[Xaeris]

I forgot to mention something. This first piece is going to be slow, as far as action goes: very little hacking. The last piece, as I've envisioned it, is basically a nonstop orgy of action, but right now, I'm getting everything in position on the board. I think it's still entertaining, but it won't be quite what you're used to from me.

As we know, authors subsist on attention, so I'm happy with the comments I have so far. Which reminds me, my title needs an update...

Chapter 3: Awakened Beauty

It’s for the best, Johann. If it were up to you, we’d be lucky to be halfway through recovering our allies by now. The story takes forever when you’re the lead.

By the time Johann finished up, I had already finished speaking and was back in my, ugh, office. If it weren’t for the circumstances, I think I would have least commissioned a scepter or something for myself to make the job feel more empress-y. So, when he walked in through the double doors, I was waist deep in papers.

”And where’d you run off to?” I asked, barely looking up.

”Oh, nowhere special. I was just getting you the Divine Maiden’s blessing. No big deal,” he said. I didn’t even need to look up to know he was smirking while lighting a cigarette.

”Did you? Thanks,” I said.

”…The hell, is that it? No squealing, no ‘omigodomigod, thank you , I love you Jo-sei?’ I feel used.”

I got up to walk to him. Shakily; I was very tired, which was getting to be pretty normal for me. I reached my hand up and pat him on the forehead. “Good boy.”

”I’m a beast, not a dog,” he said, crunching his teeth down on his cigarette as I pet him. “At any rate, at least we don’t have that time bomb ticking beneath our feet any longer. You can act a little more freely now.”

”Yeah, the uncooperative prefectures will fall into line once they learn I have the Maiden’s blessing.” I sat back down; I was actually starting to feel light headed. I didn’t head back behind my desk though. I just backed up a few steps and propped myself up onto it. “I’ve managed to undo most of Rutsu’s isolationist handiwork, too.”

”Yet you sound distracted by something,” he said, happy to stand where he was.

”I keep on saying I want to push the Illuminus to the wall, but the truth is we’re fighting a defensive game here, aren’t we? It seems like it’s taking everything we’ve got just to tread water here.”

”We’re on the defensive right now, certainly. But in chess, the strongest attack springs forth from a secure defense,” he said.

”Is that true?”

He shrugged. “It sounds like it could be true. Good enough.” I think I groaned. “Colony and Parum are already in the middle of recovery. We’ll be able to count on their strength in the coming weeks. For now, you should focus on restoring everyone’s security. The time to strike will come as a matter of course.”

I let out a sigh, and some of my tension went with it. Feeling a little less serious, I pulled my legs up onto the desk and hugged them up against myself. I said, “you’re starting to sound like ossan.” The surest way to enrage Johann, after proving him wrong, was to compare him to his father. Predictably, he crunched on his cigarette again and thrust his finger in my face.

”Me and that old man aren’t the first thing alike! Tch, bastard’s probably camped out somewhere, watching everything unfold,” he muttered.

”Rutsu said he was dead, you know,” I said.

”Fft, please, do you believe that?”

”Nope. You know he’s just going to show up when it’s all over and say, ‘hey kids, you been good?” I said. We were joking over it, but for me, and I think for Johann too, our laughter was to put us at ease. While we didn’t believe the man was dead, his absence meant we were missing our usual safety net. “I should get back to work.”

He nodded and turned for the door. For some reason he was fascinated with how he thought he looked when he spoke over his shoulder, so of course, he waited until he was turned around to ask, “yes, I should head back to my lab as well. I assume the meeting is still at seven, tomorrow?” I have to admit, it did look kinda cool with the eyepatch.

”Right, intel briefing,” I replied as I walked back to my seat. “Try not to lose track of time in that lab of yours.” With that, he left to go…do…science. Yeah. That left me by myself to work. I whined about this a lot, but it was so much paperwork. And a lot of it was just absolutely asinine. Arranging for people to have the things they need to survive shouldn’t be such a stupidly complicated process. I should have just been able to go, “hey, everyone, stop being jerks,” to reopen our ports, but it seemed like I had to sign a zillion documents just to get an inch.

A little after Johann left, a message came in through the intercom. Now, the armed servants were always panicking over some minor disaster or another, so I had learned to not pay them very much mind even if they were urgently yelling in their messages. That time, they were yelling about someone who was on their way to my office and wouldn’t wait for a formal audience. I just rolled my eyes and made sure my bow was underneath my chair where I left it.

As the patter of the footsteps drew close, I tossed up my Nasuyoteri into my hands and took aim at the door. From the sound, I guessed it was a short woman, definitely not a cast, and adjusted my aim accordingly, ready to fire when the door opened. Turned out there was no danger, though I did consider firing anyway; my mother was standing there.

”Baa-chan!” I yelled.

