Nice to see some more Azu:

Forward:  Taking a queue from the manga and DB Sommer's excellent
works, not to mention one strange dream I had, I

The latter are always cause for much strangeness to develop.

-------------
Free XP

I suddenly have visions of the Motoko video game epsiode of Love Hina going
through my mind.

"Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis and the
rise of the sons of Arius, there was an age undreamed of.

Heh. Always loved that opening with Mako's voiceover

 And

unto this: four warrior women destined to meet a most dismal
death at the behest of the many forces of Darwin.  It is I alone,
their humble guide, who can tell thee of their ruinous fate. Let
me tell you of the final hours of this doomed party of
adventurers!"

-Chiyo-chan, DM of the AD&D Campaign, The Yukarimore
Assault(PC Massacre)

Actually Osaka is the one I can see inadvertantly coming up with creatively
scary things.

It had only been a couple of days since Chiyo had pulled
out her AD&D rule book

Ah, but which edition is the questions. :)

and suggested playing this game with her

friends, and yet it felt like an eternity.  Those girls, during
the course of the game, had walked into every obvious trap,
angered several high ranking monsters, killed innocent NPCs in
every village they had come across (making them wanted women),
and generally got themselves in as much trouble as low level
characters as they possibly could.  It was all she could do as a
DM to keep them alive from one encounter to the next.  Normally
she'd just let them die, but Chiyo had no intention of repeating
what happened last time they rolled up characters.

Heh. True. I can imagine the horror.

 She couldn't

help but wonder for the umpteenth time what she was thinking when
she started this.

Chiyo-chan

You know, one minor gripe here. I prefer her to only be called 'Chiyo-chan'
when her name is spoken, or if it's someone else who's POV is being used. I
don't think she regards herself as 'Chiyo-chan'

 stared intently at her adventure card, her hair

completely undone

Actually, I wonder if the girls have seen her hair outside of its tails.
Osaka became a little freaked when Chiyo changed the style only slightly.

Yomi looked at her in exasperation, "WHY are you
attacking?"

"I must destroy it!  Chiyo-chan!" she

She

"And it must die!  Do I have initiative?"  Chiyo-chan
slowly nodded, not entirely believing Tomo was really doing this.
"I run up to it and strike it with my sword!"  Tomo rolled her
dice, "Aw man!  I rolled a one."

"A one?  Cool!" Chiyo pulled dug under her chair and pulled
out a thin manual.  "That means I can try out this new set of
Critical Mass rules I picked up."

Heh. I came up with a generic fumble table once. Inspired by the old MERP
game, which was just not good. Too easy to die at anyone's hands

"Argh!  I'm trapped!  Sakaki!  I need your druid strength
to come pull me out of this!"

Heh. She would choose a character friendly toward animals.

Sakaki looked at Tomo for a moment, and then slowly shook
her head in a slow

two 'slow' close together.

wide arc back and forth in an emphatic

refusal.

If she's doing it slowly, is it really that emphatic?

"And the Gazebo...explodes in flames.  Moreover, it looks
like the blast knocked Tomo a safe distance away only causing her
minor cuts and bruises."  Chiyo felt a great need to beat her
head against a wall.  They were doing it again!  This entire
situation was completely unbelievable and ludicrous!  Much as she
loved her friends, they could be trying at times.

At times... like every waking moment. ^_^

"WOOHOO!  I wasted that Gazebo!  All that XP is ours!"
Tomo shouted in triumph grabbing Osaka's hand in her own and
pumping it in the air.  "Eat it!  You didn't want to help and now
it's all for me...well...and a little for Osaka here...I guess."

Case in point.

"It was her fireball that torched the thing."

thing,


 > "And that's no experience for Tomo and one hundred

experience for Sakaki and Yomi for not going along with it, and
two hundred experience for Osaka for the fire and s'mores." Chiyo
pronounced happily, her earlier frustration forgotten.  She wrote
the appropriate figures down on the sheet of paper on the table
next to her.

It's called 'role playing xp'. DMs descretion. :)

Tomo's mouth hung open, aghast.

"S'mores are good."

good,

Osaka laid her head down on the table.  "Yeah," she agreed
as her eyes took on a glazed sheen seeing herself in a black
bikini outfit with a cute little steel Chiyo face holding the top
portion together above her breasts, roasting marshmallows. All
the while, dozens of Chiyo-chan Country residents, being led by
Chiyo-chan's father, danced a happy-happy dance around her and
the fire.

Heh. Yeah, I can see her dreaming that. Osaka is impressionable.

Amusing one. I enjoyed it.

----------------

The Observed

Yomi looked about

'around' I think would be better.

