Yesterday was spent proofreading Tails of Tales of Pain and Wonder for what I hope, sincerely, will be the last time. This is the 50+-page chapbook that comes
Oh, and I was bad and caved into stress and bought the first pack of cigarettes I've bought since New Year's 2005. Spooky is not happy, and I am disappointed in myself. I have sworn it will not be more than this one pack...and maybe one more. My dentist and doctor would murder me, if Spooky doesn't "beat" them to it.
Last night, I attended a ball in Second Life. This was as the Nareth who is the sadomasochistic daughter of the parthenogenic union of a Nephilim and a (now-deceased) cyborg (also named Nareth), and who lives in that purgatorial city by the sea. I was accompanied by a mysterious woman known to Nareth only as "Dancer," who recently began performing in Haven (a strip club in that purgatorial city). Oh, the part of Dancer is played by Artemisia Paine, aka Spooky, who actually managed to pry Nareth out of her stinky old trench coat and boots and into a gown. Anyway, the ball, given by a vampire named Teya Castaignede, was quite wonderful, held in a snowy garden beneath a full moon. But it also provided mine and Spooky's first real, firsthand taste of homophobia is SL. As we were waltzing, the het couple next to us, abruptly stopped and readied to leave. The following was overheard from the male avatar, speaking to our hostess:
JediMa Katscher: sorry Teya but we prefer to leave
JediMa Katscher: i don't like what i'm seeing around
JediMa Katscher: mainly 2 girls dancing together
JediMa Katscher: bye
He and his date, some girl name of Christall Beck, then took their leave. Spooky checked the guy's SL profile, and he's all about the Xtianity. But this was a ball made up of angels and demons, vampires and lycanthropes and worse things still, where most of the attendees were from a sim where perversity and "deviant" sex are the norm. Often, have I seen "JediMa Katscher" there. Anyway, the ball went on just wonderfully in the asshole's absence, and, after all, you really can't expect too much from some tight-assed jerk who decides to call himself "JediMa," in the first place, and who can't be bothered to capitalize and use punctuation and write out the word "two." But it was rather a shock. After the ball, Nareth and Dancer returned to Haven, where they met up with the changeling Cerdwin Flanagan (
Beware "teh ghey" Romance! (Nareth at left, "Dancer" at right)
(this photo stolen from Cerdwin; left to right, Michiko Akina, Nareth, Cerdwin, and "Dancer")
After SL, Dancer and Nareth's typists ate chocolate cake and watched Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny for the fourth time. Just because.