(Senshi Muyou! is a multi-author improvisational
collaborative fanfic. It's hosted at Indie Madnesse,
http://indiemadnesse.sandwich.net, and is being reposted
here with the site moderators' permission. If you'd like to
read more of the fic, or sign up to write a segment, please
visit the Indie Madnesse page.
-- Scott)
*****
#######################################################
SENSHI MUYO
Episode 2 - Call Us Castle Conqistadores
by Steven Scougall
Original concept by Mervyn the Wonder Slug, (c) 1999
Hosted by Indie Madnesse
(http://indiemadnesse.sandwich.net)
#######################################################
The four generals eyed each other warily, wondering who
would crack first.
There was a reason for this. Schein, Tallis, Varese, and
Marais were supposed to take some youma, head over to the
remains of Dark Queen Prudence's Castle, and secure the
area. Despite their dislike for each other, the order had
come from their new Queen and they weren't about to disobey
her. So first thing in the morning, they had dropped by the
pocket dimension Queen Uzume's youma were being held in.
The snag had been that these youma were not what they had
been expecting.
They gazed over the youma again, taking in the pink and
purple and light green costumes which didn't quite hide the
youmas' not quite human forms. They looked at the crude
masks, which somehow didn't really hide the disturbing faces
underneath them. They looked in particular at the brightly
coloured bows around the youmas' necks.
The silence dragged on.
Marais cracked first. "How are supposed to do anything with
*these?*" he asked. "The enemy will take one look and die
laughing! And I don't see a single claw anywhere!"
"Fourth row, ten to your right," said Tallis, almost
automatically.
Marais singled out the youma indicated. "Oh. Right. There
are clawed ones. That's a relief, at least."
"This is ridiculous," sniffed Varese. "If you think I'm
going to work with such fashion disaster youma, you can
think again."
Schein tuned out the other generals. Morons, the lot of
them. Alright, so these youma weren't quite what they were
used to. But to someone who had Schein's impeccable sense
of strategy and tactics (or so he liked to believe), it was
easy to come up with ten uses for them in under ten seconds,
none of which involved tossing them out with the trash.
Except for one scenario where the enemy was known to be
going through the garbage for Clues.
And besides, getting more youma would take time and more
importantly money. Between them, the generals had about
enough money to buy a McDonalds Happy Meal. A legion of
more monstrous youma was definitely out of the question.
"Enough, Varese," he said. "They have interesting
possiblities."
"You think so?" asked Tallis.
"Yes, Tallis. First we'll need some cloaks for them.
Then..."
# # # # #
A man and a cat walked through the streets of Tokyo. This
was not a particularly impressive sight on the face of it.
There are many cats and many many men in the aforementioned
city. Admittedly, not as many go for walks together, but
with so many of each there must be some who do, and so the
sight was dismissed as a mere curiosity.
Upon further investigation, however, one would realise that
the man appeared to be following the cat, instead of the
other way around. Upon even closer investigation, involving
electronic listening devices and binoculars, one would
realise that the cat was talking to the man and was leading
him somewhere.
At this point the hypothetical investigator would go off for
a stiff drink and a lie down, and think it was all a sleep
deprived hallucination in the morning. Which was just the
way the cat wanted it. He wanted as few people knowing he
was a talking cat as possible. Excepting people he felt
like freaking out.
Currently, the cat was leading the man to its base of
operations to meet its fellow operative.
The base of operations turned out to be a nice looking house
in a nice suburb. Such things do, amazingly, exist in
Tokyo, though they are typically ridiculously expensive. In
addition, there was also a garden and a fence. In the grand
traditions of gardens in Tokyo, it measured about two square
metres in total, but it was a garden nonetheless.
"Yo, Carlisle," said Whittington as he walked in the door.
"What's up?"
The sleek black cat was slumped on the floor, her whiskers
and tail limp. At the sound of her colleague's voice, one
ear twitched and an eye opened fractionally to focus on him.
"Go ahead, guess," she said.
"Oh gosh, I wonder. Could it perhaps be Myra Lou calling in
to see how things are going, finding out you flushed the
pens down the toilet, and bitching about it for half an
hour?"
Carlisle's tail started waving irritably. "Very clever, Mr.
Smarty Pants."
"Flushing pens down the toilet is a waste of good
stationery," said the man solemnly. "I don't see why it
would earn such a severe berating, though."
Carlisle looked at the man a moment, her mystic advisor
senses screaming at her, her tail twitching in irritated
surprise. "Whittington, who is THIS?"
