Rampant Speculation, Rampant Speculation

When the phone rings, Erika looks at Kimiko, who makes no move from her perch by the balcony door, staring at Tokyo's night sky.

"Moshi-moshi?" Erika looks again to Kimiko, who shakes her head, No.

"Sorry, Piro, but she's got the late shift tonight." Kimiko avoids Erika's poison-green glare by resuming her study of the stars. Shortly, she pulls her knees up, under her chin. "Yeah, I'll be here tonight, why?" Pause. "I'll call you when she gets in." Erika sighs. "I'm certain that Jessica will be playing MegaWinter Nights. It's perfectly clear that such a fine girl wouldn't have anything better to do" -- Kimiko flinches -- "on Saturday night."

She laughs. "Nice try, Piro. I'm sure Kimiko would've appreciated that." The idol looks at the floor. "Yeah. Later." Click. With disgust: "Fanboy."

Kimiko turns to defend Piro: "Don't call him that!" Erika's expression doesn't change. "He's a really nice guy!"

Erika snorts, and returns to the couch. "If you like him so much, why don't you spend the night with him, instead of the computer?"

"You wouldn't understand." Kimiko walks over to the computer and turns it on.

"Don't I? He lives with an emotional doll, reads shoujo manga, and you two haven't so much as held hands yet!"

"Did too!"

"Gomen. Once. He's like... Keiichi. Except that if you'd been Bell, we wouldn't be living in this dump."

Dangerously: "We?"

"Yes, we --" Erika cuts herself off, and looks out the balcony door. She continues, less stridently: "I don't want to see you get hurt again either, Kimi-chan, but..." She gestures at the computer. "You're just encouraging him; you already know that he falls in love with computer characters. Just don't be 'Jessica' for him so you can love at one remove."

Erika covers Kimiko's hand on the mouse with her own. "You're always so sad when you stop playing." A train rumbles by, and the transformer on the telephone pole on the corner hums. Erika smiles: "Your Saturday night should end with Ping making the two of you breakfast Sunday morning."

Kimiko blushes, but says nothing, and remains still after Erika removes her hand. Urban silence lingers: car engines, refrigrator noises, a babble from the wok joint down the street.

"I could call him..." Erika interrupts herself: "You could call him and tell him that it's tommorow night that you've got the late shift, and that I didn't know what I was talking about."

Kimiko looks out the balcony door.

-_Quinn

[ October 19, 2001: Message edited by: Quinn ]

Bravo! While I don't see Kimiko having the same sort of computer game addiction that Piro or Largo have, it's still an intersting speculation, and very well done fan fiction.

Thanks, Khym. I think it's reasonable for her to acquire MWN without becoming a gamer, though. Perhaps she got hired to voice part of it? Heard that Piro liked playing it a lot? Maybe Erika bought it, initially? I set it in the 'indeterminate future' for a reason.

-_Quinn

|)00|), that's really cool! I can't really think of any useful criticisms to give, even (might just be the time of night). I do have one question about the following passage, tho:

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Originally posted by Quinn:
Erika sighs. "I'm certain that Jessica will be playing MegaWinter Nights. It's perfectly clear that such a fine girl wouldn't have anything better to do" -- Kimiko flinches -- "on Saturday night."

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Why would Piro be talking to Erika about "Jessica"? It sounds like he doesn't know who Jessica is in real life. And he called looking for Kimiko... Do you consider Piro and Erika good enough friends by now for him to be talking to her about "other" love interests? Or is there something I'm missing...? (doubtless the second case... ;; )

Peace, and cool, original post.

[ October 19, 2001: Message edited by: J Random Lurker ]

The second case; to quote Erika: "Just don't be 'Jessica' for him so you can love [him] at one remove."

Kimiko is playing a MWN character called 'Jessica;' Piro doesn't know that Kimiko is 'Jessica.' Erika and Piro really aren't friends; Erika thinks he hasn't quite escaped loser/fanboy -ness yet, and she generally doesn't like them. She tolerates Piro, though, because she hopes he'll be good for Kimiko, and harbors a little hope that he'll get better.

-_Quinn

[ October 19, 2001: Message edited by: Quinn ]

err... my bad. I did get most of what you explained... I just didn't say it very clearly ;;; . What I wanted to know was, why was Piro asking Erika about Jessica?

Oh! No, that was my bad, sorry about that. I was worried that I'd been too opaque about that, so I misread your post.

Anyway: Piro didn't ask Erika about Jessica so much as say that he'd probably forget to call later because he might be wrapped up in MWN. (Erika knowing about Jessica already.) Viz:

P: Will you be there tonight? <hesitantly, worried about asking big E for a favor>
E: Yeah, I'll be here tonight, why?
P: Well... I might not remember ... <mumbling/embarassed>
E: I'll call you when she gets in.
P: It's just that I may get caught up in MWN... <making an excuse for himself>
E: I'm certain that Jessica will be playing MWN.

