"Uh,yeah.I've never met her in any of the plots where I know you,but where I've met her we're sometimes thinking of getting married."
Maureen and Adrienne eyed each other curiously,as Randy looked down at his remote."Damn,I wish this thing worked backstage",he muttered.
Adrienne shrugged."We're not your mind-controlled lovers here,but we are your colleagues." She seemed about to say something else,then looked up at the arrival of a tall,red-skinned,horned woman and a villainous-looking imp."Uh...who are they?"
"Everyone,this is Demonica,and...Brodlinger Actnastee.She's a demoness and he's an imp,they've both given me a hard time in many episodes."
Demonica yawned and nodded to the assemblage,few of whom she knew and none of whom knew Linger."Took a wrong turn on the way here",she said."There are some other areas that are kinda-sorta backstage,but not really...I got involved in something called a heavy-hitters fight,and I still had my powers,which I wouldn't if I was really backstage.Jim,there's a guy in those areas who said he's your uncle,named Sid Russell...do you know him?"
Jim rummaged through the pile of ID cards in his locker."Anderson,Harper,Harrigan,McNutt..."
"Never mind.The real creepy thing about those `backstage' areas is that Authors hang out there.Or at least their avatars."
"God,that's embarrassing",Sharon said."I remember reading that when Colonel Ruppert owned the Yankees,he dropped by the locker room once,but the manager asked him please not to do that,the place should be for the manager and players.I think backstage should be,well,for us."
"Their power does stretch back here,you know",Sophia reminded her gently.
"But still.Thinking you're off-duty and running into one of the very people whose fantasies you are shaped by all the time..."
Candace looked nervous.I hope she doesn't start in on their fantasies being sick or something.That can easily provoke one into a you-think-that's-perverted,I'll-show-you-perverted mood.... She paused.Uh oh,I'll bet they can read my mind.She bit her lip.
"We can all hope",Prismetta said gently,"that by releasing their imaginations here they can be more respectful to others in their everyday lives."
Luxentia laughed."Now who's too in-character all the time?" She eased up to sit right next to Jim,slid his hand inside her unzipped cutoffs to demonstrate her having nothing underneath.
Marjorie said,"Demonica,I think I took the same wrong turn you did,do you know a guy named JigSaw?"
Demonica looked thoughtful as Candace cut in."Demonica,you look a lot like Demonic Dominique,who I had some interactions with at Hill House..."
"Yes,and the demonized Donna Drake too...variations on a theme are all over here..."
"...but you're not from the same Hell Jim and I wound up in in a plot branching off Hill House,are you?"
"I don't think so,what happens there?"
"Well,we're trying to rescue Brad and Brenda and Rick and Sharon from the demons and imps who want to take our souls..."
"Owwww",Sharon murmured,remembering the episodes where her whole guts were ripped up but restored...Rick,who lost his soul that time,looked embarrassed.
"Badness me,how dedarkful!",Linger said,beaming enthusiastically,cheered by Rick's and Sharon's unpleasant memories.
Candace continued,"And there's an episode where Brad and Brenda fly into the clutches of a giant devil..."
"Well,it seemed the right thing to do!",Brenda interrupted,her big breasts tenting out a T-shirt that was all that she wore."I have to say I have more fun when I have the wishing power...not where Jim swipes it."
Sharon laughed."Seen the plot where he turns me into silly putty?"
"You looked better as an inflatable doll",Brenda responded.
Jim tried to get his hand out of Luxentia's shorts,but couldn't keep pulling on it when she reacted with disappointment.Candace dropped her train of thought speaking to Demonica,since the demoness didn't seem connected to the Hell plot Candace was talking about.
Robin cleared her throat so that others would look at her.Generally conceived of as a high school senior who loved manipulating boys,she radiated confidence even seminude."Girls",she said,addressing the mainly female gathering."I think you're a little uptight worrying about the authors.I mean,think about it,here's an Author.Someone who from our perspective can declare the end of the world just as easily as we can talk about it,turn us into anything...and here he is focussing his attention,his sexual fantasies,on you.Doesn't it give you a feeling of power,that someone of such godlike power to whom you're just a collectively imagined set of words stored on computer disks is eating out of your hand?He may not have a girl half as pretty as any of us willing to give him the time of day...but he may well masturbate himself to sleep thinking of you every night!" She laughed,winking seductively out of the monitor at the person reading this."I mean,if writing about you is what he wants to do,it's almost like he wants you to bear his children..."
Sun Apr 22 12:31:41 2001