"Carlise, meet Takusan Fushin. Fushin, meet Carlisle.
She's... uh..." Whittington desperately tried to remember
the cover he'd come up with before. "Uh... the reincarnated
Queen of the Kingdom of Job Satisfaction."
"Oh really," said the man with a clearly disbelieving tone.
"Whittington," said Carlisle with a clearly confused tone,
"what the hell are you babbling about?"
"Fushin, excuse us a minute," said Whittington, with a
clearly worried tone. "Private meeting, kinda thing."
"To make sure your stories coincide, I guess," said Fushin.
Whittington grumbled to himself for a while in naughty words
made up of ASCII symbols, such as "#&!!" and "$#!+".
"Alright, alright," he finally conceded, "there is no
Kingdom of Job Satisfaction, and I'm not a reincarnated
Minister, and this isn't the reincarnated Queen. But I had
to get your attention somehow."
"Whittington, you... What have you done THIS time?"
"Just LOOK at the guy's mystic destiny, Carlisle. Don't
tell me you can't sense one a mile long."
"Mystic Destiny?" asked Fushin.
"Yes, Mystic Destiny. You're just the guy we need."
"For what?"
"Whittington, haven't you told him ANYTHING?"
# # # # #
The four generals and their legion of cloaked youma
approached the castle, feeling nervous.
The castle was tall and imposing and boded of many bad
things. It being Dark Queen Prudence's Dark Castle of
Darkness, this was expected. Considering that Dark Queen
Prudence had just recently been defeated, the devastation
was also expected.
It was just... well.. there should have been more
destruction. Save for pockmarked walls, tattered banners,
and a peeling paint job, the castle was in very good shape.
"Prudence must have spent a LOT on post demise structural
integrity," murmured Schein.
"That just makes it easier for us," said Marais.
"Not necessarily," said Schein.
"I think I get it," said Tallis. "Schein's wondering why
Prudence spent so much on it."
"Exactly," said Schein.
"I don't get it," said Varese.
Schein rolled his eyes. The man was supposedly
strategically competent enough to pass Queen Uzume's test,
but he still significantly lacked in the smarts department.
"Look, you hair-care product abusing moron," he said,
"there's no reason to make sure the place will stay in such
good shape after you die unless you plan to be coming back."
"Oh, of course. You think Prudence will be coming back,
then?"
"That or she had plans for a successor or something. It's
practically a certainty. We'll just have to be extra
careful when securing the place, alright?"
As might have been guessed already, the four generals
weren't on the best of terms. So when they entered through
the front gate, it was perfectly understandable that Tallis
suggested that the four split up, to speed up the operation.
But Schein was worried. Something didn't quite feel right
about the situation, and as much as he disliked the other
three, he disliked the idea of being all alone in a
potentially dangerous situation even more.
"We shall stay together," he said.
The other three groaned.
"At least at first. Once we're sure things are alright we
can split up."
Grumbling, the four started exploring the castle.
# # # # #
Uzume already had most of her legions of youma, but there
had been a snag. They were supposed to be a Legion of
Happiness and Terror. While the youma were fine on the
Terror front, they didn't seem particularly good for
Happiness.
Uzume, however, wasn't quite sure. She'd built a Dark
Kingdom four times before and thus was an expert authority
on what made youma Terrible. But she'd never been a Dark
Queen of Happiness and felt that perhaps she wasn't the best
to judge if a youma would make people happy. To address
this, she had hired a Tester of Youma Suitability. When
he'd rejected all the youma, Uzume had gone out and hired
another, just to make sure. And then another. And so on.
She'd just hired yet the sixth Tester. The two were
currently in the pocket-dimension that housed her legions of
youma, walking through the amassed ranks. As they came to
each one Uzume would turn to talk to the Tester, who would
always, without fail, reject the youma's suitability as a
harbinger of Happiness.
They came to the end of the fourth file.
"Now," said Uzume to the Tester of Youma Suitability, "are
you absolutely sure? None of them make you feel happy at
all?"
"I want my mummy," cried the little girl, and clutched her
teddy-bear closer to her.
Apparently not. Uzume sighed and turned back to look at the
youma. It was the Undercover special, meaning that it
looked vaguely human. But only vaguely - it did after all
have five inch long talons instead of fingernails, a spiked
tail, shoulder muscles bigger than its head, and a mask that
didn't quite hide the disturbing face beneath it.
Uzume had to admit, it didn't look all that happiness
inducing. Even with the brightly coloured clothes and the
pink bow tied around its neck. There was just something
about it that the clothes couldn't hide.
"Rargh?" asked the youma.
"No, that will be fine, Gurgh," said Uzume, waving a hand
dismissively.
"Hraagh," Gurgh assented, and stepped back into the line of
Undercover youma.
"I ask you," Uzume complained, bouncing in exasperation. "I
specifically asked for a legion of Happiness and Terror, and
I get this. All my Testers agree that they're just
Terrifying."
"I'm scared," cried the girl.
# # # # #
They were walking through a dimly lit hallway when Schein
heard something.
The other three generals were constantly complaining, and
the youma's feet made loud clicking noises with every
footstep. With at least a hundred youma, that was a hell of
a lot of loud clicking footsteps. But somehow, through all
the din, Schein had heard something.
It sounded for all the world like someone singing "What...
shall we do... *hic* wi' a drunken Dark Gen'ral." All the
other three generals were talking at the time and the youma
weren't capable of either drinking or complex speech, which
ruled out everybody in their group.
That meant there was somebody else in the castle with them.
Admittedly, that somebody else sounded very drunk, but
still, there was somebody else in the castle with them.
"QUIET!" Schein hissed at the top of his voice.
By degrees their group slowed down, stopped complaining, and
became silent.
"What's up, Schein?" asked Tallis.
"I heard somebody else in the castle. Singing. Listen
hard."
But, even though they stood there in silence for five
minutes, nobody could hear anything.
"Look, there's nothing, alright? Now let's get back on our
way, alright?" said Marais.
"There was definitely *someone*," Schein insisted. "Be
extra careful and keep your eyes peeled."
They continued on their way. Behind them, a crack in the
wall that led all the way to the wine cellar remained
unnoticed.
# # # # #
So. After taking the latest Tester back to the beach to
rejoin her for-some-weird-reason-completely-infuriated
mother, Uzume found herself back at the We-B-Youma
employment agency. Shiryo was with her, to provide his
guidance and expert Dark Litigation skills if they hit a
snag. But he was mainly there because he was the one with
the money.
"Yyes?" nasalised the recptionist. "Hyow myay I hyelp you?"
"It's about these youma I bought," said Uzume. "The
Undercover Set."
"Whyat about thyem?"
"They're not Happy enough."
A pause.
"...what?" the receptionist finally asked, stunned into
nasally normal speech.
"Just what I said. They're Terrifying, yes, but just not
Happy enough."
"Excuse me, I'll just... just... get the manager," said the
receptionist, and picked up the phone. She had a hurried
whispered conversation, then placed the receiver down. "He
will be with you shortly," she said.
They didn't have to wait long. In just a couple of minutes,
the door opened and the manager of the youma employment
agency entered the room. Dressed immaculately in his usual
business suit / armour combination piece, he was striding up
to the two in his usual assured and confident way.
"Ah, Uzume-san. So good to see you again. The receptionist
has just told me that you have a problem with the youma you
most recently acquired from us. Would you care to
elaborate?"
"They're just not Happy enough!" cried Uzume indignantly.
The manager blinked, his mouth opening into an O of surprise
and confusion, but otherwise made no other reaction. This
was a first, thought Uzume. Normally he always had a snappy
reply for any of her questions or complaints.
"What my sister means to say," Shiryo said in his best Dark
Litigator voice, "is that she requires a Legion of Youma of
Happiness and Terror, instead of the Legion of Fear and
Terror that she has previously acquired through the services
of your agency."
"'Happiness and Terror'?"
"Yes!" said Uzume excitedly. "So I can build a Dark Kingdom
of Happiness and Terror and make everybody happy and not
have annoying junior high brats try to stop me!"
"...right," said the manager, and turned to look at Shiryo.
Shiryo just shrugged helplessly.
"O-kay," said the manager, slowly. "One Legion of Youma of
Happiness and Terror. We'll see what we can do, but it will
be expensive."
It was Shiryo's turn to look nervous. He was the one
paying, after all. "How expensive?" he asked.
The manager named a sum of money and Shiryo made a strangled
noise in the back of his throat. Uzume thought about it for
all of five seconds before saying "Sure!"
Shiryo made another choked noise.
"Oh, everything will be alright, Shiryo!" said Uzume with
Happy Bounce #15. "Don't worry!"
