EleCivil

Thank ya. Oh, and a quick addition: That's the actual lock on the fence that divides the rich and poor sides of town that inspired this. Nope, I wasn't being metaphorical.

A minute passed when you asked ?Where are you from?? I nodded to the East and said ?Out that way.? Not vague enough, Eyes widened, lip curled, ?You mean just before the fence, But still this side of the gate?? ?No, other side,? Came my reply, ?Where our houses are smaller Than your cars. Where we buy fun by the ounce And love by the hour And there isn?t an inch of iron untouched by Rust Belt standards of slow decay.? ?So how did you get out?? You asked, Leaning forward, hands pressed. ?I never got out, I?m just taking a break. Tell myself I?m content to keep walking, That every square foot to grace my heels Is the top of the world, And I?m spitting over the railing.? ?No,? You interrupted. ?I meant, how did you get out? I thought we kept the gate locked.?

I've only been to three concerts. My first was S.T.U.N., The Start, Coheed and Cambria, and The Used. I can't stand any of these guys except for Coheed, but it was still fun. Second was Weird Al Yankovic. Yeah. I'm a geek. Third was The Bronx, Head Automatica, Piebald, and Thursday. Plan-It-X Fest is coming by my area this summer, so I'll get to that if at all possible. DIY and folk-punk - can't beat that.

That was great. I liked the poems when you posted them separately, but when you put them together, they just...clicked. The meter and rhymes were enough to keep my attention and even get my head nodding, but without ever getting too Doctor-Seussy for my tastes. *Thumbs up*

Great chapter. I like the way you ended it right where you did, rather than including any reactions or futher thoughts. A real edge-of-the-seat kind of thing.

Haha, figures that everyone has some already. Back in the beginning, it was impossible to get one without doing something in return, and now I can't give the things away. But, uh, if you could use 100 more email accounts for some reason...

As you may or may not know, Google has a free email service called Gmail, which offers one gig of storage along with some cool features like sorting, archiving, automated grouping and spam control. However, it's still in beta, so in order to get an account, you need to be invited by someone who already has one. Well, I've got some spare invitations on my account, so if anyone's interested, just post your email address and I'll send you one.

Oh man, part nine was great. I kept going back and reading the end again, thinking "Wait, did what I think just happen...just happen?" Very intense.

Ah, you overestimate me - for a guy who goes around suggesting pistols at dawn, I'm a horrible shot as well. Not really the smartest thing to do, I guess. Add to that the lack of sleep, and I'd probably succeed in defending my honor by noblely liberating my big toe from the rest of my foot. Hmm...maybe I could peg you with a beanbag or something, though. Yeah, that'll work. Beanbags at twenty paces.

James - I know what you mean. I didn't mean to say that I immediately close any book that has drugs in it. When I said that I bailed at drug use, I was talking about excessive/glorified drug use - the ones that just throw in lines like "...and then Bob went home and smoked four joints" as filler, without addressing anything else about the issue. Blue - Thanks for the comments!

Aaron- I just got around to reading it - great job! If/when you write something else, I'll be sure to read it.

Hey, James. Always good to see someone new around here. Them's fightin' words, rhymeslinger. Pistols at dawn it is, then. :smt066 On second thought...nah, I don't want to have to wake up that early. Cancel the duel.

I know what you mean - I've been feeling the same frustration about not writing that part of the story yet. I was originally planning to have Nathan leave about two chapters ago, but stuff just kept happening.

Green's site: http://www.geocities.com/greenmeccatoon/ He actually posted here a while ago. Haven't seen him lately, though.

:-D You have referenced one of my all-time favorite comedies...and I salute you.

Likewise. Iron and Wine, eh? I've heard good things about them, and their cover of Such Great Heights was pretty good...maybe I'll try some more of their stuff.

Hey, loved the new chapter. I can see some major improvement in this one compared to the really early ones - all that practice with the short stories and FCL looks like it paid off. :smt023