I'm not as sure about how Piro's half of the conversation. Depending on how other plot elements work out, Erika might know about Jessica in ways other than having talked to Piro about her -- though he might say something about her when she asks, being polite at work, how Piro's night was.

OK -- was your question one that kind of stopped you as you were reading, or just idle curiosity? I mean, should I look at rewriting that chunk to make it flow smoother/be more clear?

I think it's getting a little late at night for me, too.

-_Quinn

BTW, I'd like to see rampant speculation/fanfic, so if it's anyone has any, post it here.

-_Quinn

quote:

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Originally posted by Quinn:
OK -- was your question one that kind of stopped you as you were reading, or just idle curiosity? I mean, should I look at rewriting that chunk to make it flow smoother/be more clear?

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I did have to stop for a moment to think about what might be going on... Not that that's a bad thing. If you wanted to make it a bit clearer but keep Piro's half of the conversation implied (which you did quite well), maybe have Erika make a brief sarcastic remark about "she'll be sure to call when Kimiko gets in, since he's gonna be lost in MWN all night, and she's sure Jessica will be there too", sommat like that... Just a suggestion.

quote:

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She [Erika] gestures at the computer. "You're just encouraging him; you already know that he falls in love with computer characters. Just don't be 'Jessica' for him so you can love at one remove."

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One other thing I don't quite understand is the phrasing at the end of that last sentance... "so you can love at one remove" sounds like "so you can love him" remotely, without risk or something like that... Is that what you were trying to get across?

quote:

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I think it's getting a little late at night for me, too.

-_Quinn

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Indeed @_- zzzzz

quote:

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Kimiko blushes, but says nothing, and remains still after Erika removes her hand. Urban silence lingers: car engines, refrigrator noises, a babble from the wok joint down the street.

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I *like* the atmosphere there.

As for more fanfic, if my muse strikes I may just post some...

Peace, and wr1+3rz r0x0rz!

quote:

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Originally posted by Quinn:
BTW, I'd like to see rampant speculation/fanfic, so if it's anyone has any, post it here.

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quote:

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Originally posted by J Random Lurker:
As for more fanfic, if my muse strikes I may just post some...

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The only problem with this is that Piro has asked people (though I can't find the post currently - I think it was back before the forum upgrade, actually...) not to post MT fanfic. I think it's a reasonable request, actually - we really don't know most of the characters well enough to be writing them at all yet. (How do you know whether someone's in character or not, if you don't know what the in-character response to the situation would be?)

Of course, speculation's always fine, and it's possible that Piro has changed his mind about fanfic since. I haven't seen any indication that that is the case, though.

Hmmm... Now that you mention it, I think I remember that post (from sometime back when I was a real lurker) ;;; . Or was it in one of his rants...?

Heh. I wonder what he must think of the RPG thread, then? Noone has mod-ed that away...

[ October 21, 2001: Message edited by: J Random Lurker ]

Absolutely RAMPANT speculation:

E: OMG! Is that the new Sony SEVS-44936? I have read about her in the trade magazines! (E leans forward to look at Ping closer)
Is she the H model?
Piro: Huh? Um... no, of course not!

OR, for a TOTALLY out of character response:

E: Wow! I didn't know you were such a player! Mind if I join you two? (E smiles seductively)
Piro: Sorry. She (points to Ping) isn't into that. But if you want, just you and I... (Piro leads her into his room)

Sorry. I just had to say something rediculious! The first one is a possability, just not a probability. I hope the second one ABSOLUTELY will not happen!

(Shudder) That is soo OOC that I would never have contemplated it... Love the speculation piece, Quinn, I get the sneaking suspicion you write fanfiction somewhere on the net...

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Originally posted by Tarquin:
The only problem with this is that Piro has asked people not to post MT fanfic.

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I hadn't seen that. Guess I'll stop, then. As for the 'at one remove' line, yes it does mean 'remotely' and 'with less risk'.

Shinjai: actually, this is the first fanfic I've written; when I write, it tends to be my own stuff... but fanfic is so much /easier/.

-_Quinn

quote:

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Originally posted by J Random Lurker:
Now that you mention it, I think I remember that post (from sometime back when I was a real lurker) ;;; . Or was it in one of his rants...?

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You could be right, but I'm not digging through all of them to try and find it.

quote:

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Heh. I wonder what he must think of the RPG thread, then? Noone has mod-ed that away...

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Oh, that just falls under "scary obsessive fans", I expect. People there generally just write their own characters. (And those writing Piro's characters in anything other than a very brief cameo should quit it. Basic rule of shared-universe writing: you do not use other people's characters without permission, especially for speaking/major parts.)

quote:

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Originally posted by Tarquin:
Oh, that just falls under "scary obsessive fans", I expect.

