gustav's day began as usual, which is to say that it began poorly.

it's a sad and unfortunate fact that, in the great film reel of life, the vast majority of folks don't even get a mention in the credits.

you might think that this is because the director is a bastard, but he (or she) is not to blame. history writes a strange, complicated, and ultimately rather jumbled script of its own volition, seemingly without any rhyme or reason whatsoever, and it's all anyone can do to keep track of the resulting mess. events take place, are forgotten, turn around, and repeat themselves endlessly. major characters are killed off, only to return later under different names and with chips on their shoulders. frames of reference tarnish, crack, and are subsequently melted down and reforged into mysteriously familiar shapes that somehow manage to be less useful than the originals.

nature largely remains the same, but it's starting to get rightfully annoyed at having to continually darn the plot-holes out of eternity's socks.

most people become history, their spirits subsumed upon death into the roiling, nebulous mass of potentiality in order to sow the seeds of the future.

a select few make history. and they tend to do so in a BIG way.

so when gustav casually glanced out the window, following a dismal morning punctuated by a shower colder than the dark side of the moon, burnt toast that had slipped off his plate and (of course) landed jam-side down, a horrifyingly congested commute, at least three near-fatal mishaps with the copy machine, and the dull and ever-present weight of soulless corporate existence, he had a vague inkling that he was bearing witness to something astoundingly important. here was a girl whose name probably wouldn't just be in the credits; it would be printed on the movie poster, presumably in very bold and stylish letters.

to describe her as "large" would be akin to describing the south pole as "rather chilly." she was the star of the show, and like those celestial bodies, she was expanding in a way that brought to mind the distressing possibility of a supernova.

perhaps, gustav thought, today won't be so bad after all.