2016-09-18: Moving Days, Part III

[Bob Schroeck]

Moving Days, Part III
A "KanriKyara" Story
by Robert M. Schroeck

Douglass Gardens Apartments
Sunday, September 18, 2016

"Hi," he shouted over the idling cycle engines. "My name's Keiichi Morisato. My friends and I were told you could help us?"

I traded a glance with Peggy, smiled and shook my head, then turned back to Keiichi and held out my hand. "I'm Bob Schroeck," I said as we shook. "This is my wife Peggy, and we're the managers here at Douglass Gardens. I take it Bell sent you our way?"

His eyes went wide. "You know Belldandy?" he asked.

Peg and I laughed. "She's kind of our boss," Peggy said.

"One of them, at least," I amended. "Do you know... well, what's going on?"

He glanced at his companions — one of whom I tentatively identified as his sister Megumi — and after a shared look of incomprehension, he turned back to me. "We haven't a clue. One moment we were in Whirlwind's office, and the next we were in an empty lot in a neighborhood about a mile or so that way." He waved westward down Hamilton Street. "Belldandy showed up, gave us your address and took off again."

"Mmm," I said, nodding. "Yeah, sounds about right. The Celestials are in emergency mode right now, and barely have time to breathe."

"Emergency mode?" the one I thought was Megumi asked.

"Yeah, they..." Peg started, but I raised my hand.

"Hold on, let's do this inside. Park, come on in, and we'll explain everything," I said. "No point standing out here when we can be sitting comfortably."

---

Half an hour later, we were all sitting around the TV in the living room in our apartment. We'd gotten all the introductions out of the way. Yeah, the girl I'd thought was Megumi was, and the other two were Chihiro Fujimi and Sora Hasegawa — names I recognized, at least. Peg and I had given them the whole spiel — what was it, the third time that weekend we'd done it? — complete with selected episodes from both the 1993 OVA and the 2005 TV series, both of which we had in our collection — and we were letting them adjust to the idea.

"Okay, then," Chihiro finally said. "What happens now?"

Peg and I shared a grin. "We give you a place to live," she said.

"It's what we're here for," I added. "You just have to decide who rooms with who."

"In that case," a new, familiar voice said a full-length mirror that purely by coincidence hung conveniently where someone could step through it as though it were a door, "I would like very much to share an apartment with my husband, if I may."

"Hi, Bell! Come on in!" Peggy said with a broad smile on her face as Belldandy did that very thing and joined us in the living room.

"Belldandy!" I called out at almost the same moment. "Please make yourself comfortable," I added.

Bell smiled benevolently at us as she glided around the various chairs to where Keiichi sat. She bent down to give him a brief but very obviously loving kiss before turning her attention back to the rest of us. "I'm afraid I'm too busy to do more than make a token appearance and request I be included among the new residents."

I huffed. "Like you have to ask," I said with a smirk.

She beamed. "You may feel it goes without saying, but it still is only proper that I do ask."

"And our answer remains the same." I smiled. "How could we possibly say no? I presume you two will want a one-bedroom to yourselves? Given that you're still newlyweds?"

Belldandy blushed prettily before looking to Keiichi, who was doing an almost stereotypical "nervous anime male" thing with his hand behind his head. "Yes, please," she said.

Peg and I traded smiles, then I nodded briskly. "Done! Peggy, you want to set them up so Bell can get right back to the very important business of saving the multiverse?"

"Right," she said and got to her feet.

As she led Keiichi and Belldandy over to the "office" area to set them up with an apartment, I looked back at Chihiro, Sora and Megumi. "How do you three want to work this? We have enough room to give you each your own apartments, and big enough units that you can share one if you'd rather do that instead."

For a moment they were silent as they looked at each other. Then all three started talking at once.

---

Long story short, Bell and Keiichi got their newlyweds' nest in Building 3. Megumi and Sora decided to room together, and Chihiro was happy to have a one-bedroom to herself. We had to put them all a couple doors down from where the open units actually began, because we still had to clean up the apartments the Bakuon!! girls had used the previous night. But that was okay, it let us put them all adjacent to each other with shared front and back porches.

Anyway, once she got her key and took a quick look at their new place, Bell rushed back to Heaven via the apartment's bathroom mirror to pick up where she'd left off in emergency operations. We took the other four out to do Funtom-funded shopping for the usual immediate displacee needs — clothes, toiletries, and initial groceries, and once all the necessities were handled anything else they might want or need, within reason.

Just to complicate matters, in the middle of all that I fielded a call on my cell from my Uncle Arthur in which he let us know that he and Aunt Linda would be on the East Coast and thus able to visit sometime towards the end of October. Which would be great, we hadn't seen them in all too long, but at the moment it was just one more thing in a way too busy day.

And when all that was done with, we had our second "welcome" dinner of the weekend. As thirty-some people ate and socialized, it occurred to me that this was not going to be a sustainable tradition. There was enough room for the current crowd to not feel cramped, especially if they spread out over both floors of the community center. But it wouldn't take many more new residents before it would simply be impractical. Not to mention before we reached a point where Funtom's accountants refused to reimburse us for the meals.

Belldandy put in another appearance, staying just long enough to eat a small plate of chicken hibachi and cuddle with Keiichi for a little while. Before she left again, she pulled Peggy and me aside.

"I'm sorry," she began. It was the closest we'd been to her since the previous weekend, and I realized that behind the immortal beauty and the serene gaze, I could actually see the stress in her eyes. What a difference a week had made. "We have our hands full in Heaven at the moment, and I haven't been able to acquire all the paperwork Keiichi and our friends need." She gave a brittle little laugh. "Or myself, for that matter, now that I will be spending far more time here than I initially planned."

"Is there anything we can do to help with that?" Peggy asked.

Bell nodded. "There is, in fact, something you can do. If you contact Robert Thompson at the Boston residence — I believe they're calling it Warehouse 13 now — he and one of his residents can arrange everything we need."

I nodded solemnly. "We'll take care of it first thing in the morning."

"Oh, thank you so much," Bell said, and hugged us both. "I'm sorry, I need to leave now."

"Go, go, what you're doing is more important than us," I said, waving toward the mirror.

"No, you are very important, too," she said.

"Just not that important!" Bob countered with a smile.

"Don't forget to say good-bye to Keiichi first!" Peggy admonished as Bell turned toward the already shining glass.

