At 02:38 PM 3/1/00 -0500, DB Sommer wrote:
Laughter obviously hadn't been in Lethiaphan's design, but
it was making do. Unable to vary pitch and inflection beyond the
necessity of its monotonic pronunciation, the Demon-God was
simply doing its best with different volumes of the syllable
"ha". They rose and fell over the waves in cold echoes of sound
as passionless as binary code. A parody of emotion; but why was
it laughing?
It had just read congress' latest budget proposal?
Of course not; it read Paul Martin's latest budget. I am writing this in
Canada, you know. :)
"Jinnai probably told it to," Makoto reasoned as he clung
tightly to Afura's waist. "Trying to throw us off guard." The
laughter did share something of the same relentless quality of
Jinnai's.
'relentless'? Hmm. Never thought of it that way myself.
It seemed like a natural adjective to me; I get the idea that Jinnai could
just keep laughing and laughing and laughing...
"Just keep quiet and get ready to do your thing. And watch
where you put those hands."
"What do you mean?" Makoto asked as he fondled Afura's breasts again. It
was great. By acting like he had the hots solely for Ifurita, he could get
secret gropes like this and everyone thought it was just an accident. It
wasn't like he and Fatora didn't have the same tastes; he was just smart
enough to hide them better.
I'm sure I could tie this somehow into Episode 13 of Alternative World, I
just really, really don't want to do so.
the water like a burning stone, and by Miz and Fujisawa-sensei,
who rode the swell of the only wave upon the unnaturally
flattened field of the sea--Lethiaphan wouldn't even see the
third attack coming.
Assuming he doesn't have a multiple targeting system, yeah, maybe.
Well, they have some evidence he doesn't--Ifurita, for example, didn't see
Fujisawa coming to rescue Makoto the time she tried to kill him in the
ruins, and Afura managed to blindside Lethiaphan during the first battle
with him.
The air around them throbbed with green light, as Afura
gathered her power and threw out winds of gale force that
briefly tore the fog into ribbons for a few moments, before it
gathered itself again with a seeming malign sentience.
Hmm, I would think even with Lethiphan's control over water, and
subsequently mist, Afrua's command of the winds would be sufficient to blow
the mists away for longer than that. They are essentially in her element.
The same way if she tried to use winds to part a section of the sea,
Lethiphan would be able to overpower those.
If Lethiaphan and Afura were on equal power levels, definitely; Lethiaphan
is, however, capable of drawing a lot more power than Afura is, so it
balances out in the end.
In mid-sentence, without even time to cry out, she was
dragged below the water and out of sight.
Saw that coming too. In truth, I'm surprised they didn't try to make
landfall first, then attack Lethiphan.
Well, Makoto was planning their route based upon his ability to sense
Lethiaphan's position. Thus, once they came within sight of the island,
they'd also have been within sight of Lethiaphan, and it would have been
suicidal to attempt to outrun it and reach land.
Once they realized Jinnai moved
inland, either Lethiphan follows (and away from a large body of water he's
toast) or he lets them go and they stop Jinnai.
But then, that would be too easy. ^_^
That's the real reason, of course, but let me have my little
rationalizations. ;)
Everyone had to be okay, of course. The plan couldn't have
failed that badly. Could it?
Everyone is in the water and at Lethiphan's mercy. Of course they have him
on the ropes. Silly Makoto.
Silly Makoto, Trix are for kids!
His voice echoed back to him, over and over again. He
waited, called out again--nothing. They're all dead, he thought;
Katsuhiko hates me so much, he had it kill them all, but leave me
alive, because he knew that would hurt me more than my own death.
Makoto: That means I'll only have Nanami to moon over me. WAHH!
"I must have at least two chicks warring over me at all times. Hmm...
wonder what Deva's doing."
Actually, I doubt Jinnai's that perceptive to hurt Makoto that way.
No, he probably isn't; but Makoto is smart enough to think he might,
especially given the situation. :)
Ahead of him, a narrow ripple ran the length of the ocean as
far as he could see. Shayla and Afura and Miz and Fujisawa-
sensei emerged from the ocean, pale and waterlogged, held in
bonds identical to his.
Miz got taken out that easily as well?
Well, obviously. :) Lethiaphan, as should be clear by the end of this
chapter, is not exactly what it seems.
And Lethiaphan rose into the space
between Makoto and his friends. They had damaged it; the bladed
arm was held protectively over the pale green flesh of the chest,
as though to hold in the thin and very dark plumes of smoke that
spiralled up from beneath the cover of the arm.
Hmm. Okay. As long as they got some licks in too, that's better.
