[RFC] The Trials of the Brothers Grimm (working title)

[Norgarth]

Differences:

• No absence-gaps - after initial arrival in each world, a character's departing-jump is immediately followed by his arriving-jump for the next loop.  (In other words, to an outside observer the character does not disappear - they suddenly change to reflect their recent adventures.)

I'm not quite sure what this bit means.   Do you just mean that there's no transit time between worlds?
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin

[Bluemage]

Differences:

• No absence-gaps - after initial arrival in each world, a character's departing-jump is immediately followed by his arriving-jump for the next loop.  (In other words, to an outside observer the character does not disappear - they suddenly change to reflect their recent adventures.)

I'm not quite sure what this bit means.   Do you just mean that there's no transit time between worlds?

Think of it this way- time only passes in worlds while the character is in them.  The character will experience leaving a world, looping through each of the other worlds on their 'list', then returning to the world they left, a journey which looks like it could be several days to two weeks of subjective time, but, as far as the world he just reentered is concerned, he returned the instant that he left.

---

My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.

I've been writing a bit.

[Black Aeronaut]

Here's a small sample of what I've been working on... It would have been from my Robotech step... but the fates have been unkind enough to snatch that away from me.  If anyone knows how to extract individual files from a windows backup, please let me know.

---

"Welcome to the Reg!" chorused a group of girls.  They all stood behind counters with terminals to either side of a doorway in the back and wore colorful service costumes that would not have been out of place in Akihabara.  Then the door in the back opened and Gosconge swaggered out.
"Well, if it isn't our show-stealer from yesterday.  You said your name was Corporal Grimm, right?  Got a first name?"
"Friends call me Garrick, miss?"
"Just call me Goscogne."
"A pleasure to make your acquaintence, Miss Goscogne."
"Bah, no need for the 'miss' part, just Goscogne will do."
"Excuse me, Miss Gosco?" asked Meia.
"Argh, not you too!  What do you want?"
"If Corporal Grimm will be fine with you by himself, then I need to attend to my other duties."
"Yeah, whatever.  I'll have the Corporal here eating out of my hands in no time."  Meia neatly about-faced and marched back out of the Reg, leaving me with Goscogne.  "Alright then, now that she's gone, let's go see about that bird of yours.  I took the liberty of calling up our chief engineer to start looking at it.  Hope you don't mind."
"As long as she doesn't poke at it too much without me around, I don't mind."
"Eh, don't worry there, Garrick.  Parfait is one of the best you could ask for.  There isn't much she doesn't know about, and what she doesn't know she picks up pretty quick."
"Total gear-head, huh?  Sounds like a girl after my own heart."
"You're an engineer, too?"
"Only by inclination.  I've been trained as a maintenance tech before, but circumstances stuck me into the pilot's seat pretty suddenly."
"Is that so?  Say, rumor's going around that you come from some place where men and women live together.  How does that work?"
"Some teasing, some joking, and a whole lot of misunderstandings."
Gosconge laughed.  "Now that I can actually see, especially after today."
"Yeah, tell me about it.  I knew of one man, real sweet natured guy.  Bigger than a puffed marshmallow with a simple sort of outlook.  At an evening class we were attending, some girl from the morning class started leaving notes for him.  After a few exchanges, he came to the conclusion that she was playing with him."
"What?  You mean she was really..."
"Flirting?  Yup.  Poor guy just didn't understand it, even after I and several others explained that this is how it's been done for ages, and that when a girl teases him, the best thing is to smile and tease her back.  Without that give and take, there's just no fuel for the spark to catch fire."
Goscogne scoffed.  "Wow.  You really have been around women, haven't you?"
"That's putting it mildly.  Ah, there's my lovely bird!"
"It's a little drab colored to be lovely."
"Eh, that's life in the military.  You want that nice flight leader paint job then you gotta earn it."
"Hey you guys!" called out Parfait as we approached.  "I gotta say, your people have done some amazing things with the technology you had available.  What do you call this stuff anyhow?"
"We call it Robotechnology - a high-octane brew of high-energy physics, quantum computing, and materials sciences."
"So how much can you tell me about it?"
"I can give you the gross details, and I even got the tech-pubs on a ruggedized E-reader.  But if you want the finer details about reflex reactions and the particle physics involved, then you're out of luck."
"That's okay.  I'm pretty sure I can figure out the rest myself.  So, let's get started.  I noticed that this is basically a variable geometry airframe that's been equipped with vernier thrusters.  How does this thing fly in space?"
"Well, once it's out of atmosphere, the intakes close up and fuel is injected into the fusion turbines instead of air.  That, combined with a thrust vectoring system and gravitational vector controls, this thing will fly in vacuum just like it would in the soup."
"So it's method of flight is not unlike our Dreads, then.  That should at least give me some points of commonality to work with.  What about weaponry?"
I shrugged.  "Lasers for the most part.  There's four five-megawatt lasers, two in the nose and one over each engine cowl.  The sensor-head down at the bottom has a turreted one-megawatt laser and is generally used for picking off inbound missiles.  There's also the gunpod.  That is a 20mm gattling gun with a 15,000 round magazine.  As for missiles, I can carry about three on each of the four pylons.  It really depends on the size and weight of the munitions, of course."
"Not bad," said Parfet.  "I think we can upgrade you in a few areas, but before that tell me about the transformation system."
"Nothing fancy there except for a whole lot of moving parts.  There are three forms, the fighter mode, the guardian mode, and the battloid mode.  Right now, it's in battloid.  The legs you see are really the engine nacelles with the thrust vectoring nozzles flared open to distribute the weight.  As you can see, they're attached to the front-end of the nose.  The trickiest part of the transformation is switching the nacelles around between the guardian and battloid modes.  If you look carefully up into the torso area from behind the Veritech, you can see the hard points where the nacelles attach.  One set of those hard points are on armatures that swing down and put the nacelles in the right spot to reconnect at the nose, and vice versa when it's switching back.
"If you don't mind, I can at least demonstrate the transformation from battloid to guardian for you."
"You can do that later.  Tell me about maintenance now."
"Well, as I said to someone else, these Valkyries are pretty light on maintenance.  Regular lubrication and cleaning keeps them in top form, and the engines themselves rarely need service.  In fact, the only time I've ever seen a fusion-turbine serviced was when one got blown out by a lucky shot."
"I see... Would you say that this fighter of yours is modular?"
"It was one of the design requirements.  In fact, a pilot can jettison the nose and cockpit section of his ship, and another can come and carry them in place of the gun pod - it's usually mounted ventrally on the fighter's centerline."
"That's perfect then!  With some modifications we can probably launch your ship the same way we launch the rest of our dreads!"
"Well, it's good to know that I won't cause too much of an imposition for you folks."
"Let's get started now!  I'm gonna need to see those tech pubs of yours."

[Seraviel]

Just a typo: it's Gascogne not Goscogne.
-People may die, but ideas are forever. Je suis Charlie.

[Black Aeronaut]

Great news!  One of my brothers messed around in the history for Mozilla and found an online copy of what I had written for my Robotech step!
Now, do remember - most of what I am usually after when I post here in the forums is NOT spell checking and grammar.  That is purely secondary at this time.  What I am most concerned about is the story itself.  Spelling and Grammar I can fix before this gets sent out.

