In an attempt to motivate myself to write more, I'm dusting off an old story that won't be finished until it's epic-length. I'll post it in chunks. Feedback, especially concrit, would be appreciated. Feel free to throw out speculation. I may even respond to some of it. It's not fanfic per se, but it does make side-references.
EDIT: sorry about that, folks. I ran afoul of some bizarre nonprinting termination characters.
First block as follows:
------------------------------
It had been a long bloody day at the office. I work security for transdimensional customs in this little metaplane I call home, and while we don't have as many folks coming through as, say, Deva, we are something of a nexus for a number of the anime worlds. On the good side, that means that we have enough traffic to give a serious boost to our economy, technospiritual development and reality factor without our culture being utterly consumed by outside influences. On the bad side, it's anime. The vast majority of anime planar travelers are either prone to violence or downright evil. That's where I come in. Customs separates the good from the bad, gets people adjusted to working on our terms, and tries to make sure that we don't get overwhelmed by any one thing all at one go. I'm one of the folks providing the much needed muscle for those efforts.
In any case, enough digression. As I said, it had been a long bloody day at the office. We had to repel not one but two attacks by tentacle monsters from two entirely different dimensions, and the second one spawned a bunch of parasitic larvae that took over an hour to clean up even after we finished banishing it. I had to break up a fight between a little pig-tailed girl and some feral guy with burning purple hands, and go straight from that to reasoning gently with a squad of moronic katana bishonen who had challenged one of the inspectors to a duel of honor. Finally, just to cap the day off, some blasted backwater's idea of a supervillain managed to sleaze the mystic wards long enough to teleport into the city at large. That last one involved some serious paperwork for the boss, and he expressed exactly how he felt about it at the after-action review. I hate it when we let the boss down - it's not like his job doesn't suck enough by itself. A long bloody day.
So yeah, I get out to my car at about 7. It's a nice set of wheels - dark blue Saturn. It's not too expensive, it looks nice, it handles great, and gets good mileage. A few years old, but still hanging in there. Does what I tell it to, without fuss. Nice car. I pat it in a friendly fashion and murmur a few appreciative words to the inhabiting spirit, settle into the driver's seat, and head off down the road. The radio is playing Leonard Cohen, the traffic is moving at a fair clip, and for a brief, shining moment I start to unwind.
Then everything comes to a screeching halt, I nearly crash into the car in front of me, and I wind right back up again. Curses enough to curdle the blood of the unborn roll through my mind. I spin the dial over to news, and my day gets that much worse. The nice lady on the radio is talking about some freak that looks like a supervillain. He's running rampant through a few of the major interchanges, tossing bolts of chaos lightning. He's done a ton of property damage, shot the commute all to hell, and given a few elected officials headaches with his telepathic demands. Literally. Apparently he isn't good friends with the concept of fine control in his psionic powers. The best part about it is that apparently he's the guy who sleazed through Customs just a few hours ago. Wonderful! What a glorious cap to a glorious day. I hate being the thin black line some times. He doesn't seem to have killed anyone yet, but still.... I hate being the thin black line and failing.
So one of the superforce strike teams gets called in, and they manage to send the guy running and then give the highways makeshift repairs. They tried to run him down, but apparently his stealth powers are pretty good and he gave them the slip. With that mostly dealt with, the traffic mostly clears up, and It only takes me about two hours more than normal to get home. By the time I pull into the driveway, I'm done with the ugly little cycle of frustration, depression and self recrimination this sort of thing always sends me into, and now I'm just tired. I perform the parting ritual with my car - not well, but I'm sure she understands, and make my way up to my house. My hearth spirit greets me, and I ask for her report.
"Well, Domitor, there are the traditional monthly bills come in. Nothing out of the ordinary, and everything seems to be accurate. I can deal with those myself, if you would will it"
I nod and gesture assent-with-thanks
"You have a number of neighbors who have contacted you with respect to some disturbance at the highway interchanges earlier today." She notes my reaction. "I can appear to have lost those, if you would will it."
I wince, and gesture assent-with-thanks. It's nice to have an assistant who's willing to look incompetent from time to time. I already feel bad enough about the whole thing. I don't need anyone else jumping on my back about it.
"Finally as per your standing orders, I have given sanctuary to a young lady, who is now asleep on the couch."
Huh. Well, that's unusual. I give her formal dismissal, bow, remove my shoes, and enter. I figure that anyone sleeping on the couch isn't all that time critical, so I take a while to change out of the traditional plain black suit and thin black tie into a somewhat more comfortable worn blue jeans and flannel. I don't do well with normal social interaction while in uniform. It always makes me feel like I should be intimidating someone.
Once I've taken care of that, splashed some water on my face, and in general made myself feel a little less official and a little more human, I head down to deal with the new waif on the couch. I detour through the kitchen and snag some cheese and crackers, then into the living room...
...where I do my best pole-axed steer impression for a few moments before finding my way to a chair and remembering to breathe again.
She's not just any young lady, she's a mahou shouju. She's one of those cute little girls with mystic powers, who wear magical sailor suits with thematically appropriate accessories and fight against evil and wrong. She's maybe all of seventeen, and right now she's sleeping on my couch.
I just sit there and watch her for a while. Her chest rises and falls gently with each breath. Her face is angelic in slumber, and for a short while she seems to have found peace. That can't be common in her line of work.
"Hearth spirit."
"Yes, Domitor?"
"If anyone troubles her, destroy them utterly. Contact me regardless of success."
"Yes, Domitor."
"Dismissed."
