1000 Ever After, August 25, 2014

Time for Music Meme 10 Song Roulette!  So much fun, I gotta play it again!  Think I'll use my iTunes this time, though.

And I'll still feature Dyna and company again... but this time I think I'll throw Tetsuko, Dr. Sonya Gannon, Les Safer and Dr. Green in the mix.  Dyna gets priority, of course.

Song 1:  Moonlight Nocturne:  Michiru Yamane, Castlevania:  Symphony of the Night

Les Safer left the mansion, blood on his hands, and a giant weight on his conscience.  He knew he had to do what he had to do.  He still felt like he had just performed a mob hit, though.  True, the creature was technically dead already, and was seeking to make others like itself.  Soulless.  Dead yet walking.  Spirits forfeited for all eternity.

He'd begged his fellow students, don't go there.  Don't go to  party.  Yes, he was slick, charming, handsome, funny, and engaging.  Heck, he actually acted like he liked Les.

But the truth was, this monster had devoured their blood, and probably their souls.

Les had a lot of regrets.  The biggest one was not acting sooner.

Song 2  Rainbow English Track 07

Scott Platt sat at the desk, squinting.  This was a definite challenge, and most probably an impossibility.  True, he'd faced rampaging robots, an undead sorcerer's sea monster, menacing cyber-beings, bio-monsters, and a number of bank robberies.  And he faced them all down with precious little more than a video camera.  True, Dyna the Damsel Dynamo had saved the day more than once, and he recorded it all in living color, HD, and stereo where available.  

But here he was, all alone.  And not even New Vista's amazing amazon protector could help him here or now.

“Lesson one,” the mp3 player said.  “Ni hao ma?  How are you?”

His face and lips strained as he attempted to say the Chinese phrase.

Song 3  “If That Isn't Love”  Weird Al Yankovic

Dyna planted her hands against the stone wall, trying to summon her strength, any strength.  But it was like she was bonded to the surface with super glue.  There was no way she could reach her belt

The young looking man smiled mockingly as he stroked his sparkling navy blue 1970's pirate shirt.  “Oh, please, Dyna.  Wrestle all you like!  It's very inspiring to watch.  Might give me new ideas for my next big hit.”  He leaned in and looked at her straight in the eye.  “Seeing your struggle really stirs something in me.  A burning sensation right in my chest.”

“I got a burning sensation in my chest, too,” she muttered.

“You feel the passion, too?  The desire?”

“No.  Not passion or desire.  It's indigestion.”

“Well, well,” the man said, with a chuckle admitting that crack was funny.  “I've got a revival tour to attend to, a bunch of doe-eyed concert goers to croon to, hearts to capture, and minds to enslave.”  And atop Dyna's head, he plunked a helmet that looked like a cross between a high-tech colander and inverted glass popcorn bowl.

“But I'd like to leave you with a sneak preview listen to this device that's going to turn all New Vista's young girls' brains more so into mush.  You get the full concentrated effect.”  He pressed a button and nausea set in.  Dyna still maintained a defiant glare despite her

His fingers felt a cord that went to a CD player.  “And this device on your pretty little head will work wonders amplifying the sound and effects of this.”  And he flashed a CD:  Garry Lurges' Greatest Romantic Hits.

Dyna's eyes widened in horror.  “Pour lava on me!  Dip me in acid!  Zap me with four thousand volts!  ANYTHING BUT THIS!”

Song 4: “Cuzco” – E.S. Posthumous

Tetsuko sat in the boat, relaxing to the sound of the river water passing by.  She was decidedly out of the familiar, away from anything resembling civilization.  

“Don't worry, T-chan,” Les reassured, “it won't be too much further.”

She sat upright.  “It's okay,” she answered.  “I'm fine.”

“Sorry, you looked bored.”

“No, I'm not,” she protested.  She had to admit, being in the rainforest, all the greenery, the trees, the branches, she expected more signs of animal or human life.  Jungle birds, screeching monkeys.  But it was so quiet.  So peaceful.  So tempting to go to sleep.  And she admitted it was a bit of a temptation to plug into her iPhone and listen to her music.  

But just then, she heard people in the distance.  It was cheering.  The voices were definitely not English or Japanese, or anything resembling what bits of Spanish she knew.  And down the river, she saw a small dock.  Many richly dark tanned people jumped up and called.  A few were singing.  And right there were an older man and woman, each with light skin, waving, smiling, and holding a big sign saying, “!Bienvenido, Tetsuko!”

“Nani?” she wondered.

Les smiled.  “It's okay.  They're family.  And we're home.”

Song 5  “Glabe Glarn” – 4Ever-N-Ever, The Sims Superstar Soundtrack

Scott watched Garry Lurge as he gyrated, twisted, and drew out the melody to his song.  He knew that this wasn't a lip synch.  It was too natural.  But he realized that dancing like that took a lot of energy.  Too much energy.  The singer should've been out of breath by the third song into his set.  But he kept going, doing a split, then apparently pulling himself back up onto his feet.  

And as the stage lights alternated their colors, he saw a light pink laser sweep over the crowd.  Scott wished he had some sort of foil hat like a conspiracy theorist, despite how crazy the notion or look seemed.  But there was something about it that wasn't right.  

