Fifty Three

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jwhouk
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Fifty Three

Post by jwhouk »

There are four things that are common to every wedding reception. First, there will be drinking. As in, alcohol. Large quantities of alcohol. And it will be consumed by people who generally don't drink alcohol. This can lead to problems. Problems that sometimes require the intervention of law enforcement officials.

Secondly, there will be dancing. The music may vary somewhat, but it usually includes tunes that are or were popular at one time, and (usually) have some sort of a beat, and you can dance to them. Of course, the people dancing will generally not be the type who actually can dance, mind you. But large quantities of alcohol tend to make people think they're better dancers than they really are.

Thirdly – there will be relatives. Lots of them. People who you are only remotely related to, by some fifth cousin on your mother's side, or such. And it's likely that the next time you'll see them is at another wedding. Heaven help you if you come from a family where one of your aunts or uncles pushed out multiple children, because you'll be attending weddings at an alarming rate.

Lastly, there will be strangers. Lots of them as well. People you probably wouldn't recognize in a police lineup, and you probably will never see again after the wedding. Sometimes, this can be a blessing, and sometimes this is a curse.

Unlike the last wedding I had attended, several months previous, there were not as many in the last category as there were prior. That was part of a series of events that began nearly eight years ago – with me finding the lost dog of a somewhat naïve young girl named Monica Villarreal.

She was far from naïve at the moment, though. Monica was the maid of honor for one of the two brides in a double wedding.

And the location of said wedding was far flung from the shores of Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis. I was only told that it was somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle.

Not that minded much. The weather had already started to turn nasty in my part of the world – not far from Minneapolis. The brief respite to the warm climate was a wonderful change of pace.

Even as I got into the fun spirit that permeated the party, I still had this nagging feeling in the back of my head. It didn't help that I'd had occasional peeks at those performing security at the event – one of whom had openly claimed that I was nothing more than a fraud.

That same being – the one called Nudge – had been responsible for my inability to access the Library at first. It was only after I had returned to the "One Library" – the Bibliothiki, as it was sometimes known – that she had challenged me.

But a nagging doubt was still planted in my mind: why exactly had I been invited to this wedding?

I only tangentially knew the one bride: Katherine Gilchrist-Alexander had helped me track down Monica after some misadventures with a young fae. The other bride, Jin Jorgenson-Aedeobie, had advised me on how to deal with said fae.

My ordeal with the one called Cavin Foxglove – the crown prince of the Fae Nation, who had ended up incarcerated briefly at my workplace – had opened many doors for me over this past year.

But that nagging feeling remained. And try as I might, it wouldn't go away.
"Character is what you are in the dark." - D.L. Moody
"You should never run from the voices in your head. That's how you give them power." - Jin
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GlytchMeister
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Re: Fifty Three

Post by GlytchMeister »

[hansolo]I got a baaad feeling about this...[/hansolo]

Also: yay! The fanfictive Wapsiverse continues!
He's mister GlytchMeister, he's mister code
He's mister exploiter, he's mister ones and zeros
They call me GlytchMeister, whatever I touch
Starts to glitch in my clutch!
I'm too much!
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jwhouk
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Re: Fifty Three

Post by jwhouk »

---
I pulled up a chair next to Monica as she was watching the bouquet toss.

"Nice little island you guys have here," I complimented.

"It was a bit hard to find, but we like it," she said with a nod."

"So – I've had a question that's been bothering me all night – and I'm a bit reluctant to ask either bridal party about it."

"Oh?" she tilted her head towards me. "Well, I'm not sure I can answer for them…"

Both of the newlywed brides had been set up with the assistance of photographer Amanda Ehrlich to do back-to-back tosses. Katherine was the first to step up.

"I'm just curious as to why I'm here, is all." I said, shrugging at her and turning to the dance floor to watch Kath go at it.

Georgette Sundahl (Monica's girlfriend and supermodel) tried to post up on Cinnamon Alexander (the bride's new sister-in-law) – to no avail. Kath's hand-picked flower bouquet from her rooftop garden (with the help of her youngest daughter Castela) went right into the hands of one of Atsali's friends from school.

