MSTed: The Seven Stars, Chapter 2 (Part 2 of Many)

[Kevin Mowery]

Hmmm...
Maybe it had been Sammy. After all, Sammy was enough of an instigator
to rub some salt into my wounds, and he definitely could imitate
Zaar's voice fairly well, and... and...
Who the hell is "Zaar?"

CROW: Who the hell is anyone in this story?

Distant thunder crashed. An invisible rat seemed to tap-claw-dance up
my spine.

TOM, MIKE, CROW: Ben!
TOM: Oh please oh please oh please.

Something, some alien, searing force, seemed to suck my face towards
the mirror.
"No way..." I mumbled, shaking my head spastically from side to side
like Eddie Vedder at the end of the "Jeremy" video.

TOM: An analogy that will haunt me to my grave.
CROW: Just that one?

"I'm not gonna look," I promised
myself as I turned away from the waiting mirror by sheer force of
will. "At least," I snorted, feeling ridiculous, "I'm not gonna look
till it's time to see the hate in my eyes give me away..."

MIKE: That line sounds awfully familiar.

Too damned much for one day. And too damned many song lyrics floating
around up in that oatmeal brain of mine...

TOM: I know! I'll write down other people's song lyrics and call it a
novel!

Laughing nervously, a sound like a muffled cough issued from my
throat. Poor Sammy. I wondered how loudly I had screamed this time.
Bad enough that my nightmares were jeopardizing my relationship with
Samantha, but my roommate Sammy didn't have anywhere else to go to
avoid the noise.
Quickly tying off a handy black silk kimono around my waist,

CROW: Bought in 1974.

I crept out of the bathroom, flicking off the light in afterthought,
then made my way to the bedroom door. I carefully opened the bedroom
door, stepped out stealthily, then closed the door as quietly as I
could manage,

MIKE: STOMP STOMP STOMP SLAM!

still hoping that I had not awakened my poor roommate yet
again.
Then, another dose of Reality vs. Surreality: I turned, suddenly
staring into the half-light of the creepy old hallway, and red light
filled my left eye...

TOM: It was an aneurysm. The end.

heknowsheknowsheknows...

CROW: But does *he* know he knows he knows he knows?
MIKE: Knows what?
CROW: <suspicious> I don't know.
TOM: <rimshot>
"Shit!" I yelped in instant, paranoid disbelief. Then I blinked,
despite my wide-eyed fear-response, as the laser-light from Sammy's
Glock nine mike

MIKE: What?

-mike

MIKE: What?

filled my left eye (and probably burnt a hole in my contact lens, too,
in the process of blinding me).

CROW: Maybe they'll rot out faster that way.

"Shit and double-shit!" Sammy squeaked right back at me in his best
Curly Howard voice, which was very good, for it was entirely natural.

TOM: Oh, he must be a *joy* to live with.
CROW: <Curly> Who forgot to flush? Nyuk nyuk nyuk.

"What are ya tryin' to do, Logan?" Sammy whispered excitedly. "Scare
me to an Edgar Allen Poe premature burial or something?"

MIKE: The author displays his superficial knowledge of the classics of
literature.

Sammy, my dull brain noted.

TOM: I'm glad *he* said it.
CROW: No you're not.

At least it wasn't
Curly, for chrissakes...

CROW: It would have broken the hearts of Curly fans everywhere to see
him in this story.

The red haze left my eye as Sammy Joseph—all four-feet and some-odd
inches of him—rattled his Glock in his hands with a nervous-sounding
snik-snik-snik.

TOM: Is that sound coming from the Glock or Sammy?
MIKE: Maybe it's coming from Sammy's hands.

Then he cleared his throat. "Another one, huh?" he stated flatly.

CROW: "That's three nights in a row," he asked.

"As if Saturday morning
and Sunday morning weren't enough. Now you've added Monday morning
into the mix. I can almost hear that silly old song right now:
'Monday, Monday—blah-blah, blah-blah-blah-blah...'"

TOM: I almost know <hysterical shouting> WHAT THE HELL YOU'RE TALKING
ABOUT!
MIKE: Ah, the lyrical genius of Kurt Cobain.

Sammy's voice, normally lively and lilting,

TOM: Oh, so he sounds like a *lilting* Curly Howard.

sounded like the canned, tinny music from an AM radio to my
dream-blasted ears. There were, however, no deranged farm-animal
noises from him, which was a welcome relief.

CROW: I think we've stumbled into an aspect of their personal lives
I'd rather not think about.

A tense moment followed as we
eyed each other through the gloom, the pale half-light of the creepy
hallway our only source of light now that his laser-sighting was out
of my eye. Maybe I wouldn't get glaucoma after all.

MIKE: Or maybe I would. It's only incidental to the story.

"Yep," I finally said. "You got it, Sammy. And this time I got a
couple of new names, not just shadows and weird noises. They—whoever
the hell 'They' are—obviously aren't content to leave it at just
shadowy figures and gruff voices," or at calling me 'VoidSpawn,' which
was just wicked enough to sound cool by me,

TOM: Since I am 15.

