Quote:Maa ... I just get these ideas, and sometimes I can't fit them in anywhere, but they'd work for someone else's story.
I'd think it'd be obvious by now, but I like the way you think. ^_^
Thanks ^_^.
Quote:Just repeat to yourself - the worthwhile things usually do.
Gyah. This's taking forever.
If that doesn't work, I've got a cattle prod I can send you ^_^.
*throw in*
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
My apartment and most of my office were a total loss. Repairs would take ... a while. Pretty much all of the labor that could have been hired to do them was busy at the Palace, and with the word out being that the Brat was going for a total remodelling ... well, if I was ever going to get my loft back, it wouldn't be anytime soon.
Meanwhile, I was bunking in the workshop.
There was actually a sleeping area in it, because all-nighters happened every now and again. The workshop itself, taking up most of the second floor of the building, was mostly used for gear maintenance, chiefly Frames since they got the most wear and tear. That aside, part of it doubled as a library of recovered technical texts, and one contained a forged documentation and user manual for the Rigs - simple computers that weren't really worthy of the title, and which were used as picture archives and analysis aids.
The original had been something that I'd made a few years ago, on a long and extremely boring commercial flight between Foundations, after I'd managed to snag a Blade Runner rerun. I'd kept it with me ever since.
Yes, the trip had been _that_ boring, and I was getting back from attending a course block on post-Wave computer systems.
Then there'd been that engineering seminar out at Ultima - and, by the by, Sol seen from Pluto's orbit is still a sight - which was the mother of all long trips, and ended up in my cobbling together something that started off as a better toaster, and ended up being a hoverbike. The results were ... awkward.
How awkward? I called them the Bullfrog.
Amusingly enough, both of those hodge-podge affairs were currently being put to use. The Rigs, simplified - since the first try had looked like a reject from Wiring Hell - versions, for work on pictures, and the notes and Bullfrog itself - which was, at the moment, sitting in the garage a few floors down - as a baseline for what had, with a bit of work, become the Black Std. Issue Transport Frame.
And no, I did not name the Prototype Anubis.
I admit to having been tempted, though.
In the night, it was perhaps the most quiet part of the building, if only because of the extra soundproofing on the walls and the metal shutters that covered the windows and served in much the same capacity.
For the first time in I can't recall how long, I woke up sweating.
Also, for the first time in a long, long while, I didn't remember what I'd dreamed. Not ... exactly, anyway.
I threw off the cover of the cot, rising with a continuation of the motion, and crossed between the workbenches and free standing shelving, to end up in front of one of the outer walls and opening the shutters, letting moonlight filter in to look up at ...
... shrouded in crimson and dancing shadows, the flames licking nearly high enough to be touching it. Black, starless skies, the single orb peering down like a juding eye so much like their own ...
I blinked.
...shining brightly in the night sky, waiting for the souls...
I wondered who was doing the singing, until I realized my lips were moving. It was a conscious effort to stop them.
The voice ... the voice had seemed nothing like my own, though. Too melodious, too ... alright, too feminine.
Whatever had triggered that ... flash ... was either gone or no longer an issue, because I was looking out at a perfectly normal silvery moon with a bright blue star shining a bit to the side of it ...
Why? Why? Why is it blue? You know it's supposed to be red. Red. Red like blood. Red like life. Red like the sheen on her lips when ...
I steadied myself, pulling my AT Field close to my Core and waiting for the next mental ... attack? Was that what it had been?
Regardless, it didn't come.
The hand that had been laid on my shoulder made me jerk away and almost exclaim in surprise ...
"You look troubled. Is this a bad time?"
I had long since stopped wondering how she moved without alerting me. She'd told me she'd been built with stealth in mind as part of the design, but this went beyond mere mechanics. Just as she went beyond mere machine.
Possibly, she felt the same way about my Field and other assorted things.
Didn't really stop us from getting along ... to an extent.
Her Batman act notwithstanding.
"... I didn't expect to see you for a while," I managed after getting my breath back.
"As a greated whole, the world is inherently unpredictable," she quoted my own words back at me. "I was merely drawn by circumstance. If you object to my company ..."
I was never quite sure if she was serious when she said those things. She had a fair idea of humor by now, I wagered. I took it in stride.
"I offered, didn't I?"
She nodded. "Once upon a time."
"Refreshments?"
"I require none."
"Would you _like_ some?"
"... tea. Mint. If you have any."
I shook my head, smiling. "You know I always do."
Then I went to put the kettle on.
Once this had been done, and with troubling dreams momentarily shoved into the back of my mind, I listened as Miyu related to me her visit to one Yumemiya Arika - an acquaintance of her and the new Garderobe student that whole mess during the coronation seemed to be, in part, centered around - as well as news from her own travels. The sort of news that doesn't really show up unless you stumble across it yourself. She was good at that.
How she'd gotten the autopsy reports from Remulus and Romus wasn't something I was about to ask. Likely, in the same way she'd waltzed into the office, and workshop - both of which I'd considered secure before.
We spent the night talking away, but in the end, still didn't really see how heavy and localized frostbite - the chief cause of death among most of the soldiers on either side, figured into the whole Lutetian situation.
In the end, we agreed that we both needed more information on Shwarz's actions, supposed or not.
Luckily, we would be getting a chance to acquire that much, at least, soon enough.
Why? Because, as fun as messin with canon is, messing with alts is sometimes even more entertaining.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm