So, anyway, this just sprang up today, while I was reading Quantum Destinies. I apologize for stepping on everyone's toes, but this was just too tempting. Changes Based on _Quantum Destinies_ Worlds of Major import 0,0,0,0 - our baseline, very close to the world referred to as +0.016,+0.014 in _QD_ 0,1.23e2,-1.2e-3,1.03 - The world of _Sailor Moon 1/6_ Saotome Ranka checks the device yet again, her hands almost shaking with eagerness. All of the parts are sound this time, the connections between the small, simple computer, its OS hand written for the single task, the smaller box with the much more powerful processors inside, to process the data stream from the Neural interface, and the interface unit itself, a simple, handmade contraption, based off of the slight bits of data released about the military versions, are secure. Everything is set. Taking a deep breath to calm her raging heartbeat, she frobs the main power bar. The words flash up the screen: *Self Check Complete *logic components: pass *quantum flux coil: pass *neural induction sensors: pass *system has 1 quantum coordinate stored in nvram *scan for coordinates [Y/n]? Ranka hits the return key. *band[random]? Return again. *cycle mode[active]? return a third time *Time interval[60m]? 30m, then ret yet a fourth time. `I should work over the interface, I guess.' *waiting Ranka shakes her head, looking around her lab one more time, again wondering if she has a death wish. All of the calculations work, unless she made an arithmetic error somewhere. All of the circuits are correct, unless they aren't. Even if the entire system works properly, there is a better than fair chance something will come and fuck things up. She gets up, checks the lock on the door, the heavy bar set into the steel brackets specially aquired to keep unwanted guests out, making sure both are secure, then checking that the backup generator's flywheel is up to speed, the wall current keeping it spinning, ready to kick the small gasoline motor over if the power goes, but currently only spinning the coils that everything is running off of, completely isolated from outside power. With a final shrug of her shoulders Ranka decides it is as safe as it ever will be, and sits down in front of the machine, laying her head forward, almost against the table, before finally slipping the headset into place. *signal: clear *scanning: *scanning: *scanning: *scanning: lock And the world fades to black for Saotome Ranka. -* *Mmm, this is nice,* Ranka thinks as the world fades in. There is someone cradled in her arms, their head resting against her bosom, arms clasped lightly at her sides. She herself is cradled from behind, warm arms wrapped around both her and the girl in her arms, the girl behind her bigger than either her or the girl held gently to her chest. Letting her eyes drift open she notices the smile on the dark haired girl's face, the totally contented look, and turning her head, she gets an indulgent smile from the lavender-haired girl who's breast she is resting against. *this me is a real pervert,* the thought suddenly springs forth, then drowns under a flood of images. Tendou Akane, her iinazuke. Shampoo, the lavender haired girl, her wife. Hino Rei, the dark haired girl in her arms, her love, her protector in this life and her last, her beautiful Mars-chan. Her role, unasked but needed, as protector of two worlds now. Her abject terror at the thought of losing either of the girls now holding her. Ranka lets her eyes drift closed, basking in the cloying warmth and affection, awed that anyone could feel this loved, especially a half-male girl, even one so lucky as to have aquired her particular curse at Jusenkyou, the ancient training ground of cursed springs. The thought that anyone would willingly choose to be a girl rocks her, and she contemplates the mess this other her, this girl-born-boy Saotome Ranma, has lived, ten years training as a martial artist, returning to Tokyo only to discover an enemy powerful enough to endanger the whole world. The friends aquired, both powerful fighters and Monsters, who aren't so monsterous. Molga-kun, her friend Mahala, and their young daughter. Fighting mundane battles, against mundane foes. The joy of turning the skills of battle against a different foe, one far less caring. Ranka wraps her arms a little more firmly about Rei, hugging her tightly to herself. Rei murmors sleepily, settling herself once more against Ranka. Fighting. The sharp fear, standing in a men's bathroom, a man twice her height and three times her weight reaching for her, his leering face and crude words leaving no doubt as to his intent. Shampoo, standing