I want to be enlightened; I do. But I just can’t get over the feeling of getting some nice new thing_, and knowing that it’s_ mine. I know it’s some Freudian ego crap, but I love my stuff. There, I said it. I have tried gluttony, I have attempted austerity, and let me tell you, austerity sucks. Maybe it helps the soul overcome its bondage to this life, but fuck it, I like this life, the world and all the beauty in it.
[[How Xander and Nick lose each other]]
20 – 40 – 60 – 80
What is old? What is young? How much time do any of us have?
Some get 100 years; others never get to draw breath. What short circuits when someone doesn’t make it?
Some alien races don’t share our distinctly “civilized” sensibilities. For example, the “shimmering ones” consider it normal to pop up out of nowhere and scare the bejesus out of us. They consider us very nervous and easily offended.
Xander wishes he had more to work with: Using Savoy’s notebooks to retrace his steps, thinking and mental processes, Xander wishes he had more to go on. Nick was prone to rushing into things headlong, which is evident by the random and disjointed journal entries. He will follow one line of thinking to the point of some brilliant synthesis, only to jump to another subject altogether.
The mystery now, for Xander, is to determine what or where those syntheses have ended up – if indeed they even exist – for the sake of his friend.
[[Materialistic Reveler]]
