Post by Dream on May 22, 2007 20:18:50 GMT -5
The Last Fanfictioneers
Part Six:
Traumatised
Dedicated to Elycien!
Teenager Sues Multi-Million-Dollar Website For Emotional Trauma
January 11th, 2008
CALIFORNIA—In an unprecedented case, sixteen-year-old Amanda Stretton is suing website Neopets.com over what she describes as emotional trauma after her virtual pet died unexpectedly.
The teenager, a user of the website for three years, claims that she had not been told such things were possible.
"Candy was my only Neopet," said Amanda, a high school student, when interviewed this morning. "I know she wasn't real in the same way as a cat or something, but since I got able to see her in v-reality, she's been a lot more real to me. I was devastated when she died in the war, and I think Neopets should either compensate me or at least get rid of their claim that pets can't die on their site."
A Neopets staff member, who did not wish to be named, argued today that the case was a bizarre fluke. "There was a 'war' activity in progress on the site, but no matter what, Neopets are not supposed to die," he explained. "We're not sure to make of what happened to Candy_vj200, and at the moment we're investigating whether it might have been hacker activity."
Several companies have already withdrawn advertising from the site after Amanda's graphic description of her Neopet's death began circulating on the Internet. Ms. Stretton claims to have seen Candy_vj200, a Lupe, die from "multiple stab wounds" after an attack from an unknown opponent. "This is not the sort of thing we want our children to be exposed to," commented Amanda's mother, Laura Stretton, 46.
Adam Powell and Donna Williams were unavailable for comment.
*
"Hold the 'phone."
Frozen was the first to recover the power of speech. "Your mother? What are you talking about? Mindela isn't… hasn't…" He trailed off, taking a long look at Mindela. "…Have you?"
"I've never seen him before," she replied, gazing suspiciously at Rach. "Explain yourself."
"I'm sorry." Rach sighed. "You must be a cousin of mine, or something… maybe you were named after my mother. She was a lovely woman."
"I don't think so." Mindela frowned. "I chose my name. Most of us do, you know. This is a forum, after all…" Again that odd shiver from the travellers, that sense of suspicion. No-one was quite sure why.
"How about we have some tea," Patjade interrupted, "and talk about this properly. It looks like there's been some sort of horrible misunderstanding…"
Reluctantly, Rach and Lydie allowed themselves to be sat down.
"Firstly." Lady Jade looked at the two of them. "Where did you say you'd come from?"
"We didn't," they said in unison.
"Oh, come on. We're not prejudiced." Patjade sighed. "Anyhow. Welcome to the Neopian Times Writers' Forum, wherever you think you came from…"
"That's not funny," Lydie whispered.
"What's not funny?" Patjade looked baffled. "I just said welcome."
"Wait." Rach took Lydie's hand. "I don't think she meant to be cruel. Lydie, look at these people. What do you see?"
Lydie surveyed the forumers. "Ninjas. Pirates. Dogs, cats, foxes, elves, leopard-children…"
"Lydie, you grew up with the same…" He lowered his voice. "The same stories I did. Bedtime stories." The boy gestured towards the increasingly puzzled group. "Don't you see?"
It took a while for her to realise what he meant. Then her eyes widened as she took in the scene around her. "No. Rach, that's impossible."
"You must recognise this place," he pressed. "I know we've never seen it, well, not since we were kids, but… Lydie, tell them about your parents, and see what they do."
Slowly, carefully, Lydia Aislinn drew a photograph from her pocket: a battered, faded picture of a plump, dark-haired girl in a pink ballgown, a happy smile fixed on her face.
"My second name's Aislinn," she said, looking out into the crowd of forumers. "It's in honour of my mother."
Putting down the photograph, she found herself looking directly at its mirror image, who stood anxiously in the middle of the room, fiddling with her long hair.
"It means Dreamer."
*
Notice
Following the recent events in this forum, we are casting a charm to deactivate all magical activity until further notice. From tomorrow (2nd February, Y10), **all** spells, charms, counter-charms and curses will be ineffective in the NTWF. We appreciate this will cause some day-to-day problems but hope to have a better system in place as soon as possible!
If anyone is interested in volunteering to help rebuild the Splatterboard, Clubhouse or the missing part of Admin Alley, please see Lady Jade in the temporary Mod Squad board, located in Staff Call. Daycare will be provided for Tabloid Kids if their guardians are willing to spend time helping out.
Thank you,
Patjade and Samantha
*
There was uproar in the NTWF.
"Dream, you have a Tabloid family?" had been the first question. "But I thought you never went on the 'bloids!"
"I don't," had come the puzzled reply. "I never even got a date after that squirrel disappeared."
Nobody tried to ask what she meant.
And now, with the entire forum sitting spellbound, Rach and Lydie were trying hard to explain. Crystal brought sake; Rider brought rum. The two travellers sat at the centre of the crowd, wondering where to start.