Berdine raised the bouquet in victory. Jet made a pouting face toward Monica.

"Get back in there!" Monica cupped her hands to cheer her on. She turned and looked at me. "To be honest, I think it was just because you were at Phix's wedding."

Jin didn't waste much time. She turned, aimed, fired – and her bouquet landed properly in the hands of Shelly.

"Woohoo!" Monica and I both applauded. "And she didn't even cheat and sphinx out!"

Shelly gave Monica a special "sign" at that remark, then wandered over with Amanda and Berdine for photos.

"Seriously, though," I said as the music started to ramp up again. "I wasn't even supposed to be at that wedding. Heck, I wasn't even expecting to be in the Library that day."

"I really have to work on building some muscle," Jet said as she wandered back over to the table. "That redheaded teenager knocked me aside like a horse swatting a fly with its tail!"

"Uh, isn't that Buck's sister?" I noted.

"Oh." She had a seat and looked back at the dance floor. Berdine was being congratulated by Cinnamon, Nadette, Atsali and Castela. "Well, I think I still need to get in better shape." Her stomach growled. "Right after I make another trip through the buffet line, though." Monica looked skyward as Jet got up – smiling at me, then kissing M on the forehead – and headed off to the food spread.

"She has the metabolism of a gnat," I mused. Monica could only laugh.

"You do have a point, though – about the invite," she continued while raising a finger. "About the only thing you have in connection with anyone here is finding my dog."

"Well, that and Calista's brother." I shrugged. "That seems to only be the reason why I was given Library access, though."

"Fifty-three." A voice came from the side. Jin stood there, in her wedding kimono and hair done up in a proper bun with a weave of tall pins banded around it. "Number 53."

"Fifty-three?" I looked at her quizzically.

"If you really must know, I could tell you – but not here." She motioned to where Shelly was having a seat next to Justin, showing off her new acquisition. "She might be able to tell you about it – since she had a hand in it."

"Really?"

Jin nodded at me.

I looked at Monica. She shrugged.

"Excuse me for a moment," I said, rising from my chair and sauntering over to Shelly's table.

"Nice catch," I said.

"Thanks – it's Houk, right?" I nodded as I smiled pleasantly at the two.

"I don't think we've formally met, though," I said, sticking my hand out to Justin. "Joseph Houk. I'm a juvie CO over across the river in Wisconsin."

"Justin Epimethus," he replied. "Officer in the MPD."

"So I've heard," I smiled. "Nice work with those punks in that meth ring." Justin waved his hand, dismissively.

"The one groom had more to do with that," he said. "I just helped clean up. You guys have the hard part of the job."

"I'm not exactly disagreeing with you, but at least I don't have to deal with guns." I turned to Shelly. "I was told by the one bride that you could answer a question I've had since I got the invite to this wedding."

Shelly was about to respond when the band struck up an all-too-familiar song: "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off".

"Oh, dear GOD no," she raised her eyes skyward. "If either of you requested this one…"

"Wasn't me," I said quickly.

"Not me," Justin put his hands up defensively.

"Then who…" Shelly looked around the perimeter of the dance floor, and saw the mothers of the brides and the one groom out on the dance floor, doing a choreographed "two-step". Lily and Daisy had obviously coordinated things, but Mayahuel… well, she was just there for the party, it seemed.

She waved at Shelly, even as she was nearly body checked by Daisy during a particular maneuver.

"Subtle jab at the mother of the bride, I reckon?" I offered.

Shelly was non-plussed.

"Yeah, I guess so…" She sighed, and turned to me. "So what was your question?"

"I'd asked Monica if she knew why I was invited to this wedding – and Jin informed me it was because of 'number 53'. Any ideas why?"

Shelly had a confused look on her face for a moment.

"Well," she began, then stopped. "Oh. OH. Hm." She took a second look at me.

"I could go more into depth with you about it, but I'd need to see your clearance level," she stated matter-of-factly. "Suffice to say that I think your job of dealing with Cavin was the main reason why you were invited tonight."