”You really are here, then,” she said. Her robes were riddled with creases and a lot of her hair was pressed flat. It made sense, seeing as she had spent the last few months lying in one of the Lattice Shield System capsules, but it was still weird, seeing her look so exhausted. For as long as I could remember, nothing but ossan’s antics could faze her, and she would approach everything in life with the same stoic expression.

”Well, yeah, but what are you doing here?” I asked. “The last I heard, you went to go help power the Lattice when the Illuminus attacked!”

Like always, mother didn’t pay me very much mind. It’s not like she didn’t love me, deep down…really deep down, but sometimes I just got the feeling that my existence was a necessary obligation to her. Still, she did answer my question, while letting her eyes survey the room, “I just woke up. The Lattice’s ability to siphon radiance seems to be declining.”

”You mean it’s broken?” I asked.

”Maybe. Do you know where your guard is? He should come have a look.” She was referring to Johann, of course.

”My knight is doing science in his lab,” I replied, taking special care to put emphasis on ‘knight.’ She turned to me, with a wrinkled brow and I just folded my hands beneath my chin and smiled. “Oh, you didn’t hear? I’m the empress now.

I will never, ever forget the expression she made. It was a cross between confusion and rage. Her face was twitching and she made this stuttering sound from the back of her throat. It was in that moment I finally understood why ossan and Johann loved to troll. Eventually, she managed to say, “what?!”

”Well, it’s like this…” And I bought her up to speed on everything she missed while she was out. I’m really glad I had taken up keeping an audio diary: made it really easy. By the time I was done, mother was fully engrossed with my story, and I had to repeat myself when I said, “I’m done,” to break her trance.

”My daughter, I honestly have to say, I’m impressed. Your actions were shortsighted, reckless, impulsive, foolhardy-“ My mother was a master of the backhanded compliment. I just droned her out until she got to the good part. “-but, the strength of your heart carried you through. I’m…I’m…”

”Yeeeesss?”

”I’m proud of you…” she said. I think it pained her a little to say it. “To think the Communion would roll right over for a teenage girl, though…ridiculous. Well then, summon Johann.”

I leaned over to activate the intercom, but before I could open the channel, my mother had something to say. “Keiko, I understand that an empress requires a commanding presence, but really, who do you think you’re fooling with that stuffed bra?”

Annoying old woman.

[Magus_84]

I'm sure the old man'll pop up sooner or later. We've yet to hear snark about the eyepatch.

And it's the stuff between the stabbity times that makes it so interesting. I think this is paced quite well so far.

[McLaughlin]

Agreed, I really like it so far. Great writing, as always.

[Xaeris]

Johann presents a problem for me, sometimes. Don't misunderstand me, I love him; that's the problem actually. I've been reading and writing fanfiction for a long time now (long enough that I shouldn't be broadcasting it), and I can tell you with absolute certainty that an author who loves his main character is in danger of writing a crappy story. See, there's a considerable overlap between Johann, and myself, in terms of personality. In of itself, that's not really a problem, since it gives me a solid reference to write him with. The difficulty is in treading the fine gradient that makes us different. It's really easy for me to write a whole paragraph of his speech and find that I've used him as a mouthpiece. You guys usually don't see this, because as awful a proofreader as I am, I always make sure to double check everyone's dialogue.

This chapter was really hard because of a bit of speaking he does towards the end. I had to rewrite the thing no less than five times until I arrived at a version that I was happy with. You might laugh, remembering the various shenanigans he's pulled throughout the tale, and say, "Xaeris, isn't Johann already a ridiculous Mary Sue?" That's the interesting thing: the Yohmei override switch, the incredible swagger, the failproof plans, these are all relatively minor symptoms of MS, and I just play them for laughs, mostly. No, the really, really, insidious thing you need to look out for, is when the world of the story bends itself to outright justify the character's point of view. What I'm saying is, sometimes, you just need to be okay with your character coming off as a genuine sociopath sometimes.

Of course, this is all just my humble opinion. Writing workshop is over, there's a chapter to be read.

Chapter 4:Geek Squad

There’s nothing wrong with time dilation. Listen Keiko, being a main character is like doing the rumpy-pumpy. The plot is the woman and the protagonist is the man: the longer you spend kneading her intrigue, stroking her details and caressing her conflicts, the more explosive the climax is. Do it all right, and you make a sequel!

I returned home after I took my leave of the empress. I’d be returning sooner than I planned, but that’s skipping ahead. ‘Home’ was my father’s mansion in Ohtoku. It was funny; not even a half year before that, I had finally finished schooling and struck out on my own into my own life and my own dwelling, only to find myself slinking back into the room I’d lived in since I could walk. Obviously, my apartment in Rozenom wasn’t inhabitable and Keiko’s recent shenanigans required me to be close by, anyway.

