Subject: WtG IV: A Noir Hope
Author:
Posted on: 2012-04-30 19:54:00 UTC
I stared at the console, at the smoke rising from the back and coiling in the harsh glare of the fluorescent light. Coiling like a snake, a snake that was also made out of smoke. A Sue. Oh, sure, we’d dealt with Sues before, they were a dime a dozen even down here in Floaters. Those dames were always trouble with a capital T, and a capital ROUBLE as well. Maybe it was the burrito I had just, against all better advice, taken a bite out of, but there was something in my gut telling me this mission was going to go south faster than a migratory bird on an all-caffeine diet.
Speaking of dubious diets, my partner Myall was busy cramming another one of those burritos into her mouth. I hoped she wouldn’t get indigestion – the last thing you needed on the mean streets of fanfic patrol was a tummyache. Fastest way to be put in a Chicago overcoat was to let your guard down around a Sue. They’d ice you or brainwash you faster than you could say “don’t ice me or brainwash me”.
And yet Myall was busy throwing caution to the wind like a frisbee. That broad was crazier than a Bad Slasher who volunteered for permanent Kingdom Hearts duty. But we all have to take the cards we’re dealt in life – whether they’re aces or jokers.
A silhouette moved past the window in our door, which was odd, since our door hadn’t had a window a moment ago. There was a gentle knock, or more like a rustling, like the sound a plant might make if it knocked on a door. Then the door opened, and we saw that a plant had knocked on the door.
The Floating Hyacinth walked into our office, smooth as a bald man’s scalp. She had a body like a fine violin, in that they were both composed largely of vegetable matter, and her fronds swayed back and forth like… fronds, swaying back and forth. I could tell this Flower was going to be trouble – but then, Flowers always are.
Agents, the Hyacinth said in a voice like a dream: that is, entirely within our minds. I trust you received your mission alright.
“Yeah,” I said, not trusting the plant as far as I could spit. Which was pretty far, actually, if I say so myself. “Yeah, we got your mission. Why come down here personally?”
The Hyacinth chuckled. I just wanted to… make sure you were going to do your jobs properly. This fic is serious business, Agents. I don’t want you messing it up like Santa Destroy.
Santa Destroy. I gritted my teeth. That failed No More Heroes mission was dead now, dead and buried like a zombie that hadn’t come back to life, but it still followed us around, haunting us like a zombie that had come back to life.
“We’ll get it done, Hyacinth. You just make sure and pony up the dough.”
Another chuckle. I’ll tell Human Resources to get right on it. I was fairly certain there was no Human Resources, but before I could tell her that, she was already walking out, cool as a cucumber in the heart of a glacier.
I turned to Myall. “Come on. Let’s skedaddle before the boss lady decides to come back for round two.”
We grabbed our trusty gear – well-worn, all half broken, but then what wasn’t, in this end of the PPC (or the entire PPC) – and set the controls. The portal popped open like the gates of Hell themselves – but this wasn’t Hell. This was badfic, and badfic could be much worse, like a thing that is much worse.
We stepped through the portal and into pre-fic space, empty as a politician’s soul and white as a polar bear eating vanilla ice cream out of a plain china bowl with a plastic disposable spoon in the middle of a blizzard, and waited for the nightmare to begin. Or the fic, rather.
Next prompt: TEXT ADVENTURE.