woman called Z-sama," Lee, Orange, exclaimed happily.... he

always was the genki one of us four Evil Muns...
 "Z-sama?" Jakob said in suprise.
 "Damn skippy... but tonight.... I'm Sei-chan."
 "Oh, Timmy said you were lookin for me..." Jakob said after shaking a horrifying image from his

mind.
 "Nuthin.... just thought you got lost again that's all babe." He tilted his head back on his husband's

shoulder with a sigh as the other kissed his cheek.
 "Oh, Z, find the shortest Vash."
 "Aroo?"
 "There's 3 here. The shortest one's got the hots for ya. His name's Timmy. Go. Look. Find. Molest.

Bring joy to your perverse universe."
 "But-"
 But by the time Zeke blinked, Jakob, dressed as the Tem character's inner child Schizo, had already

dragged him away for a dance.
 Travis, Jaide, Amanda, and Cody all watched the party from their table as they drank. "So... not

what I expected him to be," Cody said finally.
 "Exactly how I expected..." Travis said, watching as Timmy literally glomped the blue haired Zeke as

the man tried to get away. "Even down to the hair."
 "He colored it last week," Amanda said, eating one of the small sandwitches from one of the waiters

that constantly passed by.
 "I know... but... he doesn't look a day over 27. Remember the time me and you suprised him at his

college graduation A-chan?" Jaide.
 "Yeah... I never knew a man could have a heart attack before he hit middle aged!" she hollered in

laughter. Travis and Cody joined in with their own stories of the real Tem's follies...
 "You know one thing I miss?" Travis said suddenly.
 "What?" the other three asked in unison.
 He grinned and shook his head. "That damn stained couch..."
 "Wha?..." Amanda and Jaide both said.
 Cody just smiled and lowered his head, which Travis caught and narrowed his eyes. "Cody.... don't

-"
 "YES! I knew!"
 Amanda and Jaide both sat in silence sipping their beers as the two argued over the now pointless

IMs and the "Lost RP Logs" as they were called... (RP Logs that only Tem had, and probably still has... the

pack rat.)
 The song ended and the duo fell into chairs at their table, Jakob breathless and Tem just hyper as

ever. "You're not 20 anymore babe. You just can't move like you used to!"
 "Oh and you can?" Amanda giggled.
 "You bet your sweet ass I can. I don't take yoga for nothing," he replied happily as a woman in a

black dress with demon wings sewn into the back came up behind the main host, slipping her arms over his

shoulders loosely.
 "Temmy-chan, you're not wore out are you? You promised me a dance tonight remember." She

looked up with an annoyed look and a small snear on her ruby lips. "And you are?" she asked, adressing all at

the table but Jakob.
 "Travis, Amanda, Jaide, and Cody," he said, pointing to each one as he said their name. "Now

Tyta... I said sometime tonight..."
 "No Tem, you go on. I can't dance anymore for a while yet, Jakob said.
 Tem rolled his eyes and was about to get up when Timmy ran by chasing Zeke who came over to

hide behind Jaide, a person he didn't even know, but saw sitting with his cousin so it HAD to be one of the

important people.
 "Help!"
 "Who the hell?!" Tyta.
 "My cousin."
 "Which one?"
 "....uh.....he's from out of state."
 Lee and Kyle were literally hopping by at the moment, and Zeke took off with them. Tyta just

watched in silence before letting go of Tem. "Sit tight dear, that one's mine," she growled and went after them all,

her target being Zeke.
 "Wait till she finds out..."
 "Finds out what?" Travis asked.
 "Remember that one time you sent me the log that said 'I'm a girl but I roleplay a gay guy'?... that

was her... the cousin who said it."
 "But..."
 "Long story that I don't even know bro. Best to leave it alone..."
 "You two could be brothers."
 "Yeah. Thank god we're not," Tem said with a sigh, grabbing two glasses of wine off a plate that a

waiter carried by, handing one to his husband.
 "So.... how is everyone's evening?"
 After getting the spill, he got up and took his glass with him as he went back to his hosting duties and

to the mingling. All in all he rather enjoyed himself.
  ----
 "Thanks for staying after guys... but I've got a service coming in tomorrow to clean the place up..."

