And now, the expurgated, flagellated, defenestrated, innundated, rehabilitated 
version of what transpired:

Starring:

Daniel Snyder, Needs Dry Nail
Marco de la Cruz, Clam Curd A Zero
Mark Engels, Legs Ram Ken
Fredrick Schodt, Fresh Trick Cod D
John Jasberg, Jab Jogs Her
Charles Gavin Drake, Dan Gives HR Rack Ale
Morgan Drake, Dragon Maker
and
Fiona the Hat, Fat Hentai Ho

Thursday, August 20, 9:07 PM out front of the Marigold Hostel:

A large lizard in a snappy black hat sat on the old moulding couch, pleasantly 
thumbing his way through Yukito Kishiro's latest literary offering, 
Haisha:Secret Heart in Motorball. A member of the taxon Cordylus gigantea, 
his natural habitat was subsaharan Africa. He was covered in spiny scales, 
mostly yellow in color. He stood about 5'6" at the scalp and had a pair of 
spectacles dangling from the collar of his shirt. The hat was unremarkable 
except for a yellow and blue "Cal" pin on one side of the crown.

The lizard glanced up from his perusal to see a six-foot-tall Koosh ball flying its 
way towards him. Its hair was black, and it was thin and lanky. The lizard idly 
wondered how it was that such small antennae could propel so large a 
creature.

"Are you Dan Snyder?" said the fluffy.

"Yep. You must be Marco de la Cruz," replied the lizard.

"And this is Fiona?"

"I am. Pleased to meet you."

"Well," said Dan, "shall we go somewhere and do something?"
--
9:55 PM, somewhere on the University of Toronto campus:

"Canadian security. Watch." Marco pulled at the door handle, and it swung 
open, not even requiring a key. "I don't know, really, what their philosophy is. 
Anyone can get in."

Dan and Fiona glanced about them. The building was a common type for a 
college campus, with displays about the science that was carried on in the 
building scattered throughout the vestibule. The architecture was 
uninteresting, the lighting was stark. Marco led them into an elevator and they 
went up to the sixth floor. He unlocked a room and led them inside.

"This is it," he said. "That's my desk right there. That's the computer that 
Broken Angel's stored on. You can throw your junk in that bottom drawer 
there, I don't think you'll want to carry it with you."

"Thanks," replied Dan. "Whoa! Lot of tapes down here."

"Yeah, I think that mix you sent me is one of them. Do you want to check your 
e-mail?"

"Sure, I wonder if Mark got my e-mail." Dan seated himself at the terminal and 
began typing. "So what's this character here?"

"That's XGally," said Marco, hovering over his shoulder. "You've never seen 
that?"

"No, the page was down when I tried to visit it."

"A French guy wrote the program," said Marco as he crossed the room to 
another computer. "He wanted to make it so that other people would 
contribute to the program, and make it more like an interactive interface, but 
that hasn't happened yet."

"Who's that?" said Fiona. She was looking at a picture, a computer printout, of 
a young woman with long hair and a pleasant smile. The woman wore long 
flowing robes and had an eyespot dot between her eyes.

"Who's who? Oh, that's my girlfriend. She's a physics graduate student also."

"She's beautiful," Fiona breathed. "What's her name?"

"Belldandy."
--
10:20 PM, the streets of Toronto:

"See that, Dan? That's a tower."

"Uh-huh."

"The Space Needle's what, 60 feet high?"

"Oh, c'mon, it's bigger than that!"

"I went up to the top of it once, when I was in Seattle," said Marco, "and I 
couldn't see anything. Now that, up on top of that, you can see FOREVER."

"Shut up."

They drew to a stop at a street corner, waiting for the light to change. Marco 
gestured to the streets around him and the sky above him and spoke:

"Toronto is a really rich city. I mean, you look at the buildings, and they're nice 
buildings. The businesses here, we have the Canadian equivalent of Wall 
Street, we've got everything. At the same time, you have all these bums and 
such sleeping out on the street corner or panhandling. There's a real contrast 
between the haves and the have-nots.

