Well, I don't know if this will make it...I haven't seen anything from 
the list since last night...someone let me know if any of this is making 
it through...or if its just my crappy net connection...anyone see 3 last 
night?

This story actualy has a character of my own invention, but it also 
contains one of Takahashi's...

Matthew Trotter, well...I could ping fanfic.com, but my mail was empty 
                 this morning...coincidence, or did I get booted again?
                 I know, I'll send irritating test messages till someone
                 comes and kicks my ass!
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A Long Period of Waiting of Several Months
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	A collection of short stories
		     by
	       Matthew Trotter
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Morphine
------------------------------------------
   There was a hole in the spell net about six blocks west.  It was one 
of three he had found so far.  It figured there'd be a lot of mystics in 
Nermia.  There was a lot of everything else.  UFO's, cults, Elvis lived 
two blocks to the north, a couple of demon beasts in the sewers, a temple 
to the Great God Bob...whoever he was, one of those curio shops that was 
always found in a dark alley, but wasn't always there...Nermia was 
beating out California as the weird capital of the world.
   He could feel Tofu coming down the hall to tell him it was time to 
stop with the nets and get to work.  "Two hours a day should be 
plenty,"  Tofu had said.  Apparently he didn't know his town so well...
Tofu stopped outside the door.  He could feel Morphine watching.  
Morphine could see it, Tofu was picking up threads of the spell net.  He 
had talent, he could be a sorcerer if he wanted to.  Tofu looked 
annoyed, he didn't like it when Morphine told him he would make a great 
evil sorcerer.
   Morphine stood up and smiled.  It wasn't a pleasant smile, it was the 
kind of smile that said, "I'm going to tear your heart out and eat it."[1]
It was his best evil sorcerer smile.  He hadn't used it much recently and 
it needed some practice.  He slid the door open and grinned evilly at Tofu.
   "What is that?"
   "It's my best evil sorcerer smile, can't you tell?"
   "No, I mean to the west."
   "The hole, or the extra planar rift?"
   "The hole.  What extra planar rift?"
   "It's a couple of blocks south of the hole."
   "That's an extra planar rift?"
   "Yeah.  Well, a small one.  Not much of a rift really.  Probably more 
of a viewing portal, I guess. ...  . .. ...it could get bigger..."
   "Why is it so small?"
   "What the rift?"
   "No, the hole."
   "Oh, that.  Well, either the person creating it is really weak, or is 
trying to hide."
   "I thought that was the point of a shield."
   "It is, and it's not.  The shield keeps people from detecting YOU.  
And from detecting anything about you.  But it leaves a hole.  That's the 
bumper sticker of a bad ass.  When you see a hole it tells you there's a 
tough mage over there.  It doesn't tell you who or what, just that he/she 
can throw up a shield."
   "So it's something of a deterrent."
   "Exactly.  Normally you want as big a hole as you can muster, typically 
the bigger the badder.  However, if you want to hide, and you don't know 
about the high concentration of mystics in the city, you wouldn't want 
anyone to see the hole."
   "Ah, that makes sense.  There's a high concentration of mystics in 
Nermia?"
   "Yeah..." Morphine stopped, the hole blinked out.  It reappeared at 
the Tendo dojo.  It had to be the punk with his book.  Tofu was looking 
toward the dojo too, "You felt it didn't you?"
   "Is it him?"
   "It has to be."
   "You will not hurt the boy."
   "Yeah, yeah, yeah..."
   "Just ask him for the book back."
   "Can't I hurt him just a little?"
   "No."
   "Damn."
   "What?"
   "I'll be right back."
   Morphine thought about the Tendo dojo, it had a nice pond in it.[4]  
He thought about the space between himself and the pond.  Working an 
equation to change the space, Morphine began to work a second equation to 
repel the earth's magnetic field.  Morphine didn't bother with the 
semantics, the equations were too easy for him to need a mnemonic to 
help him.  Finally space twisted and he forced himself up through that twist.

---------

[1] The human heart is best served with a fresh tossed salad, and red 
    wine.[2]  Some people like to drown it in A1, but then some people 
    put A1 on eggs...Yuck.
[2] Another nice combination is chicken fried spleen with mashed potatoes 
    and gravy.  For a beverage, grab a case of your favorite beer.[3]
[3] Wine coolers can be used, but are not recommended.  You need something 
    you can chug to help get rid of the sickening after taste of mashed 
    potatoes. 
[4] Though it was a fish pond, it was normally full of martial artists.