# # # # #
Everything seemed alright. The generals had gone through
almost all of the castle, leaving some youma as guards in
key positions. If anybody came along to nab the castle for
themselves, they'd get a nasty shock.
They hadn't entered the inner courtyard yet. It being the
largest feature of the castle, the generals had decided to
leave it for last.
Then Schein noticed a reddish glint from the floor.
"Wait," he said. He crouched down to take a closer look.
It turned out to be a talon. Seven inches long and blood
red. None of their youma had talons like that. The
generals clustered around, looking at it.
"None of our youma have talons like that," said Marais
nervously.
"And it wasn't there when we were in this part of the castle
before," said Varese.
"Yes," said Schein. "Something's been through here after we
went through. And talons like this don't just fall off."
"Grah, Aragh, Harrh and McUgh, report!" ordered Tallis.
The four youma that had been left to guard this area
completely failed to appear from their hiding spots and
report in.
"If we searched this room right now we would probably find
the remains of several youma," said Schein, waving the blood
red talon as if for emphasis. "Including the remains of
Grah, Aragh, Harrh and McUgh."
Their remaining youma huddled together.
"The conclusion is obvious," said Schein in a low whisper.
"Obviously, there are others who seek to secure this castle
for their own purposes, and they are sneaking around behind
our backs and quietly undoing everything we've already done.
No doubt they are sniggering to themselves at this very
moment as they think of the way they shall ambush us in the
Inner Courtyard."
"Ambush us!? Schein, what are we gonna DO!" wailed Tallis.
The other two didn't speak, they just looked at him with
questioning looks on their faces.
Schein grinned to himself. They recognised his strategic
and tactical genius at last...
He looked over at the group of youma they still had with
them, a plan forming in his mind.
# # # # #
And in another part of the deceased Dark Queen Prudence's
Dark Castle, Dark Queen Yasha's group of four generals
noticed the glint of a talon. A talon that belonged to a
youma that wasn't one of theirs. They formed much the same
conclusion, through much the same reasoning process.
The only difference was that they were never quite sure what
their names were, as they were changed every two weeks on
Queen Yasha's whim. So instead of calling each other by
name, they resorted to numbers.
# # # # #
The cats had tried everything. They'd tried persuasion.
They'd tried pleading. They'd tried barefaced honesty.
They'd even tried threatening to wreck his life, but then
realised that Fushin was doing a perfectly good job of
making his own life as boring as possible and they couldn't
really wreck it, as such.
In desperation, they activated the communications console
and called Myra Lou Poonster, their boss.
"Carlise, Whittington, I was about to go out and play bridge
with Myrtle. This had better be important."
"It's this guy. He's just the guy we need, but he thinks
this is all just a joke."
"Hello, ma'am," said Fushin politely. "I am Takusan
Fushin."
"Hi Fushin-kun. The name's Myra Lou Poonster. What have
Carlisle and Whittington been tellin' you?"
"They claim that I am destined to fight a Dark Queen Uzume
and save the world. I think that this claim lacks a certain
something."
"They're good at sensing that sort of thing, you can trust
them."
"Really. Can I trust you? Who are you, really? If you
know talking cats then you must not be entirely normal
yourself."
The old lady on the screen seemed to preen, for just a
moment. "World's oldest magical girl. Woman. Old lady.
Whatever."
"Really. Do you have any proof?"
"Sugar, I'm 89 years old. You don't want to see me in a
fuku. Nor do you want to see my transformation sequence."
Fushin got a certain mental image, dating back to when he
was young and visiting his grandmother's house, and
shuddered. "No, I suppose not."
# # # # #
Uzume's generals and youma entered the courtyard about one
second after Yasha's entered from the other side. The two
groups froze.
After an uneasy silence, one of Yasha's Generals stepped
forwards and strode to the fountain at the center of the
courtyard. In response, Tallis, Varese, and Marais shoved
Schein forwards, volunteering him for liaison duty.
"Well, Schein, it appears we meet again. On opposing sides,
unfortunately."
"Too true, Fred."
"It's Pierre now. At least, I think it's Pierre. It could
be Antoine."
This was enough for Schein to say "...what?"
"Queen Yasha keeps changing our names. Two weeks ago I was
Franz and a month ago I was Ictheous. For a couple of days
I was even called Wonko The Terrible. I've had more name
changes than I can keep track of."
"I can see how that would be difficult."
"It is, rather. To the other guys, I just go by Number
Three." Pierre, or possibly Antoine, sat down on the edge
of the fountain. "Look, Schein, I really don't want to
fight you. Can't we just sort this out peacefully?"