"Our parents came from a place called the Neopian Times Writers' Forum," Rach began. "It looks like that's where we've ended up… even though my mother told me the original building had been completely destroyed."
"They must have rebuilt it," Lydie suggested. "Oh, Rach, just wait until we tell Mirne! Someone's rebuilt the old v-dimension! With fake-marriages, and Petpets, and… Maybe we could…" An expression of confusion suddenly crossed her face. "But who? How did they get permission?"
"That's crazy." JH shook his head. "Why would we rebuild? It's only been a few years since Lady Jade founded this place."
"I haven't been here since I was a cub," the leopard-child argued. "I don't even remember it. But I've heard stories, all the same. This is the place. Just look at that corridor."
"My mother loved it here," Lydie put in as evidence. "She said it was the only place she really belonged, for a while. Or that's what I was told, anyhow."
"Your mother…" Dream stared at Lydie, taking in every detail of her appearance.
"They say she came here for a few years." The girl smiled sadly. "I got my hair from her. And my fear of dogs. But… You must be a relative of hers. I know you look right, but you aren't her." She sighed. "Even if what Rach says is true, and we really have found our way back to the Writers' Forum… my mother would be in her thirties by now. If…"
Rach completed the sentence she couldn't. "If Lydie's mother were alive."
"That photograph is of me," Dream admitted, turning it over and over in her hands. Lydie watched it cautiously, frightened that her treasure would be damaged. "It looks too old to have been taken last year, though…"
"Because it wasn't."
Everyone turned at the sound of Dan's oddly solemn voice. He, too, was gazing at the photograph, but the look in his eyes was that of someone who had eliminated the impossible and was facing the improbable truth.
"It was," Dream insisted. "May 2006, the night of the ball at Annasuya's college. I should know."
"Oh, yes," Dan nodded. "It was taken in 2006."
He paused.
"Sixteen years or so ago."
*
"Spot? Spot!"
Mindela's voice sounded through the forum, joined by a slightly feline-sounding yowl. After a moment, Spot's pretty cream-furred head protruded from behind the aeroplane she was helping Thundy fix. Despite the ease of v-realisation, some forumers still preferred to repair things by hand when they broke down, and at such times an extra pair of paws was good to have around.
"I'll be with you in a minute, Mindy. Is it important?"
"Oh, not that important," Mindela told her with a sideways smile. "Just the fact that, well, you're a new Tabloid grandmother."
"WHAT?" Spot shot out from behind the 'plane, nearly knocking over Mindela, along with the four-pawed, dark-eyed bundle she was carrying on one shoulder. "You… you have a… How did you…?"
"The usual way," was Mindela's casual reply. "I was sitting in one corner over in the 'bloids and heard a scratchy noise behind a door, and, well, there he was."
The new cub was beautiful. The size and shape of a human toddler, his family origins nevertheless showed through in the leopard ears and tail, and the soft coat of white fur, on which spots were already beginning to develop.
"He can play with Sandy," Spot smiled. "I always thought she needed a friend. Any idea what you're calling him?"
"Not yet." Mindela ruffled the little cub's fur. "Cute little thing, isn't he?"
As Spot stroked the youngster's head, she contemplated the implications of being a "real" Tabloid grandparent. The various NTWFers had got used, over time, to the mysterious appearance of Tabloid Kids at random intervals. Although there was, strictly speaking, no way that these children could exist, they continued to turn up, and once turned up, grew and learnt at the same rate as normal children, attaching themselves to the first forumer who'd found them, to whom they often bore a strange resemblance. She couldn't help but wonder how real they actually were, and what anyone would say to them when they asked who their real parents were…
"Spot?"
The word brought her out of her reflections. "Yes?"
"Will you babysit for me?"
*
There was silence in the NTWF.
The eyes of the forumers moved from Mindela to Rachelin, from Dream to Lydie, before focusing on Dan, who gave a one-shoulder shrug. "You don't have to believe it. It seems the most likely reason, though."
"You're saying that Lydie and Rach have travelled here…" Crystal began.
"Through time," Dan supplied. "I don't know how, or why. But if Lydie thinks that Dream is, well…" He stopped short of saying the actual word, and contented himself with a meaningful glance. "Assuming she isn't completely insane, then there's no other explanation. Lydie has seen events that we'd call… the future."
The silence remained for a few seconds. Then all hell broke loose.
"Who wins the next election?"
"Can you tell me some bets to make?"
"Who should I put in my next story?"
"Wait, my past is your future? What?"
"What do you mean, I'm not alive?"
"Have you got your own spaceship?"
"What's Final Fantasy 13 like?"
"What happened at Strife and Leoness' wedding?"
"Can we just focus on the not alive bit for a moment here?"
"If you're my son, then who is y—"
"Lydie! Lydie, are you in here?"
The last voice, ringing through the hallway, silenced all the others.
"Ishan," Rach murmured. "I guess she came after us in the end. Someone had better let her in before she knocks everything over."
