Shipping itP II: Scourge of the Seven Seas

[Lyinginbedmon]

You know, people who have good therapists and dire need for them might take offense at that statement.

Meh, I'm good.

[Helgraf]

This is rather creepy and please note that neither character acts like this IRL or on the forums. And I do feel a tad grimy after writing this, so don't look at me in such a disapproving way. Was fun to write though.
Was it creepy enough for you?

Disturbing, yes. Sad, too. Sad sad desperation.

[CurlyKitGirl]

So it meets with approval?

Well, any suggestions for Queen songs to write for next? I intend to go through their three Greatest Hits albums first, so those suggestions first please. And by all means, if you think I can't do it suggest it. I want to see how far I can twist the original meaning of the song into something semi - romantic.

[Thufir]

Do all ships follow this chart?
Should I ask these silly newbie questions elsewhere?

No and no. If you want to have a family in a ship you can take inspiration from the chart or not. And where else would you ask them?

[Alien]

So it meets with approval?

Well, any suggestions for Queen songs to write for next? I intend to go through their three Greatest Hits albums first, so those suggestions first please. And by all means, if you think I can't do it suggest it. I want to see how far I can twist the original meaning of the song into something semi - romantic.

Your Queenfics are great. Not sure which songs are on those albums, but have you done 'Somebody to love'? If you want someone to ship, too, I volunteer, though I expect you have many people you would like to ship already :)

No and no. If you want to have a family in a ship you can take inspiration from the chart or not. And where else would you ask them?

Thanks. I don't know where, if I knew, I might have just asked them there. Possibly in the family thread.

[RabbitHoleLost]

Curly, it was creeeeeeeepy as hell.
I love it =D

[Cristo Meyers]

Ahhh...the creepy Curly that I've come to know and love...I missed it so.

Two more of my shorts: here.

Not really liking how they're turning out, can't figure out why.

[RabbitHoleLost]

There's... one line that seems very forced and unlike your typical writing style, Cristo.
The rest of it was very, very enjoyable.
As per usual =D

[SMEE]

Still in.

Ok. Dallas is going to play the 'goddess' (now a god instead) Medusa. Expect it by Monday, 23:59 GMT.

[Helgraf]

So it meets with approval?

Well, any suggestions for Queen songs to write for next? I intend to go through their three Greatest Hits albums first, so those suggestions first please. And by all means, if you think I can't do it suggest it. I want to see how far I can twist the original meaning of the song into something semi - romantic.

I can easily see parts of Bohemian Rhapsody set to a heartbreak or tragific

[PhoeKun]

I can easily see parts of Bohemian Rhapsody set to a heartbreak or tragific

And Curly definitely did it justice when she wrote one.

I'd kind of like to see I Want it All, personally.

edit: and I will be highly embarrassed if it turns out it's already been done. >.>

[randman22222]

Hm. I'm actually growing tired of songfics. I just think that if I or another person is going to write something, then they shouldn't spend 50% of the characters they type typing someone else's lyrics. And if they're going to set an atmosphere or mood in a piece, then it'd be better if they did that themselves, and not with the aid of music.

[Mordokai]

There's... one line that seems very forced and unlike your typical writing style, Cristo.
The rest of it was very, very enjoyable.
As per usual =D

Can't find the line you speak of, but otherwise, I agree with you.

Good work Cristo, looking forward to reading next installment

[Thufir]

Hm. I'm actually growing tired of songfics. I just think that if I or another person is going to write something, then they shouldn't spend 50% of the characters they type typing someone else's lyrics. And if they're going to set an atmosphere or mood in a piece, then it'd be better if they did that themselves, and not with the aid of music.

This is why I'm trying not to write too many songfics. Some just cry out to be written, but to me it feels kind of like cheating. I need to increase my output of regular fics before I can do more songfics.
Curly, however, has written a huge number of fics and can therefore do whatever she likes.

[ghost_warlock]

Curly, however, has written a huge number of fics and can therefore do whatever she likes.

I concur.

But, I'm not really a fan of songfics, either. They remind me of when I was in college and I had to write a poem consisting of much the same thing. The entire thing was composed of nothing but snippets of Counting Crows lyrics arranged in such a way as to tell a story. It was interesting, and I really enjoyed listening to the albums a bazillion times to get ideas, but in the end it wasn't my words.

[Vespe Ratavo]

*sniffles*

You don't like my songfics?

*cries*

[ghost_warlock]

*sniffles*

You don't like my songfics?

*cries*

Aw... Don't feel bad. My opinion is mostly meaningless anyway.

[TwoBitWriter]

Loving the fic so far, Ghost_Warlock. I'm glad that I'm not quite dead yet!

I'm lucky that I didn't check the internets until after Part 3 had been sent out.

Bravo!