Belldandy gave an embarrassed little giggle, "Oh, of course!" She dashed around various of our residents to where Keiichi was sitting chatting with Sawako and Lafarga, dipped in to kiss him, then dashed back to the mirror. She practically dove through the gleaming portal it became for her, in too much of a hurry to traverse it more gracefully.

---

Monday, September 19, 2016

First thing in the morning, as I had promised Bell, we left a message at Warehouse 13 explaining we had five people needing paperwork and asking for a call back. Then we headed over to the community center, where we got a bit of a surprise.

"Okay," I said. "I didn't order that."

"I didn't order it, either," Peggy replied.

I shook my head. "I'll be the one to ask the obvious question. Where the hell did that come from?"

"That" was a cabinet — about shoulder high with two full-length doors, nicely finished hardwood or a very convincing veneer, positioned in a previously unoccupied space along one wall of the community center's "living room", blocking one of the few power outlets one could easily reach in the room. It hadn't been there the night before. Peg and I'd been there past eleven cleaning up from the welcome dinner, and we could both testify that no anomalous furniture had made itself known to us by the time we shut off the lights and locked up for the night.

"Is there anything in it?" Peg asked.

I nodded sagely. "Good question. Cabinets do usually hold things."

She gave me a flat look. "Go open it."

I gave her my own flat look right back. "If something jumps out at me, I'm blaming you."

She swatted my upper arm with the back of her hand. "Just go."

"While you stand safely back here," I muttered as I headed toward the mystery furniture.

"Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah," she snickered, grinning broadly while rapidly nodding her head.

"What a cruel woman I married," I jokingly muttered as I approached it. "Sends her husband into mortal danger while she stands back where nothing can get her." I grasped one door handle in each hand.

"Yup. And don't you forget it," she sing-songed back at me as I yanked the doors open, then ducked.

Nothing happened.

"How's the mortal danger?" Peggy asked from her safe location outside the living room.

"Surprisingly undangerous," I said before looking up.

"Well?"

"My god," I said. "It's full of amps."

And it was. Four shelves each holding three miniature guitar amplifiers thoroughly filled the interior of the cabinet, leaving almost no room for anything else. Each one was about a foot tall and maybe 14 inches wide, with a full array of little knobs, an input jack, and various labeled LED indicators, one of which was glowing a cheery green. I straightened up, reached in, and took one out, grasping it by a handle that had been molded into the top of its black plastic case. As I did, I realized it had been sitting inside a form-fitting pocket or rack, at the bottom of which was a little round pad I recognized as an induction charger like the ones we had for our cell phones. I glanced at the amp I held, and realized that its green LED was now out.

I stepped back from the cabinet and brandished it at Peggy. "Amplifiers. Miniature, guitar, twelve each. Someone has given our girls a present."

Peggy was at my side in just a few steps. "Twelve? We have only, what, six guitarists."

"Right now, at least." I shrugged as I put the amp back in its socket. "And you never know who might sit in."

"I suppose," she mused. She looked the cabinet up and down as I shut the doors. "But where did it come from?"

I gave her a look. "Have you forgotten who our bosses are?"

"But..."

I held up a hand. "I'll call the support line later and ask. Okay?"

She pursed her lips, then nodded grudgingly. "I suppose."

---

One of the next things on our agenda that morning was a task that we would have taken care of on Sunday had Keiichi, Megumi, Sora and Chihiro not shown up literally moments after the world's cutest biker gang had departed. Which was cleaning up the apartments said biker gang had used.

"Cleaning up" makes it sound like they'd left a mess behind. They hadn't. But we did need to do a few minor things, like collecting the trash, making sure the sinks and tubs were clean, neatening the living rooms, and finally stripping the beds, followed by washing and folding the linens before returning them to the units. They really hadn't been there long enough to make a mess of the apartments, nor did we really expect them to. But there was some basic housekeeping that needed doing. (Less for Hayakawa's apartment, to be sure, but still...)

One thing I noticed — I don't think that Peg did (and I didn't mention it to her) — was that while one pair of girls had slept in separate beds, the other had shared a bed. Based on more than a quarter-century's experience with a shared bed, I was certain from the state of the covers that there had been some major cuddling going on. (Although given the evidence at hand, no more than that.) I couldn't remember which pair had taken which apartment, but I felt it was highly unlikely to have been Hijiri and Lime. Besides the age difference and Lime's characterization in the anime, in real life she had struck me as almost asexual, at least insofar as I could realistically determine something like that after socializing with her for only a few hours.

Which left Onsa and Rin.

What I remembered of the anime made that pairing... unlikely. But not so unlikely as to be impossible; god knows I've seen odder couples form (and stick) in a dozen different shows and real life. Not for the first time that weekend I regretted never watching all the way to the end of Bakuon!! — for all I knew they got together in the last episode or something.

Whatever. It wasn't really any of my business. Nor was it my job to speculate on relationships, especially between displacees who didn't live at my residence. I wished them the best of luck (and an amicable break-up if/when one happened), and went back to stripping the bed.

---

Once the laundry and restock of the apartments was complete, Peg and I retired to our apartment just in time to receive a call back from Robert "Call me Kestrel" Thompson, which I put on speaker.

"Good to talk to a couple more of my fellow managers," he said after the greetings and introductions were done with. "You're the second and third ones I've spoken with."

"Who was the first?" Peg asked.

"Brent, out in California, just a few days ago."

"Brent Laabs?" I asked.

"That's him."

"I know him — he and I and a few others run the All The Tropes wiki," I said. "I guess Funtom got their money's worth out of the ad they posted on my forums. Anyway," I interrupted myself, "that's neither here nor there. Belldandy told us to call you to get all the paperwork for four new residents who just showed up yesterday — and herself."

"I can do that for you — well, me and one of my residents. I'm sure you've heard of him — HAL 9000."

I felt my eyebrows crawl up into my fading hairline. "HAL? Really?"

Kestrel laughed. "I get the feeling everyone's going to react like that. Yes, HAL. We — well, he — set Brent's undines up with full histories and paper trails, and we can do the same for your new folks. Who are they, anyway?"

"A few people near and dear to Belldandy's heart," I replied. "Chihiro Fujimi, Sora Hasegawa, Megumi Morisato and last but certainly not least as far as Bell's concerned, her husband Keiichi Morisato."

"Husband?" Kestrel sounded as surprised as I had felt just a few moments earlier. "Really?"

"Yes, really!" Peg said with a laugh.