”I’m back, Elyham,” I said as I came through the foyer. It was the same for her, since she lived in Rozenom as well. I invited her to stay with me until we got a grip on the situation.

The faint sound of a drill ceased, followed by the rapid pitter patter of footsteps. Finally, Elyham herself turned a corner at the top of the steps and waved furiously to me. “Dr. Launcher, welcome back! Good timing, I need some help!” she said, before she scampered off in the direction she came from. I wouldn’t have called her a bubbly ditz, but she was very effervescent. She reminded me of…a squirrel.

I followed her up to the guest room I gave to her. Thing to understand about Elyham is that she was, simply put, a nerd. If I had met her when I was younger and less cynical about women, I may have ended up marrying her: dodged a bullet there. I mean, really, I can appreciate a delicious flat chest now and then, but waking up to that day after day…er, wait, what was I talking about? …Right, right, so, in the few short days Elyham had taken up residence in the room, she had turned it into a workshop. Various parts, both computer and cast, littered the floor along with crumpled up, indecipherable sketches. The room smelled faintly of instant noodles, cheese puffs, and coffee.

Elyham herself looked somewhat slovenly, with some kind of grease on her fingers and her clothes in disarray. I didn’t think very much of it though; after all, I’ve looked rather ghastly after a few days’ work. Instead, I just took a brief look around and asked, “how can I help?”

”I’m coding the OS for my new suit. You’re better with hardware than I am, so could you have a look at my blueprint designs while I do that?” she said, while offering me a thumb drive.

”Simple request,” I said as I took the drive, as well as a seat on the bed. At least, I think it was the bed. It was difficult to tell, since it was submerged beneath assorted food wrappers. Oh well, it’s not like she was sleeping in it. I swiped the drive through my PDA and opened up the file. I brought up the plans on a large holographic image and went to work, checking her work.

”Dr. Launcher?” she said, after several minutes of silence.

”Yes, Elyham?”

”Um, um…I haven’t gotten a chance to say it, but, you know…I’m glad you’re okay,” she said. She was still coding, but she shrunk in her seat as she was saying the words. I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself slightly.

”Well, I’m pretty thrilled with the development too, you know.”

She laughed at a little at that. Would have been so ridiculously easy to bang her there if that’s where my head was. “I was surprised, though,” she said. I looked up from the blueprints and saw that she had stopped coding. “I mean, you know…I didn’t think you were the self sacrificing type.”

”Oh my, I didn’t know I gave off the impression of a narcissistic misanthrope,” I said.

”That’s not what I meant!” she said as she spun in her chair to address me.

”Ha ha, yes, I know. I think I understand what you’re getting at. Of all the aegii, I have the most realistic outlook, and you’d think me last to carry out a heroic ideal, yes?” It was understandable. I don’t really give off the image of a hero.

”Y-yeah,” she said.

”Hmm, well Elyham, I’ll tell you a secret,” I said as I leaned back against the wall. She wheeled her chair over to the bed, anxious to hear it, and nodded once I looked comfortable. “Contrary to popular belief, I do have ideals, and I do have dreams. The reason I became a Guardian was because I hate the existence of tyranny. I hate that there are people who use power indiscriminately for their own ends. I really, really, fucking hate those people.”

She looked surprised, but more than that, she looked smitten, between the blush in her cheeks and the glazed over look in her eyes. “Wow, I had no idea Dr. Launcher! Who knew you were such a gentle person at heart?”

”See, this is where people make the mistake. I may hate tyranny, but that doesn’t mean I have any love for these little people living their futile, pointless lives. You see, when I went to disarm the bomb in Rozenom that day, I didn’t do it to save anyone, with the exception of the people I knew. I did it to thwart the Illuminus. No other reason.”

I’d only revealed that side of myself to a handful of people. I wasn’t ashamed of it, but at the same time, I couldn’t be arsed to justify myself to everyone. Well, just like I expected of Elyham, she understood. She said, “wow, that’s unique. People usually become Guardians because they want to protect something. You, on the other hand, want to demolish the bad things.” She put her hands beneath her chin and went silent for a few moments before continuing, “I don’t think it’s a bad thing though.”

Well, no matter how aloof one is…it’s always nice to know someone understands you. Naturally, I didn’t let it show. I just went back to looking over her blueprints. “What about you Elyham? Why did you become a Guardian?”

”Me?”

”No, the other squirrel faced human woman in my guest room,” I said. I was still getting used to dealing with Elyham. You see, had I said something similar to any of the other aegii, they would have punched or kicked me in the gut, insulted the size of my manhood, and answered my question. Elyham, however, slunk into her chair and began quivering her lips. “S-sorry,” I said.

”Just kidding!” she said, perking right up. Well, I didn’t say she was any less annoying than the other girls. “It’s embarrassing actually because I didn’t even mean to join the Guardians since I was trying to buy some weapons to arm my suit with, but you need a license to buy stuff like that, so I joined the Guardians with the intention of just getting the purchasing license.” She paused for a moment to take a breath. Light knows she needed it. “It turned out I needed money anyway to fund my project, so I hung around.”