As an official notice, I am on the last day of my honeymoon here in Sunny Florida and will be flying back to Oklahoma tomorrow. Chapter 2 of my fic is almost completed and I just need one final proofreading session for it to be ready.

[RabbitHoleLost]

Hm. I'm actually growing tired of songfics. I just think that if I or another person is going to write something, then they shouldn't spend 50% of the characters they type typing someone else's lyrics. And if they're going to set an atmosphere or mood in a piece, then it'd be better if they did that themselves, and not with the aid of music.

Its somewhat why I stopped writing songfics, and really just link songs that I listened to when writing the fic >>

[CurlyKitGirl]

Hm. I'm actually growing tired of songfics. I just think that if I or another person is going to write something, then they shouldn't spend 50% of the characters they type typing someone else's lyrics. And if they're going to set an atmosphere or mood in a piece, then it'd be better if they did that themselves, and not with the aid of music.

Generally I never use the whole song, just bots of it, I think I prolly go for cutting away at least 50% of the song lyrics; and I certainly write more story than lyric words.
Also I tend to do them in spurts. After I Want It All I prolly won't do any more for a long time.
And in all fairness, some of my songfics (only two I believe, have had the song suggested by a later reader. The latest of which was Veneers.
But another reason I do do them is that it helps if you're stuck for ideas and it gets your creative juices flowing again. You also have to interpret the lyrics in the way you think suits the song and in part, the song sets the scene and limits you in ways a normal fic wouldn't.
Or to be honest, twist the words in such a way they do whatever you want totally disregarding any major influence the song has on you.
[/reasons why songfics are useful]

I may do fics inspired by poems later on.

Ra1ser/Mechafox (with cameo/narrator guest star!)
I Want It All

Spoiler

Show

It was a legend. And in the lands where the two had once lived only one person knew of their full tale. An old man now, not one soul believed him, "He's senile he is." Or perhaps, "Poor man, he was alive when it really happened. His mind isn't as it used to be, poor old randman. He must have mixed fact from fiction." He would sit for hours and regale the entranced children with his tales. "Once, just a short while ago there was an
Adventure seeker on an empty street
Just an alley creeper light on his feet
A young fighter screaming with no time for doubt
With the pain and anger can't see a way out
'It ain't much I'm asking,' I heard him say
'Gotta find me a future, move out of my way!'
"You see, back then I was apprenticed to a temple in the main city. Actually, I can't remember what the temple was any more; strange how once - significant things slip away from you. But it never was really important. But this man; wearing a tattered cloak with his silly hat was just kneeling there outside my temple.
"Begging of the god it reverenced."
Cries of protest rung out as the old man paused, a wry puzzled grin on his face. As if he knew a secret noone else did. And he sure savoured the moment. Dragging out the suspense; none of the children had heard this little story before.
One insolent youngling stood up and walked off shouting about how "The stupid codger won't tell the story right." rand spoke once more.
"Listen all you people come gather round
I gotta get me a game plan gotta shake you to the ground."
The listeners, for now even the adults were listening to the weave of his tale laughed at the child. The storyteller had just quoted an old proverb - actually said by Mecha of Fox - to tease the youngling back into the story.
"And the man raised up his hands to the Naked God of Confidence and begged him once more:
'Just give me what I know is mine
. . . do you hear me just give me the sign
It ain't much I'm asking if you want the truth
Here's to the future for the dreams of youth
. . .
I want it all and I want it now.'
"And I frowned. It was like one of our prayers; but the words were all wrong. And he seemed to be pleading for more than confidence. And his last words were said with so much desire I stepped back into the shadows. It seemed loving. And more.
"Why was he saying such passionate things in the dark of night; face hidden behind his tatters and rags? Once - rich, now poor man . . . a man, who I think was in love . . . " He trailed off, eyes gazing beyond them into his memories long past.
A larger crowd had clustered around him; but why did it seem as if he was talking to himself. Mesmerising voice; far - seeing eyes?
"Yes . . . the hero of legend we know as Mecha of Fox was in love with the God of Confidence - Ra1ser. I can say that now with a true heart and mind and I swear upon Him that this is true.
"But Mecha of Fox was no wimp. He asked for the blessing of the God, his benediction and received it. But every thing he accomplished was his doing and his alone.
"I actually travelled with him for a while and Mecha told me that if he needed help from anyone celestial he would not be deserving of his love. But I was young then.
"Assumed what everyone would assume. Mecha of Fox was in love with an earthbound royal, we all believed that. Never once, until now did anyone suspect that all of his deeds were to save the country and earn the love of one of our pantheon."
With that his contemplation fell away from him and he saw the crowd standing around him, awed. Their hero loved and earned the love of one of the strongest Gods.
"He got everything he wanted after all."

A new twist (possibly) on an old idea.

. . .
Now I look at it it seems it should actually be:
Narrator (with cameo pairing Ra1ser/Mechafox)

[randman22222]

Generally I never use the whole song, just bots of it, I think I prolly go for cutting away at least 50% of the song lyrics; and I certainly write more story than lyric words.
Also I tend to do them in spurts. After I Want It All I prolly won't do any more for a long time.
And in all fairness, some of my songfics (only two I believe, have had the song suggested by a later reader. The latest of which was Veneers.
But another reason I do do them is that it helps if you're stuck for ideas and it gets your creative juices flowing again. You also have to interpret the lyrics in the way you think suits the song and in part, the song sets the scene and limits you in ways a normal fic wouldn't.
Or to be honest, twist the words in such a way they do whatever you want totally disregarding any major influence the song has on you.
[/reasons why songfics are useful]

I may do fics inspired by poems later on.

Ra1ser/Mechafox (with cameo/narrator guest star!)
I Want It All

Spoiler

Show

It was a legend. And in the lands where the two had once lived only one person knew of their full tale. An old man now, not one soul believed him, "He's senile he is." Or perhaps, "Poor man, he was alive when it really happened. His mind isn't as it used to be, poor old randman. He must have mixed fact from fiction." He would sit for hours and regale the entranced children with his tales. "Once, just a short while ago there was an
Adventure seeker on an empty street
Just an alley creeper light on his feet
A young fighter screaming with no time for doubt
With the pain and anger can't see a way out
'It ain't much I'm asking,' I heard him say
'Gotta find me a future, move out of my way!'
"You see, back then I was apprenticed to a temple in the main city. Actually, I can't remember what the temple was any more; strange how once - significant things slip away from you. But it never was really important. But this man; wearing a tattered cloak with his silly hat was just kneeling there outside my temple.
"Begging of the god it reverenced."
Cries of protest rung out as the old man paused, a wry puzzled grin on his face. As if he knew a secret noone else did. And he sure savoured the moment. Dragging out the suspense; none of the children had heard this little story before.
One insolent youngling stood up and walked off shouting about how "The stupid codger won't tell the story right." rand spoke once more.
"Listen all you people come gather round
I gotta get me a game plan gotta shake you to the ground."
The listeners, for now even the adults were listening to the weave of his tale laughed at the child. The storyteller had just quoted an old proverb - actually said by Mecha of Fox - to tease the youngling back into the story.
"And the man raised up his hands to the Naked God of Confidence and begged him once more:
'Just give me what I know is mine
. . . do you hear me just give me the sign
It ain't much I'm asking if you want the truth
Here's to the future for the dreams of youth
. . .
I want it all and I want it now.'
"And I frowned. It was like one of our prayers; but the words were all wrong. And he seemed to be pleading for more than confidence. And his last words were said with so much desire I stepped back into the shadows. It seemed loving. And more.
"Why was he saying such passionate things in the dark of night; face hidden behind his tatters and rags? Once - rich, now poor man . . . a man, who I think was in love . . . " He trailed off, eyes gazing beyond them into his memories long past.
A larger crowd had clustered around him; but why did it seem as if he was talking to himself. Mesmerising voice; far - seeing eyes?
"Yes . . . the hero of legend we know as Mecha of Fox was in love with the God of Confidence - Ra1ser. I can say that now with a true heart and mind and I swear upon Him that this is true.
"But Mecha of Fox was no wimp. He asked for the blessing of the God, his benediction and received it. But every thing he accomplished was his doing and his alone.
"I actually travelled with him for a while and Mecha told me that if he needed help from anyone celestial he would not be deserving of his love. But I was young then.
"Assumed what everyone would assume. Mecha of Fox was in love with an earthbound royal, we all believed that. Never once, until now did anyone suspect that all of his deeds were to save the country and earn the love of one of our pantheon."
With that his contemplation fell away from him and he saw the crowd standing around him, awed. Their hero loved and earned the love of one of the strongest Gods.
"He got everything he wanted after all."

A new twist (possibly) on an old idea.

. . .
Now I look at it it seems it should actually be:
Narrator (with cameo pairing Ra1ser/Mechafox)

Regardless of what I just said, which I still do stand by, that was very well written.
Approved.

[Thufir]

Shipping Inc: Record Retrieval - Part 3

Spoiler

Show

“What are you doing here?”
“…Who are you?”
“Look to your left.” A small hole appeared in the fourth wall, but disappeared when Hiro glared at it.
“What’s that? Some sort of political statement?”
“OK, Doctor Who references aside, what?”
“…Thufir? Why do you all of a sudden look like your avatar?”
“It just kind of goes with the rest of the scenery. This is the visualisation room after all.”
“You know what this room does, then?”
“Sort of. I don’t really understand it. Zero only unlocked it and explained it very briefly to me before riding off into the sunset.”
“Riding off into the sunset? PZ can ride a horse?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“How would a horse get onto the top floor of a building?”
“Exactly. He rode off on a Fourier transform. Actually, you could get a horse up here. You just wouldn’t be able to take it outside this room. The idea of the visualisation room was to help people with their fics by allowing them to watch scenes as they imagined them. Anything you imagine is real in here, at least if you’re properly in tune with the room. But if you try to take it outside, it vanishes…hm.”
“What is it?”
“I’ve been in here for a while, sorting out these threads – I’m using them to map out timelines of the characters in my big Stoppard-fic, you see, it’s much easier to imagine different colours of thread than it is to find real ones – anyway, could you guys bring me some food and water? I’ve been imagining mine for a while, and I’m worried if I step outside the room I might spontaneously die of malnutrition.”
“How long have you been in here?”
“Oh, about 3 weeks.”
“3 weeks?! So how’s this fic of yours progressing then?”
“It’s great! I’ve almost started!”
“…3 weeks of work and you’ve almost started.”
“Well, yeah. Lots of planning. Ye cannae just rush into these things, ye ken.”
“Point o’ order, Big Man: Ye can just rush in. We always just rush in.”
“Aye, Big Yan, point well made. But ye’ve got to know where ye’re going to rush in, ye ken. Ye cannae just rush in anywhere. It looks bad, having to rush back oot again, straight awa’”
“Enough?”
“For now.”
“But why are you still here? Didn’t you get fired after the takeover like the rest of us?”
“…Takeover?! Fired?! What are you talking about?”
“What? You don’t know? How can you not know? We were taken over and had to start up a new company? I realise you’ve been working in here this whole time, but surely they must have come up here?”
“Well, just a hypothesis, but maybe they couldn’t get in. At the moment, the room is attuned to me. Since I didn’t know we’d been taken over, the possibility of them coming in here never entered my mind, so they wouldn’t be able to exist in the room. Who are these takeover people, anyway? And why are you here if we were all fired?”
“We came back for some missing records. And it was Lyinginbedmon, with Advanced Battle Royalties.”
“Damn him. Well, I suppose I’ll get out of your way-”
“Ahah! We finally got that door open!” Lyinginbedmon looked around the room and suddenly spotted the group. “You! Get out of my company!” He clicked his fingers and the hired muscle who’d obviously been trying to crowbar the door open lumbered forwards.
“Oops. I guess I shouldn’t have asked. Records is just one floor down, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but-” Rabbit was cut off by the floor vanishing beneath her and the others, and being replaced by crashmats, which broke their fall on the next floor down.
“Hurry! Knock on the ceiling when you want to come back up!” Thufir called through the hole as it closed up again.

“Do you think he’ll be alright?”
“From what he said, it sounds like he’s nigh-omnipotent as long as he stays in that room. I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
“ALERT ALL PERSONNEL. WE HAVE INTRUDERS IN THE BUILDING, BELIEVED TO BE IN RECORDS AT PRESENT. ALL ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS NOT REQUIRED OUTSIDE THE BUILDING TO CONVERGE ON RECORDS IMMEDIATELY.”
“So much for stealth. Turtle, to the front! Fan, watch out for anyone sneaking up on us. Rabbit, this was your department, where are we going?”
“Down here!” They all ran through shelves and shelves of fics, Rabbit occasionally grabbing some on the way and tossing them to people with free hands to carry them.
“OK, here we are… damn, I missed one individual fic.” Rabbit hurriedly scribbled down a title and some directions. “Fan?”
“Sure. Be back in a minute.” Fan ran off out of sight.
“Right, now let’s see…” Rabbit inserted a memory key and started frantically typing on the computer terminal “Come on, come on… files transferred, there we go.”
“While we’re here, crash their database.”
“Do we have time?”
“Thufir’s providing us with an easy exit and we’re waiting for Fan, we may as well take the opportunity to mess things up for them a bit.”
“Be so kind as to drop any weapons and step away from that terminal, please. Your ninja friend turned out to be less observant than you obviously hoped. Now be reasonable. Return the stolen property, and as soon as Dr. Minoblendy has finished dealing with your friend upstairs we can begin negotiating the size of your forthcoming generous donation to our company, and the extent of the charges we will press against yours.” Behind the floating Salmon stood a group of thugs, one of them holding an axe to the throat of an unconscious Fan.
“…Stand down, guys. We don’t take risks with our people’s lives.” Heads hanging, they obeyed. Happyturtle threw her warspork to the floor with a disgusted look on her face. The thugs moved round to encircle them.
“Good. I’m glad you can see reason, unlike certain more foolish individuals I’ve recently had to deal with.”
“Foolish I may be…”
“Oh no, not again.”
“But my strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure!”
“No objections, but there’s eleven of them.”
A blur flashed in front of the thug holding Fan. When it had passed he looked in slight puzzlement at his empty arms and the head of his axe, which fell off. Turtle picked it up and threw it into the computer terminal, smashing it.
“True. But now,” said Mordokai as he lifted the revived Fan to his feet and flicked Turtle’s warspork back up to her, “There are 3 of us.” He smiled, light glinting off a tooth (Narrative causality is fairly strong in a building devoted to the writing of fan fiction).
The thugs, glancing round, noticed that their boss had apparently recalled some other important business which simply could not wait. Being possessed of slightly more brains than most thugs, they decided to follow his example.
“Let’s go.”

