The following invitation has been sent to lots of people. I thought it
would be of some interest to you...
------------------------------------------------
Dear FFMLer,
With this invitation you are invited to attend the horsemen's ball.
This is a formal event so please dress up in one of the following:
guyver suit, gundam, D.D. battle mover, Techkno armor,
Sailor suit, molidver suit, hardsuit, etc.
the proper accessories are of course:
N2 mine, hyper rays, thermonuclear (grelvin) devices,
plasma/light sabers, BWoDs (big weapons of destruction).
Hope you can be there,
-Death
-Famine
-War
-Pestilence
----------------------------------------------------
"Oh shit. I do NOT _need_ another incipient disaster right now."
The Defender of the Light immediately cast a com spell to his Chief
Organizer.
"I need you to assemble a complete Observer Team, with Time-regress and
Intervention capabilities, to proceed to the Mish-Mash Anime-verse known
as FFML. Priority: Most Urgent. Potential Danger: Extreme. Forwarding
message now."
"Sir, might I remind you that we already have two such teams active and
are extremely short on qualified personnel? It was my understanding
that both teams were needed where they are."
"Refresh my memory. What observer teams do we currently have out, where
are they, and what are the reasons for keeping them there?"
"Probability scans for Project Destiny do not look good. The
unanticipated mental transference between analogs of one Ranma Saotome
has led to the presence of a group of Reality Manipulators in the target
universe. This group was previously unknown to us, and we still have
virtually no data concerning them, their capabilities, or their
intentions. And, of course, the situation in WoT is unstable. We are
unable to predict anything concerning that universe. Also, we have
limited observer teams monitoring several fanfic universes."
"You should have gotten the message by now... Tell, me what do you
think?"
"Oh, definitely not good. Still, don't you think it's a little extreme
to send a complete team to a Mish-Mash?"
"And what would you recommend?"
"Containment. Let the disaster happen as scheduled, and keep it there.
Let the Four Horsemen and regular FFMLers blow themselves to Hell if
they want to."
"Please calculate the probability of said disaster migrating to one or
more fanfic universes, assuming that we do nothing."
A brief pause... "94.37%"
"And if we attempt to contain?"
Another pause... "46.23%"
"And, assuming that it spreads to at least one fanfic universe, the
probability that it will then spread to Mish-Mash
Rec.Arts.Anime.Creative?"
A slightly longer pause... "76.34% for one. It increases dramatically
from there, with it being all but 100% if the disaster reached 10 or
more fanfic universes."
"Even if any containment attempts succeed, what will happen to the
fanfic universes created by those FFMLers who, as you said, 'blow
themselves to Hell'? Under World As Myth, a universe whose Author has
stopped writing without resolving the plot threads that led to its
creation will stagnate, locked in its last position, and be doomed to
repeat itself with only minor variations in an infinite loop. I realize
that this can happen anyway, but many of the fanfic universes look to be
stable, able to proceed without direct input from the Author, once said
Author has tied up those plot threads. Also, you're neglecting the
sheer number of innocent Lurkers that would be caught in the
crossfire.... I take it you see why containment would be a bad idea,
even it had a prayer of succeeding."
"Damn. Containment, at least, looked feasible with the personnel
available. Dispatching a complete team is simply impossible. I have
another idea.... Mish-Mashes are inherently unstable to begin with,
valuable simply because they can spawn so many other universes, at least
some of which might be stable. As the creative force behind them
weakens, they will fade away. It may be possible to temporarily shut
down that one, so that this disaster never takes place, and then bring
it back up later."
"Not possible. The creative force behind this one is very strong. Any
outside attempt to destroy it seems to actually strengthen it. If you
don't believe me, go back and look at the Revenge Wars."
"I'll take your word for it. Damn. It looks hopeless."
"Not entirely. Write off Project Destiny. Success at this point
appears impossible without the cooperation, or at least acquiesce, of
the Reality Manipulators there. Perhaps, after this is over, we can
work at attaining it. I believe the team there was composed primarily
of non-mages?"
"Yes."
"I was afraid of that. We'll have to do some major reshuffling then. I
want the team that goes to FFML to be mostly mages, with knowledge of
the devices likely to be present and skilled at disabling them
magically. A crash course in various Anime-verses may be necessary.