"That's what inspired me to write Gun Dreams. The contrast I saw between 
where the wealth was and where it wasn't. Walking around here at night and 
being unable to reconcile the difference."

Dan nodded. "So when are we going to get your NEXT offering, huh?"

"After I finish my thesis. I have about 100 kilobytes of notes on the computer. I 
just don't have time now."

"100 K?"

"Yes, just of notes, not stories yet. Like that one I was telling you about, with 
Kusinagi and Batou and Gally? And the one with the lightning striking Zalem?"

"Yeah, I loved that image! I hope you do something with that, I really do."

"See that tower, Dan?"

"WILL YOU GET OFF OF THAT ALREADY?"
--
10:47, a bar in downtown Toronto:

"...see, originally, Teenage Wasteland wasn't supposed to go public. I originally 
wrote it for this guy, oh, what was his name..."

"Don't worry about it," said Dan.

"OK. Anyway, he made this remark about Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Gally. So I 
wrote a story around it. And just, JUST as I was about to send it, the computer 
crashed and it went the way of the dodo."

"Aw, jeez, wouldn't you know it."

"Mm-hm." Marco took a sip from his Coke and went on. "So then, I typed up a 
new version and I sent it to the guy and my friend Jeanne."

"She's the woman whose page all your stuff is on, right?" said Fiona. "Or, was 
before Broken Angel."

"Uh-huh. So I sent it to them, ha ha, isn't this funny, all the senshi die. Next 
thing I know, he's sent it out, and I'm getting all these sad e-mails from little 
girls wanting to know why I killed Sailor Moon."

Dan and Fiona laughed. "How did that feel?" asked Dan.

"It wasn't too bad. What disturbed me was the e-mail I got from eight-year-
olds who LIKED me killing the senshi.

"So then this guy Chris Davies sends out a very similar story, but with a happy 
ending. I don't mind it, but I do notice, you know, the similarities in the story. 
So I sent out an e-mail, pointing out these similarities. And that's when the 
flames started...."
--
Friday, August 21, 1:04 AM, outside the Royal Ontario Museum:

"You're not on the Gunnm mailing list, right?"

"Uh-uh."

"Didn't think so." True to form, Dan was not walking on the sidewalk, he was 
instead walking on the wall beside it. "A few months ago, I guess it was back in 
May while we were in field camp, Red Sonja--do you know her?--sent out this 
killer idea for a fan fiction sequel to Gunnm. The idea is, basically, what 
happens in the wake of the events in the ninth book. It's kind of like the French 
Revolution.

"See, the way I figure it is, after the fall of Tiphares, there's going to be a power 
vacuum. It's only Kaos who can fill it, right?"

"What makes you say that?"

"Simple. After the fall of Factory Law, there's the potential for anarchy, right?"

"Right."

"Agreed. So, Kaos used his psychometry to call out the GIB forces to stop Den 
before, there's no real reason why he wouldn't do it again, especially to stop 
people from killing each other, right?"

"I guess. But didn't Tiphares fall?"

"No, not literally. Only the main computer did."

"Melchizedek, that's right."

"You figure, even if Melchizedek is the main computer, there's other 
computers somewhere in the system that Kaos can hack into, and he can 
circumvent the gap that Melchizedek has left. However he did it in book 9, he 
can do it again.

"So, he's instated martial law until he can show up and fill in the power gap. At 
the same time, Lou is coming down from Zalem, and Vector's sitting around in 
the Scrapyard, just waiting--"

"Wait. Why does Vector enter into this? Why does Kaos need Vector?"

"Kaos needs Vector because Vector knows about the Tiphares-Scrapyard 
shipping routes. Vector needs Kaos because Vector is nobody at this point. 
He's a has-been. He's fallen from power. Kaos says to Vector, 'if you want 
another shot, you play by my rules.' It's like that."

"Gotcha."

"Kaos also needs Shumira, because--calm down, Marco--he needs Shumira 
because he needs the volunteer corps. He needs them because he needs to 
distribute food, medicine, and such quickly and effectively. They have the 
knowledge of the Scrapyard and of the infrastructure to get to work 
immediately.

"So. Kaos has Lou, so he has Zalem. He has Shumira, so he has the Scrapyard. 
He has Vector, so he has everywhere in-between. At this point, he has no 
choice but to appoint himself as despot."

"Because self-representation's been out of the Scrapyard's mindset for so long, 
right?"

"Right. And, also, in times like this, Kaos KNOWS you need a strong central 
leadership. He's seen the problems that result from weak and ineffective 
government in crisis situations throughout history, and--even though it's 
against his nature, he probably hates himself for doing it--he seizes power in 
order to get the Scrapyard back on its feet.

"I guess that's another reason he keeps Lou around, is to keep him sane...

"Anyhow--getting back to my original point. Red's observation was that, as 
has happened again and again throughout history, somebody else wants 
power..."
--
10:30 PM, the lobby of the Howard Johnson's hotel:

Once again, lizard and hat reposed in reading Haisha. Dan was becoming a 
smidge worried, as Mark was running a half-hour late for their rendezvous. 
True, it wasn't as though Mark was running three hours late, which his friend 
Gally had been known to do, but it was unsettling.

At once, a rotund man with a plate atop his head bustled through the doorway 
trundling a bag with him. Dan stood. "Hey, Mark!"

"Dan! Fiona!" They shook hands and embraced. "You been waitin' long?"

"We showed up early. What took you so long? Customs?"

"Customs? Pfft. Customs was a breeze. No, it's just the damn plane was sitting 
on the runway forever. We didn't even leave the city until 8:30, we were sitting 
on the ground for the longest time."

"Too bad. Heard from John yet?"

"Not a word. Yes, a reservation for Mark Engels...What do you mean? I used 
this card just yesterday. Fine, will you accept this one?" Mark glared at Dan, 
looking for support. "So is Marco available?"

"Yeah, I told him we'd meet at 11. That'll give us time to check in."

"Do they have hat stands in the room?"

"They'd better have that cot up there, I'm paying $90 for it. Thank you. We're 
in room 1215." The trio walked toward the elevators.
--
11:35 PM, Fran's Cafe:

"100 K of notes, Marco. That's not a small amount."

"I'll do it, man. I will. It's just now's not a good time."

"Heh. That's the most common problem with fan fiction writers, they get real 
lives." Mark swallowed another bite of his eggs, and Fiona took the 
opportunity to jump in. "Tell him about the Ghost in the Shell idea."

"Oh, yeah. This is one of those notes, see. I get this idea, and then I just have to 
write it down."

"Yeah. Go on."

"So here's how it goes: Gally's shot Batou, and he's slumped down at the wheel 
of his car. Now obviously, they have things like police scanners in their cars, 
that's how they stay in communication. Only these scanners go directly into 
the heads of the members of the team, so they can hear it directly in the ghost.

"He takes a couple of bullets, at least one of which severs a major artery, 
another of which cuts the comm wire for the scanner, and another riccochets 
off of it and disrupts the frequency setting. That's important. No more for me, 
thank you."

"I'm fine," Dan and Mark said in unison.

"And the lady?" said the waitress.

"I'm fine too," Fiona said demurely.

The waitress disappeared for parts unknown in the restaurant, and Marco 
continued. "Of course, Batou's gone, and Kusinagi picks up on this. So there's 
nothing for a second. Then something happens. See, the blood in the cyborg's 
bodies has free ions in it, so it can conduct electricity. A drop of blood goes 
running along the wire in the scanner, towards the live ends, and just for a 
moment bridges the gap.

"The thing is that once it gets there, the scanner isn't on the same channel. So 
for an instant, there's this classical music blaring into Kusinagi's head from her 
partner's wound."

"Isn't that just the greatest image, Mark?"

He was awestruck, and said, "Whoa. Dude."
--
1:15 AM, Saturday, August 22, Yogne Street:

Marco had been gracious enough to lead the two Yanks and the Sheila to the 
Michner Institute, where Anime North would be taking place. Dan accepted 
responsibility for remembering how to get there, as Mark's 
booze^H^H^H^H^Htravel-weary brain was in need of rest. Their return 
journey was a continuation of the conversation that had marked their evening.

"We were talking about a Vampire Princess Miyu crossover last night."

"See, VPM is one of those stories I just don't know a lot about. I haven't seen 
the anime, or the manga..."

"That's right, they have manga out now, don't they?"

"Uh-huh. I think it's by the same woman who did the anime, but I can't 
remember. C'mon, Mark, you know about Child's Toy but not Miyu?"

"Oh, Kodomo no Okomato, you said you didn't know that one?"

"Huh?"

"Child's Toy? We were talking about it earlier, at Fran's?"

"Uh..."

Conversation died as the three young men watched the scene before them. 
Bystanders watched as two men engaged in a shouting match on the sidewalk 
and in the street. Blows had the potential of falling at any moment. Dan 
attempted to circumvent the crowd, only to come face-to-face with one of the 
disputors. With all due speed, he made a mad dash for the sidewalk, with Mark 
and Marco hot on his heels. The didn't stop walking until they were four blocks 
past, and even then, their legs wanted them to walk much, much further.
--
7:00 AM, Room 1225, Howard Johnson's Hotel:

"Good morning, Dan."

"Mmmfgrmp." Dan struggled his way to the waking world, disoriented for the 
moment. Except for his hat, he was alone in the hotel room. Then he recalled 
Mark's infuriated call in the wake of discovering, at 1:30 in the morning, that 
there was nowhere for Dan to sleep. The paid-for cot had not arrived. 
Someone had offered them an unoccupied room. Thus, Dan's current situation.

Resorting to a routine, Dan showered, shaved and dressed. When he emerged, 
it was still 7:21. "Hm, knowing Mark, he won't be up for another half hour yet. 
Might as well watch some TV." *flip* *flip* *flip* *flip* *flip* "Hey, was that 
Sailor Moon?" *flip* "Yep, thought so." *flip* *flip* *flip*...
--
7:00 AM, Room 1215:

*brrrng*

"Uhg...ufff..."

*brrrng*

"Hello, this is Mark Engels."

"Hello, Mark? This is John Jasberg."

"John? What the hell are you doing calling at this hour?"

"I'm down in the lobby. I came up and knocked on your door when I arrived, 
but you didn't answer."

"Mmm...what time did you get in?"

"6."

"Come on up."

A few minutes later, Mark opened the door to a tall cartoony individual. His 
bright yellow face was offset by curly blond hair, and his eyes were in the 
shape of kanji.

"Morning, John."

"Morning, Mark."

"Dan'll be in in a minute, come on in."
--
9:05 AM, outside the Michner Institute:

"A line. Go figure."

Dan gazed apprehensively to the door, somewhere off in the distance. "I hope 
that they got my registration material. Otherwise, I'm screwed."

About 300 people were in the line to register, though the organizers would 
later estimate 700 people were in attendance that Saturday. Dan, John, Fiona 
and Mark stood in line, chatting among themselves, when Dan spied a familiar 
figure. It was a tall gentleman, dressed in a blue shirt and black trousers, with a 
ponytail and facial hair. He was carrying a camera and had an official badge on 
his shirt.

"Fred! Over here!" Dan waved, and stepped out of line to offer a hand. "Fred, 
glad to see you."

"Dan, how are you? Are you waiting to get yourself registered?"

"Yep, having to sit the line out. Mark, John, this is Fred Schodt, the author of 
Dreamland Japan and Manga!Manga!, Fred, I'd like you to meet Mark Engels 
and John Jasberg."