"But there's another reason?" I asked.

"Yes, but I can't really say without looking something up," she said. "I've got an idea: are you available at all this week to meet up at the Library?"

"Probably not until Wednesday," I replied.

"That works out," she nodded. "I don't have a class on Wednesday. Meet you up at the Great Hall then – what time works?"
"Character is what you are in the dark." - D.L. Moody
"You should never run from the voices in your head. That's how you give them power." - Jin
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jwhouk
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Re: Fifty Three

Post by jwhouk »

I walked into the lobby of the Library with a bit more anticipation than usual. I'd been pondering the entire week just what Jin had meant by the number 53.

I'd thought of pretty much everything to that point – including some sort of silly take on Douglass Adams' Life, The Universe and Everything. But, the only thing that could make sense was the one commonality between Monica, Jin and Shelly.

The Calendar Machine.

I was about to call out when a large shadow appeared around me. I looked up to see a sphinx descending to the floor of the Great Hall.

"Hey there," she said, slowly touching down with her rear legs. "Gimme a moment, I can't quite change on the fly yet." She turned around and in a blink of an eye, she had turned into a young woman – okay, to me she's young – with long hair split into two long ponytails, a tank top and blue jeans.

"Heh, gotten a lot better since grandma's wedding," Shelly said in satisfaction.

"Since you did that in front of me, I'm assuming you know what my 'clearance level' is," I said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, heh," she said a bit nervously. "Actually, it was just for confirmation. So – what did you think Jin meant by the number 53?"

"The only thing that connects you, Mon and Jin," I said. "The Calendar Machine."

"And you'd be right," she said. "You're aware of the number of times the machine reset itself, correct?"

"Fifty-six," I replied. "You guys finally got it right on try number 57."

"You're also aware, of course, that Jin was the only one to remember every single reset, right?"

"Well, except Mayahuel – and you," I pointed out.

Shelly bit her lip.

"I don't know if you'd call that being 'aware'," she said after a moment. "But you're right, in a way. You probably also know," she said as she motioned to walk across to the meeting room area of the Library complex, "that very few records were kept on the 'alternate' timelines."

She meant that observation as a question as well.

"Only that book by Jin – and another book by Brandi?"

"Brandi's book only covered the last few timelines, though," she said as we entered one of the stacks. She reached up, took a book off the shelf, and opened it.

A series of leaves fell out of the book.

"Yep, this is the one," Shelly said, looking down at the floor. "Oh, don't worry, the Library will take care of that after we're done." She flipped through a few of the pages. "Here we are – there was this whole section about a key that Tina had in her shop." She flipped a page or two.

"And here you are." She handed me the book.
Shortly after you and Acacia move into a new house, there will be a short, balding, slightly overweight gentleman from Milwaukee who will find Monica's dog along the shores of Lake Calhoun.

You need to encourage Jin to show up at the (scratched out) coffee shop, or he will attempt to meet Monica at the shop. If you don't, he will accidentally end up with the clock key of (scratched out), and your repairs to the calendar machine will be for naught.
"Clock key?"

"Something my mother came up with," she told me. "It's what makes Monica the Jaguar Girl." She pointed to me. "You, however, apparently came to possess the key before Brandi and I got a chance to recover it from Tina."

"Let me guess… in iteration number 53?"

"Boy, you're good," she said, closing the book. "In the next three iterations, though, Jin apparently put you through the wringer because Tina kept trying to give you the key."

My eyebrows shot up at that.

"See, in almost every other iteration of the Calendar reset, that car crash in Monterrey involving Monica and Tina resulted in Tina having…" She searched for the proper word. "…Brain damage is about the best you can explain it."

"But not actually dying," I said.

"No," Shelly shook her head. "But it did give her one hell of a personality disorder. By the time we got to iteration 56, Tina was suffering so much that when we went to deal with the Calendar Machine, she was wishing for death. We finally got the combination right – with the discovery that Tina was the final piece of the puzzle."

"Wait – Tina was suffering?" After a moment, the full realization hit me: "She remembered everything, too."

