h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*Minoova puts stew, plates, cutlery and linens on table*
*Lil gets garlic bread out and brings it out along with her Y of champagne*
*lights candles*
Come on everyone, dinner's ready, 2100 my time, as advertised. How many are we?

Present!

And l.

And Looney's wandered into the guest room where he's got a TV. That's all right, it's a cast iron stew pot, so the food will keep hot.
Assayons-nous. *sits, takes food, and passes it around*

*sits down with her Y, masterfully restrains herself from playing with the candle flames*

*knowing she's among friends, fixes herself a plate, takes into kitchen where she wraps it in foil and places it into the fridge*

I know you won't take it personally, but my eyes just won't stay open any longer. Enjoy dinner and I'll see you tomorrow.

*heads down the stairs and towards home*

'Night, Witty.

*serves self plateful of stew, allowing it to cool slightly, while casting longing looks at the garlic bread*
Ah well.
The stew looks wonderful

So what have you been working on all day, Lil? Billy again?

Billy again *talking with mouth full* Wrapping the bread in foil and heating it makes the crust go soft and melts the butter and I won't notice if you just eat the inside.

Today was so weird. Painter trashed my work, the palettes got totally screwed up, even on the stuff I had saved. I wound up downloading the latest patch, re-installing Painter, applying the patch, and then opening the image from scratch.

But this time I just sat and looked at it. And this time I realised I was looking at the ghost of a sash with a star pattern hand-stitched on it and little studs like the bottoms of snaps? I had been treating the snaps as bright spot trash to be rubbed out, which is what I did yesterday. So I never would have identified them properly except that Painter screwed up the work and made me look again. Makes you superstitious, that kind of thing.

Is the swelling going down?

So that explains the earlier references to the snaps and the kidologists. For some odd reason l didn't make the link between the picture and that -- thought it was something completely unrelated. Though l felt a bit silly asking what a kidologist was. ln my mind l wondered if it was some sort of offshoot of Kibology...completely different thing...
What significance will the snaps hold?

The swelling...ah. Actually, no, and l feel quite betrayed, as the oral surgeon led me to believe it would have peaked by now. But my mother enquired about it to an RN friend of hers, who explained that the first forty-eight hours were only the beginning...
lt should start going down soon, though. For the moment, it's back to the icepack for me. Unfortunately said icepack has sprung a leak, and the ordinary kind put too much pressure on the face and wind up hurting more. So after experimenting with duct tape and several other fixes, l've had to resort to a washcloth to staunch the dripping water. l look like l'm wearing a terrycloth ice hockey mask...

*wakes up to smell of hot food*
*bursts out of feathers, quickly washes hans and face*

Hot Food! *climbs on chair and puts hands on table*
*sees Odradek* heh heh hehe Who won the game? heh heh You'll make me fall off the chair you look so funny!

sniff sniff I want some too. Stew, yes. Hot buttery bread.

*ladles out some stew*
We're at a crossover point, Styx. Do you eat here or at the usual place. You're changing, you know. What do you reckon, Odra?

*grins, making sure it is obscured by icepack*

Quiet or l'll drip icecold water on you...*in undertone, trying to look threatening*...or bludgeon you with my stick. Hockey's a violent game, you know...
l take it off to eat, though.

*removes and sets carefully down so it won't make puddle on floor. Gets some (soft) bread, slides some to Styx as well*

Well, what're his table manners like?
No objections here if he's at table...so long as he behaves...

I don't mind, it just takes getting used to, this evolution from created pet to ornery independent researcher.

There is an absolute industry around the history of Billy the Kid. He is an American archetype, right? Peter Pan with guns. So every time somebody uncovers a factoid, like a piece of paper that proves he was in Arizona in 1876, then they are a "made" kidologist. I invented the term though, after having my eyes opened to this the last time I went to NM. I really wasn't ambitious like that, I was just looking for a fair copy of the tintype.

heh heh heh, maybe I'm the ghost of Billy the Kid.
*eats*

So when all of this started, had you any backround in the entire Billy the Kid scene, or has it just all grown in conjunction with the picture?

*tops off Y*
Any more for you, Lil?
*pauses*

Does Styx drink champagne?

*looks hard at Styx*

heh heh I got the wind up the Food Lady
I only drink water.
Good food *jumps off chair, washes*
Odradek! Blood smells old now. Eat chamomile flowers and st. johns wort and sleep a lot.

FLAP-FLAPP!

Well you just don't know with the really fanciful researcher characters. Not that I think any ghosts are registered on h2g2. But this is the perfect environment for people who are so famous that they can't have a conversation in a bar, isn't it. For all I know, you're actually Susan Sarandon. Not you, Styx, Odra.

Oh. I simulposted and he's gone.