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CrazySugarFreakBoy!


Member Since: Sun Jan 04, 2004
Posts: 1,235
 Subject: Dance Dance Revolution (Tie-In to Untold Conclusive Tales of the Parody War #321: The Winner)
Posted Sun Sep 02, 2007 at 08:46:42 pm EDT (Viewed 443 times)

Posted with Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 on Windows XP

Dance Dance Revolution (Tie-In to http://www.chillwater.plus.com/HH/hhstories/untold%20tales%20of%20ll%20321.htm">Untold Conclusive Tales of the Parody War #321: The Winner)

Under an unfamiliar night sky of multicolored neon-tinged nebulae, the campfires, chants and other lights and sounds of the celebration in the Spokane Indian Reservation carried on into the hours that blur the lines between late evening and early morning, peppering the otherwise dark and untouched surrounding landscape of thick forests, jagged peaks and stark plains with beacons of bright, loud joy, as tribal members treated guests of all colors, creeds and species to an ecstatic experience in the truest sense, their songs, dances, meals and stories all swirling together to saturate and transcend the senses.

“They’ve started calling it Dreamland,” Sheriff Louis Laughing Fox, of the Spokane Tribal Police, informed his son’s most recently arrived guests. “It’s one of the areas of our tribal reservation where we let the refugees from, and conscientious objectors to, the Obedience Brands set up a Temporary Autonomous Zone, and it’s where enough of them asked to stick around that our tribal council decided to let them, at least for a while longer, provided they keep care of the area, and provided I keep an eye on them.” He sighed ruefully. “Those bastards managed to rope me into serving as a tribal elder after all.”

“I must say, it’s all a bit different from the Indian camps I visited in Faerie,” Elisabeth “Bettie” Barrie blinked at the veritable carnival of glow sticks, fire-twirlers, rave fashions, black-light paints, and multiply pierced and tattooed bodies.

“Yeah, don’t greet any of us redskins by asking to ‘smoke-um peace pipe,’” Louis snorted.

“You mean, you people don’t tend to respond to social faux pas by threatening to burn us palefaces at the stake?” Bettie deadpanned. “Well, that’s my worldview shattered, then.”

The corners of Louis’ flinty eyes and otherwise straight line of a mouth twitched and crinkled in what passed for a grin of wry humor with him. “I can see why he likes you.”

Bettie averted her eyes for the first time from his steely gaze. “I’m sure I don’t know whom you mean,” she lied, then shook her head. “Anyhow, if you could just point us in the proper direction, my … date for this affair is anxious to check in with his sister.”

Louis squinted appraisingly at Griffin, who clutched Bettie’s hand protectively in response. “Sure,” he finally nodded. “Her and the other English girl insisted on babysitting my granddaughter, so they’ll probably be fussing with her with the rest of the family … including him whom you’re sure you don’t know likes you, apparently.”

Even as Louis was called away by his “other girlfriend,” a similarly middle-aged Arab woman (she wondered, not for the first time, at the preponderance of men in polygamous relationships, among the social circles of so-called “super-heroes”), he advised Bettie to “head for the light show,” and sure enough, that’s where she found them. There were Naari Magweed and Samantha Featherstone, tending lovingly to yawning, squirming infant Iris Paintbrush Sunrise. There was toddler Oliver “Ollie” Hastings, intently pestering his big sister, Gwendolyn “Wendy” Leslie, who clearly couldn’t decide whether to be annoyed or amused by his mischievous misbehavior. There were Meggan Foxxx and April Alice Apple, clinking their wine coolers in a toast and waving at Bettie to join them. And there he was, the Whirling Dervish of a loincloth-clad living light show himself.

Dreamcatcher Kokopelli Foxglove danced around the campfire like time flowed differently for him, and for those moments of movement, it somehow did. As the Moby remix of The Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony” pounded and soared from nearby portable stereo speakers, Dream spun around the flickering flames in slow-motion, his day-glo yellow body leaving similarly colored trails of light in his wake, tangible enough that Griff could actually smear them with the tip of his finger. They tasted like banana popsicles on his tongue, and the tears that spilled from Dream’s cheeks, when his head whipped around dizzily, hung as rounded droplets in the air behind him, as he shaped the light trails he made by sweeping his arms wildly and broadly in complex, unpredictable patterns, impossibly sculpting his internal sunshine with nothing more than his mad, manic, willful willpower.