Patjade tugged open the door, to reveal a girl of Lydie's age with unnaturally blonde hair. Her eyes were bright at the sight of her friend, but there was something frightened and uneasy about her smile, as if she were still unsure what the next moment had to throw at her.
"Oh, Lydie, Rach, Weewoos be praised." She ran forward and threw her arms around the lost travellers. "What are you doing here? Mirne was so worried. You're not hurt, are you?"
"Don't worry." Patjade tried her best to reassure the newcomer. "If they got hurt, we could fix it. We have magic and first aid and even Phoenix Down."
"Phoenix Down?" Ishan tilted her pretty head in confusion. "Isn't that those feathers from the old stories? The ones that are meant to bring people back from the dead?"
"That was always a good story," Lydie nodded. "You mean that… it's true?"
"Lydie, what is this place?" Ishan was looking more and more confused. "Won't you come back now? We have a party to organise. Mirne's even found some actual alcohol in one of the old storage boxes."
"You're welcome to some of our alcohol," Nick shrugged.
"Ishan, listen to me," Lydie began. "You're never going to believe where we've ended up…"
"So you're the future of the NTWF?"
The voice broke in on the hurried explanation, paying no attention to Ishan's squeak of horror as she heard the last word. Hu was looking at them with an expression of regret and annoyance. "Dan, they can't be. No Phoenix Down? No real tabloids? Precious little alcohol? And forumers who seem to be frightened of their own shadows?
What could have made it all change?"
*
"Lady Jade? Oh, Lady Jade!"
Patjade jumped as Katykins ran into the room, apparently distraught. "Lady Jade… you've got to… come at once…"
"What is it?" Patjade stood up. "Is Chirrup crying again? I told Rider not to leave that little one alone."
"No…" Katy looked about to cry. "I found… we found… Cyrillen's dead, Lady Jade."
"Oh, is that all?" Patjade smiled benevolently at her. "Find some Phoenix Down somewhere and sort her out."
"No." Katykins looked at her in complete panic, and for the first time, Patjade began to worry. "Cyrillen's dead."
The Banter Board was oddly deserted. Only a handful of figures were clustered in the centre of the room. Sammy looked up as she entered. "Oh, Katykins, you brought Patjade!"
Kneeling down, Patjade examined the body that lay on the floor. Katykins had been right about one thing, at least: there was no doubt that Cyrillen was dead, or else had developed some strange technique for separating her head from her body.
"All right," she shrugged. "Why do you need me? Just fetch some Phoenix Down. Or if there isn't any left pull a few hairs off Kiddo."
"Charmed, Lady Jade," came Kiddo's voice from the doorway, "but they already tried that one, and if they get any more enthusiastic you'll have a bald ninja. Katykins and I went off to look for you when it didn't work."
Patjade sighed. "Probably a board glitch. Thought Samantha said she was going to sort all those out?"
"Since when is Samantha admin?" Katykins asked agitatedly.
"Katy, she's our technician now, and you should respect that." Patjade bent down to look at Cyr's body. "If it's a glitch, she should be all right if you give her another half-hour."
"I don't know how long she's been there already." Kiddo sighed. "I would've understood if there'd been a ninja-pirate fight going on, but we've had to suspend everything while they're rebuilding the Splatterboard. Why would this sort of thing happen in the Banter Board?"
"If I find out that she ended a post with 'Just kill me now'", Patjade snapped, "then someone is going to get a very severe warning for bad taste. All right, I'll try and get the boards adjusted. Shouldn't really be messing with the setup, but her being there isn't really appropriate for the Banter Board, it's true."
Closing her eyes, Patjade called up the image of the forum's internal settings on her v-realisers. She tweaked a few of the parameters, opened one eye to look at Cyrillen, sighed and repeated the process.
Five minutes later, there was a circle of anxious forumers around Patjade as she sat with her eyes closed and an expression of frustration.
Ten minutes later, Patjade had her hands clasped to her forehead to cool the terrible headache she was getting. Cyr was still lying on the floor, with no apparent sign of change.
"It must be a really bad forum crash," she sighed, opening both eyes at last. "I've tweaked every setting I can find and nothing's happening. Can't use spells without taking the disjunct charm off, and Samantha said that could cause a lot of trouble… I'll contact the Proboards headquarters and ask what's wrong."
While Patjade made cross 'phone calls, Sammy left Cyrillen's side and wandered out of the Banter Board.
"Hey, Sammy?" It was Xiv, holding a bundle of stapled pages. "Will you check over my NTWF story? I just want to make sure the details are right, and, well, you've written a few of these things in your time…"
"Well, all right." Sammy reluctantly took the papers, reflecting that at least it would take her mind off the chaos that was going on a few doors down. Xiv had decided to write an NTWF story, and the first chapter had looked quite promising.
It was less than two minutes before Sammy's yell brought half the forum running.
"I don't believe this," Kiddo said in a hushed voice. "Patjade, take a look. And he says he was in the Pen's Point the whole time…"
The story was the second chapter of a fairly bloodthirsty mystery, nothing unusual. But as the pages were passed from forumer to forumer, everyone turned to stare at Xiv.
