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Enjoy!


The FFML Refugee List


What You Wish For

(From police file)

When I looked up and saw the Thing blocking my office door, my heart
immediately started pounding.  I can't describe what it looked like
really.  It had a lot of colours, it quivered, shifted and flowed...
it was constantly in motion while stationary.  Frightened and fascinated,
I backed away as far as I could, but with my back against the wall,
that still wasn't very far.  It stayed where it was.  That was good
because it wasn't coming after me.  Bad because it wasn't
going away.

After a minute of thought, I cautiously took a step back to my desk
and picked up a can of generic soda from where it sat beside my computer
and finished drinking it. I lobbed the empty at the thing and hastily
stepped back again.   It's the ape reflex.  When humans find something
they don't understand and therefore fear, the first instinct is to
find something to throw at it; programmed into us by millions of
years of being potential prey.  The can vanished into the psychedelic
fluid, then, a few seconds later I heard the clatter of the can hitting
the hallway behind it.

Whatever it was, the Thing was as liquid as it looked.  Probably,
somewhat viscous since the can had taken noticeable time to pass
through it.  Ape reflex number two.  When you find something interesting,
poke it with a stick.  I didn't have a stick handy, but I _did_ have a
a desk lamp.  I pulled it out to maximum extension and gingerly pushed
the head of it into the Thing.  It quivered where the lamp touched it
but offered no noticeable resistance going, and just a little bit coming
out.  When I pulled the lamp back, it was unchanged and dry as a bone.
None of the Thing had adhered to it.  Odd.

My computer is still working, but when I finally remembered to try my
phone, there was nothing but static coming from the other end.  So,
I'm writing this, just in case the Thing is more dangerous than it
looks.  After all, there's just one thing left to try.

(End of text)
___________________________________________________________________________

When I gingerly dipped my hand into it, the sensation was even more
indescribable than how it looked.  Instantly I knew I'd made a mistake.
The stuff flowed up my arm and swallowed me entirely before I could even
twitch.  The Thing had been waiting for something alive.

After it ate me, I was surprised to find myself still alive.  If the
Thing was indescribable, the place where it came from was still more
so.  Steve Ditko on LSD, maybe.  There was nothing solid under my feet.
I just floated there and squeezed my eyes tight shut.  Voices all around
me whispered unintelligibly and I felt strange, disconnected prickling
sensations.

<Hmm.  Some good stuff in here.>

"Where am I?" I tried to say, but couldn't hear my own voice.

<Oh...  You are in the Place Between.  It's where ?we? live.>

"Who are you?"

<You lack the requisite frame of reference to understand the answer.
?We? are What Dwells Between all the infinite ?realities? of the All.
You have some vague concept of this from the ?fiction? you have absorbed.>

"What do you want from me?"

<Hmm.  Already taken care of that. From the Place Between any ?reality? 
that can be ?imagined? can be accessed because All contains all by
definition.  The problem/limitation is that my ?people? have limited
?imaginations?. So ?we? rely on the Those Without, your kind, to 
give us access.  Very good, very good.  The collection of ?fiction? 
recorded in your consciousness has offered many new ?paths?>

"You read my mind and used it without even asking first?"

"Hmm.  Violation of etiquette, yes?  Fair recompense.  ?I? will fulfill
one ?fantasy? of yours.  Pick a ?reality? and a role you wish to to play
in it.  ?I? will send you to that ?reality? and give you the capacities
required to live in that role.  Choose and I shall make it ?real?."

Ever watch Ghostbusters?  Remember the part where Zu'ul offers the
Ghostbusters a choice?  I should have remembered Ghostbusters.  Instead
the first thought that popped into my head was, "I want to be the fifth
Knight Saber!" and before I could have second thoughts, the Thing acted.

When I regained consciousness, I was lying on concrete that was cold
against my bare buttocks and back.  I sat up, startled at how easily
I could do it, and stared at the futuristic ziggurat which dominated
the cityscape before me.  It was real.  I was really here! I jumped
to my feet in excitement, then stopped in confusion at a very unfamiliar
sensation.  Jiggle.

I was a woman.  A naked woman at that.  And a soprano, judging by my
scream.

The Thing "sounded" a bit amused as it "said" in my head, <Enjoy your
new existence.>

"Change me back!"

<Oh no, won't do that.  All purchases are final.>

"But why am I a girl?"

<Sylia Stingray only recruits females.  Is a good trade for you though.  
Your new body is stronger, more dexterous and much more aesthetically 
pleasing.>

"Then...why am I naked?"

<Fan-service!>

_______________________________________________________________________

David Johnston
rgorman@telusplanet.net
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                     desaix@sysnet.net
Sir Desaix, member # 116 of the Knights of the True Fiancee           
              anime  fanfics available at 
  http://www.geocities.com/zednik.geo/fanfics.htm

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