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| Airplane? |
| Airplane! |
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25% |
[ 3 ] |
| Planes, Trains, and Automobiles |
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8% |
[ 1 ] |
| Alive |
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8% |
[ 1 ] |
| Air Force One |
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8% |
[ 1 ] |
| Con Air |
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8% |
[ 1 ] |
| Snakes on a Plane |
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41% |
[ 5 ] |
| Soul Plane |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
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| Total Votes : 12 |
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 Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 4:04 pm
What's slower than a speeding bullet, and able to hit tall buildings at a single bound?
Larry focused very carefully on the letter/numbers combination printed onto his ticket. He had a duffel bag slung over one shoulder, and balanced the ticket in his left hand, eyeballs ricocheting between the figures above the seats and the figures on his ticket. The detective looked like he was about to burst with excitement. A very large grin was plastered sloppily under his mustache, and he walked with a kind of musical swing in his step.
"B-42! Here we are!"
The B747-400 was headed straight from Madrid to The Netherlands. The flight was going to be long, but Larry was looking forward to it! He loved airplanes! He always remembered belatedly that airplanes didn't love him, and he usually ended up airsick and bored. For now, however, all those past offenses were forgiven and forgotten, and he was positively chipper. Once settled (his seatmates nowhere in sight) he began to fiddle quietly with a pack of cards on the food tray, supplying the voices for the King of Diamonds, the Queen of Hearts, and the 2 of Spades, respectively.
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 4:42 pm
Danica sat at her seat, bored. Gazing through the windows, she tried to relax. Planes unnerved her greatly, and at half an hour before take off she was still tempted to run off it and somehow get to the Netherlands by boat.
A chipper voice interrupted Danica's inner grumbling, proclaiming that his seat was right next to hers. The man, small and heavily mustached proceeded to settle himself in. She wrinkled her nose at the noise and jostling, quietly scooching as far as possible to the window.
She looked out on the runway, wondering whether or not to crack open her Transmetropolitan comics when the man next to her started talking. To...himself. She slid her eyes sideways, eyebrows furrowed and lips pursed as this grown man started playing pretend with cards as if they were dolls. Baffling. Perhaps he was...mentally ill, or perhaps 'impaired.'
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 6:10 pm
Alan walked onto the airplane, still angry. Apparently, there had been a 'mistake' and his assitant had booked him, Alan Murrow, one of the most influential pundits in the United States, in what the startled aide at the gate had called 'economy plus.' By making a scene at the gate, he had single handedly stalled the plane by at least a half-hour. Somewhere, deep down, he actually felt bad for the airline representative.
He knew this tour was a bad idea to begin with. He was giving free copies to soldiers stationed overseas throughout Europe--a much needed PR stunt. Recently, Alan had gotten some bad press about one of his former interns...he needed to build up his reputation again.
From what it looked like, the plane had already filled up. Never figured the Netherlands to be that big of a draw... he thought. Most of the people were reading or trying to fall asleep...except for one small mustached man. From the front of the plane, it seemed that he was...talking to himself? Whatever it was, the woman sitting next to him with the magazine was trying to avoid eye contact by looking out the window.
Alan walked up the aisle. 40...41...God damnit. Of course I'd be sitting next to him, he thought, grimacing. He put his overnight bag on the seat, taking out a thick paperback book called The Stand and then hastily shoved the the bag in the overhead container before sitting down in the seat, which was much too small for his overweight frame.
It was going to be a long flight.
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 6:30 pm
Larry had managed an impromptu castle, stacking the horizontal sides in a squarish pattern so they were more stable.
The castle, of course, would have to be deconstructed before they really took off. The tray was essential to its stability. And the tray would have to go up.
Cards were a marvelous thing. Each one had its own distinct character. They could be used for games or construction, or, in a pinch, obnoxious weaponry. Right now they were being used to amuse Larry, hopefully his seatmates, and a kid across the aisle.
Leaning away from the structure and putting the indignant Queen of Hearts ( who was complaining ferociously about the cheap tray, and disturbed by the fact that the castle was made from the bodies of fallen soldiers) aside, Larry turned to naturally greet the fellow who had just settled in.
"Quite a long flight ahead of us, haven't we!"
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 7:15 pm
Danica rolled her eyes at the man's obvious statement, and his flimsy little card house. She was rather tempted to knock it down. Perhaps while she was checking her watch, or getting something from her bag secured snugly under the seat in front of her.
Sitting there, idly toying with her seat belt, Danica weighed the possibilites. If she knocked it down, the 'special' man may try and talk to her. If she didn't, he would continue with the screechy little voice and the terrible little dancing card people.
Her annoyed plotting was interrupted again by an angry looking man sitting in the aisle. She eyed the new fellow, and snorted. Danica leaned down to rifle in her bag, purposely knocking her elbow far to the right in order to hit the cards.
With a snap, she closed her bag and withdrew a trade paperback book, coolly ignoring whatever was now occurring to her right.