"How many licks does it take to get to the centre of the possessed
Demon-God, Mr. Owl?"
"I don't know, Billy, but I sure as hell am not going to be the one to try
it."
"Hey! I know you! You're Allen's trained owl from Escaflowne!"
"Yes, but they forgot about me after about the fifth episode, so I had to
get this as a sideline."
This close, Lethiaphan's bonded presence felt almost like a
second mind within his, cold and steely like a blade, filled with
memories of old killing and an obedience reaching beyond
fanaticism into something purer, deadly and simple and
relentless. How could human hands have designed something so
alien?
Because only human hands could have designed something that cold and alien.
But Makoto is generally more of an optimist and doesn't view the world that
way.
No, he doesn't; Jinnai, on the other hand, wouldn't be surprised at all.
He doesn't view the Demon-Gods as much more than really smart guns.
As though in answer, Lethiaphan spoke:
"Cruelty has a human heart,
And Jealousy a human face;
Terror the human form divine,
And Secrecy the human dress.
The human dress is forged iron,
The human form a fiery forge,
The human face a furnace seal'd,
The human heart its hungry gorge."
"Oh yeah?" Makoto said. "I can do poetry too."
"There once was a young priestess from Muldoon,
Whose breasts were so big, you would swoon.
And to me she did say,
'Would me, you please lay?'
To which I replied, 'If Ifurita finds out, I'm doomed'."
...
Bad DB. No biscuit. Ever.
monotone recitation, Lethiaphan bowed, one arm
still pressed against its dark-smoking chest.
Odd. He's never displayed that level of style before now. It seems out of
place with all we've seen of it before.
Doesn't it just? :)
Makoto struggled
to reconcile this inconsistency with his previous experience of
Lethiaphan,
Oh. Well as long as the characters within the story are reacting the same
way, it's fine. As long as you're aware of the seemingly odd behavior.
Of course. :)
the feeling slowly came back to
them, he chafed
I'd use 'rubbed' instead of 'chafed'. Yes, I know chafe can also mean to
warm by rubbing hands, but it can also mean to irritate or abrade, both of
which are the first definitions that come to my mind when I hear the word
used.
That's a good suggestion; "chafed" does more easily bring to mind
irritation or abrasion. I'll change it.
Boy, you must be a damn good writer if this is the best I can come up with
in the way of grammer commentary.
*^.^*
"Prick your finger, Makoto Mizuhara," Lethiaphan ordered.
"Upon the tines. Bleed for me."
If he's smart, he should try to take him over the instant he touches the
tines.
Problems there; if Lethiaphan has even a second of self-awareness, he can
crush the others like bugs. Even if he randomly flails about, he could do
some serious damage to them.
Cryogenic coldness of Lethiaphan's xenolithic presence in
his mind bringing back childhood night-terrors, the creak of a
closet door opening due to a faulty latch sending him scurrying
under the covers, unable to stare through the darkness of his
room at the gaping maw within the wall that wanted to swallow
him down... his hand came up as though in rebellion against his
own will, stretched out,
Oh? Lethiphan is taking him over?
Could be. Trying, at least. :)
and the black dancers in the shining orb
flared somehow hungrily for blood warmth light for an opening of
the veins for an opening--
Nice passage, BTW.
Thanks.
Play for time...
"Bleed."
Makoto: I don't have time to bleed.
I'm strangely reminded of all those commercials encouraging you to donate
blood... "You don't have time to save a life?"
those days in the Shakespeare Society
of Shinanome were paying off, he'd seen Jinnai do Caliban two
years ago,
Eww. I thought this wasn't a lemon, Alan. ^_^
Bad DB. No... never mind.
The tentacle holding Shayla lifted high, higher than the
others, and seemed to stiffen; the threat was implicit in the
singling-out: bleed for me or watch her die.
Lethiphan: Umm, actually if he doesn't do it, I was just going to hold her
higher. And if that doesn't work, I'll make him sit in the comfy chair. No
one can withstand the comfy chair. Muhahahaha.
"Nobody expects the Roshtarian Inquisition!"
(Mental note: put Roshtarian Inquisition into Queen Deva's Excellent
Adventure as enforcers of the Yua Yerbius Memorial Pants Law)
Backup plans were always good, Makoto thought. As the
water-tentacles began to loosen and dissolve, the obscuring smoke
vanished. Suddenly exhausted, Makoto splashed down into the
water as his bonds released; before he did, though, he saw that
nothing was left of Lethiaphan but a smoking patch of ink-dark
fluid upon the surface of the sea,
Oh yeah, like that took him out.
Well, almost. :)
For nearly three seconds, Ifurita
Ifurita? Wow! It's been a while.
Three chapters; not that long. :)
"You seem different, Ifurita."
Ifurita: I dyed my hair and got a boob job.
Osilis: Is that what it is? You know, the albino look is pretty big this
year... although that hair, darling... long and wavy? You can do better.
She
had learned very little of the intervening three thousand years
since her sleep and her awakening, but the logic seemed sound;
this was the home dimension of the Phantom Tribe,
Hmm, again this is an assumption on her part without much in the way of
evidence to back it up.
Seems reasonable; the only inhabitants she's seen are the Phantom Tribe,
the whole place is shadowy and gloomy, she was sent here by the Eye of
God... not entirely sound evidence, but enough evidence to make her opinion
heavily weighted towards thinking that this is the home of the Phantom Tribe.
and they had
been brought here by the first firing of the Eye of God--or so
Gallus had claimed.
Wait, if she thinks this is their home dimension then, why is she thinking
'they had been brought here by the first firing of the Eye of God'? Either
you mean' they had been taken from here,' or 'been brought from here.' I'd
go with the former myself.
I messed up on my sentence structuring here; will fix.
In Makoto's memories, she saw him, standing
on the Eye of God as the darkess gathered in the sky, cursing
El-Hazard bitterly, the hate dripping from his lips...
Complaining how he wasn't going to get any until he found Ifurita again.
And how he never even got to get it on with Rune. Yes, Gallus had great
reason to be bitter... it all went back to when he was a very young
sociopath...
The chanting voices, peaking towards an inevitable
crescendo... Ifurita tore her gaze from the dark and seductive
shadows in the boy's eyes, and began to release her grip on his
shoulder. Tried to; it was stuck fast with indissoluble bondage.
Oh? Now this is a surprise. Might be time to pull hard enough to rip the
skin off.
What skin? :)
"Na."
BTW, you forgot to have them say 'Sha' at the start of the song. ^_^
I saw this coming from a mile away... I wrote the scene, and I was
thinking, "You know, I bet someone is going to make a 'Land of a Thousand
Dances' joke..."
The boy's grin spread, until his cheeks tore, and blackness
(no blood) came forth from beneath the flesh, until the skin of
his face (no blood) peeled away like the curtain rising on the
final act (The British Camp, near Dover. Enter, in conquest...
Makoto's memories, oh God, he was stealing them he was taking
everything) and the true face below grinned and laughed and
rolled its eyes at her.
Revealing Jim Carrey. Truly it was the face of pure evil.
Especially if he's playing Andy Kaufman at the time.
"In my dreams, I heard you cry out in fear," the Demon-God
replied. His voice was soft, hard to understand because of
static; in the full sunlight, the four red eyes within the depths
of the white visor covering eyes and nose were nearly invisible.
"By the tremblings of the cord that binds our souls, I felt
Lethiaphan, but he was... changed."
"Changed? What..."
Ah. So now we begin to suspect the truth.
Well, you should have been suspecting it for a while now... this is really
just confirmation. :)
Ifurita might meet his past self, but there was no
guarantee, none at all, that _he_ would meet her again.
Well, only if you didn't see the end of the last episode of the first OVA
series. ^_^
Nahh, there's ways to work around that. ;) (whistles innocently)
They turned as one, to see a shape standing upon the waves:
vaguely like a man, but covered in bottom muck, tangled seaweed,
the bloody skins of fish; not all was covered, though, and in
patches could be seen torn artificial flesh and microscopically
complex mechanism covered in what looked like thick black oil--an
oil that bled black smoke wherever the sunlight touched it. Atop
it all, the gleaming faceless head; all the hair had burned away
in the explosion that had nearly destroyed the body. Would have,
except for whatever it was that rode Lethiaphan and drove it
darkly onwards.
Time for the finale, methinks. At least for Lethiaphan.
Could be. :)
Mardruk stepped into the air as easily as a man ascends a
flight of steps, and walked off the boat. "Head for shore," he
said quietly. "I shall deal with what is left of my brother."
Hmm. I wonder if we'll see mutual annihilation here, or if Mardruk
survives. Hopefully, we'll discover the truth soon.
Next chapter.
Which may take some time in getting out, as I'm currently throwing myself
body and soul into my Utena fic.
Of more interest in the
Ifurita bit. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how she fits into the
overall story. I can't see her returning to El Hazard, so I'm guessing she
somehow helps out against the origin of Lehtiaphan's true dark power in
what appears to be the Phantom Tribe's home dimension.
Wait and see. :)
Already can't wait for more.
Soon, hopefully. :)
Thanks for the commentary, DB.
Ciao,
-Alan Harnum