15-04-2019, 03:44 PM
So Night Follows Day Pt. 17
By T. MaskedWriter with Special Guest Author Susan Bailey
*****
"Ice is forming on the tips of my wings.
Unheeded warnings, I thought I'd thought of everything.
No navigator to find my way home.
Unladen, empty, and turned to stone.
A soul in tension that's learning to fly.
Condition grounded, but determined to try.
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies.
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earthbound misfit, I."
-Pink Floyd, "Learning to Fly"
Susan's Log: Stardate... eh, fuck it. They just made them up on the show, anyway.
I've been traveling through the Nebula of my Subconscious, viewing memories of my early interactions with Helen.
On the main screen of the bridge of the original Enterprise in my head, the image changed again from the pinkness and lightning of the nebula to what I recognized as the living room downstairs. At least the old layout, before the garage expansion and stuff went in. Sounds of construction outside were drowned out by the noise coming from Julie's open laptop on the coffee table. The sound of a call coming in via Skype. The me whose perspective we were viewing all of this from went over to the laptop, saw the words "Call from lafuckingcontessa@castlefinzione"
The Me having the memory debated running outside to get Troy or Julie. She'd been studying their secret for a couple of months, and didn't know it well enough to start planning bank robberies around it yet, but knew about the agreement that they'd made with Helen years ago, and kept even after what happened between Julie and Helen in Madrid. That because being able to control everyone around you creates problems that are hard to relate to unless you're one of the three people in the world who can do it; whatever else was going on between them, if any of them "needed to talk," the others would always answer. I didn't fully grasp all of them yet, but the fact was that I was here, and if Helen needed help, and I ignored it or she hung up while I was getting Troy or Julie, then... dammit...
In the memory, I sat down at the laptop and clicked "Answer." She was seated at a big desk or meeting table in an office with the lights off.
"I know what happened here." I said to Sue, Suzy-Ho, and Suzy-Q, who were watching with me on the bridge in their uniforms. (Or half-uniform for Suzy-Ho, anyway.) "She said she needed to talk to someone who despised her, I told her I didn't, just that she wasn't going to buy my forgiveness, then she told me what was going on."
"You're missing a little bit there, Susan." Suzy-Q pointed out. "The theme so far seems to be 'Something you missed the first time.' She tried to avoid talking about it, at first, and you started giving her shit, until this next part."
"Danger isn't a word I hear you OR them use often." The Me in the memory said. "So, what's really going on right now, Helen? Don't give me any of that 'classified by the government of San Finzione' shit, you ARE the government of San Finzione!"
"She'd never given YOU that shit before, Susan." Suzy-Q reminded me. "You'd seen enough of her on TV and the internet by then to figure out that was what she was going to say next. But watch this." As it had the past two times, the memory slowed, as if my Subconscious had been showing us a video, probably the episode "The Trouble With Tribbles," in keeping with the Star Trek theme; and was hitting a slow-advance on the remote to show us one of the few shots in the entire series where they give a clear view of Scotty's right hand and you can see James Doohan's missing middle finger that got shot off at Normandy.
The image didn't show that, though. It showed a curious look on Helen's face, right before she reached for a pack of cigarettes, found it empty, and pulled out a string of what I now know are Greek Worry Beads instead.
"You knew that Contessa Helena de San Finzione was a real person on TV before you met her. But in the same way as the President or the Pope; someone powerful and famous that you knew existed, but Susan Bailey's chances of ever meeting her were zero. Chad was never going to take you to San Finzione, was he? You'd only started paying attention, reading articles, and watching interviews, after the meeting that you don't remember. She left right after the ceremony, didn't stay for the reception; so, you had no way to confront her about it there. Based on who she was then, it probably would have ended badly for you."
"So, I started looking into who this rich, powerful friend of the two people I love most was." I told them. "It's part of why my job during the revenge prank was staying home and coordinating everyone on the computer. While I was cruising the .snfnz dating sites and setting up meetups with lonely singles for them, I was also watching old interviews, read one of the biographies of her. I'd seen her drop a 'that's classified' or two on reporters before and saw it coming."