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 7:46 pm
Alan finished fastening his seatbelt and looked at the strange man who suddenly spoke to him. Great...he's a talker, too.
"Sure," Alan said shortly, throwing a furitive eye on the scene in front of him. The man had been building what seemed to be a card castle on the plastic tray table. And was talking to himself. And was now talking to him. Great.
He glanced past the man's smiling face at the woman who hadn't yet spoken. She was going through her bag, trying to ignore the annoying man. Her elbow came dangerously close to the card castle. Good idea, Alan thought with an internal evil grin.
He opened up the book to the last page he had read and turned his body away, towards the aisle, hoping that the man would take the hint.
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 7:54 pm
The cards collapsed softly, clicking mostly onto the tray, but partially on the floor.
"Do you travel a lot? My-Hmm! It appears we've got catastrophe of epic proportions on our hands! Or rather on the tray. And partially on the floor. Err, excuse me, Miss."
Larry collected the cards that had spilled on the tray, then pushed it up and began to fish for the fallen ones. He did so bashfully, trying to avoid brushing Danica's legs, but not quite succeeding.
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 8:43 pm
Opening her book, which had an angry man with mismatched glasses looking looking about as sour as she did on the cover, Danica raised an eyebrow at the bumbling man near her. She watched rather detachedly as he scooped up the fallen 'soldiers.' He had to reach down and get them, sometimes brushing one of her legs unpleasantly.
Danica crossed them. "My nahme est Daneetsa," she muttered, casting her eyes back down to read. "Ahnd you arr excue-sed." Danica continued, again with pursed lips. Shifting slightly towards the window, she smoothed her skirt and was done with it.
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 8:53 pm
Alan raised his eyebrows as he heard the woman's voice. Great...and the other one is Eurotrash? he thought, forgetting for the moment that he was actually in Europe. Well, at least she has the good sense to not talk. He turned the page as the man collected his cards and the captain stated that the plane was beginning to taxi.
The seatbelt sign above them blinked on.
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 9:03 pm
"I'm Lawrence Gilman! But just Larry, please."
Larry shuffled the stray cards into the rest of the pack, then pocketed them in favor of arranging his seatbelt.
"Err, I guess that leaves the other fellow then. You, ah, you look rather familiar. Have we met before?"
Larry was apparently fairly determined to talk, regardless of whether it was a pack of cards, his dour seatmates, or just himself.
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 9:28 pm
"Eye see." Danica returned, not so enthusiastic. Seated next to an ugly mentally impaired American in combination with next to a fat and ugly and egotistical American was far too much for her nice meter to bear.
'I knew I should've taken the job in Russia,' she chided herself mentally. The Serb flipped the page, her pain somewhat eased by Spider Jerusalem headbutting someone's face in. She fumbled about to her left, and fastened her seatbelt with some difficulty.
'This is your captain speaking...' blared the plane's intercom, and Danica wanted to stab someone in the eye. "mrziti avion," Danica hissed in Serbian. Reaching forwards, she groped for her headphones. There had to be a way to drown out the infernal noise that was being on an aeroplane.
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 9:36 pm
Alan didn't look up from his book. "I doubt it," he said shortly again. "...Larry." I'm going to fire Jacob so fast when I can use my cell phone again, he thought. He moved over even more to hide his face.
"...please fasten them on yourself before helping another. In the event of a emergency water landing, your seat could be removed and used as a flotation device..."
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 10:20 pm
Larry looked skeptical. "If you're sure. I could swear I knew you from somewhere." He tried to get a better view of the other fellow, but was foiled.
The plane did eventually manage to make it into the air and stabilize. The seatbelt sign came off, a few updates on the plane's height were rattled off, and a few passengers recovered their laptops.
Larry revived his cards cheerfully, shuffling them again and failing a few attempted magic tricks.
"I really love flying. It's just....you know...great to think of all the space between you and the ground. Just this huge, huge space." The cards crackled with emphasis. "...I actually think I'm feeling a bit ill."
http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,3071,00.html
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 10:39 pm
Danica pulled off her headphones, untangling them out of her hair. Running her fingers through her hair, she caught the last few words of Larry's spiel. She snickered a bit when he said he felt ill.
"Eef you are to, ah, 'throwing up,' dieu it een theh other direction." she said to Larry, wrinkling her nose. She tucked her book into the seat pocket, and grumbled. She wished she had a smoke. Stupid planes.
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 12:42 pm
Alan, in the meantime, had finished up the chapter in his book and fallen into an uneasy sleep. He head leaned back, angled at a degree that would give him massive neck pain when he eventually awoke.
A small bit of turbulence rocked and plane, and Alan suddenly pitched into the other direction, giving the other two an unintentioned full view of his face. It wasn't the most flattering view; the salt-pepper hair, usually meticulously combed, was now flattened against his brow, and drool had begun to form at his lips.
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Reply
![[ danica ]'s avatar](https://a1cdn.gaiaonline.com/dress-up/avatar/ava/e1/98/332fec243e98e1_flip.png?t=1170116534_3.00_00)