"Hi, good to meet you guys."

"Nice to meet you," said Mark, shaking Fred's hand. "Are we going to be 
hearing you speak later on today?"

"Yes, I just learned that you will a few minutes ago, I'm surprised myself...I 
didn't know whether I'd be speaking or not until just now."

"Great, we'll probably be seeing you around the con, then. What's the camera 
for?"

"I'm going to be taking a couple of photos..."

"Is this for Dreamland Japan II or something?" said Dan.

All laughed, and Fred took a photo of the four otaku standing conspicuously in 
the line. John soon snuck off to cut into the pre-reg line, effectively shearing 20 
minutes off his line time.
--
10:03 AM, dealer's room:

"DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR!" shouted John, rushing into the dealer's room 
armed with his wallet.

Dan, Fiona and Mark followed at a more leisurely pace, eventually making 
their way to a setup by a group of self-publishing mangaka, headed by a 
gentleman named Ian Kim. Mark purchased a graphic novelization of the first 
portion of their work, Emiko's Genesis, in lieu of the real attraction--a picture 
of Gally straining to escape from some indistinct mechanical clutches, entitled 
WANT.

Still, Ian and the crew proved to be fun to converse with. More on their manga 
can be found at http://www.emikogenesis.com
--
11:17 AM, open forum on the influence of anime in popular culture:

"Oops." Fred Perry blushed. "I shouldn't have mentioned Antarctic Press. That's 
a whole can of worms."

"What happened with AP and all their manga?" a person in the crowd asked.

"Well...uh...this is all off the record, OK?" The audience and other panelists 
nodded their general consent. "OK. So AP wanted to [CENSORED] from Japan, 
but they [CENSORED] contact the [CENSORED]. In addition, [CENSORED] 
between them and the [CENSORED] publishers, so that came up as a 
[CENSORED] issue. The upshot was that [CENSORED] said they [CENSORED] 
with manga, so they [CENSORED] all the [CENSORED]."

"All of them?"

"Yep."

_Wow,_ thought Mark, _heavy. Do I really want to get into this business?_
--
12:09 AM, fan fiction writing panel:

"Hello, I'm Daniel Snyder. I'm the man behind Seraphim of the Scrapyard, the 
only Battle Angel Alita fanfic archive on the Net. This is my friend and co-
author Mark Engels."

"And I'd like to mention, I'm organizing the fan fiction panel at Anime Iowa, 
which'll be here in a couple of weeks. We're going to be having a number of 
noteworthy fan fiction writers, including Richard Wilson, in attendance, so be 
sure to come."

As soon as they reseated themselves, Fiona said, "DAN! You forgot to 
introduce ME!"
--
2:17 PM, basement cafeteria in the Michner Institute:

Dan, Mark, Fiona, Mark's friend Dave, Dave's brother John, and Mark's other 
friend Bert were discussing matters of vital import:

"I'd like a badass gun like Priss had in that episode."

"No, no, no, man." Bert's eyes glazed over. "What would be great is one of 
those SOL satellites. Pinpoint accuracy from space, what could be better?"

"Me, I'd like to have a hammer. Just imagine...just imagine running through an 
office building bashing down walls and bonking people on the head." Dan was 
drooling, and the pizza he was eating had nothing to do with it.

"No," said Dave, "I'd still prefer the cannon. Taking out a whole row of walls at 
once, that'd be teriffic."

Afterwards, the group took a walk through the fan art area. One half of the 
room was dedicated to a collection of Sailor Moon paraphrenalia, the other half 
was the actual art. Gally figured in three of the better-done pictures, including 
Ian's WANT. Mark and Bert both were most impressed by an airbrush of 
Belldandy that was in an un-anime format; she looked very true-to-life.
--
4:05 PM, Fred's lecture on the history of manga and his role in it:

"After that, I kind of became a hippie for a few years, making my way around 
the country and trying to decide what to do..."

"...I had originally planned to have a much more academic title, but my editor 
suggested that it be _Manga!Manga!_, and he was very particular that we 
repeat it twice, use exclamation points, and have this cartoon font. And, 
looking back, it was the right decision, but I sure was nervous about it at the 
time..."

"...The Japanese publishers insisted that _Versailles_ be typewritten, and all in 
lower case. Apparently, it's how they learn to read English in Japanese schools, 
and they thought it would be easier to read..."

"...Part of the problem was that I didn't use the same names that Gundam fans 
were used to seeing. It's understandable, there's like four different spellings for 
Zeon in different fansubs. I got lucky, and used the right one for that, but for 
another one, whose name was spelled Xan, or Chan, or Shan, I blew it. 
Another part of the problem was that there was no money spent on 
advertising it..."

"...Does ANYONE here know about Orion? Oh, good..."

"...Toren has a real knack for writing comic book dialogue, and that's what 
makes him so fun to work with."
--
5:15 PM, dealer's room:

"Hey, Mark, can I borrow $5 from you?"

"Sure, what for?"

"These guys are selling French translations of a series called 'Seraphic Feather', 
and I thought I'd pick up a volume for Margot. You know, for her Pinion of 
the Seraph webring? She'd think it's cute."

"That reminds me, Dan, I need to ask you..."

"Bye, Mark." Before Mark can straighten out a cryptic remark made in Marco's 
presence the night before, Dan dashes off, leaving Fiona levetating about 5 1/2 
feet off the ground.

Mark wanders around and catches sight of a t-shirt he hadn't theretofore seen 
on the wall behind a dealer's table. It shows the front-cover of the first Gunnm 
tankoubon, flipped, with the Gunnm kanji and "Alita" written above it. "Is that 
a licensed T-shirt?" Mark asked the very reputable-looking dealer.

"Yes, sir. The copyright information is right on it."

Mark hands over some cash as Dan sidles up to Mark. "Hey, would you believe 
it? They've got CD-ROMs for sale over there with nude shots of the 
Evangelion cast."
--
6:20 PM, Howard Johnson's hotel:

Dan, Fiona, John and Mark arrived at the hotel room to quickly deposit their 
loot before returning to ANorth. Dan was hurrying as fast as he could, because 
he was planning to go out to eat with Fred and a few other convetion people. 
Mark unpacked his shirt, glanced down at it, and remarked, "I don't think I'll 
be wearing this shirt to convetions any time soon."

"Why is that?" asked Fiona.

"They credit this shirt, 'Copyright 1993 Rumiko Takahashi'."

"You're kidding!"

"Nope. Look right there at the bottom of the graphic."

John shrugged. "They probably didn't have to pay a lot for the rights, then."
--
6:45 PM, Michner Institue atrium:

Dan was a little sweaty from his hurried return to the convention, but 
otherwise relieved to have made his rendezvous. He had his eyes open, as not 
only were Marco and Belldandy possibly making an appearance, but so were 
the two most dangerous siblings in Gunnm fandom...

Dan's eye was captured by the sight of a cyborg with long brown hair and a 
question-mark-cross on his forehead heading straight for the dealer's room, 
followed by a much smaller woman, also with brown hair, and a characteristic 
beauty mark under one eye. They wore the infamous t-shirts. The woman and 
he made eye contact twice before they got the nerve to hug one another 
greeting.

"Morgan?"

"Yep. Dan? Fiona?"

"A pleasure, Morgan."

"YAAAAA!" With no warning whatsover, Dan rushed after Gavin and jumped 
up onto his shoulders. Hunter-warriors have their pride.
--
10:05 PM, panel on hentai:

"John, we're leaving for the awards ceremony now."

"Get down off the table, Dan."

Dan, Fiona, Mark and John return to the theater where, minutes before, the 
rest of the group had been watching the Slayers! movie. Awards were 
presented for a variety of excellent costumes, then the gang made their way 
back to the hotel.
--
12:19 AM, August 23, Room 1215:

The mood in the room was one of interested, if tempered, enthusiasm. Gavin 
and Morgan showed up bearing various pieces of stereo equipment and 
assembled them into a nice 3-disk player. Dan extracted a CD from his pack. 
"I've got Blue Oyster cult. I hope someone else brought CDs."

John and Mark shook their heads. Gavin said, "We've got a bunch. I'm taking 
them to Ithica with me."

"I'll go get them," said Morgan, and she left. With the departure of the one 
woman, the mood in the room abruptly changed.

"Dan?" said Mark. "Would you go out with Sailor Jupiter?"

"Well...I'd go out with Jupiter, but I'd be thinking about Mercury."
--
10:03 AM, dealer's room:

"DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR!" shouted Gavin, rushing into the dealer's room 
armed with his wallet. The other members of the party experienced a strange 
sensation of deja vu...
--
11:37 AM, fansubbing panel:

"So, let's say I want to go out this afternoon and start fansubbing," said Dan. 
"What'll I need?"

"Are you using a PC, a Mac, or an Amiga?" The speaker sent shivers up and 
down Dan's spine. He was a spear bald gentleman with immaculate teeth and 
rather pudgy hands who was identified by the name "Fingers". Dan wondered 
if he could avoid being geeked if he pretended as though it was  more than a 
rhetorical question.

"A Mac, actually."

"First, you'll need a piece of equimpent called..." Dan blanked. "This is 
ESSENTIAL. It's the thing that allows you to superimpose one video screen 
onto another. Then you'll need at least one VCR. Better if you can get LDs, 
since you'll have better quality video afterwards, so have a laser disk player. 
Then you'll need software..."

Forty-five minutes later, Dan and Fingers and Mark and Fiona were sharing 
pizza in the basement of the Michner.

"I can't believe," said Fingers, "that you've actually HEARD of Cat's Eye!"

"Yeah, well, I ran into the manga through an exchange student friend of mine. I 
couldn't read it, it was in Thai, but I sort of picked up on what was going on. 
And you've subbed the anime?"

"Yes."

"A nice change from the first episode of Tenchi Muyo, eh?" said Mark with a 
chuckle. "How many versions did you say there were?"

"Let's see...the original, the Pioneer sub, dub, four different fansubs...only one 
of whom made it any further into the series..."
--
2:01 PM, music video contest:

"Whoa. That kicked ass, man." Mark shook his head. "We have GOT to get us 
some of that."

"I know!" Fiona smiled. "Carmina Burana plus Neon Genesis Evangelion, that 
was astounding...actually, all three of the placers were good."

"Yeah," said Dan. "You know, even _I_ liked the Michael Bolton/ Sailor Moon 
one."

"It was well done, Dan. Even cheese is good if it's well done. You'd know about 
that, wouldn't you Mark?"

"Heh."
--
6:12 PM, closing ceremonies:

John sat in the audience watching the closing ceremonies. It had been a good 
weekend for him: he had travelled to a new city, experienced a convention, 
and reaffirmed and strengthened some friendships. He knew he would not 
leave the town the same man he had entered it as.

"I'll never forget this," he murmurred to himself. "No matter what, I never will. 
This is part of me now."

"...winner of two manga novels, Dan Snyder. Dan? Dan?"

"That was the guy from Minnesota, right?"
--
7:00 PM, Sailor Moon discussion panel:

A door swung open, and a lone figure scrambled out into the corridor, 
murmuring, "Too cute, too cute...must...escape...must...warn others..."

With measured slowness, Gavin pulled himself up to his full height and glanced 
behind him into the room. All that was there was a single card, burning to 
ashes and smoke.

SEE YOU AT THE CONVERGENCE 2--"YES! WE STILL HAVE A SENSE OF 
PURPOSE!"