They ran quickly back the way they had come originally, hurriedly filling in Mordokai on the details as they went. When they arrived, Turtle’s spork assault on the ceiling quickly attracted Thufir’s attention, leading to a neat hole, through which Turtle jumped first, carrying Vespe, then Rabbit, holding Curly, then-
“Ah! Now I see it!” Lying spoke some words in a language they didn’t understand, presumably magical, and to their horror the hole suddenly closed up, and the wall Thufir had obviously imagined to keep him out vanished before their eyes.
“An impressive piece of magic, I must admit. It took me some time to disconnect you, but now you are disconnected, the room will no longer obey you any more than anyone else. The playing field is evened between us, and the balance of power tilts back to me.” He gestured, and both doors and all the windows suddenly locked themselves.
“You are impressive indeed.” Lying preened at this compliment as Thufir reached for something in his pocket. “But in doing this, may you not have loosened some of the constraints on the original spells?”
“The only significant constraint on those spells was the area of effect, I believe.”
Thufir grinned widely. “Just as I thought,” and blew sharply on a whistle he had not been holding a few seconds earlier, the sound now travelling through the windows, to outside ears. Only those outside ears high enough to be within range of the top of the building of course, but…
“GRAAAARGH!” *CHOMP*
Godzilla’s bite took out a chunk of the wall on two floors, freeing both halves of the raiding party.
“You’re brilliant, Thufir!”
“I know. Now go! Quickly!”
Thufir turned back to the advancing infuriated Lyinginbedmon with fire on his hands and lightning in his gaze, while the raiding party leapt out onto Godzilla’s retreating back as it headed back towards the waiting Scourge Inc.
“You can use your real power, or you can use the power of this room, but not both at once, I think. Either way, do you think you can match my imagination? My mind is all the power I need…”

Some days later, Scourge Inc was running smoothly again, and Turtle headed up to Curly’s office.
“Curly, I know the raid was hard and all, and we barely got out, but-“
“But you want to go back and rescue Thufir.”
“Well, yes.”
“Risking more losses in the process, with no means of obtaining a decent distraction/getaway animal this time, you want us to go charging back in to a hostile company who will be surely be expecting us to try something of the sort, to rescue someone who as far as we know will be unable to leave until he’s had a meal or two.”
“…Yes?”
Rabbit, Vespe and Mordokai poked their heads in the door.
“Cannons ready, Cap’n Curly!”
“Course set for Shipping Inc, Cap!”
“I’ve got the squad ready to go on your command, Ma’am.”
Turtle looked back and forth from Curly to the three at the door, bemused.
“…You mean- But you said-”
“We don’t leave our people in there.” Curly stood up. “It’s a million-to-one chance,” she said, “But it might just work…”

Edit: To avoid confusion at the start of the fic during cat-muffin week or if I change my avatar at any other point in the future for whatever reason, my avatar at the time of writing was this:

Drawn by kpenguin.

[Dragonrider]

Still in.

This fairest and most obfuscating confusing chart we speakest of is this(also in the family itp thread) The most recent version I think :

Spoiler

Show

This graph always makes me really happy for some reason. yays! I have sisters, two of them! Which is good, as I suffer from rather an overload of brothers....


@Randman: Yeah, we have done a lot of songfics. There was one I was thinking of doing but I can't remember it now. Anyway, what I was going to say was that I often enjoy them if the music is properly blended in - sometimes though, it just feels a little superfluous.

And Cristo: I like it except for the very last paragraph, which reads more like an outline of events than a story. other than that, great! I've really been enjoying the whole saga.

[Lyinginbedmon]