I get up, carrying the miraculously unspilled cheese and crackers, and go back into the kitchen. No need to wake her. It's been a long and tiring day, after all. I'll just eat my snack and make an early night of it.
EDIT: sorry about that, folks. I ran afoul of some bizarre nonprinting termination characters.
First block as follows:
------------------------------
It had been a long bloody day at the office. I work security for transdimensional customs in this little metaplane I call home, and while we don't have as many folks coming through as, say, Deva, we are something of a nexus for a number of the anime worlds. On the good side, that means that we have enough traffic to give a serious boost to our economy, technospiritual development and reality factor without our culture being utterly consumed by outside influences. On the bad side, it's anime. The vast majority of anime planar travelers are either prone to violence or downright evil. That's where I come in. Customs separates the good from the bad, gets people adjusted to working on our terms, and tries to make sure that we don't get overwhelmed by any one thing all at one go. I'm one of the folks providing the much needed muscle for those efforts.
In any case, enough digression. As I said, it had been a long bloody day at the office. We had to repel not one but two attacks by tentacle monsters from two entirely different dimensions, and the second one spawned a bunch of parasitic larvae that took over an hour to clean up even after we finished banishing it. I had to break up a fight between a little pig-tailed girl and some feral guy with burning purple hands, and go straight from that to reasoning gently with a squad of moronic katana bishonen who had challenged one of the inspectors to a duel of honor. Finally, just to cap the day off, some blasted backwater's idea of a supervillain managed to sleaze the mystic wards long enough to teleport into the city at large. That last one involved some serious paperwork for the boss, and he expressed exactly how he felt about it at the after-action review. I hate it when we let the boss down - it's not like his job doesn't suck enough by itself. A long bloody day.
So yeah, I get out to my car at about 7. It's a nice set of wheels - dark blue Saturn. It's not too expensive, it looks nice, it handles great, and gets good mileage. A few years old, but still hanging in there. Does what I tell it to, without fuss. Nice car. I pat it in a friendly fashion and murmur a few appreciative words to the inhabiting spirit, settle into the driver's seat, and head off down the road. The radio is playing Leonard Cohen, the traffic is moving at a fair clip, and for a brief, shining moment I start to unwind.
Then everything comes to a screeching halt, I nearly crash into the car in front of me, and I wind right back up again. Curses enough to curdle the blood of the unborn roll through my mind. I spin the dial over to news, and my day gets that much worse. The nice lady on the radio is talking about some freak that looks like a supervillain. He's running rampant through a few of the major interchanges, tossing bolts of chaos lightning. He's done a ton of property damage, shot the commute all to hell, and given a few elected officials headaches with his telepathic demands. Literally. Apparently he isn't good friends with the concept of fine control in his psionic powers. The best part about it is that apparently he's the guy who sleazed through Customs just a few hours ago. Wonderful! What a glorious cap to a glorious day. I hate being the thin black line some times. He doesn't seem to have killed anyone yet, but still.... I hate being the thin black line and failing.
So one of the superforce strike teams gets called in, and they manage to send the guy running and then give the highways makeshift repairs. They tried to run him down, but apparently his stealth powers are pretty good and he gave them the slip. With that mostly dealt with, the traffic mostly clears up, and It only takes me about two hours more than normal to get home. By the time I pull into the driveway, I'm done with the ugly little cycle of frustration, depression and self recrimination this sort of thing always sends me into, and now I'm just tired. I perform the parting ritual with my car - not well, but I'm sure she understands, and make my way up to my house. My hearth spirit greets me, and I ask for her report.
"Well, Domitor, there are the traditional monthly bills come in. Nothing out of the ordinary, and everything seems to be accurate. I can deal with those myself, if you would will it"
I nod and gesture assent-with-thanks
"You have a number of neighbors who have contacted you with respect to some disturbance at the highway interchanges earlier today." She notes my reaction. "I can appear to have lost those, if you would will it."
I wince, and gesture assent-with-thanks. It's nice to have an assistant who's willing to look incompetent from time to time. I already feel bad enough about the whole thing. I don't need anyone else jumping on my back about it.
"Finally as per your standing orders, I have given sanctuary to a young lady, who is now asleep on the couch."
Huh. Well, that's unusual. I give her formal dismissal, bow, remove my shoes, and enter. I figure that anyone sleeping on the couch isn't all that time critical, so I take a while to change out of the traditional plain black suit and thin black tie into a somewhat more comfortable worn blue jeans and flannel. I don't do well with normal social interaction while in uniform. It always makes me feel like I should be intimidating someone.
Once I've taken care of that, splashed some water on my face, and in general made myself feel a little less official and a little more human, I head down to deal with the new waif on the couch. I detour through the kitchen and snag some cheese and crackers, then into the living room...
...where I do my best pole-axed steer impression for a few moments before finding my way to a chair and remembering to breathe again.
She's not just any young lady, she's a mahou shouju. She's one of those cute little girls with mystic powers, who wear magical sailor suits with thematically appropriate accessories and fight against evil and wrong. She's maybe all of seventeen, and right now she's sleeping on my couch.
I just sit there and watch her for a while. Her chest rises and falls gently with each breath. Her face is angelic in slumber, and for a short while she seems to have found peace. That can't be common in her line of work.
"Hearth spirit."
"Yes, Domitor?"
"If anyone troubles her, destroy them utterly. Contact me regardless of success."
"Yes, Domitor."
"Dismissed."
I get up, carrying the miraculously unspilled cheese and crackers, and go back into the kitchen. No need to wake her. It's been a long and tiring day, after all. I'll just eat my snack and make an early night of it.