Title: Chronicles of Vortex: You play, you win.
Characters: Serapi, NextX, Gunslinger (and Robin, in passing)
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Notes: I wrote this in 1999. In pen. I've tried to clean up the parts that are the fault of writing swiftly and in pen.
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Title: Egypt Underground
Characters: Thoth, Sekhet, Bast, Isis, Mut, Min, Apis, Anuket… Most of the Egyptian pantheon
Rating: G-
Warnings: Protagonists are … honourable thieves.
Notes: Written in the winter of 1998, this predates The Matrix, but when the movie came out, I gave up dev, because it was just close enough to be called a cheap knock-off.
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Title:Â Errant Soliloquy
Fandom:Â N/A
Characters:Â N/A
Rating: G-
Warnings:Â Sappy. So sappy, I'm surprised it hasn't turned to amber.
Notes:Â Ars(e) Poetica #18. October 20, 1998. This one's for the mysterious Robin, who slips in and out of my tales.
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Title:Â Daemon's Theatre
Fandom:Â N/A
Characters:Â N/A
Rating: G-
Warnings:Â Mad-crazy theatre superstitions.
Notes:Â Ars(e) Poetica #17. May/June 1998. 14-17 are numbered but not dated. By the content and numbers, I can place them approximately, but I make no claims to the accuracy of the dates. Calling it June 2, for my sanity.
Another true story, sadly… You couldn't flush the toilet backstage without it being heard in the house, and the stage managers kept bitching people for not flushing the toilet (not flushing during a show is policy), so we got locked out of the bathrooms for the entire run of the show, and had to use the audience restrooms in the hall. *shakes fist angrily*
Also, I don't know if it's as prevalent as it once was, but the theatres I was familiar with were horrendously superstitious places. You couldn't say "Macbeth" backstage for any reason; instead one said "MacScottishPlay" so as not to piss off the daemons in the lofts, who were the beasts that controlled the success or failure of a show.
I miss those days, at those times…
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Title:Â Run for the Money…
Fandom:Â N/A
Characters:Â N/A
Rating: G-
Warnings:Â Author is a pretty pretty princess.
Notes:Â Ars(e) Poetica #16. May/June 1998. 14-17 are numbered but not dated. By the content and numbers, I can place them approximately, but I make no claims to the accuracy of the dates. Calling it June 2, for my sanity.
This one was written about an actual experience I had, working backstage in the theatre department. The "head" in line 6 is the head of Costume for that show, which, looking back, I believe to have been Getting Away With Murder.
Some years later, I acquired that dress, when a totally other theatre shut down. And damn, do I look good in drag.
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Title:Â Ode to a Grape: An Exercise in Absurdity
Fandom:Â N/A
Characters:Â N/A
Rating: G-
Warnings:Â Crack. Fruitsalad.
Notes:Â Ars(e) Poetica #15. May/June 1998. 14-17 are numbered but not dated. By the content and numbers, I can place them approximately, but I make no claims to the accuracy of the dates. I'm calling it June 2, for my sanity's sake.
This was written while I was having lunch in a pancake house that has long since been bulldozed to make way for a pharmacy.
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Title:Â Through The Plexiglass
Fandom:Â N/A
Characters:Â N/A
Rating: G-
Warnings:Â Crack. Fruitsalad.
Notes:Â Ars(e) Poetica #14. May/June 1998. 14-17 are numbered but not dated. By the content and numbers, I can place them approximately, but I make no claims to the accuracy of the dates. I know it is after May 14th, when Frank Sinatra died; it's after Bonny Mad Charlie went missing — I have his parents names written in pencil a page or two before #14… And I can tell by the pen that 14-17 were all written on the same day. I'm calling it June 2. If you know me wrong, let me know.
This was written while I was having lunch in a pancake house that has long since been bulldozed to make way for a pharmacy. Line 8 is a reference to "Dogs Don't Go Moo," a story I'll tell later, when I start telling the Mythic History of the Wasteland.
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Title:Â Ad Nauseum
Fandom:Â N/A
Characters:Â N/A
Rating: G-
Warnings:Â Totally fake contrition, fag wants to drown a girl in the toilet.
Notes:Â Ars(e) Poetica #10 :: March 3, 1998. The Thespian President's girlfriend pissed me off. A lot. Mostly because I was horrifically envious, and she was a constant reminder that he was straight. A couple months after this, he told me he'd been dating her because SHE REMINDED HIM OF ME, but less scary. Then, I really wanted to drown her in the toilet. Possibly twice, just for good measure. Yes, yes, you can call me Queen Bitch, if you must. (Bonus points to anyone who understands why there's a Clive Barker reference in this one.)
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Title:Â Reminiscences of a Techie
Fandom:Â N/A
Characters:Â N/A
Rating: G-
Warnings:Â Implications of a lot of things no one remembers, but me.
Notes:Â Ars(e) Poetica :: March 2, 1998. "Techie" in this context is a backstage tech — lighting, sound, costumes — anyone working on a show who's not an actor.
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Title:Â Madonna of the Loft
Fandom:Â N/A
Characters:Â N/A
Rating: G-
Warnings:Â Teen wangst
Notes:Â Ars(e) Poetica, #8. March 2, 1998. I was listening to a lot of Robyn Hitchcock, at a guess, and at this point in time, I was pretty sure I wouldn't make it into college, and I had no idea what I was going to do with my life. It was one of those few moments in life, when all illusions of immortality and importance were stripped away. (And bonus points to anyone who knows why Robyn Hitchcock is at all relevant, here.)
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