Shipping Inc: Record Retrieval - Part 3

Spoiler

Show

“What are you doing here?”
“…Who are you?”
“Look to your left.” A small hole appeared in the fourth wall, but disappeared when Hiro glared at it.
“What’s that? Some sort of political statement?”
“OK, Doctor Who references aside, what?”
“…Thufir? Why do you all of a sudden look like your avatar?”
“It just kind of goes with the rest of the scenery. This is the visualisation room after all.”
“You know what this room does, then?”
“Sort of. I don’t really understand it. Zero only unlocked it and explained it very briefly to me before riding off into the sunset.”
“Riding off into the sunset? PZ can ride a horse?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“How would a horse get onto the top floor of a building?”
“Exactly. He rode off on a Fourier transform. Actually, you could get a horse up here. You just wouldn’t be able to take it outside this room. The idea of the visualisation room was to help people with their fics by allowing them to watch scenes as they imagined them. Anything you imagine is real in here, at least if you’re properly in tune with the room. But if you try to take it outside, it vanishes…hm.”
“What is it?”
“I’ve been in here for a while, sorting out these threads – I’m using them to map out timelines of the characters in my big Stoppard-fic, you see, it’s much easier to imagine different colours of thread than it is to find real ones – anyway, could you guys bring me some food and water? I’ve been imagining mine for a while, and I’m worried if I step outside the room I might spontaneously die of malnutrition.”
“How long have you been in here?”
“Oh, about 3 weeks.”
“3 weeks?! So how’s this fic of yours progressing then?”
“It’s great! I’ve almost started!”
“…3 weeks of work and you’ve almost started.”
“Well, yeah. Lots of planning. Ye cannae just rush into these things, ye ken.”
“Point o’ order, Big Man: Ye can just rush in. We always just rush in.”
“Aye, Big Yan, point well made. But ye’ve got to know where ye’re going to rush in, ye ken. Ye cannae just rush in anywhere. It looks bad, having to rush back oot again, straight awa’”
“Enough?”
“For now.”
“But why are you still here? Didn’t you get fired after the takeover like the rest of us?”
“…Takeover?! Fired?! What are you talking about?”
“What? You don’t know? How can you not know? We were taken over and had to start up a new company? I realise you’ve been working in here this whole time, but surely they must have come up here?”
“Well, just a hypothesis, but maybe they couldn’t get in. At the moment, the room is attuned to me. Since I didn’t know we’d been taken over, the possibility of them coming in here never entered my mind, so they wouldn’t be able to exist in the room. Who are these takeover people, anyway? And why are you here if we were all fired?”
“We came back for some missing records. And it was Lyinginbedmon, with Advanced Battle Royalties.”
“Damn him. Well, I suppose I’ll get out of your way-”
“Ahah! We finally got that door open!” Lyinginbedmon looked around the room and suddenly spotted the group. “You! Get out of my company!” He clicked his fingers and the hired muscle who’d obviously been trying to crowbar the door open lumbered forwards.
“Oops. I guess I shouldn’t have asked. Records is just one floor down, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but-” Rabbit was cut off by the floor vanishing beneath her and the others, and being replaced by crashmats, which broke their fall on the next floor down.
“Hurry! Knock on the ceiling when you want to come back up!” Thufir called through the hole as it closed up again.

“Do you think he’ll be alright?”
“From what he said, it sounds like he’s nigh-omnipotent as long as he stays in that room. I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
“ALERT ALL PERSONNEL. WE HAVE INTRUDERS IN THE BUILDING, BELIEVED TO BE IN RECORDS AT PRESENT. ALL ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS NOT REQUIRED OUTSIDE THE BUILDING TO CONVERGE ON RECORDS IMMEDIATELY.”
“So much for stealth. Turtle, to the front! Fan, watch out for anyone sneaking up on us. Rabbit, this was your department, where are we going?”
“Down here!” They all ran through shelves and shelves of fics, Rabbit occasionally grabbing some on the way and tossing them to people with free hands to carry them.
“OK, here we are… damn, I missed one individual fic.” Rabbit hurriedly scribbled down a title and some directions. “Fan?”
“Sure. Be back in a minute.” Fan ran off out of sight.
“Right, now let’s see…” Rabbit inserted a memory key and started frantically typing on the computer terminal “Come on, come on… files transferred, there we go.”
“While we’re here, crash their database.”
“Do we have time?”
“Thufir’s providing us with an easy exit and we’re waiting for Fan, we may as well take the opportunity to mess things up for them a bit.”
“Be so kind as to drop any weapons and step away from that terminal, please. Your ninja friend turned out to be less observant than you obviously hoped. Now be reasonable. Return the stolen property, and as soon as Dr. Minoblendy has finished dealing with your friend upstairs we can begin negotiating the size of your forthcoming generous donation to our company, and the extent of the charges we will press against yours.” Behind the floating Salmon stood a group of thugs, one of them holding an axe to the throat of an unconscious Fan.
“…Stand down, guys. We don’t take risks with our people’s lives.” Heads hanging, they obeyed. Happyturtle threw her warspork to the floor with a disgusted look on her face. The thugs moved round to encircle them.
“Good. I’m glad you can see reason, unlike certain more foolish individuals I’ve recently had to deal with.”
“Foolish I may be…”
“Oh no, not again.”
“But my strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure!”
“No objections, but there’s eleven of them.”
A blur flashed in front of the thug holding Fan. When it had passed he looked in slight puzzlement at his empty arms and the head of his axe, which fell off. Turtle picked it up and through it into the computer terminal, smashing it.
“True. But now,” said Mordokai as he lifted the revived Fan to his feet and flicked Turtle’s warspork back up to her, “There are 3 of us.” He smiled, light glinting off a tooth (Narrative causality is fairly strong in a building devoted to the writing of fan fiction).
The thugs, glancing round, noticed that their boss had apparently recalled some other important business which simply could not wait. Being possessed of slightly more brains than most thugs, they decided to follow his example.
“Let’s go.”