Shelly nodded.

"But why? How?"

She put the book back up on the shelf. The leaves had already disappeared from the floor where they had fallen.

"It's kinda funny, considering who my relatives are," she said in a pensive manner. "But I hate writing. My thing's always been music. I did find in here this book of songs I'd written while I was in a band with Jacqui." She rolled her eyes a moment. "I'd lost the original when we were doing some shows over in Eau Claire. Dummy me slipped on that stupid pedestrian bridge they have in the middle of the college campus, and it slid out of my hands – and right into the river."

"New meaning to the words Chippewa Falls," I chuckled. "But that doesn't explain Tina."

She gave a sidelong glance both ways, then looked directly at me.

"What I'm about to tell you – you don't repeat to anyone, okay? Not a soul. In fact," she nodded in the general direction of the end of the stacks. "Let's go to one of the quiet rooms."
"Character is what you are in the dark." - D.L. Moody
"You should never run from the voices in your head. That's how you give them power." - Jin
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lake_wrangler
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Re: Fifty Three

Post by lake_wrangler »

I am sitting on the edge of my seat, waiting anxiously for the next installment...
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Dave
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Re: Fifty Three

Post by Dave »

jwhouk wrote:"You, however, apparently came to possess the key before Brandi and I got a chance to recover it from Tina."
Joe broke the Universe...

This is great stuff! It's like somebody combined The Answer To Life, The Universe, and Everything (which is of course 42), and then turned the volume up to 11!
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Re: Fifty Three

Post by jwhouk »

Dave wrote:Joe broke the Universe...
Oh great, now I have that song in my head...

Jaaa ga-ruuuuu dayyyyy-vaah...
This is great stuff! It's like somebody combined The Answer To Life, The Universe, and Everything (which is of course 42), and then turned the volume up to 11!
TYVM! I'm going to try to stay one or two days ahead of the story, kinda like I did with my Calista story.
"Character is what you are in the dark." - D.L. Moody
"You should never run from the voices in your head. That's how you give them power." - Jin
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Re: Fifty Three

Post by DinkyInky »

jwhouk wrote:
Dave wrote:Joe broke the Universe...
Oh great, now I have that song in my head...

Jaaa ga-ruuuuu dayyyyy-vaah...
This is great stuff! It's like somebody combined The Answer To Life, The Universe, and Everything (which is of course 42), and then turned the volume up to 11!
TYVM! I'm going to try to stay one or two days ahead of the story, kinda like I did with my Calista story.
Everything is coming up Beatles today. My son, concerned with breaking another needle(not that I care, it's part and parcel of dealing with turntables), wanted to listen to them(after the Minions put the interest back), but was actively upset.

I spent the afternoon converting my fourteen album catalogue(including the two disc White album and the Yellow Submarine) to digital(because I'm way too frugal to buy them when I have pristine Parlaphone release vinyls and free time). Tomorrow we will be listening to them all day to see if I need to clean and reconvert any.

EDIT: I realised some are Apple records (but still pristine).
Yanno how some people have Angels/Devils for a conscience? I have a Dark Elf ShadowKnight and a Half Elf Ranger for mine. The really bad part is when they agree on something.

Aphyon chu kissa whol l'jaed.
--Safyr Drathmir
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Dave
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Re: Fifty Three

Post by Dave »

DinkyInky wrote:I spent the afternoon converting my fourteen album catalogue(including the two disc White album and the Yellow Submarine) to digital(because I'm way too frugal to buy them when I have pristine Parlaphone release vinyls and free time). Tomorrow we will be listening to them all day to see if I need to clean and reconvert any.
Very cool! I love converting LPs to modern-playable form and having the contents easily available. I usually save my efforts for those LPs that have performances that either aren't available on commercial CD, or where the CD transfers were botched (damaged master tapes, bad digital transfer, excessive audio modifications after digitizing, etc.).

A couple of years ago I experimented with an LP-cleaning system I'd read about for decades but never acquired - the BBC / Reg Williamson "film" cleaner. You brush it on the LP, let it dry, and it turns into a thin flexible film that you peel off... taking the dirt with it.