"Two years now, at least here," I added. "They got married when the manga ended in 2014. We don't know how long it's subjectively been for them, though." I paused, shot a sly grin at Peg, and continued, "They still act like newlyweds, so take that for what it's worth."

"Wow, no pressure, huh?" Kestrel said with an obvious smile in his voice. "I'd better tell HAL to pull out all the stops, especially on hers."

"Can't hurt to butter up the boss," Peggy giggled.

"Okay, so how do we do this?" I asked.

"Right," he said. "We'll do this the same way we handled the undines. That means a video call with your new residents sitting in. HAL interviews them for what they need, and takes stills from the video link for anything that needs a headshot."

Peg frowned. "Won't someone get suspicious if they're wearing the same outfit in every photo of them?"

"No worries there," Kestrel said. "HAL can do this thing that's like Photoshop cubed, and creates different clothing on every image he uses. Very realistic, too. Generative image editing, he calls it.¹ He's not very imaginative, but for that kind of thing he doesn't need to be." Kestrel laughed again. "He says he enjoys using that function, because it's something he wasn't allowed to do while he was serving in a scientific role."

"No, I guess he wouldn't be, would he?" I mused. "Don't want your data archivist idly altering your photos."

"Yeah, that would be kind of counterproductive." He chuckled. "Anyway, we can take care of this whenever's convenient for your people. Tonight, tomorrow, now — whatever works."

"What about Bell?" Peggy asked. "She's incredibly busy right now and probably can't just pop in for a phone call."

Kestrel considered that. "Well, we can do up everything but sit on it until she can give us a moment to take a headshot. Or maybe Keiichi has a photo of her in his wallet?" He shrugged. "We'll work it out one way or another."

"Sounds reasonable." I glanced at Peggy, who was already picking up her cellphone.

"Let me phone them right now," she said.

---

Long story short, Keiichi and co. were available, not really having anything else to do at the moment. Fifteen minutes later we were in that video conference. An hour after that, everything was set.

"I have arranged for everything that can be delivered by mail or express to be so," HAL said. His voice, while not quite exactly the same as Douglas Rain's, was still close enough to be eerie. "I have sent an email to your displacees.yggdrasil accounts with the locations and hours of all the offices and institutions where you must pick up your paperwork in person. You should have everything you need in your hands within a week if you do not delay." Fortunately their motorcycles — like the Bakuon!! cast's bikes — had arrived with local license plates in place instead of Japanese, plates that already had valid records in the MVC² systems. Why that had been handled automagically and nothing else was, we couldn't figure.

"Thank you, HAL," Kestrel said, his face replacing the iconic red-lit lens. He was a heavy-set guy with glasses and a five-o'clock shadow, which hadn't matched the mental image I'd formed in speaking with him on the phone first. (Then again, I'm usually wrong about that kind of thing.) "That should be everything," he went on, "so I guess..."

"Oh, wait!" Peggy interrupted him.

I turned to look at her. "What's up?"

"The knights and Ascot," she said. "They're... um..." She trailed off as her dysnomia — an infrequent problem which hadn't bothered her much in the last couple weeks — suddenly kicked in and once again messed with her ability to express herself. I frowned and wracked my brains for why those four kids were relevant to the call at hand.

Those four kids...

Oh, of course. "Right!" I patted her hand and turned back to the monitor. "Kestrel, we also have four displacee minors who just showed up on Friday morning. Well, we have more than just them, but they all got IDs and paperwork from the Celestials. Except the kids don't have any family with them, and the paperwork didn't include anything about who's looking out for them. Can HAL set us up with guardianship papers for them?"

"If I may, Kestrel?" HAL said, his camera lens avatar returning to the screen.

"Sure, go ahead."

"Thank you. Bob, do I correctly infer that the minors are Japanese?"

"Yes and no. They're all from an anime, yes. Three early-teen girls with Japanese names who are native to Japan in their home timeline, and one pre-teen boy with a Western name who is not."

"Well, where the three girls are concerned, it's not strictly necessary to do anything formal. This could be handled simply by generating letters ostensibly from each set of parents, asking you as 'family friends' to take responsibility for their children during their time 'studying abroad'." HAL paused minutely, before continuing, "A step beyond this would be to insert records of the deaths of said fictional parents into various databases, along with probated wills appointing the two of you their legal guardians, but I do not believe it is necessary to go to such lengths. Similarly, I think it would be unnecessary at this time for us to establish either Residential Custody or Kinship Legal Guardianship through the New Jersey state court system."

"And if it turns out we do need something like that?" I asked.

"If at some point there is undesired official interest in one or more of the children," HAL replied, "then I can quickly create the necessary records, backstopping them far more thoroughly than anyone is likely to pursue. It would take me no more than a few minutes."

"Fair enough. And for Ascot?"

"I would presume that is the pre-teen boy? Depending on the records and history created for him by the Celestials, we could do a similar 'informal' request, or if necessary set up a Kinship Legal Guardianship."

"What's that?" Peggy asked.

"A kinship legal guardian is what I believe you meant by simply a 'guardian'. It is a relative or family friend appointed by a New Jersey court to raise a child when its parents are unable to do so. We would have to establish a far more extensive history including building a paper trail for his fictional parents, a valid reason for the transfer of guardianship, providing evidence of the year of pre-existing care that is required before the guardianship can be granted, and of course all the court records surrounding the matter."

"Sounds messy," I said.

"It is a rather complex web of interconnecting and mutually supporting documentation," HAL admitted. "I do believe I would quite enjoy the challenge of constructing it."

I chuckled as I shared a glance with Peg. "Tell you what, HAL. Far be it from us to keep you from enjoying yourself. Let's start with the simple 'watch over my kid' letter for Ascot, but in the background go ahead and enjoy building your web. That way if we turn out to need it, you'll have it ready to go."

"That is acceptable. Thank you, Bob. Thank you, Peggy."

"No," I said, "Thank you, HAL."

"Yeah," Peggy added. "Thanks."

---

"Just one more thing," Chihiro said after we'd ended the video conference and she and the others were preparing to go. "When you called us earlier we were in the middle of discussing what we wanted to do with ourselves now that we were here in this world,."

Keiichi nodded. "And we decided we wanted to restart Whirlwind. But to do that..."

"...we're going to need a garage to work out of," Chihiro continued, "and seed money to buy tools and equipment to replace what we left behind in... in our old world."

Peg and I exchanged looks. "Funtom?" she asked, and I nodded.