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Hey! I resemble that!

Fanfics, eh? Sweet! I'm better with prose than poetry, anyway. This is written from Piro's P.O.V. (I always write in the first person, anyway. )

-----------------------

A knock at the door shattered the silence that had engulfed the apartment all evening.

Ping-chan had been sitting quietly in the corner, trying to conserve as much energy as possible as she recharged. Largo's T-shirt managed to cover her legs to the thigh, but still left quite a bit of room for imagination. I caught myself wondering if she was, indeed, "soft for a Sony", but killed that thought before Seraphim came after me with a mallet. She WAS a robot, after all.

Largo, meanwhile, was sitting at the makeshift table we'd set up using the store's boxes. In front of him was a crude map of the Gamers store and its immediate surroundings. Several X's had been scratched on the paper. Possible entry locations, or traps? I really didn't want to know.

In any event, when the knock came, he sprang into action immediately. Well, maybe "sprang" isn't quite the right word. Hobbled into action would be more accurate. In any case, before I knew what was going on, he was kneeling in the front hall (no mean feat, considering his crutch), a crossbow (crossbow? Where the hell did he get a crossbow?) trained unwaveringly upon the door.

"Damn!" he cried. "It's too soon! There's no way the undead hordes could have tracked me down this fast!"

Ping-chan was faster. I assumed the knock at the door had kicked her back into genki little sister mode. She was opening the door before I even realised she'd left the corner. Largo reached out to stop her, a look of horror on his face. "No! Don't let them in - "

"Konnichi-wa~!" Genki little sister mode it was. Whoever was at the door probably thought she was out of her mind.

Then my eyes fell on Ping's shapely legs sticking out of Largo's shirt, and I realized that that wasn't what they'd be thinking at all.

"<Dammit, Ping, get away from the door.>" I snarled in Japanese, thinking it was probably Erika-san at the door, already imagining the ribbing I'd receive the following morning if I was caught with a half-dressed fifteen-year-old in my apartment, robot or not. "<Stop goofing around. Your...>"

Your batteries aren't fully charged yet. That's what I'd meant to say. The words, however, died on my tongue as soon as I saw her.

"Oh!" I stammered, thinking of how dumb I must have looked just then. I freeze up around cute girls. And she definately qualified. "<Er, hello... Can I, er, help you?>"

Largo appeared at my shoulder, eyeing the newcomer suspiciously. "Strange. I sense no 3vi1 aura from this one. Whose side are you on, stranger?"

The girl looked incredibly...what? Shocked? Confused? Scared? So many emotions fickered across her face that I couldn't quite pin one down. Her eyes, I saw, kept turning to Ping and her long legs. Damn, damn, damn. Already she thinks I'm running some kind of harem up here, and I haven't even said ten words to her yet.

"<I...er...I'm sorry, I don't speak English...I just came to bring you some food, Piro-san. I thought you might be hungry.>"

Piro-san? She knew my name? How the hell did she know my name? I'd never seen this girl in my life before...or had I? She DID look somewhat familiar...

She was looking at me, expectantly. I came back to my senses with a start, already running through my vast repertoire of shoujo manga knowledge, looking for an appropriate response. It was hard to think with her eyes turned on me. Her eyes...

"<Uhm...thanks.>"

Brilliant. Casanova himself wouldn't have done better. I had to say something else. "<I'm sorry, do I...uh...know you?>"

She looked down at her shoes. "<No, I don't suppose you do. I owe you a train card.>"

Oh, God. It was her.

I'd forgotten all about that day, really. Just another case of stupid Piro being a nice guy when he didn't have to and couldn't afford to. I've had altogether too many experiences like that in my life. This one, though, was different. It had actually come back to bite me on the ass.

Well, maybe not. She WAS cute.

Largo derailed my train of thought, as usual. "Piro, what did she say? I don't understand their language. It sounds...evil."

"I have to talk to her alone for a minute, Largo. Plug Ping-chan back in." Turning to the android, I asked, "<Ping, can you please go inside for a while? You need to finish charging.>"

"Hai, Piro-kun!"

The door closed behind them, and we were alone.

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>Smile< Hope you like! Sorry I rambled on so much, that's just kinda how I write.

EDIT: Gah! That'll teach me to post to a thread without reading it. Gomen, I hadn't known about Piro's not wanting us to write fanfics...although I'd thought I'd read something from him saying that it was okay for us to do that, citing Gainax and Disney's "non-fan-friendly" policies on copywright infringement. Am I wrong? Am I thinking of something else? Either way, if Piro asks me to take this down, it'll come down right away.

[ October 21, 2001: Message edited by: Divine Wind ]

Very very nice _Quinn!

I find myself trying fanfic all the time but I can never cut it short. They seem to go and go without end. More proof that I'm more of a thread roleplaying character. ^sigh^