The modern commercial equivalent is (believe it or not) Titebond wood glue - works the same way - once it dries it doesn't adhere to the vinyl and peels off. Inexpensive, and easily available. The biggest disadvantage is that Titebond tends to leave a huge static charge on the LP when you peel it off.

The Williamson formula (which can be homebrewed in the kitchen) does not have this problem, as it includes an antistatic additive, as well as a surfactant (which helps the liquid get down into the tiniest parts of the groove). It leaves records quiet and static-free (perhaps permanently so). The biggest difficulty with the Williamson formula as published, is that the antistatic chemicals he suggests are very difficult to buy in less than industrial quantities.

The original Williamson article is at: https://community.klipsch.com/index.php ... h_id=86098

I did a bit of original research on this, and came up with what seemed to be a viable substitute: a single easily-available material which serves as both the antistatic agent and surfactant. It's the active ingredient in Bactine - benzalkonium chloride.

You can read my results starting here:

https://community.klipsch.com/index.php ... nyl/page-3

with the final test being at

https://community.klipsch.com/index.php ... try1672846

I did some further tests, on a couple of water-and-mold-damaged records that a friend handed me to try to salvage. A BK scrub, a "facial peel", and they were almost as good as new... blew his socks off.

If you ever have a bunch of dirty LPs that you want to clean thoroughly before digitizing, and want to go to the trouble of making up a bunch of this "facial peel", I can provide you with some of the benzalkonium chloride concentrate - it's the only element in the recipe which isn't easy to mailorder in convenient quantities. Just send me a PM...
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Re: Fifty Three

Post by jwhouk »

The quiet "room" was about the size of my apartment – but much more open and with better décor.

"From what my grandma told me, they didn't have these rooms in the original Library at Alexandria," she pointed out as she walked across to the cathedral window opposite the entrance. "It's only a recent addition – relatively speaking, of course."

"Uh, you know, I just realized something."

"What?"

"Well, you're kinda an apo sphinx," I began, watching as she pulled the curtains open to let light in to the room.

"And?" She went back over to the door.

"And you mentioned earlier that I had done something in one of the previous timelines…" I nervously computed in my mind how fast I could dart out that door if I had to.

It took a moment for the light to suddenly come on in Shelly's head.

"Oh! OH! No, no, nothing like that. You're safe here in the Library. Apos aren't allowed to attack visitors or regular patrons of the Library without provocation or a good reason. Besides, Monica would get mad at me."

"Monica?"

"Yeah. After all, you found her dog." She giggled at that.

"Oooo-kay," I replied, a bit incredulous at all this. "You were going to tell me something about Tina?"

"Yeah, Tina – you know she and I are related, right?" I nodded. "It's really distant – she's my…" She thought for a moment. "…First Cousin, twice removed. Her grandfather and I are technically cousins, because of Bia."

We both rolled our eyes at the name.

"Anyways – what you don't know about the 53rd time around was that we thought we'd finally gotten it right. The 52nd time was the closest we'd come to fixing the stupid machine…" Her voice trailed off.

"…But I screwed up." She looked down. "I couldn't do it. I couldn't stab her. And, as a result, I ended up getting sucked into the Calendar Machine… which resulted in me getting tossed into the Time Forest early."

"And Monica ended up dying, and you guys were all screwed when the reset happened," I added.

"You don't understand – I couldn't stab her. I tried. The key wouldn't go in."

"Wait, what?"

"I wasn't trying to stab Monica. I was trying to stab Tina."
"Character is what you are in the dark." - D.L. Moody
"You should never run from the voices in your head. That's how you give them power." - Jin
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Re: Fifty Three

Post by DinkyInky »

Dave wrote:If you ever have a bunch of dirty LPs that you want to clean thoroughly before digitizing, and want to go to the trouble of making up a bunch of this "facial peel", I can provide you with some of the benzalkonium chloride concentrate - it's the only element in the recipe which isn't easy to mailorder in convenient quantities. Just send me a PM...
Thanks.
These I was fortunate to get. A former coworker from back in my youth gave me five boxes of vinyl, as records were her late husbands thing, and well, memories, and an old suitcase turntable. She said he'd be tickled someone else got happiness out of them. At the time, these were worth a fortune because Anthology was being released. She refused to let me pay her.