---

This time, I was awake when I arrived.  I knew because it hurt being dropped on my ass.  Have you ever landed flat on your ass?  It's not like landing on the part where you have all the fat and muscle to pad your fall.  Instead, you land right on the bottom side of your of your pelvic bone and you feel your guts slamming against the tissues that hold them in place.  Not a pleasant sensation, let me tell you.
I didn't get much time to pity myself, though, because while it was dark the air was getting vacuumed out of whatever this place was.
"HOLY SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" I screamed as a grabbed ahold of a pipe.  Fortunately, it was firmly attached and I was able to lever myself against the current and hook an arm over it.
Fight-or-flight had already set in, and by God, I had no choice but to fight.  I knew that vacuums of any kind were dangerous things.  God only knew what I would find if I let myself get carried away, but chances were pretty good that it would be fatal in the extremely short term.  I only hoped that this place didn't run out of air or else I'd really be in trouble.
There was a sudden crashing sound, accompanied by whirring motors from some distance...
And like a light gone out the air stopped moving... and I fell onto my ass once more, this time wrenching my arm painfully as I did so.
"...uuuuuuuuugggghh," I managed to vocalize after a few minutes.
I just laid there for a while, blood hammering through my arteries as though being forced through by a huge whizz-bang pump.  I could already feel the headache coming on from all that blood pressure and began to hope that maybe somewhere I might find a first aid kit with some aspirin or something.
Another noise.  Something clattering followed by voices.
With some pain I began tp push myself up.  Pain is good, I remind myself.  Pain reminds you that you're alive.  Also, you need to make sure you keep on moving because more often than not it helps keep you from getting stiff.
Wincing and limping, I made my way down the coridoor until I came to the source of the noise.  It was some kind of aircraft, suspended in the over head with some assembly of hooks and chains.  Apparently this was some kind of workshop space.  The canopy had been opened and in the cockpit were two people.  A girl dangling from the arms of the guy still strapped into the seat.  Suddenly the two fell into a heap together, then looked at each other and cracked up laughing.
"Hey, you guys okay?" I called out as I began to make my way over to them.
"Hey, who's that?" said the girl pointing at me.  I got my first good look at her then.  She was definitely Asian, and most likely Chinese.  Here voluminous hair was a bit of a mess, but I could tell that it was supposed to be in an oriental style that was supposed to accentuate her cute-factor.  She was also pretty small - most likely because she was only sixteen or seventeen years old.
Small performance plane in the ceiling.
Girl in the cokpit with the pilot.
Strange industrial setting where I almost got sucked into God knows what.
Most likely the vacuum of outer space.
Oh please no... I'm in Robotech, aren't I?
"Just some poor sorry civilian," I said as I reached down to help them up.  "Not unless one or both of you guys are actually with those guys in the crazy fighter planes."
"Ah, kinda," grunted the guy as I pulled him up.  He was something of an everyman, with thick dark-brown hair and blue eyes.  He was young, too.  Either eighteen or nineteen if I had to guess.  "I was flying one but I'm not one of them."
I helped the girl up next, who said, "Yeah, it was all a mistake."
"Do you know how to get out of here?" he asked.
Now, here I faced a major decision point. I could try and convince this guy that I was a dimensional traveler, but I was pretty sure that would go over like a lead baloon, especially once we are discovered later on by a search and rescue party.
Or, I could play it off like I'd been around all along.  Besides, if I was right then there was a passport in one of my cargo pockets that would help solidify any and all claims of citizenship.
I shook my head.  "Nah.  I was taking a tour of this place when I got separated from my group and then everything went to hell.  What's been going on out there?"
"It's an alien invasion!" piped up the girl.  "These machines came and destroyed our town!"
I played up the clueless, blinking and looking to Rick.  "Did she bump her head, or did she just get too much sugar this morning?"
"HEY!" fumed the girl and Rick laughed.
He then sobered up quickly, then said, "It's true.  I don't know what they want, but they did come and wreck the town."
"Unreal," I said, playing up the shock a bit.  I then sighed and kicked it into business mode.  "Well, look.  Either way, we're lost and we need to get out of here, maybe find some help.  Is your radio working?"
"Hmm.  Lemme check."  Rick poked his head up inside the cockpit and cursed.
"What's wrong?" asked Minmei.
"The radio's broken."
I wasn't gonna be deterred that easily.  "Do you got a survival kit in that plane of yours?"
"Yeah, but it's not much.  Just some rations for one person for a few days."
"Does it have an emergency beacon?"
Rick blinked.  "Yeah, it does!  I can't believe I didn't think of that!"
"Well, let's activate it."
"Sure.  By the way, what's your name?"
"I'm Garrick Grimm," I said automatically.  Damn, so I'm still Garrick here as well.
"How about you two?  All I know is your first name is Rick."
"I'm Lyn Minmei," said the girl.  "But please just call me Minmei."
"And I'm Rick Hunter."
"Nice to meet both you guys.  Well, Rick, it's your plane.  I dunno where you got that kit stashed at."
"No problem," said Rick as he stuck his head up in the inverted cockpit.  Soon enough, the emergency beacon was active, we ate the first three of nine ration tins, and began to figure out what all we had.
Poor Minmei, due to her circumstances, had nothing.
Rick was little better off.  All his gear was meant for survival in a wilderness setting.  He did have a gyro-compass built into his watch, though, so we could at least maintain our orientation.  However, he did have a small tool kit that he could use to do emergency repairs to his plane.  Perfect.
Me, on the other hand... I was a Boyscout once upon a time.  I was a US Navy Sailor once upon a time.  These things tend to stick with you.
Therefore, I had a Leatherman tool with a complete set of bits for the screwdriver, a sharpener for the straight-edge blade, my iPod Touch and Nano, earphones with integrated microphone and controls for iPods, and a Maglight 3 watt LED flashlight.
Now, I know that some people wouldn't think that an iPod Touch or Nano could be used as survival tools, but there these people would be wrong.
The Touch itself is, in all reality, a microcomputer with more processing power than any desktop machine in the early 90's.  It has digital accelerometers.  The fourth generation model (which I had) has two cameras - one on the face and one on the backplate.  If you had a drawing app you can create crude maps and save them to memory.  You can record an audio log using the built-in app.  And with frugal usage, it can go several days without a charge.
The Nano was not quite as useful... but it did have a digital radio.  With a bit of fiddling around in the regional settings, it might be possible to monitor radio transmissions.  Desperate, but this situation was just that.  And it could also record audio logs using the earphones I had.  Using it's own set of accelerometers, it could also keep track of how many steps I'd taken, giving me an idea of how far I'd traveled.
Using the tools I had on hand, I gave us even odds on finding a way out back to... well, civilization.
What I found to be mildly surprising was that Apple not only existed in this world, but the advent of Robotechnology had pushed the tech curve forward a bit - my models were actually a generation behind in this place.  Made me wonder if their iPhone supported 4G.  Hell, for all I know their 4G was an entirely different protocol from our 4G.
We made a plan to take turns between exploring the area and keeping someone behind at what I had dubbed Base-Camp.  Minmei was left behind for the first shift, but not without an important job.
"Minmei, do you know the Morse code for SOS?"
"No, I don't know any Morse code at all."
"That's okay.  Pretty much the only thing I know is SOS.  Here, let me show you."  I got a handy chain link that was lying around and tapped it against the deck.
Tap-tap-tap-tap...tap...tap...tap-tap-tap.
Tap-tap-tap-tap...tap...tap...tap-tap-tap.
Tap-tap-tap-tap...tap...tap...tap-tap-tap.
"You see, it's three short, followed right away by three long, and then three short again.  And you keep on repeating that sequence."
"Sure!  It's pretty easy to remember."
"Yup.  They made it like that on purpose - anyone can at least do SOS if they know what it is."
When we left, Minmei was eagerly tapping out the sequence for SOS.  I knew that wouldn't keep up for long.  She'd get bored in no time and I knew that a bored Minmei was not a good thing.
Once we were out of ear shot I started going over everything with Rick.
"We can't leave her by herself for long.  She's just a kid still."
"Minmei's just a kid?" said Rick suddenly.
I snorted at that.  "Relax.  I know you're actually barely older than she is.  Probably a year at the most."
"How can you tell?"
"I know I don't look like it, but I'm actually thirty-two."
"What?  You're pulling my leg here!"
"Heh.  Nah man.  It runs in my mother's side of the family.  They were people used to hard and loose living.  They worked themselves to the bone and partied like it was 1999.  Drinking, smoking, womanizing, and unhealthy food.  Well, Mom and I, we try and take it easy and live much cleaner lifestyles.  End result is that she's almost sixty but doesn't look a day older than forty.  And then you have me, who barely looks older than twenty."
Rick whistled.  "Lucky."
"Same to you, you're still young.  Anyhow, here's what you and I are gonna do here.  Since this corridor is the only way out of that place, we're gonna look for doors, other corridors, and stuff like that.  We also wanna keep an eye out for two very important things: food and water.  Without that, we don't survive."
"What about air?" he asked.
"I don't think that's gonna be an issue for a while.  With just the three of us in this big space I think our oxygen supply will last a while.  Besides, this space was open to vacuum for a while.  I think the life support systems in this area are working just fine if the air pressure was maintained.  But for Minmei's sake, let's keep this session short and sweet.  You or I can stand to be alone for extended periods of time.  Or at least I know I can.  Minmei... I don't think so."
"Right then."
----------------
With Rick and myself we were able to keep it strictly business for the most part.  He asked questions about my family, for sure, but that didn't distract us much from what we were doing.  In return, I learned about his family, which operated a flying circus.  I knew about the circus, but I just didn't know what all that intailed.
Parachutists, wing walkers, aerobatics, hot air balloons, antique planes... it was basically an airshow on crack.  It sounded like a complete blast.
Hey, don't look at me that way.  I'm just a big fan of aeronautics.
Anyhow, conversation aside we moved quickly enough that we soon found the very large chamber that had the Zentreadi-sized airlock in it.  Of course, I didn't say it like that to Rick.
"This is perfect!" I said excitedly, and I was too, because something obvious had occurred to me.
"Why?" asked Rick.
"Think aerospace.  With emphasis on the space part, kid.  Someone up there has to have some sort of computer monitor that tells them when an airlock somewhere is being opened up.  It's a safety thing.  You want to know exactly who is using your airlocks and when they're using it in order to prevent accidents."
Rick blinked as that sunk into him.  "So if we keep on cycling the airlock someone is gonna come and investigate!"
"Exactly!  Let's go get Minmei and gather up what we can.  This place is our new base-camp!"
----------------
I didn't have my computer with me.
This realization was a huge let down for me.  If I did have it, then maybe I could recharge my iPods.  The laptop itself I wouldn't have had to worry about because there was a 115 volt outlet nearby that had been jury-rigged by whatever work crew had been in this area.  But my laptop wasn't here, and so I had to control my urge to record every fragging little detail.
At least I could get into everything in sight.
In the original timeline, Rick had a tool kit, but no multitool.  But here and now I had brought my Leatherman with me, so there wasn't a single cargo container in the space that was safe from me.
"Okay guys, all clear down there?"
"Yeah, we're good!"
"Alright then.  Bombs away!"  With a kick I shoved loose the access panel.  It probably weighed a good two-hundred pounds and made an impressive noise once it hit the deck.  After the first one, Rick, Minmei and myself knew to keep our ears covered for this part.
"Okay, what can you guys see from there?"
"Hmmm," said Minmei.  "Looks like more of those giant-size space suits."
"Damn.  Okay, let's try the next one."  The last two had been something that looked like giant pistols and then the space suits mentioned earlier.  Both useless to us because we couldn't even lift the things.
Fortunately, the containers were fairly easy to open.  Whoever these people were, they weren't big on internal security.  A few quick cuts with my Leatherman's diamond file and I could easily push off an access panel for the container.
And pop!  Another panel falls away to make a truly thunderous racket down below.
Minmei looked inside and scrunched her face up cutely.  "Hey, Garrick?  I think you may wanna take a look at this."
"Oh?" I asked as I began to jump from one container to another.  I was starting to feel like Arrietty Clock in this place.  With a bit of work, though, I got there and saw that the container was full of packages sealed in what looked like white plastic wrappers.  Each was, disturbingly, about the size of a body bag.
"Huh.  Let's see what's inside one of these," I said as I tugged on one experimentally.  It didn't want to give.  "Hey Rick, give me a hand with this?"
"Sure."  Rick came over and grabbed ahold of the other end of the wrapper and we both tugged on it to no real effect.  "You know what, let's try doing it on three," Rick finally said.
"Sounds good," I replied.  "One... Two... Three!"  We both tugged sharply and the plastic wrapped object came flying out... along with what must have been about half of the rest of the container!
"GYAH!" we both cried out as we tried to avoid getting buried alive.  Rick got the worst of it and Minmei practiclly fluttered to his side, helping him get out of the mess.  I was able to pull myself out.
"Well... that was interesting," I said sarcastically.
"Let's not try that again," Rick said.
With no more to say on the matter, I pulled one of the packages loose and cut it open with my Leatherman.
"Well?" asked Minmei anxiously.
My eyebrows went up as the scent hit my nose.  "Smells like a ration bar."  Experimentally, I carved a piece loose and tasted it.  "Tastes like a ration bar, too."
"Well what do you know," said Rick excitedly.  "We have food!"
"Alright!" cheered Minmei.
----------------
With the food issue resolved, all that left was water.  I fixed it by carving a small hole in a fresh water pipe in the nearby coridor with my file.  That gave us drinking and washing water.  We weren't worried about flooding since it all seemed to drain away somewhere.  Hopefully it wasn't messing anything up.
We used Rick's parachute to pitch a tent.  It was my idea to make pitch it against the big window so we could sleep by the stars.  The window was a bit cool, but not freezing.  By the second day I found a way to control the light level in the room and that really added to the effect.
We passed the time getting to know each other.  Minmei sang songs now and then, and I played a song from my iPod when I thought it wouldn't drain the battery too much.  (Minmei really took a shine to Gwen Stefani and Florance and The Machine.)  Honestly, hearing Minmei's voice, her real honest-to-God singing voice was a shock to me.  It was nothing at all like Robotech dubs.  She had the voice of an angel and her lyrics flowed smoothly and sweetly.
Messing with the airlock got their attention relatively quickly.  It was only one week until a maintenance crew came to check on the airlock.  Weren't they surprised to find us living there like we owned the place!
The pipe was patched and the space was tagged urgent for reevaluation, because hey!  Giant food bar rations!  And we were commended on our resourcefulness.
I was given the hairy eyeball.  However, once I fed them my story about being separated from my tour group and losing my pass in the mayhem that ensued, I was forgiven.  Especially once they went over my passport.
I was issued an ID card, given a ration stipend, and told to make my way in what was quickly becoming Macross City rebuilt.
------------------------------------
Macross City.
The city inside the Super Dimensional Fortress.
It was quickly starting to take on all the aspects of a military town.
What homes could not be salvaged from the ruins of the original city were rebuilt.  Minmei's family had been lucky in that their home, complete with the restaurant, had been salvaged.  Reclaimation had been a simple matter of producing the home owner's deed which had been locked in a fireproof safe.
Rick and I had no homes to call our own in Macross City, so we stayed at Minmei's house for the time being.  Her Aunt and Uncle were more than happy to host us because we had taken care of Minmei.  The fact that we insisted on paying a regular rent only helped.
This wasn't a problem at first.  Rick wasn't sulking too badly because I had effectively derailed any romantic interest between the two.  With any luck that would make things a lot simpler for the poor guy once Lisa Hayes started noticing him in that special way.
However, there was one thing that he was still moody about, and honestly I couldn't blame the guy.
"Damn," I grunted as I pushed myself out from under the racer.  "I'm sorry Rick, but I think your girl here is a total loss."
"I know," moaned Rick.  "The entire frame got warped.  It's easier to list what isn't broken."
"Hey Rick!" called out a voice.  "Now, show me this junk pile."
"What junk pile?!" snapped Rick.  "Listen, buddy.  This is the racer that I won eight international championships in and you call it junk?  I oughta knock your block off."
Ladies and gentlemen, the one and only Roy Fokker.
When he and I met the first time we began to size each other up.  Roy treated Rick like his little kid brother, and I was just now starting to look at the poor guy like that myself.  But then I opened my big mouth and kicked off the snark-off to end all snark-offs.  I only wish I had recorded the whole damn schpiel because it was the stuff that legends were made of.  Poor Rick and Minmei could stop gawking.  The only reason Roy and I stopped was because we were worried that flies would start flying into their mouths.
"My eternal rival returns," I intoned.  "Hey, Roy, lay off the kid, will ya?  He's distraught enough as it is."
Roy rolled his eyes.  "Yeah yeah.  Look, you two guys are getting stressed out over something you can't do anything about.  Why don't we go for a walk?  The exercise will be good for you."
I knew what was coming, but I made a show of looking to Rick.  He simply sighed and shrugged his shoulders at me.
"Whatever," I said.  "Can't hurt at this point."
----------------
About twenty minutes later, we found ourselves at the Grand Observation Deck.  Usually it was only open to military, but since we were with Roy we got in.
I went ahead and broke the ice first.  "Well, I'd heard about this, but seeing it is something else altogether.  DAYUM, that is one big mother of a carrier!"  Seriously, it was.  Carriers from where I'm at can only fit two aircraft abreast at the forecastle.  This one looked like it could accommodate six, but only had catapults for four.
We watched as a pair of Valkyries were brought up to the flight deck, moved into position, and then launched out into the wild black yonder, their engines flaring star-bright.
"Hey, those fighters!" said Rick, excitement and wonder creeping back into his voice at last.  "How can they fly in deep space?"
"Those Veritech fighter engines are built on a reactor design," said Roy with a salesman's persona.  "With that kind of propulsion, believe me, you can go anywhere!"
"Wow, terrific!" said Rick, completely in awe.
Roy grinned and placed his hands on Rick's shoulders, saying, "How'd you like to fly one again."
"Huh?" said Rick.
I just snorted.  "So that's what you're up to!  Surely that offer isn't open to just Rick."
