>
 
Laurence wrote:
 
> In article <398BD3D1.506CE48B@spundreams.net.nospam>,
>    Jeff Huo <jeff@spundreams.net.nospam> wrote:
>
> > Laurence wrote:
>
> So it would appear that although my world and yours are very similar, with
> people doing similar jobs and having similar interests, there is a major
> difference. You have more unusual supernatural beings than we do, and a
> lot more of them.
>
> I'm almost tempted to wonder what my counterpart on your world is doing,
> or what he is for that matter."

["I suppose I could ask Millie sometime,"] Turnberry says, thougthfully. Then he looks back at Alan and grins mischeviously. ["Oh, yes, there's a story there, too --by now, you should know there's -always- a story...."]

["I met her one day along the lake shore north of Northwestern in Evanston. The lakefront is beautiful, and I am in the habit of taking my bike out for a  spin and just going wherever. It was fall, and the leaves were changing, and the waves came gently in from the Lake. It was goregous."]

["I stopped on a secluded little patch of park, sat down on a bench, and ate a light lunch in front of the lake. A young woman walked up, asked if she could join me, and I said yes. We chatted, chatted some more...and then she started talking..."]

Turnberry considers a second whether he should go on, then smiles broadly and says, ["Oh, why not? It's not like anyone could actually -threaten- her, and noone would believe you if you told anyone anyway. And she didn't ask me to keep it a secret, so why not?"]

["There's something about a Pooka, even in mortal human form, that gets people to start talking. And talk she did! In between bites of crusty italian bread dipped into a red-pepper aioli, she started asking me questions about magic. About the Fae. I started to have suspicions, suspicions confirmed when she came right out and asked me why I chose the form of a Golden Retriever."]

["I was shocked, of course, that she could see me for what I was --even more shocked when she shimmered slightly, and turned into a fox-human hybrid --but -not- a Pooka. She was most definately not Kithain --nor Garou, Mage, Kindred or anything else I could put my finger on --in fact, I am not really sure what she was. She wore a plain brown dress and funny goggles around her neck; she was quite beautiful. She laughed gently, and explained herself..."]

["Her name was Millificent Hali Alexander Lewis DeOnorio --try saying that ten times fast!-- and she was a traveler. A wanderer. Between dimentions and alternate universes. She took my hand with excitement and led me to the edge of the lake, whistled sharply, and suddenly out of mid-air appeared a thousand foot long ship floating in mid-air --it looked a lot like Captain Nemo's submarine crossed with a Vorlon cruiser from Babylon 5, all steampunk and organic tech and crystals and who knows what else. She told me that she was Immortal --so old she had long forgotten where or when she was from originally-- and now she wandered the Universe --all the Universes-- for the sheer joy and curiosity of it all. She had that unique gift of infinite wonder -- the ability to be facinated by even the simplest things, to find joy in even the smallest pleasures, to never be bored by even the most basic happenings-- a powerful weapon against the ennui often seen among immortals or even mortals just past forty."]

[" 'I've seen things you people wouldn't belive,' she quoted, 'Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate...all those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.'  Then she smiled. 'Save here,' she pointed at her head, 'save here in my memories.' "]

["She'd been to fantastic worlds beyond count, worlds beyond description; places of wonders and magic and beauty beyond descrption. Swash- buckling adventures and amazing stories. But what facinated her the most were people --individual souls, just chatting and meeting and making friends. Oh, she would love -this- place..."]

["Our world, in her opinion, was average, perhaps even a little disappointing; magic was dying in our world; our world was drowning in mediocrity and Banality, hopelessness and a basic unwillingness to even give a damn. She gave our world about another fifty to a hundred years before it self- destructed...."]

["Then she offered me the chance to come with her."]

Turnberry's face still reflects the flabergasted look he had then. ["Me!! Why me? She was absolutely serious and sincere...and I for the life of me couldn't figure out why. She liked me, and saw the same spark of immortality within me as her. I tried to explain that it didn't work the same way, but she merely smiled and pointed out that there were things she could do about that that would fix such pesky problems. For her, what was important was the spirit --the attitude, the outlook on life; she and I shared much the same, and she was growing lonely."]

[" 'Your offer flatters me, m'lady,' I said, 'but I cannot leave behind those I care about, those I am sworn to protect. Surely you, who have traveled the paths between the stars and fought for truth and justice for aeons before I or my world was ever even born, can understand this? "]

["She nodded agreement, but pointed out that I didn't have to leave -now-....after all, if my world really was doomed, then she could easily come pick me up after it was all said and done...she could wait, after all; it was only time, and be it decades or millenia, she could wait until my responsibilities...in whatever lifetime...were done and I could pack up and go with her."]

Turnberry now looks a little sad. [" 'I laughed, asking her, 'In lifetime after lifetime --there will always be more people to help, there will always be my fellow Fae Eternals, the same friendships from lifetime to lifetime --like Christina,' holding out her picture in my wallet, showing a drawing of Christina in Fae form, 'and so long as they still live, so long as there are still Fae, so long as this world lives, I will still have the same responsibilities here, m'lady...you could be waiting a long time....surely you do not mean that I will outlast my own world and all of my people?"]

["She looked at me very sadly. 'I desire not to give you knowledge of times to come,' she said, 'but there will come a time when you will have no further connections to this world.' She looked me straight in the eye, and said, 'Christina will proceed you into the next world, the life beyond the Final Death...as will all Fae, as will all magic, as will all of your world. You alone will carry on their memories. And when that time comes, I will be there for you.' "]

[" That came as a bit of a shock, as you might imagine."]

["I took a deep breath, and replied, 'Yet there still be time for love and laughter, hope and joy, for good deeds great and small,' I said, 'and while time remains, I shall not abandon them, even if I be the last. Especially if I be the last.' "]

["She smiled. 'That is exactly the spirit that attracts me to you, Sir Turnberry.' "]

["We promised to keep in touch, then she withdrew a wand, pressed it, a hatch opened on the side of her magnificent ship and stairs came down...she boarded, waved and blew a last kiss goodbye, and then was off, for points unknown."]

["Now, what does all of this have to do with you, Alan? What it has to do with you is that she probably knows what your counterpart... if there is one here...is doing; through her, I know of many such universes, from those like yours that seem short on supermaturals, to those where mortality is an alien concept. And someday...when she drops by again... I'll bring her here."]

Turnberry smiles. ["For she will, of course... and now I know a little of what it must be like to chat with denizens from a dozen dimentions, to listen to tale-craft from a hundred worlds, out on the edge of the Universe. Oh yes, she would love this place...."]

-- Turnberry