By T. MaskedWriter with Special Guest Author Susan Bailey
*****
"Ice is forming on the tips of my wings.
Unheeded warnings, I thought I'd thought of everything.
No navigator to find my way home.
Unladen, empty, and turned to stone.
A soul in tension that's learning to fly.
Condition grounded, but determined to try.
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies.
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earthbound misfit, I."
-Pink Floyd, "Learning to Fly"
Susan's Log: Stardate... eh, fuck it. They just made them up on the show, anyway.
I've been traveling through the Nebula of my Subconscious, viewing memories of my early interactions with Helen.
On the main screen of the bridge of the original Enterprise in my head, the image changed again from the pinkness and lightning of the nebula to what I recognized as the living room downstairs. At least the old layout, before the garage expansion and stuff went in. Sounds of construction outside were drowned out by the noise coming from Julie's open laptop on the coffee table. The sound of a call coming in via Skype. The me whose perspective we were viewing all of this from went over to the laptop, saw the words "Call from lafuckingcontessa@castlefinzione"
The Me having the memory debated running outside to get Troy or Julie. She'd been studying their secret for a couple of months, and didn't know it well enough to start planning bank robberies around it yet, but knew about the agreement that they'd made with Helen years ago, and kept even after what happened between Julie and Helen in Madrid. That because being able to control everyone around you creates problems that are hard to relate to unless you're one of the three people in the world who can do it; whatever else was going on between them, if any of them "needed to talk," the others would always answer. I didn't fully grasp all of them yet, but the fact was that I was here, and if Helen needed help, and I ignored it or she hung up while I was getting Troy or Julie, then... dammit...
In the memory, I sat down at the laptop and clicked "Answer." She was seated at a big desk or meeting table in an office with the lights off.
"I know what happened here." I said to Sue, Suzy-Ho, and Suzy-Q, who were watching with me on the bridge in their uniforms. (Or half-uniform for Suzy-Ho, anyway.) "She said she needed to talk to someone who despised her, I told her I didn't, just that she wasn't going to buy my forgiveness, then she told me what was going on."
"You're missing a little bit there, Susan." Suzy-Q pointed out. "The theme so far seems to be 'Something you missed the first time.' She tried to avoid talking about it, at first, and you started giving her shit, until this next part."
"Danger isn't a word I hear you OR them use often." The Me in the memory said. "So, what's really going on right now, Helen? Don't give me any of that 'classified by the government of San Finzione' shit, you ARE the government of San Finzione!"
"She'd never given YOU that shit before, Susan." Suzy-Q reminded me. "You'd seen enough of her on TV and the internet by then to figure out that was what she was going to say next. But watch this." As it had the past two times, the memory slowed, as if my Subconscious had been showing us a video, probably the episode "The Trouble With Tribbles," in keeping with the Star Trek theme; and was hitting a slow-advance on the remote to show us one of the few shots in the entire series where they give a clear view of Scotty's right hand and you can see James Doohan's missing middle finger that got shot off at Normandy.
The image didn't show that, though. It showed a curious look on Helen's face, right before she reached for a pack of cigarettes, found it empty, and pulled out a string of what I now know are Greek Worry Beads instead.
"You knew that Contessa Helena de San Finzione was a real person on TV before you met her. But in the same way as the President or the Pope; someone powerful and famous that you knew existed, but Susan Bailey's chances of ever meeting her were zero. Chad was never going to take you to San Finzione, was he? You'd only started paying attention, reading articles, and watching interviews, after the meeting that you don't remember. She left right after the ceremony, didn't stay for the reception; so, you had no way to confront her about it there. Based on who she was then, it probably would have ended badly for you."
"So, I started looking into who this rich, powerful friend of the two people I love most was." I told them. "It's part of why my job during the revenge prank was staying home and coordinating everyone on the computer. While I was cruising the .snfnz dating sites and setting up meetups with lonely singles for them, I was also watching old interviews, read one of the biographies of her. I'd seen her drop a 'that's classified' or two on reporters before and saw it coming."
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