261: a nice double helping of schadenfreude
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Byyyyeeee!!!
Immortal X-men powers into the Fall of X, and we flip our cards.
I believe there's a CBR interview dropping today about this, so keep an eye open for that if you want to hear me talk about the present state of play of Immortal at length. In the interview I wrestle with what to say about this arc – it's essentially two dovetailing story threads. One is Xavier, Shaw and all the things that's happening on the island of Krakoa. The other is something else.
The Xavier part is basically Castaway. Before Fall of X became a 5 issue sequence, I was considering having Xavier mope around the island for 10 whole issues. It's probably best we didn't do that, as as that it'd be at my most WicDiv grindcore. As it is, that whole side of the plot seems a tight, fun and bleak situation to explore.
And then there's the other half.
Preview here where we go straight into Xavier not feeling great. No, I have no idea why Lucas drew him to look like me, but he's also not wrong.
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I spent a bunch of time chatting to Layla at Gencon, including abouty the game she and her crew are currently kickstarting. Ratwave is a matrix-inspired reality-war cyberpunk game with big ol' themes and I'm really excited by it. Back it!
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I saw Charles Soule on BlueSky chewing over whether to forward this Time article to his fellow writers so we can talk about it or let them live in blissful ignorance. I'm choosing the former. This builds on the piece from last week about poets, but leans into comedy. The most petrifying idea in all of this is that the reason why we are all mocking AI is that they've worked very hard to make their AI shitter.
It's another short one. I'm writing this while waiting for my next flight for Gatwick. Suffice to say, the run of unfortunate travel luck that I described last time continues.
My fight back home was on Monday, via New York. I get in at 8. Then, at 11, I am flying on to Italy to visit the inlaws. This is all fine. However...
- The flight back is cancelled on Monday, due to the weather around NY.
- I wrestle with their phone system for an hour, eventually dealing with a call person who is clearly having trouble with my accent and the technology. Eventually, we rebook the flight – I'll be staying an extra day.
- However, the flight on to Italy is at a random time each day – on Wednesday, it's at 8am. As I get in at 8, it's impossible to make that flight. As such, I go to the nearest other airline – which is about 4:40. So I'll either have 8 hours in the airport, or go home and back – which will basically take 6 hours, including getting back for check in. I decide to make the call when I arrive.
- I get on the plane, discovering when they rebooked me, they rebooked me into economy instead of Premium. I manage to get upgraded, but it's touch and go.
- I arrive in the UK, and surprising no-one, my luggage has gone missing again. American simply can't handle a NY luggage transfer. I do the paperwork, but have strong doubts that they're going to get the luggage to where I'm going. I slightly doubt whether I'll get it back at all. I decide to go home all the way home, grab a bag of clothes, stroke the cats and come all the way back.
And now I'm here, writing this.
It's going to be a nightmare wading through the the aftermath, working out what I can claim from the airline and what I need to claim from travel insurance and whatever else. I'm also smiling to myself, as I believe that some of the receipts for things I had to buy the first time I lost my luggage are in my luggage when they lost it a second time.
I'm mainly writing this so people can hate me can have a nice double helping of schadenfreude.
Gencon itself was great – I've got exactly what I wanted from it, and will write more soon, but I'm aware that I need to get this out before I get on the plane. Where I'm ending up doesn't really have any internet, or roads, really. You may see why I'm worried that I'm never going to see my luggage again.
The short version is that all three games I ran went really well, and the weirdness of the scenario seemed to work. It's the first time I've tried something exactly like it - informed by the quasi-actual-history stuff in the comics - and it landed. God knows if we can actually release it, as it features echoes of several still living people. The signings went well, I grabbed a bunch of stuff and met new chums.
I'd say something like "I'm already hoping I can go next year" but that conflicts strongly with my desire to never leave the house ever again.
Speak soon.
Kieron Gillen
Gatwick Airport.
9.8.2023