ref: cde05f4187aed1c77b8efb57ee5dabe8d5d5106d
dir: /troff/012.ms/
\" This master file produces text suitable for a 6"x9" paperback. .ds CH \" turn off page numbering (top) .B .nr HM 1i \" header margin .nr FM 1i \" footer margin .nr LL 4.25i \" line length .pl 9i \" page length .po .87i \" page offset (from left) .nr PS 8 \" font point size \" .kern \" pairwise kerning (groff only) .hy 14 \" automatic hyphenation \" .nr VS 24 \" double space .fp 1 R GA \" URW Garamond .fp 2 I GI .fp 3 B GM .fp 4 BI GMI .fp 5 CW H \" Helvetica .LP \& .nr % 35 \ " start with this page number .ds CF [%] \" first numbered page (bottom) .ps 10 .ce .B RADICAL INDIFFERENCE REDUX \& .ps 8 tags: 1961, Æsir, mancamp, mars2, maude_mold, odin, plinth_mold .R .PP .ps 10 1 October. Later. .PP .ps 10 Initialized by Od's semen, the nascent life form bootstrapping itself on the kitchen floor never made it off of the linoleum. Odin stood transfixed as the rapid movement of his eyes fell into sync with the MIRV lightning uprange. He was still staring out of the window over the kitchen sink when Plinth Mold strolled in, crushing his spent cigarette on the floor, inadvertently (?) aborting Odin's latest offspring, this new \fIáss\fR aborning. .PP .ps 10 Odin remained frozen in time, furiously willing himself to invisibility. It seemed to work. "Azure, two clouds proper, one issuing from sinister chief and one issuing from dexter base, a cubit arm in armour in bend, issuing from the sinister, the hand grasping a branch of olive proper, and three lightning flashes gules," he muttered. Plinth didn't seem to notice as he stepped over the mess and strode casually into the living room. .PP .ps 10 "Where is the child?" he asked Maude, raising an eyebrow at the destroyed PC, but notably not actually raising the subject. If pressed he would have to admit he was unfamiliar with PCs. .PP .ps 10 "Out," Maude said, pawing at the air with a gloved hand as she spoke. Scrolling, he guessed. "Did you hear Jack Northrop has left the planet?" .PP .ps 10 Plinth repaired to their shared bedroom, scene of nigh on infinite crimes, sexual and otherwise, where he opened the wall safe and retrieved a wax cylinder. This he carried out of the room in a brown paper bag, looking like nothing so much as a very rich man condescending to the liquor store on his own, probably owing to some screw\-up with his soon\-to\-be\-former assistant. He lit up another cigarette off the cherry Maude extended with her solitary ungloved hand. .PP .ps 10 He remembered that hand, considered the other uses he'd put it to over the years. .PP .ps 10 Maude seemed distracted, so he left her to it. .PP .ps 10 Quit the apartment.