On Mon, 20 Oct 2003, ucchans wrote:

Well, let's give this a quick going-over, shall we?

I didn't go out of
my way to avoid Urd, and I don't think she did either,

URD:  Well, I'd *really* have to go out of my way to avoid myself.  Frankly,
it's just not worth it.

Suggest "and I don't think she made any effort to avoid me, either,"

	Gotcha, will fix.

 "Aim for the center, Andrew! The center!"

 "Trying my best here!"

The *physical* center, or that mysterious spot like in the 'Breaking Point'
training?  If you weren't so busy dodging and striking, you might wanna ask
Skuld about that.

	Just the center. If there were such a thing, Skuld would be
yammering about the weakpoint. :)

 "I'm a little anxious maybe, but not really. No use getting really
worked up, not over this. Or getting my expectations up."

URD:  Or anything else up, with *that* attitude.  ^_~

	e.e;

  I looked over at him, raising an eyebrow. "Oh?"

  "Like I said before, you're a nice guy.

I can't remember, but has Meg had trouble finding nice guys to date?

	As far as I can tell from the manga, there's just never a mention
of Megumi dating at all. Dunno.

  "Sorry." He was still grinning, though. Urd was rubbing off on him.

You know, everyone *knows* what you mean by that, but a lot of us might
claim it *sounds* like him and Urd are... well, you know...

	Argh. u.u I know. :>

  "And again, and again, and again," I mumbled weakly, staring at the
'THIS SIDE TOWARD ENEMY - DO NOT EAT' note stamped on the bomb

I must admit, I've never seen a Skuld bomb up close (and never hope to,
their Father willing), but is she really so absentminded as to need a
warning not to eat her own bombs if she's hungry and finds 'em lying around?
Granted, it's a very funny bit...

	It's actually a reference to (I suppose it may be apocryphal,
though) something I heard about certain pieces of ordnance and explosives
used by the American military that actually have such a warning on them.
(THIS SIDE TOWARD ENEMY is something I'm pretty sure is actually stamped
on claymore mines.)

  "I think I love your sister already, if only for saving my sorry butt,"
I muttered to Keiichi, standing up; I think I heard him snort quietly in
response.

Good thing Urd didn't hear that.  Missed that line the first time I read
through this, actually - you snuck this right by me.

	Heh, yep. :)

  There were, of course, special things happening, but we unfortunately
couldn't really tell her about them. Ah well.

  "Not really," Keiichi said. "Mostly just the usual.

Actually, that's pretty close to being true.

	To an extent, that's true. But things actively targeting Skuld,
that's a new one.

  "Just my brother's girlfriend conspiring to 'introduce' me to one of her
relatives by marriage," she said cheerily.

Megumi's a very perceptive girl, sometimes, no?

	She's struck me as the type of person who'd do something like
that. :)

  "That thing's reserved for Bell, Andrew-kun." Drat. "And a sidecar isn't
the same thing as sitting on the motorcycle itself." Urd looked smug.

No, but if you stand up in it, you can live every bit as dangerously as
riding it.

But I don't suppose you wanna do a crossover with Utena at this point, do
you?  ^_~

	Yeah, I think I'll pass on that. :)

Actually, it's not like Kei didn't have/use that sidecar before Bell and the
others showed up.  Or is Urd just trying to held that line of thinking off
at the pass?

	Pretty much Urd trying to keep Andrew from weaseling out, yeah.
By this time, though, it seems to be for Bell's exclusive use, or so it
appears to me anyway.

  "Just trying to be encouraging, Andrew-kun. And that's just it--it's not
enough just to 'get along pretty well', you gotta connect with her. You
know what I mean? _Connect_.

"No offense, Urd, but what specifically do your have in mind when you talk
about 'connecting'?"

Urd snorts and shakes her head.  "Do I gotta draw you a diagram or
something?"

	Aheheh.

  Even as I realized how horribly contrived this was--didn't you usually
see something like this in one of Skuld's manga?--I couldn't help but
enjoy this a bit. Just a bit.

As long as you don't worry too much about that wobble you just gave to the
fourth wall again.  Too much more of this, and we'll be dealing with a
breach here.

	Nah, this is more like Andrew thinking it's someone's meddling
going on here, specifically Urd's. :) Which is noted later, but actually
incorrect.

I think his eye twitched just slightly. Sorry,
fella, it really wasn't intentional....

You wanna ask him at this point if he still thinks you're a nice guy?

	Heh, indeed.

  "I'm sorry, Andrew-san, those were mine, actually." Belldandy smiled at
me sweetly over a pile of cookbooks now sitting on the table.

Oh, dear goddess.  Ph34r the cut3 1s, indeed.

	Yes.

"And don't tell me you didn't like how that felt."

  "I plead the Fifth," I said, quickly.

URD:  Actually, that's not a bad idea.  Who's up for a drinking game?  Chug
every time Andrew-kun here actually *says* something to Meg!

	Hey, now, Andrew converses quite freely with Megumi here. :)

	Thanks for the comments!

Andrew Huang...Shizumaru@KawaiiMUCK
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~alhuang/
NAC MAC FEEGLE!

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