on the other end of a large log, suspended in the air. Jeidite, his face quiet as his neck breaks with a sickeningly soft cracking noise. Beryl's face, her mind overcome by Metallia, as supreme amounts of power are routed though the Ginzuishou. Akane's face, the last time they sparred, yesterday. Shampoo stirs, bending down to kiss her on the forehead, stirring another flood of memories, these ones making her blush. The poster on the wall, an ad for the first issue of _NewType_, an anime magazine, that her manga had appeared in. Next to it, another poster, for the theatrical anime that had been made from her manga, bringing with it pleasant memories of going to the premier with Rei, Shampoo, and ChibiRan, her daughter, sent back from the future for training in a safer time. Her friends, so many of them, related to each other in dozens of different ways, the happiness of each of them adding to her own. Ranka's eyes start to sting, realizing the paucity of friends she has of her own. *Do I even have any friends, home?* She blinks, rapidly, *Didn't think so.* Swallowing against the burn in her throat, she forces the bleak feeling down, *I can deal with my lack of friends when I get home, I guess,* concentrating on the warmth of her lovers' presence. Ranka has herself calm again, and the world goes grey. -* With listless fingers Ranka pulls the neural interface off, looking up at the screen. *details[Y/n]? Shaking fingers hit the return key. *1 - divergence: 500 016 y 4 m 32 d 43 min 23 s ago. `Five hundred thousand years ago. Is that how much needs to change for me to be happy?' She shakes her head, apalled by the characteristicly morose thought. `Maybe I'm lucky . . . no, I know I'm lucky. Problem is, it's all bad.' Ranka scowls at the screen, then frobs the main power lever, shutting the system down. The scholar pulls the armor cloth tarp over the table, locking the cable to keep it in place. She opens the circuit between the generator and the system, then locks the switch in place. Satisfied things are secure she gathers her bag, picks it up, checks to make sure her keys are in her pocket, then pulls the bar and sets it aside. She then unlocks the deadbolt and door knob, steps through, checks for her bag again, and then locks both once more. Unlocking the two padlocks on the outside of the door, she closes the hasps and locks them shut, one keyed lock and one ornate combination type. A final check of all four locks and she starts out for home, pleased with the day's results. Climbing the stairs the normal worries about what will happen don't start flashing before her eyes, and she is unsure whether to be glad or worried about it. *Worrying is probably safer. Of course, if Kaneda hasn't wandered off home I'm going to have to kick his ass. He's so fragile, though, one full-force hit and he goes down, and he knows all the buttons to push to set me off. Maybe it'd be easier to just go all out and if he dies, he's just the child of a vice director of Security. I'll only get executed, and then I won't need to worry about this bloody mess any more. Maybe that'd be good.* flashing images from another life point out just how empty this one is, and Ranka blinks rapidly to fight them back. Knowing there's no one behind the door she flings it open, stepping out of the stairwell. *How did I know that? Maybe some of my other's skills wore off on me. Doubt it.* Exiting the building she almost passes Tendou Nabiki, pausing to look at the girl in shock. *Something feels wrong.* She steps closer to the older girl, then closer still, *I know this feeling, now. I find this girl . . . attractive. Why, then, the flaring . . . * Ranka shakes her head, walking boldly up to the other girl, looking up into her face. `Good afternoon, Tendou-sempai.' *the feeling of wrongness, it's so strong. I want to rip this girl's throat out for being in my way; why? I want . . . * Ranka's eyes widen in shock. `What is it, Saotome-kun?' Nabiki's eyes narrow, a strange look on her face. *she feels the same way.