Pull about ten people from WoT--"
"Are you sure?!? The situation there is extremely volatile and could
erupt in literally dozens of different ways."
"Outside information leads me to believe that the eruption won't take
place for another year, possibly two. I could be wrong. In case I am,
instruct the remaining team there to call Krystal directly if they need
help. That universe's Special Magic makes it far easier for her to take
action there anyway. She's also managing the situation in Valdemar....
Let's see, where was i?"
"The ten people from WoT."
"Thank you. Send five of them--all mages--to reinforce the team to
FFML. Use the other five as a roving team to back up observers in
fanfic universes as needed. I'm expecting a changing situation in at
least one within the next few days."
"May I ask where you'll be during all this?"
"At the ball itself, of course. I don't have any of the requested
garments, but formal robes, complete with staff, should do. Since
lightsabers were specifically mentioned as possible accessories I'll
take the one Luke presented me with. For other BWoDs, I'll just rely on
magic. Now, if only neither the Evil Coalition nor the Dark Alliance
bother me for the next few days...."
"Yeah right. According to Murphy, they'll _both_ strike in the middle
of this ball."
"If they both do I'll have nothing to worry about. They'll be too busy
killing each other to bother me. I'd have to mop up the survivors and
attempt to minimize collateral damage, of course. One or the other...
now that could be bad. But that's why I want a reinforced team to call
on. We'll at least have a chance at minimizing the damage."
"Will Krystal be accompanying you?"
"I don't know. As soon as I'm done talking with you, I intend to call
her, explain the situation, and invite her. We may decide that it makes
more sense for her not to attend the ball itself, but to be available
should I need help or if another universe requires personal attention.
Also, she has very little experience in dealing with
Anime/Fanfic/Mish-Mash universes. I'm not sure either of us want her
first major introduction to be at an incipient disaster of this
magnitude."
"I think we have everything taken care of. Is there anything else?"
"Not that I can think of right now. If I come up with anything I'll
call you. Also, if you, or the Intelligence staff, develop _any_
information that _might_ affect these plans, CALL ME."
"I'm looking things up now.... According to intelligence, Anarchy,
Chaos, Order, Entropy, and several minor deities plan to attend."
"Anarchy would be there. Just what I don't need. Because of The
Balance, Order and Chaos tend to cancel each other out, so I doubt that
will be a problem. Entropy rarely takes an active part in things.
She'll probably just sit back and watch. As for the minor deities....
How much do you want to bet that all the ones who don't like me will be
there, and none of the ones who owe me favors?"
"No bet. Would you like me to inform the High Priest/ess of each of the
friendly ones?"
"It might not be a bad idea. If you do, make sure the info can't be
traced back to us. That way, I can benefit from their presence without
having to actually call in any of those favors. I refuse to use them if
I don't absolutely have to."
"You may have to."
"Let's be optimistic about this, shall we?"
"Yeah, right. Ok, bye now."
The Defender of the Light terminated the com spell.
----------------------------------------------
Author's notes:
First, apologies to Shadow Stalker for the _Careful_Destiny_
references.... <insert grovelling here> Just finish it sometime,
PLEASE?
DISCLAIMERS: I know, one usually puts these at the top, but...
WoT (_The_Wheel_of_Time_) belongs to Robert Jordan and Tor Books.
_Valdemar_ belongs to Mercedes Lackey and her publisher(s).
Ranma 1/2 was created by Rumiko Takahashi and belongs to whoever
actually owns the rights to it.
I highly recommend reading both fantasy series. Hopefully, since I'm
providing free advertising for them, no one will sue me. Of course,
everyone on the mailing list is presumably already familiar with Ranma,
so I doubt that will count there, but still.
Next, I suppose I should provide some info on the Defender of the
Light... He's a character I've been thinking about for some time, but,
until recently, never actually written about. He has characteristics of
a powerful Self Insert, but I hope to avoid most of what people hate
about SI fics. Look for the intro and first chapter of a series of
Ranma fanfics dealing with him within the next few days.
--
Erik
"If you see my mind out wandering, be sure to send it back."
-Marion Zimmer Bradley, _Witchlight_
http://www.cs.transy.edu/ejessup/homepage.html
--
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com