"You wound me," replied Roy blithely.  "Of course they'd be interested in you, having prior service and all."  That had taken me by surprise.  Apparently Roy had looked into my background, just because he was concerned about where the hell I'd come from and why I was hanging around his brother.  Only he'd found my old military records... from when I was in the US Navy...  Don't ask me how that works because it is way the hell above my paygrade.  But were they really my records?  Time to test the waters.
"Even though I was just a technician that fixed a gun," I asked archly, referring to my old posting.
"A technician whose scores blew the curve away and whose performance was nothing short of spectacular," countered Roy, referencing my test scores back at gun school.  But that wasn't all he had.  "Not to mention a perfect score for your workcenter on INSERV when you were the only maintenance tech?  I've seen how they do business.  That is beyond impressive."
"Maybe, but you conveniently forgot that the US Navy didn't want me back afterwards."  I had... issues... dealing with the politically charged environment.
"This is UN Spacey.  We could hardly care less what that bureaucratic mess that is the US Navy thinks."
Rick looked a little lost.  "What?"
"Your friend here's been omitting details.  He's prior enlisted."
"So, I did my four years and then got out of that political rat race.  And it turned out that the feeling was mutual.  What if I don't want to deal with that again?"
"Hah!  Kid, this is entirely different.  For one thing, you're going to be a pilot, which means you'll get a little more leeway around here.  Of course, rank does help, but around here people tend to advance fast."
He sure as hell didn't mention why.
This would be funny if it weren't real.  Here he was, he was probably expecting Rick to be the hard sell, but it was me that was giving him the schiester treatment.  But it was tempting.  Oh so very tempting.  Valkyries.  Wonderful veritech goodness.
But then.... I'm living here now, aren't I?  If I'm gonna be living here I might as well fight for it.  Only God knows if I'll ever jump again.
"I'll give it a shot," I said.  I then held up a hand to stop him from going off on congratulating me.  "But if I'm not jiving with the UN Spacey, then I'll put in my time and get out."
"Fair enough," said Roy.  He then turned to Rick.  "What about you?  You gonna let action man here have all the fun?"
Rick looked a bit uncertain though.  So much for me being the hard sell.
"I... just need a bit of time to think about it," Rick finally got out.
Roy sighed.  "Okay, I guess that's all I'm gonna get out of you for now.  But really Rick, think about it.  Even if you do fix your racer it's not like you'll be able to fly it around out here."
"Ugh, don't remind me," replied Rick as we all sauntered off together.
----------------
"Hey, Rick?" I said as we made it to the outskirts of the city.
"Hmm?" replied the airshow pilot noncommittally.
"I'm gonna walk around on my own for a for a spell.  Are you heading back home?"
"Yeah, why?" asked Rick, perking up a bit.
"Let them know not to worry about me."
"Oh, sure thing."
Rick went on his way.  He had a lot on his mind for certain, but he wasn't being as apathetic as he had been in the original timeline.  Thank God for small miracles.  Maybe that way Minmei won't wind up fawning over him so much.
I wandered aimlessly for a while, not really caring where I was going.
A Veritech pilot in the RDF?  Should I really do it?  Would I be any good at it?  And would I really have to deal with the same political merry-go-round I had to face in the Navy?
It really weighed heavily on my mind.  I knew that I'd probably make for at least a decent pilot.  My vision, while nothing spectacular, was slightly better than average and I had better nightvision than most people.  That, and I had an eye for detail - I knew, almost on an instinctive level, when something was out of place.  And my spatial awareness was pretty good, too.  At least, as long as I was paying attention.
Then there was the bonus factor in that I knew what was coming.  For sure, there was the butterfly affect, but I wasn't going to give it too much thought.  So much of this timeline depended on the reactions of the Zentraedi that I didn't see my actions diverting things too much until we got to Earth.
But there was still the politics to consider.  I hate politics because it means picking your battles wisely... and I've never been the best at that, let me tell you.  When confronted I'm a hot-head at worst and litigious at best, as we've already seen.  But for some reason... I don't know why, but Captain Gloval, for some reason, lets shit like that fly.  Maybe he's just that much more understanding of the situation we find ourselves in.  He certainly seems unhappy about it all, that's for certain, though he does tend to keep a somewhat cooler head about it.
Or maybe the guy secretly finds it all amusing.
... Naaaaaah.
Before I knew it I found myself on some sort of engineered bluff that overlooked a good portion of the newly reconstituted Macross City.  I just sat there and stared out into space for a while, kinda admiring the view.  But then there was something at the back of my mind trying to warn me about something.
I didn't get to think on it too hard because I heard Minmei's voice coming up from behind me.
"GARRICK!" she yelled as she ran up the backside of the bluff.  "There *pant* you are *pant*."
"Minmei," I said in surprise.  I don't think I'd ever seen her really exert herself like that before.  "Is something wrong?"
Minmei waited a short moment to catch her breath, then said, "Just wanted to find you.  With everything that's been going on we haven't had a quiet moment alone."
Uh-oh.  Danger Will Robinson!  Okay, Garrick, stay calm.  This may be nothing.
"Okay, so there's something you wanted to tell me that you didn't want others hearing?"
Minmei gave me a look as though to say, 'Well DUUUUH!'
Instead, she said, "I just wanted to thank you for everything you did back there.  If it had been only Rick and myself I don't know for sure what would have happened.  But you thought of things to get us out of that situation.  That thing with the airlock was brilliant."
"Well yeah," I said, "we already went over all this.  With the SAR teams, the debriefing teams, and your aunt and uncle until we were all blue in the face.  What's different now?"
Minmei gave me a glare.  "Are you really that dumb when it comes to girls?  I guess I oughta spell it out for you."
I didn't really have much of a chance to react without hurting her.  She suddenly grabbed me by the lapels and pulled me into a very spirited kiss.
Good God, I'm kissing Minmei!
Good God, I'm kissing a 15-year-old!
Quickly but gently, I pushed her away.  She was still giving me an indignant expression, as though she were an impatient student demanding that the professor tell her, right now, where her grade stood in the rankings.
"Okay," I began, "first off I didn't know you had a thing for me because I wasn't even looking for the signs.  I'm nearly old enough to be your father!"
"Only if you started having kids when you were sixteen," said Minmei piously.  "I would wait a little bit longer than that."
Granted, some people jokingly called my mom a cradle robber because there was a seven year difference between her and my dad.  But that was that and this is this.
"Minmei, even if you did wait it's not gonna be some difference of a few years.  This is gonna be *sixteen years*.  People are gonna ask some really uncomfortable questions!"
"Ask me if I care!" she dared me.
"I'm not asking you, I'm asking myself," I shot back.  "And the answer is 'Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot shipmate!  What are you thinking!?'"
Minmei suddenly smiled suggestively.  "I dunno.  What *are* you thinking?"  She was so good at that that it was scary.  It was no small wonder she was bound to become a pop idol sensation.
I blinked, then recollected myself.  "I am thinking you are a very pretty, very talented, and very young girl who should be dating boys and not grown men that are considering military service."
That made her pause.  "You're joining the RDF?"
I nodded.  "You know I've always wanted to fly a fighter jet.  The RDF seems to be taking just about anyone that'll pass the preliminary exams, so this is my chance."
"That's great though!  You'll have a good job and prestige and being married to me will look great because when we get back to Earth I'm gonna be a famous singer!"
Oh boy.  I was starting to think I knew where all this was coming from.  For better or worse, Minmei spent a good part of her young life in Japan, and what was worse her family is mostly Chinese nationals.  In Asian cultures it wasn't unheard of for a pretty girl like her to get married off to a man my age because he had a position of prestige.  It wasn't even so much that the family was trying to climb the social ladder, they just wanted the best for their little girl - the best being a husband with a guaranteed salary that could cover her expenses and that of the children that would come later.  And, during the time we were missing, Minmei did say that one of her dreams was to be a bride.
Shit.
This girl was absolutely determined to get herself married and she saw me as the best man for the job - nevermind that she would have to wait a few years.  I'd hate to break her heart, but then again she just wasn't taking no for an answer.  Maybe I can weaken her resolve by stalling her a bit.
"Look, Minmei..."  I sighed and ran a hand though my hair, pushing loose strands that were tickling my face back into place.  "I don't know about this.  I really don't.  Let's just take some time to think on it.  And I mean really think on it.  If anything happens to me out there would you want to be the widow of a fighter pilot?"  At that she grabbed me by the lapels once more, hauling me down to her level.
"Don't even think about it, flyboy, or else when I come to heaven I'm gonna kick your butt so hard that your ancestors will wince in sympathy."
What.  The hell.  Was that?
I knew Minmei had a fire all her own, but this was something else entirely.  Where was this coming from?
At the moment, a siren began to wail in the distance, accompanied by the words, "Air raid warning!"
Oh SHIT!
"What's that?" asked Minmei.
"I'm not sure," I said, playing up the clueless factor, "but I think it might be a good idea to get back home, and fast!"
She didn't argue the point with me.  We just took off at a jog.  However, before we left the bluff entirely, she turned and said,
"This isn't over."
I decided to let that go for now.  Hopefully with all the excitement we were about to have she'd forget about this... for a little bit.
----------------
When we got back to the restaurant I went straight to my room and began arranging things so there'd be as little damage as possible.  In the background there were ominous messages about the modular ship transformation.  Just as I left my room, Rick came out of his.
"Garrick?  What's going on?"
"Not sure, Rick, but you can bet it ain't a drill of some kind."  At that moment, the countdown started.  I heard noises down in the kitchen still and... shit!
"Minmei!" I snapped out, just as the count down hit one.  "Everyone out of the kitchen!"  I ran down the stairs, vaulting the railing halfway and startling the patrons that were still present.  As my feet hit the floor the tremors started.
Just like an earthquake.
Minmei and her family came rushing out of the kitchen.  "Garrick!  What's happening?" she asked as she threw herself at me.  Not really thinking on it, I grabbed her up with one arm and held onto the railing with the other.
"I'm not sure, but we better hang on tight!"  I saw a few patrons going outside.  "NO!  STAY INSIDE!" I yelled.  It was too late for them, though.  A bulkhead down the road opened to vacuum and they were swept away by the sudden galeforce current.  I could only pray they managed to find something to grab ahold of.
And then suddenly gravity went away.
"WHOAH!" I screamed.  I wasn't the only one.  All around me people cried out in panic as they floated off the floor.  Granted, this wasn't the first time for them, but it wasn't like they were trained for it.  Hell, I'd never had training for it, but I at least understood what was going on.  At least I was able to force my feet to the deck and keep them there.
"Hold on tight, Minmei.  The gravity should come back in a minute."
She said nothing.  All she did was bury her head in under my shoulder as best as she could.
It took a minute, but it felt like an eternity.  Every crash, every electro-mechanical noise was punctuated by panicked screams and groans from everyone present.  Even Rick wasn't immune.  Minmei and I were the only ones quiet.
And then it was over.  Gravity came back on in a snap and everyone and everything spilled to the floor.  I stumbled a bit and I had to help steady Minmei.
"Are you okay?" I asked Minmei as she looked up at me.  She nodded shakily.
And then there was something new.  It came up from the floor, through our feet and legs, and reverberated in our chests and heads.  An infra-sound so intense that it was just shy of being an earthquake itself.
"What's that?" said Rick.
There was only one thing it could be.  "The main gun," I intoned.  Right now, hundreds of thousands of Zentraedi soldiers were dying, their ships and battlepods disintegrated with almost contemptuous ease under the brutal, punishing force of a gamma-ray laser big enough to engulf several New York City blocks.  And all because of a gambit by Commander Bretai.
But then, I guess that was life for the Zentraedi.  It evoked the words spoken by Roman gladiators before the battle commenced: "We, who are about to die, salute you."
And as suddenly as *that* started... it ended.
----------------
Minmei was not as badly shaken up by the experience as I thought she'd be.  After we rearranged every thing and made our reports to our section's Shelter Officer I then went to my room just to relax.
There was a knock at my door.  No rest for the weary.
"Come in," I called out, not bothering to lever myself off my bed.
Rick poked his head in.  "You okay, Garrick?"
"Yeah, I'm alright.  Just a bit drained from that experience."
Rick scoffed as he came into the room and shut the door behind him.  "No kidding."
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence.  I was just about to break it when Rick spoke first.
"Were you serious back there?  About joining up with the RDF?"
I sighed at that.  No point in refusing it now.  "Yeah, Rick.  I'm gonna give it an honest shot.  Whether it works out for me or not..."  I let that hang, but he knew perfectly well what I meant.
"Yeah.  So.  You were in the Navy."
"Not an experience I'd recommend for the faint of heart.  I had to deal with so much crap that it'd make a sanitation worker blush."
Rick laughed at that.  "I'll take your word for it.  But for the RDF... If you're joining up, then I will too."
"Really?" I asked.  I was honestly worried that he wouldn't, given that he didn't have Minmei needling him along this time.
"Yeah.  Someone's gotta be your wingman, you old fart."
I snorted at that.  "Only old enough to know better."
"Old enough for me," Rick shot back.
"Must be, I don't even see any peach fuzz on that face of yours, kid!"  At that, we started into some spirited, brotherly fisticuffs.  Soon enough, though, Minmei knock and pocked her head inside.
"What are you two doing?" she asked archly.
I gave her my best innocent look.  "Why, we're settling a difference of opinion in the time honored tradition of men."
"Oh, is that what this is?" asked Rick blithely.
"Coulda fooled me," said Minmei.  "You both look like you're acting like a couple of kids."  Before we could retort, she added, "Despite the excitement, evening board is ready.  You guys may wanna come down and eat with us before it gets cold."  And with that she shut the door behind her.
"Dunno about you, Rick, but this is the best I've eaten since my time in the Navy.  Let's go get some grub."
"Sure thing.  Age before beauty," teased Rick.
"Good thing I got both, kiddo."
-------------------------
Two months pass.
Rick and I go through training together to become Veritech pilots.  And the shocking thing was that he and I both made it into Skull Squadron.
In only two months.
Yes, it was every bit as hellacious as it sounds.  We have to learn so much in so little time.  Flight and astrogation, aerospace combat tactics, basic military training... We alternate days in and out of the simulators for the first month.  In the sims, we break only for meals.  The rest of the day, we're drilled harshly in the sims, essentially learning hands-on how to fly.
Outside the sims the relentless drilling continued.  On some days it was book work like flight theory, Robotech science, and rules and regulations.  Other days it was marching and drilling, gunnery ranges, obstacle courses, and physical training until we drop dead of exhaustion.
In the second month we graduated from simulators and went to the real thing.  VF-1D Veritechs.  I was so excited that I could barely contain it.  Instructors and students alike were all saying that the Old Man was looking like a kid at Christmas time.
Relentless drilling in the sims paid off in spades.  Inside a day I was handling the D-model Veritech like a pro.  But that didn't mean they would make it easy on me.  Instead, it was combat drills in the cokpit, and combat tactics in the classroom.  Physical Training was as brutal as ever, and now included survival, escape, recovery, and evasion (SERE) classes.
I was a pretty good pilot, but Rick far surpassed me.  He had my aptitude combined with a natural talent and years of experience sitting behind the stick of racers.  However, when it came to book smarts and marksmanship I left him in the dust.  As I had before in my Naval schools, I blew the curve out of the water with my uncanny ability to memorize procedures - don't ask me how, but seeing the procedures performed and studying them programmed them into my brain like song lyrics.  Once I had them, it was virtually irrevocable, especially since we were demanded to spout procedure on the spot at any given time on demand.
Everything else I memorized through a combination of mnemonics and brute force rote-and-drill.
The final days were tied up in a number of final activities.  Everything was graded.  A single failing grade would get you moved into another class for remedial training, and here a three strikes policy applied.  You fail your finals a third time and that was it.
Fortunately, I passed.
I was awarded liberty along with all the other graduates, and the first thing I did was to buy a laptop to replace the once I was missing, go home to the Lynn Family, and play the song Stress by Jim's Big Ego.
    I'm Addicted to stress 'cause it's the way that I get things done
    If I'm not under pressure then I sleep too long
    And I hang around like a bumb
    And I think I'm going nowhere and that makes me nervous
    Everybody's out to get me but I feel alright
    Everybody's out to get me but I feel alright
    Everybody's out to get me but I feel alright
    Everybody's thinking about me!
    It's the little things that getcha
    It's the little things that getcha
    When you weren't paying attention
    It's the little things that getcha
    It's the little things that getcha
    It's the little things that getcha
    When you weren't paying attention
It is a freaking hilarious song to listen to.
Minmei came in to see me 'dancing' to the song and I just about died of emberassment on the spot.  The one saving grace was that she found my dancing to be every bit as entertaining as the song.  God, I can only imagine what this song would do to the Zentraedi.
"So, do you want to go out with me later today?" Minmei asked once we'd both recovered from the incident.  "There were some things that I needed to get and I could use the company."
I knew what was coming.  This was where Rick would unwittingly meet Lisa Hayes, the woman he called an 'old sourpuss' on the radio before he got stuck along with the rest of us on SDF-1.  If Rick wasn't there to meet her, then God only knows what this would do to things between them.
"Mind if Rick comes along?" I asked.  "He needs to get out, too.  Besides, what would people think seeing you alone with me?"
"Probably that we make a good couple," Minmei replied with a mischievous smile.
"Real cute, kid," I replied with a flat expression.  She only stuck her tongue out at me.  "Seriously.  The only way I'm going out with you is if I have Rick along as a decoy."
"Oh fine then," huffed Minmei.
"Good girl," I said, and, against my better judgement, I gave her a kiss on top of her head. Just to give her a bit of incentive. Must have worked because Minmei practically glowed.
----------------
The only thing left to do was to break the news to Rick.
"Hey Rick?" I asked as I knocked on his door. "You here still?"
"Yeah, come in buddy."
"Thanks," I said as I opened the door and shut it behind me. "You got anything going on? Minmei wants to go out and I don't feel entirely comfortable with just her and me."
"She's fawning over you again, huh?"
"That obvious?" I asked.
Rick grinned. "Old man, I am going to give you hell for this whenever Minmei isn't around."
I rolled my eyes. "So, you'll be my decoy?"
"Sure," he replied. "Not like I got anything better to do. I'll just make you pay for it later."
"Joy," I drawled out.
----------------
"But Rick, that bag is so heavy!" said Minmei plaintively as we walked down the market district.
"It's okay, Minmei," Rick tried to reassure her.
"Yeah, it's nothing," I said, trying to help. "Especially compared to doing a ten mile run with a rucksack and a rifle."
"Ugh, don't remind me," Rick groaned.
Minmei giggled and the stopped cold infront of one shop window. Ah yes. The women's apparrel store. This was the place.
"Oh please guys!" Minmei called out. "Stop just a minute!"
"Hmm," I said as I admired the display. "They look real nice. Never thought they'd have stuff like this here."
"Yeah," agreed Rick.
Minmei then turned to us. "I promise I'll only be a second."
"What?" Rick said, verbally backpedaling. "We can't go in there!"
"Yes we can," I droned as I dragged Rick in after Minmei. "We're big boys, Rick. As long as we mind ourselves we'll be fine."
Minmei was the picture of efficiency - a shocking thing coming from a woman in an apparrel store that caters specifically to their gender. She knew exactly what she wanted - she only paused as she looked for the right dress size, then snagged it and made a beeline for the dressing rooms.
"No peeking now," she said with a coy wink and smile.
I smiled. If I was gonna get razzed for this later by Rick then by God I was gonna get my money's worth.
"That's right now, Rick," I said as I maneuvered him away from the leering store clerk. "No peaking now."
"Garrick. I am gonna kill you."
"Not with witnesses around you are."
As I moved Rick away, though, Murphy struck by allowing a good portion of Minmei's purchases to spill out of the bag. Perfect! Thank you God for small miracles! I let Rick go ahead and take things from there since I knew what was coming.
And right on cue was Lisa Hayes along with the rest of the SDF-1 Bridge Bunnies. Coming in, they immediately stopped cold at the sight of me. To which my response was to thumb myself and say,
"Chaperone." I then pointed down at Rick and said, "His date's in the changing room." I finished by gesturing at the changing room in question. The women looked at Rick, who looked nervously back as he fumbled yet more of Minmei's purchases, and then at the obviously occupied dressing room.
"We'll go ahead and come back later," Lisa said diplomatically to the store clerk.
Just as the ladies left, Minmei came back out. I had to admit, she did look really nice.
"Well, Garrick, what do you think of it?" said Minmei. The shop keeper was quick to pick up on that as she looked between me and Mimei. She then cackled wickedly, causing me to wince. Rick snickered as well.
I sighed then looked to Minmei. "It looks lovely enough that if you were the right age I'd be bringing you home to meet my momma."
"But Garrick, your parents aren't here on the ship." She then grinned mischievously and added, "But you already met my aunt and uncle, so it's okay."
Rick and the store keeper exploded into laughter at that.
"God help me," I muttered.
----------------
We got back with no incident and, after a good lunch courtesy of Minmei's family, we went on our way back to the barracks so we'd have plenty of time for the big briefing we were having later that afternoon. Along the way we met Roy, who congratulated us heartily on our graduation for what must have been the umpteenth time.
"Well boys, what do you think?" said Roy as we approached the gate. "From today on you're real live fighter pilots. You two even get your own rooms!"
"Better than the Navy BEQs," I supplied. That was no exaggeration there. Nice loft bed over an equally nice desk space. There was plenty of storage space and even some nice places for curios and knick-knacks to be displayed.
"Better for certain, but don't forget that even though you do have your own rooms you can't fool around."
Rick snickered at that and Roy looked between the two of us curiously.
"Something I should know about?" Roy asked archly.
"I'll let you know when it becomes an issue, sir," I replied.
A look of comprehension dawned on Roy's face, but then he went on, "Oh and one more thing, boys."
"What's that?" asked Rick.
"AH-TEEUUUN-SHUN!" snapped out Roy.
I was quick to react, snapping to and giving a crisp salute to Lisa Hayes and the bridge bunnies. They may be bunnies, but I was pretty sure that at this point even the most junior of them outranked me by at least a paygrade.
Rick, of course, fumbled.
"At ease, gentlemen," said Lisa easily and I relaxed. "Good afternoon."
"Afternoon Ma'am," I replied cordially.
Roy once more read into the situation perfectly and swept in. "You little devil, I didn't know you knew the Lieutenant-Commander."
"Uh well, kinda," said Rick as he looked to me for help. I simply grinned back at him. Sorry buddy, you're on your own for now.
Meanwhile the bridge bunnies giggled. "It's them!"
"The guys at the lingerie shop!"
"My dear Lieutenant-Commander Fokker," said Lisa Hayes, "are these the brilliant new pilots you've been raving about?"
"Boys, introduce yourselves," prodded Roy.
We both saluted sharply. "Corporal Garrick Grimm, ma'am, at your service."
"Corporal Rick Hunter, ma'am!"
"I'm Lieutennant-Commander Lisa Hayes," she replied cordially returning our salute. A funny look then crossed her features. "Rick Hunter," she repeated. "Why does that name sound so familiar to me?" Her eyes suddenly shot wide open in shock as the memory returned to her. "I remember now! You're that loudmouthed pilot, aren't you!"
"And your that... uh..." Rick lamely fumbled for something other than 'old sourpuss'.
"Yup," replied the Lieutenant-Commander with a flat look on her face.
"Oh no!" Rick cried with a look of horror on his face. It was taking everything I had to keep myself standing up.
"Hey sir!" I gasped. "Maybe his callsign should be foot-in-mouth!"
Roy stifled a laugh. "Yeah, Rick. Better be careful or else that one will stick. Especially around the Lieutenant-Commander. She's your superior officer."
This was so freaking funny to see in person. Rick looked like he wanted to either run for the hills screaming or die of embarrassment on the spot.
He settled for stammering out, "SIR!" to the Commander as he got off another shaky salute.
"Hmm," replied Lisa. "I hope for his sake that he takes your advice." With that, she sauntered off. At least this time she didn't leave that nasty parting shot that implied he was a crossdresser.
Although, the one little redheaded bridge bunny did get up in his face and snapped, "Meanie!" as a parting shot. That was it. I lost it. Seeing Rick flinch like that from the smaller woman sent me reeling against the fence laughing like a loon.
----------------
We stood through the all-call in the parade grounds like the good little pilots we were. Just like those Captain's Calls back in the Navy. But good lord, could they get any more cheesy with the send-off?
"But until then I only want you to think of one thing: Robotech!"
God almighty save us. I know awesome machinery like Veritechs gives the gadgeteer in me a hard-on, but dayum.
"Hey, Garrick," called out Rick once he spotted me. I waved him over. "Are you gonna need any help with, ah, tonight?" he asked. "I know Minmei is probably gonna want to see you and all."
I sighed at that. I might as well go see her. "No need, Rick. This time, I think I can handle her on my own. Thanks for earlier, by the way. All snarking and sniping aside, it was a big help."
"Hey, that's what a wingman is for, right?"
"You got it, bruthah."
"And good luck in dealing with Minmei."
----------------
I arranged the date over the phone and Minmei met me promptly at the park. By prompt, I mean running herself ragged in pumps. Ouch.
"You okay there, Minmei?" I asked.
"Yeah," she said after taking a moment to catch her breath. "Sorry for taking so long. What's the big rush, anyway? Not that I don't mind."
"Cheeky," I grunted, then sighed. "They're shipping us out tomorrow."
"Oh Garrick! I'm so happy for you! Your first mission!"
"Minmei! I said softly, but firmly as I put my hands on her shoulders. I then went on in a low enough tone that only she would hear me. "This isn't fun and games. I know that there's going to be people who won't come back tomorrow."
Minmei was taken aback by this. "But... you'll comeback, right?"
"I'll do my best to, Minmei. Believe me, I want to live."
"You'd better, then. When we get married I want you to look distinguished in your dress uniform."
I sighed and wondered how long she'd keep this up for. Not that I didn't find her attractive, but for God's sake I was sixteen years older than her!
"Don't you start with me, mister Grimm! Now come on, this way!" She then grabbed ahold of my hand and dragged me further into the park, just as the backlit fountains started, creating a dance of light and color on the pond. "Ooohhh, how beautiful!" She spread her skirt out, saying, "Garrick, look."
I did and saw that she was wearing the dress she picked out earlier.
"I knew you'd look beautiful in that dress," I said without really thinking about it. D'oh! Sure, go and feed her ego, why don't you!?
"You mean that, Garrick?" she asked buoyantly. "Am I really beautiful?"
"Minmei, I shouldn't have to reinforce that notion for you. Yes, you are beautiful. And you have the voice of an angel. And for the umpteenth time, you are way too young!"
"I won't be too young forever," she challenged. The then turned away and called out, "Hey Camera! Over here!" At Minmei's call, a most curious sight appeared: a robotic camera popped out of the shrubbery, looking for whoever called it.
"Over here!" she called out again. This time the camera-bot locked onto Minmei and swiftly trundled over.
"DEPOSIT COIN," the machine requested in a monotone synthesized voice. Minmei quickly fed a credit into the slot. "THANK YOU."
She then went up to the railing by the water's edge and spun about, pirouetting like a dancer. The camera bot snapped the picture and soon a glossy photo was printed. It was a little blurry at the edges, but the machine had timed the shot perfectly so her smiling face was in the picture.
She really was beautiful.
I offered it to Minmei, but she pushed it back to me. "Keep it," she said. "Put it in that fighter of yours so you have a reminder of what's waiting for you. That should get you home in one piece."
I didn't argue the point. It was useless. Even worse, my sentimental streak was rearing it head, and I was gonna do something else I had a feeling I'd regret.
"Camera, one more photo," I called before the machine could get too far.
"DEPOSIT COIN," it stated as it zipped back to us. After I complied with it's request, I pulled Minmei in close and she immediately understood, wrapping herself around my arm.
"HOLD STILL PLEASE," said the robot as it set up the shot. "SAY CHEESE."
Another flash and another picture was produced. This one I offered to Minmei.
"In case something does happen," I said to her quietly. "At least you'll have this to remember me by."
"Don't say it that way!" she whispered back harshly. "You will come back! You will!" Tears started to form at the edge of her eyes.
"I'll do my best. But while Murphy never sleeps, that's no reason to poke him with a sharp stick."
Minmei laughed despite the heavy nature of my sentiments. Her watch's alarm chose that moment to go off.
"I gotta go," she said. "Uncle gets upset if I'm out too late. With a boy, that is." She grinned mischievously once more. "Come back safe, Garrick."
"I will, Minmei."
I left the park with a heavy heart that night, and I was fervently hoping that I was not falling for that girl.
There were a lot of qualities about Minmei that I found to be desirable. Beautiful, smart, energetic, and very playful, just to name a few. She also had a slightly combative nature as well - she wasn't afraid to stand up for her choices, and this was also a big plus in my book. But the fly in the ointment was her age. Not that I wouldn't have gone after a younger woman, but Minmei was still a *girl*.
Even so, it was getting harder and harder to resist her. She was absolutely infectious. It was probably the main reason why she walked away with the Miss Macross crown.
Later that night, Roy came in to check on me.
"Trouble sleeping?" he asked.
"A bit," I admitted. I never really was all that big on sleep. At least at night time. Yeah, I'm weird like that. "Though it's probably not for the reason you're thinking."
Roy blinked at that. "Something you want to talk about, Garrick?"
"Sure, why not?" I sighed and hefted myself out of the loft bed and hit the lights. "Not like I'm getting any sleep like this."
Roy came in and pulled up a chair.
"Get you anything to drink, sir?" I asked as I went to the kitchenette.
"No thanks," replied the Lieutenant-Commander. I got myself a glass of ice water and sat down in my desk chair.
"It's Minmei," I said.
"Dammit, Grimm," groaned Roy. "Are you serious?"
"She is, at least," I said offhandedly.
"Explain, Corporal," he said, leveling a look at me.
"Yes sir," I said and I went on to explain the dynamics of the relationship, how I keep trying to fend her off and how she kept persisting. "And you know the scariest thing about all this, sir?"
"She's starting to grow on you," the Commander groaned in a worried-yet-knowing tone.
"Yes sir," I replied with honest shame.
Roy sighed. "I hate having to ask this question but... has she shown any sexual interest in you?"
"A bit, sir," I replied reluctantly, but I knew that from a female's perspective that the few times she was sending those particular signals, they were loud and clear. "I think it was mostly just to yank my chain, though, but its there."
"Great," grumped the Lieutenant-Commander. "Can you at least promise me that if she makes any more of those kinds of advances on you that you'll fend them off and then immediately report to me?"
"Yes sir, that I can promise you."
"Good. The last thing I need is to have you brought up on charges. I'm going to let this go for now, Grimm. There's nothing in the UCMJ that says she can't hang around you. But the moment it starts getting physical... You better not disappoint me, Garrick."
"I won't, sir."
"Good. Anything else you'd like to get off your chest?"
"Just one thing, sir."
Roy looked at me apprehensively.
"You be careful out there yourself. If I heard the rumor mill right, you got a perfectly good woman waiting for you too, sir. And I'll get you home even if I gotta drag you there in battloid mode."
Roy barked a laugh. "The rookie telling me he's gonna get me home? That's rich. Get some sleep Grimm. We got ourselves a long day tomorrow."
"Yes sir."
----------------
Fortunately, sleep did come, and quicker than I thought it would, so I woke up the next morning not feeling completely like death warmed over. I was just thankful that they had Monster Energy drinks on board. Although I did miss the Import version of their cans, I was more in a position to gulp it all down in one shot and run anyway. Once I had breakfast in me, though, I was firing on all eight cylinders and raring to go.
"You're looking chipper," said Rick as he caught up with me in the pilot's mess.
"Energy drink for the kickstart and a good breakfast works wonders," I replied.
"Not a coffee person?" Rick asked.
"Too troublesome in the morning. I just grab a can from the fridge, gulp it down, and I'm through the shower and dressed in no time. Sometimes if I know its gonna be a really bad morning in advance I'll put the can behind my pillow. A warm drink right away is sometimes better than trying to bumble my way out of bed for a cold one."
"I might try that sometime," Rick grumped.
----------------
From there, it was death-by-powerpoint briefings. Fortunately I was smart enough to bring an extra energy drink for Rick, so he managed to stay awake. The plan was that we were to fly through the rings of Saturn with EWAR systems kicking out all kinds of noise. The idea was to act as a decoy for the Zents and draw them into a firefight. Once we had their attention we were to keep it while the SDF-1 positioned itself to fire its main gun.
In theory, it was a sound tactic. Except one thing...
"Are the any questions?" asked Roy.
I raised my hand and Roy called on me. "Sir, what if the SDF-1 has some kind of issue with the main gun? A misfire, as it were? Do we have a contingency plan set aside in that event?"
"That's a good question, pilot, but it's a bit above your paygrade. You better watch it or else."
"Yes sir," I said as I sat back down. Hopefully that will make it back up the chain of command and Lisa will be prodded into coming up with the Daedalus Assault sooner rather than later.
----------------
Strapped in. Sealed up. Life support connected. Cockpit depressurized. Fusion turbines nominal. Propulsion agent tanks full. Fully armed. EWAR is green.
And for myself, I was as jittery as they come. At least I had the comfort of knowing that I wasn't the only one.
Hearing Rick's voice cracking over the radio was especially amusing.
My VF-1A was towed out to the the catapults and locked into place. Once I got the all clear, I started the engines and set them to full military power. After I checked over all my powerplant readings and ran my RCS through a thorough check, I signaled my readiness to fly with a salute to the catapult officer.
Inspectors made one final check on my plane, I got a final reading of my craft's gross weight, and the cat officer gave the final go signal.
Once upon a time I got to ride a fun roller coaster in Japan that used something like a catapult system to launch you out a tunnel at four G's of acceleration.
This was about the same.
"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" I screamed, making sure to keep my hands away from the PTT button. That was an awesome rush. But after that, it was time to work.
Right away I found Rick and formed up with him as my wingman.
"Okay, brutha, you ready for this?"
"Whenever you are, Old Man."
"Cool. Let's you and I keep it cool and tight, just like the sims. Last thing I wanna hear is Lieutenant-Commander Hayes bitching us out."
"Amen to that!"
----------------
I had the lead at first when we began our trek through the rings, but we switched places when we crossed into the shadow zone. Rick's reflexes were a bit better than mine so I'd have a split-second to react after him. In this way, we made it through the rings with little trouble at at.
As we knew it would, the Zentraedi came barreling in through the rings, their ship plowing ice-rocks aside like a wake from a ship. As we exited the shadow zone, we broke formation under a hail of anti-ship missiles while, far off in the distance, the SDF-1 took it's position.
All hell broke loose as we hit a field of space thick with Zentraedi battlepods of all kinds. It was madness, and it took everything for Rick and I to stick together.
"C'mon, Garrick! Let's rack these guys up, just like we practiced in the sims!"
"You got it, Rick!" And with that we began to settle into a rhythm. Rick takes one out while letting one settle on his tail and I would come and take that one out before it could get so much as a bead on him. Battlepods are weak little things. Their armor is laughable and they don't even maneuver anywhere nearly as well our Valkyries. However, for every one of us there's seems to be fifty of them. Seems like pretty even odds to me. Rick and I alternated over and over again until we got an advisement from Lieutenant-Commander Hayes to be aware of the SDF-1 changing its position. I spared a glance at my tactical monitor and saw that the SDF-1 had begun a head-on charge at the attacking Zentraedi ship.
This brought a smile to my lips. Roy had been smart enough to bring it up to Lisa, and Lisa thought of the Daedalus Assault much sooner in advance and briefed the Captain. And instead of taking the precious time needed to wait and see if the problem could be fixed, and for the destroids to be armed up, manned up, and moved into position, they are ready to go the moment they know the main gun is out of commission. I would probably get no credit, but that was fine by me. My satisfaction was the fact that many more Veritech pilots would be coming home today than there would have been without my interference.
Let me tell you, seeing the Daedalus Assault up-close and in-person was a sight to see! Like one of my favorite signatures said about it, nothing says screw you like an amphibious assault ship to the face!
Cheers filled the radio channels as we began to mop up the battle pods that were still in the area.
It took a while. Zentreadi rarely retreat. We had to destroy every single battle pod that had been fielded. Fortunately, there wasn't that many left, but we still lost a few people that got careless.
As we made our way back to the SDF-1, some niggling little thought occurred to me. I check the chronometer and saw that it was May 16th, 2009.
Three months to the day since I arrived in this strange place. But why did I have this feeling of foreboding? It was just a so-called anniversary, right?
And with that thought, I had the strangest sensation of everything stopping for the briefest eternity.

