Katz Spindle

The Mephitis

11/13/2025 11:52pm

These airshipmen didn't look like they were here on vacation. But they did all claim to be captains.

"That's why you're the key to this, Captain," said the burly one to @Captain Pirate IX. "They're using you like a battery, sealed up in that concrete cell, cycling and magnifying the Droste Effect."

@Captain Pirate IX leaned back in the big wicker chair and gestured with his margarita in hand.

"Funny," he said. "I don't feel... how did you describe it? Sealed up? In a tomb?"

"Part of the power of the Droste effect is translocation," said the female captain. "When the waveform collapses, you emerge as a new captain. You ought to separate entirely from your predecessor at that point. But because of they've done the binding in the tomb, you're actually sustained in two places at once. That's what generates the power they're after."

"And it has a dangerous side effect," the burly one said. "That tension that they're creating to generate that power--it's not sustainable. It's going to blow. We're going to blow. If it snaps, all of us snap with it. And not just us, but the worlds we live in too. Poof."

"It's already starting to drive some of us mad. Like our original. Captain Pirate I."

"@Captain Pirate?" said the one with the bruised face.

"As well as Captain Pirate IV, Captain Pirate VI, potentially Captain Pirate VIII," said the burly one. "We haven't run into Captain Pirate VII."

@Captain Pirate IX threw back the last of his drink and set it down hard on the table.

"Well, I always felt my life was too good to be true," he said, standing up. "I guess it's time I woke myself up!"

The Mephitis

12/2/2024 5:11pm

I spent some time roaming the grounds before dinner. The grass was trimmed, the pyramid tall. A few children with balloons and cotton candy wandering around. Where were their parents?

9 was a little late for dinner for me, and the corn-on-a-stick was looking like just the thing.

"ELOTE en stick" the vendor corrected me.

"How much?" I asked. "¿Cuánto?"

"Free! Todo incluido," said the vendor.

Perhaps @Captain Pirate IX had purchased us passes? I wasn't wearing a bracelet or anything.

I wandered back out to get a view of the pyramid, eating my corn. The sun was just about set, and I watched some vultures picking at a trash can.

"Whoo!" I heard. From the jungle?

"Whoo! Whoo!"

They have jungle owls?

"Whoooo is joining me for dinner?"

I turned, and it was Captain Pirate IX.

The Mephitis

4/17/2024 10:38pm

The Captain's always had a special interest in me, and it makes me uncomfortable.

Not in a creepy way. Not like that. It's just weird in terms of my relationship to the rest of the crew when he singles me out.

"Mask?" The captain and I are in the airlock.

"Yes, of course," I answer.

He opens the mask cabinet, which is filled with an array of theater masks from greek plays, Javanese theater, Noh plays, festival masks from Mauritania, cheap 20th century Halloween masks...

Sure, I was top of my class. But you don't want that to follow you around your whole life.

"Excellent choice," says the Captain. He always says that.

"Ready then. On three. One... two...."

The Captain pulls the lever on the airlock door.