After all the feats of sheer impossibility he and his friends had accomplished, Dream was feeling promethean as hell, and this reality-defying display was the least he could do to express it. He wanted to vandalize the whole world with the graffiti of his defiant smiles, and shatter its fragile-as-glass remaining rules with his triumphant laughter.

He was laughing and crying all at once, because in spite of all the death, despair and destruction he’d witnessed, and fought and failed to prevent, the Parody War marked the most fun he’d ever had and the happiest he’d ever been in his life, and in spite of his considerable imagination, even he couldn’t imagine how this day could possibly get any better, until Bettie and April approached him.

“What would you say,” Bettie bit her lower lip, until April elbowed her to continue, “to a marriage in the William Moulton Marston mold?”

Dream halted his performance with a wobbling stance, his afterimages taking a few seconds to catch up with him, and gaped at the implications. “You’re sure?” he had to ask April.

“You’re my guy, and I’m your gal,” April asserted, “but this way, we both get a gal on the side,” she slung an arm around Bettie’s waist, a gesture which she soon returned.

And with that, he took them both by their hands and pulled them into the dance anew.



Mr. Epitome


 Subject: *Does spit take* [Re: CrazySugarFreakBoy!]
Posted Sun Sep 02, 2007 at 09:30:26 pm EDT

Posted with Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 on Windows Vista

