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// Prologue 
// Story: Of Toasters and Time Ponies 
// by Doctor Geagle 
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There is an ancient Chinese curse: ‘May you live in interesting times.” It is a curse of such horrible magnitude that it is only handed down by the old men who meditate on mountain tops to the most sinister of criminals. Or I just made that up.  Regardless, it appears that the entire world has successfully pissed off every mountain top martial artist to ever live.

Let us start at the beginning.

This is the story of a man named Ace.  Don’t believe me?  Good, you’re not supposed to, but that is the pseudonym I shall be using as I recount a small part of the madness that was the Long October.  

His story is one amongst hundreds.  This is the part where the teller of tales would normally regale the audience with many large and impressive sounding adjectives in an attempt to convince them how… special their story is and that they shouldn’t just wander off and find something better to do.  A silly tradition, as you wouldn’t be here if you weren’t interested in the first place.

The story begins on the last Saturday morning anyone would experience for a long, long time…