iarpo

Generally fuzzy recall

Zebra Parrot

A Macaw parrot, with patterns like a zebra, was stood inside a small circle of pebbles. It had a ritual of going round each pebble and rubbing the each side of it's beak on each pebble. I had the notion of MILDs floating around but quite how the two went together was beyond me.




Salt

I'm a detective in special branch. I've been on Salt's case for a while now, otherwise kown as Angelina Jolie. She's working as an assassin, in partnership with another unknown party. I've tracked her down to a warehouse, dispatching the guards along the way.

When I get to her she calmy offers me a deal to become her partner. I guess she's pretty compelling because I accept immediately, however, I have to take out her current ally.

I go to his warehouse (I guess assassins like warehouses). It's a large building with a second floor walkway suspended on high tension wires with a steel grill floor. The assassins henchmen come in two types, each stationed in pairs. The grunts wear yellow overalls and are pretty easy to kill from cover. The better trained commandos wear green overalls and require flanking manouevers, sometimes I need to get up close and personal. At the end is a tall dark store room, shelves packed to the rafters 15 metres above. It's here that the fighting gets fierce and I find the assassin, larger and dressed in blue overalls and holding Salt hostage. After killing him she reveals she's been playing me against a third person she might recruit. She's already leaked to him what I'm doing and where I am. The shouts outside start to echo through the building, his men are moving in, he hasn't come himself. More fighting, more killing, and I'm still standing.

I have a plan, I arrest Salt and throw her into the back of an armoured police van, much to her displeasure. If he won't show up in person I need to lure him out, present a target he can't resist. In the driver's seat I put out an open channel police call that I'm bringing in Salt, all units to assist, knowing he'll pick up the message on a scanner. With most of his men dispatched he'd have to come do this himself.

Barreling along a dark, industrial city street it turns out he does have some men left. Kicking open the back door of the van we have a high speed gun fight, flames everywhere. I've taken out the first assassin and his men, most of the second's men. He appears in a car, right in my sights. Everything is going to plan.

Cats and cobbles

I'm at work in the skatepark, the car park's been replaced with a cobbled courtyard. Outside it's night, some of the regulars are dressed as boy scouts, all crowded round a tall campfire. They've set up a tight rope over the fire, each taking it in turns to walk the rope and do tricks; somersaults and spins. As the fire spreads to the rope's support the line droops, becoming a slack line. The boys carry on, using it to add variation to their tricks, swinging in and out of the flames.

Nearby are some talent scouts who've temporarily moved into the park, watching the guys on the rope, head hunting for the next big thing in skateboarding. I think I slept with one of them (women in skateboarding tend to come in two varieties:sour faced and stuck up or bubbly, busty and game)

I start to have a look round and see the cobbled street extends further back, tall tudor houses with flower boxes line each side. Bright white plaster and painted black wood set an idyllic scene, the sun now high in the sky, locals milling around a market, a few tourists dotted amongst them.

From one of the doors steps three clay animals, no more than a foot tall. Cartoon-esque, grey all over, one cat and two others I don’t remember. After milling about the market the cat was adopted by Quagmire from family guy. However he already had a bitch of a girlfriend and another cat creature, more advanced, futuristic and sleek, filled with servos and wires.

[fragment missing]

Quagmire’s house is pretty impressive, modern and expensive inside. In this particular room was the gym. The floor had a large raised area with wide french windows that looked out over the town. No need for curtains, the room was high enough to be hidden from view of the street. Exotic pot plants were dotted around between mini bars and modern sculptures. The lower section had state of the art gym equipment, chrome treadmills, weights, crosstrainers and a large mirror that led onto a steam room no doubt. In the night however, the room muted blue as moonlight streamed in through the large windows, the bitch girlfriend decided to try off the cat. She lunged for it, throwing it onto the tread mill. As it sailed through the air in slow motion the camera swooped low framing the cat in a close up and the woman, psychotic, in the background. To their surprise though, especially the cat’s, a single small sturdy dagger thunked out of each paw in place of claws. It landed on the treadmill and kept upright, maintaining purchase with it’s claws as it ran, thunk, thunk, thunk. In keeping up with the treadmill it survived, growing stronger and survived the night.