Turning back to our new tenants, I said, "No guarantees, but Funtom might be willing to spot you some startup cash — although I know it won't be a gift, you'll have to pay them back, or maybe give them a piece of the company."

Chihiro nodded. "Yeah, I kind of expected that."

"Another thing," I added, one forefinger raised. "I'll be willing to act as a go-between at the start — in fact, I'm pretty sure that's one of my responsibilities as a manager — but before I make that first phone call, I think you'd best have a proper business plan drawn up. Funtom's not going to just throw money at you and hope for the best. They're going to want to know that they're investing in a venture that's going to turn a profit."

"I can do that," she said, then flashed us a quick grin. "Did it once already when I started up the old Whirlwind."

"Okay, good," I said. "Now, as far as a garage, well... we definitely can help you there."

"You can?" Megumi asked.

---

Ten minutes later we were at the end of the parking lot between buildings 8 and 10, the second lot on the west side of Annette. Unlike the other four lots... well, five, if you count the short lot next to buildings 13 and 15... anyway, unlike the other lots, this one had a building at the end.

It was, as you might have already anticipated if you've been paying attention, a garage.

More correctly, it was eight one-car garages with separate doors under a single roof, the whole built of cinder blocks painted white. As we understood it, the pre-Funtom management of Douglass Gardens rented them out for an extra charge above and beyond the basic rent to tenants who thought their cars were too special or delicate to be left out in the weather with those belonging to the hoi polloi. And according to some of the paperwork left behind for us after the sale, it was quite the premium.

Somehow that made what Peg and I had in mind all the sweeter. I'd quickly explained my brainstorm to her out of our new tenants' earshot and she had agreed it was a good idea. (For which I was glad; I hadn't looked forward to trying to convince her if she hadn't.)

I walked down the length of the building, unlocking the doors with the keys on the special "garage" ring, and lifted each one to reveal the bays within. "So here's the deal," I said as I did. "No one in the complex has their own car yet."

"And if they did, well, we've got a lot of parking spaces," Peggy said.

"Right," I said, lifting another door. "At the moment we only have the two vans for the complex, and they live next to the community center. So this entire building is unused and is likely to stay that way for quite a while... unless you think you can run your new Whirlwind out of it."

"You're serious?" Keiichi blurted as the four of them started chattering among themselves.

"As Gary Oldman,"³ I replied with a grin, and Peggy whacked me on the upper arm.

It was obvious that my Harry Potter joke had gone completely over his head, but he grokked what I'd meant. The four of them started crawling through the building, testing light switches, rattling doors, picking through the odd box left behind by a former tenant... As they did, I put the cherry on top.

"If you think you can use it," I said, "we'll let you have it rent free for six months. That'll cut down substantially on your start-up costs. At the end of that six months, assuming the company is at least breaking even, we can negotiate a proper rent."

Chihiro stopped what she was doing and came back out to face us. "Rent-free? Really?" She narrowed her eyes. "Why would you do that?"

"It's what we're here for," Peggy said, rolling her eyes.

I tilted my head at my wife. "What she said. We're not just here to give you a room and fix dripping faucets. We're here to help you find a place in the world and make a good life for yourselves for as long as you need it."

"It doesn't cost us anything to let you use a building no one would be using anyway," Peggy added. "It helps you, so why not?"

Chihiro nodded slowly, a thoughtful look on her face, before turning back to the garage and gathering up the other three. Then they huddled and talked. Peg and I moved away from them to give them some privacy.

"You think they'll go for it?" I asked.

Peg shrugged. "They'd be stupid not to."

The huddle broke and the four of them came over to us. "Well?" I asked.

"It's not perfect," Chihiro started. Keiichi rolled his eyes. "We're going to need to add work benches, and tool cabinets, maybe put in doors between the bays, and we'll want to turn one of the units into a proper office and another into a storeroom..."

Keiichi leaned forward with a grin. "We'll take it."

She sighed, but smiled. "Yes, we'll take it."

"Excellent," I said. "We can work out the details tomorrow, but for now, you have a garage." I tossed the keyring to her and she caught it clumsily. Chihiro looked down at it, then back up at us, and smiled even more broadly.

"Thank you," she said, before she and the rest went back to checking out their new workplace.

"You're welcome," I murmured even though she was already out of earshot.

"That was a very kind thing for you to do," a familiar female voice said from behind us. I gave a little yelp of surprise as Peg and I spun around to find Belldandy standing there, a black cat I hadn't seen in a week or so calmly and comfortably resting in her arms.

"Belldandy, hi!" Peg said brightly while I got my heartbeat under control.

"Bell! You startled me," I finally said.

"I'm sorry." She petted the cat, who was looking at me with what I swore was a smirk on its muzzle.

I nodded toward the feline. "Oh, is that your cat?" Peg, I noticed, had already stepped several feet away, as always mindful of her allergies.

"No," she replied. "He's his own cat." Somehow I expected that. The cat seemed even more smug than a moment ago, too. The hell that's not Toltiir. "As I said, that was very kind of you."

"It was the right thing to do," Peggy said, shrugging.

"What she said," I said.

"Regardless, thank you." She made a short bow, abbreviated in deference to the cat in her arms, which despite the change in its perch remained unconcerned and comfortably in place. "And now I must go again; honestly, I shouldn't have spared even this short visit, but I had an opportunity to give Mr. Thompson and HAL the photograph they needed, so I was in Midgard already."

I held up a hand. "Go, Bell, we know how important your work is. We'll take care of them, don't you worry."

Belldandy smiled. "Once more, thank you," she said, then dropped something shiny at her feet. As she said "Farewell," I realized it had to be a pocket mirror; it began glowing with the distinctive white light of Belldandy's transport medium. She stepped into and disappeared, dropping down into it as though a hole had opened up beneath her feet.

With that smirking cat still in her arms.

---

After that we had a late lunch, and then... the next thing on our agenda for the day. Three days earlier we promised Ascot we'd let him check on his "friends". I had thought the playground area at the very end of the complex, almost the farthest point from Hamilton Street, might serve. So before we went back home for lunch, we diverted slightly to check it out.

As I thought I'd remembered, it was well-surrounded with trees or buildings on three sides and a jog in Annette Court took it out of direct line-of-sight from Hamilton Street. And, probably most importantly, there looked to be enough room for Ascot to summon one of his kaijuu-lite creatures at a time.