To tell you the truth, I came to this thread with Xiu Xiu in mind. They're kind of hit-or-miss for me..."I Love The Valley OH", "Suha", and "I Am The Center of Your World" are cool, but then I'll hit something like "Support Our Troops (Black Angels OH)" and subsequently give up on them for a while. But...you didn't just call them emo, did you? Sorry, pet peeve of mine. Well, Xiu Xiu is really the only "queer music" that I listen to...although I have heard some rumors about The Blood Brothers. I think that's mainly because of their rather flamboyant stage antics and combination of sassy singing and deep moaning, though. I've also heard rumors that they've got super model girlfriends...so you know, nothing really concrete. I'm not sure how much you'd like them, though...post-hardcore is kind of a love it or hate it genre. Since you mentioned that you like folk, here's some bands that you should definitely try out: Bright Eyes - Just released two new albums - one kind of pop/rock-y, and one folk. The new folk album (I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning) is great. I listen to these guys a lot while I write (along with the other bands that this singer/guitarist has been in - Desaparecidos, a political rock band, and Commander Venus, who he was touring with when he was 14). Defiance, Ohio - I already mentioned these guys earlier in the thread. They're acoustic folk-punk, and really fun to listen to. Another band that I listen to while writing. In fact, quite a few of their songs synch up to scenes in Leaves and Lunatics (Most notably "I'm Just Going To Leave", "Sweet Dudes and Sweet Ladies", and "Lullabies"). I posted the link to their site earlier, where you can get all of their songs for free if you're so inclined. And interestingly enough, they're NOT from Defiance, Ohio. Ghost Mice - Another acoustic folk-punk band, this one stressing the DIY-punk principles. A guy and a girl with an acoustic guitar and a violin singing duets about love, death, politics...you know, all that stuff. A lot smoother vocals than Defiance, OH, and with more emphasis on the folk than the punk. They wrote the now semi-infamous punk anthem "Up The Punks".

Yep. Soon, hopefully.

That restroom scene ended differently than I had planned, too, come to think of it. Originally, I had Cam accidentally picking up a marker from the sign-in table at the auditorium (the ones used to fill out those "Hello, my name is..." tags that they always make you wear at things like that) and later on writing a line from one of Nathan's favorite songs on the door of the stall ("Sometimes broken things make the best building supplies"). Decided it'd be better to cut all that and go simple instead. Seemed a bit too sappy, you know? Plus, I didn't want to go through the trouble of getting the copyright information and making a separate disclaimer for use of the lyric.

Well, I have been dropping a few hints toward something...I wonder if that's what you're guessing. You'll have to tell me if you were right after the next few chapters. Heh, that moron scene seems to be a fan favorite - every email I've gotten since chapter 8 has mentioned it. It's kind of funny; I didn't plan for that scene at all, just threw it in as an afterthought. Hm...Now I'm really curious as to what you've guessed. I'd better hurry up and write, then.

Very possible. Myself, I didn't fully come to terms with it until...well, about ten months ago, at 17, after I had graduated high school. Kind of a funny story, really...I was walking down the street, backwards (I'd spent about three solid months walking backwards, "Just because I've spend the last seventeen and a half years looking straight ahead" - weird phase, I'll admit) when this nine year old girl stopped me and asked completely plain-faced, "Hey, are you gay? Not that there's anything wrong with that. I'm not trying to be mean or anything, I'm just wondering." I said something along the lines of "Why would you think I'm gay?" She says "Well, you're always walking around backwards and juggling. It's kind of a rumor that all the kids my age are talking about, 'the backwards gay juggler'. No offense or anything - no one means it as an insult." So of course, I say "No, I'm straight.", but in the back of my mind I'm thinking "Well, look at the facts - you've never had a girlfriend or been attracted to girls, and you ARE attracted to guys. What the hell more proof are you waiting for?" So basically, I went all through high school believing that I was straight...even though I was most definitely not. Maybe that's some kind of defense/survival mechanism in itself - you know for a fact that you'll get kicked out of the house and disowned by your family if you're gay, so you won't let yourself believe it, not even when you're reading gay literature and checking out guys. The thing that got me, though, is the way all the neighborhood kids apparently associate walking backwards and juggling with being gay. I mean, that's not even one of the stereotypes. If we're talking associating "gay" with "different", that's a pretty good indication of where things are going. But on the plus side, it looks like all the kids in the area also look at being gay as not being a bad thing, but just different, so there's a plus.

(Back to the "two mirrors" storyline) Nose-typing seemed possible at first, But then took a turn for the worse. When he tried to hold "shift", One hand-mirror slipped, Hit the ground and to pieces did burst. "Perfect." The typist exclaimed, "Seven years of bad luck on the way. If I'd paid attention To my grammar lessons My life could have turned out okay."

Heh, yeah, I didn't mean to split the storyline like that - AJ's post came while I was still typing mine out, so I didn't see it until I had posted.

The solution, it seemed, would be tough; The ink on his chest not enough. And to have them removed, These rules he'd tattoo'd, Would cost more than he'd make in a month. "Two the bank!" He declared with a start, "Too the bank!" Now with rage in his heart. "To the bank!" Screamed at last, "With a gun and a mask, For the cash to get rid of this art!" But on the way to hold up the bank, He decided against the whole prank. "T'would draw questions in prison And not help my position; With a tattoo like this, I'd get shanked."