Quote:Yeah, like coming home and finding out that everyone else had aged!
The fact that (as far as Buckaroo and I could determine) I hadn't
aged a day in nearly 7 years, though, suggested that I wouldn't
need to worry (much) about racing the clock to make it back. It
suggested other things to worry about, but not that.
Quote:It sounds like a form of power line..going up! Like a space elevator..maybe a celestial elevator? ^^
Anyway, this node-thing -- it had managed to find a "somewhere
else" to go to, but for the life of me, I couldn't figure out
*where*. The power squirted *up* out of it, and then just
*vanished*. It was a constant flow, too, a hell of a one, but it
all simply... went away. And that was just *so* wrong.
Quote:What...no "Hassan Chop?"...we did cover that one a long time ago. ^^
Obviously, I didn't know the original names for most of the moves
and combos, so I'd long ago begun making up my own. Which was
how it came to be that I was flowing smoothly from "Rabbit Flirts
With Hunter" through "Overhand Pie Smash" to "Yappy Dog Bounces".
I was working on a transition into the more advanced "Wait For
Me, Bay-bee!" when I heard a little intake of breath behind me.
I spun and dropped into a crouch ("Cossack Dancer Stumbles"),
only to see nothing more than the tail end of a long lock of
black hair whip by the door post and vanish out of sight.
Quote:No, not just any mage. Are the mages in this dimension, the Harry Potter type? I guess the warrior mage may had died out since Merlin's time in this dimension.
Her eyes narrowed, and a brow marked with vicious crimson slashes
furrowed. "Yes, yes, you did," she replied peevishly. "And yes,
more than just an ordinary mortal. A magus, if I'm not mistaken.
Odd. I thought I knew who all the mages were on this mudball."
Mara rose to her feet with a loose-limbed, lazy-looking grace,
and strolled along the top of the fence to keep up with the pair.
Her steps were unconsciously certain and sure, her stride as
quick and confident as though she walked on solid ground, while
she focused her mystic senses on the mortal man below.
Quote:"Close enough for government work" as the saying goes..
Skuld and Angel both looked at me and did a synchronized pair of
eye rolls that I found quite improbable but funny nonetheless,
while Keiichi -- who was clearly just as familiar with a certain
classic movie as the two gods were -- burst out with a bark of
laughter. (Good thing that Kubrick's "2002" obviously had
existed in that universe, too, otherwise that joke would have
fallen *so* flat.) I broadened the grin and nodded at him while
I sat down at the table, taking the same seat I had been guided
to the night before.
Quote:Actually, it's crepes.. ^^
"A man can never have too many pancakes," he insisted. "
Quote:I wonder how Herr Einstein would take it if he knew the truth?
"And the Boss just *happens* to make universes that look
identical to works of fiction? Come on, he wouldn't... okay, he
would," Chris admitted, recalling that this was the same being
who owned up to using dice to make key decisions.
Quote:Cue theme from "Mission Impossible"...
Chris gave her an innocent look. "You three *were* going to give
me a place to live up there, weren't you?" He laughed at Urd's
expression, then grimaced. "I'll put these away, don't worry
about it. If you're serious about keeping this from our little
guest, we need to get Skuld to put a filter on our network
connection and *watch* him. Lackey's a bloody popular Western
author, and 'Kodomo no Omocha' has a big fan base. Luckily
'Bubblegum Crisis' and 'Buckaroo' are lower profile, but you'll
still want to make sure he doesn't catch on."
Quote:Sniff..our little girl is growing up!
"No, that wasn't it... well, not *that* exactly." Skuld stopped
in the middle of the sidewalk again and turned a look of
confusion on him. She shook her head. "It's just... I don't
get it. How can someone who's that big a jerk do something
that... that... beautiful?"
Quote:If the back side of the katana can cut thru a concrete pillar..I'd be impressed!
Chris shook his head and drove the memory back, but his eyes
still rested on the katana with its black-and-gold saya.
Wrought-gold bosses punctuated the plain black lacquer with a
repetition of the angular, back-to-back double "B" symbol that
he'd seen in connection with the movie. He could imagine a
reproduction house offering a katana as a tie-in to the film, but
not one of this quality -- this was no $200 show-sword. His
training with Wayland came to the fore; even without touching it,
he could tell simply from the craftsmanship of the saya, hilt and
tsubo that this was a master-made blade, worth thousands -- maybe
tens of thousands -- of dollars.
*
Quote:How about in his sleep? ^^
Score one for Urd and freakin' absurdity,* he reluctantly
admitted to himself. *No master smith would make a movie
"souvenir" sword.* Chris allowed himself a moment to wonder if
Sangnoir knew how to use the weapon. *I wonder what it'd be like
to spar with someone who *couldn't* beat the crap out of me with
his eyes closed.*
Quote:Took me a while to figure that one out...
