aesmael

The weather phased in and out of rain all day.

Lucy pulled the hood of her anorak tighter, glancing briefly up at the mist-shrouded sky. The rain was thickening again, the sky fading. She ducked under a tree, not quite low enough, and for a moment droplets rattled in her ears.

Another quick look showed her the sky was still darkening. Lucy ducked under the fence, really no more than a metal bar meant to keep people like her out of the park, and tried to make a short cut across the corner to Liege St. She was halfway across when the rain came in again, surrounding her. Her foot slipped on grass already slick from earlier and tipped her onto her rear. Water smeared her glasses and dripped into her mouth.

She pushed herself back to her feet, swallowing and wiping grass and soil from her pants. Lucy was careful not to slip again before reaching the opposite corner of the field. The rain continued to thicken, until it would have been almost impossible to see even without water smearing her glasses, and the only sound was the rattle of water on asphalt, leaves and concrete rising in sweeps with every gust of wind. She unchained her bike by feel. There was no chance of riding it in this.

So she walked, bicycle by her side, rain pitter-pattering all around her and the chill wind blowing through her clothes to lay its touch against her skin. She walked quickly and encountered no one else in town.

The rain faded slightly as Lucy passed through the outskirts of town, enough to make her destination faintly visible. She smiled to see the familiar vine-draped structure atop its hill.

By the time Lucy reached the path to her door the rain had faded as much as it ever did. It still fell, continuously, transparently, a dozen faint drops passing through Lucy's hand when she held it out a moment. It was possible to see, now, out past the aging tower Lucy called home and far, far over the edge of the world until the rain turned everything to grey haze. Only the merest hint of movement at the edge of her vision suggested something might swim this endlessly falling sea.

If she had waited and sheltered beneath a shop awning she could have ridden home now.

Out and about yesterday and – oh! - what fantastical adventures I had. Haven't been clothes shopping for ages so I collected some much needed new skirts and, as is becoming my habit, a new book. This one was for my younger sister rather than me, The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays by Oscar Wilde, though she's offered to let me read it when I get the chance (I think I'm free sometime next May).

I did have some fun wishing people a 'happy.end of the world' in honour of the date. Too bad no one seemed to notice. And to cap it all off I saw X-Men III – The Last Stand (it is kind of like a pointy rock). A very inadvertantly themed day punctuated by reading the short story Coccoon (part of my Egan reading kick) while waiting for the movie to start (that'll show me for buying tickets early and then finishing my business soon after)

The movie might well have been the least of what I got up to but it also seems the easiest to talk about so that is what you are going to get. It seems to help to go into the theatre expecting disappointment; I think this one was not as good as the second and probably not the first either but I still enjoyed it (weep for poor Summer Snow, tragically born without taste). I lost a fair bit of respect for Magneto in this one. Even if he is the villain I had (mistakenly?) thought he was intended to be an intelligent and sympathetic one. He clearly should have expected plastic weapons and he could have organised his forces in a more effective manner (Why would anyone voluntarily take unnecessary losses? For the sake of a clever line, apparently). I blame one of my pet peeves – characters behaving inconsistently to force the story into the desired shape.

My favourite character is still Mystique (watch X2 to see what a minion should be). If I could choose the power of any of the mutants to have for myself it would probably be hers (though Wolverine's healing is pretty neato too). I wonder if those two things are related? Too bad she's barely in this one. Still can't decide if I'm angry with the filmmakers or the characters for some of the things that happen in this one. Depends if I come down on the side of 'in character' or 'out of character' really. I'm no fan of the comics so I may well come down on the wrong side.

Weird narrative deja vu thingy (not mentioned here previously, no need to look) struck again – when I saw the final shot before the end credits there was a strong feeling of having seen it before. Time to go now and try to solve my new problem; now that I have new skirts I have no tops to go with them. The saga continues...