Hey, all.
It's me, the Gentleman Caller. Some of you may not have
paid any
attention to my previous fic, 'YARL', due to the fact that it's
a lemon.
Oh, I saw it... :)
Fair enough - there's a lot of traffic on this list, and
we've all got
to filter it somehow. Greetings.
And hello to you too!
So, I'm feeling like writing something non-lemony, and
I've been
peering through some of my back-list items... things I've
started, but
somehow haven't continued. This is one I've always liked.
My question is: Is this worth continuing? Or not?
I'll let you in on my opinion after I've finished C&C'ing
this bad boy, 'kay? :)
Enjoy...
---
BGC - 2110
75/80 years after the series? Ok, cool, I can deal.
MegaTokyo, 2036 AD
But... waitaminute...
Nene Romanova could feel the sweat running down her back as she
worked at
removing the boomer from the ADP computers. She tried to
ignore the sweat,
to devote her entire attention to rooting out the electronic
intruder and
tossing it out like yesterday's garbage. She was glad she had
Mackie
helping her.
The power system flared higher as the boomer's control programs
gained a
firmer grip on the system... and then Nene realized the
solution. Her
fingers moving as quickly as she could, she input as series of
small viruses
typo: as -> a
into the system, activating the ADP's anti-virus systems...
slowing the
available processor time down to the point where the boomer's
programs could
be shut off, and deleted.
Haven't been watching Eva lately, have ya? ^_^
She reached up and removed her helmet, the warmth inside of it
suddenly
unbearable. Everyone had evacuated the building, so keeping
her identity a
secret wasn't a problem. She smiled at Mackie, seeing the
relief she felt
written across his face. And then she heard a movement behind
her, and
turned. Sylia, Priss, and Linna all stood in the doorway,
their presence
clear testement to thier faith in her skill.
sp: testement -> testament
sp: thier -> their
"Nene, it's time to get up." Sylia said in a strangely flat
voice.
Nene blinked.
"Nene, It's time to get up!" The three women in the doorway
chorused.
She turned to Mackie, his face strangely blurred.
"WAKE UP!"
HuH? Oh, a dream. Gotcha.
MegaTokyo, 2110 AD
Nene Romanova gasped as she was dragged back into wakefulness.
As her
alarm continued to scream out of her computer, she felt along
the side of
the bed, found an empty bottle, and tossed it at the switch
across the room.
Her throw was high and to the right, but luckily a large
chunk of the (now
broken) bottle landed on the button, shutting the alarm off.
"Not bad..." she muttered to herself. Usually it took two or
three times
to get the damn thing off. On bad days, she'd had to crawl
across the floor
and hit the button personally.
Doncha just HATE it when that happens? :)
Hmm... Nene *throwing* something at her computer? Whoa...
harsh.
And then she remembered. She wasn't a teenaged
hacker-superhero keeping
the world safe for humanity. It had been another stupid dream,
dumping her
back into the hell she had made of her life.
Bwah? Oh, now I'm interested. Nene is... well, yeah. This
is gonna be interesting...
She stood, kicking aside a number of bottles as she trundled
off to the
bathroom, speeding up as she went as she realized that she was
going to
start the day kneeling in front of her toilet once again.
Eww... sick, or just smashed?
A shower can always be relied upon to restore the shine to a
new day, and
Nene felt much better as she walked into what only an optimist
would have
been able to call a 'Kitchen'. She had been too tired or too
drunk the
night before to set up the constitutor for breakfast, so she
had to wait for
five minutes while a muffin and a cup of strong coffee (two
sugars, two
creams).
Whoa, a whole five minutes... ^_^ I'd personally suggest
something besides constitutor... I had to think about the word
for a good bit before I figured out what you were getting at.
Sitting there, she looked up at The Poster. It had taken her a
good deal
of time and effort to find. It was an actual release poster,
not a replica,
for Bubble Gum Crisis, The Movie, displaying Sylia, Priss and
Linna posing
in their hardsuits fighting a boomer. It had been her favorite
when she was
But where's the red-haired net.goddess? Waahh!!
getting through college, although most people dimly remembered
it as an old
TV show. The doctors at the hospital wanted her to keep it in
view, so it
could remind her that the people she dreamed about were actors
in a movie
and not real. A buzzer went off and she shuffled over to her
muffin and
I think I may see where this could be heading... whoo... that
could be interesting. ;)
coffee, biting one in half and then draining the other.
And that's when she realized that something was wrong.
It took her a while to pick out what it was. Her apartment was
a mess, old
food containers and dirty clothes warring for space with
run-down furniture
and piles of books and magazines. It was her mess, and none of
it was
missing, but there was something *wrong*. And then she
realized that a pile
of books that she had knocked over the night before had been
moved to the
side.
After that it was pretty easy to see one or two other things
misplaced.
She was pretty proud of herself, spotting that someone had been
in her
apartment last night, until she realized that it meant someone
had actually
been in her apartment last night. She sat on a stool, one of
the few bare
seats in the apartment, and shuddered. Why would someone do
that, come in
and do _nothing_?
To drive you nuts worrying about it, lass. :)
After five minutes she was able to figure out that none of her
computer
equiment had been stolen. Her small amount of jewelry (most of
it cheap
junk - nano-replicated gems and cheap metals in simple
settings) and other
valuables were fine.
She called the police after she called in late for work. The
police
arrived pretty quickly. Nene's apartment was in a nice and
'secure'
building, and as long as she kept paying her share of the
maintenance fees
she had a place for life.
Cool.. Wish my apartment was in one of those buildings. :)
The officers sounded dubious when she explained why she thought
someone had
broken in, given the security of the building. Unfortunately
one of the
officers knew of her occassional drunken binges, and was more
interested in
chalking it up to another one. She insisted, however, that
they run a
Nanosniffer through the room. After that they left, she went
to work,
hoping perversely that it had been her imagination.
I somehow get the feeling that it ain't. :)
Work was nasty. She arrived at the office, and endured yet
another lecture
from Ms. Naniko about how 'arriving late is stealing from the
company', and
then was allowed to slink off to the cubicle she shared with
Naoko, the only
other sane person in the building.
Naoko gave her a sympethetic look as Nene sat down. "Dragon
Lady got you
again, huh?"
Nene nodded, and explained why she had been late.
"Creepy. You're sure you didn't just imagine it?"
Nene shook her head. "No, I'm sure of it. Someone had been in
my
apartment. I don't know what they wanted, but they were
there."
Nene shrugged, and jumped as the person in the cubicle knocked
three times
on the cubicle wall. Dragon Lady Alert! She got to work, as
Naoko casually
thumped the wall on her side of the cubicle, passing the alert
along.
Well! Ok, I'm hooked, gimme more. C'mon, what're you
holding back on us? :)
Well done. I'm REALLY looking forward to this... you do plan
to continue it, I hope?
Brian Payne
sofaspud@sofaspud.org
http://www.sofaspud.org