I've been working on DW8, don't worry -- but for some reason, DW-S has been calling to me, too. And one of the little bits I've gotten done is the prologue. Enjoy, if it doesn't infuriate you with its brevity and vagueness.
0. Time Lost And Forgotten
I am the wind to fill your sailI am the cross to take your nailA singer of these ageless timesWith kitchen prose and gutter rhymes.
-- Jethro Tull, "Songs From The Wood"
Wear me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; forlove is strong as death, passion cruel as the grave; it blazes uplike blazing fire, fiercer than any flame.
-- Song of Solomon 8:6 (NEB)
And if the music stopsThere's only the sound of the rainAll the hope and gloryAll the sacrifice in vainIf love remainsThough everything is lostWe will pay the priceBut we will not count the cost-- Rush, "Bravado"
My name is Douglas Quincy Sangnoir. And I do not know how old I
am.
There are only two women in my life whom I have ever lovedwholeheartedly and unconditionally: my wife Maggie, and myadopted daughter Makoto.
And there are only two women in my life in whose service I wouldwillingly sacrifice my life: Wetter Hexe, and Tsukino Usagi.
This is the story of why I no longer know my exact age. It is
the story of how I became a mentor and teacher to the first
metahuman heroes to appear on their version of Earth. It is the
story of how Makoto and Usagi took their places in my heart. And
finally, it is also the story of how in the end I did in fact lay
down my life, in revenge for one and in the service of the other.
For twenty years I couldn't remember any of this. For two
decades, all I could recall -- if I even thought about that
timeline at all -- was arriving on that Earth, and finding a songto open a gate to the next world on my journey home less than 24
hours later. Even now, with my memory allegedly restored, vast
swaths of my recollections are fuzzy, or riddled with holes. Ifit weren't for my usual journal entries -- which I found in my
helmet's computer, stashed in a hidden directory and locked with
my password -- I would have had even less idea of what happenedon that version of Earth than I do now.
I didn't seal those journal entries away myself -- as best as I
can reconstruct the events at the very end, I had no reason to do
so or even to anticipate needing to do so. All I can imagine is
that when Usagi ordered the Ginshuizou to "put it all back",
whatever passes for the controlling intelligence of that magic
crystal golf ball decided to do it for me.
Why it didn't just wipe the log entries outright I'll never know.
Maybe it was afraid of what I'd do if I ever found out.
Maybe it was afraid of what *Usagi* would do.
There at the end, I might have been, too.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
0. Time Lost And Forgotten
I am the wind to fill your sailI am the cross to take your nailA singer of these ageless timesWith kitchen prose and gutter rhymes.
-- Jethro Tull, "Songs From The Wood"
Wear me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; forlove is strong as death, passion cruel as the grave; it blazes uplike blazing fire, fiercer than any flame.
-- Song of Solomon 8:6 (NEB)
And if the music stopsThere's only the sound of the rainAll the hope and gloryAll the sacrifice in vainIf love remainsThough everything is lostWe will pay the priceBut we will not count the cost-- Rush, "Bravado"
My name is Douglas Quincy Sangnoir. And I do not know how old I
am.
There are only two women in my life whom I have ever lovedwholeheartedly and unconditionally: my wife Maggie, and myadopted daughter Makoto.
And there are only two women in my life in whose service I wouldwillingly sacrifice my life: Wetter Hexe, and Tsukino Usagi.
This is the story of why I no longer know my exact age. It is
the story of how I became a mentor and teacher to the first
metahuman heroes to appear on their version of Earth. It is the
story of how Makoto and Usagi took their places in my heart. And
finally, it is also the story of how in the end I did in fact lay
down my life, in revenge for one and in the service of the other.
For twenty years I couldn't remember any of this. For two
decades, all I could recall -- if I even thought about that
timeline at all -- was arriving on that Earth, and finding a songto open a gate to the next world on my journey home less than 24
hours later. Even now, with my memory allegedly restored, vast
swaths of my recollections are fuzzy, or riddled with holes. Ifit weren't for my usual journal entries -- which I found in my
helmet's computer, stashed in a hidden directory and locked with
my password -- I would have had even less idea of what happenedon that version of Earth than I do now.
I didn't seal those journal entries away myself -- as best as I
can reconstruct the events at the very end, I had no reason to do
so or even to anticipate needing to do so. All I can imagine is
that when Usagi ordered the Ginshuizou to "put it all back",
whatever passes for the controlling intelligence of that magic
crystal golf ball decided to do it for me.
Why it didn't just wipe the log entries outright I'll never know.
Maybe it was afraid of what I'd do if I ever found out.
Maybe it was afraid of what *Usagi* would do.
There at the end, I might have been, too.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.