Part Fifty-Three: Getting used to the glad tidings

[matrixrefugee.livejournal.com]

Miss Meglomania (11:30:53 PM): ((Simone: "Then can somebody please explain how I got this HUGE NOSE???"
Nicky: "I think it's cool."
Simone: "Easy for you to say, Mr. Tiny-Nose..."))
Matrixrefugee197 (11:31:42 PM): H: "Yeah, how'd the Italian fella come to have a non-Roman nose?"
Miss Meglomania (11:32:12 PM): Nicky: "How do you THINK?" (a direct look at Hal...>
Matrixrefugee197 (11:32:37 PM): H: (looks innocent... and fails miserably...>
Miss Meglomania (11:33:42 PM): Simone: "I'm missing something here, aren't I?"
Nicky: "It's not important..."
Matrixrefugee197 (11:35:28 PM): Frank (future version>: "Okay, Hal: when you were still in press, your nose was straught: how'd you end up with that eagle beak?"
Matrixrefugee197 (11:36:45 PM): LM: "Plastic surgery. About ten years ago, someone tried killing me, but they only succeeded in kicking in one of my kidneys and smashing my nose and teeth -- what was left of them..."
Miss Meglomania (11:37:47 PM): Ilia: "Hm. Charming story."
Nitika: "That sucks...who did it? What happened next?"
Matrixrefugee197 (11:38:59 PM): Castor: "Well, we'll say that before the goon could do any more damage, he wound up being a very dismembered and *dead* goon."
Matrixrefugee197 (11:40:00 PM): LM: "That 'goon' being an inept Yakuza assassin sent in by a militant Christian fundementalist group, bent on trying to eradicate the next generation of the dynasty..."
Miss Meglomania (11:41:19 PM): Nitika raises her eyebrows. "Really?!? Woah...gross. It's always the uber-Christians you gotta watch out for..."
Ilia: "And I am sure you had quite a good time doing it, Mr. Castor...it seems right up your road."
Matrixrefugee197 (11:42:43 PM): Cstr: (Grins eeevilly> "Yep, my brother and I took gooood care a' that fella."
Pollux: "That's the last time he'd do that."
Cstr: "Looked like it was the *first* time he did something like that."
Miss Meglomania (11:44:56 PM): Nitika: "Well, he shoudn't have gone for the face...you're supposed to go for the sides, they're the least defended and really vunderable, and if you get a bad gash there you can die in, like, 3
minutes. Gut, too-- peritonitis, I think it's called. Really nasty stuff."
Ilia: "Nitika, is there something we need to know about you?"
Nitika: "Just that I read a lot of true-crime magazines."
Matrixrefugee197 (11:46:22 PM): LM: (blanches just a little, but an evilly nostalgic smile crosses his face for a second... He knows all about that kind of stuff...>
Miss Meglomania (11:47:11 PM): (lol!)
Miss Meglomania (11:48:36 PM): ((ah, sweet memories...))
Matrixrefugee197 (11:49:58 PM): LM: (internal: The blood-stained broken window from a bank president's suicide... the hacked body of a showgirl stuffed into a trunk... the decapitated CEO of a home decor company...>
Miss Meglomania (11:51:47 PM): Ilia looks at Mero, studying his face...hmm, seems to have drifted off someplace, but *where* is no concern of his...
Nitika: "Your Majesty? You're sorta spacing out here..."
Matrixrefugee197 (11:52:36 PM): LM: "Hm? I'm sorry... I used to be in journalism: just reminiscing about several crime stories I covered..."
Miss Meglomania (11:53:10 PM): Nitika: "Huh. Oh, I heard about your wife-- congratulations! That's such great news."
Matrixrefugee197 (11:54:18 PM): LM: (grins, wincing a little but trying to hide it> "Quite a surprise for us both, I must confess..."
Frank: "Yeah, the news services are gobbling up that story..."
Miss Meglomania (11:54:53 PM): Nitika: "It's really fantastic-- is it a boy or a girl? Or is it too early to tell?"
Matrixrefugee197 (11:55:46 PM): LM: "Much too soon to tell: she's only about three weeks along. Of course she's hoping for another daughter... one more to her liking..."
Miss Meglomania (11:56:37 PM): Nitika: "Oh, I like Astarte...you've got great kids already, so no matter what this one is, you won't have trouble."
Matrixrefugee197: LM: "As long as the little one's healthy, I don't mind whether we have a son or a daughter."
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "Yeah, that's really what's important...although I'm sure *somewhere* in your head you're partial to one or the other..."
Matrixrefugee197: LM: (a bit thoughtful> "I wouldn't mind having another son..."
Miss Meglomania: Ilia: "Of course-- is that not the point of a royal family? To have as many sons as possible?"
Matrixrefugee197: LM: "Indeed... in case Gasque for some reason does not sire a son of his own..."
Miss Meglomania: Ilia smiles thinly. "Give him time, he has not even married the girl yet. It is far too early for him to be thinking about children."
Matrixrefugee197: LM: "True... but he'd better hurry up, or else his mother and I will beat him to it..."
Miss Meglomania: "How competative!" Ilia laughs. "What, are you going to hold his hand and talk him through it as well? His wife might mind the intrusion of privacy."
Matrixrefugee197: LM: "I was joking... though there's times when it seems I'll have to at least listen at the door on his wedding night..."
F: "Aw, leave Gasque alone; he's like me: give him some time and he'll learn."
Miss Meglomania: Nitika frowns. "God, if that's the case than I'd hate to have YOU as a father-in-law, Meroveque..."
Matrixrefugee197: LM: (internal: Well, considering that *I* was the one who initiated her into the mysteries of love...>
F: "Why does that sound nastier than you probably want it to sound, Lady Volkova?"
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "What do you mean?"
Matrixrefugee197: F: "Oh, I dunno... I mean... Gasque's courting a girl who kinda had an affair with our short friend here..."
LM: "Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr......" (menacing>
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "Yes, I...heard about that."
Ilia: "Let us put it in perspective, Mr. Sweitz-- is there anyone our short friend has NOT had an affair with?"
Matrixrefugee197: F: "Hm... There's one: my wife..."
F: "Um... an old friend of ours, Monica Swinton: that's two..."
Miss Meglomania: (lol..."and...um...no, her too...uhhhh...")
Matrixrefugee197: ((I was talking with Twink about that: she admits that Monica is a more than a bit intimidated by Hal...))
Miss Meglomania: ((why am I NOT surprised???))
Matrixrefugee197: ((I know, those two are like night and day...))
Miss Meglomania: Ilia: "Well, that is a start-- good enough I suppose to make my point."
Nitika: "Which was?"
Ilia: "I forgot. But I am sure it was a good one."
Matrixrefugee197: LM: (internal: Are you trying to imply that I am inept?>
Miss Meglomania: ((lol!))
Miss Meglomania: (a little paranoid, are we, Mero?)
Matrixrefugee197: ((LM: "No, merely trying to defuse unfounded criticisms..."))
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "I suppose it doesn't matter, does it? Gasque loves her and she loves him-- that's all that should matter in a marriage, not who you marry into."
((Ilia: "I like fucking with your head, Meroveque. But you make it so easy, it hardly seems worth it..."))
Matrixrefugee197: LM: "Precisely... the common misconception is that my wife married me on account of where I came from, but nothing could be further from the truth. She married me because she loves me."
Miss Meglomania: Ilia: (a knowing smile towards Mero> "A woman in a million, I believe she was called..."
Matrixrefugee197: LM: (ignoring Ilia...>
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "That's so sweet...and you've been together so long, it must be great. You know everything about each other by now, I'm sure."
Matrixrefugee197: LM: "She would say she continues to discover new facets to my psyche..."
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "I'm sure there's a lot to discover-- you're a very complex individual, Your Majesty. I bet people have tried for years to figue you out and they never will."
Matrixrefugee197: F: "That's an understatement: Hal an' me have been friends since college; I gave up trying to figure him out years ago: I just enjoy who he is.... when he lets himself be enjoyable."
LM: "Mmrrrrrrrr...." (a closed-mouth rumble, not unfriendly>
Miss Meglomania: Nitika and Ilia laugh a little over that...
Nitika: "Surely you're not awful all the time, nobody could be..."
Matrixrefugee197: F: "To be honest -- and please don't take this as a criticism, Hal -- I liked 'um better as the scraggly little photographer I used to work with."
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "We only know him one way, so that's all we can judge on...I don't think, personally, h's that bad. I don't agree with some of what you've done, but as a person, I've known a lot worse."
Matrixrefugee197: F: "Hm... might be a good time to dig out the home movies, Hal."
LM: "I'd have to call home for them."
Miss Meglomania: Ilia: (rolls his eyes> "Spare me the sentimentality..."
Nitika: "It's okay...I think I can imagine."
Matrixrefugee197: F: "Nothing sentimental there: just things like Hal sneaking up on us with the video camera when one of us was singing with the radio while washing dishes... or then there was the one he did of himself buffing the floor in the hallway of our old apartment... with the buffing cloths tied to his feet..."
LM: "Don't spoil the punchline."
Miss Meglomania: Nitika laughs and props her head on her hand. "Lemme guess...big badda-boom?"
Matrixrefugee197: LM: "Something like that..."
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "I WOULD like to see that one! Try and find it?"
Matrixrefugee197: LM: "I'll see what I can do..."
