Dr. Strangefate logged onto the Ultimate Central site and noticed a Private Message in his account. He opened the file, read the message, noted that the sender was online, then clicked on "Reply" and typed, "Sure, I'd be happy to discuss it with you", and sent the answer.
A minute later, he found himself standing in a room full of metal and wooden bookcases, all of which were crammed with an assortment of books, audio books, CDs, or stuffed animals. A large brick fireplace topped by a stone mantle was directly in front of him; a pair of tables flanked the fireplace opening. One table displayed an assortment of books, the other a tablecloth made of dark fabric with a pattern of stars and suns. Two chairs stood on either side of the table.
He turned to find a desk built in a horseshoe shape; seated behind it was a woman in a rust-colored jacket embroidered with leaf designs on one lapel, dark brown slacks and turtleneck sweater, and brown shoes. She smiled. "Dr. Strangefate, I presume? I'm Seldes Katne. Welcome to my library. Well, it's not really my library, of course, it's the village's, but I'm the steward."
"Hi. Nice to finally meet you. Thanks for the invitation."
"Not at all. Sit down, make yourself comfortable." She turned to her desk computer and began typing,
An assortment of beverages and cups appeared on the table.... and sure enough, an assortment of beverages, as well as cups and mugs, appeared on the table with the cloth.
Dr. Strangefate stared. "How did you do that?"
Seldes Katne lowered her head to peer at him over her glasses. "Tsk, Doctor, you're an author—when you write, doesn't it become reality in some form?"
"Uh, never quite this literally."
"Well, this
is a library. I tell people that the laws of reality are different here than they are anywhere else in the world. But really, it's all in the imagination. Any computer, or even a pencil and piece of paper can make it happen. Here, you do it." She slid out of her chair and beckoned him over. "Would you get us some cookies, please, and whatever else you'd like? And if you could make some of the cookies fresh-baked chocolate chip, I'd appreciate it." She walked to the table and began pouring herself some tea from an old-fashioned teapot.
Dr. Strangefate stood at the computer and typed,
A plate of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies appeared in the middle of the table. When he glanced over, he could see the plate and its contents sitting in place. He turned back to the computer, typed
A pot of hot chocolate materialized next to the cookies, and hit the Enter key. He grinned, and Seldes Katne gave him a satisfied nod.
"Behold the power of the word," she intoned as he made his way to the table. "Or the power of Word, as in Microsoft." She indicated that he should help himself to something to drink with a wave of her hand. "As opposed to the power of The Word. Capitalization can sometimes make all the difference." She settled herself in a chair, and he slid into the seat across from here. "But I don't have to tell you that. One of the things I noticed about your fanfic right away was that you did a very good job with the grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Your sentences were precise and correct and there were no wasted words. A few typos, but nothing that detracted from the story. I don't know what you're getting for a grade in your Language Arts classes, but if it's less than an A, your teacher is seriously cheating you."
"I'm doing all right," he replied.
"I hope you're doing better than that." She nodded to the table between them. "We're really not supposed to be eating in here, but I wrote us into a bit of uninterrupted time, and as long as we don't spill anything on the rug, I don't think anyone will mind." She reached up and pulled a hand-held computer from the air. "It's difficult to eat comfortably while we're standing at the computer, so I downloaded the parts of your fic that I really liked or wanted to mention onto this." She passed it across the table to him. On the screen were quotes from his story.
(From Part I: )
These aspects of contemporary society were sliding down a slippery slope towards ignorance and stupidity… but far too quickly to be anything natural.
Dr. Strangefate glanced up at his hostess. Seldes Katne remarked, "You know, experts have been warning us about the evils of television for years. I see it's all coming true here…."
ICEMASTERTRON: Please tell TheManWithoutFear that it is his fault and his alone that he spent all of that money on a complete set of Daredevil Comics!! His personal expenses are not going to be taken into the Ultimate Central budget.
"I was actually rather perturbed when I read that," she said.
"Why? It's funny. It's exactly what he'd do."
"I know. But I had planned to get him a subscription to
Daredevil for Christmas, and now there doesn't seem to be any point." She shrugged. "Oh, well, I can get a refund if I cancel, I suppose."
A dashingly handsome dark haired man stepped out of the cloak onto thin air, walking as if there were an invisible platform.
She laughed. "You forgot to mention he was clean, thrifty, modest and helped little old ladies across the street."
Giving her his best "evil grin", Dr. Strangefate remarked, "Only if he's planning on feeding them to his demon servants in the basement."
She laughed. "Good point. He really does come off as a seriously evil bad guy in this arc."
(From Part II: )
ICEMASTERTRON: Last time he went on a drinking binge, he threw up all over my pants and shoes!
NURHACHI: I'm sure it was just an accident.
ICEMASTERTRON: He brought them with him to the bar!!
"I probably shouldn't be laughing at this, but it actually was pretty funny. There's a lot of good humor in this fic. And I have to compliment you on the use of the Dr. Strange-type character in this. He's one of my favorite characters from the regular Marvel universe. And the magic aspect of this story is fun, too. Fits right in with the Philip Pullman reference in your title, which I have to tell you I appreciated. Wonderful trilogy, that one.
"One of the other nice features of your fic was that I had no trouble following the story even though I haven't read any of the previous volumes since the first one."
"You don't read any of the Ultimate Central Fanfic series?" Dr. Strangefate transferred a couple of cookies from the plate to the napkin in front of him.