> Dance Dance Revolution (Tie-In to http://www.chillwater.plus.com/HH/hhstories/untold%20tales%20of%20ll%20321.htm">Untold Conclusive Tales of the Parody War #321: The Winner)
>
> Under an unfamiliar night sky of multicolored neon-tinged nebulae, the campfires, chants and other lights and sounds of the celebration in the Spokane Indian Reservation carried on into the hours that blur the lines between late evening and early morning, peppering the otherwise dark and untouched surrounding landscape of thick forests, jagged peaks and stark plains with beacons of bright, loud joy, as tribal members treated guests of all colors, creeds and species to an ecstatic experience in the truest sense, their songs, dances, meals and stories all swirling together to saturate and transcend the senses.
>
> “They’ve started calling it Dreamland,” Sheriff Louis Laughing Fox, of the Spokane Tribal Police, informed his son’s most recently arrived guests. “It’s one of the areas of our tribal reservation where we let the refugees from, and conscientious objectors to, the Obedience Brands set up a Temporary Autonomous Zone, and it’s where enough of them asked to stick around that our tribal council decided to let them, at least for a while longer, provided they keep care of the area, and provided I keep an eye on them.” He sighed ruefully. “Those bastards managed to rope me into serving as a tribal elder after all.”
>
> “I must say, it’s all a bit different from the Indian camps I visited in Faerie,” Elisabeth “Bettie” Barrie blinked at the veritable carnival of glow sticks, fire-twirlers, rave fashions, black-light paints, and multiply pierced and tattooed bodies.
>
> “Yeah, don’t greet any of us redskins by asking to ‘smoke-um peace pipe,’” Louis snorted.
>
> “You mean, you people don’t tend to respond to social faux pas by threatening to burn us palefaces at the stake?” Bettie deadpanned. “Well, that’s my worldview shattered, then.”
>
> The corners of Louis’ flinty eyes and otherwise straight line of a mouth twitched and crinkled in what passed for a grin of wry humor with him. “I can see why he likes you.”
>
> Bettie averted her eyes for the first time from his steely gaze. “I’m sure I don’t know whom you mean,” she lied, then shook her head. “Anyhow, if you could just point us in the proper direction, my … date for this affair is anxious to check in with his sister.”
>
> Louis squinted appraisingly at Griffin, who clutched Bettie’s hand protectively in response. “Sure,” he finally nodded. “Her and the other English girl insisted on babysitting my granddaughter, so they’ll probably be fussing with her with the rest of the family … including him whom you’re sure you don’t know likes you, apparently.”
>
> Even as Louis was called away by his “other girlfriend,” a similarly middle-aged Arab woman (she wondered, not for the first time, at the preponderance of men in polygamous relationships, among the social circles of so-called “super-heroes”), he advised Bettie to “head for the light show,” and sure enough, that’s where she found them. There were Naari Magweed and Samantha Featherstone, tending lovingly to yawning, squirming infant Iris Paintbrush Sunrise. There was toddler Oliver “Ollie” Hastings, intently pestering his big sister, Gwendolyn “Wendy” Leslie, who clearly couldn’t decide whether to be annoyed or amused by his mischievous misbehavior. There were Meggan Foxxx and April Alice Apple, clinking their wine coolers in a toast and waving at Bettie to join them. And there he was, the Whirling Dervish of a loincloth-clad living light show himself.
>
> Dreamcatcher Kokopelli Foxglove danced around the campfire like time flowed differently for him, and for those moments of movement, it somehow did. As the Moby remix of The Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony” pounded and soared from nearby portable stereo speakers, Dream spun around the flickering flames in slow-motion, his day-glo yellow body leaving similarly colored trails of light in his wake, tangible enough that Griff could actually smear them with the tip of his finger. They tasted like banana popsicles on his tongue, and the tears that spilled from Dream’s cheeks, when his head whipped around dizzily, hung as rounded droplets in the air behind him, as he shaped the light trails he made by sweeping his arms wildly and broadly in complex, unpredictable patterns, impossibly sculpting his internal sunshine with nothing more than his mad, manic, willful willpower.
>
> After all the feats of sheer impossibility he and his friends had accomplished, Dream was feeling promethean as hell, and this reality-defying display was the least he could do to express it. He wanted to vandalize the whole world with the graffiti of his defiant smiles, and shatter its fragile-as-glass remaining rules with his triumphant laughter.
>
> He was laughing and crying all at once, because in spite of all the death, despair and destruction he’d witnessed, and fought and failed to prevent, the Parody War marked the most fun he’d ever had and the happiest he’d ever been in his life, and in spite of his considerable imagination, even he couldn’t imagine how this day could possibly get any better, until Bettie and April approached him.
>
> “What would you say,” Bettie bit her lower lip, until April elbowed her to continue, “to a marriage in the William Moulton Marston mold?”
>
> Dream halted his performance with a wobbling stance, his afterimages taking a few seconds to catch up with him, and gaped at the implications. “You’re sure?” he had to ask April.
>
> “You’re my guy, and I’m your gal,” April asserted, “but this way, we both get a gal on the side,” she slung an arm around Bettie’s waist, a gesture which she soon returned.
>
> And with that, he took them both by their hands and pulled them into the dance anew.





Visionary


 Subject: Well, I never knew that about him. You learn a lot from Wikipedia. [Re: CrazySugarFreakBoy!]
Posted Mon Sep 03, 2007 at 12:40:34 am EDT (Viewed 3 times)

Posted with Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.6 on Windows XP


Some interesting stuff at play here, especially (to me) the line about how the Parody War was the best time of Dream's life. Considering that he was leader of the LL for a good chunk of that time, it's rather interesting. He definitely seems to have matured recently as a result of all of his transformations.

Of course, judging by the ending of the story, some things never quite change...






CrazySugarFreakBoy!


Member Since: Sun Jan 04, 2004
Posts: 1,235
 Subject: I thought everyone knew that. [Re: Visionary]
Posted Mon Sep 03, 2007 at 01:41:01 am EDT (Viewed 440 times)

Posted with Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 on Windows XP

The man was such a pimp, he's one of my patron saints.

> Some interesting stuff at play here, especially (to me) the line about how the Parody War was the best time of Dream's life.
Metafiction ahoy. Part of that is me, as an author, acknowledging that the SR 1066 and Parody War arcs pushed me to evolve Dream's character more than I ever had, which means that I kind of owe a debt to those stories. The other part of that is me, as a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom, acknowledging that - in spite of the terrible tragedy that necessitated it, and the not-insignificant hardships that I endured during it - my participation in the War Against Terror was remarkably fulfilling and ... well, fun (as fucked up as that probably sounds, there's simply no other word for it). There's something undeniably viscerally appealing about having an enemy who's just plain unquestionably Wrong, and I'll admit it; when we were bombing those Evil Taliban pigfuckers back into the Stone Age, in a way, I was literally having the time of my life.