"Unfortunately, probably not. My queen sent me to secure
this castle for her use. I suspect Queen Yasha sent you for
the same reason."
The General Formerly Known As Fred looked thoughtful.
"Well, what she really wanted us to do was loot the place
and concentrate on Prudence's wine cellar. Maybe we could
work out some deal where we own the cellar and you guys own
the rest."
Schein thought back to the drunken singing he'd heard. "Ah,
that explains the drunken singing I heard before."
Pierre/Antoine nee Franz nee Ictheous nee
many-other-names-one-of-which-is-"Wonko The Terrible" nee
Fred looked confused. "We haven't hit the cellar yet. You
mean that singing wasn't you?"
Schein got a VERY bad feeling. "There's somebody else again
here with us."
In the traditions of comic timing, Dark Queen Nyx's four
Dark Generals chose this moment to stagger drunkenly through
another of the entrances to the inner courtyard. They
looked confused for a moment, and then ordered their youma
to attack.
Schein started cursing. His plan required perfect timing,
and he was the only one who could pull it off correctly.
The other three would just screw it up.
"Look, Fred, Number Three, or whatever, it's been great
seeing you again but I have to get back and oversee my
team's part in this battle. I like the sound of the split
ownership idea but I don't think my queen would go for it."
"Yasha probably won't go for it either," said the other
general. "I'd say good luck and all, but seeing as you're
on the other side..."
"Yeah."
The two generals hurried back to their own forces, and sent
them forwards to the attack. The three legions of youma met
in a typical berserkerish every-youma-for-itself battle.
The sort of battle where the winning side can be counted on
the fingers of one foot.
Schein, however, had other ideas. He let his youma fight
the others for a little while, waiting for them to herd the
others into the center of the courtyard...
Almost there...
The last of the youma straggled into the huge pulsating
crowd of confused fighting in the center of the courtyard.
"ONE!" he shouted. At exactly the same time Ex-Fred shouted
"GO!"
A horde of Yasha's youma jumped from their third-storey
window hiding spots to join in the melee. Simultaenously,
every single one of Uzume's youma took their cloaks off and
posed.
The fighting ground to a confused halt as all the other
youma, including the newly arrived ones, just *stared* at
the pink, purple, and lime green clothed youma with pink
bows around their necks. Then they started laughing.
"TWO!" shouted Schein.
The remainder of Uzume's youma, watching from the second
story windows, stepped into view and started raining fiery
death down upon the suddenly still forms of their enemies.
After only a moment, the opposing forces started firing
back, but were significantly reduced.
"THREE!"
The youma at the windows withdrew at the same time the
posing contingent attacked the enemies whose attention was
now distracted upwards. After a few moments, it was all
over and the youma forces of both Nyx and Yasha were
completely wiped out, and only several of Uzume's had been
lost.
The General who might have been Pierre or Antoine but who
Schein thought of as Fred spoke up. "Impressive ploy,
Schein. What's going to stop us from leaving to get more
youma?"
"FOUR!"
The youma at the windows dropped down and blocked all four
exits, and were joined a moment later by the posing
regiment. At the same time, Marais cast spells that blocked
all magical transportation within a one mile radius, and
Tallis threw up magical shields over himself, his three
fellow Generals, and in front of the youma guarding the
exits. On his part, Schein threw up a shielding spell
around the suddenly confused generals, to stop them
wandering around.
"I think you'll find that that suitably answers your
question, Fred. Varese, go get our backup youma and start
placing them in key defensive positions around the castle,
please. They should have arrived at the drawbridge by now."
"Right away, Schein."
Ten minutes later Varese came in to the courtyard to report
that all other youma in the castle had been wiped out, and
that Uzume's youma forces were all over the castle and ready
to defend it from anything. And not a moment too soon, for
under the onslaught of the captive generals' magic the
various shields were starting to wear very thin.
"Very good, Varese." Schein turned back to the eight
captive Dark Generals. "Well, it appears that we no longer
need to keep you here under our watchful eye, so goodbye."
He waved a hand and the remains of the shielding spell
became a teleportation spell that dumped the lot of them in
the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It wouldn't hold them for
long, but it would occupy their attention for a few mintues.
Besides, Schein was feeling vaguely playful.
Uzume's four generals exchanged high fives and
congratulations for a battle won and a job well done. And
then Varese stepped on Schein's foot by accident, and their
congratulations turned into the usual heated insults, which
was much more normal for them.