Tem said. He was tossing an armload of beer bottles into the recycling bin. Jakob was unhooking the stereo and

taking it piece by piece inside with Zeke, who of course didn't bother phoning or e-mailing to say he was staying

the night.
 Travis slapped him hard on the back. "Just point to a chair. I'm too drunk to even think about

pretending not to be drunk."
 "....We're not as bad as him.... but it still wouldn't be a good idea if any of us drove..." Amanda said,

bumping into a chair and almost falling into it.
 "Yeah. We're pretty wasted. I'll sleep in the floor if I have to. Just gotta crash...."
 Jakob grabbed his husband around the waist, being with just their closest friends there was no longer

the need for the utmost decency. "No work tomorrow.... how bout you put on that-"
 Tem instantly clamped a hand over his mouth with an embarassed smile. "Eh..heh..... see what

happens after just 2 glasses of wine," he said as Jakob clung to him. "Ja babe, you go on up to bed, I'll be there

in a few."
 "C'mon.... they can find their own spots to crash..."
 "Ja. Not right this second," he mumbled, pulling away from him.
 "God, fine. Whatever," he grumbled, going inside as Zeke was coming out.
 "Whoa man! Watch where you're goin!"
 "Fuck off Z," he said as he went inside.
 Tem rolled his eyes. "Come on guys, lemme get you set for the night... Z, you don't mind sleepin in

my office do ya?"
 "Nope. Can I-"
 "Yes, you can use the computer. Just don't use my account and I'll let you live."
 Zeke watched him walk past, grabbing his hat up off a table.
 That night, Jaide slept in the spare room. Amanda collapsed on Kirsten's bed, Travis and Cody

crashed on the livingroom couch and futon, and Zeke never went to sleep... he sat up all night role playing. He

was what, 35 and still typing his life away?...
  ----
 Zeke was still at the computer when he cracked the door open. "Go away. Busy."
 Tem sighed and stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. "All the surgery in the world will

never change you Zoe."
 "Yeah yeah. Shush. I just beat the shit outta Blank... Shade's next, then the rest of the Forbidden

Revolution."
 "I still can't believe those newbs took it in their heads to re-instate the Forbiddens," he said, pulling

up a chair and shaking his head as he watched those hands, a little too small to be a man's, but too big to be a

woman's...
 "So.... how'd you beat the Neo-Blank?"
 "Not how. Who."
 "Okay... who'd you use? Better not have been one of mine this time."
 "Yep... remember Tem-char's wife?"
 "Oh god no.... not her. Anything but her... I told you my most powerful ones were off limits."
 "Can't blame a man for tryin bro. Now quiet, it's my turn to attack."
 They sat there for an hour before there was a knock at the door. And at that same moment Zeke

administered his final attack, of course bypassing 600+... which this newb couldn't possibly perform with his/her

weak typing skills.
 "It's open!" Tem called as Zeke finally logged off and switched seats with Tem... he had work to do

on his manuscript.
 "Oniisan, Zeke... Jaide and the guys wanna go over to Denny's for breakfast."
 "Yeah. Okay. Go on."
 She glanced back in the hall and said something. Right after a sudden burst of spanish broke the air,

to which Tem rolled his eyes and shouted back, with his annoyed tone. Zeke burst into laughter, being the only

one who understood what the couple was arguing about, and in between breaths translating for Amanda, who

joined in his laughter.
 After 20 minutes of this, Tem hit the save button and turned off the monitor. "Fine fine! You win!

Jesus Christ Saint Vrain!" he exclaimed, pushing past Amanda and heading for the stairs.
 "Saint Vrain?" Amanda asked with a raised brow.
 "Some street across town I think. 'Ville de Monsieur Count DeMoines' chapter 17, page 493,

paragraph 7, sentence 3."
 "....Okay....." Amanda said, weirded out as she left him in the room. He quickly rose and followed

her into the livingroom where Travis and Cody were sitting eating a box of twinkies, Jakob and Jaide sat at the

kitchen table with cups of coffee and a bottle of Tylenol for their hangovers.
 "Ja!" Tem called from the top of the stairs. "Babe! Where's my hat?"
 "Which one?"
 "You know, the one that says 'Want some Squirrel Nuts'?"
 "....Squirrel Nuts?" Travis asked, tearing his eyes away from the TV.
 "Some concert he dragged me to a few years back," Jakob said. "It's on the dresser under your

underwear!" he shouted back.
 This caused a snicker from Zeke and Travis, who glanced at one another afterwards, Zeke grinning

and Travis looking a little worried.
 Soon, everyone was crammed into Jakob's car... three up front and four in the back. Thankfully

unlike Tem's Contour, his car was big and roomy. All seven of them on their way to Denny's up the street.
 They'd gotten the round booth in the corner. Starting from left to right: Cody, Travis, Zeke, Tem,

