<meta name="LineWrap" content="true"><TITLE>SR_Bk1 0117</TITLE><A HREF="SR_Bk1-0118.txt">Next (Page 118)</A><BR> She realized she didn't want to be with him anymore.<P><P>But then the whole thing with Injure Bodoni started. He was also one of the founders, and a real techno nerd kinda guy. Basically, he started obsessing on Dizappacha after she broke up with Larry Jonx, thinking it was his chance to date her.<P><P>He wasn't all that blatant about it, and that was the problem. He'd talk to her, but avoid eye contact, and sort of shuffle off in the middle of a conversation for no reason. Typical loser, Dizappacha thought. She was wrong, though.<P><P>Injure Bodoni was the guy who had the original idea for Streamlike Lodge. But it was really esoteric, and involved people going into some sort of meditative state in the suites, in order to try and transfer their minds to some other universe.<P><P>Well, Injure's friends thought it was a cool idea making all these different Atmosphere Suites, but they didn't really get the whole "new age" aspect. They had nothing against Injure experimenting, but they decided that promoting the venture as a place to go and meditate and maybe drift off into another world was not the best marketing angle.<P><P>There was one Suite that was Injure's brainchild--"Maximum Ice". It was themed as a barren, Arctic night with a sky full of brilliant stars. But there was this highway running through the wasteland. It seemed kind of out of place.<P><P>People rented Maximum Ice, but nowhere near as often as some of the other suites. Injure spent a lot of time in there, constantly making refinements, sometimes at an insanely meticulous level, like moving a "star" a few millimeters, rearranging the fake snow, fixing the letter spacing on the signs on the highway. Everyone thought he was nuts.<P><P>Dizappacha took pity on Injure. She saw how hard he was working and how sexually frustrated he was, still a virgin at 24. She wasn't thinking of starting a relationship with him--she didn't find him attractive in the least--but rather, she felt that maybe she could steer him in the right direction, make him less nervous around girls, maybe even coach him a little on dating etiquette.<P><P>Of course, this just frustrated Injure more. He wasn't interested in any other women except Dizappacha. And soon, Dizappacha came to regret getting closer to Injure. Cuz he starting using some kind of magic or psychic powers on her, and she wound up getting too deep into Injure's bizarre sphere of activity.<P><P>It started with the dreams--of Dizappacha and Injure travelling to wonderful places across time and space. At first the dreams were thrilling, but as the days wore on, the dreams took on a darker, more sexual tone.<P><P>And in real life, Dizappacha acquiesced to Injure's desire for her to start meditating with him in Maximum Ice. And once she started with this, Injure really started to hit her with the whammy. And before she knew it, she was in bed with the novice love-maker, leading him by the hand through the simplest of sexual activities.<P><P>She realized that something was wrong, that Injure was exercising some sort of supernatural control over her, but she liked it. She figured that maybe Injure was making her like it, but she didn't care. She knew then that Injure was a real genius, far ahead of his time. And she wanted to be part of his world.<P><P>Her friends were concerned, though, and they kept after her about this weirdo Injure. What did she see in him? Her explanations came out like gibberish. "Genius in a cosmic sense", "innovative meditation guru", "boundary-wrecking super man", stuff like that.<P><P>Then Streamlike Lodge started to have real financial problems, and there was talk of shutting down. But it was just talk at that point.<BR><A HREF="SR_Bk1-0118.txt">Next (Page 118)</A>