In these boxes were all imported original English releases of the Beatles catalogue, also a playable set, broke in, as it were, and more than a few 45's of their popular singles. Still in original shrink wrap, unplayed. So when I mean pristine, I mean opened shrink wrap, set on turntable pristine.
Only one or two ways to get cleaner than these. So technically, they have now been played. Once. They got wrapped up again, and back in the box, as my other set is still serviceable. Treasured memories, indeed. My son and I also did a set of the "Let's Pretend" storybook records a while back, and I'm debating on buying a cheap ipod to put them on for bedtime enjoyment.
Yanno how some people have Angels/Devils for a conscience? I have a Dark Elf ShadowKnight and a Half Elf Ranger for mine. The really bad part is when they agree on something.

Aphyon chu kissa whol l'jaed.
--Safyr Drathmir
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Re: Fifty Three

Post by jwhouk »

"So you're telling me that the closest you guys got to actually fixing the machine was with Tina being the doorway?"

Shelly nodded.

"But you couldn't stab her," I said, incredulous. "Why?"

"You ever try to put a key in a lock where another key has already broken off in the lock?" She stared at me, a bit annoyed. "I couldn't put the key into her because she already had one in her!"

"I thought that the key was how Monica ended up as the Jaguar Girl," I said.

And suddenly, it hit me.

"Tina! She WAS the Jaguar Girl!"

"The previous Jaguar Girl," Shelly corrected. "My mother again. She was trying to cover all her bases, based on that stupid prophecy she heard."

"Wait – wasn't Monica already manifesting her powers before you gave her the shiv?"

"There was something else going on there, I don't know the details," she replied. "What's important is that we'd come that close to finally solving things – and we thought it was Monica who needed to be the fourth light. Things were going smoothly – until you found her dog."

"What, I ended up with the shiv?" I said in frustration.

"Exactly."

We exchanged glances.

"Tina got you in contact with Monica, who noticed the clock key looked like one of my Kachina dolls. As soon as she took a look at the key – the blade popped out. Tina didn't want it, nor did Monica. You ended up with it."

"But that's not me, right?" I pointed to myself. "This me, this time around – I didn't do that… right?"

"No, you didn't," Shelly asserted. "We tried to fix the calendar that go-round, sans blade – and things went to hell in a bucket very fast." She wandered over to the window, looking out at the Library complex. "It was bad enough that Brandi didn't even bother writing about it in the book."

She sighed.

"Tina tried to give you the key the next two go-rounds," she said finally, turning to me. "Fortunately, you declined both times. It was in the lead-up to attempt 56 that we realized that Tina had to not be a part of the whole plan."

"Yeah, then you got socked inta the middle of the next millennia when you tried ta shiv her," a voice suddenly piped up from behind Shelly.

A smaller version of Shelly – aged about maybe six or seven – appeared from behind her.

"An' that's how you hatched your little plan with Nudge, which resulted in me."

"Well, that'd be the condensed version of it," Shelly said nervously.

"Does he always look like that, or did you do something to him when I wasn't lookin'?" The little girl noticed my dumbfounded countenance.

"Uh, uh, are you… Uh?"

"This is my Companion," Shelly explained. "She's the result of us dealing with Tina."

"Hey, don't pull me inta that!" she said with a snarl. "I had nothing to do with Tina 2.0 – or 2.1!"

Shelly just looked at her. "She doesn't bite, really. Her job was just to freak out the apos around here.

I think my eyes were open about twice the size than normal.

"I… I thought I couldn't… I thought only those with… uh, demons… could see…"

"Yeah, yeah, save it, clownface," she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "I ain't exactly a demon. I don't fall into a nice little pigeon-hole like the apos want me to."

"Clownface?"

"Yeah, you're the one with the parents who were clowns, right?" I looked at her, then at Shelly.

