Just like with the Evangelion teasers, it's up to you to decide if this is treat or torture. If I don't do DW3 right after I've finished DW2, then I'll go right to this, as it has long-term implications for the rest of the Walk.
Once again, given the length of time until I'm likely to release this, it's possible that these scenes could disappear or change unrecognizably before you see them in their proper context.
Enjoy.
-- Bob
* * *Location Unknown, Date Unknown, Time UnknownAs I have so frequently mentioned in these chronicles, I amsubject to unconsciousness when I make a jump from universe touniverse. The jump out of Holland Township was no exception.This time was one of the more comfortable awakenings. Soft, warmbed -- a definite novelty where my arrivals were concerned. Idrifted for a little while between unconsciousness andconsciousness, enjoying the comfort. But I soon realized thatthere were people nearby, and that discovery prodded me from mygentle haze into full awakening.I opened my eyes to find that I was on a futon or mat in a roomthat looked vaguely 20th-century Japanese in style. I was alsothe center of attention for a small crowd. Three beautifulwomen, all apparently in their twenties -- two Euro, one Asian,with the Asian woman notably shorter than the other two. Onebarely-pubescent girl, Euro, cute. And a short Asian guy. TheEuros all had odd facial marks, maybe tattoos, and I wonderedbriefly what that might imply. The range of expressions directedat me would have been amusing had I not been the target -- anassortment that started with unabashed concern on the face of oneof the Euro women, through a devil-may-care grin on the other, tothe girl's intense and obvious suspicion. The Asian woman andguy both simply looked confused, with overtones of worry.I'm used to provoking a wide variety of reactions from people,but this was ridiculous. I mean, I'd been unconscious the entiretime I'd been here so far. I hadn't had the chance to doanything obnoxious yet..."" I croaked in English.One of the Euro women, a sweet-faced beauty with improbably-longhoney-blonde hair, leaned over me and brushed her fingertipsalong my forehead. The touch left a lingering tingle that wasstrangely pleasant. "" she replied with agentle smile. Her voice was as sweet as her looks; her bell-liketones were strangely familiar. "
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Because I'm feeling generous. Or because I want to torture you. Take your pick.
Given my plans, it'll be a while before this one comes out, although I have a lot of it written. And there's no guarantee that the scenelets below won't undergo some sea changes, or even be deleted, before I release the final version. Just so you know.
Enjoy.
-- Bob
* * *Misato stuck her hand out. "Captain Misato Katsuragi, NERV."He took her hand and shook it. His grip was warm and dry. "DougSangnoir, sensei and sole proprietor. What can I do for you,Captain?"Behind her, the door banged as the last of the student/parentpairs left the storefront. "Well, I'm the guardian for a coupleof kids who need a bit of specialized physical training. I couldprobably take them through it by myself, but since you're hereand we live just upstairs... well, I figured, why not get aprofessional to help?"Sangnoir nodded. "Makes sense. So you wanted to find out myrates and hours, talk about the regimen you want to set, stufflike that?""Yes." She nodded in return, and then the next step suddenlycrystallized for her; whether she had known it consciously ornot, it was what she had known she would do. "But first I wantedto test you -- to see if you're up to the task."A delighted grin broke across his face. "You want to spar withme, to see how good I really am?""If you don't mind." Seeing that grin, Misato suddenly grewnervous. "I have a little training myself.""Not at all. Let me just lock up the front door and put out the'closed' sign." He stepped through the door and into the room,then waved her on into the dojo proper. "There's a dressing roomthrough the door in the far wall, and a few spare gis." Heglanced her up and down, a quick professional appraisal."There's one in there that should fit you." * * *She seemed hardly a human being, she was so quiet and still; sheactually reminded me of a couple of androids I'd encountered,back home, and without thinking about it, I dropped intomagesight just to make sure I was looking at a living being andnot some kind of automaton.And got the surprise of my life.Her aura -- hell, let's be frank, after my experiences in theprevious worlds I'd visited -- her *soul* was strangely thin andtaut, as if it were being stretched and drawn by somethingoutside of her. But that wasn't the surprising thing. It wasthis: Within that pale envelope of lambent gold, three strandsof colored light twined and flowed around each other. The lasttime I had seen an aura like that, I had been helping a fallengoddess regain her place in Heaven. Whoever this child was, shehad Celestial blood in her."Sensei?" That soft whisper again, and I realized that I hadbeen frozen in the moment of watching her aura. I metaphoricallyshook myself back to awareness, smiled at the girl, and bowedagain, this time deeper. Much deeper."I would be honored to be your teacher, Ayanami-san," I said. * * *"But I *want* to run away!" he wailed."I don't blame you," I replied. "You're fighting some of thegodawfulest things I've ever seen, and I've seen some realwinners in my time. Anyone who wouldn't be afraid of them is afool.""But Asuka and Rei aren't afraid of them!""Asuka is stupidly overconfident," I declared with a convictionborn of intimate self-knowledge. "See 'fool,' above. AndRei..." I paused and thought for a moment. "Rei is...different. She may not experience fear in the same way as you.I'm not sure."Look," I continued. "Imagine a pair of twins. One is normal.The other has a nerve disease so he can't feel pain.""Okay," Shinji ventured, scrunching up his face with the effortof visualization."Now imagine that someone they love is trapped in a burninghouse. They both run into the worst part of the flames to rescuethat person. Which one is the more brave -- the one who can'tfeel the fire burning him, or the one who *can* but keeps ongoing anyway?"Shinji's eyes widened a hair. I think I was starting to getacross to him. "The one who can feel the fire," he said slowly,thoughtfully, and I nodded."Now imagine they're not twins, but triplets. And the thirdtriplet has a nerve disease, too -- only it makes him feel pain*more* than normal. He runs into the fire to rescue a loved one,too. Now who's the bravest?""The one who gets hurt easiest," Shinji answered withouthesitation.I took a swig of my soda. "And that, teishi, is the lesson fortoday. Rei is the triplet who feels no pain. Asuka is thetriplet with normal senses. And you, teishi, are the sensitivetriplet. Because you do not run from the fire, no matter howmuch you want to, no matter how much you know you will be burntand hurt, *you* are the bravest. Because you know what willhappen to the ones you love if you let the pain -- the *fear* --master and control you, you do not let it. You instead draw onit for strength."His head snapped up and he gave me a look of utter shock andsurprise. "But...""Major Katsuragi told me once that you're the best of the pilots.I don't think that this is a coincidence at all." I tipped thecan up and sucked down the last of the soda. Then I stood andtossed the empty can at the recycle bin, bouncing it off twovending machines and the back wall before it dropped in with therest. "Think on that for a while, Shinji. We'll talk more afterthe next class, okay?""Sure," he said softly, his eyes already distant as he gatheredup his gear and headed for the door. *Good. I think I've gottento him,* I grinned to myself. * * *Asuka swore in German under her breath, then waved a hand toencompass the whole of the apartment. "I mean, look at thisplace! Doesn't whoever you live with ever clean up?" A thoughtstruck her. "Hey, who *do* you live with?"Rei's puzzlement grew more obvious. "Live with? What do youmean?"Asuka stamped her foot and swore louder. Why did Rei insist onacting so dumb? "I mean, who's your guardian? You know, likeMisato is supposed to be taking care of Shinji and me -- althoughif you ask *me* it's more like *we're* taking care of *her* butthat's not important now so never mind." Asuka drew a deepbreath. "Who did NERV assign you to live with? Who's takingcare of you?""No one," Rei replied softly. "I live here alone."Asuka stared at her for a few seconds in disbelief. "Alone?Really alone?""Yes.""You're kidding. Really, really alone?""Yes." Rei blinked once. "Why should the repetition of 'really'make any difference in my answer?""Never mind that." Asuka dismissed Rei's question with animpatient wave. As she glanced around the dim, dirty room, shefelt a familiar anger growing in her breast. Not at Rei, but atthe faceless bureaucracy of NERV that dropped her into this...this... cesspool of an apartment and didn't even see fit to setsomeone to watch over her. How dare they! Rei was only barely afriend, but scheisse! Asuka couldn't see this and not care. Forall that she was weird, Rei was nice in her own way, and weird ornot she shouldn't have to live like this.A decision suddenly crystallized for Asuka."Pack your things, Wonder Girl," the redhead suddenly barked,startling Rei into an involuntary flinch. "You're moving out.""But I have not been assigned new quarters by NERV..." Reiprotested."Screw them!" Asuka declared. "You're moving in with us. Now.""But...""No arguments. We can put you on the spare futon in my roomuntil we get you a proper bed, and there's plenty of space in mycloset. And if we run out, there's even more in Shinji's. Grabsome of your clothes and your bathroom stuff -- anything elseyou've got, we can come back for later. But you're movingtoday." * * *"The Magi confirm Blue Pattern... no, cancel that. The Magi have*upgraded* the threat level on the woman in Terminal Dogma to...*White* Pattern?" Hyuuga looked over his shoulder at Ritsuko andIkari. "What the hell's a *White* Pattern?" he demanded. "Whatwould be *worse* than an Angel?"Ritsuko blanched, and worked her mouth soundlessly. Behind andabove her, Gendo Ikari stood suddenly. "Impossible!" hebellowed, and behind him, Fyuutsuki momentarily winced. "Nothere, not now! There is nothing in the scrolls to even suggestthis!" * * *
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

I should have posted this when I posted the message in the Shapeshifters conference...
While Chapter 12 is over 130K long at this point, it is not near finished; and now that GURPS Shapeshifters is back in my hands for final draft work, DW2 has to go on a bit of a hiatus. Readers are unlikely to see anything new any time before the holidays.
Sorry...

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Something I was pondering -- do any of the worlds that Doug's going to visit in the course of DW actually exist as fictional works in the Warrior's World continuity?
I know that one of the points of DW is to subvert the traditional patterns of the self-insertion fanfic, so I imagine that Doug isn't going to be familiar with the works. But that's not exactly the same question.
Now, given what you've described of Warrior's World Japan, it seems entirely plausible that the history of anime will be largely different. (I can't imagine Bubblegum Crisis being created in anything like the same form, for example.) But it seems like the U.S. is much more convergent.
The one case I'm thinking of in particular is the Valdemar books. They're heroic fantasy, not superheroes, so the existence of metapowers shouldn't directly affect them, I guess. And while Doug may not be a fantasy reader, it wouldn't surprise me if someone had sent him a copy of Mercedes Lackey's CD Heralds, Harpers, and Havoc at some point. Which might (or might not) have clued him in to something odd -- "hey, haven't I heard that song that bard's singing somewhere before..."
If the Valdemar books don't exist in Doug's world, it's going to have a significant ripple effect on the history of filk music, and so alter my entries for the Game Everyone Loves To Play. Which is mostly why I care. :-)

I didn't write GURPS Supers -- just its last chapter and some of the powers. But I had a hand in some of the subsequent supplements.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Timestamps on messages seem to be in U.S. Central Daylight (or Eastern Standard) Time. Which is odd, since ezboard's in San Francisco, and Bob's in New Jersey.
Any idea why?

Hi! I guess I'm the first non-prereader to register for the forum.
I'm Jonathan Lennox, I'm slowly working on a Ph.D. in Computer Science, I found out about DW from Bob's posts on the Eyrie Productions forums, I met Bob at AXNY and watched him play Munchkin...
I think that's all.

I posted this about a month ago in the hostedscripts forum. Bob never replied to it, despite my nagging him about it at AXNY, so I figured I'd try again over here. :-)
I just read all of DW II yesterday and today -- I like it very much! (Found out about it from the Eyrie forum; Gryphon's pause in SoS has lead to some exploring outward...)
If I understood the mechanics of Doug's songpower correctly, the first time he hears the song he can tell whether it's going to trigger his powers, but he can't tell what particular power it's going to be. The second and subsequent times, the power activates.
However, it seems like there are likely to be a number of songs that trigger powers that are only useful in specialized circumstances. So does it sometimes happen that a song doesn't seem to do anything the second time it's played, but still is obviously triggering? How does Doug handle this?
I thought of this because it seems like there are a number of songs that could potentially help him (at least on a localized level, to his area of effect) with his goal of freeing Boomers. There are certainly tons of songs about "Freedom" or casting off slavery -- lots of Sixties stuff, traditional Black spirituals, Rush's "Free Will", etc. Many of these could also likely be useful in Doug's homeworld, as anti-mind control and whatnot. But in the absense of any such condition within Doug's area of effect, it's not clear if the songs would do anything.
Another song along the same lines -- "I Get a Kick Out Of You". Would likely cancel out the effects of intoxicants and other such substances ("I get no kick from champagne/cocaine") with, perhaps, a romantic side-effect.
Another interesting area is non-combat intellectual songs -- skills-boosters, effectively. I was thinking of this when I was going over filk music for songs that could generate powers. I don't know if you're familiar with the Oregon duet Echo's Children (www.echoschildren.org), but two of their songs, "Acts of Creation" and "The Word of God", seem like they'd have the interesting effect of boosting creative or scientific work, respectively -- though they may well be invoking a Power to do it, which I imagine Doug would be exceedingly unconfortable about.
It's out-of-period for Doug, but similarly Andy Eigel's Uplift (www.smacdonald.com/pegasus/songs/uplift.html) seems like a booster of technology/engineering skills, which could have interesting effects.

Okay, just to start things off, I'll reiterate in one place everything I've publicly stated about future destinations in the Walk.
On Permanent Hold:
DW1
Being Written Right Now:
DW3: Sana-chan no Omocha, set in the series Kodomo no Omocha
DW5: Holy, Holy, Holy... Cow! -- set in Ah! My Goddess
Unnumbered: Angel Baby -- set in Neon Genesis Evangelion
Unwritten, but plotted out:
DW10: Walking Into The Storm -- Multi-crossover with Ed Becerra's Legion's Quest metaseries, the movie Zeram, and one other (fan) series to be announced when this is actually written.
In Embryonic Planning Stages:
A Fox In The Hina-House (really bad working title) -- Love Hina
Legion's Quest: Girls, Girls, Girls -- a possible followup to DW10, in collaboration with Ed Becerra
Started But Abandoned:
Harry Potter and the Man From Otherearth
Charmed, I'm Sure -- set in the TV series Charmed (before Pru's death)
An unnamed Step in the world of Buffy The Vampire Slayer
I'm not listing things that I haven't actually started writing in one way or another, as they're not guaranteed to actually go anywhere; things like the Slayers, Well World and Buckaroo Banzai Steps may end up simply being placeholders.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

...at least since DC stopped printing "Dial H for Hero".
Use this conference for discussion of Doug's songs-to-superpowers metatalent, and to ask about or suggest songs for use in future DW installments.
I expect this area will get a lot of use -- fully half the messages on the old hostedscripts board were "what would song X do" and "here's a great idea!" I'm always glad to see posts like that -- a few such suggestions made their ways into DW2, and more will probably end up in future Steps.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.