"Honey, I'm home!"

     There was only one problem of course, there wasn't any "honey" to answer
me as I threw my briefcase on the table along with my sunglasses and keys.
Being single does have a few disadvantages ...

     I'd been out from work for two days after helping Bob move.  Monday had
been spent hacking up dust balls and I'd spent Tuesday cleaning them up when
my lungs had finally decided to start working correctly again.  It was worth
it though, Bob was worth the trouble, even if he _had_ needed to postpone the
steak dinner he owed everyone that had been helping him.  I hadn't been to
upset, I wouldn't have enjoyed it anyway given that I'd been wired to the
gills on antihistamines and bronchial medication.

     Today had been my first day back at work and I'd had to do three days
work in one, just to catch up.  I hadn't been the one to suffer though, since
I'd decided to give everyone else shit before they knew I was back.  Olivetti's
I/S department was going to be busy for days just trying to figure out the
proposal I'd made to _finally_ fix our DNS setup.  It basicly said, "get out
of my way and don't ask questions".

     Tonight was a whole different story, I had something fun to occupy my
time.  I'd gotten the next set of "red-claw marks" back from Lynx, and I
needed to work my way through the corrections he'd indicated before submitting
the next draft of my story.

     So, grabbing the printouts from my briefcase and a beer from the fridge,
I headed for the den to get myself into the correct frame of mind.  It wasn't
hard either, my print orders from Terrie Smith and Monika Livingstone had
both shown up in todays mail.  If anything could get me in a "furry" state
of mind, they could ...

     "So, how's my favorite vixen tonight?" I asked the vague shape that
pulled up a chair and sat down beside me after I'd finished the first bottle
of McKewn's Scotch Ale.  "Are we going to get this thing finished tonight?"

     "Anything's possible," she said as she swatted me lightly with her tail.
"There is something else you might want to do first though."

     "Oh?"

     Kalindra, the fictional expression of the parts of my personality that
I believed were "honor" and "humor", motioned for me to look around.  It took
me a moment, Scotch Ale is potent, but I eventually saw the rest of the people
that I wrote about show up around me.  Everyone of them had a smile on their
face as they sat down beside me and got comfortable.  When they were all
ready, Kalindra shifted seats and merged with me.

     *You need to take a look at this.  It promises to be _interesting_.*
Five minutes later I started laughing as Kalindra returned to her seat and
let me read the story she'd showed me how to find.

     "Year 844?  Ooooh, somebody is going to be sore in the morning!" I said
as I accepted the glass Naldantis handed me.

     "That isn't the point!" said Lythandi with a giggle.  While Adrian didn't
post the mail you sent him, he dropped enough hints that you're going to have
to respond.

     I turned, looked at her, and beeped her nose.  "You just want to get him
alone for a couple of hours."

     "Could be ..."

     "Could be my ass!  I'm damn sure I know what part of my personality that
_you_ represent."  She just smiled and growled softly.  "You're right though,
I'll have to come up with something and fairly soon.  Maybe I could write his
part of the dungeon scene and post the whole thing to the newsgroup."

     "That might effect us more than him though," said Naldantis as he spoke
up for the first time.

     Nal was the representation of my calm, quiet and "too damn shy for his
own good" nature.  Together though, we were both learning how to deal with
our lives and slowly getting used to the "fuck'em all, it's my life" attitude
that I'd been working on.  The hair that caused my family to scream and the
earring that they understood even less were good starts.

     "Do we care though?" I asked him.

     He thought about that for a moment, then smiled.  "Nope, we don't.  If
we can be brave enough to stop hiding the artwork that normally decorates
our apartment when we know company is coming.  We can stand the laughs that
might arise from that particular story."

     So, surrounded by old friends that knew me better than I knew myself,
I pushed the notes from Lynx aside and called up the private story archives
that nobody had ever seen before.  "Remember this one?" I laughed as I nudged
Kalindra lightly.  "That first night we actually slept in the same room?"

     "I should hope so, I was sore for two days!"

     Then I found the alternate ending to the story Adrian had posted a few
weeks back.  Being biased, I had no idea just how good a story it might be,
but I knew how Adrian had reacted to it.  His reaction to the part that I'd
left out should be even better.

     "Would one of you remind me to check with the secretary tomorrow?  I
need to warn her about getting another package addressed to Kalindra."  Nal
nodded at me and went back to reading the story that sat on the screen in
front of him.  Then, turning my chair just slightly, I looked at Lythandi.
"Ok, you ready to do this?" I asked her as I reached over and tickled her
under the muzzle.

     "I'm always ready," she said with a laugh.  Then she merged with me
and we began to write ...