> Considering that he was leader of the LL for a good chunk of that time, it's rather interesting. He definitely seems to have matured recently as a result of all of his transformations.
As a superhero, he's gone from a kid living his dream to a mouthy iconoclastic instigator to a head-trippy philosopher to a husband and father, without ever fully giving up being any of those things.

> Of course, judging by the ending of the story, some things never quite change...
In one sense, it's quite a big change, but, yeah ...



Anime Jason 

Owner

Location: Here
Member Since: Sun Sep 12, 2004
Posts: 2,834
 Subject: I should have anticipated that ending by now. [Re: CrazySugarFreakBoy!]
Posted Mon Sep 03, 2007 at 09:28:11 am EDT (Viewed 422 times)


anime.mangacool.net (10.0.255.1)
using Apple Safari 3.0.3 on MacOS X (0.4 points)


By the way, as a side note to what you said to Visionary:  Dream has changed a whole lot.  That's partly why after that one "encounter", Lara Night has switched to being friends with him instead.  There's kind of a sad reason, actually - it's because his playful, childish nature appealed to her, and now circumstances have made him much more serious so she only gets glimpses of that child within.  She has a childlike, playful side too, but she's reluctant to share it most of the time.







ag


Location: Southwest US
Member Since: Sun Sep 02, 2007
Posts: 326
 Subject: I didn't know he could do that. [Re: CrazySugarFreakBoy!]
Posted Mon Sep 03, 2007 at 09:47:16 am EDT (Viewed 411 times)

Posted with Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 on Windows XP


The color thing, that is. I already knew his kinky depraved sex desires.
But that after image thing is cool. Also, I liked Louis and Bette's conversation.





Scott NIGHT CHILDREN: THE BLOG. Come see!
ag


Location: Southwest US
Member Since: Sun Sep 02, 2007
Posts: 326
 Subject: Wait. Knew what about who? [Re: Visionary]
Posted Mon Sep 03, 2007 at 09:49:50 am EDT (Viewed 465 times)

Posted with Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 on Windows XP


>
> Some interesting stuff at play here, especially (to me) the line about how the Parody War was the best time of Dream's life. Considering that he was leader of the LL for a good chunk of that time, it's rather interesting. He definitely seems to have matured recently as a result of all of his transformations.
>
> Of course, judging by the ending of the story, some things never quite change...
>
>





Scott NIGHT CHILDREN: THE BLOG. Come see!
Visionary


 Subject: The creator of Wonder Woman apparently lived in a polygamous relationship. [Re: ag]
Posted Mon Sep 03, 2007 at 01:00:24 pm EDT

Posted with Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.6 on Windows XP

>
> >
> > Some interesting stuff at play here, especially (to me) the line about how the Parody War was the best time of Dream's life. Considering that he was leader of the LL for a good chunk of that time, it's rather interesting. He definitely seems to have matured recently as a result of all of his transformations.
> >
> > Of course, judging by the ending of the story, some things never quite change...
> >
> >
>





CrazySugarFreakBoy!


Member Since: Sun Jan 04, 2004
Posts: 1,235
 Subject: And after he died, his widow and his girlfriend lived in a monogamous relationship with each other. :) [Re: Visionary]
Posted Mon Sep 03, 2007 at 04:43:12 pm EDT (Viewed 458 times)

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CrazySugarFreakBoy!