They ran quickly back the way they had come originally, hurriedly filling in Mordokai on the details as they went. When they arrived, Turtle’s spork assault on the ceiling quickly attracted Thufir’s attention, leading to a neat hole, through which Turtle jumped first, carrying Vespe, then Rabbit, holding Curly, then-
“Ah! Now I see it!” Lying spoke some words in a language they didn’t understand, presumably magical, and to their horror the hole suddenly closed up, and the wall Thufir had obviously imagined to keep him out vanished before their eyes.
“An impressive piece of magic, I must admit. It took me some time to disconnect you, but now you are disconnected, the room will no longer obey you any more than anyone else. The playing field is evened between us, and the balance of power tilts back to me.” He gestured, and both doors and all the windows suddenly locked themselves.
“You are impressive indeed.” Lying preened at this compliment as Thufir reached for something in his pocket. “But in doing this, may you not have loosened some of the constraints on the original spells?”
“The only significant constraint on those spells was the area of effect, I believe.”
Thufir grinned widely. “Just as I thought,” and blew sharply on a whistle he had not been holding a few seconds earlier, the sound now travelling through the windows, to outside ears. Only those outside ears high enough to be within range of the top of the building of course, but…
“GRAAAARGH!” *CHOMP*
Godzilla’s bite took out a chunk of the wall on two floors, freeing both halves of the raiding party.
“You’re brilliant, Thufir!”
“I know. Now go! Quickly!”
Thufir turned back to the advancing infuriated Lyinginbedmon with fire on his hands and lightning in his gaze, while the raiding party leapt out onto Godzilla’s retreating back as it headed back towards the waiting Scourge Inc.
“You can use your real power, or you can use the power of this room, but not both at once, I think. Either way, do you think you can match my imagination? My mind is all the power I need…”

Some days later, Scourge Inc was running smoothly again, and Turtle headed up to Curly’s office.
“Curly, I know the raid was hard and all, and we barely got out, but-“
“But you want to go back and rescue Thufir.”
“Well, yes.”
“Risking more losses in the process, with no means of obtaining a decent distraction/getaway animal this time, you want us to go charging back in to a hostile company who will be surely be expecting us to try something of the sort, to rescue someone who as far as we know will be unable to leave until he’s had a meal or two.”
“…Yes?”
Rabbit, Vespe and Mordokai poked their heads in the door.
“Cannons ready, Cap’n Curly!”
“Course set for Shipping Inc, Cap!”
“I’ve got the squad ready to go on your command, Ma’am.”
Turtle looked back and forth from Curly to the three at the door, bemused.
“…You mean- But you said-”
“We don’t leave our people in there.” Curly stood up. “It’s a million-to-one chance,” she said, “But it might just work…”

A splendid addition to the series

[Mr. Moon]

I'm thinking of writting a song fic for Behind Blue Eyes, but I can't figure out who to use for it. Ideas? (I'm thinking VespexCassie?)

You called for a heartbreak?

Writing to Reach You: Moon Called/Raistlin

Spoiler

Show

Raistlin was depressed often. It was just how he was. He was moody. But, even when he feeling down, and wanted to lie alone in his room, Moon Called always comforted him. She'd turn on his favorite music, turn on the lights, and lie on the bed with him until he felt better. It was why he loved her, she always made him smile.

Until one day. He woke up to the sound of his radio. It was playing all the usual, the day wasn't particularly special. There was a note on his nightstand. He picked it up and opened it.

Dear Raist,

I don't think I can do this anymore. You're a great guy, but this just isn't working out, and I think we shouldn't be together anymore.

Love,
Moon

He read it. Reread it. Again and again. It didn't make sense, he loved her, she loved him, they weren't supposed to split up. He sat on the bed, numb, not wanting to think, feel, anything. After a while, he fumbled for the phone, dialing her number. She picked up.

Hello?
Moon, I...I need to talk to you.
Silence.
Umm, Raist...
I know, you don't want to be with me anymore, but I need...to know why...I can change, whatever it is. He sounded desperate. She sighed on the other end.
Look, I just don't think I can be your comfort blanket anymore. It's too much. I can't deal with your depression, I just can't. You're just...too clingy Raistlin.
Really, I can fix it. I can get meds for the depression, I will, I swear. His voice wavered, and he shut up.
I'm sure you could but...well...I met this guy the other day at the park, and...

He hung up. Once there was another guy, it was over. He laid back against his pillow, tears beginning to flow from his eyes. He couldn't imagine being without her, and looked at the ceiling, alone, isolated, and more depressed than he had ever been before.

