Fucking fuck shit. I can't remember which DexCon I attended that was a big point in my life. Actually in many lives. It was at that convention that Brian met Deanna. Ronni, Brian and myself met Tim. From there our social and gaming group was established.
Over the years people have come and gone. Ed, the overweight guy who was dating Ronni, had a claim to fame in being a minor character killed off in a Charlie Pellegrino novel. Funny thing, Ronni and Eric were helping him move and they discovered a box of tampons under his bed. No one could shake the image of Ed shoving tampons up his ass during more private moments.
Eric was Ronni's friend and had a crush on her. This guy was almost thirty and I thought he was my age at the time which must've been twenty two or twenty three. He didn't learn how to drive until he was twenty eight and even then he remained high-strung like a toy poodle in a black trenchcoat. His claim to fame was having the largest known collection of Celebrity Sleuth in North Jersey. Plus he always played girl characters in games. Eric's departure is a sad little story. His parents moved to the southwest, leaving Eric behind to fend for himself and hopefully grow up. Eric got a job at WalMart, was banging a chick he met at WalMart, got dumped and moved out to live with his increasingly elderly parents. Brian helped Eric move cross-country.
Everyone in the gaming group suffered under Ed's game mastery. A new guy joined the group, Dave, and he was a breath of fresh air and got things rolling along. Tim was running a game on the side using the HERO System. Later on, Dave's games became increasingly more byzantine and needlessly ruthless. Years later, Dave moved to Staten Island and wasn't heard from again. Last I heard, he was managing a Warner Bros. store at some mall. Funny thing, there's this guy at the McDonalds in downtown Colorado Springs who almost looks like Dave.
Tim. Shit. Great game master. We don't talk much. I believe an unfortunate event based on one of my poor decisions out in Colorado Springs served to disown me from him. He entered our circle of friends and gamers through the same convention DexCon back in 1993 or thereabouts.
Buddha, unlike Eric, ended up being younger than I had expected. A fine game master and a furry. Thank goodness I never saw him in a fursuit or wearing a plush tail. Reckon most of his experience goes no further than gaming or any of his sketches.
Ronni was the center of our gaming group. Whether she was hosting the game or bringing in new gamers like strays asking the rest of the group "Can we keep 'em?". Uncouth, unladylike and tempermental, Ronni was important to the gaming community. She embodied the worst of fandom and only served to make the rest of us better at the end of the day. Thank you.
Brian got me involved with gaming. Beforehand I was on the outside, collecting rulebooks and reading them religiously until I knew them inside-out. Just so happens that Brian is my best friend evar and that's the end of the neverending story. In fact it was through gaming that Brian met his betrothed. Back in the heady days of 1993 at DexCon in colorful Elizabeth, NJ. She was there with her dopey artist boyfriend who was shilling his White Wolf artwork. She entertained herself playing at the Vampire Live Action Role Playing (LARP) event.
Interesting thing about Ty and Stephanie, considering how I portray myself in public, is they are black. Ty hated me, considering me as being weak and only tolerated me due to my connections and because of Stephanie. Stephanie liked me and was always nice to me. Once they got married and moved to someplace in Philadelphia I lost all contact with them. Apparently Tim has remained close with the couple through Star Trek paintball games and conventions.
Lastly and (sadly) leastly, there's Chuck. Back when he was younger and had more hair we would infrequently game at his place. We would pore over tattered copies of D&D sourcebooks, spend entire nights creating characters then attempt to play. After many years, we got back in touch and he became involved in one of the Vampire tabletop games at Diane's place. From what I hear he's currently married and living in south Jersey. I have no idea if he's still involved in the game.
The dream started out with telling raddidge about Cerebus. Each time I related a story, it was always about Cerebus being chased and there being a bounty on his head. The bounty was 100 comic books, your choice, and 99 gold pieces (because back in the olden days, gold was far more valuable than it is today). Later I went upstairs to get dressed. Someone was vacuuming in the hallway and it ends up being her brother. That's when I realize I'm not wearing any clothes.
My adventures take me outside to a city alleyway. Everything's lit by filtered blue-gray sunlight from an overcast sky. raddidge's brother is driving away with his unseen girlfriend and their ginger cat. I'm climbing down a rickety fire escape and turning a corner into a darkened area. Ends up that this area is a dense forest. It's quite nice, long-lived matches are stuck into the ends of hollowed out logs creating lit passages. My unknown destination is a stand of old trees under an impenetrable canopy. The ground is covered with pachysandra and branches are lit up as torches in the little glade.
There's more but the rest is forgotten.