Member Since: Sun Jan 04, 2004
Posts: 1,235
 Subject: It's not a consistent ability. [Re: ag]
Posted Mon Sep 03, 2007 at 05:03:16 pm EDT (Viewed 466 times)

Posted with Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 on Windows XP

But I liked the visual of it, so I figured I could incorporate it as a one-off thing. He's made out of impossibility, after all.
> The color thing, that is. I already knew his kinky depraved sex desires.
Heh, yeah. Expect a sequel to that development, dutifully labeled as Not Safe For Work (or Scott, probably).
> But that after image thing is cool. Also, I liked Louis and Bette's conversation.
She lived in "Neverland," so even setting aside the differences between Faerie in the Parodyverse and Neverland in the Disney version of Peter Pan, I figured there might be some culture shock, since the only "Indians" she'd met before were basically Dreamland versions of them, rather than Native Americans in the real world. I still think Peter Pan is a great Disney film, but you definitely have to be willing to forgive its ... less than sensitive portrayals of Indians.



CrazySugarFreakBoy!


Member Since: Sun Jan 04, 2004
Posts: 1,235
 Subject: I don't think ... [Re: Anime Jason]
Posted Mon Sep 03, 2007 at 05:08:54 pm EDT (Viewed 460 times)

Posted with Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 on Windows XP

... He's lost his playful or childish sides, as much as he's gained a collection of other character traits to accompany them. His daughter certainly enjoys his ability to be childish, after all, and before too long, both Bettie and April will be playing with him together. ;\)



CrazySugarFreakBoy!


Member Since: Sun Jan 04, 2004
Posts: 1,235
 Subject: HA ha! [Re: Mr. Epitome]
Posted Mon Sep 03, 2007 at 05:15:00 pm EDT (Viewed 480 times)

Posted with Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 on Windows XP






ag


Location: Southwest US
Member Since: Sun Sep 02, 2007
Posts: 326
 Subject: Why is the red man red? [Re: CrazySugarFreakBoy!]
Posted Tue Sep 04, 2007 at 12:15:24 am EDT (Viewed 415 times)

Posted with Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 on Windows XP


> > But that after image thing is cool. Also, I liked Louis and Bette's conversation.
> She lived in "Neverland," so even setting aside the differences between Faerie in the Parodyverse and Neverland in the Disney version of Peter Pan, I figured there might be some culture shock, since the only "Indians" she'd met before were basically Dreamland versions of them, rather than Native Americans in the real world. I still think Peter Pan is a great Disney film, but you definitely have to be willing to forgive its ... less than sensitive portrayals of Indians.

Man, every time the kids play that movie, I just cringe at how lamely biggoted it is.
Sheesh.





Scott NIGHT CHILDREN: THE BLOG. Come see!
Anime Jason 

Owner

Location: Here
Member Since: Sun Sep 12, 2004
Posts: 2,834
 Subject: I'm crazy? [Re: CrazySugarFreakBoy!]
Posted Tue Sep 04, 2007 at 01:54:42 pm EDT (Viewed 433 times)


anime.mangacool.net (10.0.255.1)
using Apple Safari 3.0.3 on MacOS X (0.08 points)

> ... He's lost his playful or childish sides, as much as he's gained a collection of other character traits to accompany them. His daughter certainly enjoys his ability to be childish, after all, and before too long, both Bettie and April will be playing with him together. ;\)

I don't think he lost it either.  I do think he isn't exhibiting that reckless playful side all the time and more because he can't.  Being thrown into a role of leadership when Hatty disappeared, having children and a wife to worry about and protect (i.e. he can't "not care" if someone threatens him because now it puts his family in danger too).  I wouldn't say it's enough to turn him serious, just that he's not as carefree and reckless as he was.

The good part to that is maybe he'll see Hatty's point of view more often so they won't have a fight like that last one.






CrazySugarFreakBoy!


Member Since: Sun Jan 04, 2004
Posts: 1,235
 Subject: As long as you can accept it as an artifact of its time, it's not quite as bad, but yeah ... [Re: ag]
Posted Tue Sep 04, 2007 at 09:20:10 pm EDT (Viewed 443 times)

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Hatman


 Subject: Great stuff! [Re: CrazySugarFreakBoy!]
Posted Wed Sep 05, 2007 at 12:23:32 am EDT (Viewed 431 times)

Posted with Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.6 on MacOS X

I particularly liked the image of Dream leaving colourful trails as he danced around the fire, much like you can write your name in the air with a burning stick.