At least, if the summoning or the creature didn't do any damage to the landscape. If at all possible, I'd rather avoid having the street, the playground or one of the service buildings wiped out. The problem there was that I had a vague recollection that more than a few of his summonings were rather energetically pyrotechnic. So while Peg made sandwiches for us, I located our box set of Magic Knight Rayearth and did a quick Google lookup for episodes.

Ascot first appeared in episode 6, where he summoned a mini-Mothra he called Atalante. So I cued it up, and Peg and I sat down in the living room with our lunches on the coffee table to watch.

Other than its size and mass, Atalante's summoning was rather prosaic: a glowing circle of power formed in midair, through which it appeared. I would have said there was nothing about it to draw any unwanted attention — except it appeared in mid-air. Whatever was underneath it needed to be able to withstand its multi-ton bulk dropping down on it. Which would no doubt shake nearby buildings — including the nearby houses outside the complex.

Not to mention that it made typical kaijuu noises at typical kaijuu volumes.

"That's... going to be noticed," Peggy said, reaching the same conclusion I was.

"Yeah." I quit the episode and advanced to the next.

In episode 7, Ascot summoned Pajero, a manta ray-like creature that dug its way up from under the sand of a desert. Watching its arrival, I was already shaking my head — between its size (much bigger than Atalante) and the damage it would cause just showing up there was no way we could allow that in the complex. "We're going to need to find an abandoned quarry or something," I said around my sandwich.

"Or something, yeah."

Episode 8 was next. Ah, there's what I was remembering. Big Seal of Solomon, pillar of fire, very loud explosion, very loud giant wolf-like creature. Yeah, no. No way. Episode 9's giant snail showed up with a blast in an equally noticeable column of light. And Capella from episode 10 needed to be summoned in a largish body of water — which we very much did not have handy — with its own column of light, and was just as loud and growly as the others.

Having finished off our lunches we stopped there. There were still several more episodes with summonings but according to the list from Wikipedia those were the big ones. Plus, I'd seen enough.

So had Peg. "We can't use the playground," she said, shaking her head.

"No question," I said as I ejected the disk and put it back in its case, then slid the case back into the box. "Last thing we need is the Franklin cops coming by to investigate an explosion and a pillar of light."

She snorted. "And giant monster noises."

"Yeah, that too." I returned the box set to its place on the DVD shelf. "Let's think about this logically. We need someplace that's accessible to the public but still not overrun by people, that's remote enough that his bigger summonings won't be noticed, wild enough that any damage they do will be unnoticed or ignored as natural, and close enough to be convenient."

Peggy shook her head. "Not asking for much, are you?"

"Only the world, love, only the world."

---

We didn't want to disappoint Ascot, but fortunately, our displacees had come from somewhere in between the first and second seasons of Magic Knight Rayearth — before Ascot grew a couple feet in height, but after he stopped being a bad-tempered brat.

Whatever relief we felt at not having to face a monster-enhanced tantrum (and the subsequent rebuilding costs), though, was more than wiped out by Ascot's heartbroken expression. "I can't see my friends?" he asked softly. Behind him, Hikaru and Fuu looked almost as downcast, and Umi stepped forward to lay a hand on his shoulder.

Peggy dropped to her knees and swept Ascot up in a hug. Out of the voluminous robes and oversized hat he'd worn in Cephiro, he seemed even tinier that he had when he'd arrived. "Not yet. We don't have the room here to do it safely. And we don't want anyone to call the police because they got scared."

I knelt down, too, putting one arm around Peg and laying my other hand on Ascot's back. "We're looking for someplace nearby where you can call your friends. We promise we'll find somewhere for you. That's what we're here for."

"And we will," Peggy added vehemently as Ascot wrapped his arms around her. "We'll find a place."

---

"So..." Peg asked when we were back in our apartment. "Any ideas yet?"

I pulled out my phone and dropped into the leather armchair. "A couple. I need to do a little research before I can say for sure."

---

Rutgers University
College Avenue Campus
New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
Tuesday, September 20, 2016

It was shortly after lunch on Tuesday that Yui and Ritsu noticed the small group of confused people clustered around a bench on the Rutgers College Avenue Campus. The two had just left Brower Commons Dining Hall and were heading down the stairs to the left and past Stonier Hall, toward the center of the campus, when they spotted the clearly distressed group to the right of the Computing Center entrance.

"Ricchan?" Yui murmured.

"Yeah, I see them. They're not students," Ritsu replied.

"And they're too upset to be tourists or visitors, I think," Yui said.

Ritsu nodded. The group was definitely out of the ordinary for the Rutgers campus: a girl in her tweens and a slightly younger boy, four adults — a man and a woman seated on the black metal bench with the boy between them, and two women dressed like office ladies who almost seemed to be standing guard to either side of them — and a teenaged girl with long magenta hair that hung down to below her waist. Their clothing, now that Ritsu thought about it, looked a bit out-of-date and perhaps a bit too heavy for a day that was already creeping above 80° Fahrenheit, even if it was mostly cloudy.

The two "guards" looked ready to assault anyone who got too close, only pausing in their vigilance to glare and not-quite-snarl at the teenage girl, who was the only one of the group who didn't seem worried. The tweenage girl also seemed annoyed at the teen as well. Definitely not a group of lifelong friends.

As they reached the bottom of the staircase, Yui said, "I think I know who they are," and suddenly broke into a trot to cross the small plaza to the group. Ritsu shook her head, smiled and followed at a slower pace. The "guard" with long purple hair twitched, her hand reaching for her waist before she scowled and stepped forward.

"Excuse me," Yui said, bowing carefully so as not to dislodge the backpack in which she held the books for her afternoon classes. "You look like you're lost. Maybe we can help?" Everyone else in the group looked up at her in surprise.

"I doubt it, kid," growled the purple-haired "guard", stepping forward to stand in front of Yui.

"Arisa, behave yourself," chided the older woman on the bench, and the office lady scowled and stepped back. "But I believe Arisa is correct — I doubt there's anything you can do to help us."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Ritsu said lightly as she reached Yui's side. "I've seen those expressions on a lot of faces over the past few days, including my own."

"What would you know about it?" demanded the other "guard".

"Well," Yui said, sharing a glance with Ritsu, "have you just found yourself someplace strange without any idea how you got here, or why you're speaking English?"

The couple on the bench exchanged a look before the man cautiously said, "Yes?", stretching the word out. He had a massive shock of hair hiding his eyes, and a lit cigarette hung from the side of his mouth. "How did you know?"