I'm on a crappy writing streak. Can't seem to get anything right.

...

What Have I Done?

Spoiler

Show

He hung up. There was no tone as the line went dead, not like in the movies. The music in the background disappeared with a soft click, leaving just a soft static as Moon Called sat there, holding the phone to her ear.

"I love you, Raist..."

The phone slipped from her fingers, and Moon Called leaned back against her couch, staring up at the ceiling. She could remember the day they'd met...

It had been a beautiful day. Moon Called had decided to have her lunch at the top of the tower. The wind swept her hair, tangling it and throwing it in her face. Spitting a strand out of her mouth, the dark-skinned girl turned, facing against the wind and letting the wind put it back in place - and froze. There he was, standing on the ledge of the building, starring down at the busy street below. Her lunch made a soft thud as it hit the dirt-covered cement, forgotten, as the girl ran over to the boy in front of her, stopping next to him and reaching out to take his hand. He whirled to face her, his eyes almost wild. Moon Called smiled up at him. "Hi, I'm Moon Called. You having a bad day?"

It had been a year since that day. Moon Called had promised Raist that day that she would stay with him, always, but she couldn't take it any more. She loved him, but Moon Called couldn't just give her love away like that, not with the little she got back from him. She knew he loved her, but it was so hard to love him back. She'd tried. For a year, she'd tried. She tried to show him new things, to help him cope, but it would almost always end the same, with Raist's head in her lap, his music blaring from his stereo.
"Stay with me, Raist." That's what she told him.

And then she'd met him. She could laugh with him. His eyes sparkled with a mischievous secret. It was easy to be with him. For a month, she'd kept him a secret from Raist, and every day, it got harder to be with him.

But she couldn't tell him, not to his face. She knew the news would break his heart. He'd try to stop her.

So she took the coward's way out.


"MC?" The voice drifted through the darkness, and Moon Called glanced at the door, and smiled weakly, but it didn't fool him. "What's wrong?" He sat down next to her, and she leaned against him. Oh, the irony was not lost on her.

"'Ruki..."

That was so not crappy, Raist. There's no way I could leave that one alone...

[Raistlin1040]

Wow, that's depressing.

*Resolves to write a happy Raist/Moon fic later tonight*

Good though, it's very good.

[ghost_warlock]

Some notes regarding my fic:

I've been minimizing physical descriptions of the characters since I don't really know what any of ya'll look like IRL (or even if that's the way you want to appear in the fic). As such, I'm working off the assumption that the characters in the fic resemble your current avatars. Moon Called and I are exceptions to this, since I hadn't really intended to write a cat-muffin fic (although I'm sure that could be fun/interesting if done by the right person; sadly I don't think that person is me).

Also, I'm relying on tropes a lot for the fic. I'm not sure (haven't thought much about) whether this is a shipping-itp convention or not, but I'm going off the assumption that it can't be a bad thing, especially since I plan on this being a long-term fic. (My current schedule, if it can be called that, entails me posting a segment roughly once a week for at least a couple months, so long as author inspiration/reader interest holds.)

Right now, this is how I envision the physical appearance of the main players:

TwoBitWriter: tanned brown-haired guy.
Alien: white-haired pretty dark-skinned guy.
Gem Flower: dark-haired/skinned gal w/ green eyes.
Moon Called: dark-haired/skinned gal w/ red eyes (of doom).
Terraoblivion: tall, pale, blonde gal w/ green eyes.

If any of you would prefer I used a different appearance for your incarnation, please PM me and I'll use that instead.

Because of the physical description thing, though, don't expect appearance tropes to neccessarily apply. They may be fair game for some characters, though!

Just for Fun: Alien and Gem Flower (based off her avi) wield knives/daggers. With my most recent segment (#3), this has been revealed to be a family trait. I wonder if I'm going anywhere with this...

Edit: Also, I need to spend less time musing about cosmology and more time actually writing.

Edit2: Okie dokie, I've heard from everyone so I'll update my descriptions, above, respectively. Hm, seems the gals all have eye colors and the guys don't. Oh well.

[Lex-Kat]

Babble Babble No Babble Babble One's Babble Babble Listening Babble Babble Anyways Babble Babble.

[Dallas-Dakota]

This graph always makes me really happy for some reason. yays! I have sisters, two of them! Which is good, as I suffer from rather an overload of brothers....

Great! I'm happy that it's making atleast somebody happy!

I'm thinking of writting a song fic for Behind Blue Eyes, but I can't figure out who to use for it. Ideas? (I'm thinking VespexCassie?)

Me! The cookiemonster is blue, and I have blue eyes IRL!

[Lyinginbedmon]

Me! The cookiemonster is blue, and I have blue eyes IRL!

I'm also blue eyed & blonde haired. Arians for the win!