Minutes passed. Hours passed.
Xiv was hooked up to a hastily realised lie-detector. Ikkin was sent to find more and more Phoenix Down. Patjade resisted the urge to lie down with a couple of headache pills, and instead seemed to be just about everywhere, dialling technical support lines, calming down a panicked Katykins, flicking through books for non-magical resurrection techniques. Samantha tweaked more settings than anyone thought existed.
And everyone, absolutely everyone, was rereading Xiv's story. Reading the description of a terrible and anonymous murder. Sammy and Katykins were the ones fated to find the body, a brutally beheaded Cyrillen lying bleeding in the Banter Board.
In time, some of the forumers called it a night. There were families in other worlds to go back to, and Tabloid Kids to babysit around the NTWF. Others stayed up, trying to help Lady Jade and checking on Cyrillen every few minutes. There were no miraculous developments.
"Any progress?" Sammy asked, sitting down next to Patjade.
"Well, my headache's got worse," the admin sighed. "Proboards technical support can't give us any help. We've used enough Phoenix Down for about a dozen phoenixes. Honestly, I don't see how this can get any worse now."
Later, she would regret those words. For now, she lay down on the floor of the Banter Board and closed her eyes to the chaos of the world.
*
"It's a long story," Rach reflected. "And I don't know much of it first-hand."
"Vellan could've told more of it…" Ishan stared down at her blue shoes, momentarily quietened. The other forumers had to admit that Hu had been right. There was an odd sadness and anxiousness about even this seemingly bubbly girl. "But he's stuck in R-space. And…"
"You're right, though." The leopard-boy nodded. "If we really have travelled backwards in time… well, we've reached the golden age of the NTWF. A time of freedom and magic… play-fights and light-hearted love… Meepits and Weewoos…"
"Rum and sake?" Tdyans offered, passing the tray. Ishan took one of the china beakers with a grateful smile.
"And if that's true," Lydie added, her voice quieter now, "we don't want to go back. At least not until everything starts to happen."
"Until what starts to happen?" Kat persisted.
"Like I said, long story." Rach gulped his glass of rum and lifted his feet onto the arm of the chair. "And it's been blurred a bit with the retelling. But essentially… our parents, what there was of us… we lost everything within a couple of years. Will lose it."
Ishan contemplated the white toes sticking through her shoes, and picked up the thread without looking at the makeshift audience. "Wouldn't know where to start. There were the bracelets, the kids, that girl Cyrillen, Stal and the raid, the Regulations, Sunbeam…"
"But where the chaos all started, as far as we know," Lydie put in, "was on the Eve of Giving a bit more than fifteen years ago. Someone called Tdyans left us a record. We don't know why."
"Yeah," Rach nodded. "Yeah, that's where things pretty much began to go downhill. The first of the Tabloid Kids. The Christmas party, and the cub…"
As night turned to dawn over the Writers' Forum, no-one so much as dared to stir.
*
"I'm leaving."
The pretty teenager said the words without any ceremony or hesitation.
"Leav—what?" Kit stared. "Samantha, why? You're our techie. You can't go."
"I'm sorry." She sighed. "I've been given something important to do. I really, really don't have time to stay here any longer."
"But who's going to help sort out the Tabloid Kids?" Ginger tried. While the twenty-two-year-old forumer didn't have one of the mysteriously appearing children herself, it was a fair point. Sandy, the oldest of the Kids, was toddling around on her footpaws by now, causing a mixture of charm and havoc wherever she went.
"Oh, they tend to gravitate towards whoever they want to look after them," she shrugged. "I'm sorry, but ever since that thing happened with Cyrillen…"
"That's OK." Vyt sighed. "I guess everyone was a bit freaked out."
To say such a thing was an understatement, and they all knew it. Ever since the report had come in of a missing person fitting Cyrillen's description, seemingly vanished off the face of the earth, they had known something was terribly wrong. It had been a few months now, and the Realworld police were gradually losing hope. No-one among the NTWF had ever dared to put into words the feeling they all had, the almost certain knowledge that they knew where Cyrillen was. Against all logic, and against everything they truly wanted to believe, they knew the only place she would ever lie was where they had last seen her: fallen to a strange coincidence, unresponsive to technology and tears.
"Goodbye, everyone." Tossing back her long hair over her shoulders, Samantha turned to go. "Be careful, please."
"But we can keep the goggles, right?" put in Nick. "Everyone's using them now. Even on Neopets just about all the users have them."
"Oh, of course." She smiled. "Um… thanks for having me here."
And she was gone. The closest forumers gazed for a moment at the place where she had been, before Tracy shrugged resignedly. "Well, we'll have to do our own work from now on," she said. "Any volunteers for tech maintenance?"
That was the NTWF, back then. Forumers left, and some would never return. But life went on. Life always went on.
It would be a good few months—well, to be precise, a terrifying few months—before the forumers had time to notice who else was missing.
Part Six:
Traumatised
Dedicated to Elycien!
Teenager Sues Multi-Million-Dollar Website For Emotional Trauma
January 11th, 2008
CALIFORNIA—In an unprecedented case, sixteen-year-old Amanda Stretton is suing website Neopets.com over what she describes as emotional trauma after her virtual pet died unexpectedly.
The teenager, a user of the website for three years, claims that she had not been told such things were possible.
"Candy was my only Neopet," said Amanda, a high school student, when interviewed this morning. "I know she wasn't real in the same way as a cat or something, but since I got able to see her in v-reality, she's been a lot more real to me. I was devastated when she died in the war, and I think Neopets should either compensate me or at least get rid of their claim that pets can't die on their site."
A Neopets staff member, who did not wish to be named, argued today that the case was a bizarre fluke. "There was a 'war' activity in progress on the site, but no matter what, Neopets are not supposed to die," he explained. "We're not sure to make of what happened to Candy_vj200, and at the moment we're investigating whether it might have been hacker activity."
Several companies have already withdrawn advertising from the site after Amanda's graphic description of her Neopet's death began circulating on the Internet. Ms. Stretton claims to have seen Candy_vj200, a Lupe, die from "multiple stab wounds" after an attack from an unknown opponent. "This is not the sort of thing we want our children to be exposed to," commented Amanda's mother, Laura Stretton, 46.
Adam Powell and Donna Williams were unavailable for comment.
*
"Hold the 'phone."
Frozen was the first to recover the power of speech. "Your mother? What are you talking about? Mindela isn't… hasn't…" He trailed off, taking a long look at Mindela. "…Have you?"
"I've never seen him before," she replied, gazing suspiciously at Rach. "Explain yourself."
"I'm sorry." Rach sighed. "You must be a cousin of mine, or something… maybe you were named after my mother. She was a lovely woman."
"I don't think so." Mindela frowned. "I chose my name. Most of us do, you know. This is a forum, after all…" Again that odd shiver from the travellers, that sense of suspicion. No-one was quite sure why.
"How about we have some tea," Patjade interrupted, "and talk about this properly. It looks like there's been some sort of horrible misunderstanding…"
Reluctantly, Rach and Lydie allowed themselves to be sat down.
"Firstly." Lady Jade looked at the two of them. "Where did you say you'd come from?"
"We didn't," they said in unison.
"Oh, come on. We're not prejudiced." Patjade sighed. "Anyhow. Welcome to the Neopian Times Writers' Forum, wherever you think you came from…"
"That's not funny," Lydie whispered.
"What's not funny?" Patjade looked baffled. "I just said welcome."
"Wait." Rach took Lydie's hand. "I don't think she meant to be cruel. Lydie, look at these people. What do you see?"
Lydie surveyed the forumers. "Ninjas. Pirates. Dogs, cats, foxes, elves, leopard-children…"
"Lydie, you grew up with the same…" He lowered his voice. "The same stories I did. Bedtime stories." The boy gestured towards the increasingly puzzled group. "Don't you see?"
It took a while for her to realise what he meant. Then her eyes widened as she took in the scene around her. "No. Rach, that's impossible."
"You must recognise this place," he pressed. "I know we've never seen it, well, not since we were kids, but… Lydie, tell them about your parents, and see what they do."
Slowly, carefully, Lydia Aislinn drew a photograph from her pocket: a battered, faded picture of a plump, dark-haired girl in a pink ballgown, a happy smile fixed on her face.
"My second name's Aislinn," she said, looking out into the crowd of forumers. "It's in honour of my mother."
Putting down the photograph, she found herself looking directly at its mirror image, who stood anxiously in the middle of the room, fiddling with her long hair.
"It means Dreamer."
*
Notice
Following the recent events in this forum, we are casting a charm to deactivate all magical activity until further notice. From tomorrow (2nd February, Y10), **all** spells, charms, counter-charms and curses will be ineffective in the NTWF. We appreciate this will cause some day-to-day problems but hope to have a better system in place as soon as possible!
If anyone is interested in volunteering to help rebuild the Splatterboard, Clubhouse or the missing part of Admin Alley, please see Lady Jade in the temporary Mod Squad board, located in Staff Call. Daycare will be provided for Tabloid Kids if their guardians are willing to spend time helping out.
Thank you,
Patjade and Samantha
*
There was uproar in the NTWF.
"Dream, you have a Tabloid family?" had been the first question. "But I thought you never went on the 'bloids!"
"I don't," had come the puzzled reply. "I never even got a date after that squirrel disappeared."
Nobody tried to ask what she meant.
And now, with the entire forum sitting spellbound, Rach and Lydie were trying hard to explain. Crystal brought sake; Rider brought rum. The two travellers sat at the centre of the crowd, wondering where to start.
"Our parents came from a place called the Neopian Times Writers' Forum," Rach began. "It looks like that's where we've ended up… even though my mother told me the original building had been completely destroyed."
"They must have rebuilt it," Lydie suggested. "Oh, Rach, just wait until we tell Mirne! Someone's rebuilt the old v-dimension! With fake-marriages, and Petpets, and… Maybe we could…" An expression of confusion suddenly crossed her face. "But who? How did they get permission?"
"That's crazy." JH shook his head. "Why would we rebuild? It's only been a few years since Lady Jade founded this place."
"I haven't been here since I was a cub," the leopard-child argued. "I don't even remember it. But I've heard stories, all the same. This is the place. Just look at that corridor."
"My mother loved it here," Lydie put in as evidence. "She said it was the only place she really belonged, for a while. Or that's what I was told, anyhow."
"Your mother…" Dream stared at Lydie, taking in every detail of her appearance.
"They say she came here for a few years." The girl smiled sadly. "I got my hair from her. And my fear of dogs. But… You must be a relative of hers. I know you look right, but you aren't her." She sighed. "Even if what Rach says is true, and we really have found our way back to the Writers' Forum… my mother would be in her thirties by now. If…"
Rach completed the sentence she couldn't. "If Lydie's mother were alive."
"That photograph is of me," Dream admitted, turning it over and over in her hands. Lydie watched it cautiously, frightened that her treasure would be damaged. "It looks too old to have been taken last year, though…"
"Because it wasn't."
Everyone turned at the sound of Dan's oddly solemn voice. He, too, was gazing at the photograph, but the look in his eyes was that of someone who had eliminated the impossible and was facing the improbable truth.
"It was," Dream insisted. "May 2006, the night of the ball at Annasuya's college. I should know."
"Oh, yes," Dan nodded. "It was taken in 2006."
He paused.
"Sixteen years or so ago."
*
"Spot? Spot!"
Mindela's voice sounded through the forum, joined by a slightly feline-sounding yowl. After a moment, Spot's pretty cream-furred head protruded from behind the aeroplane she was helping Thundy fix. Despite the ease of v-realisation, some forumers still preferred to repair things by hand when they broke down, and at such times an extra pair of paws was good to have around.
"I'll be with you in a minute, Mindy. Is it important?"
"Oh, not that important," Mindela told her with a sideways smile. "Just the fact that, well, you're a new Tabloid grandmother."
"WHAT?" Spot shot out from behind the 'plane, nearly knocking over Mindela, along with the four-pawed, dark-eyed bundle she was carrying on one shoulder. "You… you have a… How did you…?"
"The usual way," was Mindela's casual reply. "I was sitting in one corner over in the 'bloids and heard a scratchy noise behind a door, and, well, there he was."
The new cub was beautiful. The size and shape of a human toddler, his family origins nevertheless showed through in the leopard ears and tail, and the soft coat of white fur, on which spots were already beginning to develop.
"He can play with Sandy," Spot smiled. "I always thought she needed a friend. Any idea what you're calling him?"
"Not yet." Mindela ruffled the little cub's fur. "Cute little thing, isn't he?"
As Spot stroked the youngster's head, she contemplated the implications of being a "real" Tabloid grandparent. The various NTWFers had got used, over time, to the mysterious appearance of Tabloid Kids at random intervals. Although there was, strictly speaking, no way that these children could exist, they continued to turn up, and once turned up, grew and learnt at the same rate as normal children, attaching themselves to the first forumer who'd found them, to whom they often bore a strange resemblance. She couldn't help but wonder how real they actually were, and what anyone would say to them when they asked who their real parents were…
"Spot?"
The word brought her out of her reflections. "Yes?"
"Will you babysit for me?"
*
There was silence in the NTWF.
The eyes of the forumers moved from Mindela to Rachelin, from Dream to Lydie, before focusing on Dan, who gave a one-shoulder shrug. "You don't have to believe it. It seems the most likely reason, though."
"You're saying that Lydie and Rach have travelled here…" Crystal began.
"Through time," Dan supplied. "I don't know how, or why. But if Lydie thinks that Dream is, well…" He stopped short of saying the actual word, and contented himself with a meaningful glance. "Assuming she isn't completely insane, then there's no other explanation. Lydie has seen events that we'd call… the future."
The silence remained for a few seconds. Then all hell broke loose.
"Who wins the next election?"
"Can you tell me some bets to make?"
"Who should I put in my next story?"
"Wait, my past is your future? What?"
"What do you mean, I'm not alive?"
"Have you got your own spaceship?"
"What's Final Fantasy 13 like?"
"What happened at Strife and Leoness' wedding?"
"Can we just focus on the not alive bit for a moment here?"
"If you're my son, then who is y—"
"Lydie! Lydie, are you in here?"
The last voice, ringing through the hallway, silenced all the others.
"Ishan," Rach murmured. "I guess she came after us in the end. Someone had better let her in before she knocks everything over."
Patjade tugged open the door, to reveal a girl of Lydie's age with unnaturally blonde hair. Her eyes were bright at the sight of her friend, but there was something frightened and uneasy about her smile, as if she were still unsure what the next moment had to throw at her.
"Oh, Lydie, Rach, Weewoos be praised." She ran forward and threw her arms around the lost travellers. "What are you doing here? Mirne was so worried. You're not hurt, are you?"
"Don't worry." Patjade tried her best to reassure the newcomer. "If they got hurt, we could fix it. We have magic and first aid and even Phoenix Down."
"Phoenix Down?" Ishan tilted her pretty head in confusion. "Isn't that those feathers from the old stories? The ones that are meant to bring people back from the dead?"
"That was always a good story," Lydie nodded. "You mean that… it's true?"
"Lydie, what is this place?" Ishan was looking more and more confused. "Won't you come back now? We have a party to organise. Mirne's even found some actual alcohol in one of the old storage boxes."
"You're welcome to some of our alcohol," Nick shrugged.
"Ishan, listen to me," Lydie began. "You're never going to believe where we've ended up…"
"So you're the future of the NTWF?"
The voice broke in on the hurried explanation, paying no attention to Ishan's squeak of horror as she heard the last word. Hu was looking at them with an expression of regret and annoyance. "Dan, they can't be. No Phoenix Down? No real tabloids? Precious little alcohol? And forumers who seem to be frightened of their own shadows?
What could have made it all change?"
*
"Lady Jade? Oh, Lady Jade!"
Patjade jumped as Katykins ran into the room, apparently distraught. "Lady Jade… you've got to… come at once…"
"What is it?" Patjade stood up. "Is Chirrup crying again? I told Rider not to leave that little one alone."
"No…" Katy looked about to cry. "I found… we found… Cyrillen's dead, Lady Jade."
"Oh, is that all?" Patjade smiled benevolently at her. "Find some Phoenix Down somewhere and sort her out."
"No." Katykins looked at her in complete panic, and for the first time, Patjade began to worry. "Cyrillen's dead."
The Banter Board was oddly deserted. Only a handful of figures were clustered in the centre of the room. Sammy looked up as she entered. "Oh, Katykins, you brought Patjade!"
Kneeling down, Patjade examined the body that lay on the floor. Katykins had been right about one thing, at least: there was no doubt that Cyrillen was dead, or else had developed some strange technique for separating her head from her body.
"All right," she shrugged. "Why do you need me? Just fetch some Phoenix Down. Or if there isn't any left pull a few hairs off Kiddo."
"Charmed, Lady Jade," came Kiddo's voice from the doorway, "but they already tried that one, and if they get any more enthusiastic you'll have a bald ninja. Katykins and I went off to look for you when it didn't work."
Patjade sighed. "Probably a board glitch. Thought Samantha said she was going to sort all those out?"
"Since when is Samantha admin?" Katykins asked agitatedly.
"Katy, she's our technician now, and you should respect that." Patjade bent down to look at Cyr's body. "If it's a glitch, she should be all right if you give her another half-hour."
"I don't know how long she's been there already." Kiddo sighed. "I would've understood if there'd been a ninja-pirate fight going on, but we've had to suspend everything while they're rebuilding the Splatterboard. Why would this sort of thing happen in the Banter Board?"
"If I find out that she ended a post with 'Just kill me now'", Patjade snapped, "then someone is going to get a very severe warning for bad taste. All right, I'll try and get the boards adjusted. Shouldn't really be messing with the setup, but her being there isn't really appropriate for the Banter Board, it's true."
Closing her eyes, Patjade called up the image of the forum's internal settings on her v-realisers. She tweaked a few of the parameters, opened one eye to look at Cyrillen, sighed and repeated the process.
Five minutes later, there was a circle of anxious forumers around Patjade as she sat with her eyes closed and an expression of frustration.
Ten minutes later, Patjade had her hands clasped to her forehead to cool the terrible headache she was getting. Cyr was still lying on the floor, with no apparent sign of change.
"It must be a really bad forum crash," she sighed, opening both eyes at last. "I've tweaked every setting I can find and nothing's happening. Can't use spells without taking the disjunct charm off, and Samantha said that could cause a lot of trouble… I'll contact the Proboards headquarters and ask what's wrong."
While Patjade made cross 'phone calls, Sammy left Cyrillen's side and wandered out of the Banter Board.
"Hey, Sammy?" It was Xiv, holding a bundle of stapled pages. "Will you check over my NTWF story? I just want to make sure the details are right, and, well, you've written a few of these things in your time…"
"Well, all right." Sammy reluctantly took the papers, reflecting that at least it would take her mind off the chaos that was going on a few doors down. Xiv had decided to write an NTWF story, and the first chapter had looked quite promising.
It was less than two minutes before Sammy's yell brought half the forum running.
"I don't believe this," Kiddo said in a hushed voice. "Patjade, take a look. And he says he was in the Pen's Point the whole time…"
The story was the second chapter of a fairly bloodthirsty mystery, nothing unusual. But as the pages were passed from forumer to forumer, everyone turned to stare at Xiv.
Minutes passed. Hours passed.
Xiv was hooked up to a hastily realised lie-detector. Ikkin was sent to find more and more Phoenix Down. Patjade resisted the urge to lie down with a couple of headache pills, and instead seemed to be just about everywhere, dialling technical support lines, calming down a panicked Katykins, flicking through books for non-magical resurrection techniques. Samantha tweaked more settings than anyone thought existed.
And everyone, absolutely everyone, was rereading Xiv's story. Reading the description of a terrible and anonymous murder. Sammy and Katykins were the ones fated to find the body, a brutally beheaded Cyrillen lying bleeding in the Banter Board.
In time, some of the forumers called it a night. There were families in other worlds to go back to, and Tabloid Kids to babysit around the NTWF. Others stayed up, trying to help Lady Jade and checking on Cyrillen every few minutes. There were no miraculous developments.
"Any progress?" Sammy asked, sitting down next to Patjade.
"Well, my headache's got worse," the admin sighed. "Proboards technical support can't give us any help. We've used enough Phoenix Down for about a dozen phoenixes. Honestly, I don't see how this can get any worse now."
Later, she would regret those words. For now, she lay down on the floor of the Banter Board and closed her eyes to the chaos of the world.
*
"It's a long story," Rach reflected. "And I don't know much of it first-hand."
"Vellan could've told more of it…" Ishan stared down at her blue shoes, momentarily quietened. The other forumers had to admit that Hu had been right. There was an odd sadness and anxiousness about even this seemingly bubbly girl. "But he's stuck in R-space. And…"
"You're right, though." The leopard-boy nodded. "If we really have travelled backwards in time… well, we've reached the golden age of the NTWF. A time of freedom and magic… play-fights and light-hearted love… Meepits and Weewoos…"
"Rum and sake?" Tdyans offered, passing the tray. Ishan took one of the china beakers with a grateful smile.
"And if that's true," Lydie added, her voice quieter now, "we don't want to go back. At least not until everything starts to happen."
"Until what starts to happen?" Kat persisted.
"Like I said, long story." Rach gulped his glass of rum and lifted his feet onto the arm of the chair. "And it's been blurred a bit with the retelling. But essentially… our parents, what there was of us… we lost everything within a couple of years. Will lose it."
Ishan contemplated the white toes sticking through her shoes, and picked up the thread without looking at the makeshift audience. "Wouldn't know where to start. There were the bracelets, the kids, that girl Cyrillen, Stal and the raid, the Regulations, Sunbeam…"
"But where the chaos all started, as far as we know," Lydie put in, "was on the Eve of Giving a bit more than fifteen years ago. Someone called Tdyans left us a record. We don't know why."
"Yeah," Rach nodded. "Yeah, that's where things pretty much began to go downhill. The first of the Tabloid Kids. The Christmas party, and the cub…"
As night turned to dawn over the Writers' Forum, no-one so much as dared to stir.
*
"I'm leaving."
The pretty teenager said the words without any ceremony or hesitation.
"Leav—what?" Kit stared. "Samantha, why? You're our techie. You can't go."
"I'm sorry." She sighed. "I've been given something important to do. I really, really don't have time to stay here any longer."
"But who's going to help sort out the Tabloid Kids?" Ginger tried. While the twenty-two-year-old forumer didn't have one of the mysteriously appearing children herself, it was a fair point. Sandy, the oldest of the Kids, was toddling around on her footpaws by now, causing a mixture of charm and havoc wherever she went.
"Oh, they tend to gravitate towards whoever they want to look after them," she shrugged. "I'm sorry, but ever since that thing happened with Cyrillen…"
"That's OK." Vyt sighed. "I guess everyone was a bit freaked out."
To say such a thing was an understatement, and they all knew it. Ever since the report had come in of a missing person fitting Cyrillen's description, seemingly vanished off the face of the earth, they had known something was terribly wrong. It had been a few months now, and the Realworld police were gradually losing hope. No-one among the NTWF had ever dared to put into words the feeling they all had, the almost certain knowledge that they knew where Cyrillen was. Against all logic, and against everything they truly wanted to believe, they knew the only place she would ever lie was where they had last seen her: fallen to a strange coincidence, unresponsive to technology and tears.
"Goodbye, everyone." Tossing back her long hair over her shoulders, Samantha turned to go. "Be careful, please."
"But we can keep the goggles, right?" put in Nick. "Everyone's using them now. Even on Neopets just about all the users have them."
"Oh, of course." She smiled. "Um… thanks for having me here."
And she was gone. The closest forumers gazed for a moment at the place where she had been, before Tracy shrugged resignedly. "Well, we'll have to do our own work from now on," she said. "Any volunteers for tech maintenance?"
That was the NTWF, back then. Forumers left, and some would never return. But life went on. Life always went on.
It would be a good few months—well, to be precise, a terrifying few months—before the forumers had time to notice who else was missing.