[Seraviel]

I'm personally not a fan of Robotech, but there's only one thing I can say:

Good work, soldier.*Salutes*
-People may die, but ideas are forever. Je suis Charlie.

[deadpan29]

This may be something that was adressed in the show or novels, but why are they using the catapult system? In atmosphere, it's used to get the plane up to airspeed in the short distance available on the carrier deck. Out in space there is no air and no airspeed. Not only could the planes take off without the catapult but they could just take a form with legs and jump off the edge or the side or lift straight "up". I would think any advantage in getting an initial velocity boost towards the enemy would be more than cancled by the delay in getting the next set of planes into action as you reset the catapult and set the planes into it.
----------
No, I don't believe the world has gone mad.  In order for it to go mad it would need to have been sane at some point.

[Star Ranger4]

Depends on who you ask, really.

To me I've always accepted it as part "we might be in space right now, but we'll practice like we're in the soup so we remember how to do that if needed" and "it looks cool ergo there must be some psudo tech reason why we will"
kind of like some of the quirks associated with Handwavium in the fenspace setting next board down.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[Black Aeronaut]

At this point, I'd choose the 'It keeps us from getting rusty' option. Besides, another way of looking at it is that the reaction mass you have on hand is precious. Whether you have enough or not could be the difference between making it back home or drifting out into space until you die (oversimplifying, yes, but you get the idea). A Cat-launch can save on how much you'd have to expend to get up to speed.

[Thesilentjackofalltrade]

Here is a little segment of my first chapter: Chapter 1 of The Brothers Grimm: Slade's side, Why do I feel like I should hear an 'I told you so.'?
EDIT: Worked out a few kinks, still working on Deadpan29's suggestions. Only really worked on the very beginning, and took a stab at describing Kamahri Ronso in more detail.
EDIT 2: Worked it a little more, I took Foxboy's advice, and changed things a little in the beginning to let it read better.
EDIT 3: Fixed a few things, made it flow a little better, and changed the sandstone to limestone at Blackaeronaut's suggestion.
EDIT 4: The destruction sphere is really a Besaid Sphere, I would recognizance this, and use it for something else. Also, one of my brother's pointed out that the only damage we see done on the temple inside the trials section of any temple is done by spheres, and the previous damage from other summoners in the past are never there. The temple would repair, rather quickly, any damage I do without a sphere, because that is breaking the rules of the puzzle. In other words, the wall I busted though would seal itself back up, buying me more time that I need to get the real destruction sphere.
The only reason why I was able to get though the wall is because I knocked out the Pedestal, where the wall is not meant to repair.

-0-0-0-0-0-

The last thing I remember was joking with my brother Spenser about the Princess Mononoka movie. We were in the back of Scrappy; Scrappy can't hold all five of us in the front cab. It can hold four, but not comfortably. I was drinking a grape soda and holding a rarity for me in Japan, a Butterfinger. I was laughing, I would rarely laugh out loud for any length of time, Spencer is damn good at trolling.