”I see. Why’d you build a suit, anyway?” I asked.

She looked at me in the way you might look at a retarded child who asks you why shirts have holes in them. “Because I could,” she said. Really could have fallen for that girl.

”Eh heh heh…” We continued with some more small talk while working, none of which I remember very well. It was during that small talk that I got Keiko’s summons. “My empress calls. I made a few modifications to your blueprints, but I’m not done. I’ll finish when I return.”

”All right, thanks again! Ah…about your mother…”

”…It’s fine. I know you’re doing your best,” I said.

[CupOfCoffee]

Trying to keep yourself out of your own stories can be a real ordeal, I agree. I think it's a nearly impossible feat, and while it's definitely something to be avoided in most cases, it can blend in pretty seamlessly if you let it come out tactfully. I mean, hell, some of the all time greats were absolute bastards about mouthpiece writing. Salinger's entire Glass family (Franny, Zooey, Buddy, etc) were all blatantly little Salingers, and they turned out okay. Kind of. Maybe not canonically, but certainly critically.

I did think I detected a little Clint Eastwood in Johann just from the few appearances of his that I've read, but I never got a sense that you were trying too hard to make him cool or make him stand out from the crowd. From where I'm standing, it looks like you've written him very well and without pretension.

Anyhow, looking forward to the next chapter!

[McLaughlin]

Effervescent. I love that word.

Looking forward to more.

[Keiko_Seisha]

As usual I'm about a few days late to the party. Blame work... Ahaha, no, sorry I shouldn't say that. Blame me forgetting to log in on here since all my computer mishaps. Still not on a good computer and it's got me bothered, but I'm not gonna get into that here. Luckily I can play Vindictus on this one though.

Anyway, usual cool beans and good jobs are inserted here, hope you like them as much as I enjoy you writing more about Keiko. Oh right, and the rest of the story and characters, too.

[Magus_84]

As someone who's read, I think, most of your fanfic output over the years, it's been fascinating watching the evolution of your characters.

Johann may say things that bear a strong resemblance to your opinions. I've seen a few spots where, based on what I know of you, that happens. But I could foresee the two of you disagreeing at a fundamental level on several important things, and that's what makes him seem "real" to me.

To me, he's the type that, if he existed outside the confines of the story and I knew him "for real", I'd probably hold a suppressed desire to punch him in the teeth, just once. But I'd never act on it, because he's right most of the time, and he's not yet been wrong enough to completely warrant it. And even when he's wrong, he's got a point, even if I don't like it, agree with it or want to admit that I agree with it.

I'd say that's some pretty good characterization and differentiation. Since I've never wanted to punch you. Maybe the Aion/WoW designers, but not you. >_>

Yeah, the Yohmei override switch and the nearly-failproof plans may stretch reality a bit, but he exists in a world where Ethan Waber and Laia Martinez are pushed as protagonists, and people can run around in full-body Rappy suits while doing Ikk Hikk and Renga Chujin-shou. His few crimes against common sense pale in comparison to even a moment of their dialogue or those PAs, and have yet to break willing suspension of disbelief.

Anyway. I'm interested to see how Elly's new suit turns out. Is it Elhaym or Elyham? I like the second better, but I seem to recall the first as being used previously.

/end nerdbabbling

[Xaeris]

I'm happy that my efforts aren't going to waste. There's plenty of examples in critically acclaimed literature that I could use as justifications of mouthpieces, but personally, it just makes me uncomfortable. At the risk of upsetting someone, I'll offer an example: Atlas Shrugged. I hate that book. Even if I agreed with it, I'd still hate it. It's like...a cocoon. If you agree with the philosophy contained within, you can climb into it, wrap yourself up and be reassured of just how right you are without the mental duress of having it challenged.

In my opinion, you don't do justice to an idea until you've engaged it. There isn't a moral system or philosophy in existence that this world can't provide a robust challenge for, and that fact should be reflected in literature. The more I relate to a character, the easier it is for me to bend the plot a little to make him look virtuous, which is why I shy so hard away from the mouthpiece.

Whew, that got heavy. Sidenote! I knew I didn't come up with the design for Keiko's dress from scratch, but for the life of me, I couldn't figure out where the picture in my head came from. Well, I was rooting around in my inbox, reading past PMs (like I said, I subsist on attention), and came across something you sent me Keiko.



Minus the wings, it's a good match.

PS: It's Elyham. If I ever spelled it the other way, I typo'ed like a doof.

[Keiko_Seisha]

Well, then I'll try to post clearer images.




Also, this brought to my attention that PSU/PSP lacks a good hairstyle with buns. So I just decided this was closest to what you described.