"Not up to this point. I stopped during the first one. Nurhachi wrote me into one of the early arcs, and I'm afraid I didn't take it very well." Seldes Katne actually looked sheepish. "Poor fellow, I'm sure he didn't mean it as an attack, but I'm afraid I got rather defensive and snarled at him over it. I really should have handled it better than that. After that, I just avoided the whole series — I didn't understand the appeal, although some friends of mine and I did something similar back when were in high school, writing ourselves into our favorite television shows and so on." She laughed. "Although I have to admit, those stories were truly awful and I refuse to show them to anyone. Perhaps I'm projecting that memory onto this series. Besides, I'm more interested in reading Ultimate Marvel fanfics, and the guys on this site can certainly enjoy these stories without any input from me."
"You don't consider these stories to be fanfics?"
"Not in the usual definition of 'fanfic', which is where a fan of a particular fictional universe writes stories or makes films or draws comic strips set in that universe. The UC: Fanfic stories are more like the Doonesbury comics—they're social and political commentary about life at UC, using 'real' people and personalities on the site. That's why I've put them in the Original Fiction section of the Index." She shrugged. "For whatever it's worth, Icemastertron and I are talking about adding a 'Best Original Fiction' category to the awards in January, so either way, this series won't be missing out. Let's get back to your arc, though."
(From Part III: )
The Good Doctor watched a seven year old boy run in through the back door of a suburban home to find the bodies of his parents, shot dead by robbers….
He watched a ten year old boy walk into the apartment of the robbers with a butcher knife. The blood-stained boy was collected by the police four hours later, the men supposedly having committed suicide…
He watched a sixteen year old boy, enamored by a senior, drop three pills of concentrated cyanide into his boyfriend's Coca-Cola during lunch, having a lunch lady convicted for the crime…
He watched that sixteen year old boy's skin shift into organic metal, and he watched as the boy decided to rip his senior boyfriend apart with his bare, metal hands for the sheer thrill of it once he realized that while metal, he had no fingerprints…
He watched an eighteen year old make himself apprentice to the Universe's Sorcerer Supreme, only to damn him into the depths of Hell only two years into his training…
He watched as the twenty-three year old man carved a glowing purple ankh into the chest of one eighteen year old after another…
He watched as the twenty-five year old man stood before over a hundred of these men, and declared war on the non-loyal sorcerers of the world…
"Please tell me you aren't writing that part from personal experience."
Dr. Strangefate smiled and shook his head. "No, I'm not. And the background for the Shade character isn't from real life, either."
"You have no idea what a relief
that is."
ICEMASTERTRON: Hello? Is anybody there?
He turned to see a vase filled with dead roses sitting on the counter, complete with a note.
Dear Ice and Avatars,
There are far greater things in heaven and earth than you should ever care to know about. I took care of this one for you guys. You're welcome.
Love,
Dr. Strangefate
ICEMASTERTRON: Oh crap… I need to get the others…. Guys! GUYS!!!!
"Loved that note…. Nice touch. Interesting that you re-introduced Cad as an angel at the end of Part Five. I mean, I think he's a good kid, but I'm not sure I'd peg him as an angel."
STRANGEFATE: I am going to be God… Not a God, mind you, -the- God. The big guy. The lord of the Cosmos. The creator… I am going to hold the universe in my hand and make it over in my image… I'm going to sit on the throne and be the one true ruler of existence.
The Good Doctor stared into the distance, glorying in achievements, his new wings stretching out as far as they could. Caduceus couldn't even bring himself to speak, cold sweat dripping from his forehead as he realized that there was nothing he could do to stop Strangefate.
STRANGEFATE: I must make a plan. Good evening, Caduceus. If you somehow managed to break free of your chains, I will personally remove all of your skin, and douse you in salt, so that even when your skin grows back, all you will know will be pain. Heh… I'll be seeing you.
Seldes Katne fanned herself dramatically with a napkin. "That's quite the cliff-hanger. You
do have another arc planned, I take it?"
"Of course I do," Dr. Strangefate replied, refilling his mug with hot chocolate. "But don't ask, because I'm not giving anything away."
"I wouldn't dream of it. Authors are entitled to their secrets, too, after all." Glancing at the clock, she added, "Well, it's getting late. I'm sorry to have this visit come to an end, but at some point I need to get back to work, and you've probably got things to do as well." She stood up and held the plate of cookies out to him. "Do you think you can find someone to help you finish these? At my age, I shouldn't be eating this much sugar."
"Oh, sure, I can pass them around at school."
"Wonderful. When you're done, would you please just send the plate back? It's the library's china, believe it or not, left over from the Depression era." Seeing his startled look, she added, "This building has been a library since 1917. You wouldn't believe the history it has. I give tours to school groups from time to time." She held out a hand. "It was nice to meet you in person. Thank you for agreeing to stop by for a visit."
"You're welcome. Thanks for the invitation, and the cookies."
"If I could make a couple of requests?" she asked, moving to her computer. "First, please make sure you get your papers written for school and your homework done. The fanfic has a large following, but education is important. And second, when you get a minute, maybe you could work some more on the Northstar Chronicles you started. Writing talent like yours shouldn't be wasted. Unfinished stories drive me up the wall."
"I'll try."
"That all I can ask. See you on-site!" She typed
Dr. Strangefate, holding the plate of cookies, returned to the time and place he had occupied before his visit to Seldes' library, and Dr. Strangefate disappeared. "That should give everyone enough to read for while," she remarked to the air. Then she typed
And so the review ended.