My Butterfinger was a lost cause three seconds later, the reason for the tragic loss of my butterfinger was due to gravity taking a rather unexpected hold on me. I came crashing to the ground, trying to catch myself from falling. I made contact with the hard surface underneath me, which I noted was a stone floor a half second later.

On the bright side, I somehow managed to jam my left pinky finger while trying to catch myself from falling....Bye bye Butterfinger, hello sore finger…At least I managed to save my soda. I thought to myself sarcastically. I sat upright to get my bearings. I knew already what happened, my instincts told me all I needed to know in that moment.

I jumped.

“Fuck.” I muttered, looking around the room to try and get a hint at where I was. Spencer and I were joking about going to Princess Mononoke, so the concept of jumping was not out of the question. To have it happen however…Let’s just say panic was rising.

At first glance, I was in a stone room, the walls were brown and gray with torches for lightning on the walls and just sitting on the floor. In a vain attempt to stay calm, I took a sip of my soda, while rubbing my pinky finger, thinking various less then pleasant thoughts towards whatever sent me here. I mentally noted that the ceiling looked rather plain, I was in a stone structure of some sort.

I was about to stand up, when something touched my throat. I looked down, and dropped my soda There was the tip of a blade at my throat, I saw large blue legs and a stick connected to the blade, my eyes followed the apparent spear, and I blinked upon discovering who held my life in their hands. The surprise was evident on my features, because this shouldn't have happened. I blinked again, realizing what was going on, knowing I shouldn’t have
even been surprised. “Right.” I said, wondering why this was happening to me. Skuld mentioned that the other guy only went to anime's, but we didn't jump like he did.

The fellow holding this very sharp blade was a large blue cat man. And when I mean large, I mean around or even bigger than the average size of a football linebacker. The Catman was large, blue, furry, had the base of a horn on his
forehead, elf ears that were somehow thickly round at the tips, was
barely dressed, and carried a lance. This was Kamahri Ronso, guardian of
Yuna, future leader of the Ronso.

“Don’t move.” I heard to my left, I held still, getting a good look at the cat person in front of me. Anything with that many straps and metal rings should be fetish gear, but he made it work as normal attire.

“Final…wait, no…who would be stupid enough to put me HERE?” I muttered to myself, not believing what was happening. That rat bastard ROB put me in Final Fantasy 10. That proves this guy is a rat bastard. Well, at least to everyone, not just to me. I was snapped out of my mental glee when the blade came closer to my neck. Then again, this might not be such a good thing.

“Ok, no need for that.” I said, raising my hands up in a surrendering motion. I noted the slightly smug look on Kamahri’s face at my sudden change from glee to very concerned. All cats are like this, smug little fuckers. I heard a hum from the voice to my left, and I tried to look ever so
slightly. I could see a black form to my left, humanoid, but that was
not what was on my mind.

“So you are going to cooperate?" SHE, I noted based off her voice, asked slowly and calmly. Cooperate? This women obviously never came across a guy that didn't bend so easily. She WAS intimidating, in a certain respect when you knew she could quite literally fry your balls. "Good. That save's us some trouble. Now tell us what are you doing here?” The person to my left asked. This was Lulu, Black Mage and Emo of Final Fantasy 10. This was going to be FUN. (Sarcasm alert!)

“Sight seeing.” I joked, but on the inside I was about ready to run away, this chick was one tough customer, and Kamahri was even tougher. Ok, I have to get out of this life threatening situation. I immediately started to think of a plan, while paying attention to Lulu and Kamahri. I only had to think this fast while multitasking a few times in my life, and I needed a mental break after each time. I was going though each time Kamahri was alone with Lulu, to find out WHERE I was in Spira, that was done rather quickly.

The only place that looked like this, and had them together alone was in the very beginning of the game, thus in Basaid, and Thus in time to fuck everything up beyond all recognition, and save the world in the process. Ok, I have to answer there questions for now.

Now that I had a chance for further study, I noticed that the room was rather dark, regardless of the torches. The stone walls were very ornamented with cloth, and they were only slightly more artistic then the carved stone walls. The fire lighting, both purple and orange, gave a strict feel to the room. Not exactly a place you would want to hang out all the time, regardless of the artwork.

“You are not meant to be here. Tell us why you have come down here, and how.” Lulu said, as I noted that Kamahri put his lance closer to my throat in a very threatening manner. I tightened up, not too happy about my situation. I noted that if I kept on going from happy to tense, I was going to have a heart attack.

“Yeah, understatement of the year.” I muttered, then spoke up to answer her question. “I am here because some asshole put me here for no real reason, and I got here by some advanced form of inner dimensional tech or magical babble.” I summed up, Lulu obviously did not understand most of it, and I practically felt the cold coming off of her.

“Who put you here? And Why?”Lulu asked in a cold, yet calm, tone. Kamahri lowered his lance from my neck at a gesture from Lulu. I rubbed my throat, at least I wasn’t dead. I thought to myself sarcastically, and in a bit of anger, I gave an Lulu my answer.

“The fucking tooth fairy.” I said, perfectly serious, that was as good of an answer as any. All for I know it was a random thing that happens to some people. Anyway, knowing that these guys are mary sues, they would let me go if they do not understand. "As for why, he probably sent me here to offer the two of you this awesome dental program, black mages get half off, and we have special cases for Psychlo's. You ARE kinda like Psychlo's with blue skin and a horn, right?" I asked Kamahri, who in turn gave me a glare, letting me know that that was not the correct answer. I probably shouldn't have mentioned the horn. He is ashamed that his horn broke, and that is why he is quite all of the time.

“Lies.” He stated, pointing his lance at me again, making me remembered WHAT Kamahri is. I raised my hands slowly to show I was not a threat, and wanted to bash my head in for my mistake. Too much snark, too quickly.

“Right, forgot that your nose might be a lie detector.” I mutter, and look up to see the Ronso hiding a slight smirk. Right, cat ears. He clearly heard me say that. I cleared my throat, after giving this a quick moment of thought. The truth, but not the whole truth.

“I have an idea, but I am not sure about it.” I stated, and Lulu sighed, and waved her hand at Kamahri. Kamahri gave a slight growl, but lowered his lance.

“Are you going to continue being vague? Or are you going to explain yourself.” I turned to her, and got my first good look at her.

She was in nothing but black cloth in a sort of dress with a corset outside of her dress, and a large cut out on the lower to middle front end of her dress that would have shown her legs and other areas if not for the black leather straps under where the dress would have been. The straps were arranged in such a way that they showed bits of her stockings and inner thigh without revealing anything. Her outfit had white fur lining the top of her outfit, and white patterns on the outer edges of her clothing, wore two necklaces a set of earrings, and two large hair needles in her hair. She had long black hair, and looked slightly more athletic then what she looked like in the games, but she was still...well endowed.

My eyes were locked with Lulu’s dark brown eyes for but a split second. I’ll worry about her later. I thought to myself, and tried to figure out how to get out of this predicament. Obviously Lulu was the type that tried to figure out things, so my original plan was not going to work.

I looked around quickly, forming a plan in my head. There was a short hallway to my right, and stairs to my left, the stairs led to the summoning chamber, where Yuna was trying desperately to become a summoner.

“This is a Guardian chamber, in the Besaid temple, right?” I asked, trying to buy myself time. Lulu nodded her head, and asked me a question.

“You didn’t know that already?” She arched an eyebrow. I said nothing, I knew, but not for the reasons she would think. Ok, a person could only be down here for three known reasons, if you’re a summoner, a guardian, or logically, if you’re maintaining the place.

“I’m a traveler with more flier miles then I would care to count.” I deadpan, but continue. “I am not going to go into details you wouldn’t understand, but let’s just say I am not from Spira.” Kamahri gave me a look, examining my face. I know I was just prompted to explain.

“Do you know about other worlds?” I asked, taking a leap of faith. PLEASE, whatever being that has been fucking with me, let them have a little bit of knowledge, or at least vague mythology. The Ronso was silent, as if digesting this bit, while Lulu was not amused.

“Other worlds?” She asked, on edge.

“Do you know of other worlds, at least the ones made by the far plane?” I asked, hoping for an answer. Surprisingly, it was Kamahri who answered.

“Death. The place where souls go when souls die permanently.” Kamahri said, giving me a concerned look, apparently he thought I was telling the truth so far. I was, so Kamahri was not sure of himself.

“Good, so there is another world you know of. Now, I am not from that world, or this one, I am from another world, one without the presence of Pyraflies, one you never heard about.” I claimed, and Kamahri shared a look with Lulu.

“I do not know what is going on, but he is clearly out of his mind.” Lulu said, and I felt rather irritated when she said that, but that irritation disappeared when I remembered that I debate on Spacebattles. She had a slight point, but for the wrong reasons.

I thought about arguing with her, when suddenly Kamahri puffed his chest into the air in an over exaggerated manner.

“Uhhh...what are you doing?” I asked, almost afraid to ask.

“No pyraflies.” Kamahri said, his eyes wide and full of shock.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, not following what he was talking about.

“Kamahri, what do you mean?” Lulu asked, taking a step closer to Kamahri.

“No pyraflies...no soul.” Kamahri said, pausing, then continuing. “Everything is made of pyraflies…except for the realm of death.” He tried to explain, utterly confused. I just sighed, and tried to explain.

“Like I have already said, I am from another world. My world is completely different then Spira, even on the spiritual level. Pyraflies do not exist where I am from.” I said, and Lulu scoffed in disbelief.

“I do not understand…but you speak truth.” Kamahri said, growling a little. Kamahari just studied me. I shifted uncomfortably, regardless of popular opinion, a stone floor is not comfortable. I was unfortunate to not be on the amazing, thick, throw down carpet a few feet away from me. Or that uncomfortable feeling was from a set of cat eyes staring down at me. I never liked it when cats would do that. I just wanted to move on, but I was stuck. I was at their mercy for now, I had to find a way out. Kamahri shook his head, eyes locked onto mine the whole time. I knew he was trying to read into my persona, to feel my every emotion, in order to know what I was about to do.

“Right.” I said, and Kamahri crinkled his nose. I wanted to get out of here, away from immediate danger. I was going to leave, screw the consequences.

“New smell?” Kamahri asked.

I was confused, did I stink? I took a bath five hours ago! I looked around, and my eyes locked onto the butterfinger. Damn, he really is like a cat. I picked it up, and smiled. I got up, stretching my legs and arms. I smiled in glee as I watched kamahri's eyes follow the candy bar. I tore off a bit, and offered it to the ‘kitty’.

“Don’t eat that!” Lulu snapped, and I scoffed.

“Its candy." I said in a are you kidding me tone. "Yeah, it’s been on the floor, but these floors look almost good enough to eat off of.” I retorted, and Lulu just folded her arms and shook her head, just watching with a look of disapproval. Kamahri took the piece cautiously, and took a good sniff of it. He gave it a wide eyed look, and put it near his mouth, then stopped, looking very tempted.

Kamahri looked from me to Lulu, and just took a little test lick of the chocolate. I took a breath, this was an opening, now to widen it.

“What is this?” He asked, lightly biting the chocolate and peanut butter goodness.

“Candy, a treat people eat on occasion.” Kamahri popped the whole chunk into his mouth and looked to me, demanding more. How he looked intimidating though the whole scene, I have no idea.

I lifted it in offering to Kamahri, and smirked. Right as Kamahri was about to grab it, I threw the candy bar at Lulu, Kamahri jumped after it in a rather overpowered jump. I didn’t watch what happened, but Lulu gave a rather loud yell in protest when the candy bar hit her face, and even louder when Kamahri knocked her over while trying to stop.

I ran down the hallway, and stopped near the end, eyes wide, heart beating rapidly. I was SOOOOO fucked. What the hell was wrong with the elevator!

“Kamahri!” I heard, and I turned slowly to Lulu glaring at me, and kamahri readying a throw with his lance.

I tensed up, hoping I was ready for what was t come. Kamahri threw his lance at me, I quickly realized he was aiming for my head. I managed to get out of the way, as I did I felt the lance come close to me, the sudden movement of air next to me, then I heard the unmistakable sound of metal breaking stone. I kept my eyes on the two. I then got an idea, and yelled out in a surprised tone.

“Lady Yuna!” Kamahri turned around, along with Lulu. Alright this thing has to be an elevator…I have to get it working.

I stood in the middle, and nothing happened. I didn’t remember an activation switch or anything like that. It dawned on me that I was just screwed, I had no chance in hell. When I turned around, back towards the two I just pissed off, I saw Lulu put an arm out for Kamahri to wait. She was holding a doll, and was shaking her arm. My eyes widened, and I jumped to left, diving away.

“BURN!” she said with slight venom, then she yelled out in shock. “It can’t be!” I dodged the spell, something that is almost never seen in final fantasy 10. I didn’t question how or why I was able to do that with my slow movements in comparison to these guys, I just knew I needed a weapon. I got up quickly, and jumped at Kamahri’s Lance, which was now poking out of the stone wall behind me. My eyes widened, as I sprang forward grabbing it. I could see why I made such a stupid choice. I needed a way to defend myself, but there was no way I could win that kind of fight.