I didn't say aloud. No
need to blow Sammy's mind any more than necessary. "This time somebody
called me 'Tatternorn,'" I admitted, the very name itself sounding too
familiar to keep at bay any longer. "And that scares the living hell
out of me."

CROW: I'm easily frightened by random combinations of syllables.

Sammy smiled at this, his teeth flickering in the dim light.

MIKE: Sammy's teeth had a short?

I heard a soft thunk from the floor as he lowered the tip of what had
to be his katana in order to holster his pistol in his shoulder-rig.

TOM: He's been talking to the guy for five minutes, can see him smile,
but can only tell by sound that the guy's carrying a samurai sword?
MIKE: Must be glaucoma.

TO BE CONTINUED....

--The MST3K characters are copyrighted by Best Brains, Inc. The text
of the novel is copyrighted by Nova Eth publishing or Todd King or
whoever. No infringement is intended.

[Nick Van]

Kevin Mowery wrote:
>

Snipped much good stuff, and bad...

> TO BE CONTINUED....
>
> --The MST3K characters are copyrighted by Best Brains, Inc. The text
> of the novel is copyrighted by Nova Eth publishing or Todd King or
> whoever. No infringement is intended.

Excellent job Kevin!

Does anyone know the significance of thge Title Seven Stars? Why seven?
Other than it's possible alliterative meaning? Does the band have seven
members and are thus seven rock stars? Is there some mythical guiding
light in the heavens? Or did they have to toss in a few more flaming
balls of gas because they had extra?

[Bridget Farace]

Nick Van wrote:
>
> Kevin Mowery wrote:
> >
>
> Snipped much good stuff, and bad...
>

> > TO BE CONTINUED....
> >
> > --The MST3K characters are copyrighted by Best Brains, Inc. The text
> > of the novel is copyrighted by Nova Eth publishing or Todd King or
> > whoever. No infringement is intended.
>

> Excellent job Kevin!
>
> Does anyone know the significance of thge Title Seven Stars? Why seven?
> Other than it's possible alliterative meaning? Does the band have seven
> members and are thus seven rock stars? Is there some mythical guiding
> light in the heavens? Or did they have to toss in a few more flaming
> balls of gas because they had extra?

Here's the answer. In the currency system in SenZar,
the coin which is approximately equivalent to the U.S. quarter
is called the Star. I believe it's a silver coin. At one point,
the seven heroes in the book were named the Seven Stars by a
ruler who sort of coerced them into defending the local populace and
running errands and doing heroic tasks for him. It was meant to be
derogatory, insinuating that the whole lot of them were only worth
a Star (a quarter) each. I believe that's how the book, the Seven Stars
explains it, though it gets explained in a chapter that hasn't been
MSTed yet.

Bridget Farace

[use...@mail.state.wi.us]

Bridget Farace wrote:
>
> Nick Van wrote:
> >
> > Kevin Mowery wrote:
> > >
> >
> > Snipped much good stuff, and bad...
> >

> > > TO BE CONTINUED....
> > >
> > > --The MST3K characters are copyrighted by Best Brains, Inc. The text
> > > of the novel is copyrighted by Nova Eth publishing or Todd King or
> > > whoever. No infringement is intended.
> >

> > Excellent job Kevin!
> >
> > Does anyone know the significance of thge Title Seven Stars? Why seven?
> > Other than it's possible alliterative meaning? Does the band have seven
> > members and are thus seven rock stars? Is there some mythical guiding
> > light in the heavens? Or did they have to toss in a few more flaming
> > balls of gas because they had extra?
> Here's the answer. In the currency system in SenZar,
> the coin which is approximately equivalent to the U.S. quarter
> is called the Star. I believe it's a silver coin. At one point,
> the seven heroes in the book were named the Seven Stars by a
> ruler who sort of coerced them into defending the local populace and
> running errands and doing heroic tasks for him. It was meant to be
> derogatory, insinuating that the whole lot of them were only worth
> a Star (a quarter) each. I believe that's how the book, the Seven Stars
> explains it, though it gets explained in a chapter that hasn't been
> MSTed yet.
>
> Bridget Farace

Aha! Well thank you Bridget, I guess I didn't manage to get far enough
in the book to find out that there are in fact seven heroes.

[Carl Perkins]

use...@mail.state.wi.us writes...

}Bridget Farace wrote:
}> the coin which is approximately equivalent to the U.S. quarter
}> is called the Star. I believe it's a silver coin. At one point,
}> the seven heroes in the book were named the Seven Stars by a
}> ruler who sort of coerced them into defending the local populace and
}> running errands and doing heroic tasks for him. It was meant to be
}> derogatory, insinuating that the whole lot of them were only worth
}> a Star (a quarter) each. I believe that's how the book, the Seven Stars
}> explains it, though it gets explained in a chapter that hasn't been
}> MSTed yet.
}>
}> Bridget Farace
}
}Aha! Well thank you Bridget, I guess I didn't manage to get far enough
}in the book to find out that there are in fact seven heroes.

It has heroes?

--- Carl