At first, I was a little disappointed with the lack of comments on the last part of this story ... except for Denitson.  Everybody knows I love him almost as much as he loves me.  In fact, last night I had quite the dream about Mr. D-to-the-Trip-7's (yeah, I dunno ... I just made that up).

And yes, we were naked.  But in our defense, so were chipmunks.

So, I was disappointed about the lack of comments, but then I realized that hell, even *I* wouldn't have commented on that part of the story.  It was filler, and not very exciting filler either.  This one is better.

At any rate, I'm going to get the wristband mailers together tomorrow, so watch for the follow-up video tonight or tomorrow.  Also, I have a quick video I need to do about some channel recommendations and a small run-in I had with some plain bad youtube-etiquette.  It kinda just got me miffed for a bit and resulted in a swift "unsubscribe" on my part.  I'll talk about it later, though.

Finally: Lupine, that's a brilliant idea for Zombie Flu story (he left a comment on the "Zombie FU" post below--read it!).  If you don't write it, well, I won't either, but it'll definitely percolate.

Next chapter of Peter & the Dark Wolf is after the break!

I'm not sure how a day at the carnival can be considered a date when the girl's best friend tags along, but I had reached a point in my transition to the dark lair where I simply didn't care about such trivial matters.

"Only two to a car," the Ferris wheel operator informed us when our turn to travel the circle came up.

Patience (or Joy) looked at me and she had managed to work her face of generic features into some expression resembling disappointment. I quickly decided that it would be a smart idea to fend off any unnecessary interactions.

"You two go ahead," I said, injecting a sense of empathy into my voice and manufacturing an expression that I hoped didn't look too contrived. I had made the decision to return to my dark lair, this much was true, but I still had three days to go, after all.

Patience (or Joy) smiled at me with what passed among the surface-dwellers as warmth. She gave me a quick kiss before climbing into the car with her best friend. I stood solemnly and watched as the wheel rotated and lifted my girlfriend-of-the-week into the sky.

"Sir?"

The ride operator was holding the next car door open for me. Despite my sudden reprieve from enduring the circular wonder that was the Ferris wheel, I found myself having a change of heart. Without Patience (or Joy), the ride would afford me an opportunity to reflect on my imminent return to the dark lair. So it was with an unexpected satisfaction--which had absolutely nothing to do with the ride itself--that I boarded the car, sitting in the middle of the bench and prepared to lose myself in the dark depths of my mind for the duration of the ride.

A woman cleared her throat and I glanced up to see a dark-haired female dressed in black, sporting  crimson-red lipstick. Clearly, she had every intention of joining me on this ride.  A notion which immediately excited me.