* Suddenly sure Ranka steps closer, putting one hand on the taller girl's shoulder, her left hand and her school bag curling about the girls waist, pressing the side of her face against the taller girl. *pheramones. They're somehow wrong, or we feel them wrong. It's only certain people . . . * concentrating fiercely she grabs the wrong feeling, cupping it in her mind, seeing how it is spread throughout her body, mirrored, no, duplicated in the other girl. Careful force is applied, then more, and more still, but still not enough. *Calm, center, feel the force all around. Gather it in,* still more force is applied, and suddenly something gives, shattering almost like glass. Tendou Nabiki gasps, wrapping her arms around the smaller girl, who pulls back to look into her quietly dialated eyes. *Wow. I'd never have known,* Ranka boggles happily, unaware that her own pupils have dialated just as noticibly. `I'm sorry,' she murmors, trying to step back, suddenly aware of Nabiki's henchmen on either side. `I think, Saotome-kun, that we need to . . discuss . . your behavior.' Nabiki's henchmen look at each other, amusement at the girl's expected fate in their eyes. Ranka steps back, her eyes going wide, then dropping her face as Nabiki leads her off, one hand on her shoulder. -* `This seems good.' Nabiki lets go of Ranka's shoulder, gesturing her into the kisaten. Ranka finds a seat, chosing a table off to one side, not too near any of the other customers. Nabiki sits oposite her, both hands on the table, her bag, like Ranka's, on the floor between her feet. `So, Tendou-sempai, what did you want to discuss?' `What did you just do?' `Someone altered both of us in the same manner, probably a pheremonal trigger, or some such. It overrode my inate attractions, and probably yours as well. I broke it.' `Broke it?' `Yeah, probably just the reception, however.' `How?' `I just grabbed the bit that felt wrong and shoved on it 'til it broke,' Nabiki looks confused, so Ranka elaborates, `I just recently picked up some useful skills in magic.' `Magical skill isn't something one just picks up.' `I think it is a side effect of some long-term experimentation I've been doing.' `Into what?' `Parallel universes.' Nabiki looks quite blank. `The theory that every potential path is followed, leading to an infininate variety of universes, some very similar, others very different.' `Potential path?' `If a single atom had been in a different spot, at just the right moment, the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs wouldn't have hit the Earth, and we wouldn't be here. The position of that single atom is the result of one photon's energy escaping at a particular time, at just the right angle. The nearer branches are as similar as peas in a pod, just tiny changes to the rest of the universe, but larger ones to Earth, and human society, since we stir up a lot of particles.' `I remember this now. I thought that the branchings were on decisions, though.' `No, that's just homocentric nonsense. No matter how much you agonize over some things, there is only one way they could be made, and the only thing that changes is the timing. We branch universes all the time, but it is position, energy state, interactions with other particles, other particle-clusters. `This morning I precipitated a vast, possibly infinate, number of branchings, just as you did, just as everyone on Earth did, just as every atom in every star in every galaxy in every universe did.' `And you picked these magical skills up as a result of what?' `I have created a way to travel between universes, albeit mentally rather than physically.' `This works by?' Nabiki trails off. `Locking onto an analog of oneself in another universe, and merging one's own mental pattern into theirs for a limited time.' `OK,' Nabiki looks at her hands for a moment, `Isn't that a little dangerous? What if your analog is killed or something?' `You get to gibber in sensory deprevation until the machine returns one to a normal state. The machine only induces the linked state, and returns one to normal, the rest of the work is the result of one's own brain functions.' `Then what if the machine fails?' `You stay in the out state until someone fixes it, or you die. That's why I've got the motor-generator backup down there.' `And software errors?' `I've been over the induction and retrieval code so many times I could rewrite it in my sleep. It is sound.' Ranka picks up her cup of coffee, takes a drink, and then settles it in front of her, and gives it a light squeeze. The ceramic shatters. `Hey!' escapes Nabiki. `Eris bless,' Ranka says, using the cloth napkin to stop the mess. `That was a little shocking.' `Yeah, I really didn't expect that to break.' `I meant your choice of explicative.' `Why? Eris is . . . Not on the approved list of deities, is she,' I frown, `But she just fits the way the universe works so well . . . Oh, that'd be it.' `What do you mean?' `She doesn't fit with the current government's desires for us.' `That too, but what do you mean she fits the way the universe works? Isn't she like some Greek goddess of chaos?' `That's what the Greeks said. In the 1960s, Gregorian, where I was just visiting, at least, she inspired Malcalyps the Younger, also sometimes known