"How the hell did she know that?"

"We're in a Library, remember?" She had a sneer on her that could scare the toughest Marine Corps drill sergeant.

I closed my eyes, trying to focus.

"Okay, what I still don't get is why I'm still around, why I was even invited to the wedding, or even why the hell I'm here," I said, throwing my hands up.

"I can't speak for my grand-daughter, but you're definitely invited to her wedding – if I have any say about it."

Phix stood at the door, in her "librarian" form, holding a cup of tea – which she was steeping with a customized chrome steeping ball.

"I needed a new one of these," she stated plainly. "And with Aeterna being fussier than usual, I need the occasional tea time more than ever."

She turned to Shelly.

"Dear, I think it's counter-productive to rehash what Joseph here did in one of the previous cycles. The five of you did what was necessary, and that's enough."

She turned back to me with a smile.

"Anyways, there's a gentleman here who wanted to have a word with Mr. Houk. He's waiting for him back in the Great Hall."

I raised my eyebrow quizzically.

"Really?"

"Yes, really," she said, letting the chain of the seeping ball hang over the side of her cup. "Shelly, do remember that Connie still gives some of the apos in here… issues."

Shelly smiled widely. Connie just rolled her eyes. I tried hard to hide a smirk as I left with Phix.
"Character is what you are in the dark." - D.L. Moody
"You should never run from the voices in your head. That's how you give them power." - Jin
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Sgt. Howard
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Re: Fifty Three

Post by Sgt. Howard »

Dude... and I thought I could write a convoluted story...
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I speak fluent Limrick-
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Re: Fifty Three

Post by jwhouk »

(Hush, kid, you're on stage next...)
"Character is what you are in the dark." - D.L. Moody
"You should never run from the voices in your head. That's how you give them power." - Jin
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Re: Fifty Three

Post by jwhouk »

I reached the Great Hall, where Phix had told me someone would be waiting. She had to go check on Aeterna, then do some book intakes.

I didn't see anyone in the Hall, though.

Trying to explain to someone who's never been to the place exactly what the Library looks like is a difficult proposition. When you are in the Great Hall, the building looks like a series of semi-circular balconies – one upon the other – that seem to reach towards infinity.

The balconies are staggered slightly on the one side, allowing the light to fill each one gradually. On the other side – where I'd just come from – the balconies went straight up, almost like a glass skyscraper. Except, instead of glass, it was a series of balconies that extended up into what seemed infinity.

The look was, at least to me, akin to something like being in an opera house or theater. There were breaks in the various levels, for reading areas and lesser halls, but the overall impression remained: you are in THE Library.

The one thing that had always struck me, every time I visited the Library, was that it appeared slightly different, each time. It had the same overall general appearance, but there were always slight and subtle differences.

I was looking up at the "straight" side of the Great Hall when I heard footsteps behind me.

"Impressive sight, is it not?" A younger man, decked out in a plaid shirt, khaki pants and an olive green utility vest, said as he approached. "I used to marvel at the construction of the various buildings in the Forum in the same way."

I smiled a bit.

"When I was younger, I loved it when my parents took me to Chicago so we could go up on the Skydeck of the Sears Tower," I said, returning my gaze to the balconies. "I could never quite see the top from street level, because of all the setbacks and outcroppings."

"Never been to the Willis Tower," he replied. "Then again, I spent most of my time on the West Coast."

"That's obvious, if you insist on calling it the Willis Tower." I turned to look at Neil. "The west coast. Of America, Europe, or Palestine?"

"We called it Judea back then," he grinned back to me. "Phix and I never did get to thank you for the wedding gift."

"Sorry that it was only for her," I shrugged.

"Oh, she appreciated it greatly, that's for certain. From what she told me, her old tea infuser was starting to get hard to open. And as much as I'm a fan of Tina's coffee – and I most recently lived in the Seattle area, so I know what makes good coffee – I do not mind a good cup of tea now and again." He eyed me for a moment. "I think it was my brief time serving in Londondinium."

I looked up at the "auditorium" side, watching as a few beings were walking and talking a few stories up.