I also liked how Dream stated he had just had the most fun of his life. Since he loves being a superhero so much, and since he just survived one of the most epic battles ever (though I suspect he would have enjoyed it even if he died during it) it makes a lot of sense, even if Dream himself doesn't. \:\)

Nicely done

~Hat~




CrazySugarFreakBoy!


Member Since: Sun Jan 04, 2004
Posts: 1,235
 Subject: Thanks. :) [Re: Hatman]
Posted Wed Sep 05, 2007 at 01:46:28 am EDT (Viewed 430 times)

Posted with Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 on Windows XP

And good to have you back. \:\)

> I particularly liked the image of Dream leaving colourful trails as he danced around the fire, much like you can write your name in the air with a burning stick.
That was a visual inspiration for the scene, I must admit. I've been meaning to include a "Dream does a mad shaman dance around a campire" scene for a while now.
> I also liked how Dream stated he had just had the most fun of his life. Since he loves being a superhero so much, and since he just survived one of the most epic battles ever (though I suspect he would have enjoyed it even if he died during it) it makes a lot of sense, even if Dream himself doesn't. \:\)
See my comments to Vizh about this. Even in real life, there can be incredibly schizophrenic reactions to tragedy and the responses to it.



Al B. Harper - enjoyed the story


 Subject: Well, I didn't even know who he was...shame on me. [Re: CrazySugarFreakBoy!]
Posted Wed Sep 05, 2007 at 05:43:26 am EDT