as Greg Hill,' `That crazy guy who was finally cought a couple years ago?' `The same. Anyway, Mal-two was inspired to write the Principia Discordia, and reintroduce her to the world. According to my alternate's cabal, she was, at the beginning, all. She was it, nothing more, nothing less, just her. This was quite fine for a long time, but after a while she got,' dramatic pause, and Nabiki leans closer. I smile, `bored.' Nabiki faults elegantly. `So, she made herself into two. And again, this was quite fine for a long time. But eventuallty the both of them got bored, and they talked about it. Or something, it being hard to talk with words and things when the entirety of everything is only two people.' Nabiki nods, seriously. Ranka smiles sheepishly at the waitress, and thanks her for the replacement cup of coffee, then waits for her to leave. `You're watching her ass,' Nabiki informs her. `Yeah? So?' Ranka blinks, `Right. Secret governement experiments on children, shouldn't let them know that things have changed,' her voice shifts to a whine, `but she's so cute.' Nabiki frowns. `You didn't notice?' `That's not it.' `OK. If you say so. Anyway, at that point the two Erises created the first universe, to play with. I think they got bored with a couple, and upset with all the maintenence that a few others required, and finally came up with the current version, which will last until it, and we, get boring too.' `Boring?' `Yeah. Predictable, and not in a good way.' `There's predictiable in a good way?' `Yeah, there is. One can predict, for example, that the interesting people will prevail, and that when one forgets ones umbrella it will rain on one.' `Oh? So the universe really is out to get me?' `Yep,' Nabiki looks a little distraught, `Not in a bad way or nothing, but it is out to get you. It's out to get me, and her,' Ranka smiles in the direction of the waitress, `and everyone, if we get tooo boring. So long as we're somewhat amusing, things won't ever get too bad,' Ranka swallows off her coffee, shudders, and smiles. `What do we do about those secret government experiments you seem to think we were involved in, and why do you think that?' `Who else could it be? My folks aren't of the same class as yours, neither of us have ever had the same doctor, and it happend long enough ago that I can't remember anything that could be it. So, it was our government, who've been being pretty evil, so it doesn't surprise me.' `Pastry?' the waitress asks, with a few dozen samples on a cart. Ranka looks at Nabiki, who nods. Ranka holds up her hand, thumb and index finger folded down. Nabiki nods again. Ranka smiles at the waitress, `One of these, a piece of the chocolate mousse cake, and one of those.' The waitress smiles, and sets the plates on the table, then turns to Nabiki. `Just a slice of the german chocolate,' she smiles at the waitress, who smiles back, her pupils dialating slightly as she leans forward. The clink of the plate on the table startles her, and she jerks back, blushing, and turns back to Ranka. `Anything else?' `Just some more coffee, please,' Ranka leans in close to the waitress, `She's really attractive, isn't she? Not cute like you, but still.' The waitress flushes down her chest, all the way past the lace edging which barely, Ranka guesses, covers her nipples, nods jerkily, `I'll get you the coffee shortly,' and flees. `Ranka-chan, that was rude.' `But fun.' `I take it you feel our government's stance on this,' she stops, `That sort of thing is part of the evil they're up to?' `And the way we've been acting since before the Pacific War. Our government fell to the right-wing militarists during the Taihei era, and hasn't recovered since. Technologically we're a little more advanced than the world I just visited, but that world is a lot more peaceful. Their world just isn't quite as politically stable, but they don't have a thousand different rebel groups plotting the downfall of the Japanese government, nor the US/Japan cold war which has been going on since Showa 22 or so. [ Showa 22 is 1947 --S]' `Did they not crush the Soviets after the Pacific war?' `No, in the fall of Showa 14 Hitler, and most of the higher Nazi party people died in a freak accident where their bunker explosively decompressed.' `Where was this bunker?' `Berlin. Like I said, freak accident. The Japanese attacked the US, bombing the naval base at Pearl Harbor a few minutes after the declaration of war was delivered in Washington.' `That's stupid! Who would have attacked the US like that? It's like kicking a bear in the balls.' Ranka raises an eyebrow, `You've done that?' `No,' Nabiki stammars a moment, `but it