Song 6  “I Like Cartoons” – John Bell

The businessman in the darkened office looked out from his corner window across the city skyline.  “Ah,” he said.  “New Vista.  So many people.  So many folks living there.  So many so sad.  So many so hurt.  So many so joyless.  So many so joyless...”

And to punctuate this, a speaker sounded machine gun fire, a woman's short shriek, a crash that sounded like a falling freight container full of pianos smashing against the street, and a Wilhelm scream mixed with a baying dog's howl and yipe-yipe-yipe.

“Well, don't worry, all you unhappy people.  Soon, Uncle Joe Acme will be here.  He's going to wipe all those tears away!”  And he whipped out a ray gun that looked more at home in a Saturday morning cartoon or animated short feature from the early 1950s.  And his smile got so wide, it seemed the top of his head would flip back like a toothpaste tube's cap.

“In fact, New Vista... you're about to become... THE MERRIEST, MOST FUN PLACE ON EARTH!”

Song 7  “Meltdown (At Madame Tussaud's)” – Steve Taylor

Tom Thorndyke looked proudly at his likeness in the wax museum.  He was alongside a bunch of other news broadcast greats.  He was a little put out that he was a little further back than he liked.  He wished a little that he could turn up the thermostat and melt the others down, if there were only one way to preserve his own statue.

But then, looking at Walter Cronkite's form, he noticed the statue was seeming to sweat, to secrete, to... melt?

Then he noticed that the temperature WAS a lot warmer than normal.  And he saw that a lot of other guests were fanning themselves with their souvenir guides and maps.  Pulling out a handkerchief, he mopped the perspiration off his own brow.  Why was the heat going crazy in here?

Then he noticed one young fellow just looking around at the statues and the melting waxworks.  He simply stood there, like nothing was up or going on.  And he had his hand by his hip, with his fingers stretched out, and palm turning around the display like he was recording with an invisible smart phone in secret.

Song 8:  “The Screwtape Letters, part 4 of 6” – narrated by John Cleese

Hugh Gordon slipped on his tights, his ski mask, his cape, his boots, his utility belt, his briefs.  He looked in the mirror and smiled.  He was ready to hit the door, jump in the car, and patrol for whomever he could aid on the roads of this fair city.  And he psyched himself up with a, “Well, citizens, rest ready, and rest assured.  The Highway Guardian is going to be your rear guard and watchkeep!”  And he turned to the front door, keys in hand.

But just as he set one foot out, his phone rang.  It was the cash register ringtone, indicating it was his workplace, Mayo Auto Parts.  Cringing, he took off the ski mask so he could hear it better.  “Hello?”

“Hello, Hugh?  This is Fred at Mayo Auto Parts.  Look, Corey called in sick and I need you to come in to cover for him today.”

Hugh's voice got tight.  “I can do this, sir.  But it'll take me a moment or two to get prepared.  Say an hour?”

“You got thirty minutes.  See you at the store.”  Click.

Hugh clenched his fist.  If he didn't need the paycheck so much... why did he have to be so reliable?  And why did he answer the phone time after time like this?

Song 9  “Neon Pegasus” – Parry Gripp

Dyna flew over New Vista, and the madness that descended over it.  What had been a normal, rational ordinary city had become a crazy, colorful clash of cartoon characters running amok in the streets.  It wouldn't bother her as much if there weren't a bunch of flesh and blood people still around who could still get seriously injured or killed by the storm clouds that were raining anvils all over.  Or Uncle Acme's hench-toons, Billy and Milly, running around with their own ray guns, zapping everyone and everything into new animated versions of themselves.

And the herds of galloping animated ponies?  And the fanboys dropping to their knees in weeping, near religious ecstasy?  The less said about that, the better.

“Halt, white-garbed evildoer!” cried a young teen girl's voice.  And a rainbow wave of light slammed into Dyna, knocking her back like a stormy ocean wave.  After recovering, she blinked and looked forward at the sailor fuku wearing, gold crowned, scepter wielding magical minion.

“Magic Princess Mizuko?!” she exclaimed.

Song 10.  “Wolsik” – Tabu

Johnathan walked down the street.  He had been mocked, belittled, jeered at, and humiliated for the last time.  “I need a heart of stone,” he said.  “I need to get away from everybody.  I need to flash-freeze everything and...”

He was too upset to think clearly.  He wanted to get rid of his frustration, stress, misery, but he knew the Circle didn't trust him with that level of power.  They were afraid that he'd probably burn down all of New Vista if the waiter gave him Diet Pepsi instead of Dr Pepper.

He scowled.  The Circle wasn't any better than the jackwagons at high school.

But then he remembered a quote from a book he'd gleaned from the internet.  He couldn't recall the title, but the quote was something like this.

“The question isn't who's going to let me.  It's who's going to stop me.”

He clenched his fist.  Fine then.  If they weren't going to trust him and give him the secrets to fire and ice, he'd simply take them for himself.

And he looked at the trash can full of paper wrappers and cups, spread out the fingers of his right hand, and pushed the heat from his anger from his heart toward his fingertips and at the base of the garbage....