F: "Ooh, if you want reeeally unsentimental, how about the ones he took of my wedding, the first time I was married..."
LM: "They don't want to see those."
F: "I do!"
Miss Meglomania: Ilia: "Why do I have the feeling they starred the bridesmaids in various states of undress?"
Nitika: "Because...nevermind."
Matrixrefugee197: F: "Nope... worse... the film kinda turns into a horror movie with this eeevil eight-year old girl..."
LM: "She was *five*."
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "Do I wanna know what happened?"
Matrixrefugee197: F: "I'd rather you saw it... well, it's a horror movie only to short folks... it's really very funny."
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: (self-depreciating> "Ah, so it'd be prefect for me, then? I get you."
Matrixrefugee197: F: "Any footage of the kids?"
LM: "There's some of Astarte when she was small... though if I showed those, she'd wallop me!"
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "My birth parents didn't really make home movies-- too frivilous for them. And the stuff from when I moved in with Mom and Daddy were mostly newsreel junk."
Ilia: "I do not think my parents made any home videos either-- if they did, I do not know where they are. One of the families I was fostered to was crazy over the video-camera, though...they took shots of people on the toilet, for God's
sake."
Matrixrefugee197: LM: "Now that's a bit extreme: If you have to embarass someone, sneak up on them when they're in the bathtub or the shower, or on your wife shaving her legs. Filming someone on the toilet is criminal."
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: (says nothing, just laughs>
Ilia: "My sentiments exactly. But that was a small matter, and it was not like I stayed with them very long anyway."
Matrixrefugee197: F: "What about sneaking up on a houseguest and his wife when they're... snuggling?"
LM: "Only if the houseguest's wife is notorious for having a ridiculously strict Catholic upbringing."
Miss Meglomania: Ilia: "Now that is mean, but funny. It would be far worse if you checked the video afterwards and it was the houseguest and...someone besides his wife."
Matrixrefugee197: F: "That wouldn't have happened anyway."
Miss Meglomania: Ilia: "I was implying nothing."
Matrixrefugee197: F: "Thing was... I was the houseguest." (blushing!>
Miss Meglomania: Ilia raises an eyebrow with a smile. "Then I *certainly* was implying nothing."
Matrixrefugee197: F: "Besides, if he tried filming Cecie and I, Cecie would break his camera."
Miss Meglomania: Ilia: "Along with a few other things, I would imagine."
Matrixrefugee197: F: (looking innocent!>
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "How is she feeling lately? I know she was sick a long time..."
Matrixrefugee197: F: "She's feeling a whole lot better... I guess what happens with a lot of pregnant ladies is the first three months are really rough, but then things start to settle down for the next three months... and then the last
three months are challenging in other ways. I'll say this much: she's more like herself than she was before."
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "That's good. It's awful when someone you love's sick and in pain and there's...nothing you can do about it, really."
Matrixrefugee197: F: "Yeah... I kinda felt guilty about it at first since, well, she wouldn't have been feeling that way if I hadn't had a part in it."
Miss Meglomania: Ilia can't help laughing a little to himself...
Nitika: "There's no reason to feel guilty if it's what she wanted, too."
Matrixrefugee197: F: "Well... I'll say this much: it started with something she wanted from me... I coulda backed down, I suppose...Not that I wanted to..." (blushing!>
Miss Meglomania: Ilia laughs out loud that time! "I am sorry...I just find that very funny somehow. I must be in that type of mood, everything is funny...if you will excuse me, I will leave before things start to get inappropriete. Good
day." Stands and heads towards his studio, laughing all the way...
Matrixrefugee197: LM: (Internal: Whew, he's gone...>
Miss Meglomania: Nitika crosses her legs under her and smiles up at Frank. "Well, I can't think of better parents...I mean that, too."
Matrixrefugee197: F: "Thanks... I'm really looking forward to my son's birth... I know it'll sound odd, but Cecie and I are already starting to get to know him."
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "I don't think it sounds odd at all...there's no way you *couldn't* start knowing him by now..."
Matrixrefugee197: F: "He's already responding to our voices, especially his mom's voice. He even seems to like certain pieces of music we both listen to, though I have to admit: Cecie and I have some rather... different tastes. Her techno stuff and my 1920s jazz."
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "Sounds like Mom and Daddy-- he liked Russian folk and she's into Baroque classical. And I don't even know how to classify the stuff Liyla listens to...Stravinsky meets Moby on a speed bender..."
Matrixrefugee197: LM: "Hmmmm... I'll have to hear it."
F: "Oy..." (rolls eyes>
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "I don't know how you'd find a rhythm in it, much less be able to dance to it, but as he's constantly reminding me (affects a faux-Hungarian accent> 'I have been in training since you were in diapers, so
try and tell me my job and I will throw you out the window.'" she laughs. "Well, something along those lines."