"Your step-granddaughter informed me that I unintentionally caused them to fail in one of their last attempts at fixing the Calendar Machine," I stated. "I'm… not exactly sure what to think about that."

"You have heard of Chaos Theory, have you not?"

"Ah, yes – the Butterfly Effect. Butterfly flaps its wings in the Amazon, and a typhoon wipes out most of Japan." I thought for a moment. "I can only imagine how frustrating that would have been for Jin, trying to control all the variables to get to that final moment."

"From what my wife tells me, Jin learned rather quickly what had failed that particular time. And she made sure that it didn't happen again."

"That would be?" I asked.

"The ring on your finger," Neil said plainly. "She never could quite determine in the first 52 loops, but you were definitely not married in loop 53. She made sure that was fixed in subsequent loops. How, I do not quite know."

Something didn't quite make sense to me at that moment.

"Wait a minute – the calendar reset happened well after you served as a centurion in Caesarea." I looked him in the eye. "Did you remember every single one of the resets as well?"

"No," Neil said with regret. "That would have made my task of trying to find Phix that much more difficult." He took in a breath. "After the Calendar Machine broke the first time, it affected all of the Library Portals on the Earth. Functionality came back online for some of them the closer each turn came to 2012 AD, but they would all conk out when the world was reset." He shrugged. "From what I have determined, I had come close a few times to finally finding a portal, but each time it had ceased operating because of the machine."

"I'm… I don't quite know what to say," I managed to get out after a minute.

"Like it has been said – it wasn't your fault. In fact, it was your incursion that caused the girls to realize that Tina needed to be kept out of the loop."

He pulled something out of one of the inside pockets of his vest.

"I have something for you," he said. "Your presence at our wedding did more good than you – or I – will likely ever know. Lily is looking more energetic than she's been in millennia, and Suzi is embracing her adopted family."

He took something out of a long, cylindrical bag. The item looked like a rolling pin – two handles and a dark, leather covering between the two.

"Uh, if that's something akin to that Board of Education you wield, except as a gift for my wife – she already has a rolling pin," I said, half-jokingly.

"Oh, no, this isn't a rolling pin." He ran his finger along one of the handles, loosening a tie that cinched the covering around it. Slowly, he pulled the covering off, holding it by the handle.

After handing me the cover, he neatly tugged on the ribbon that was wrapped around the center of the main cylinder. The attached vellum unraveled slightly as it was freed from its bonds.
"Character is what you are in the dark." - D.L. Moody
"You should never run from the voices in your head. That's how you give them power." - Jin
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GlytchMeister
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Re: Fifty Three

Post by GlytchMeister »

*nods appreciatively towards Joe*
...
*briefly glares at Niel*

...I think I know what it is...
He's mister GlytchMeister, he's mister code
He's mister exploiter, he's mister ones and zeros
They call me GlytchMeister, whatever I touch
Starts to glitch in my clutch!
I'm too much!
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jwhouk
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Re: Fifty Three

Post by jwhouk »

Image

This is kind of what it looks like.
"Character is what you are in the dark." - D.L. Moody
"You should never run from the voices in your head. That's how you give them power." - Jin
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Re: Fifty Three

Post by GlytchMeister »

That's what I thought, but I didn't want to spoil.
He's mister GlytchMeister, he's mister code
He's mister exploiter, he's mister ones and zeros
They call me GlytchMeister, whatever I touch
Starts to glitch in my clutch!
I'm too much!
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Re: Fifty Three

Post by lake_wrangler »

Except that since he first took it to be akin to a rolling pin, and it later says that untying the ribbon made the vellum come loose, I would say it does not have a second roller, but is merely wrapped around the one.
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Re: Fifty Three

Post by jwhouk »

The covering (a leather "pouch", of sorts) made the middle look like one long cylinder. The handles meld together with a slot that makes it look like there's only one "grip" on each side. It makes for easier carrying and use.
"Character is what you are in the dark." - D.L. Moody
"You should never run from the voices in your head. That's how you give them power." - Jin
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