[this really resembles the butt or shadow files more then it does the bet,
but it's in the same genre with all three, really.]
Rebeka sat in a side-room off of the ffml-authors' lounge. over in the next
room, she could hear author-avatars chatting, fighting, etc. she remembered
'The Bet,' 'Shadow Files,' [?] and 'The Butt.' She had previously made up
her mind to start a new one like it, and had just started to write the
software for it [she despised the use of magic in this kind of thing.] She
decided to test-drive it:
$ gcc -o PointDiv pointdiv.7=x
[by the way, the 7=x is a play on the word "anime." anyone get it?]
$ PointDiv
POD> SetChList %CHARS% =
'Saotome_R;Tendou_A;Tendou_N;Mousse;Shampoo;Hibiki_R;Kunou_T'
POD> Define 'Real Life' = %CHARS%; 'Some of the Nerima Crew [';%$1%;']
Transfer to North Central HS, MSDWT, Indiana.'
POD> ParseInterp 'Real Life'
ParseInterp: Error: 0x12F6C4A9: MISSING INFO! Define POD timeline, temporal
point] Timeline=Anime, TemporalPoint=at end of Anything Goes Martial Arts,
Right before Nettouhen.
POD> Output /device/videotape01
POD> Exit
$ Logout
--------------
She popped out the videotape and invited the other Author-avatars in to
watch her demonstration.
"With the PointDiv system, you can just type in the POD, and play the
fanfic/timeline in a standard vcr. for example, here's 'real life,' a TL i
made for demonstration purposes"
[>PLAY>]
[FF>>CUE]
...Ryoga thought... he just HAD to transfer to a school with random water
pressure and direction on the water fountains. nowhere is safe! THIS IS ALL
YOUR FAULT RANMA...
[REW<<REV]
...A random blast from a water fountain caught Ranma in mid-step. I looked
on as his curse was revealed, and my suspicion of the new exchange students
being from the anime world was confirmed...
[FF>>CUE]
...RANMA NO BAKA!!!!!" *WHAMWHAMWHAM* A Rent-a-Cop tapped Akane on the
shoulder. "Excuse me, Ma'am, you're under arrest for carrying a concealed
weapon, and for attacking a fellow student...
[FF>>CUE]
...Ryouga focused on his map of Northview Middle School. Now then, WHERE was
J. Everett Light career centre, again? It couldnt have just walked off...
[REW<<REV]
...Mousse dropped yet another weapon on the ground onto the already-huge
pile, in hopes that he would pass the metal-detector this time...
[_STOP_]
"So, how do you like it? That was only a quick demonstration, you can play
the whole timeline. there's instructions by the computer on how to use
PointDiv, just put a blank videotape into the tape drive and once you have a
divergence defined and parsed, type output space slash device slash
videotape oh one (output /device/videotape01)"
"By the way, you can recompile PointDiv with realtime-modification options,
but then it'll only work with this VCR, none of the others. just type at the
shell gcc dash capital-d RTMOD dash oh capital-r pointdiv space pointdiv dot
seven equal x (gcc -DRTMOD -o Rpointdiv Pointdiv.7=x)"
---------------
Authors note: if you wish to continue 'real life,' make sure you consult
with me before even sending it out to pre-readers.