Yui gave them her totally unconscious but utterly effective "we're best friends, you just don't know it yet" smile. "Because it happened to us last week..." She turned to Ritsu. "Last week?"

Ritsu nodded. "Last week."

Yui nodded back and turned back to the group. "Last week. You're on a version of Earth called 'Refuge', you're in the United States, it's 2016..." this got a collective in-drawing of breath from the adults, "...and there are people here to help folks like us."

Ritsu nudged Yui with her shoulder as she dug her cellphone from a pocket. "I'll call Bob. You go do that thing you always do with strangers." She grinned and shook her head. "Guess we're cutting class this afternoon."

"We'll just copy Akira and Ayame's notes," Yui said absently, then asked, "What thing I always do with strangers?"

---

It was about 1:30 on Tuesday afternoon when I pulled one of the residence vans to a halt at the curb of College Avenue next to Brower Commons. I put it in park and turned on the four-ways just in time for Ritsu and Yui to show up leading a gaggle of people who (other than the two children) bore the increasingly-familiar shell-shocked expression of the newly-displaced. For a moment I wondered who they were and what show or movie they were from — and then I spotted the teen-aged girl with waist-length magenta hair.

Oh boy.

If she was who I thought she was, Funtom needed to call its insurance company yesterday.

Ritsu yanked open the passenger-side front door and leaned in. "Hey Bob, we got some new customers for you and Peggy." Behind me I could hear the side door sliding open.

"Yes, thank you so much, Ritsu." I twisted in my seat to look back at my new passengers. "Hi, Yui. So who are our new friends? Everyone, just climb on in and take a seat."

Yui was beaming as she helped them in one by one. "Well, this is Akiko Natsume-san, and Kyusaku Natsume-san, and Ryunosuke-chan," she said as she helped an elegant-looking woman in her thirties, a somewhat disheveled-looking man around the same age, and a young boy into the van. "And Arisa-san and Kyouko-san" — two more women, these in their twenties and looking like the world's angriest office ladies — "and Eimi-chan" — a brown-haired, red-eyed girl who looked to be about twelve, and at the sight of whom I had to suppress a certain amount of trepidation, because I recognized her... and everyone else who'd gotten in. "And this," Yui concluded proudly as she helped the teenaged girl in, "is Atsu-nyan!"

"Hiiiii!" said Atsu-nyan — the magenta-haired teen who could only be Atsuko "Nuku Nuku" Natsume — in a perfect copy of Megumi Hayashibara's voice.

"Hi, everyone," I said as Yui and Ritsu climbed in and closed the doors behind them. "I'm Bob Schroeck. My wife Peggy and I are the managers of Douglass Gardens Apartments. I understand that Ritsu and Yui gave you a quick explanation of what's happened to you?"

Akiko and Kyusaku traded glances over Ryunosuke's head. "Yes, but it's frankly difficult to believe," Akiko said.

I nodded as I turned back to the steering wheel. "Yeah, everyone says that at first, and usually for a few days afterwards. We'll have proof for you when we get back to the apartments. Now, is everyone belted in?"

A chorus of yesses in tones ranging from grudging to excited answered me. "Okay, then," I said, turned off the four-ways and put the van in gear. The door locks automatically engaged, briefly alarming some of them but when nothing dangerous happened they calmed down. I had to wait for a campus bus to pass by first, and then I pulled into traffic. "Now," I said as I accelerated, "Douglass Gardens is part of a network of residences set up to house and support persons like you who have been ejected from their home timelines..."

---

Well, long story short — after so many iterations do you really need me to go over the whole process in detail again? — we got the Natsumes and hangers-on settled in. Along the way we had to show them their show, of course. A few questions confirmed that they came from the early-90s All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku OVA series — their native year was 1992 — which was a slight problem at first because we didn't own a copy of it. Fortunately it turned out to be on Crunchyroll.

They hadn't arrived with luggage, so after that we had to make a quick run to Brunswick Square Mall and the ShopRite on Route 18 to get them all set up with enough clothes and supplies to carry them through the next few days. When we got back, that Celestial trainee (we still didn't know her name) showed up with their paperwork. Then it was time for GrubHub and Midori and yet another welcome dinner which was even more crowded than the last. We ended up suspending the "no food in the studios" rule just to get a bit more eating space without spreading everyone across two floors.

Handling the introductions was a bit more complex a task as well. The sheer number of residents we now had made it a bit harder to get everyone familiar with everyone else, but we got a good start on it, and with luck the rest should handle itself over next few days or weeks as people ran into each other. I'll note that Ryunosuke and Ascot hit it off almost immediately, and I foresaw the pair of them becoming holy terrors around the complex in short order.

And then there was the moment when Yui, with a very obvious twinkle of mischief in her eye, dragged Azusa over to Nuku Nuku and solemnly proclaimed, "Azu-nyan, meet Atsu-nyan. Atsu-nyan, meet Azu-nyan."

Nuku Nuku tilted her head as a very human expression of confusion flickered quickly across her face. "Are you a cat girl, too?"

Azusa sighed. "Yui-sempai seems to think so." Yui giggled.

That's all I managed to overhear before the responsibilities of being co-host of the dinner party dragged me elsewhere, but I noticed that while Yui, ever the social butterfly, had moved on to other targets, Azusa and Nuku Nuku were still talking fifteen or twenty minutes later, and had started to accumulate some of the other members of Wakaba Girls. Not long after that Peg and I spotted the lot of them heading toward the studio and practice rooms. It looked like our cat girl was going to get her own private concert.

I didn't have much time to think about that, because just about then I heard an angry female voice just barely audible above the walla of conversations. I looked around; the hallway to the practice rooms and the recording studio was closed off, so it wasn't coming from there. I craned my neck, looking for the source of the voice which, while it wasn't exactly comprehensible over the party noise, was definitely getting louder.

"There," Peg said and subtly pointed. Ah, yeah. Over by the archway that led to the foyer/coatroom that kept the main door of the community center from opening directly upon its front room, Arisa Sono (now in jeans and T-shirt) was growling something I still couldn't make out at Lafarga while poking him aggressively in the chest with her forefinger. Given that he was a good foot and some taller than her, and proportionally wider and heavier (even out of his armor), the effect was almost comic. He was looking down at her with the kind of half-puzzled, half-amused expression you might see on a wolf being assaulted by a soft fluffy bunny, which only seemed to fuel her fury. Her peach-haired partner Kyouko had an arm around her, trying to pull her away from the blond swordsman, but didn't seem to be having much luck.