Matrixrefugee197: LM: "When we were in college, I once dated a Bulgarian foreign exchange student who had this penchant for dancing to Bartok. It's music to my ears, but I'd rather be in traction than try dancing to it."
F: "Oh, that explains why you two broke up."
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "In school I had to learn some traditional Indian dances, but I'm pretty bad at them. I'm okay in ballroom stuff, waltzes and crap like that, but nothing really to write home about..."
Matrixrefugee197: F: "I hear yah, except for the days when Hal and I used to jitterbug together, I'm basically a dead hoofer."
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: (laughs> "You'll have to show me home videos of that someday, too."
Matrixrefugee197: F: "And how!"
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "Daddy used to be able to do that one Russian dance-- you know the one I'm talking about, where the guys squat and kick their legs out? He wasn't supposed to do it since he had, like, half a leg, but he did
anyway. Mom said that when they tried dancing at their wedding he kept stepping on her foot-- she's not that great, either.'
Matrixrefugee197: LM: "Ah, the Russian Bear Dance."
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "That's the one! Yeah, that's really popular where we live...gotta do something to keep your butt from freezing off."
Matrixrefugee197: F: "Oh, that explains it!"
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "Well, what he said is that in Russia, the higher a guy can jump, the more of a man he's supposed to be, so that's why all the dances have the guys jumping around like their shoes are on fire. I dunno if that's
true or not, but it's what I've heard."
Matrixrefugee197: LM: "I think I recall one anecdote from the history of the Austro-Hungarian Empire: whenever the army was drafting troops, they would select the men who were the best dancers. The reason was they were more agile
and better at following intricate manuevers."
Miss Meglomania: Nitika laughs and shakes her head. "Oh, fantastic-- I'd LOVE to see Liyla on the front lines, then-- can you imagine it? We'd be doomed from the start."
Matrixrefugee197: LM: "I was about to add: No wonder the Austro-Hungarian army lost so many battles."
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "First, there would be complaints that the pup-tent was too small. Then, that the uniform wasn't flattering. And that the food wasn't up to quality. Also, there would be just WAY too much mud and dirt, that would have to be fixed. And all the walking? Nah, that's gotta go..." she laughs. "God, he would SO kill me right now..."
Matrixrefugee197: LM: (WINCE!>
F: "Oh God, I can hear it now... "
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: (affecting the accent> "What the fuck is this? Camoflauge, are you out of your fucking head? Do you think I look good in green? I did not think so! And WHAT, may I ask, is THIS?? You are expecting me to carry this shit across HOW FAR?..."
Matrixrefugee197: LM: "It's a good thing Hungary is no longer part of the Empire: if there were a draft and he happened to be caught up by it, they'd have to throw him back."
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "He wouldn't show up in the first place...what, him be seen among a bunch of common day-labourers? You've got to be kidding..."
Matrixrefugee197: LM: "To hear him say it, he's a higher being than the members of my family, and there's legends that claim the Merovingians were descended from Jesus Christ by way of Mary Magdalen."
Miss Meglomania: Nitika rolls her eyes: "Gimme a break. His dad was a deputy police officer and his mom worked in a factory-- I mean, after they croaked the state couldn't keep him in foster care cos he was such a brat. I dunno where he thinks he's so much better, it sure as Hell doesn't come from the blood."
Matrixrefugee197: LM: "It's a coping mechanism: he thinks highly of himself to counteract the deficiencies in his childhood."
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "I guess...I dunno. Yulia just thinks he's trying to get into a circle where he doesn't belong-- I don't know what to think, so I just leave all that alone. Still," she smiles a little. "If I gotta live in the middle of nowhere, is *is* kinda nice to have a cute guy my age living with me. But don't tell anyone I said that."
Matrixrefugee197: LM: "To each their own."
F: "Wait, when you said that stuff about the coping mechanism, why do I get the funny feeling that it's something *you* did to get by?"
LM: (Narrows his eyes, gives Frank a thin little smirk...>
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "Well, we all gotta do something when life hands us a bucket of shit..."
Matrixrefugee197: LM: "I used to imagine to myself that I was really the scion of some wealthy or powerful family... I was a child then..."
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "But if you were, why weren't you living with them?"
Matrixrefugee197: LM: "I came up with a thousand possibilites: They'd been killed by assassins, I'd been kidnapped by rivals... But I soon came to the realization when I was about seven, that I just had to learn to live with things
as they were."
Miss Meglomania: Nitika: "Sorry, I think I'm a little too practical for my own good. My birth parents ran things so tight that there wasn't any chance I wasn't related to them...I never really needed to cope with anything that happened with them, since we were all so impersonal anyway."