Jakob, Amanda, Jaide... after they ate, they sat around and talked a while, catching up on old times and

whatnot...
 Tem and Zeke were shoveling quarters and dollars into the crane machines, a line of kids

complaining behind them as they tried their best to get every last anime doll in the machines...
 After three hours, they suceeded, leaving all the crappy toys in there for the kids, who were so

grateful that the two grown men were through that they didn't care what was left for them to grab.
 "Okay. Redy to go?"
 "How much did you waste?" Travis asked.
 "100 between the two of us. That's 50 cents a try....so we each spent around 50... divide every

dollar by 2....that's about 25 trys and successions each," Zeke said, handing Travis a doll. "Here. Have a Joe

doll," he said with a grin.
 Travis stared at the doll, then at Tem, then at the doll. "You turned him into an anime...."
 "Correction... manga. I did a minor series in Japan before I started getting my books published

here."
 "Oh I remember that one! That was you!" Amanda squealed.
 "Yep. Kizaki Yamamono," he grinned.
 "I thought I recognized the artwork when 'Manda sent me those scans..." Jaide said before draining

the last of the orange juice at the table.
 Tem and Zeke both picked up their sacks of dolls and the group left, the bags stuffed in the trunk as

Tem sat in back with Zeke, Travis, and Amanda, the four of them each with a doll and playing with them.
 "Guardian Gatica can not kick Gokoua's ass!" Zeke exclaimed, holding up his DB Ultra plushie of

Goku's great grandson.
 "Oh yeah!" Tem shouted, holding up his Eternal Knight Sailor Guardian doll that resembled Tuxedo

Kamen in a way.
 The two glared at eachother before Jakob snapped at them in spanish. Instantly the pair settled

down, not speaking to one another of course.
 "You'd think they were children again..." Travis said as Zeke yawned, using his shoulder and the

plushie as a pillow. "And why is he-"
 "Don't pay Z any mind... he's like Ed, he'll sleep anywhere. Besides, he didn't get any sleep last

night."
 "Why not?"
 "Because he was up all night beating the snot out of the Neo-Forbidden stragglers."
 "Oh yeah... the remnants of the Newb Revolt..." Jaide said. He smiled. Yes, that was the last time he

had ever roleplay fought... against the very one he had trained... no one could remember his real name, save

Jaide, and he wasn't divulging anything.
 All anyone knew the kid by was "Ally"... just like the teacher before him.
  ----
 Nearly three months passed and none of them saw each other... except Zeke, Travis, and Cody.

Then there was of course the married couple Tem and Jakob. The seven spoke to one another online all the

time, and as always roleplayed (Jakob knew how, he just didn't understand why everyone was still doing it,

therefore he only RPed rarely... and when his huband wasn't using the computers...)
 Then the time came. Tem's 35th birthday. And in all honest truth, he still didn't look a day over 27

(must have been all those years before and after his surgery when he took the best care of himself that he could.
 Travis pulled his car into the driveway behind Tem's Contour. This time he'd driven instead of flown,

wanting to see the countryside between Mississippi and Florida. Zeke and Cody were with him of course. That

trio was inseperable much like the charactes of Tem, Joe, and Mirei once were.
 The party was small, only the inner circle of friends had come. The Roleplayers and the core evil

muns...
 There was of course a party of grand scale... just like all the parties the Hills threw. Kirsten got her

dad a few Kang'Ta CDs that he didn't already have from the thrift shop in town. Amanda got him more lavender

scented bath oils and shampoos and soaps and lotions. Travis, Cody, and Zeke all pooled their money together

to get him a new car (in their opinion, his little Contour was well past dead) and fixed it so he couldn't return it

even if he had to.
 Jakob scored front row center seats to some concert Tem had been babbling about coming to

Orlando for the last six months.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 He spat into the sink, looking into his room from the mirror boredly while placing his toothbrush back in the cup on the counter. He sighed and shook his head, then smiled and ran his fingers through his hair. A quick run through with gel would do.
 The door to his room opened and slammed shut behind him as the brooding deather tossed himself onto the bottom bunk and moaned. "It's the end of the world!" he wailed, staring up at the bed above before using his feet and toes to get his shoes off.
 "It's not even 9 AM and you're already bitchin. Why do you even get up in the mornings," he said as he turned away from the sink, wiping his hands on a towel.
 "Sabrina thretened to leave me! Don't you have any sympathy for me bro!" he wailed again.
 He shrugged and tossed the dirty towel into his hunter green laundry basket before pulling out a chair at one of the desks and pulling on his boots. "I'm not your 'bro'," he replied, picking up his glasses from the neatly organized desk and putting them on.
 He sighed as his roommate continued to complain about his girlfriend, going on about how she completely cockblocked him at every turn this morning in his English class. He rolled his eyes as he picked up his shoulder bag and a notebook, then slid a novelty anime pencil behind his ear. "If you're going to spend the day locked up in here, at least clean up the place," he said before leaving, his words and retreat only merriting a moan coupled with a muttered reply.
 He locked his roommate in with a sigh of relief before leaving the hall for the lobby. "Hey man!" a tall, slender boy with pale skin and light blonde hair called from the pool tabl