"Well, shit," I murmured to her. "C'mon, let's break that up before it turns into a real fight."

"Yeah," Peg said as we started making our way though the crowd between us and them. "He could probably put her through a wall if she actually annoys him enough."

A moment later I grabbed her wrist and pulled her poking hand away from Lafarga's chest. "That's enough, Ms. Sono."

She spun on me and snarled, "Who the hell are you to tell me what's enough?"

"I am your apartment manager," I said calmly but firmly. Over her shoulder I shot Lafarga an apologetic look. He just smiled and walked off while on the other side of her from me, Peggy and Kyouko were doing their best to hold Arisa in place in case she decided to go chasing after him. "I am the person who is making sure you have a roof over your head and food to eat. I strongly suggest you control your temper."

This stopped her cold for a moment before she continued glowering at me. "He..."

"I don't care," I interrupted her. I gestured with my head to the foyer. "Let's continue this somewhere more private."

"Encouraged" by her partner and my wife, Arisa reluctantly followed me there. That I hadn't yet let go of her wrist probably had something to do with it as well. I did release it once we were out of sight of the rest of the dinner party, though. As she rubbed it with an exaggerated theatricality, I picked up where I left off. "Ms. Sono, like I just said, you need to control your temper." She tried to object, but I didn't let her get a word in. "This is not your home world, where you could apparently commit violent assault on a daily basis with no repercussions beyond a slap on the wrist from Mishima. This is a world with much stricter laws, where your former employer is a fictional character with no influence, where you cannot indulge in recreational violence without risking arrest or imprisonment.

"Further!" I continued, stomping on her next attempt to say something, "this apartment complex houses a large number of children and young adults. Their safety and well-being comes before anything else, least of all your temper. I don't pretend to know what led up to the moment we just interrupted, but I'm pretty sure that nothing justified the level of anger you were demonstrating. If you can't control yourself, we're under no obligation to continue offering you a place to live."

"You've got no right to threaten me like that!" she growled.

"Arisa!" her partner said in a pleading tone.

"I have every right." I tried to stare her down. "You are living here at our sufferance. If my wife and I decide that we do not want you in our residence, out you go. You are not entitled to a place here, and you are not entitled to bully or attack the other residents. If you cannot act like an adult, and if you place any of our other residents at risk because of your behavior, You. Will. Be. Evicted." I said the last slowly and firmly, emphasizing each separate word.

"And no other residence has to take you in," Peggy said, somewhat more calmly than me.

"Yeah," I said. "If no other residence will accept you, you will be on the street."

She shook herself free from Peg and Kyouko. "Lady Akiko won't allow that!"

"Lady Akiko is as much a penniless refugee dependent on our charity as you are." I leaned in closer to her. "She has no influence or power with which to save you from yourself except perhaps begging. And do you seriously think she will debase herself for you?" I straightened back up. "I think maybe you should call it a night. Ms. Ariyoshi?" I spared a glance for her partner. "Could you please see that Ms. Sono gets back to your apartment?"

Kyouko chewed her lip for a moment before nodding once, briskly. "C'mon, Arisa," she said, taking her partner's arm, "let's go." It took a little tugging but Arisa started moving — towards the exit since Peg and I were blocking the way back into the community center.

"You haven't heard the last of this!" Arisa declared angrily as Kyouko pulled her through the door.

"No, I suppose I haven't," I said just before the door shut with an entirely anticlimactic "click" of the latch. I let out a long breath.

"You okay?" Peg asked as she stepped forward and took my hand.

I turned to look at her. "I'm about to fall over from nerves," I admitted, finally giving into the shakes I'd been suppressing up to then. "I've never been good at trying to intimidate anyone. And I was terrified that she was going to take a swing at me and I wouldn't be able to block or dodge in time." I grimaced. "I'm 54 and I never was good in a fight."

"If she hit you, she'd've been out on her ass before you got back up," Peg said with a smile.

I smiled back. "I'm glad you have my back. But it still would've hurt like hell." I turned back to look at the door outside. "She's going to be trouble, I know it."

---

The next morning we posted a new rule for the apartment complex on the Douglass Gardens area on displacees.yggdrasil and as a voicemail sent to every apartment's mailbox: No firearms were permitted in Douglass Gardens, even if they were properly licensed and secured. If a resident was found with a firearm in their apartment or possession, they would be subject to immediate eviction. And anyone found with illegal firearms — unregistered, unlicensed, or otherwise not permitted for civilians — would be immediately turned over to the cops.

Yes, of course it was because of Arisa. The crazy bitch had a demonstrated history in every version of Nuku Nuku of taking out her frustrations with high-caliber weaponry. We did not trust that she wouldn't flip out and start shooting up the place if we allowed her to own so much as a BB gun. And to be honest, we didn't entirely trust that she wouldn't just say "fuck it" and shoot up the place anyway.

I sent an email to this effect to Sebastian, who replied minutes later that should worse come to worse, Funtom had a facility in Wales where she could be placed safely.

I responded with a suggestion he reserve a room for her.

He didn't reply.

---

Douglass Gardens Apartments
Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Helen Imre pulled her Hyundai Sonata into the space behind the managers' office/apartment next to the other Sonata parked there and looked curiously at the back door with its green awning. It was, she thought, all very strange. Bob had been unemployed and looking for a new programming job; Peggy had been effectively retired since several years earlier when her employer had moved their main office out of the state and she'd declined to move with it. For them both to suddenly and without warning take jobs as apartment managers — and move out of their home of more than fifteen years to do so — was utterly unexpected.

That it had caused her some personal inconvenience was relatively minor. While she worked in the local library across Demott Lane from the Banzai Institute, she lived in a row house with her husband Attila in Allentown, Pennsylvania, an hour and a half away. To save on gas and other expenses, she crashed in Bob and Peggy's guest room two nights a week, after spending an evening eating dinner and socializing with them. Except she hadn't since the beginning of the month, between the move, the settling in, and apparently a whole raft of new renters showing up and needing help.

But finally, for the first time in two weeks, she could go back to the schedule they had all been very happy with. Work was over, she was here, and they had a backlog of episodes for the Asian dramas she and Peggy had been watching at the end of August.