I held the lance, it was a bit heavier than a shovel, and much longer. I held it in a defensive position, and Kamahri hesitated, and slowly started to walk towards me. I saw Lulu trying another spell, and I jumped to the right this time, managing to get out of the way of a shell of ice that formed where I was a moment ago. Kamahri started to walk faster, making me feel nervous.

The elevator suddenly started to move, and I heard Kamahri growl, and charge. I threw his lance right back at him, managing to hit his arm. He stopped for a moment, that moment I needed to let the elevator continue upwards. I just wanted to leave the place with my life, I was not sure what was going to happen.

My heart was beating hard, I clenched my fists, feeling the adrenaline enter into my system. This was the worst kind of rush, the one you get when things happen so fast your body didn’t react in time. Things slowed down ever so slightly, and I tried to loosen up. I took a deep breath, cursing myself. I hate the adrenaline rush from a fight that doesn’t get physical. Actually fighting is sometimes preferred over that spare rush.

I paused, and remembered that I did just stab Kamahri, so maybe it was physical, but it happened so fast…I waited for the elevator to stop, and I got off. I saw a large wall down the hallway, and I looked back at the elevator, and noticed the elevator was sealed.

It then clicked for me. When a new person enters the trials section, the tests reset. Wait...we don’t see that with Riku. Just with Tidus…I ignored it, and decided that if I was able to get up here, then so could Kamahri.

I shook my head, I don’t have time for this! How do I get past this wall? I ran towards it, and checked it out. I took note of the pedestal in it, and remembered that it was made to move. I was able to kick the lance out of the wall rather easily…

I heard the elevator move, and panic rose. With the leftover adrenaline from before, I started to frantically slam the pedestal, if I were in a more rational state of mind, I would have done it more efficiently, noting that this looks like limestone, easy to break.

I eventually broke the pedestal free, and quickly pushed the pedestal out of the way, creating an opening. I heard the elevator stop, and I felt dread. I had to escape. I pushed the Pedestal back in its hole. A crappy way of hiding what I did, but it would have to do.

I ran off to the left, and saw it was a dead end. “Fuck me.” I said, hearing the elevator rise. I ran to where the wall was, and huffed in anger, slamming my fist against the wall next to me in anger, I would have to leave the village, hide on the boat to get to Luca where I can hide out.
Suddenly the wall behind me that I just slammed my fist against was gone. I looked behind me, and saw something that might help me, a glowing light blue orb surrounded by purple light and some odd looking symbol. I realized what it was, it was a Besaid sphere. Maybe...I heard the elevator stop, and with a glance at the sphere, I needed that if I was going to get out of here or grab that destruction sphere. Either way, I needed it.

I grabbed the sphere, I heard Kamahri’s footsteps next to the wall, I ran to the wall with the sphere, and pulled it out, and ran back to the wall, and turned towards the exit, where I could here Kamahri "Your on the other side? How?" He growled.
It was then that I noted that the wall was repaired, and I was counting my blessings. I ran and down the hallway to what was now my left, away from the dead end. I was hoping the Besaid sphere can be used to activate the wall to get to the destruction sphere, the high grade explosive magic orb. I figured that if I threw the destruction sphere hard enough at the wall
next to Kamahri, it might blow up. THAT should hurt him enough to give
me a fighting chance...
I pressed the orb to the wall, and my hopes came crashing down. Nothing happened. I pulled it out, and decided that leaving was best, I would just charge straight though everyone, after all, Wakka was doing blitzball practice, so no one would really stop me, just like how no one tried to stop Tidus from entering the chamber in the game. I ran quickly to the door at the end of the hallway, and slammed on it.
"COME ON!" I yelled, the door was sealed. I too a deep breath, and put the sphere in the slot on the door. I smiled, the door started to open. Once open, I pulled the sphere out, and took off towards the stairs ahead of me. I went up one stair case, when I heard a long drawn out roar. I looked towards where Kamahri would be, and shuttered. He would hunt me down for using his own lance on him like that. I then saw another sphere, and everything just clicked for me.
I had to kill or disable Kamahri Ronso, or I was doomed to being beaten by that mass of muscle, then most likely religiously persecuted, perhaps tortured by the yevon community. I tunred back to the exit, I had no way of defeating him, so I had to do something, maybe swim out to sea...I stopped, and I wanted to laugh. My orginal plan of taking kamahri out might still work, because I found the Glyph Sphere. I took it out, and ran back to the wall that is holding the destruction Sphere.
"Kamahri will NOT be trapped!" I heard around the corner, followed by a loud crash. I quickly put the sphere in the wall, and grabbed the Destruction Sphere. I turned and went down the hallway, cautiously. Another crash, and a loud growl followed. As I turned the corner, my eyes grew wide as I saw the wall repairing its self from Kamahri breaking the wall most of the way. Apparently the pedestal was in the way, I noted, when the pedestal flew down where the Besaid Sphere came from. I heard it break, and I winced at the shattering sound. It suddenly reappeared where it was kicked from, and Kamahri growled. I gulped, and took a breath, feeling the adrenaline coming again. I got the destruction sphere ready, and let the breath I just took go.
This was a coward’s tactic. But I have no real choice…I thought to myself, and then scoffed. Who was I kidding, it’s not really cowardice, he’s armed, I’m not, he is a bulk of muscle, and I’m just barely in shape. Sweat was going down my neck. I felt a shiver in anticipation. This was maddening. I tried to breathe quietly, when Kamahri spoke.

“Your there. Kamahri can hear you.” I scowled, getting angry. My pace quickened ever so slightly, and I thought a mantra to myself.

“So, is Lulu with you, or is she still guarding Yuna?” I asked, not even bothering to be subtle. Kamahri paused.

“Still guarding...How do you know Black mage’s name?”

“I’m from another world. We know shit like that where I come from.” I said, and Kamahri grunted. I breathed a shallow breath, and let it out.

Fear’s an illusion. You must break the illusion. I thought to myself, and then repeated. Normally it was a longer mantra, but this was not a phobia, this was a mass of muscle. I didn’t have time to gather courage, I needed to just face it and hope I have enough to deal with whatever is thrown my way.

The pedestal was pulled away, into the room with Kamahri. Then Kamahri burst though the wall in a explosion of dust and rubble. I threw the sphere as hard as I could at the wall next to Kamahri, the very wall he just burst from. Before I even threw it, I half expected this to fail, but it was too late to run away.

I would forever remember the next three seconds, the beauty of the explosion was not even close to the best explosion I have seen, but it was the most personal one as of yet.

As the Sphere flew out, I realized a fatal mistake on my part, I kinda gave Kamahri back his lance back in the hallway down by the guardian chamber. Kamahri’s lance went in a picture perfect arc, intercepting the sphere right as it was a few feet away from the wall. As it came into contact with the sphere, my eyes widened, and I started to turn away, but managed to watch the powerful sphere shattering into what appeared to be a million shimmering shards of crystal. It was beautiful.

And painful to watch, I noted a second later when a bright, violet flash of light stabbed my eyes, the blast hit me, making me fly into the wall behind me. I relaxed upon getting blasted away, I remember that if your tense, you’re more likely to break bones. Luckily for me, I was not slammed that hard to break them anyway. I was just one large bruise. I had dropped the Besaid Sphere at one point in my flight, and didn't bother looking for it, it was the furthest thing from my mind.

When I could see again, I saw rubble in the hallway, or, what used to be a hallway. There was one large circle of destruction, like in scorched earth, but the rubble was in all three paths. I slowly got back up, muttering in pain. I checked myself out, and was glad to note that I had no major injuries. I wasn't limping, and I could still move, painfully, but I was not restricted in my movements. I walked towards what used to be a well designed hallway, and my eyes widened at the destruction. The area was in ruin. I walked forward, and I was surprised that there was no smoke. I noticed blood, a lot of blood, but it didn't registrator yet.

The explosion didn’t have any heat. I thought to myself in sudden realization, I was considering this when I came across something I didn’t consider.

“Well…fuck.” I said, now wondering what to do.
_____________
Veni, vidi, vici. [I came, I saw, I conquered
Quote from Julius Caesar

[deadpan29]

I don't understand the sentence, "I was in a dark room, very orientated with cloth," unless that's supposed to be "ornamented" rather than "orientated". For the rest of it, I never got into any of the FF games, so I sort of know who Lulu is from cultural referneces by others but otherwise have no idea what is going on here.
----------
No, I don't believe the world has gone mad.  In order for it to go mad it would need to have been sane at some point.

[Thesilentjackofalltrade]

Deadpan29 wrote:

---

I don't understand the sentence, "I was in a dark room, very orientated with cloth," unless that's supposed to be "ornamented" rather than "orientated". For the rest of it, I never got into any of the FF games, so I sort of know who Lulu is from cultural referneces by others but otherwise have no idea what is going on here.

Thanks for pointing that out, you are correct.
Sorry, I am a fan of Final Fantasy 10 because of the game play (Storyline kinda sucks), I guess it makes sense that others would not understand what's going on here.
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Fina ... sy_X#Story
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Fina ... Characters
I can't find a good summary of the game on youtube. If you have any questions about this world, just ask.
_____________
Veni, vidi, vici. [I came, I saw, I conquered
Quote from Julius Caesar

[deadpan29]

Well, this is a situation in which it actually makes sense for the viewpoint character to take a moment to mentally list where he is, what's currently happening, what's likely to happen in the near future, and some details about who the people around him are. Consider adding a paragraph of that nature somewhere in there.
----------
No, I don't believe the world has gone mad.  In order for it to go mad it would need to have been sane at some point.

[Black Aeronaut]

Okay, I'm just gonna lay out the basic stuff as well as some of my concerns.
First of all, this fic is going to be directly related to ATC's Sleeping With The Girls - while no real familiarity with this work is actually needed, it does help.  We are currently working with ATC's permission on this and even get occasional 'technical support' from him.
Secondly... this is about as different from Sleeping With The Girls as SWTG is from Drunkard's Walk.  Yes, characters are jumping to different worlds in a seemingly (at first) random pattern.  Yes, looping the cycle of world-jumps is involved.  The Matter Property Transfer principal is in full effect.  There is even tangential jump, but about there the similarities end.
Differences:

• Five brothers instead of a single SI.
• The brothers are all named, but the names are changed (this is even a mechanic in the story).
• Fixed time in each world - no real jump-trigger is involved.
• No absence-gaps - after initial arrival in each world, a character's departing-jump is immediately followed by his arriving-jump for the next loop.  (In other words, to an outside observer the character does not disappear - they suddenly change to reflect their recent adventures.)
• Massively increased mass-limit for jumps - up to ten metric tons.  (Granted, this is a cheat for some worlds... but an absolute necessity for others.  Think space opera.)

That's about all I can think of off the top of my head.  But then, we also have a few features that were not even featured in SWTG.

• Paths for each sibling diverge and converge at regular intervals - for every 'group world' we get two 'solo worlds'.  And there are four of these 'group worlds'.
• Divine Protection - each sibling is protected from direct intervention from other deity.  Exception is in the case where one of us goes knocking on a given diety's door and more-or-less asking for attention.  However, outright kill-smites are a no-no.  The reason for this will become clear later on.
• Where it is feasible, we appear with appropriate documentation in hand - photo IDs, visas, etc.  Official signatories are going to look like some bad pun, but will hold up against close inspection.
  

Some of my concerns is due to this being a group writing project for myself and my brothers.  Recently, I've been forced to give up the position of 'Editor-in-Chief' for the project on the condition that no one else usurp the title.  We're pretty much doing this as a council now, but a lot of times I find myself outvoted on a number of things that I feel violate the basic principals of deconstruction.  Therefore, I've warned my brothers that they will be on their own in defending themselves against criticism, but some of them still don't seem to take me terribly seriously on the matter.
Another concern of mine... I have to teach some of my brothers simply how to write.  There have already been a few violations of the 'Show, Don't Tell' rule so terrible that the writing reads drier than a police report.  Although I do have to admit that they make for excellent plot outlines.
I don't have the complete world list for all my siblings in front of me, but I can at least provide my own jump-path as it stands now.
Group Worlds in Bold.
Solo Worlds in Italics.

• Oh! My Goddess (X-over point with SWTG)
  
• Robotech/Macross
  
• Vandread
• Pokemon (Anime Continuity, God help me...)
  