Posted with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP

> Dance Dance Revolution (Tie-In to http://www.chillwater.plus.com/HH/hhstories/untold%20tales%20of%20ll%20321.htm">Untold Conclusive Tales of the Parody War #321: The Winner)
>
> Under an unfamiliar night sky of multicolored neon-tinged nebulae, the campfires, chants and other lights and sounds of the celebration in the Spokane Indian Reservation carried on into the hours that blur the lines between late evening and early morning, peppering the otherwise dark and untouched surrounding landscape of thick forests, jagged peaks and stark plains with beacons of bright, loud joy, as tribal members treated guests of all colors, creeds and species to an ecstatic experience in the truest sense, their songs, dances, meals and stories all swirling together to saturate and transcend the senses.
>
> “They’ve started calling it Dreamland,” Sheriff Louis Laughing Fox, of the Spokane Tribal Police, informed his son’s most recently arrived guests. “It’s one of the areas of our tribal reservation where we let the refugees from, and conscientious objectors to, the Obedience Brands set up a Temporary Autonomous Zone, and it’s where enough of them asked to stick around that our tribal council decided to let them, at least for a while longer, provided they keep care of the area, and provided I keep an eye on them.” He sighed ruefully. “Those bastards managed to rope me into serving as a tribal elder after all.”
>
> “I must say, it’s all a bit different from the Indian camps I visited in Faerie,” Elisabeth “Bettie” Barrie blinked at the veritable carnival of glow sticks, fire-twirlers, rave fashions, black-light paints, and multiply pierced and tattooed bodies.
>
> “Yeah, don’t greet any of us redskins by asking to ‘smoke-um peace pipe,’” Louis snorted.
>
> “You mean, you people don’t tend to respond to social faux pas by threatening to burn us palefaces at the stake?” Bettie deadpanned. “Well, that’s my worldview shattered, then.”
>
> The corners of Louis’ flinty eyes and otherwise straight line of a mouth twitched and crinkled in what passed for a grin of wry humor with him. “I can see why he likes you.”
>
> Bettie averted her eyes for the first time from his steely gaze. “I’m sure I don’t know whom you mean,” she lied, then shook her head. “Anyhow, if you could just point us in the proper direction, my … date for this affair is anxious to check in with his sister.”
>
> Louis squinted appraisingly at Griffin, who clutched Bettie’s hand protectively in response. “Sure,” he finally nodded. “Her and the other English girl insisted on babysitting my granddaughter, so they’ll probably be fussing with her with the rest of the family … including him whom you’re sure you don’t know likes you, apparently.”
>
> Even as Louis was called away by his “other girlfriend,” a similarly middle-aged Arab woman (she wondered, not for the first time, at the preponderance of men in polygamous relationships, among the social circles of so-called “super-heroes”), he advised Bettie to “head for the light show,” and sure enough, that’s where she found them. There were Naari Magweed and Samantha Featherstone, tending lovingly to yawning, squirming infant Iris Paintbrush Sunrise. There was toddler Oliver “Ollie” Hastings, intently pestering his big sister, Gwendolyn “Wendy” Leslie, who clearly couldn’t decide whether to be annoyed or amused by his mischievous misbehavior. There were Meggan Foxxx and April Alice Apple, clinking their wine coolers in a toast and waving at Bettie to join them. And there he was, the Whirling Dervish of a loincloth-clad living light show himself.
>
> Dreamcatcher Kokopelli Foxglove danced around the campfire like time flowed differently for him, and for those moments of movement, it somehow did. As the Moby remix of The Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony” pounded and soared from nearby portable stereo speakers, Dream spun around the flickering flames in slow-motion, his day-glo yellow body leaving similarly colored trails of light in his wake, tangible enough that Griff could actually smear them with the tip of his finger. They tasted like banana popsicles on his tongue, and the tears that spilled from Dream’s cheeks, when his head whipped around dizzily, hung as rounded droplets in the air behind him, as he shaped the light trails he made by sweeping his arms wildly and broadly in complex, unpredictable patterns, impossibly sculpting his internal sunshine with nothing more than his mad, manic, willful willpower.
>
> After all the feats of sheer impossibility he and his friends had accomplished, Dream was feeling promethean as hell, and this reality-defying display was the least he could do to express it. He wanted to vandalize the whole world with the graffiti of his defiant smiles, and shatter its fragile-as-glass remaining rules with his triumphant laughter.
>
> He was laughing and crying all at once, because in spite of all the death, despair and destruction he’d witnessed, and fought and failed to prevent, the Parody War marked the most fun he’d ever had and the happiest he’d ever been in his life, and in spite of his considerable imagination, even he couldn’t imagine how this day could possibly get any better, until Bettie and April approached him.
>
> “What would you say,” Bettie bit her lower lip, until April elbowed her to continue, “to a marriage in the William Moulton Marston mold?”
>
> Dream halted his performance with a wobbling stance, his afterimages taking a few seconds to catch up with him, and gaped at the implications. “You’re sure?” he had to ask April.
>
> “You’re my guy, and I’m your gal,” April asserted, “but this way, we both get a gal on the side,” she slung an arm around Bettie’s waist, a gesture which she soon returned.
>
> And with that, he took them both by their hands and pulled them into the dance anew.





HH


 Subject: I think you've managed to define one of the enduring visual moments of the Parody War with your dance description. [Re: CrazySugarFreakBoy!]
Posted Wed Sep 05, 2007 at 11:08:29 am EDT