A minute later she was standing at the back door to their apartment, her overnight bag slung over her shoulder, and rang the bell. It swung open to reveal Bob. "Oh, hey, Helen. It's after five already? Wow," he added, looking back over his shoulder. "We kinda lost track of time." From behind him the sound of Peggy and two other women talking drifted out through the door. "It's been that kind of day."

"And I'm just delighted to see you, too," Helen said with mild sarcasm lacing her voice. "Can I come in?"

"Um," he glanced back over his shoulder. "Yeah, I guess." He stepped aside and motioned her in.

"Well, thank you," she replied. "I wasn't looking forward to standing any longer on your steps in this heat."

He closed the door behind her as she took a look around. She was in a dining room, on the far side of which from her was a kitchen. And to her left was a large living room, part of which had been sectioned off into an obvious "office" space, with a desk, a wall-mounted box in which hung sets of keys and a couple of file cabinets. The rest of the living room was... well, a living room. Peggy and two women were sitting there. All three had stopped talking when Helen came in.

"Oh, hi, Helen!" Peggy said, then glanced up at the clock over the couch on which the two other women sat. "Wow, it's almost 5:30!"

"Yes," Helen said, again letting just a touch of sarcasm enter her voice, "It is."

The two strange women glanced at each other, then stood. The profoundly beautiful one with a massive cascade of ash-blonde hair to her ankles (Helen's eyebrows rose at the sight), said, "You have a guest, and we're about finished here. We should go." She was dressed in a style Helen could only call "domestic", in slacks, a cardigan and loafers — in distinct contrast to the other woman, who looked like she was cosplaying as a hippie right out of the Sixties, with her dark-lensed granny glasses, overlarge smock top and harem pants in jewel green, and Birkenstocks. All she needed was a fringed leather vest and a headband to hold back her own voluminous golden blonde hair.

"It is the first time you've seen her since taking the job, after all," Hippie-Chick added. "Don't let us steal any more of your evening from you."

"Um, Helen," Bob said, stepping into the living room behind her, "I'd like you to meet two of our new bosses..."

The hippie waved a hand dismissively. "I'm not one of your bosses — I'm more... boss-adjacent."

He snorted. "If you say so. Helen, this is Novalis, the Archangel of Flowers..." The hippie chick gave a little wave. "...and Belldandy Wishbringer, Norn of the Present." The walking tower of hair bowed slightly in a manner Helen realized was Japanese.

She looked back and forth between them before turning back to Bob. "Bullshit."

"Oh, dear," the Belldandy cosplayer said with what sounded like genuine distress in her voice, then turned to the hippie. "Shall I prove who we are, or would you care to?"

"Oh, let me." The hippie tilted her head, looked over her granny glasses and grinned at Helen. Her eyes were a startling green the exact same shade as her ensemble. "Why should you have all the fun?"

"Belldandy" giggled and gestured toward Helen. "By all means, then."

An eternal moment later, Helen stood, silent, staring at the two women. Bob started reaching for her when she suddenly smiled broadly. "Oh, cool! And thank Gods! I always hoped the world was more interesting than it seemed!"

Bob blinked and turned to Peggy. "Okay, that's not the usual reaction..."

Peggy rolled her eyes. "It's Helen."

Belldandy beamed, and Novalis laughed. "That it is, dear," Belldandy confirmed.

"So," Bob turned back to Helen, "Belldandy's not just one of our bosses, she's also one of our tenants — the one who gets the best service of course." He grinned at the whole room. "She and her husband Keiichi — yes, that Keiichi — have an apartment in the next building over."

"Belldandy and Keiichi..." Helen repeated, a look of interest on her face.

"Yup. And Novalis comes around to make sure our house plants don't die."

"You," Novalis said while visibly suppressing a smile, "are not as funny as you think you are."

"Anyway," Belldandy declared firmly, "We must go. We will keep an eye on the situation with Ms. Sono, and take such action as needed should it be necessary."

"Thank you, Bell," Peggy said, followed closely by Bob. "We've been worrying about her."

Helen thought fast to seize an opportunity. "Before you go, you wouldn't happen to have need of a librarian or archivist, would you? I have nearly thirty years experience..."

Belldandy and Novalis traded looks. "I personally do not," Belldandy replied.

"Nor I," Novalis added. "But... Bob, could you give her a card for Funtom Property Management? I don't know for sure, but I would imagine they must have a local office where you could inquire."

Helen turned to Bob. "Funtom Property Management?"

"The company Peg and I officially work for. But it's run by the Celestials."

Novalis' brow creased the tiniest bit. "By a demon, to be precise."

"A demon?" Helen looked at Bob.

"I'll explain later," he said. She nodded.

Helen then watched as two of her oldest friends traded goodbyes and hugs with a goddess and an archangel. Belldandy stepped over to the full-length mirror that was a new fixture in the Schroecks' living room and, with one last "Good-bye!", disappeared through it, exactly like she did in Ah! My Goddess.

Novalis turned to Bob and Peggy and said, "Do let Yui and Ui know that I enjoyed meeting both of them, please."

"We will," Peggy replied with a smile. "They certainly enjoyed meeting you."

Novalis smiled broadly. "I don't think anyone has ever called me 'Leese-sama'.⁴ I believe I like it. Farewell!" She waved grandiloquently, and turned into a pillar of brilliant light that exited through the ceiling of the living room.

As Helen blinked purple afterimages out of her eyes, Bob plopped into the leather armchair facing hers. "So I'm guessing you're wondering just what the hell is going on here." Peggy stretched out on the sofa, leaning on the arm closest to Helen.

She shook her head clear, then glared at Bob. "Only a lot."

"It's kind of a long story," Peggy said apologetically.

"I am staying overnight, you know," Helen pointed out, a bit more sharply than she intended.

"Well, in that case," Bob replied, and began to explain.

---

In Nomine and the characters thereof are copyright © 1997 by Derek Pearcy, Steve Jackson, and Steve Jackson Games. In Nomine is a registered trademark of Steve Jackson Games. All rights are reserved by SJ Games. This material is used here in accordance with the SJ Games online policy.

---

1. RMS: It's ChatHAL! Or maybe Unstable Diffusion?
   
2. RMS: New Jersey has a Motor Vehicle Commission, instead of a Division (or Department) of Motor Vehicles, like many other states.
   
3. RMS: Gary Oldman played Sirius Black in the Harry Potter films.
   
4. RMS: "Novalis" is pronounced "nova-LEESE".