• Katanagatari
• Utawarerumono
• Portal/Half-Life
• Space Battleship Yamato 2199
• Banner of the Stars
• Final Fantasy VII
• Bubblegum Crisis (OVA series)
  
• Battle Angel Alita: Last Order

Fixed time spent in each world is three months.  Right now, we're running with the idea that an aging-freeze has also been applied to the brothers, but I'm toying with the idea of rescinding that to add to the plot.  Supposedly, we'll all age extremely gracefully anyhow if our Real World looks and precedent from our mother were to hold out.  (Mom is nearly sixty and is frequently mistaken for being forty.  She even gets hit on pretty regularly whenever Dad's not around.)  However, thanks to Dad premature graying is not out of the question for my sibs.  I'm technically a step-child so it's a non-issue for me, but I'll appear even younger for it.
It should be noted that I acquire a VF-1A Valkyrie in Robotech... and I manage to take it with me, not quite realizing I was going to jump (I suspect at this point, but I'm not certain until immediately afterwards).  This acquisition, though it is highly modified over the course of events, becomes absolutely indispensable when I hit my Space Opera Arc. (Jumping unprotected into hard vacuum - not recommended.)
Another note: my character begins studying Aikido early on - most likely Shodokan Aikido - in Oh! My Goddess.  This is due to my character's balance being upset by the sudden shift (no matter how much he likes Japan) and seeking to regain some equilibrium.  In Robotech, however, he will start adding to his repertoire of disarmament capability - not just knives, but also swords, staffs, spears, pole-arms, and even firearms.  This, of course, is mainly in anticipation of future trouble.  Eventually it will begin to culminate when he arrives in Katanagatari where Yasuri Shichika's interest is piqued - Aikido is, after all, the very antithesis to his Kyotoryu.  (Technically an empty-handed style, Kyotoryu focuses on 'forging' your body as though making it into a blade, therefore making you into a living sword, or a swordless swordsman.  It is very heavy on traumatic killing blows.  Aikido has its technical base in swordsmanship as well, but focuses on harming your opponent as little as possible with joint locks and throws.  Also has the advantage of having no real precedence in Japan during the Edo period.)
For my character to spar Shichika is a joke - it is literally like trying to fight a tree (imagery that isn't helped by his leaf-pattern motif).  Shichika is simply that large and powerful.  His sister, Nanami, on the other hand has no such strength and the gentle style of Aikido is agreeable to her weak constitution.  She would spar out of pure curiosity.  She always likes to learn new things and has an uncanny ability to learn techniques from a single observation, and then master them, to the point of finding and correcting flaws, on a second observation.  She would be able to extrapolate and perfect my character's Aikido, and, despite its distinct lack of killing blows, probably deem it a worthy rival of the Kyotoryu, herself having learned it by secretly observing Shichika's lessons.  She would insist I perfect the style so Shichika would have someone to 'hone' himself against.
Thoughts so far?

[Bluemage]

So if I'm understanding the properties of your jumps correctly, you appear in a universe, in which you have a certain set amount of time before you disappear again, only to reappear in the same place and time you left when you return there in the next loop.
...what happens if you left the AMS universe inside, say, a bedroom?  Would you then reappear inside that bedroom... inside a VF-1A bigger than the room?  On that same note, what happens if you appear next to somebody else?

---

My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.

I've been writing a bit.

[Seraviel]

I'd need more information. I.E. what are the goals in this.

To explain, what makes DW that interesting to me are the two goals: First, Doug's desire to return home to his wife, which is perfectly understandable given the personality he shows, and second the overall goal of his travels (I amk not one who believes they are completely random, not after the OMG step). I have my theories about that one, as I am sure many have, but they remain at the moment theories.

So, why are the brothers walking the worlds, both personally and plot-wise ?
-People may die, but ideas are forever. Je suis Charlie.

[Star Ranger4]

I dont either Seraviel. In fact, I got the distinct impression that "The THree" are using Doug in sort of a QL manner; his seemingly 'random' jumps are directed by the 3 to ensure he appears at the places/times where he can make changes for the better just by being himself.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[classicdrogn]

Interesting, but the potential to go horribly, horribly wrong is massive, terrifying, and possibly both in either order. I will be interested to see how it goes...
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[Black Aeronaut]

So
if I'm understanding the properties of your jumps correctly, you appear
in a universe, in which you have a certain set amount of time before you
disappear again, only to reappear in the same place and time you left
when you return there in the next loop.

Correct.

...what happens if you left the AMS universe inside, say, a
bedroom?  Would you then reappear inside that bedroom... inside a VF-1A
bigger than the room?  On that same note, what happens if you appear
next to somebody else?

The intention is that the increased
mass limit is intended for vehicles and other items that are intended to
be 'portable'.  As for appearing next to someone else... the jumps are
not intended to be malicious in such a manner, not even through the
inattention of the being enabling these jumps.  There will be no
'splatter-spawning' happening in this story.

I'd need more information. I.E. what are the goals in this.

So, why are the brothers walking the worlds, both personally and plot-wise ?

Okay, this is gonna be interesting...
There is gonna be the obvious - try to get back home.  Of course, we'll go the obvious route right away and try to ask Belldandy and her sisters for help.  They'll politely say no, and explain that they've been forbidden from helping on that front, and more than that they can't say.  This is a clue hammer that tells us the the Almighty is involved - and he is, but merely as a mediator and facilitator.  More on that in a minute.
Some of the brothers are going to be persuing all kinds of methods.  For example, one of them is going to Dragon Ball (post-GT, so the shenanigans will be to a minimum) and he is going to try and summon a dragon and wish for himself and all the rest of the brothers to be sent back home.  Of course, that one will be a no-go.
Eventually, some of us are going to start to realize that there is going to be very little point in going home.  My character will be the first to realize this as he'll be forming some serious relationships.  For others it will be due to what they feel is a loss of their humanity.
Outside that, we have a tentative plan for their to be a game going on between several ROBs, chief amongst them ATC's ROB as he would have been the one to instigate this game.  The Almighty is the one who has organized the game and the stakes are pretty high: entire universes.  The Brothers are the game pieces on the board, however rather than satisfy some condition, instead our future actions are wagered.  Bear in mind, though, this is tentative right now.

Interesting,
but the potential to go horribly, horribly wrong is massive,
terrifying, and possibly both in either order. I will be interested to
see how it goes...

Oh yes indeedy.  In particular - Nanami. 

Spoiler

In the anime the girl is shown as having a bizarre death
wish.  (No, really.)  You see, as far as I can piece together, she not
only has that odd gift that reminds me of the Sharingan from Naruto...
she also seems to have some sort of regenerative capability... combined
with an immune disorder.  That's right.  She is constantly suffering
disease and constantly recovering from it.  It was particularly
pronounced when she was a young child.  Her parents would stand a watch
helplessly, wondering why she simply couldn't die.  Fast-forward to the
present.  She's endured so many diseases with all their myriad toxins...
to the point when a ninja hits her with a poisoned caltrop it does
nothing to phase her.
Additionally, she has watched her brother
kill her father.  (Apparently this is a thing in Kyotoryu - the son
kills the father.)  And for some ineffable reason, her father also
killed her mother right after Shichika was born.  I do have a theory on
this.  The Kyotoryu is only supposed to have one master at any given
time - almost like the Sith Rule of Two.  (This is because it is
Shikizaki Kiki's final perfected blade. And there can be only one of
those around.)  Once their mother gave birth to Shichika... she was no
longer... needed.  :p

So, Nanami is constantly ill, and
has very little respect for life (even less so than your average
samurai warlord)... the only thing she really cares about is her
brother, Shichika.  I have an in with her because she sees me as someone that can keep her brother 'sharp'.

[Seraviel]

First, Specify ROB (in my mind you are talking about the Nintendo robot, and I can easily assume this is false)

Second, I am very interested in this, mainly because I have an actual jump path already from an old story plan of mine. As such, I'd be very interested in the rules of this game you are talking about, if only to see if I can adjust my idea to those rules.

Third, go ahead and write; I'll be lloking at this for sure.
-People may die, but ideas are forever. Je suis Charlie.

[Black Aeronaut]

ROB = Random Omnipotent Being. This is usually any being that has power to do things like pick up people and fling them wherever, whenever in the multiverse as often as they please.

We only recently hit upon the idea for the game. We haven't even really hashed out the rules as of yet.

And we have been writing, but it's been very touch-and-go. Group worlds are difficult to write because everyone wants to be properly represented, if you know what I mean. (Remember that this is a group project between myself and my brothers IRL.)

[Bluemage]

First, Specify ROB (in my mind you are talking about the Nintendo robot, and I can easily assume this is false)

ROB: Random Omnipotent Being... if you're being polite, that is.
Term comes from Spacebattles, where there's a sort of mini-genre of 'SBer gets dumped into a fictional universe by somebody, and has to try to survive/conquer it/derail everything'.  The ROB is the mechanism behind the whole 'gets dumped into a fictional universe' part of the premise.
Q is the most common ROB, but there are others.

---

My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.

I've been writing a bit.

[Black Aeronaut]

John de Lancie!Q will actually be making appearances as one of the contenders representing the entire Q Continuum. Don't worry, there will be other, more serious ROBs in the game. But Q should make things quite interesting.

[RomanFanboy]

First, thanks. I've been meaning to remember Katanagatari for some notes I have been working on.

Secondly, isn't Nanami the one with the 'I was only disciplining a child' quote, or something to that effect?

If so, good luck on surviving. Sometimes punishment is part of being ensuring a student is doing a proper job.

If only one of the threads is a deconstruction, I don't know that I'll mind, so long as it is fun. In other words, if you concentrate on your own project, and can show that it is stronger for those choices, maybe you can sell them with your action. Experiments and lab work can be the strongest of arguments at times.

I'm afraid that I haven't followed Sleeping closely lately. (Just haven't been finding the time and energy. I suppose I should look into it again.)

Is it, counts, three years per cycle for everyone?

Hmm..., if you instead age at a 1/12 speed, that would not have any oddness in each world's time, and might be a good compromise between aging full speed and not at all.

Pokemon anime continuity- does this include Porygon and the other banned episodes? Movies? All seasons or just a selection?

What time do you appear in Katanagatari and Banner?

Any crosses with Classical times and sources, the Sengoku Jidai, ACW, any period of American History, WWII or the Cold War?

Also, the Dragonball guy wouldn't happen to also be going to Disgaea?

Hmm...

12-4=8

8*5+4=44

Good Luck

[Black Aeronaut]

My pleasure!  I'm always happy to bring things to light for others.  May I ask what you're researching Katanagatari for?
I'm pretty sure that was Nanami - she once ripped out all of Shichika's fingernails because he wouldn't stop biting them.  Fortunately, my character will have prior knowledge of this aspect of her and will, therefore, be on his best behavior.  Training will be another matter entirely, though I'm fairly certain that Nanami would understand that one cannot really make any serious progress if they're nursing an injury.
Regarding deconstruction, I'm hoping that will be the case.  If anything, I'm hoping that some beta-readings will go a long way towards getting them to cool their jets.
Yes, it is indeed three years per cycle.  I do like the idea about the 1/12th speed aging...  Just asked the boys, and the answer is unanimous: YES!  Thank you kindly. 
And yes, that continuuity includes EVERYTHING.  :p  However, we show up just prior to the very beginning, and the Butterfly Effect is in full force...  Ash... is going to be receiving some extra special guidance.
But that's not all.  For one thing, elements of the games will be included, simply because it would make sense.  For example, Ralts will be commonly found outside of Pallet Town.  Also, Ash is not going to be permanently twelve, and Pikachu is not going to be eternally nerfed.  And Brock will finally get some.
I appear in Katanagatari about two weeks before the start of the story.  I would have full knowledge of what's coming, complete with Shikizaki Kiki's original intent.  With this knowledge, I set out with the only thing I feel has a snowball's chance in hell in achieving the best outcome - I set out to conquer Japan.  It will involve acquiring the assistance of the holders of the Twelve Deviant Blades as well as the assistance of the Yasuri family and Togami as well.  Granted, this means I would have to also gain the trust and assistance of Princess Hitei, but I think it would work out once she knows my full intent.  Note that I won't necessarily be doing this for myself because I don't know that I'm looping yet.
For Banner of the Stars, I show up in orbit of that prison world in Banner of the Stars II... just in time for Lafiel and Jinto to show up.  Now, my Veritech will have a number of odd technologies that the Abh will find interesting... and Lafiel will immediately receive orders to capture me.  Thanks to the combination of tech I acquire I am able to evade for quite a while... enough that it starts to become a game that Lafiel enjoys.  But once shit hits the fan on the prison colony, I am only too happy to offer assistance to keep the convicts from the Men's side of the island from completely overrunning the complex right away.  Jinto still gets taken hostage and is left behind.  I allow this on purpose because I intend to spend some time with him, more or less alone.  You see, Jinto may be fairly low on the totem pole in Abh society, but he still has the ears of the Abriel Family.  And they have been shown to be more than happy to accommodate the Rock-Hyde family.
Basicly, I make sure that Jinto is healthy and whole when Lafiel shows up... and gaining rudimentary knowledge of the Abh language is a huge plus.  I would work out that the Abh get detailed information about the technology I have with me in exchange for citizenship and keeping my Veritech intact.  (Though I do let Abh engineers have an up-close look - so long as they don't do any harm to it.)
No crossovers with classical time periods and such.  It's all straight-up fiction.  And DB-guy is not going to Disgaea, sorry.
And yes... We have a lot of material to cover.  You should see the bookshelf we're using to keep it all.
OH!  I has complete world-list!  Enjoy!
[table]