dec 31

(note: this is when the party happened for the first time.  it's very, very long ago. I didn't make it happen. I didn't know most of the people in this one.)

After work I'm invited to a friend's place.  I hadn't planned spending New Year's anywhere.  People from all over. Shouts of New Year's at midnight and the bleedin' cellphones screaming new years to each other till more than 1, and then things slowly settle in.  I have nothing to say to anyone.

There's talk of a game. The guy who owns this place makes his drink and smirks as people talk of playing 'that game'. I don't remember what it is. I've done three or four pegs already,  with a little water.  Suddenly, the mood gets very serious. Friends who know about it assemble in a circle. Each one of us has to say something about his life which is... and someone's words strain off. I remember he says whatever it is, it should be fascinating, and everyone else has to decide whether the teller's telling the truth.  I turn around to see who's saying all this but I can't, when I move my head it's even more nauseous. Burning between my lungs coils down to warm liquid in my stomach.  My turn's pretty far. I'm second last.

Five places left before me in the circle and I suddenly jolt myself awake, in one of those sudden fits of realization. A screaming turning to sleep interrupted by a forced awake.  I don't have anything to say about my life and as my eyes become large and blood-red  I try to concentrate on everything.  I don't have anything interesting to say and it kills me.

When my turn comes someone hits my head and laughs and I suddenly start speaking. It's very cold in the room now, a few people have dozed off, a few people listen, rapt.  It's very eerie, there are small glints of light from everywhere, surfaces of bottles lying about.  I mention the most bizarre things. Total crap. Strange things and people. Things which I just improvise on because I'm too tired to say I don't know anything and I have nothing to say.  That will be considered too lame. It'll take longer to get to sleep.

When I get out it isn't even dawn, I walk till my place unevenly, struggling to keep my pace. My stomach pains and I puke somewhere and stand for a bit, jogging and then start walking again. In the course of the next days, I realize that there are people out there who claim to know me, but I don't know em. 

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a guy gets drunk and retells his whole life in a new year's game. at the same time, a chaos magician trying to earn unexpected money casts a sigil. Something goes wrong. Certain events in the life of the first guy seem out of shape. As he gets frantic, he re-assembles his friends in drunk games so he can tell his life story the proper way again. The magician gets hundreds of mysterious wedding invitations every day, to places where weddings can't happen. When they try to retrace their steps, things get more nightmarish.

updated Jan 26 '11 by soumya.sen