Posted with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 on Windows 2000

> Dance Dance Revolution (Tie-In to http://www.chillwater.plus.com/HH/hhstories/untold%20tales%20of%20ll%20321.htm">Untold Conclusive Tales of the Parody War #321: The Winner)
>
> Under an unfamiliar night sky of multicolored neon-tinged nebulae, the campfires, chants and other lights and sounds of the celebration in the Spokane Indian Reservation carried on into the hours that blur the lines between late evening and early morning, peppering the otherwise dark and untouched surrounding landscape of thick forests, jagged peaks and stark plains with beacons of bright, loud joy, as tribal members treated guests of all colors, creeds and species to an ecstatic experience in the truest sense, their songs, dances, meals and stories all swirling together to saturate and transcend the senses.
>
> “They’ve started calling it Dreamland,” Sheriff Louis Laughing Fox, of the Spokane Tribal Police, informed his son’s most recently arrived guests. “It’s one of the areas of our tribal reservation where we let the refugees from, and conscientious objectors to, the Obedience Brands set up a Temporary Autonomous Zone, and it’s where enough of them asked to stick around that our tribal council decided to let them, at least for a while longer, provided they keep care of the area, and provided I keep an eye on them.” He sighed ruefully. “Those bastards managed to rope me into serving as a tribal elder after all.”
>
> “I must say, it’s all a bit different from the Indian camps I visited in Faerie,” Elisabeth “Bettie” Barrie blinked at the veritable carnival of glow sticks, fire-twirlers, rave fashions, black-light paints, and multiply pierced and tattooed bodies.
>
> “Yeah, don’t greet any of us redskins by asking to ‘smoke-um peace pipe,’” Louis snorted.
>
> “You mean, you people don’t tend to respond to social faux pas by threatening to burn us palefaces at the stake?” Bettie deadpanned. “Well, that’s my worldview shattered, then.”
>
> The corners of Louis’ flinty eyes and otherwise straight line of a mouth twitched and crinkled in what passed for a grin of wry humor with him. “I can see why he likes you.”
>
> Bettie averted her eyes for the first time from his steely gaze. “I’m sure I don’t know whom you mean,” she lied, then shook her head. “Anyhow, if you could just point us in the proper direction, my … date for this affair is anxious to check in with his sister.”
>
> Louis squinted appraisingly at Griffin, who clutched Bettie’s hand protectively in response. “Sure,” he finally nodded. “Her and the other English girl insisted on babysitting my granddaughter, so they’ll probably be fussing with her with the rest of the family … including him whom you’re sure you don’t know likes you, apparently.”
>
> Even as Louis was called away by his “other girlfriend,” a similarly middle-aged Arab woman (she wondered, not for the first time, at the preponderance of men in polygamous relationships, among the social circles of so-called “super-heroes”), he advised Bettie to “head for the light show,” and sure enough, that’s where she found them. There were Naari Magweed and Samantha Featherstone, tending lovingly to yawning, squirming infant Iris Paintbrush Sunrise. There was toddler Oliver “Ollie” Hastings, intently pestering his big sister, Gwendolyn “Wendy” Leslie, who clearly couldn’t decide whether to be annoyed or amused by his mischievous misbehavior. There were Meggan Foxxx and April Alice Apple, clinking their wine coolers in a toast and waving at Bettie to join them. And there he was, the Whirling Dervish of a loincloth-clad living light show himself.
>
> Dreamcatcher Kokopelli Foxglove danced around the campfire like time flowed differently for him, and for those moments of movement, it somehow did. As the Moby remix of The Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony” pounded and soared from nearby portable stereo speakers, Dream spun around the flickering flames in slow-motion, his day-glo yellow body leaving similarly colored trails of light in his wake, tangible enough that Griff could actually smear them with the tip of his finger. They tasted like banana popsicles on his tongue, and the tears that spilled from Dream’s cheeks, when his head whipped around dizzily, hung as rounded droplets in the air behind him, as he shaped the light trails he made by sweeping his arms wildly and broadly in complex, unpredictable patterns, impossibly sculpting his internal sunshine with nothing more than his mad, manic, willful willpower.
>
> After all the feats of sheer impossibility he and his friends had accomplished, Dream was feeling promethean as hell, and this reality-defying display was the least he could do to express it. He wanted to vandalize the whole world with the graffiti of his defiant smiles, and shatter its fragile-as-glass remaining rules with his triumphant laughter.
>
> He was laughing and crying all at once, because in spite of all the death, despair and destruction he’d witnessed, and fought and failed to prevent, the Parody War marked the most fun he’d ever had and the happiest he’d ever been in his life, and in spite of his considerable imagination, even he couldn’t imagine how this day could possibly get any better, until Bettie and April approached him.
>
> “What would you say,” Bettie bit her lower lip, until April elbowed her to continue, “to a marriage in the William Moulton Marston mold?”
>
> Dream halted his performance with a wobbling stance, his afterimages taking a few seconds to catch up with him, and gaped at the implications. “You’re sure?” he had to ask April.
>
> “You’re my guy, and I’m your gal,” April asserted, “but this way, we both get a gal on the side,” she slung an arm around Bettie’s waist, a gesture which she soon returned.
>
> And with that, he took them both by their hands and pulled them into the dance anew.






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