seems just as stupid.' `Yep. Japan lost that war, Europe managed to contain Italy, and the Germans managed to negotiate a peace with the Soviet Union. The US basicly swallowed most of the Pacific, China, and South East Asia, coopting native leaders, and that sort of thing. They are at a hundred and ten states, and suffering a little from it. The US spreads from Tibet to Liberia, and Japan avoided joining only through luck and determination on the part of most Japanese.' Ranka smiles, `And those Japanese are much more willing to admit to their mistakes. I don't know that we ever will be that way.' `What mistakes?' Nabiki asks with a straight face. Ranma stares at her, taking another bite of her cake. Nabiki's face twitches, a tiny smile forming. `Good,' Ranma relaxes, `I'd worried for a moment there.' The conversation lulls for a while, then Ranka realizes her stomach is not yet as large as she thinks it should be, and stares rather morosely at the half-eaten remains of her last pastry for several minutes, picking bits off and eating them very slowly. `Full?' Nabiki asks. `Shouldn't be,' she replies, picking another flake of croisant off. `Your other was a big eater?' `She spent most of her life wondering when her next meal would be. When there was food, she could eat a lot. When there wasn't, she suffered. But the end result is pretty impressive.' `Oh?' `A girl who can--Hey!--' Ranka grabs for her pastry, but Nabiki pulls it out of range, `horrible person.' Nabiki smiles, `Me? Couldn't be,' and pulls a hunk off of the pastry, dropping crumbs onto her plate and the table. `Don't waste the crumbs,' Ranka scolds, then setles back in her chair, `Anyway, without magic she can leap to the roof of a nine-story building in a single bound. She can catch bullets out of the air. She picked up a fifty-ton tank and threw it eight meters one time.' `Wow.' `The impressive thing is that the tank crew survived.' Nabiki finishes her final cup of coffee, and drops a pair of thousand yen bills on the table, `Shall we go?' `Yeah, I guess so.' ; `So, what are we going to do?' Nabiki asks, stepping out in front of Ranka. `We?' Ranka asks. `What, you think I'm going to let the only other geneticly-modified queer girl I know of get away?' she smiles. Ranka looks at her funny for several moments before answering, `I was going to look for the Ginzuishou, and see if my spice had been reincarnated here.' `I'll tag along, then.' `Feel free, I guess,' Ranka leads the way to the subway. ; Nearly an hour, and three trains, later the two girls climb the stairs back to street level. `So, where have you lead me?' Nabiki asks, half a step behind the shorter girl. `Juuban, Minato-ku. Hikawa Jinja should be just a few blocks away.' Ranka is pleased by Nabiki's stoic acceptance of all the walking they've been doing, and the sway of Nabiki's hips as she walks up the stairs to the shrine. A crooked smirk crosses her face for a moment when she realizes she's all but staring. `Here we are,' Nabiki says as they stop on the flags. `It's been found,' Ranka says, softly. `What?' Nabiki asks. `The ginzuishou. Powerful magic item, remember? It's been bound to someone already.' `Oh. So why are we here?' `I want to see who it is bound to,' Ranka pauses, `And Mars lives her, in the other world.' `OK.' `Would you pretty girls like to be shrine maidens?' an old man asks, from behind them. `Not today, Great Grandpa,' Ranka tells him, `Thanks for asking, though.' After the old man walks off, a slight smile on his face, Nabiki asks, `Why were you so familiar with that man?' `Mars is his granddaughter,' Ranka suddenly smiles, `Here she is now.' Her face falls as she realizes what she's watching, though. A slender girl with remarkably long hair is chasing another girl, who's hair is tied up in little buns on top of her head, with impossibly long tails dangling past her knees, swiping at her with a broom. Ranka touches Nabiki on the arm, `Let's go.' After they get to the bottom of the stairs, Nabiki finally asks, `What was that?' `Mars, and the girl she was chasing is the one bound to the Ginzuishou,' Ranka glances at Nabiki, then lets herself sag against the taller girl, `at least I've still got you,' she smiles. `I suppose,' Nabiki tells her. ; --- log: 1999 May 30: started 1999 June 3: log added 1999 July 23: added a tiny little bit 1999 November 14: six lines! Whoo hoo! 2001 July 15: a whole page! Posh! 2001 November 15: added a bunch! Wow! Even if it was just the rest of the coffe shop scene. 2002 November 13: edited a little 2003 January 4: more! Typed up on Nagisa, my new iPaq 3975 ^_^ 2003 Febuary 2: Tiny edit. 2004 July 17: Tyny edit.