Behind me, Chris suddenly spoke up. "It hitchhiked?" There was
a hint of a smile in his voice I didn't understand.
Quote:Montgomery Scott would really love her...but I still shudder when she cobbled up a full working Karl Morser!
"Other than it's an ugly offense against the aesthetics of any
right-thinking engineer?" the girl replied absently. "No." She
chewed on her lip for a few moments. "Yes," she finally said
with a sigh. "It's a jury-rigged mess that takes way too much
power to do way too little. There are so many easier ways to
make a grav drive this small that use much less power and have so
many other features." Skuld looked up at Megumi and grimaced.
"If I *don't* improve it, it's going to gnaw at me for*ever*."
Quote:The way I hear it was "Is this a private war or can anybody join in?" Major General Terry Dela Mesa Allen, 1st Armored "Old Ironsides" Division, March 1943, Tunisian campaign
Keiichi and Chris looked at each other and shared a grin. Then
Chris cleared his throat and loudly asked, "Is this a private
game, or can anybody play?"
Quote:Pot calling the kettle black...^^
As the little goddess bleated her offense at the indignity of
this unwarranted liberty and Megumi continued to giggle, Chris
smiled and shook his head. *Not so twitchy now, is he? I can't
believe this nutbar is the same guy who seemed so dangerous
yesterday. What happened?*
Quote:Sez, the guy who flew a Shinden...but I digress
The short man shook his head with a wry smile. "Sorry, no. I'd
rather the stuff I drive stay on the ground."
Quote:Sound the alarm!...Ogre at the gates!
That got my interest, and I was about to ask her what was up,
when I heard a bang followed by a deep, gravelly voice bellowing,
"MO-RI-SA-TO!"
Quote:Actually, the most striking feature would be the truck spark plugs dangling from his ear lobes...I think you forgot that part.^^
My first look at the sempais did nothing to reassure me. Based
on what little I'd heard, I *had* been expecting a couple of
grease monkeys in dirty coveralls. Instead, I found a pair of
thuggish goons. One was punked out in black leather and
sunglasses, topped off with an improbably and enthusiastically
vertical bleach-blond hairdo that defied both description and
gravity
Quote:It was probably a palm strike to the solar plexus. Lemme guess..at full force, it would had gone through him. Boy, that would be a shocker!
Some well-trained clump of neurons somewhere in the back of my
head, loosely leashed due to my confusion and distraction,
interpreted "big guy rushing at me" as an attack, and took
control. The bright white light of the late afternoon
immediately slid into the blue end of the spectrum as I combat-
hyped. I'd neatly dodged his grab and my hand was already
snaking out in a retaliatory palm-strike before my mind could
reassert control over my body. I couldn't abort the strike, not
without hurting one or the other of us; the best I could was pull
the blow as much as I could -- which probably saved his life.
Quote:What's the matter?..afraid that he'll convince Ami and Rachel to form a manage a trois? Urd will really love that! ^^
*Note to self: Do not allow this man to advise me on my love
life. Come to think of it, do not allow him *near* my love
life.*
Quote:If he doesn't he's a prime candidate for removal from the gene pool!
In this case, though, watching Tamiya's impromptu demonstration
of ballistic motion was something Chris wouldn't have missed for
the world. Maybe now the musclebound idiot would learn a bit of
restraint.
Not likely, but maybe.
Quote:Pain makes an excellent teacher...heck it even took Pavlov took a few tries to get his dogs to drool on command. Of couse, the dogs were much smarter.
"I always told ya you'd
pull that shit on the wrong person someday, Tamiya, and you'd get
yer ass kicked." He reached out a hand, which Tamiya took and
used to haul himself to his feet.
Quote:I can see it now...the first and probably last fight between Doug and Mara is going to be like the life of a medieval serf..short, brutish and nasty.
A feral growl escaped her throat. Sangnoir wasn't going to get
away from her *that* easily. Powerful, so powerful he could
blank his Yggdrasil entry. She had to get him for Hell. She
would see him broken and fallen to the Dark. It was a personal
challenge now, and Mara would *not* fail, Stormsdaughter or
no.
A tip of the hat to both you and Chris...well worth the wait!
Bob, you and Chris may have to place a disclaimer stating in what dimension this is supposed to be..I've seen a few comments on FFML thinking that the story is based on the new anime series that just finished recently.
Let me go on a tangent. I've been thinking on the Doublet system. If it's a form of MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction ), then you don't have to link each demon and divinity. You just have to link enough of them that the odds of getting away with killing a demon or god is pretty slim and the consequences pretty gruesome to deter anyone to act, let alone think of the deed.
But what would happen if Mara was was among the lucky (or unlucky) exceptions? Doug wouldn't believe anything she says at this point. And knowing Doug's habbit of skewing probability..*shrug*
__________________
Into terror!, Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell