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> Adventures in Parodyverse - Winners And Losers Part 2 (UT#321)
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>     Liu Xi Xian looked around her at the party in downtown Paradopolis.  She felt a little numb being back home - the victory didn’t quite seem real just yet.  The Parody Master was dead, but she kept expecting him to pop up at any moment and wreak bloody vengeance.  In fact, at times her hands would start shaking again.
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>     Maybe it was because she had essentially been robbed of her homecoming by the party.  Liu Xi was a quiet person, and that much noise and crowding made her nervous.  She went from one nerve-wracking situation to another, but at least now she wasn’t in danger of being killed, tortured, or enslaved.
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>     Speaking of enslaved, she thought, as she watched Visionary moving through the crowd from her spot sitting in a chair at an impromptu pub set up atop a flatbed truck parked on the roadway.  There were people sitting at the tables around her, sipping drinks, both to celebrate and to numb the painful memories into drunkenness.  Liu Xi ignored them, watching Visionary instead.  There was something soothing about watching someone as tormented by crowds and noise as she was.
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>     Her mouth hung open as she watched him approach Hallie and kiss her.  Not just a small, weak kiss as he usually did, but one like people used to do at the end of old movies.  Liu Xi called that kind a hungry kiss, one that promised much more than it offered.
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>     She turned and looked at the person sitting in a lawn chair next to her, just after the small coffee table for beverages.  “No, put that down.”  she ordered him.
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>     Joe Pepper gave her a forlorn look.  He was dressed in civilian clothing.  Liu Xi was unsure if that was because he wanted to be comfortable, or if it was because he hated being recognized as ManMan now that Knifey was gone.  Either way, he was also attempting to drink away his sorrows, only the Chinese elementalist wouldn’t let him.
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I’m nobody now.”  Joe complained.
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Not to me,”  Liu Xi replied absent-mindedly.
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>     Joe stared at her for a moment, looking into her dark eyes, unsure if she meant it.  It seemed she did.  “Easy for you to say,”  he said, “You’re still powerful.  Really powerful.”
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“And look where it got me,”  Liu Xi noted.
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>     He stared some more, and then passed Liu Xi the bottle he was drinking.  “Yeah, you’re right.  Here, you deserve it.”
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“No, I don’t like to drink,”  she replied, waving away the bottle.
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“You’ve never had any alcohol?”  Joe aked.
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>     She shook her head.  “I’m afraid of what my power might do if I drink.”
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>     Joe didn’t reply, but he left the bottle on the table.  It was nearly full, but he didn’t drink any more of it.  “Vizh is going to get some,”  he noted as he watched.  Thinking Liu Xi couldn’t hear him, he whispered, “Been so long since I did.”
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>     Liu Xi looked at him suddenly, and he turned pale first and then red from embarrassment.  He simply stared at the crowd and tried to pretend that he said nothing and those words must have come from somewhere else.  Liu Xi looked away again, and Joe sighed with relief.
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“You should ask.”  Liu Xi suddenly said.
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Ask what?”  Joe tried to fein ignorance.
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Whoever you want sex with.”  Liu Xi replied so casually that Joe looked around to make sure nobody was listening.  “You should ask.”
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“That never works,”  Joe dismissed.  He thought for a moment and then asked, “Does it?”
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“It works less if you don’t,”  Liu Xi answered.  She leaned back in her chair and watched the crowd.  She was getting a little impatient with the questions, assuming he was asking because  he was enamored with Marie as most of the Lair Mansion support staff claimed.  So she did her best to encourage Joe to speak for himself instead of through her.  “But wait until she gets better first,”  she was careful to specify.
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>     In Joe’s mind, the conversation slowly started to click into place.  He smiled when he realized there was a communications error.  “Oh you thought I meant Marie?  No, no, she’s not ready for that kind of thing yet.”
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Well if you mean Yuki, she will respond well to asking too.”
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>     Joe furrowed his brow, wondering just how Liu Xi came up with that one.  Aside from him sneaking glances at Yuki’s curvy shape during his personal training sessions.  Beyond severely optimistic fantasies, though, Yuki frankly scared him a little.  She was way out of his league.  “Yuki?”  he said, “Are you serious?”
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>     And then Liu Xi did something Joe didn’t see too often.  She looked at him, smiled, and then giggled.  She was teasing about Yuki.  She then pushed the teasing further.  “She is fairly experienced,”  she added, “You would have one amazing night.  And it works well because she can be casual about it.”
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yeah, I know,”  Joe replied dreamily, drifting back into an unrealistic fantasy.  He shook his head and came back to harsh reality again.  He opened his mouth a couple of times but then shut it again, afraid to speak the next phrase.  Finally he took a deep breath and quickly let out, “What about you?”
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>     Liu Xi narrowed her eyes and looked at Joe, trying to detect if he was serious, and what he meant by that.  He was just talking about Yuki, wasn’t he?  “What about me?”  she asked for clarification.
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I mean, this is a night of celebration,”  he noted.  “It’s what people do, y’know, when the party winds down, so we can forget about the bad that happened and drown it in fun and exciting things.”
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>     The Chinese elementalist blinked a couple times and stared at Joe in disbelief.  “Joe, that’s the most eloquent thing I have ever heard you say.”
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“It is?”  Joe asked.  He seemed embarrassed again.  He then remembered his original request and blushed even more.  “I made a fool out of myself, didn’t I?”
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>     She smiled sympathetically.  “I have thought about it,”  she whispered.  “But in my mind I...I’m a little confused.  I want badly to know what it’s like, really I mean, when I’m not being used like a toy.  Then I worry, what if that’s all there is, being used like a toy, and I’m disappointed?  Or what if I get myself into a relationship I’m not ready for?”
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>     Joe laughed.  “You’re as bad as Hatty,”  he said.  “He sleeps with a girl and thinks he’s lifetime bound to her.  That’s why he’s trying to stay celibate now.”
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Hey, Jay is my friend,”  Liu Xi protested.  “Don’t say things like that about him.”
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“But it’s true, isn’t it?”
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>     Liu Xi shrugged.  “Not so much.  He is too loyal.  If a relationship crumbles he pretends everything is okay so nothing has to change.  He says to himself, ‘this is my girlfriend’, and he stays true to that until it becomes silly.”
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Oh really?”  Joe asked.
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>     She nodded.  “That’s what happened with Chiaki.  That’s why she was finally the one who had to break it off.  She loved that he was so loyal, but she felt he didn’t love her anymore.”
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“So what about my original question?”  Joe asked.
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>     Liu Xi smiled shyly.  “I’m still at the stage where I worry if I’ll be making a mistake.”  She thought a moment and then added, “I will think about it though.  The night is still young.”
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>     She summarized that last part quickly because Yuki managed to locate her and stopped by.  For her own amusement Liu Xi watched Joe’s glance.  But she was surprised that he only looked over the leather-clad Yuki once this time.  As usual, Yuki seemed oblivious to that as she went straight to the point.
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Heard anything from your friend Lara yet?”  she asked.
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“No,”  Lara replied sadly.  “Jay told me she vanished soon after fighting the Parody Master but no one knows where she went.  I hope he didn’t destroy her.”
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>     Yuki smirked just then.  “Nah, our Lara is tougher than that, and as slippery as the Shoggoth.  We’ll hear from her again.”
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>     Liu Xi smiled slightly and nodded.  She knew Yuki wasn’t so sure about that and was just trying to cheer her up.
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Hey, I meant to talk to you about something.”  Yuki dragged another chair close by and sat backwards on it.  That prompted Joe to start behaving nervously around her.  “I think there’s going to be another Lair Legion membership meeting coming up.”
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>     The Chinese elementalist looked at Joe and smiled.  “Oh...so Joe is getting in?”
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Probably, I haven’t talked to Jay or Dream yet.”  Yuki shrugged.  “I wanted to tell you that I’m going to submit you for full membership.”
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Nooo.”  Liu Xi’s mouth was hanging open again.  “No, I don’t deserve it.  I’m much younger and less experienced.”  She lowered her voice to a whisper and added, “I have killed.”
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“So has everyone in the Lair Legion now,”  Yuki noted dismissively.  “The Parody Master’s dead, isn’t he?”
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yuki, please...you can’t put your reputation on the line for me like that--”
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Screw my reputation.”  Yuki replied quickly.  “If what I’ve done as a Lair Legion member isn’t enough to let me take a few risks then nothing is.”
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Okay.”  Liu Xi sighed deeply, figuring that Yuki’s mind wouldn’t change.  “I won’t expect much though.  I don’t think they will say yes.”
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“It’s worth a try, though, Liu Xi.  Anything’s worth a try.”  Yuki smirked again and added, “Hell, if you’ve killed someone, nothing should scare you now.  Nothing at all.”
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>     Liu Xi glanced at Joe, remembering his question for her.  He was watching the crowd now.  “I suppose not,”  she whispered.
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Besides,”  Yuki said as she rose and pushed the chair she was sitting in aside, “The real risk will be my other request - if Lara returns I think she should be an associate member.  It’s not much, but she deserves a little recognition for what she did.”
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“She probably won’t take it,”  Liu Xi noted.  “Lara likes to be independent.”
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>     Yuki shrugged.  “Yeah, well it’s the offer that matters.  To show that the Lair Legion has heart.  Like I said, take a few risks.”  She smiled and looked out over the crowd.  “It worked for Visionary.  And when Lara first visited remember, it worked for her.”
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>     Liu Xi nodded.  There was that mention of taking risks again.  She wondered if Yuki knew about the topic hidden in the back of her mind somehow.
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I’ll see you guys later,”  Yuki concluded.  “I have plans tonight.”  She stepped off of the flatbed without bothering to use the stairs, and landed neatly on her feet.  A few people around her applauded, and she took a bow and walked off.
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Joe, have you had much to drink?”  Liu Xi asked him.
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>     He looked at the bottle.  He only drank about a cup full.  “Sadly, no, not before you stopped me.”
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>     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Do you want to sit here longer?”  she asked.
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>     He shook his head.  “Not really, but I don’t have much else to do.  At least this keeps me occupied.”
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>     Liu Xi leaned over the table and took both of his hands gently.  He noticed her hands were trembling slightly, as if she were trying to overcome fear to tell him something.  “I have something else for you to do,”  was all she said.
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>     And the two of them vanished.
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> TO BE CONTINUED?
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> -- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2007 by Jason Froikin, and may not be 
> --    reprinted without permission.  
> -- Yuki Shiro designed by Jason Froikin, based on designs by Masamune Shirow
> --  Liu Xi Xian and the Psychic Samurai are original design by Jason Froikin
> --  Lara Night is an original creation by Jason Froikin
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