Everything was nice and well...nice.  Probably

Which was probably (parses better)

"It bothers me."

me,"

You seem to miss this one a bit.

 Taking a bite, Yomi noticed Sakaki had shifted her focus to her,

and was staring intently.  "I guess..." she continued, "I
mean...all kidding and Tomo-isms aside, we're pretty damn hot.
Probably the hottest girls in school.

Sakaki: Well, one of is, Thunderthighs.

In reference to Lurker's comment about Yomi not saying this, I am inclined
to agree. Though I believe she was confident in her bust size, since she
said she and Sakaki were in the upper tier, or whatever.

 >

"Still, I mean...guys don't go for you cause you're taller
than most of them!

As taciturn as she is, she's probably intimidating as well.

 How shallow is that?!  And then there's me!

Guys don't go for me cause Tomo scares them off!

Heh. That probably does have something to do with it.

 It's not my

fault she hounds my every step; chasing every cute guy that comes
within breathing distance of me off by shear

sheer (I think)

"Nyamo-sensei probably asks the same thing," Sakaki noted
to herself.

You know, already I think this scene would have worked better if Yomi had
gone to Kurosawa and complained about Tomo chasing potential boyfriends off
and seeking advice. And Nyamo, making the Yukari comparison, saying
something like "There is no escape' or you're doomed, or somesuch. It might
be more brief, but I think it would work.

"  The
bushes behind a tree next to the two girls rustled,

That's a bit awkward.

At the corners of Sakaki's eyes, small tears formed.

"Oh well.  That sucks."

Might want to mention Yomi said that, as it was Sakaki you just refered to
before.

"See, a boyfriend would be so useful right about now!

What? He's catch the rabbit?

Sakaki thought about that one for a moment.  The only
imagery of the boys in her class that she had to draw from were
from the very same boys who were smaller, not nearly as strong as
she was, and were consequently intimidated by her.  Oddly though,
a few of the nicer ones managed to ingratiate themselves into her
daydream, and as strange as some would probably think it was, the
idea of being held by one of them, no matter they were smaller
and probably weaker, was somewhat...comforting.

Especially if they were as small and cute as Chiyo. :)

"That would be nice," she concluded.

"Well, I suppose if all else fails, we could go lesbian."
Yomi deadpanned.  "Did you hear something?" she asked as she
heard the sound of something large hitting solid ground.

And a rabid Kaorin hurled herself out of the bushes and ripped out Yomi's
throat with her teeth.

^_^

Sakaki took another bite of food out of her bento.

Hmm. Punchline is a bit flat for that one. I think the first was better.

---------

The Observer

You already used that title.

body.  After seeing her in a swimsuit once, he was convinced that

was a lie. If she had any, it would probably make her soft and
pliable to the touch.  She would be perfect for squeezing, and
probably even squeaks when one does it.  He amused himself with
fantasies of hugging and squeezing the girl before he heard
another voice.

Heh. She has drawn his attention.

"I don't let it bother me."

"And that would be the soft-spoken Sakaki."

Unless he said it aloud, I'd lose the quotes'

 Since her

voice was rarely heard it was lucky he was even able to recognize
it.  He wondered if she wasn't more outspoken because most
students, guys more than the girls, tended to avoid her.  She was
taller and stronger than most of the guys, which tended to scare
those lesser chumps.  It didn't really bug him,

He was so short, everyone but Chiyo towered over him. so there wasn't much
difference in his eyes.

a chance to do anything more than a cursory inspection of either,
being one grade below them.  He amused himself with thoughts of
what he could do with a girl of that kind of energy for a moment.

Probably play volleyball or something, since she was atheltic and
everything.
..

They were single.  They were hot.  Oh sure, Sakaki could
probably break him like a twig and Yomi had that damn annoying
friend of hers...that she was now complaining about, but that was
petty compared to the first two things he had just discovered.
What's more, they almost sounded desperate...perhaps one of them
would be desperate enough to go out with a younger guy,
especially with Yomi's diatribe toward the heavens.

Heh. This is true.

"Eh, screw it," he resigned softly.  He pulled a yen piece
out of his pants pocket.  Head's Sakaki, tails Yomi.  He tossed
it in the air.

Heh.

"Yomi...Sakaki...lesbians..." he gurgled out.  How would he
EVER get that image out of his head long enough to ask either
out?  "And if they were bisexual then they might even
let...they'd...Oh my GOD!" He managed a soft, "Erk..." before his
brain overloaded completely and his eyes rolled into the back of
his head.

Hmm. A bit amusing, though that was a lot of build up for it.

--------

Afterwards:  Oh...I think he's dead, Jim. ^_^ And to think, I
still have two more of these short stories to write.

Cool. Looking forward to them.

DB Sommer





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