# # # # #
There were two cats lazing on the fence of a nice house in a
nice suburb of Tokyo. One was a sleek black female, and the
other was a male that resembled a lethargic ball of grey
fluff most of the time. They were talking, but considering
that they were obviously Carlisle and Whittington, this was
only to be expected.
They were talking in low voices. Normally, this would be by
choice, as it just wouldn't do if they were discovered to be
talking cats. This time, however, they were talking in low
voices because it had been a long day and they really didn't
have the energy to talk in anything above a whisper.
It had taken the two cats most of the day to convince Fushin
that there was a possibility his destiny might just, at an
outside chance, involve defending the world from a crazy
Dark Queen who wanted to turn the world into an Orwellian
land of strictly enforced contentment. They might have
gotten a bit further, but it was starting to get late and
Fushin had to leave to get ready for the next day's hard
work of paperclip quality assurance.
"And it's only a possibility of an outside chance maybe
being considered..." moaned Carlisle.
"Still, it's a start," said Whittington. "He'll see sense."
"In maybe twenty years," riposted Carlisle.
"I hope not," said Whittington. "Twenty more years of what
happened today does not sound fun."
"Are you sure about him?"
"Hey, you sensed his mystical destiny. The man is clearly
important. Somehow."
"I just hope we aren't messing with his actual mystic
destiny by trying to get him working for us."
"These things are slippery, kitty. I'm sure it doesn't
matter."
The two cats sighed. It had truly been a long day.
Up ahead, someone walked around the corner into the street.
With feline curiosity the two cats turned to look at the new
arrival. At this distance, the two cats couldn't make out
any details apart from the fact that it was a woman. And
that at the sight of her, their mystic senses started
jangling urgently.
"This one's yours," said Whittington.
"After the difficulty with Fushin, I wouldn't let you handle
this one anyway," sniffed Carlisle. She dropped from the
fence to the ground and padded after the figure.
# # # # #
Uzume reclined back on the large throne and sighed in
contentment. She now had an actual honest to goodness Dark
Castle, and she hadn't had to pay a huge amount of money to
have it built. So all she needed to do was pay a large
amount of money to have it refurbished and made into a Dark
Castle of Happiness and Terror.
She reclined further and banged her head against the back of
the throne.
"Owie!"
She was either going to have to watch the reclining or get a
new throne. Dark Queen Prudence had been smaller than
Uzume, thus this throne was smaller than Uzume was used to.
She mulled the choice over, before deciding to go for a new
one. Thrones were made for reclining in, after all.
"My Queen!"
Uzume held her nose. The smell could mean only one thing -
the approaching general was none other than General Marais.
The man had the annoying habit of eating at the Burrito Barn
every few days, and more if he could possibly manage it. It
gave him quite a distinctive smell. "Yes, Marais?"
"We have a call from the agency. They say that they have
found a possible solution to the problem of your legions not
being happy enough."
"Yay!" she cheered, hands clasped together and bouncing
enthusiastically. "Right, get the other generals, you
should all come too. These are the legions you'll be
commanding, after all."
Marais looked nervous.
"Oh come on, it'll be fun!"
Marais looked veeeery nervous indeed.
(TO BE CONTINUED!)
Tune in next time, and hear the generals singing a variant
of the lumberjack song!
Then again, perhaps not.
Author's Ramblings
--------------------
When I voted for Inverse back in the Sweepstakes, I never
thought I'd end up writing chapter 2 for it in its new guise
as Senshi Muyo. Fate's just funny that way, I guess. I
feel all privileged and honoured, now. ^_^
Oh yes, and before I forget - Wai! Another Indie Impro gets
to chapter 2! We WILL be a force to be reckoned with! Oh
yes, we definitely will! AHA! AHAHAHA!!
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... er... ahem. Excuse me.
Writing that chapter was fun. It certainly wasn't the
longest impro chapter ever, but I had fun coming up with it.
I just hope you had as much fun reading it.
Thanks go to Mervyn the Wonder Slug, for both deciding to
turn this into an Indie Impro, for prereading, and for
pointing out that Uzume was bouncing just a little too much
in an earlier draft, if you can believe that.
Steven Scougall
23 Nov 1999
http://www.crosswinds.net/~sscougall/
Scott Schimmel Ex ignorantia ad sapientium;
Ex luce ad tenebras
"You really aren't normal, are you?" - Miki Koishikawa